A new event is being introduced into Path of Exile, named Endless Ledge.

Each event will last an hour and will start off with a set number of skill gems and weapons, which are the same for each class. You'll have an hour to progress as far as possible through a never-ending series of Ledge instances.

While the game mode may seem a bit plain, I must admit that Ledge is one of my favorite zones. Even though I didn't get too into Descent, the prior signature event, I'm looking forward to this type of race. Read the rest of the official post here. What do you think of it?

Today the Expansion Pack for Diablo 3, named Reaper of Souls, has been officially revealed.

• To be released in 2014
  
• New Class, The Crusader
  
• Act V, Westmarch/Pandemonium Fortress
  
• Increased Level Cap to 70. New Paragon System
  
• Revamped Loot system dubbed "Loot 2.0". New Artisan, the Mystic.
  

Some nice quality of life improvements are in the most recent Path of Exile patch. Finally you can see what league your friends are playing in, from the banner next to their name. Game assets are now better optimized, so certain zones and spells will load faster.

A new skill is introduced into the game, named Reave. It's a Dexterity/Intelligence based skill that attacks a small area in front of you. Each consecutive Reave that hits an enemy increases the area of effect. The area is reset after a short period without hitting anything. Only works with Daggers, Claws and One Handed Swords. I think Multistrike will be a key support with this skill, to quickly build up charges. Also due to the non-axe restriction (no Soul Taker), it may be more focused for elemental type builds.

Four of the five new Uniques have been discovered. The first Unique is a two-handed leveling Axe that will probably hit every enemy on the screen. The new armor / energy shield helm is certainly not for every spellcaster, but possibly for those war mages who are in the thick of combat. I personally hate the name, but I won't complain if the new bow drops for me in game- finally Elemental based archers may have an alternative to the ever popular Lioneye's Bow. The last discovered Unique is a very impressive helm that appeals to Elemental Cleave or Bow builds. Having an extra 20% run speed on top of your boots is a fantastic way to help survive dangerous attacks or situations.

The rest of the patch notes can be read here. Hopefully their US patch server is fixed, it took me over seven hours to download the patch last night. They'll certainly need to iron out these kinks in time for the release version of the game.

"Death, at last, shall spread its wings all over"

Is the tease we get for a new Diablo III related website. Hinting that "Reaper of Souls" is the name of the Diablo III expansion pack, it's got many people wondering just what this expansion pack could entail.

So I ask you, Lurkers of the Lounge, what is on your wish list for the next chapter in the Diablo series? I'm hoping zones will be more randomized, a self-found / no trading mode, another class, and more skills across the board.

While I think Diablo 3 did not become the end-all to be-all, quintessential Action RPG, I found it enjoyable for many hundreds of hours, and I eagerly look forward to what they're introducing with its first expansion.

Patch 0.11.2 landed yesterday, which brought some much needed improvements to the Ranger starting skill tree. I'm excited how strong these changes will be for short term races as the Ranger. Evasion/Physical based Rangers will also see a huge benefit to this redesign, but overall I feel like it does not amount to a massive buff to most Rangers. Many will want to travel outside the Ranger area very fast to get additional life nodes from Marauder or Templar tree.

Three new Uniques have been included in this patch. The first being an amulet that heavily increases your block chance and effects. The second is a helm that massively boosts melee damage, but unfortunately do not come with any life or resistance bonuses. Most likely people will want to use it with other powerful leveling weapons to hastily clear mid-game content. The third is a headpiece that will reduce your damage output, but in turn will buff your party member's damage. This is obviously aimed towards people who frequently group with a max party (I prefer smaller groups).

Other notable changes is the slight nerf to Iron Reflexes, which no longer accounts your Dexterity into buffing Evasion which is converted to Armor with Iron Reflexes. Pretty much all melee characters will still want Iron Reflexes, due to the passive Unwavering Stance which provides stun immunity. It also allows you to be more flexible with gear and equip any Evasion based armor instead of just pure Armor.

Twitch.TV streaming is now integrated into the game, which is something I'll certainly try out for my races. I don't find the base game too interesting to watch, but short races can be a lot of fun to witness many of the undoubtedly close calls you'll have in a race.

Be sure to check out the host of other minor changes, at the official site.

Four incredibly strong Uniques have been introduced with this patch, along with some other minor updates and bugfixes.

Death's Oath will require you to have near max Chaos resist or be CI. But if you can pull it off you'll be rewarded with an epic chest piece. This Unique Chain Belt is obviously meant for Wanderers, builds that use physical attacks from wands and auras that add elemental damage. It's a top tier item and is most likely best in slot for a wand build. If you use Frenzy charges, you'll want this new Unique Boot. Really incredible that they put life regeneration on top of all other bonuses. Lastly, I'm pleased to see the new high-end one handed axe to compete with the strong 2H weapons in this game. Very high damage and nice ability to help those with low mana builds.

Other minor changes can be found at the official site. What do you think of these new Uniques? If I find any of them I'd be very pleased!

Can't say my Witch is too happy about the helmet art updates in this patch. Needless to say, some of the new helmet graphics are done better than others. It's also been a pretty buggy patch. Various monsters are dealing an abnormally large amount of damage, leading to unexpected character deaths in Hardcore. Thankfully as I type this Patch 0.11.1C was released that fixed the unintentional monster damage increase.

Five new Uniques have been integrated into the game, one being the first Unique flask ever created. It's important to note that the bonuses only apply while your life and mana are not full. If you top off with Health and Mana then the item quantity, resistances, and other bonuses will fade away. Regardless, the multipurpose nature of the item (Life, Mana, +all maximum resistances) still make it a useful potion and I'd gladly use it on some of my characters.

The next Unique is something your Spellcaster would be glad to get his or her hands on starting from level one. It's a Paua ring that will certainly help out with any mana problems you may be having. If you continue to have mana problems late game it'll also be a boost to your experience, and wait for it, wisdom scrolls.

Infernal Mantle is one of the weaker uniques I've seen lately. In my opinion the drawback of taking 100% more spell damage is too large compared to the benefits. A lot of people use multiple auras which might already put you in that low mana category (< 35%). But if you're an Energy Shield based character and using Fire spells in a non-hardcore league, I could certainly imagine you'd be giving it a try.

A high level one handed sword is the last new unique in this patch that can drop off monsters. It has very respectable damage and attack speed, and would be ideal for dual wield elemental melee builds. I doubt I've found any rare one handed melee weapons that have higher DPS than this Unique. The last new Unique is a race reward which I'm not sure of the abilities yet.

Various other updates from the patch can be read here. I look forward to trying out the returned Diamond Flasks with my Crit builds, and the indirect buff to Facebreaker, if I ever find one!

A new way to play Path of Exile is being introduced this weekend. A game mode named Descent will offer a rogue-like dungeon crawl experience. These one-hour events will be completely independent from the normal game, meaning you can't keep or carry items over to the default leagues once the race is finished.

There are a few unique twists from the usual gameplay. No towns or merchants, so that means no portal scrolls to refill your health/mana flasks. Instead you'll be descending levels and fighting various bosses in order to progress. Once each boss is defeated you'll have access to treasure chests with predetermined loot, but will only be able to select one treasure out of the few choices (for example you'll have to choose between a health potion or a run speed potion). There will be no backtracking or re-running of zones, so moving down into greater danger will be the only way to advance.

I hope the gameplay is exciting enough to warrant not being able to keep your items. I'm a huge fan of challenging races, as it requires you to play as efficient and as fast as possible. But it's unfortunate you just can't play this mode whenever- you have to create a character in this league prior to it starting. As with most rogue-likes, death is permanent.

Will anyone be trying these new signature races? It's solo only, so no partying. But it would be fun to see how some of us do. More information can be found here, and eventually they'll release the schedule of when these races will exactly happen.

Hail all, Monty here. I'll be posting regular news updates for Path of Exile, an Action RPG that's currently in Open Beta. The developers, Grinding Gear Games, have been churning out patches almost every week. Playing a game that receives this many updates has been very exciting. It's been constantly evolving with new skills, items, and various balance and gameplay tweaks. I hope I can relay the game updates to you in an informative manner.

Patch 0.11.0E tries to address a very hot issue, one that has transformed the game's trading economy. It's a well known fact that a Real Money Transaction site took over one of the most popular Path of Exile related websites. This website listed the suggested trading ratio for the game's currency, or “Orbs”. All of a sudden the website had actual real money values next to the orbs with a convenient link to purchase in-game items with real money.

This patch introduces a restriction on currency trading. You must have at least one level 25 character on your account before trading currency, except for Wisdom or Portal Scrolls. This is meant to combat the RMT site that uses throw-away accounts that have level one characters to store and give to buyers. Creating accounts in Path of Exile is free, so it was of no significance if the accounts were banned after the transaction was made. This system is obviously not meant to completely stop the Real Money Transactions; only to delay them enough to track and delete their accounts before any transactions are made, or to force the RMT seller to waste time by leveling characters over and over again.

Other changes in this patch were minor bugfixes. In the previous weeks there have been significant patches, which you can view on the Lurker Lounge thread. And while you're at it, check out the new Lurker Lounge sub-forum dedicated to just Path of Exile. Feel free to post away regarding any questions or comments you may have. We should get more juicy patches in the coming weeks, so I look forward to bringing that news to you.

If you can read this, your DNS information is properly pointing you to the Lurker Lounge's new host. We've moved in order to continue operating the site for years to come. Enjoy!