Path of Exile Patch 1.04 - And a Merry Christmas to you!

[shoju]

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakuh, Happy New Year, and all that stuff!

Even with the holiday season in full tilt, GGG didn't take a break from dropping patches. Patch 1.04 dropped this week, sorry it's taken me a few days to make a post up.

This patch, brought us:

DUELING
That's right folks, you can now duel single player, and groups.

FLAMEBLAST
A new, channeled AoE Fire Skill. Channel it to build it up, and then after a short time, or another spell is cast, it explodes. Seems like it is an interesting skill that could use some testing.

FIVE NEW UNIQUES
4 of which are known, the other seems to be associated with the new fishing pole that drops.

Fencoil - a new trap staff, that also seriously buffs your damage, life, and mana.

Wheel of the Rotten Stormsail - It's a very interesting IIR Low Level shield, that also buffs curse duration, both by, and on, you.

Bino's Kitchen Knife. Tailor made for the Poison Daggers passives, and Criticial Strikes.

Veil of the Night. I uh... Well... I'm sure there is a use for it. I'm just not sure what that use may be yet. Increased block and stun recovery, reduced light radius , lightning thorns, increased global defenses, but your resists are set to ZERO.

NEW COSMETIC TRANSACTIONS
A new totem skin
Tribal Storm Call
and the Bloody Holiday Present Sack

New Achievements
Full Clear Catacombs - I'm assuming these are coming for all the random zones.
And Specialist - Allocate a fourth keystone on a character.

Minor Updates
You can now see your uncapped resists in parenthesis. This, is my personal favorite "incremental" improvement.

Heavy Strike now looks different when you are using a 2h'd sword with a marauder

Scions have new block animations

And awesome new RMT protection for general and trade chat

Most of the "added X Damage" gems have been buffed.
Fire gems have been buffed.
A couple of map boss changes
A couple of new gems added to descent leagues.
and a few bug fixes.

All in all, another high quality patch for the game. I'm pleased.

[MonTy]

Happy New Year! Thanks for the news posts. Look forward to seeing what GGG can bring to Path of Exile in 2014.

I'm still taking a bit of a break, which is allowing me to get through my steam game graveyard

[shoju]

Happy New Year to you MonTy!

I'm pleased with the game right now, and feel like as I get higher in level, the happier I am, even though I'm really frustrated with the upgrade process at this point. We'll see how it goes moving forward, but DAMMIT MAN! I get tired of staring at the same piece of gear for too long.

[MonTy]

Happy New Year to you MonTy!

I'm pleased with the game right now, and feel like as I get higher in level, the happier I am, even though I'm really frustrated with the upgrade process at this point. We'll see how it goes moving forward, but DAMMIT MAN! I get tired of staring at the same piece of gear for too long.

Haha, I hear ya. Just think how nice it'll feel after you get that upgrade! On my 90 I've been wearing the same gear for 6-7 months. Not sure if I'll ever "find" an upgrade.

I do plan on jumping back in the game soon, but going to try self-found. The other clan I joined was fun, which focused more on Hardcore and mapping, but I've found I do enjoy it more when I go about my own business. Also most of the wealth and good items I've amassed has been through trading, which at the end of the day, doesn't feel too accomplishing. Going to try a new self-found account and see how it goes. First character is going to be a CI Cold Crit Caster (FP + Ice Spear). Should be fun trying to see if I can pull off ES/CI self-found untwinked!

[LochnarITB]

Happy New Year to you MonTy!

I'm pleased with the game right now, and feel like as I get higher in level, the happier I am, even though I'm really frustrated with the upgrade process at this point. We'll see how it goes moving forward, but DAMMIT MAN! I get tired of staring at the same piece of gear for too long.

Haha, I hear ya. Just think how nice it'll feel after you get that upgrade! On my 90 I've been wearing the same gear for 6-7 months. Not sure if I'll ever "find" an upgrade.

I do plan on jumping back in the game soon, but going to try self-found. The other clan I joined was fun, which focused more on Hardcore and mapping, but I've found I do enjoy it more when I go about my own business. Also most of the wealth and good items I've amassed has been through trading, which at the end of the day, doesn't feel too accomplishing. Going to try a new self-found account and see how it goes. First character is going to be a CI Cold Crit Caster (FP + Ice Spear). Should be fun trying to see if I can pull off ES/CI self-found untwinked!

The last few weeks I got hooked on racing. I would race solo 1-3 hour races, even the party races, and I decided I really like the early progress on toons. I always chose witch and generally had the same skills (fireball/spark/zombies) and the same passives, but the real fun was that each drop might be an upgrade. Of course, I never did all that good, best was 4 points for 2nd tier clvl and killing the pagan god, but I had fun. I even won one of the raffle prizes, the tricorne (one point before I got the one based on points ). Had I started a little earlier, I would have even tip toed my way to the craftable ring. I'm hoping season six starts soon.

[shoju]

I have to say, that I have had the most fun on my Scion. I'm now 79, and I'm "pretty much" self found. I mean, I have "some" trade stuff, but I rarely sell. Mostly, I buy.

I don't have "a lot" of wealth, but I now have more "currency" in Domination than I have in Standard, and Standard, has everything from Standard, and then Anarchy.

But, now that I've done some work, a better grasp on vendor recipes, and a metric ton of theorycraft / due diligence on my build, I feel like I'm doing so much better than I had previously, on any character.

And while I know that MonTy is planning to do Self Found, If anyone is playing in Domination, or wants to start a char in Domination, let me know. I will check and see what I have to help you out, should you want some gear / Gems.