History VideoGame / PathOfExile

On November 15, 2019, during their first [=ExileCon=], GGG announced ''Path of Exile 2'', an upcoming sequel to the game. Set 20 years after the fall of Kitava and the old gods, an exile ventures into Wraeclast to fight the corruption which spreads across the continent once more. ''Path of Exile 2'' features a new seven-act campaign, along with vast improvements to the engine and graphics, along with a revamped skill gem system and new features like shapeshifting skills and new weapon types. Despite its status as a sequel, it aims to overhaul the core game and shares the same gameplay features and endgame content with the original. A mobile version of Path of Exile is also in the works, using the map system as part of its core gameplay loop.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The Duelist, who was exiled because he thought a noble had insulted him, and promptly stabbed said noble in the gut in return. Also the Witch -- depending on your opinion, to [[UpToEleven a greater]] or lesser degree. Her house was burnt down, most likely as part of an [[BurnTheWitch attempt to kill her]], but instead of going after her attackers directly, she murdered their children.

** SimpleStaff: Staves require strength and intelligence, are always two-handed, and are the only two-handed weapons with a chance to block.

** Almost every single non-Gemling person in Wraeclast is either a criminal in exile or working for the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Empire of Oriath]]. The few that aren't are descendants of the survivors of past civilizations who are understandably unwelcoming to the exiles. Granted, TheEmpire is a corrupt theocracy so it's definition of "criminal" is somewhat loose, but there aren't a whole lot of nice people on the continent.

** ''Fall of Oriath'' also turns this trope on [[spoiler:Sin, for creating the Beast. He intended the Beast to simply suppress the gods, but he also designed the Beast to be gentle and to not have any ambition or aggression. As a result, it was entirely powerless to stop an ambitious ''human'' from breaching inside it and taking over it's body, and using its RealityWarper powers to corrupt Wraeclast]].

** "Atlas theme" first appeared in Shaper's Realm theme, and later in the Elder and the Maven's battle themes.

* TheRepublic: [[spoiler:''Conquerers of the Atlas'' reveals that Oriath becomes this after Kitava's death and the shattering of the Templar Order. Instead of a fundamentalist theocracy where the High Templar holds absolute power, Oriath is now ruled jointly by a council of magisters democratically elected by the people.]]

* ''[[https://www.pathofexile.com/siege Siege of the Atlas]]'' (releasing February 4, 2022) is another follow-up to the endgame story. The Conquerors of the Atlas are slain, the Maven is placated, Zana goes into self-exile, but Kirac forms a militia to prepare Wraeclast for what new horrors could make its way through the Atlas, with you as its prime defender. The expansion overhauls the end-game mapping experience, reworking the Atlas of Worlds, adding an expansive Atlas passive tree, endgame bosses, and Eldritch implicit modifiers.

** Ultimatum is the longest league to not be added to the main game since Bestiary. The developers stated they were dissatisfied with the Trial of Chaos encounters feeling too chaotic and not tactical enough and actual rewards from them not being rewarding enough.
** Starting in 2021, the game started retiring old league content that was deemed outdated and not rewarding enough to engage with. Perandus league was the first to go, then Prophecy league was retired right after.

* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: The reason you're acting as the Maven's champion in ''Siege of the Atlas'' is to prevent a different, worse eldritch horror from occupying the Atlas, which would set its eyes on Wraeclast soon after. Kirac suspects they play by a rule of succession using a champion as their proxy. The Maven is only interested in expanding her collection using the Atlas and pit them against each other in endless combat, but if the Cleansing Fire or the Tangle were to be in control, everyone in Wraeclast would either be [[FateWorseThanDeath incinerated into its memory, leaving only the mind in agony of the burns, or become assimilated into a mass of flesh, futilely trying to escape eternal pain]].

* ''[[https://www.pathofexile.com/siege Siege of the Atlas]]'' (releasing February 4, 2022) is another follow-up to the endgame story. The Conquerors of the Atlas are slain, the Maven is placated, Zana goes into self-exile, but Kirac, with the aid of the Maven's Envoy, forms a militia to defend Wraeclast against new horrors that seek a way through the Atlas. The expansion overhauls the end-game mapping experience, reworking the Atlas of Worlds, adding an expansive Atlas passive tree, endgame bosses, and Eldritch implicit modifiers.

** 2014: Took the phrases [[BribingYourWayToVictory "pay to win"]] and "nickel and diming" a little too literally by charging players 15 cents for [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Win_Fireworks Win Fireworks]].
** 2015: All "Cast on/when" trigger support gems were [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Cast_when_Damage_Taken_Support#Cats_when_Damage_Taken briefly renamed]] to "Ca'''[[RougeAnglesOfSatin ts]]''' on/when [condition]", which functioned nearly identically to the original in addition to summoning harmless black cats when the gem triggered.
** 2018: The [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Path_of_Exile_Royale Path of Exile Royale]] event was held. 20 to 100 players engaged in a fairly bog-standard BattleRoyale setup to win Rhoa Dinners hideout decorations (a play on words for "winner winner chicken dinner").

* EvolvingWeapon: Invoked with ''[[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Oni-Goroshi Oni-Goroshi]]''. The normal method of acquiring it involves farming the very first zone for likely hours. Its damage scales with your level, has a powerful double-edged effect that can be optimized in the late game, and comes automatically six-linked. It even has [[EmpathicWeapon unique dialogue]] that triggers across all acts, so it was designed to be used from the start to all the way into the endgame.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: It's perfectly possible to build around the [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Unarmed Unarmed]] damage type, which requires players to not have any weapons equipped. There's also the [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Unencumbered Unencumbered]] status, which further requires the player to not wear gloves. The sole keystone passive available for this status, "Hollow Palm Technique", basically enables RapidFireFisticuffs as a damage-dealing option.

* SkillScoresAndPerks: With over 1300 nodes available to all classes and sprawling in every direction, the game's skill tree is more comparable to a "[[LogicalExtreme skill]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29 Pando]]". As if that wasn't enough, there are also [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Cluster_Jewel cluster jewels]] that can further extend the skill tree at its edges, either adding passives that are exclusively available to cluster jewels or adding even more cluster jewel sockets.

** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Bronn%27s_Lithe Bronn's Lithe]], named in honor of Tyrion's mercenary companion in Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire.

** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Terminus_Est Terminus Est]], named after the protagonist's BFS from ''Literature/BookOfTheNewSun'' -- which, coincidentally, is also the name of an infamous Chaos spaceship in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''.
** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Pillar_of_the_Caged_God Pillar of the Caged God]], a staff inspired by Sun Wukong's magic weapon from ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''.
** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Chernobog%27s_Pillar Chernobog's Pillar]], named after a deity mentioned in ''Videogame/{{Blood}}''.
** [[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Moonsorrow Moonsorrow]], whose flavor text haiku references Nightmare Moon's thousand-year banishment in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''.
** [[http://pathofexilewiki.com/wiki/Infractem Infractem]], whose name is an anagram of ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', was designed by none other than Notch himself, who even managed to work his first and last names, as well as his nickname, into the flavor text couplet:

** [[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Infernal_Mantle Infernal Mantle]], inspired by Utsuho Reiuji from ''Franchise/TouhouProject'', and containing multiple references of her in the FlavorText.
** [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Mokou%27s_Embrace Mokou's Embrace]] is likewise inspired by ''Franchise/TouhouProject'', with the inspiring character's name [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin right on the item name itself]]. The FlavorText also makes reference to Mokou's debut game and the one before it.

** The unique map "[[http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Olmec%27s_Sanctum Olmec's Sanctum]]" is an extended Shout-Out to ''Series/LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple'', starting with its flavor text.

** ''[[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hiltless Hiltless]]'' shares its name and properties with the same-named weapon in VideoGame/DemonsSouls.

* WeirdCurrency: Wraeclast runs on a barter system, where consumables like town portals scrolls and orbs that alter an item's properties are used to buy items and are received for selling them. The currencies themselves are fairly varied -- the core series of orbs alone range from mundane tools like [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Blacksmith%27s_Whetstone whetstones]] and [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Armourer%27s_Scrap metal scrap]], colorful stones like the [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Chromatic_Orb Chromatic Orb]], to bizarre-looking face-themed sculptures on the rare side of the scale, like the [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Chaos_Orb Chaos Orb]] and [[https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Exalted_Orb Exalted Orb]].

** KnifeNut: Daggers are always one-handed, require intelligence and dexterity, and increase the chance of getting a CriticalHit.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The wood etchings in Act 2 tell the story of a village woman losing her family to [[ZombieApocalypse The Cataclysm.]] As her husband and daughters [[AdultFear are turned to zombies]] and actively hunt her, she first seeks solace in the Moon, thought to be a manifestation of God, then she seeks shelter in a temple, and then declares that God has forsaken them and she shall "rejoin her family..."

* GuideDangIt: Siosa's sidequest in the Library in Act 3 requires you to recover four Golden Pages. What neither the quest nor Siosa himself tells you is that the Golden Pages are in a separate area that you have to access via finding a single Loose Candle switch in the Library to open up the Archives. You'll have to scour a lot of the area to find the out-of-place candle, and even then might miss it.

** "Shark Cyclone" cosmetic effect is a reference to ''Film/{{Sharknado}}''.

* PlaceWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Oriath itself has become this as of ''Siege''. Between the one-two punch of Kitava's invasion and Sirius' attack, the surviving populace decided to cut their losses and abandon the island entirely, relocating to a spot of land in Ngamkanui. Talking to Helena and Kirac will have them say that many have begun to suspect that, between the tyranny of the Templars and everything that happened in the campaign, the island itself may be cursed.]]

* PlaceWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Oriath itself has become this as of ''Siege''. Between the one-two punch of Kitava's invasion and Sirius' attack, the surviving populace decided to their losses and abandon the island entirely, relocating to a spot of land in Ngamkanui. Talking to Helena and Kirac will have them say that many have begun to suspect that, between the tyranny of the Templars and everything that happened in the campaign, the island itself may be cursed.]]

** GradualGrinder: Some builds utilize damage over time to do most of their damage instead of hits. Various methods include utilizing built-in damage over time spells, Poison builds that stack up as many stacks of Poison as possible, Ignite to deal one big hit followed by large residual damage, and [[CastFromHitPoints Righteous Fire]] builds, maximizing their health pool and regeneration and minimizing self-damage.

* TrueFinalBoss: The main story ends with the death of Kitava in Act 10, but there is still a story to be followed in post-game maps. Previously, the strongest boss of the Atlas was the Shaper, located in the heart of the Atlas behind four of his guardians that occupied the highest-tier maps, [[spoiler:although the real challenge was the Shaper and the Elder DualBoss]]. While they're still accessible, the current final endgame boss is the Awakener, leader of the Conquerors, who requires hunting down the other Conquerors for their Watchstones enough times, and the Maven, who can be challenged after pleasing her by defeating a pack of map bosses all at once multiple times.