The Fall of Oriath: Beta Scope

We are less than a day away from the start of the Path of Exile: Fall of Oriath beta. As mentioned in yesterday's news post, we are not providing any patch notes for the beta. This is in part because things are being actively developed, and in part because things will change based on your feedback, likely invalidating many patch notes very quickly. We also haven't had time to write up the full patch notes, as that takes a few weeks.

This post is to give you an idea of what is and is not included in the Fall of Oriath beta, as well as known issues or things we expect to add (or not add) in the future. These are not patch notes, nor will there be full 3.0.0 patch notes for the beta. Expect them close to the release of 3.0.0.

What is in the Beta?

The beta will contain all existing game content as well as acts 5, 6, and 7 from tomorrow. It will not contain act 8 initially. We plan to add act 8 within a couple of weeks.

Visual improvements to earlier act content (such as the new water effects) will be available and visible from day one.

The Pantheon feature will be included from the beginning, however it is only available in Acts 6 through 10, as it is tied to story content in these acts. As a result, only parts of the Pantheon will be available for use during the beta. We are including the Pantheon upgrading mechanic in the beta, but this will only work with the Pantheon powers from acts 6 and 7 initially. When we add access to act 8, we will also be adding access to the parts of the Pantheon that are unlocked during act 8, as well as the upgradable features for those parts.

Balance changes, including changes to Energy Shield, 'double-dipping', the Ascendant, the passive skill tree and others will be available throughout the beta. Some of these features may fluctuate as we monitor our changes and make further adjustments.

Item changes, including changes to unique items, base-types, implicits, and new rare mods, will be available during the beta. Like anything else in the beta, these may fluctuate.

The restructured Labyrinth access method and associated trials will be included for the Cruel Labyrinth on day one. Access to the Merciless Labyrinth will be added alongside Act 8.

The new minimap will be included as well.

The Act 2 bandit rewards have been restructured to better fit a single difficulty.

What is Not in the Beta?

Act 8 will not be available on day one, but will be added to the beta before we launch The Fall of Oriath.

Acts 9 and 10 will not be available in the beta, so neither will be any game features (such as parts of the Pantheon) that are tied to story progression within acts 9 and 10.

We are not including any new unique items in the beta. We want to keep the focus of the beta on existing systems, broad balance changes, act content, and the Pantheon.

We are not initially adding new support or skill gems to the beta, though they may be added later.

The new Microtransaction system will not be active on day one of the beta. You will not have access to any of the Microtransactions you have purchased on your Path of Exile account in the beta initially. We expect to be able to add the new Microtransaction system and access to purchased Microtransactions during the beta, once we have resolved the issues we encountered deploying 2.6.1.

Known Issues:

The act 7 mid-act boss fight will only have one variant initially. There will ultimately be 4 variants, based on your choices during the Bandit quest in act 2.

Some NPCs, bosses, and player characters may be missing dialogue audio.

Some enemies, including bosses, are using temporary sound effects or are missing certain sound effects altogether.

Boss and monster balance is still in flux.

The corrupted side areas in act 5 are using a temporary boss for all variations. Each variant will have its own boss by launch.

Changes related to the removal of 'double dipping' may have bugs or irregularities. Be sure to let us know if you believe you have found some.

Some aesthetic elements, such as monster skill effects, animations, or models, are temporary or are works in progress.

Some new areas don't have the layout diversity that they will have by launch.

Please keep in mind that the beta is a work in progress. We want to hear your feedback for everything, even for features with known issues! Have fun!