Dear exiles, hot news! After a year-long wait, Path of Exile 3.26 new league: Secrets of the Atlas is finally arriving on June 13! Today, I will show you a comprehensive beginner's guide to the new content.
Story Background
In Path of Exile: Secrets of the Atlas, strange rifts have begun to appear across the Atlas. Zana has returned and appears to be trapped within. Partway through the endgame, you will meet Eagon, an intelligent man of mysterious heritage. These tears, in reality, he has discovered, are threads of Memory, distorted and made real by the Atlas. Eagon is able to create a link to these memory threads and open portals to them. Working with Eagon, you must step through and find Zana or whatever remains of her.
How to Work
The Pursuit of Zana and the Thread of Memories
In Secrets of the Atlas, a new storyline unfolds as players pursue Zana alongside Eagon in high-tier maps. Upon meeting Eagon, he transfers the discovered tear to the Map Device, revealing the Thread of Memories on the Atlas.
Accessing the Thread and Map Influence
Players can access each map on the Thread by speaking with Eagon when ready. These maps are fully affected by Atlas Tree modifiers, Scarabs, Fragments, and other enhancements.
Memory Petals and Special Abilities
Monsters in these maps are infused with Memory Petals. Defeating them allows players to absorb their power, unlocking special abilities for combat. These abilities appear on a mini-skill bar beside the player's regular skills.
Examples of Memory Abilities
Different maps grant different abilities:
● Memory of Disbelief: Affected monsters stop dropping equipment and instead drop only valuable items such as Currency and Maps.
● Memory of Panic: Monsters revive instantly after death, granting double experience and loot.
● Memory of Impatience: Surrounding enemies temporarily transfer their Souls, greatly boosting player power.
Combining Memory Petal Abilities
As players progress along the Thread, maps may contain multiple Memory influences, allowing combinations of abilities for stronger effects. Each ability costs Memory Petals to activate.
Strategic Ability Usage Example
For optimal efficiency, players can use abilities in sequence:
● Activate Memory of Impatience to gain immense power.
● Trigger Memory of Panic so monsters revive when slain.
● Use Memory of Disbelief to ensure high-value item drops.
● Destroy all enemies, wait for Memory of Panic to revive them, then eliminate them again for double loot and experience.
There are many combinations of these powers, so players must carefully consider how they best work together. That's not the only extra layer of content juicing these maps offer.
As you defeat the boss of each map along the Thread of Memories, an Altar is presented. This Altar applies a modifier to all following maps in the Thread, and these stack as you go, deepening the Memory. Combined with special abilities, this leads to some of the most juiced maps ever seen in Path of Exile.
Each Altar presents two choices, and players must pick one. Some examples of mods include Rare monsters possessed by Tormented Spirits or Kirac Modifiers becoming free to craft. These modifiers persist throughout all subsequent maps.
The final map in each Thread of Memories poses a true challenge. It incorporates all applied altar mods and is guarded by a powerful warped boss, drawn from Zana's memories and twisted by the Atlas. In one of these maps, players must fight Sirus, whose abilities have been altered by Zana's recollections, making him uniquely difficult.
Defeating Sirus or other warped memory bosses grants Map Fragments, which Eagon can use to delve deeper into memory tears. This unlocks a set of three new Pinnacle Bosses.
One of these new arenas, called Moment of Reverence, is based on Zana reliving a memory of her father, Valdo, delivering a passionate speech in Oriath. The Atlas transforms these emotions into terrifying manifestations: the Incarnation of Dread, the Incarnation of Neglect, and the Incarnation of Fear.
If players manage to defeat these bosses, they will be rewarded with unique items. One such item is the Starcaller Abyssal Axe, which harnesses the power of the stars to deal immense damage. On melee crit, it casts Starfall, a new skill capable of devastating large areas.
Another unique item found in these maps is the Wine of the Prophet Flask. This Flask consumes a large number of charges but draws a random Divination Card each time it is used. These cards offer powerful buffs such as increased movement speed or even the ability to inherit modifiers from slain rare monsters.
Returning to the Atlas, after defeating the three Pinnacle Bosses, players gain access to Memory Influenced Tier 16 Maps. These maps contain previously mentioned special abilities and Memory Petal-infused monsters but also roll modifiers typically found in Tier 17 maps, making them even more rewarding.
A new item mechanic is introduced—items dropped in Memory Maps can have Memory Strands, ranging from 1 to 100. The more Memory Strands an item has, the stronger its modifiers will be upon identification. Additionally, Memory Strands enhance crafting effects when using currency orbs.
New Crafting Currencies allow further manipulation of Memory Strands:
● Orb of Remembrance: Adds Memory Strands to normal equipment.
● Orb of Unravelling: Consumes Memory Strands to randomly upgrade mod tiers.
● Orb of Intention: Reduces item drops but increases the chance of finding items with Memory Strands.
An essential addition to the game: Shaper and Elder now have their Exalted Orbs, making it possible to add their influence to an item, completing the six influence types in the game.
The Atlas Passive Tree gets enhancements for the new content:
● Grasp the Past increases the chance for items to have lucky rolls on Memory Strands.
● Target Farming Passives increase the likelihood of finding Memory Threads, which in turn lead to specific bosses.
Conclusion
That's all about the new Expansion "Secrets of the Atlas." You can view the PoE official site to see more details about the new challenge, such as the Mercenaries of Trarthus Challenge League, the Betrayal Revamp, the Character Balance, the Quality of Life, and so on.
By the way, we are committing right now to a 4-month cycle for both Path of Exile 1 and 2. That means the next PoE2 league will be in August, and the next PoE1 league will follow in October. Please stay tuned on MmoGah to get more details about PoE 1 and 2!
