Path of Exile Heist - Content Update 3.12.0 Patch Notes

Have you ever seen an update so hefty its patch notes required their own table of contents? Well that’s how big the 3.12.0 content update for Path of Exile is. It adds the Heist challenge league to the game, along with a plethora of new features, quality of life improvements, bug fixes and balance changes. It’s a big ‘un. Scroll down to see the Path of Exile Heist update patch notes in all their splendor.

If you haven’t update the game in the past week, you’ve probably missed patch 3.11.2. It contained a “broad restructure” to the game’s file system, which means installing it requires a complete redownload of the game. If you’re eager to play the Heist league as soon as possible, fire up the client as soon as you get the chance – it’ll take a while. Here’s what the new update brings:

• The Heist Challenge League
  • Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All of your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you’re encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and demonstrate your mastery of Path of Exile!
  • In the Heist Challenge League, you’ll travel to The Rogue Harbour to hire skilled thieves in order to pull off elaborate and risky Heists. With their help, you’ll infiltrate secure facilities, work to bypass security systems and steal valuable Artifacts. You’ll need to be careful not to trigger the alarm or the facility will go into lockdown and you’ll be swarmed by its guards. When this happens, you’ll need to make a mad dash to the extraction point or you’ll lose everything you stole along the way.
  • Successfully completing Heists lays the foundation to pull off a thief’s ultimate goal – a Grand Heist. For these, you’ll need to accumulate Heist markers, gather intel and train and equip your crew. Intel and markers can be used to reveal the details of Blueprints which contain the secrets of elaborate facilities which will allow you to find more reward rooms and plan which Rogue expertise you’ll need to bypass security. Grand Heists offer exclusive rewards like Trinkets, Alternate Quality Gems, Replica Unique Items, Experimented Base Types, Weapon and Body Armour enchantments and much more.
  • Each Rogue has one main specialty and several secondary abilities. These skills are essential for completing Heists by allowing you to demolish walls, pick locks and much more. You can equip them with specialised rogue gear to make them more effective in Heists. Each successful Heist will help improve their skills.
  • With 3.12.0, there are Standard, Hardcore and Solo Self-Found variations of the Heist challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items. You can create private league versions of these leagues, with mods that make the game harder.
  • The new challenge leagues include a set of 40 new challenges. When you complete 12 challenges, you will receive the Nenet’s Hood, Huck’s Helmet and Vinderi’s Helmet Effects. When you reach 24 challenges, you will receive the Heist Cat Pet. At 36 challenges completed you’ll receive the Heist Portal Effect. These microtransactions are only obtainable in this league.
  • From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Heist Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Heist challenges you completed during the league.
• Major New Content and Features
  • Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Blazing Salvo: Fires projectiles that impact around a targeted location. The impact areas can overlap, hitting a target multiple times. The further away you target, the wider the area across which these projectiles can land.
  • Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Void Sphere: Creates a sphere at the targeted location which deals physical and chaos damage at regular intervals, while pulling enemies towards the centre. Enemies at the centre of the sphere have less movement speed.
  • Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Crackling Lance: Deals lightning damage to enemies in an area in front of the caster. Repeated casts intensify the damage dealt and narrow the range of enemies it hits.
  • Added a new Intelligence/Dexterity Skill Gem – Frost Shield: Creates a Frost Shield in an area which can consume Energy Shield over a short period, gaining stages which make it more powerful. This Shield absorbs a portion of incoming damage and increases your chance to deal critical strikes while you are within it.
  • Added a new Strength/Dexterity Skill Gem – Splitting Steel: Consumes a Steel Shard to fire a single projectile that deals damage in an area when it splits on impact, or at the end of its flight.
  • Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Sigil of Power: Creates an area which causes your skills to consume more mana but deal added lightning damage while you stand within it. Enemies within the area deal reduced damage. The Sigil grows more powerful based on mana spent while you are in it.
  • Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Flame Wall: Creates a wall of fire which deals burning damage to enemies within its area and applies a secondary debuff that burns for a short duration after they leave. Projectiles you fire through the wall deal added fire damage and apply this secondary debuff to enemies they hit.
  • Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Hex Blast: Deals chaos damage to a targeted enemy. If the enemy is hexed, it will remove the hex, dealing more damage based on the amount of doom on the removed hex, and dealing damage in an area around the enemy (also removing the hexes from enemies hit by the area and dealing more damage where applicable).
  • Added a new Intelligence Support Gem – Impending Doom Support: Causes supported Hex skills to trigger Doom Blast when they are removed or expire. Doom Blast deals chaos damage in an area based on the amount of Doom the Hex had when it was removed or expired. Cannot support Triggered or Aura hexes.
  • Added a new Intelligence/Dexterity Support Gem – Pinpoint Support: Supported projectile skills deal more damage and fire fewer projectiles per intensity. Repeatedly using the supported skill adds Intensity. Cannot support triggered, Vaal, instant, or channelling skills, skills which reserve mana, or skills used by traps, totems or mines.
  • Added 28 new Unique items, including one designed by a supporter.
  • Added 11 new Divination Cards, designed by our supporters.
  • Added 90 new Replica Unique Items, which are twists on existing Unique items. These can only be obtained through Heists.
  • Added more than 800 Alternate-Quality variants of existing and new Support and Skill Gems.
  • Added a Vendor Recipe for a special Support Gem. Good luck!
• Minor New Content and Features
  • The following skills have received visual updates: Lightning Strike, Fire Storm, Ice Storm (from The Whispering Ice), Caustic Arrow, Smoke Mine, Discharge and all Curses,
  • Permanent minions such as Golems, Zombies and Animated Guardians are now saved when you log out, and are automatically resummoned when you log in.
  • Divination Cards that award an item with an Elderslayer’s Influence now have special background effects.
  • A few torches will now light your way to Lioneye’s Watch.
  • Improved the Atlas Influence visuals.
  • Significantly improved performance when viewing and using crafting benches.
  • Made a multitude of visual adjustments to the brightness (and bloom effect) of skills and effects throughout the game.
  • Improved effects culling across many skills and effects for performance.
  • Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.
• Character Balance
  • Projectiles have been reworked to allow for more player-friendly behaviour. Previously, if a projectile could not perform a step in its behaviour sequence, it would skip that behaviour, attempt the next, and never attempt to perform the skipped behaviour again. Now, it will skip that behaviour, attempt the next, and if it reaches another enemy, attempt to perform the skipped behaviours again. For example, a projectile that can both Chain and Return will now hit a target and, if there are no enemies for it to Chain to, it will Return. If it then hits another group of enemies, it will attempt to Chain again (though it will not Return again after Chaining).
  • The sequence of behaviours a projectile will attempt, in order, is now: Splitting, Piercing, Forking, Chaining then Returning.
  • Many modifiers to the effects and durations of Chill and Shock (such as ‘increased effect of Shock’) now also affect Brittle and Sap. The descriptions of such modifiers have been updated to reflect this.
  • Intensity now has a maximum of 3 stacks (from 4).
  • Removed the concept ‘Reduced Visibility to Enemies’ and replaced it with ‘Stealth’. Increasing your Stealth reduces the radius at which enemies will notice you. 100% increased Stealth cuts that radius in half, and 200% increased Stealth cuts that radius by two thirds. You can, therefore, no longer become entirely invisible to enemies.
• Skill Reworks
  • Curse Skills – All curse skills have been reworked and are now divided into two categories: Hexes and Marks.
    • Hexes apply a curse in an area and, when manually cast, apply an amount of Doom per second to cursed enemies up to a maximum. Doom increases the effect of the afflicted curse and stacks additively with modifiers to increased Curse effect.
    • Marks apply to a single targeted enemy, and only one enemy can be marked by you at a given time. The current Mark skills are Poacher’s Mark, Warlord’s Mark, Assassin’s Mark, and Sniper’s Mark (previously named Projectile Weakness). Monster rarity no longer affects the efficacy of Marks. Monsters deep in the Azurite Mine (Delve) also no longer reduce the efficacy of Marks on them.
    • Additions to the number of curses you can inflict on enemies apply cumulatively to both Hexes and Marks, but do not modify the number of enemies you can have Marked at any given time. Thus, you can have an enemy that is affected by both a Mark and a Hex, but you can’t Mark an enemy with two Marks, nor can you Mark two different enemies.
    • Items and enemies which previously reflected Curses will now only reflect Hexes.
  • Steel Skills
    • Lancing Steel, Shattering Steel and Splitting Steel can now consume Steel Shards to cause bonus effects. Steel Shards are gained through the Call of Steel skill, which causes all nearby Impaled enemies to release their Impale spikes and deals damage around them. If there are no Impaled enemies nearby, Call of Steel will create Steel Shards over time. Every Steel skill grants Call of Steel as well. You can have up to 12 Steel Shards at a time.
  • Assassin’s Mark – Enemies afflicted with Assassin’s Mark will always grant a power charge and significant amount of life and mana when slain.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to take increased extra damage from critical strikes.
    • Cursed enemies now have a 100% chance to grant a power charge when slain.
    • Hits against cursed enemies now have +1.5% to critical strike chance at all gem levels.
    • Hits against cursed enemies now have +30% to critical strike multiplier at gem level 1, up to +49% at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now grant 65 life when killed at gem level 1, up to 600 at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now grant 25 mana when killed at gem level 1, up to 80 at gem level 20.
    • Now causes cursed enemies to have a 1% chance to grant a power charge when hit per 4% gem quality (from 1% chance to grant a power charge when slain per 2% gem quality).
  • Poacher’s Mark – Enemies afflicted with Poacher’s Mark will always grant a frenzy charge when slain, and are more susceptible to physical damage. They always grant a small amount of life and mana when hit.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to grant increased flask charges.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to have less evasion.
    • Cursed enemies now have a 100% chance to grant a frenzy charge when slain.
    • Cursed enemies now grant 15 life when hit by attacks at gem level 1, up to 50 at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now grant 8 mana when hit by attacks at gem level 1, up to 25 at gem level 20.
    • Now adds 6 to 9 physical damage to hits against cursed enemies at gem level 1, up to 30 to 45 at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now have -20% to physical damage reduction at all gem levels.
    • Now causes cursed enemies to have a 1% chance to grant a frenzy charge when hit per 4% gem quality (from 1% chance to grant a frenzy charge when slain per 2% gem quality).
  • Sniper’s Mark – Previously named Projectile Weakness – Enemies afflicted by Sniper’s Mark grant charges to Life and Mana flasks when hit, and cause projectiles that hit them to split towards other enemies.
    • No longer causes projectiles to pierce or knock back cursed enemies.
    • Cursed enemies now take 16% increased damage from projectile hits at gem level 1, up to 35% at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now grant a Life Flask charge and a Mana Flask charge when you hit them, no more than once every 0.5 seconds at all gem levels. Note that this only applies to hits from the source of the mark (and not, for example, your minions).
    • Projectiles which hit cursed enemies now split towards 3 additional targets at gem level 1, up to 4 additional targets at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now take 1% increased damage from projectile hits per 4% gem quality (from 1% increased damage from projectile hits per 2% gem quality).
  • Warlord’s Mark – Enemies afflicted by Warlord’s Mark will always grant an Endurance Charge when slain, and grant rage when stunned. They also allow attacks to leech life and mana from them.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to have reduced Stun and Block Recovery.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to have a chance to be stunned.
    • Hits against cursed enemies now have a 40% chance to double Stun Duration at gem level 1, up to 59% at gem level 20.
    • Cursed enemies now grant 5 rage over 1 second when they are stunned.
    • Cursed enemies now grant 2% Life and Mana Leech when hit by attacks.
    • Now causes cursed enemies to have a 1% chance to grant an endurance charge when hit per 4% gem quality (from 1% chance to grant an endurance charge when slain per 2% gem quality).
  • Lancing Steel – Lancing Steel now fires a sequence of projectiles when you attack, and fires more projectiles based on the number of Steel Shards consumed by the attack. Enemies can be hit by multiple projectiles from the same attack, but subsequent hits after the first deal less damage.
    • Now has a base attack speed multiplier of 80%.
    • Now deals 63% of base damage at gem level 1, up to 85% at gem level 20.
    • Now fire 3 additional projectiles.
    • Now has a 20% chance to impale enemies on hit.
    • Subsequent hits from the same attack now deal 60% less damage.
    • Now consumes up to 4 Steel Shards, and fires 50% more projectiles per Steel Shard consumed.
  • Shattering Steel – Shattering Steel now fires a number of projectiles simultaneously, which shatter after colliding with an enemy or after travelling a short distance. The shattered projectiles deal damage in a cone in front of their impact location. Shattering Steel will consume up to two Steel Shards to deal more damage at close range. Each time you consume Steel Shards, you gain a Steel Charge (up to a maximum of 6), which grants 4% chance to block attack projectiles per Steel Charge.
    • Now has a base attack speed multiplier of 85%.
    • Now deals 100% of base damage at gem level 1, up to 127% at gem level 20.
    • Now has 8 to 12 added attack physical damage at gem level 1, up to 113 to 169 added attack physical damage at gem level 20.
    • Now has a 40% chance to impale enemies on hit.
    • Now fires 2 additional projectiles.
    • Projectiles now deal up to 100% more damage at close range, based on the distance they travel, per Steel Shard consumed.
    • Now grants 1 Steel Charge when you consume Steel Shards, granting +4% chance to block attack projectiles per steel charge. These have a base duration of 5 seconds.
    • Now consumes up to 2 Steel Shards.
    • Now fires only one projectile if no Steel Shards are consumed.
  • Firestorm – Firestorm now calls down a large meteor that impacts the targeted location, followed by a series of smaller impacts at set intervals over the storm’s duration. The base power of the spell has been significantly raised, so you are now limited to three Firestorms at any given time (any new storms created will replace the oldest).
    • Now requires level 28 at gem level 1 (from 12). Please be aware that existing low level characters with Firestorm socketed may have that gear slot disabled until the Firestorm gem is removed.
    • Now has a mana cost of 13 at gem level 1, up to 25 at gem level 20.
    • Now has an added damage effectiveness of 50%.
    • Now deals 22 to 33 fire damage at gem level 1, up to 207 to 311 fire damage at gem level 20.
    • Now has a base duration of 1.4 seconds with one impact every 0.2 seconds.
    • The first impact now has 100% more area of effect and deals 150% more damage.
  • Glacial Cascade – Glacial Cascade now rapidly creates a sequence of damaging areas, each of which knocks back enemies it hits. Modifiers to the skill’s area of effect no longer affect the overall range of the skill. Instead, larger areas overlap with each other more. This can allow you to hit an enemy several times with a single cast much more reliably. The final part of the cascade now deals significantly more damage to enemies.
    • Now has a mana cost of 10 at gem level 1, up to 20 at gem level 20.
    • Now has a cast time of 0.6 seconds.
    • Now deals 21 to 32 physical damage at gem level 1, up to 207 to 311 physical damage at gem level 20.
    • Now converts 100% of physical damage to cold damage.
    • The final spike now deals 200% more damage.
    • Now knocks enemies back on hit.
  • Discharge – Discharge now has a cooldown, and a much higher added damage effectiveness and base area of effect, to encourage large, individual Discharge casts that consume many charges over the rapidfire Discharge usage often triggered by other sources. There is a Threshold jewel which drastically lowers this cooldown for players who seek a Discharge playstyle similar to the older version of the spell.
    • Now has a larger base area of effect.
    • Now has an added damage effectiveness of 450%.
    • Now deals 56 to 203 base lightning damage per power charge removed at gem level 1, up to 394 to 1422 base lightning damage at gem level 20.
    • Now deals 99 to 148 base fire damage per endurance charge removed at gem level 1, up to 692 to 1037 base fire damage at gem level 20.
    • Now deals 81 to 121 base cold damage per frenzy charge removed at gem level 1, up to 566 to 849 base cold damage at gem level 20.
    • Now has 20% increased area of effect per charge consumed.
    • Now deals 30% less damage with Ailments.
  • Punishment – Punishment no longer requires that you be hit by the cursed enemy to benefit from its effects, and instead grants large benefits for high-damage killing blows against cursed enemies.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to grant more melee physical damage on melee hit.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to grant increased attack speed on melee hit.
    • No longer causes enemies to have -20% to physical damage reduction.
    • Now causes cursed enemies to take 50% increased damage while on Low Life at gem level 1, up to 88% increased damage at gem level 20.
    • Now causes cursed enemies you hit to be Debilitated for 2 seconds.
    • Now causes 10% of Overkill damage from killing blows against cursed enemies to be reflected to other enemies as physical damage.
    • Now gains 1% increased effect of curse per 2% gem quality (previously caused cursed enemies to grant 1% increased attack speed on melee hit per 4% gem quality).
  • Vitality – Vitality now grants flat life regeneration based on the level of the gem, and reserves a flat amount of mana (similar to Clarity and Precision). It can be used to more rapidly enable builds which rely on life regeneration to function (such as Righteous Fire) at lower levels, and no longer disproportionately rewards high-life builds.
    • No longer grants life regeneration based on your maximum life.
    • Now requires level 10.
    • Now reserves 28 mana at gem level 1, up to 233 mana at gem level 20.
    • Now causes you and nearby allies to regenerate 15 life per second at gem level 1, up to 247 at gem level 20.
    • Now requires 25% less Strength at all gem levels.
• Skill Balance
  • Lightning Trap, Glacial Hammer, Vaal Glacial Hammer, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Arc, Vaal Arc, Storm Call, Vaal Storm Call and Stormblast Mine now each also affect the alternate versions of their corresponding elemental ailments.
  • Only gems which are Curses will now have the Curse gem tag (ie. all Hexes and Marks). Skills which interact with Hexes and/or Marks will have the Hex and/or Mark tag, but will not have the Curse tag. Bane, for example, has the Hex tag but not the Curse tag, as it is not a Curse. As a result, modifiers to Curse skill gems will not affect skill gems like Bane.
• Specific Skills
  • Ball Lightning
    • Now has a base radius of 18 (from 22).
    • Now deals 3 to 48 lightning damage at gem level 1 (from 3 to 57), up to 22 to 426 lightning damage at gem level 20 (from 28 to 533).
  • Clarity
    • Now requires 25% less Intelligence at all gem levels.
  • Conductivity
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
    • Now causes Hexed enemies to have 25% chance to be Shocked at all gem levels (from 10% at gem level 1, up to 14% at gem level 20).
  • Despair
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
  • Elemental Weakness
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
  • Enduring Cry
    • No longer grants a minimum of one Endurance Charge.
    • Now has a cooldown of 8 seconds at all gem levels (from 6 seconds).
  • Enfeeble
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to have reduced critical strike chance or critical strike multiplier.
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
    • Now gains additional radius as the gem levels, up to +10 at gem level 20 (from +7).
    • Now gains 1% increased effect of curse per 2% gem quality (previously granted 1% reduced accuracy rating per 5% gem quality and 1% reduced critical strike chance per 2% gem quality).
  • Flammability
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
    • Now causes Hexed enemies to have 25% chance to be Ignited at all gem levels (from 10% at gem level 1, up to 14% at gem level 20).
  • Frostbite
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
    • Now causes Hexed enemies to have 25% chance to be Frozen at all gem levels (from 10% at gem level 1, up to 14% at gem level 20).
  • Phase Run
    • No longer grants reduced visibility to enemies.
    • Now grants 100% increased stealth at all gem levels.
  • Precision
    • No longer has a Strength requirement.
    • Now requires 22 Dexterity at gem level 1, up to 119 Dexterity at gem level 20.
  • Temporal Chains
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
    • Now gains additional radius as the gem levels, up to +10 at gem level 20 (from +7).
    • Now gains 1% increased effect of Curse per 2% gem quality (previously caused normal and magic enemies to have 1% less action speed per 2% gem quality).
  • Vulnerability
    • No longer causes attack hits to have a chance to Maim cursed enemies.
    • No longer causes cursed enemies to take increased physical damage from damage over time.
    • Curses applied by casting this spell now gain 10 Doom per second.
    • Now causes ailments inflicted on cursed enemies to deal damage 20% faster.
• Vaal Skill Balance
  • Vaal Impurity of Fire, Ice and Lightning – No longer grant reduced damage taken of their respective damage types, and now instead grant +5% to their respective maximum resistances at all gem levels.
• Support Gem Balance
  • Awakened Curse On Hit Support – now named Awakened Hextouch Support
    • Now only supports Hex Curse Skill Gems.
    • Now grants the supported Hex a chance for it to affect Hexproof enemies (rather than apply to them).
  • Curse On Hit Support – now named Hextouch Support
    • Now only supports Hex Curse Skill Gems.
  • Intensify Support
    • Supported skills now gain Intensity.
    • Supported skills now deal 14% more Area Damage per Intensity at gem level 1 (from 10%), up to 22% at gem level 20 (from 16%).
    • Supported skills now have 15% less Area of Effect per Intensity at all gem levels (from 12%).
    • You can now have 3 maximum Intensity by default (from 4). This is no longer tied to the support gem, as skills such as Crackling Lance can utilise Intensity.
  • Deathmark Support – now named Predator Support
    • Renamed to Predator Support to signify that it is not a Mark skill.
    • Now grants the Signal Prey skill (previously called Deathmark).
  • Spellslinger Support
    • Now has a cooldown of 0.6 seconds (from 0.5 seconds).
    • Now grants supported skills increased cooldown recovery rate as the gem levels, from 0% at gem level 1 (unchanged) to 38% at gem level 20 (from 19%).
    • Now has 30% Mana Reservation Override at gem level 1, down to 25% at gem level 20 (from 20% at all gem levels).
• Passive Tree Balance
  • Added a new Keystone – Doomsday: Causes Hexes you cast to apply to an area, applying the Hex to all enemies in it for over its duration. The Hex area gains its maximum Doom after a short secondary duration.
  • The Glancing Blows Keystone now causes you to take 65% of Damage from Blocked Hits (from 50%). It has been moved so as to make it more difficult to acquire via a Thread of Hope jewel.
  • The Divine Flesh Keystone (obtainable via the Glorious Vanity unique Jewel) now grants +5% to maximum Chaos Resistance, down from +10%.
  • The Skittering Runes cluster has moved just below Heart of Thunder. The notable now grants +10 to maximum Doom and 10% increased Effect of your Curses (from 15% increased Effect of your Curses).
  • The Whispers of Doom cluster has moved next to Chaos Inoculation. The first passive in the cluster now grants 10% increased Cast Speed for Curses (from 15% increased Curse Duration). The small passive on the left path now grants 50% increased Doom gain rate (from 15% increased Cast Speed for Curses).
  • The Hex Master cluster has moved to the left side of the tree, next to Disciple of the Forbidden. It now has 3 small passives before the notable. The entry passive now grants 5% increased Effect of your Curses. The two passives before the notable each grant 50% increased Doom gain rate. The notable now exclusively applies to Hex skills.
  • The Corruption cluster has moved to where Whispers of Doom used to be. It now has 6 passives, with the original passives making up the entry and left path. The notable now grants 0.2% of Chaos damage leeched as Energy Shield. The right path grants 4% Chaos Resistance penetration on each passive.
  • The new Dark Intent cluster has been added where Skittering Runes used to be. It grants increases to the Effect of your Curses, reduced Mana Reservation of Curse Aura skills, increased damage with Hits and Ailments against Cursed Enemies, and additional starting Doom for all Hexes you apply.
  • The new Mark the Weak cluster has been added to the southeast of the Ranger, and grants increased Cast Speed for Curses, and causes hits against Marked Enemies to have increased Critical Strike Chance. It also causes Marked Enemies to have reduced accuracy, take increased damage, and grant additional flask charges when slain.
  • The new Marked for Death cluster has been added to the southeast of the Duelist. It grants increased Effect of your Curses, Culling Strike against Marked enemies, and increased damage with Hits and Ailments against Enemies Marked by you.
• Ascendancy Balance
  • Assassin
    • Deadly Infusion Notable now grants +1.5% Critical Strike Chance while at maximum Power Charges (from +2%) and +5% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Power Charge (from +8%).
    • The small passives which grant Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier now grant +10% to Critical Strike Multiplier (from +15%).
  • Necromancer
    • Mistress of Sacrifice now causes your Offerings to have 50% reduced effect on you (from 25%).
  • Ascendant
    • The Necromancer path now causes your Offerings to have 50% reduced effect on you (from 25%).
• Item Balance
  • Item modifier tags have been entirely reworked with a goal in mind of consistency and simplicity. These changes have negligible impacts to the odds of various modifiers appearing on rare items naturally, but may have impacts to the results of certain crafting methods. A list of all modifiers and their associated tags can be found here.
  • As a result of the above changes, several fossil descriptions have changed slightly.
  • Bound Fossils now also increase the likelihood of rolling Curse modifiers.
  • Faceted Fossils now increase the likelihood of rolling all gem-related modifiers (rather than only modifiers to socketed gem levels).
  • Items which apply a Curse to an enemy (such as the curse-on-hit Ring modifiers) no longer specify a level, and instead have a set magnitude for their values with a fixed amount of Doom, which is overwritten when another source applies a more potent version (similar to Arcane Surge).
  • Items which Trigger a Mark on hit now only do so when hitting Rare and Unique enemies.
  • Life regeneration modifiers are now less likely to roll on items. The values of life regeneration granted by these modifiers has been increased across all but the first tier, with the top tiers now granting twice as much life regeneration per second than before. Existing items with these modifiers can be updated to the new values with a Divine Orb.
  • Crusader-influenced items can no longer roll a Physical Damage conversion modifier if the item already has one.
  • The Labyrinth Enchantments which grant reduced Mana reservation for Vitality now grant 20% and 30% reduced mana Reservation (from 14% and 20%). Existing items with this enchantment are unaffected.
  • The “Lancing Steel’s primary Projectile Pierces 3/5 additional Targets” Labyrinth Enchantment has been replaced with a new enchantment that grants an additional Projectile. Existing items with this enchantment are unaffected.
  • The “Lancing Steel’s additional Projectiles have +20/30% chance to Impale Enemies” Labyrinth Enchantment has been replaced with a new enchantment granting a 20/30% chance not to consume Steel Shards. Existing items with this enchantment are unaffected.
  • The “Shattering Steel fires an additional Projectile” Labyrinth Enchantment has been replaced with a new enchantment granting a 20/30% chance not to consume Steel Shards. Existing items with this enchantment are unaffected.
  • The “30/40% of Glacial Cascade Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage” Labyrinth Enchantment has been replaced with a new enchantment granting 6/10% of Physical Damage as Extra Cold Damage. Existing items with this enchantment are unaffected.
  • The “increased Discharge Radius” Labyrinth Enchantment has been replaced with a new enchantment granting Discharge +3/+5 to Radius. Existing items with this enchantment are unaffected.
  • Cat’s Stealth, from Aspect of the Cat, now causes you to have 50% increased Stealth, and no longer grants 50% reduced Visibility to Enemies. This affects all items which grant Aspect of the Cat.
• Cluster Jewel Balance
  • Eye of the Storm now increases the effect of non-Damaging Ailments you inflict with Critical Strikes (previously specified Chill and Shock, but it now also works with alternate elemental ailments).
  • Precise Commander now causes you and nearby allies to have 25% increased Critical Strike Chance (from 30%), and +10% to Critical Strike Multiplier (from 12%).
  • Vengeful Commander now grants 20% increased effect of Anger, Hatred and Wrath auras (from 30%).
  • Vicious Bite now grants your minions +15% to Critical Strike Multiplier (from 20%) and 30% increased Critical Strike Chance (from 50%).
• Unique Items
  • Items which previously inflicted a random Curse will now inflict a random Hex. This affects Soul Mantle, Ylfeban’s Trickery.
  • Thunderfist, Agnerod East, and Stormcharger each now grant increased Lightning Ailment Duration on Enemies (rather than increased Shock Duration).
  • Stormcharger and Doryani’s Fist each now grant increased Lightning Ailment Effect (rather than increased Shock Effect).
  • Crystal Vault now grants increased Cold Ailment Effect (rather than increased Chill Effect).
  • The Blood Reaper: Now grants 20 Life Regeneration per Second (from 10). Existing versions of this item can be updated with the use of a Divine Orb.
  • Bloodgrip: Now grants 16 to 24 Life Regeneration per Second (from 8 to 12). Existing versions of this item can be updated with the use of a Divine Orb.
  • Gluttony: No longer has level 30 Poacher’s Mark on hit. No longer grants Culling Strike against enemies cursed with Poacher’s Mark. Now grants 20 to 28 Life on hit with Attacks against Cursed Enemies, 10 to 14 Mana on hit with Attacks against Cursed enemies, and Culling Strike against Cursed Enemies.
  • Mark of Submission: Now Curses enemies with socketed Hex gem on hit. This affects all versions of the item.
  • Profane Proxy: Now only causes socketed Hexes to be applied as an aura around your Skitterbot.
  • The Putrid Cloister: No longer applies Projectile Weakness to players. Now applies Despair instead.
  • The Tempest’s Liberation: The skill used by the Greater Harbinger of Storms will no longer try to chain to targets it has already affected.
  • Watcher’s Eye: Can now grant 10 to 15% increased Energy Shield Recovery Rate while affected by Discipline (from 20 to 30%). Can now grant 6 to 10% of Maximum Mana as Extra Maximum Energy Shield while affected by Clarity (from 12 to 18%). Can now grant 10 to 15% increased Mana Recovery Rate while affected by Clarity (from 20 to 30%). Can now grant 10 to 15% increased Life Recovery Rate while affected by Vitality (from 20 to 30%). Can now grant 0.8 to 1.2% of Damage leeched as Life while affected by Vitality (from 1 to 1.5%). Can now grant 8 to 12% increased Recovery rate of Life and Energy Shield while affected by Malevolence (from 15 to 20%). Can now grant +20 to 30% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Precision (from 30 to 50%). Existing versions can be updated with the use of a Divine Orb. New versions can now grant 1 to 1.5% of Life Regenerated per second while affected by Vitality (instead of 100 to 140 Life Regeneration per second). Existing versions of this item with this modifier are unaffected.
  • The Whispering Ice: The Ice Storm skill has undergone a significant rebalance, with larger impacts falling in a smaller area meaning you are significantly more likely to hit targets within the area multiple times over the storm’s duration than before:
    • Now has 2 to 4 base Cold Damage per 10 Intelligence (from 1 to 3).
    • Now has a base Duration of 1 second (from 1.5 seconds).
    • Now gains 0.1 seconds of additional base duration per 100 intelligence (from 0.15 seconds).
    • There is now 1 impact every 0.2 seconds (from every 0.1 seconds)
    • Now has an Added Damage effectiveness of 60% (from 45%).
    • Now has a maximum of 5 storms at a time (any more than that replace the oldest).
    • Impacts now have a base radius of 16 units (from 10).
    • Impacts can now land in an area with a base radius of 22 (from 25).
• Monster Changes
  • Raised Spectre versions of Redemption Sentries and Redemption Knights now have approximately 33% less Life and Damage than before.
  • Bosses throughout Path of Exile and monsters deep in the Azurite Mine no longer reduce the effect of Marks on them.
  • Hexproof monsters can now be cursed, but will ignore the effect of any Hexes applied to them (previously curses could not be applied). Hexproof in no way mitigates the effects of a Mark.
  • Monsters which previously used curses have had their behaviours updated in line with the new curse behaviour.
  • Monster packs in The Caverns and The Ancient Pyramid now spawn with the appropriate Necromancer (no more Ash Prophets with lightning skeletons).
  • Monsters now use their own version of the new (as of 3.11.0) Enduring Cry.
  • Dreadwheel monsters (as found in The Climb) no longer have Quick and Fast Attacks as implicit modifiers, and have had the effects of those modifiers moved into their base properties. As a result, external modifiers to their movement and attack speed (such as those from Maps) will have a greater effect.
  • Cannibals no longer have an extended wind-up before they throw their stones.
• Atlas and Map Changes
  • Map tiers and locations have been shuffled (though the ‘pin’ locations for maps has not changed). Most maps are now initially found at a different tier. Unique maps have not moved or changed tiers.
  • Improved signalling for advancing the Atlas questline step in which Zana opens a portal after the map boss is slain.
  • Penitentiary Incarcerator (boss of the Dungeon Map) will no longer spawn infinite Skeletons if he’s allowed to live indefinitely.
  • Ancient Architect (boss of the Pier Map) will no longer summon spiked ground on top of other spiked ground.
• Zana League Mods Available During 3.12.0
  • Fortune Favours the Brave (costs 3 Chaos Orbs): One of these options will be applied at random, including those you have not yet unlocked.
  • Abyss (costs 2 Chaos Orbs): Area contains an additional Abyss.
  • Domination (costs 2 Chaos Orbs): Area contains 2 extra Shrines.
  • Bloodlines (costs 3 Chaos Orbs): Magic Monster Packs each have a Bloodline mod. Area contains 3 additional Magic Monster Packs.
  • Nemesis (costs 4 Chaos Orbs): Rare monsters each have a Nemesis Mod. Area contains 5 additional packs with a Rare monster.
  • Beyond (Costs 5 Chaos Orbs): Slaying enemies close together has a chance to attract monsters from Beyond.
  • Blight (Costs 8 Chaos Orbs): Area contains an additional Blight encounter.
  • Delirium (Costs 16 Chaos Orbs): Area contains a mirror of Delirium.
• Blight Balance Changes
  • Blight Towers have been rebalanced to try to provide a better diversity of strategies for handling Blighted maps.
  • Arc Towers now cast 74% faster.
  • Shock Nova towers now cast 50% faster.
  • Chilling Towers now have 50% more Chill effect, and have a cooldown of 4 seconds (from 7).
  • Seismic Towers now 50% more skill effect duration and have a cooldown of 4 seconds (from 7).
  • Minion Towers now wait 3 seconds before resummoning their dead minions (from 8).
  • Freezebolt Towers now cast twice as fast and have half their previous cooldown. They now fire an additional projectile.
  • Stone Gaze Towers now reduce action speed by 20% (from 15%) and have a slightly reduced cooldown.
  • Scouts from Scout Towers now have 38% more Attack Speed and deal 50% more damage.
• Incursion Changes
  • The Hall of Mettle, Hall of Heroes, and Hall of Legends are now only available in Incursion Temples whose temporal exploration began in level 68 and above areas.
• Delve Changes
  • The Buried Monolith encounter (Legion) is now restricted to areas of level 68 and above.
• User Interface Improvements
  • The /autoreply command now persists across area transitions.
  • When you use an in-area transition (such as the entrance to a boss room), a very short cooldown is now applied to the transition at the destination, to prevent accidentally bouncing back with some overzealous clicking.
• Quest Rewards
  • Splitting Steel is now offered to the Duelist and Scion for completing Enemy at the Gate, and can be purchased from Nessa by the Ranger.
  • Flame Wall is now offered to the Witch and Templar for completing Breaking Some Eggs, and can be purchased from Nessa by the Shadow and Scion.
  • Vitality is now offered to the Marauder, Templar and Duelist for completing The Caged Brute, and can be purchased from Nessa by all characters.
  • Precision can be purchased from Nessa by all characters after completing The Caged Brute.
  • Clarity can now be purchased from Nessa by all characters who have completed The Caged Brute.
  • Blazing Salvo is now offered to the Witch and Templar for completing The Siren’s Cadence, and can be purchased from Nessa by the Shadow and Scion.
  • Shattering Steel is now offered to the Duelist for completing The Siren’s Cadence and can be purchased from Nessa by the Ranger and Scion.
  • Elemental Weakness, Flammability, Frostbite and Conductivity are now offered to the Witch, Shadow, Templar and Scion for completing Lost in Love. The Marauder can now purchase Flammability, and the Ranger can now purchase Frostbite, from Clarissa after completing Lost in Love.
  • Vulnerability is now offered to the Marauder, Templar and Scion for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Duelist.
  • Despair is now offered to the Witch, Shadow and Ranger for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Scion.
  • Temporal Chains is now offered Witch, Shadow and Scion for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Ranger.
  • Punishment is now offered to the Templar, Marauder and Scion for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Duelist.
  • Enfeeble is now offered to the Witch, Shadow and Templar for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Scion.
  • Sniper’s Mark and Poacher’s Mark are now offered to the Ranger and Duelist for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Shadow and Scion.
  • Warlord’s Mark is now offered to the Duelist and Marauder for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Ranger and Scion.
  • Assassin’s Mark is now offered to the Shadow and Ranger for completing Lost in Love, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Duelist and Scion.
  • Lancing Steel is now offered to the Duelist for completing Sever the Right Hand, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Ranger and Scion.
  • Firestorm is now offered to the Witch and Templar for completing Sever the Right Hand, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Shadow and Scion.
  • Glacial Cascade is now offered to the Witch for completing Sever the Right Hand, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Templar, Shadow and Scion.
  • Crackling Lance is now offered to the Witch for completing Sever the Right Hand, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Templar, Shadow and Scion.
  • Hexblast is now offered to the Witch, Shadow and Scion for completing Sever the Right Hand, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Templar.
  • Impending Doom Support is now offered to the Witch, Shadow and Scion for completing A Fixture of Fate, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Templar.
  • Pinpoint Support is now offered to the Witch and Shadow for completing A Fixture of Fate, and can be purchased from Clarissa by the Templar and Scion.
  • Void Sphere is now offered to the Witch, Templar, Shadow and Scion for completing Breaking the Seal.
  • Frost Shield is now offered to the Witch, Templar, Shadow and Scion for completing Breaking the Seal.
  • Sigil of Power is now offered to the Witch, Templar and Shadow for completing Breaking the Seal, and can be purchased from Petarus and Vanja by the Scion.
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a bug where Fairgraves, Never Dying took his epithet way too literally and would become unable to be killed.
  • Fixed a bug where Bladefall could sometimes hit enemies on the other side of walls.
  • Fixed a bug where the fire effect while Ashcaller was equipped came from your hand, rather than the wand.
  • Fixed a bug where the nice Grotto Map loop could be severed by a Vaal Side Area.
  • Fixed a bug where modifiers that applied the Temporal Chains Curse without using the Temporal Chains skill to do so did not apply the 50% less effect on players modifier which the skill has.
  • Fixed a bug where two hideout decorations were assigned to be sold by Helena, who doesn’t sell hideout decorations. Flagstone Ground and Forest Encampment Ground can now both be purchased from Alva.
  • Fixed a crash where, by adding an item to an Animated Guardian already wearing Fleshcrafter, you would instantly kill the guardian (and instance).
  • Fixed a bug where Onslaught granted by Omeyocan didn’t correctly interact with the boots enchantment which grants accuracy while you have Onslaught.
  • Fixed a few Vaal side areas which had monsters too close to the entrance.
  • Fixed a bug where some Crossroads locations only partially faded out as they obscured the camera.
  • Fixed a bug where Poet’s Pen would trigger skills from a Shield Charge.
  • Fixed a bug where you couldn’t accept or decline a friend request from an account with the same name as the character you were on.
  • Fixed a few bugs where, when given certain items, your Animated Guardian might get a bit… fleshy.
  • Fixed a bug where Liantra, the boss of the Tower Map, would lose her textures when affected by Drox’s influence.
  • Fixed a bug where modifiers to Impale Effect would apply to existing Impales.
  • Fixed a bug where some projectile-creating melee attacks (and Static Strike) were not affected by some Exerted Attack effects.
  • Fixed a bug where the dropping rock visuals during the Vaal Oversoul encounter were not removed when the Vaal Oversoul was slain.
  • Fixed a bug where the ghostly visions in the Cavern of Anger did not correctly fade out.
  • Fixed a bug where Harvest-era versions of Edge of Madness didn’t have the ‘increased Chaos Damage per Level’ modifier. They still won’t have it, but new ones should!
  • Fixed a bug where the Temple of Atzoatl’s map rooms could give Sextants of tiers higher than the Temple’s area level should allow.
  • Fixed a bug where you could ‘share’ spectre types with other players in Solo Self-Found leagues via PvP arenas
  • Fixed a bug where Frost Blades’ melee weapon range would not correctly update if you were dual-wielding one-handed swords.
  • Fixed a bug where Increased Area of Effect Support and the awakened version didn’t affect Plague Bearer’s area of effect.
  • Fixed a bug where old items with Chance to Bleed set to 0 would suddenly say “Attacks Cause Bleeding” when advanced mod descriptions were displayed.
  • Fixed a bug where Emperor’s Vigilance took precedence over Divine Flesh, allowing some damage to be taken by your Energy Shield when it should have all bypassed it.
  • Fixed a bug which could allow the Arcade Map to generate with an inaccessible, but tantalisingly monster-filled, area.
  • Fixed a bug where the Mineral Pools map could place strongboxes in inaccessible locations (sorry, person who had a unique strongbox!)
  • Fixed a bug where the Mineral Pools boss room could be unreachable without certain travel skills on some layouts.
  • Fixed a bug where Envy could be active alongside another aura while you had Mortal Conviction.
  • Fixed a bug where Brutus could use his hook skill when you were within arm’s reach.
  • Fixed a bug where the Pride aura didn’t respect Line of Sight rules.
  • Fixed a bug where killing a Shield Crab who was holding an Essence with Infernal Cry would prevent it from dropping the Essence.
  • Fixed a bug where Arcanist Brand would incorrectly check the player’s line of sight to use Firestorm, and then target the player’s location if it didn’t have line of sight.
  • Fixed a bug where some corpse-using skills prioritised trying to use unusuable corpses over usable corpses.
  • Fixed a bug where some characters (such as Gravicius) were using positional audio at such a height as to be unhearable.
  • Fixed a bug where you could get stuck in Stygian Spire Abyssal Depths encounters.
  • Fixed a bug where a wall in the Port tileset didn’t correctly block projectiles.
  • Fixed a bunch of rare crashes.
• Updates
  • Cameria’s Avarice was erroneously noted as triggering its icicle skill on hit in 3.12.0, but this change is not yet ready, and will be included in a future patch.