The Sentinel 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 Sentinel Challenge League, ancient constructs have been unearthed across Wraeclast. You will harness the power of these Sentinels to control your level of risk and reward on the battlefield. When deployed, they follow you for a short time and empower your enemies, greatly increasing both their difficulty and reward.
• There are three classes of Sentinels. Stalker Sentinels empower a moderate number of enemies in sequence as you encounter them. Pandemonium Sentinels empower a wide swath of monsters at once in a quick burst. Apex Sentinels only empower rare or unique enemies but have a very strong effect.
• The Sentinel Controller can be used to customise the behaviour of your Sentinels. Filaments may be arranged on the controller to channel power to its nodes, each of which affect your Sentinels in different ways. These filaments may be moved around as often as you like in order to experiment with your ultimate Sentinel playstyle.
• When your Sentinels run out of charge, they can be combined together with a Power Core to assemble a new, fully-charged Sentinel that inherits properties from both of the husks you disassembled. This hybrid Sentinel may also gain special properties such as an exclusive variant base type or modifiers that can only come from the assembly process.
• You may uncover or assemble Unique Sentinels which behave in very specialised and powerful ways.
• Recombinators are a rare form of currency that allow you to apply the Sentinel Assembly process to your actual items. Take any two pieces of equipment from the same item class and combine them together. The results are unpredictable but can merge the best elements of each item to create something of unprecedented power.
• With 3.18.0, there are Standard, Hardcore and Solo Self-Found variations of the Sentinel 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 league includes a set of 40 new challenges. These are much harder than normal, so we have significantly increased the rewards. Pieces of the Ophidian Armour Set are received when you complete 6, 12, 16 and 20 challenges. Upon completing 24 challenges you will receive the Ophidian Wings. Pieces of the Ophidian Lord Armour Set are received as microtransaction rewards when you complete 28, 31, 34 and 36 challenges, and completing 38 challenges will award you with the Ophidian Lord Wings. These challenge rewards are only obtainable in this league.
• From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Sentinel Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Sentinel challenges you completed during the league.

Major New Content and Features

• Introduced the Power Core, a currency item that destroys two Sentinels to create a fully-charged Sentinel with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably.
• Introduced the Transforming Power Core, a currency item that destroys two Sentinels to create a fully-charged Sentinel with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably, with a higher chance of a special base type.
• Introduced the Amplifying Power Core, a currency item that destroys two Sentinels to create a fully-charged Sentinel with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably, with a higher chance of upgrading the tier of modifiers.
• Introduced the Augmenting Power Core, a currency item that destroys two Sentinels to create a fully-charged Sentinel with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably, with a higher chance of new random modifiers.
• Introduced the Weapon Recombinator, a currency item that destroys two Weapons or Quivers to create a new Weapon or Quiver with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably.
• Introduced the Armour Recombinator, a currency item that destroys two Armours to create a new Amour with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably.
• Introduced the Jewellery Recombinator, a currency item that destroys two Jewellery items to create a new Jewellery item with a combination of their properties. Sometimes, the resultant item is modified unpredictably.
• Added 20 new Atlas Keystone Passive Skills to the Atlas Tree.
• Added 3 new Awakened Support Gems: Awakened Empower, Awakened Enhance and Awakened Enlighten.
• Added 6 new Unique Items, as well as new variations of 4 existing Unique Items. 5 of these new Unique Items were designed by winners of the Siege of the Atlas Boss Kill Event.
• Added 12 new Divination Cards, designed by our supporters.

Minor New Content and Features

• Added an audio cue for attempting to drink a Flask that does not have enough Charges.
• Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

Archnemesis Changes

• Archnemesis modifiers have been rebalanced and added to the core game. Existing Magic and Rare monster modifiers have been replaced with Archnemesis modifiers.
• Rare monsters will be found with two Archnemesis modifiers by default. From Act 6 onwards, there is a chance to find monsters with three modifiers, and in Maps, a chance for finding monsters with four modifiers.
• Magic monsters will be found with one Archnemesis modifier by default.
• The life, experience, increased item quantity and rarity of Magic and Rare monsters are no longer primarily determined by the monster’s rarity, these are now primarily determined by the type of modifiers on the monster itself. A monster with more, or rarer, modifiers will have more life, increased item quantity and rarity, and grant more experience.
• Archnemesis modifiers are able to be gained by characters through sources such as Headhunter and Inspired Learning, though you are only able to have one instance of each modifier at any given time.

Bloodlines and Nemesis Removal

• Bloodlines and Nemesis have been removed from the core game. Some of their modifiers have been incorporated into the new monster modifier system:
• The Snow Bolt and Inferno Bolt Nemesis modifiers have been incorporated into the Frost Strider and Flame Strider Archnemesis modifiers.
• The Storm Herald and Final Gasp Nemesis modifiers can now be found as Archnemesis modifiers on Rare Monsters.
• The Union of Souls, Voidspawn of Abaxoth, Spirit Walkers and Heralds of the Obelisk Bloodlines modifiers have been incorporated into the Archnemesis modifier system, and can be found on Magic monsters.

Atlas Passive Skill Tree Changes

• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Singular Focus, which grants “Maps found in your Maps have 200% more chance to be Favoured Maps” and “Non-Favoured Maps found in your Maps drop as Basic Currency Items instead”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Stream of Consciousness, which grants “Your Maps cannot be modified by Fragments” and “Your Maps have 50% more Base chance to contain Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Wellspring of Creation, which grants “Monsters in your Maps deal 25% less Damage” and “Monsters in your Maps have 50% more Life”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Dance of Destruction, which grants “Monsters in your Maps deal 25% more Damage” and “Monsters in your Maps have 25% less Life”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Twist of Fate, which grants “Your Corrupted Rare Maps and any Atlas missions, Map Crafting options and Scarabs applying to them are modified unpredictably when opened”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Wandering Path, which grants “Notable Atlas Passive Skills grant nothing” and “100% increased effect of Small Atlas Passive Skills”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Grand Design, which grants “Small Atlas Passive Skills grant nothing” and “Your Maps have 1% increased Pack Size per Allocated Notable Atlas Passive Skill”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Insatiable Appetite, which grants “The Absence of Symmetry and Harmony is level 85”, “The Eater of Worlds’ full power is unleashed in The Absence of Symmetry and Harmony” and “The Eater of Worlds has a 25% chance to drop an additional Exceptional Eldritch Ichor”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Thirst for Knowledge, which grants “The Absence of Patience and Wisdom is level 85”, “The Searing Exarch’s full power is unleashed in The Absence of Patience and Wisdom” and “Eldritch Currency Items dropped by The Searing Exarch have 50% chance to be Duplicated”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Throw the Gauntlet, which grants “The Absence of Mercy and Empathy is level 85”, “The Maven’s full power is unleashed in The Absence of Mercy and Empathy” and “The Maven drops an Elevated Sextant”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, Memento Mori, which grants “The Cortex is level 85”, “Venarius’ full power is unleashed in the Cortex” and “Venarius drops 3 additional Rare Items with 3 less common Synthesised Implicit Modifiers”.
• Added a new Atlas Keystone Passive Skill, The Perfect Storm, which grants “The Eye of the Storm is level 85”, “Sirus’ full power is unleashed in The Eye of the Storm” and “Sirus has 20% chance to drop an Awakened Support Gem”.
• The remaining 7 new Atlas Keystone Passive Skills will be revealed in upcoming news posts.
• The Conquered Conquerors Atlas Passive Skill no longer grants “Sirus has 10% chance to drop an Awakened Support Gem”. It now grants “Conquerors have 30% increased chance to drop a Conqueror’s Exalted Orb” (previously 25%), and Map Bosses have 30% increased chance to drop a Conqueror Map” (previously 25%).
• Guardian’s Aid is now a Keystone called Inevitable Ambush and no longer grants “Map Bosses have 1% chance to drop a Shaper Guardian Map (Tier 14+)”.
• Gaze into the Abyss no longer grants “Map Bosses have 1% chance to drop an Elder Guardian Map (Tier 14+)”, and has been moved to the bottom of the Shaper and Elder cluster on the Atlas Passive Tree.
• Remnants of the Past now grants “Map Bosses have 3% chance to drop an Elder Guardian Map (Tier 14+)” and “Map Bosses have 3% chance to drop a Shaper Guardian Map (Tier 14+)” (both previously 2% chance).
• Sources of “chance for an additional connected Map to drop from Map Bosses” on the Atlas Passive Tree have all been changed to “chance for one Monster in each of your Maps to drop an additional connected Map”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Black Thumb, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain the Sacred Grove” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Dimensional Barrier, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Breaches” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Ethics Review, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Metamorph Encounters” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Fungal Remission, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Blight Encounters” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Loved by the Sun, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Abysses” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Ominous Silence, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Mirrors of Delirium” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Sealed Domain, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Legion Encounters” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Secular Focus, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Ritual Altars” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Straight and Narrow, which grants “Rogue’s Markers, Contracts and Blueprints cannot be found in Your Maps”, “Your Maps have no chance to contain Smuggler’s Caches” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• Added a new Atlas Notable Passive Skill, Trade Embargo, which grants “Your Maps have no chance to contain Expedition Encounters” and “Your Maps have +2% chance to contain other Extra Content”.
• The Light of Dawn no longer grants “Eldritch Embers found have 10% chance to be Duplicated for each Searing Exarch Altar used in the Area” or “Players take 10% increased Damage for each Searing Exarch Altar used in the Area”. It now grants “50% chance to spawn a Searing Exarch Altar when the Influence of The Searing Exarch first appears in your Maps” (previously +20% chance).
• Small Atlas Passive Skills that granted “Influenced Monster Packs in Areas have increased Pack Size” are now found as either “Monster Packs Influenced by The Eater of Worlds in your Maps have increased Pack Size” or “Monster Packs Influenced by The Searing Exarch in your Maps have increased Pack Size”.
• The Shadow of Hunger now grants 30% increased chance to find Eater of Worlds Altars in your Maps (previously 50%).
• Updated various Atlas Passive Skill and Sextant Modifier descriptions to clarify they specifically apply to your Maps.

Endgame Content Changes

• Added 7 new uber versions of Pinnacle Boss fights, accessible through Atlas Keystone Passives. These fights are extremely difficult, so only attempt them if you have a very powerful character.
• Increased the damage of The Eater of Worlds’ Skills and melee Attacks. Their Doom Laser Skill now applies an Inescapable Doom debuff which causes characters to take increased damage.
• Increased the damage dealt by The Searing Exarch’s Flame Wall Skill and their melee Attack. The Searing Exarch’s rolling meteors are now considered larger for the purposes of collision detection against enemies (that means you, Exile).
• Increased the damage of The Black Star’s Fire Beam Skill. The Annihilating Light and Crushing Darkness debuffs now cause affected players to take more or less Fire or Cold damage from hits only (previously all Fire and Cold damage).
• Increased the damage of The Infinite Hunger’s melee Attacks. Grotesque Monsters found in the Seething Chyme have had their damage reduced.
• The chance for The Eater of Worlds and The Searing Exarch to drop the Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame Unique Items now scales with Map Item Quantity.
• The chance for The Black Star and The Infinite Hunger to drop their Unique Items now scales with Map Item Quantity.
• Eldritch Altars have been rebalanced, their downsides now feel more impactful and they now provide a wider diversity of rewards.
• The Eldritch Altar option that causes Scarabs dropped by slain Enemies to have a chance to be Duplicated has been replaced with a new option that causes Divination Cards dropped by slain Enemies to have a chance to be Duplicated.
• The Eldritch Altar option that causes Eldritch Minions to drop Burning Ground on Death no longer scales off of the main hand attack damage of the Monster, as this could result in highly variable amounts of Damage over Time dealt by the ground effect. This change has been applied to all cases of this in the game, notably Burning Ground on Death from Flame Helions and Caustic Clouds on Death from certain Zombies.
• Maven’s Invitation: The Atlas Invitation now drops more commonly from Maps witnessed by the Maven, and less commonly from Maps not witnessed by The Maven.
• Kirac now offers Maven’s Invitation: The Atlas for the moderate price of 8 Chaos Orbs and 1 Orb of Chance in his shop if you have previously completed this encounter.
• The “Maven releases all Bosses at once” modifier can no longer roll on Maven’s Invitations.
• Shaper or Elder Influence can now be applied to Maps alongside Eater of Worlds or The Searing Exarch Influence, and Conqueror Influence.
• Shaper, Elder or Conqueror Influence and Influenced Items will now be first encountered in Level 81 Areas.

Atlas and Map Changes

• Doryani’s Machinarium and The Vinktar Square have been removed from the Atlas of Worlds as they cannot be found as natural Map drops. As a result, the total number of Maps on the atlas is now 115.
• Atlas Passive Skill Points from completing Doryani’s Machinarium and The Vinktar Square have been moved to rewards for defeating The Infinite Hunger and The Black Star.
• Doryani’s Machinarium can no longer be offered as a White or Yellow Tier Map mission when rerolling Kirac’s missions with a Comprehensive Scouting Report.
• The chance for Map Areas to contain a Mirror of Delirium no longer increases by a small amount for each other league, atlas or master mechanic that appears in that area. Instead, Map Areas now have an 8% chance to contain a Mirror of Delirium, with campaign areas from the Torched Courts onwards having a slightly higher chance.
• Operative’s Strongboxes can no longer drop Polished Scarabs in White Maps, or Gilded and Winged Scarabs in White or Yellow Maps.
• Shaper Guardian and Vaal Temple Maps are now affected by Sextant Modifiers on socketed Voidstones.
• Scouting Reports can now be found in Shaper Guardian and Vaal Temple Maps.
• Crafted Harbinger Map modifiers no longer state that areas can contain Mysterious Harbingers, and the Infused Harbinger Map modifier now causes Areas to contain 5 additional Harbingers (previously 4).
• Kirac no longer offers a Mission to kill an Invasion Boss, and no longer sells Maps with Implicit Modifiers that cause the Area to be inhabited by additional Invasion Bosses.
• The following Maps have been added back to the Atlas: Alleyways, Arena, Barrows, Bog, Colonnade, Core, Crystal Ore, Desert, Factory, Foundry, Fungal Hollow, Lava Lake, Mud Geyser, Park, Pit, Ramparts, Reef, Residence, Sepulchre, Sunken City, Terrace, Tropical Island, Villa, and Wharf.
• The following Maps have been removed from the Atlas: Ancient City, Arachnid Nest, Belfry, Channel, Colosseum, Conservatory, Coves, Defiled Cathedral, Dig, Estuary, Flooded Mine, Forbidden Woods, Forking River, Ghetto, Graveyard, Haunted Mansion, Iceberg, Malformation, Phantasmagoria, Shipyard, Shrine, Silo, Stagnation, and Vault.
• 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.
• The following Maps can now be found as Blighted Maps: Acid Caverns, Bone Crypt, Caldera, Cells, Cursed Crypt, Dungeon, Gardens, Glacier, Laboratory, Lair, Lookout, Mausoleum, Museum, Necropolis, Overgrown Shrine, Tower, Toxic Sewer, Underground River and Waste Pool.
• Some of the Map Bosses you are required to defeat to upgrade your Pantheon have changed as a result of these Atlas changes.
• Crafting Recipes that were previously unlocked in Maps that have been removed are now found within other Maps currently on the Atlas.
• Vaal Vessels found in the Vaal Temple Map no longer have bonus chances to drop Vaal Temple Maps.
• Some Divination Cards have found new homes as a result of these Atlas Changes:
• The Price of Protection can now drop in Vaal Side Areas in Maps.
• Azyran’s Reward can now drop in the Laboratory Map.
• Humility can now drop in the Frozen Cabins Map.
• The Offspring can now drop in the Peninsula Map.
• Vinia’s Token can now drop in the Core Map.

Expedition Changes

• Expedition Remnants that provide a chance for Runic Monsters and Excavated chests to drop or contain an additional Influenced Item now have a chance of 20% (previously 35%) as they provided a higher number of Influenced Items relative to other sources.

Item Changes

• The following Unique Items will now be found with both Shaper- and Elder-Influence: Disintegrator, Indigon, Voidfletcher, Voidforge, The Eternity Shroud, and Replica Eternity Shroud. This change does not apply to existing versions of these Unique Items.
• The Astromancer and The Endless Darkness Divination Cards now have both Shaper and Elder backgrounds.
• The Draped in Dreams Divination Card now awards an Influenced Six-Link Astral Plate of Normal Rarity and an Item Level of 100.
• The Price of Protection Divination Card now awards a Corrupted Elder Guardian Occupied Map with a Map Tier of 14-16 and 8 modifiers.
• The Monochrome Divination Card can once again be obtained, and now awards two Elevated Sextants.
• The Tumbleweed Divination Card now awards a Redeemer-Influenced Diamond Ring of Redemption with an Item Level of 100.
• The Side Quest Divination Card can once again be obtained, and now awards 20 Scouting Reports.
• The Hook Divination Card can once again be obtained, and now awards a Corrupted 23% Alternate Quality Level 21 Gem.
• The Sambodhi’s Wisdom Divination Card can once again be obtained, and now awards a 30% Quality Unique Armour.
• Updated the description of The Messenger Divination Card to clarify it awards a Harbinger Piece, rather than a Harbinger Fragment.
• Updated the art of the “Silence and Frost” Divination Card.
• Updated the reminder text on the Orb of Conflict to clarify it can only be used on non-Unique Items.

Monster Balance Changes

• Grasping Vines applied by the Bramble Valley Map Boss no longer take longer to break than other sources of Grasping Vines, and no longer disable Movement Skills.
• Reduced the base Movement Speed reduction from almost all sources of the Grasping Vines debuff.

• Added options to the hideout decorations user interface that control who is able to access your hideout Portals: All party members, friends, friends or guildmates, or only you.
• When selecting a Map for a Favoured Map Slot, you are now able to click on one of your existing Favoured Map Slots to select that same Map.
• The Vaal Temple Map and some Unique Maps not found on the Atlas now have their Map Stash Tab slots hidden by default until you store one of these Maps.
• If you don’t have Flask or Map Stash Tab Affinity, or tabs with those affinities are full, Unique Maps will now fall back on the Unique Stash Tab Affinity.
• If you don’t have Delirium or Blight Stash Tab Affinity, or tabs with those affinities are full, Delirious Maps and Blighted Maps will instead fall back on the Map Affinity.
• The Unique Stash Tab search filter can now be used to search the modifiers on stored Unique Items.
• Renamed the “Influence” section of the Currency Stash Tab to “Exotic”.
• Tweaked the display of various currency items in the Default Loot Filter.
• More user interface changes and quality-of-life improvements will be revealed in upcoming news posts.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where The Infinite Hunger’s Vomit skill was not applying Poison correctly.
• Fixed a bug where the Gaze into the Abyss Atlas Passive was not applying in The Shaper’s Realm.
• Fixed a bug where Eldritch Altars that caused Map Bosses to drop additional Eldritch Currency would drop the incorrect Currency type in Yellow Tier Maps.
• Fixed a bug where an Orb of Conflict could not be used on Items with Searing Exarch or Eater of Worlds Implicit modifiers if they also had the “Item sells for much more to vendors” Implicit modifier.
• Fixed an issue where Operative’s Strongboxes with the “contains additional Map Currency Items” modifier were dropping more Map Currency Items than intended.
• Fixed a bug where allocating the Votive Hoard Atlas Passive Skill would cause Abyssal Troves in Areas to always drop a Rare Item with an Abyssal Socket.
• Fixed an issue where The Enslaver’s projectiles from their slam attack could stack up in a single spot.
• Fixed a bug where Molten Minotaurs enraged swipe attack was dealing the incorrect amount of damage.
• Fixed a bug where the “Unique Bosses are Possessed” Map modifier sometimes would not work correctly in Maps with multiple Map Bosses.
• Fixed a bug where the Iceberg Map could generate inside-out, resulting in bridges that lead to nowhere.
• Fixed a bug where the Map Device would deselect Map Crafting modifiers after opening a Map alongside a Fragment or Scarab.
• Fixed a bug where Rog’s crafting options that reroll prefixes or suffixes multiple times were not rolling each set of modifiers independently.
• Fixed a bug where the “You have Onslaught while not on Low Mana” modifier on the Omeyocan Unique Boots did not always work correctly if your Maximum Mana was 0.
• Fixed a bug where Hinder applied through the Aspect of the Spider Skill was not slowing Enemies.
• Fixed a bug where Maps obtained by turning in The Easy Stroll Divination Card did not have 20% Quality.
• Fixed a bug where The Surgeon Divination Card was incorrectly awarding a Flask with the “Medic’s” Prefix modifier when turned in.
• Fixed a bug where filtering for a Unique Map by name in the Map Stash Tab would also highlight the Conqueror and Guardian Maps section.
• Fixed a bug where Heist Monsters were missing their dialogue.
• Fixed a bug where Experimented Base Types did not have hit audio.
• Fixed an uncommon client crash.

3.18.0 Hotfix 1

• Fixed a visual bug where Stalker Sentinels were empowering monsters with blue effects rather than red.
• Fixed a visual bug where the Arcane Lightning Body Armour microtransaction looked like the wrong armour.

3.18.0 Hotfix 2

• Reduced the damage and life of rare and magic monsters. Click here for more information!

3.18.0 Hotfix 3

• Rare monsters now spawn with one fewer Archnemesis mod. Click here for more information

Source: Path of Exile forums