Path of Exile 3.17 will be the next big expansion to the game, coming later this year. Developer Grinding Gear Games has announced a few details about the coming expansion. We now know what it’s called, and that’s Siege of the Atlas. The new announcement revealed that the new expansion will follow the trend of a bigger release, which GGG is known to do. Normally, they’re releasing new content every three months, with most of the expansions being smaller patches that introduce a new league mechanic and fix previous issues.
Path of Exile 3.17 will be more along the lines of 3.13 and the Echoes of the Atlas storyline. The new story will likely follow in the aftershocks of those new Elder discoveries, and the Watcher system. We don’t know much more beyond that, other than that the gameplay loop is getting refined, to focus less on grinding in response to player complaints.
Then, in a Twitter announcement, Grinding Gear Games revealed the League’s new release date: February 4 at 11 AM PT. The trend from the last few expansions of getting a live stream announcement will continue. GGG will share more details as we get close to the launch next month. The stream will be on the Path of Exile Twitch channel, and is scheduled for January 27 at 11 AM PT.
GGG recently announced the removal of the Prophecy system in 3.17, leading fans to wonder what else will change. A previous tease in the fallout from the launch of POE 3.15 revealed a major endgame rework was incoming. Players had been complaining about the RNG-gating and grinding at endgame for some time. And in the massive backlash that followed that nerf-heavy league, Grinding Gear Games pushed to get more news out to soften the blow.
