Path of Exile: Ultimatum Patch Notes

The Ultimatum challenge league expansion for Path of Exile will be live soon. And as such, now’s the time to familiarize ourselves with the actual patch notes for this new league. And beyond just the full patch notes, you might also want to check out the new and updated skill gems, as well as the newly rebalanced Essences.

Here are the major additions to get you started:

The Ultimatum 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 Ultimatum Challenge League, you’ll test your skills in the trials of Chaos. In every area, you’ll encounter The Trialmaster who will present you with a reward, objective and choice of three modifiers that add extra challenge to the encounter.
• If you’re successful, you must then choose between accepting the reward you’ve earned or attempting additional trials with increased difficulty in the hopes of earning additional rewards. Choose wisely, because if you fail, you’ll lose all the rewards you’ve earned so far. Each encounter with the Trialmaster provides a series of trials with increasing difficulty.
• In maps, you’ll occasionally find Inscribed Ultimatums which can be placed in the map device to transport you to the Trialmaster’s domain. Each Inscribed Ultimatum specifies an offering that you must bring with you, a reward you can earn and an assortment of Ultimatum difficulty modifiers. If you’re able to complete the Trial, you’ll earn the specified reward. However, if you fail, you’ll forfeit the offering you brought with you.
• With 3.14.0, there are Standard, Hardcore and Solo Self-Found variations of the Ultimatum 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 Ultimatum Helmet. When you reach 24 challenges, you will receive the Ultimatum Pet. At 36 challenges completed you’ll receive the Ultimatum 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 Ultimatum Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Ultimatum challenges you completed during the league.

Major New Content and Features

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem – Reap: A bloody scythe swipes across a selected area, applying a physical damage over time debuff in addition to hitting enemies with physical damage. If enemies survive, you gain a blood charge, which raises both the damage and cost of the skill.
• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem – Exsanguinate: Release several tendrils of blood, targeting enemies in a narrow angle in front of you. The beams deal physical damage and inflict a physical damage over time debuff to enemies, which can stack up to 3 times. Effects which allow skills to chain can be applied to these tendrils.
• Added a new Strength Skill Gem – Petrified Blood: Apply a buff that protects the lower half of your life, preventing some of the immediate life loss when damaged by hits and applying the loss over time instead. Your life cannot be raised above low life other than by flasks, and while above low life, skills will cost life as well as mana.
• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem – Corrupting Fever: Draw out your own blood to power a buff for a duration, letting this skill inflict the Corrupting Blood debuff on enemies you hit, dealing physical damage over time for a short secondary duration. The buff’s duration will be refreshed if you spend enough life before it expires.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem – Bloodthirst: Supports attack skills, causing them to deal added physical damage with weapons equal to 2% of your maximum life while on low life.
• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem – Cruelty: Supports skills that hit enemies, causing them to deal more damage with hits. You also gain a Cruelty buff, which makes all supported skills deal up to 50% more damage over time, based on the amount of damage of the initial hit.
• Blood Magic Support has been removed. Two new Support gems have been added in its place.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem – Arrogance: Supports any skill with a reservation. Skills reserve life instead of mana and have increased aura effect. The reservation multiplier decreases as the gem level increases. Any existing Blood Magic Support Gems will be converted to Arrogance Support Gems.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem – Lifetap: Supports any skill. Skills cost life instead of mana. If you’ve spent a certain amount of life, you will gain a Lifetap buff which causes supported skills to deal more damage.
• Added 13 new Unique Items.
• Added 14 new Divination Cards, designed by our supporters.
• Added Ritual to the core game, rebalanced around the lower rate of encountering Ritual gameplay. Please read the Ritual Changes section for more information.
• Introduced the Vaal Reliquary Key, which can be found as an extremely rare drop throughout the game. When consumed in the Map Device, it grants you access to an ancient vault with a chest that drops a special foil version of a Vaal-themed unique item. Uniques dropped in this way have equal weighting. This is the rarest Reliquary Key yet.
• Introduced the Veiled Chaos Orb, a currency item that reforges rare items in a similar way to a regular Chaos Orb, but guarantees the result will have a random veiled modifier. This item can be obtained from Betrayal encounters or found as a rare drop throughout the game.
• Added six new Vendor recipes.
• Added five new equipment base types, available in the Atlas.