Grinding Gear Games just revealed details of its upcoming Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur league launching with the 3.25 update, and I have to admit: this looks like the biggest league yet for the popular ARPG. Most league reveals run about 15-20 minutes, but with all the content and changes coming in the Settlers of Kalguur league, the reveals went on for over 40 minutes. Let’s take a look at everything coming in PoE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur.
Welcome to Kingsmarch
As the name Settlers of Kalguur implies, players will head to a new region of the world called Kalguur, tasked with building a settlement named Kingsmarch to trade with all of Wraeclast. This new league mechanic allows players to come across minerals and resource nodes in their maps. Upon clearing out the enemies near these nodes, you can then tag the deposit to be mined and brought back to your new settlement. With these new resources, players can build new buildings at their settlement as well as hire new workers for various jobs around town. Eventually, you can even build a harbour and establish shipping routes between other settlements that will offload your created resources in exchange for hefty rewards including currencies, gear, and more.
Oh, and that’s not all when it comes to the league mechanic. You can also build Kalgurran-specific Map Devices and then hire Adventurer NPCs to run these maps for you, bringing back map rewards without the need to run them yourselves. It’s essentially an added idle mechanic that can progress your settlement and your character while you are away from the game or even playing and doing something else like running your own maps. The best part is, all progress happens whether you are online or not, so you don’t have to be actively playing for your workers to do their thing.
New Market and GOLD!
A persistent complaint from veterans and newcomers to Path of Exile alike is frustration with the existing trade system. You have to use a third-party website—some players even use an extension/plugin—to engage with trade with other players that consists of messaging them, hoping for a response, then visiting their hideout to trade. Unfortunately, these days the trade sites are plagued with fake listings, bots, and other nefarious tactics that has really made the process taxing.
Coming in Settlers of Kalguur, Path of Exile will now have a Currency Trade Market. Players can now asyncrously buy and sell currency and most other stackable items with players without having to engage with the third-party trade mechanics. Similar to an Auction House in MMORPGs, you can simply put in what you’re looking to buy, and what you’re offering to sell in exchange, and you’ll be presented with orders or can even list your own. Even though you’ll still have to manually trade things like gear, maps, and anything that has a Level tied to it, this streamlines a major part of the trading system in the ARPG.
Furthermore, a new currency called Gold will drop as you progress throughout PoE. Gold is used to recruit workers, build buildings, and more in the new league mechanic, but you can also use it for other core game mechanics such as gambling, respeccing, and buying certain items. It’s a great quality of life change that should really change up the course of Path of Exile moving forward.
Ascendancy Changes, Massive Balance update, and Endgame Improvements
I honestly felt like all the league mechanics in Settlers of Kalguur, the new Market system, and the introduction of Gold was enough to make Path of Exile 3.25 one of the biggest updates yet. But Grinding Gear Games isn’t stopping there. One of the weaker Ascendancy classes, Gladiator, has received a long-awaited rework. New passive skills allow you to invest in Bleeds and Blocks as a Gladiator, while also introducing new Retaliation kills that allow you to unleash damage on your opponents as you reach certain conditions.
One of the more odd Ascendancy classes, Raider, has been removed and replaced by a new Ascendancy: Warden. This is mostly a revamped Ascendancy from its existing Affliction league format, focusing on Elemental Attacks while gaining Barkskin for damage mitigation and the ability to specialize in tinctures, an upgraded form of Flasks.
A slew of quality-of-life enhancements have been made as well, allowing Aura and Herald skills to persist through death, waypoints activating as you come near them as oppose to having to click them, and pickup range increased. Magic Melee has received pretty hefty changes—mostly buffs—across the board to make them more in-tune with ranged builds.
For endgame, a 6th Map Device Slot has been added, and Tier 16 and 17 maps have new encounters with the latter now being able to be affected by map currency items like Chisels and Scarabs. Popular mechanics Blight and Ritual have had some reworks making them a bit more rewarding compared to other counterparts like Heist and Expedition.
This is certainly one of the biggest Path of Exile updates yet, and feels like a massive undertaking to synergize into the upcoming Path of Exile 2 beta.
Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur goes live on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation on July 26, 2024.