Path of Exile 1 News

Settlers of Kalguur League became core components in Path of Exile 3.26, which led to some changes in Kingsmarch. One change is that Runegrafting replaces the rune runesmithing service in the previous league.

This new passive tree mechanic helps you replace some talents with new talents, and the experience is similar to Karui Tattoos in Settlers League.

Based on the significant game performance of Runegraft, this guide will explain how Runegraft works and how to get it.

How Does It Work?

As mentioned above, Karui Tattoos in Settlers League, players who have played Settlers League should know that Karui Tattoos will change Attribute nodes. Besides being used to modify Passive Skill Tree nodes, Runegrafting can also get significant benefits.

Passive Skill Tree nodes in Path of Exile are so large that you can create a variety of different combinations, each using a variety of passive nodes. Passive nodes fall into several categories, but Keystone Passives usually stand out the most when defining builds. Mind Over Matter, Chaos Inoculation, Blood Magic, Iron Reflexes, and Avatar of Fire are most recommended Keystone Passives.

Mind Over Matter

It stacks mana Regen, which reduces damage, and is one of the most popular nodes. Adding an Eldritch Battery can make up for the disadvantage of Mind Over Matter, making mana maintenance more difficult, so you can better maintain life.

Chaos Inoculation

It stacks energy shield, eliminating all direct damage to health, and is one of the most annoying damage types in the game.

Blood Magic

It stacks life Regen, building up health stacks.

Iron Reflexes

It easily stacks armor, converting all dodge points into armor points, thereby reducing damage.

Avatar Of Fire

It helps you reduce damage, converting half of all damage types except Chaos into fire damage. It also makes all your attacks deal additional fire damage.

That’s it for Passive Skill Tree nodes modified by Runegrafting in Path of Exile. Besides modifying Passive Skill Tree nodes and affecting Mastery nodes, some Runegrafting will provide various alternative buffs in the upcoming update, while others will modify certain properties.

A full list of Runegrafting is available in Path of Exile 3.26 patch notes, with the developer only showing Runegraft of Time, Runegraft of the Bound, Runegraft of the River, Runegraft of the Fortress, Runegraft of Bellows, and Runegraft of the Jeweler.

• Runegraft of Time gives a skill a 20% chance of not consuming a cooldown when used, which reduces the time it takes to refresh a skill.
• Runegraft of the Bound reduces the bonus of equipped boots, but increases the bonus of equipped gloves.
• Runegraft of the River has a 1 in 5 chance of restoring the player to full health when health is low.
• Runegraft of the Fortress reduces stats by one-tenth, but greatly increases global defense.

If the player has not warcried recently, Runegraft of Bellows will double the speed of warcriing.

When equipped with a two-handed weapon, Runegraft of the Jeweler increases damage by one-tenth for each unconnected slot. If the damage is maxed out, this extra tenth of damage will greatly increase the player’s chance of winning with one hit.

As we can see, Runegraft is still somewhat limited. Each Runegraft is limited to one, which may prevent players from stacking multiple Runegrafting of River to create an invincible character.

How To Obtain?

This new item can be got by transporting crops and ores to Kalgul Import Store, and is part of Kalgul Settlers’ transportation mechanic. However, Runegrafting is random, so it is best for players to save more items and trade with other players to get the required items. Players can also quickly trade items with others, but you should farm Path Of Exile Currency first.

The above is how Runegraft works and how to obtain it. I hope it can provide some help for your Path of Exile 3.26 game journey.

With the upgrade of mercenaries in Path Of Exile 3.26, many players have discovered that these mercenaries are far more powerful than they imagined.

The Emergence Of Powerful Mercenaries

New mercenaries have appeared in Path Of Exile 3.26. Compared to the mercenaries in Diablo IV, the mercenaries in PoE 3.26 are essentially NPC allies of the player, using all the same gear and items as the player. Under certain conditions and at a sufficient level, they are more powerful than the player: they are the warriors who tirelessly fight on the front lines to obtain more POE Divine Orbs, and also fight for the final victory.

This particular situation was deeply experienced by PoE streamer Pohx Kappa at the beginning of the new league. Although he used an AOE-based strategy, aiming to rush through all enemies and leave their smoking corpses, his mercenaries defeated all the monsters he could encounter before he even touched the enemy.

Pohx said that he couldn't hit anything during the game. He watched his mercenaries tirelessly destroying enemies on the screen with energy arrows, and lamented that he couldn't even blow up monsters. He felt that when he played PoE, he was just walking a chess simulation, without the opportunity to defeat the enemy by himself. The player is like an NPC in the game, lacking many scenes of his own battle.

The developers may have made the mercenaries in the game too powerful. A very specific example is that a streamer was accidentally one-tapped by a mercenary in hardcore. Before accepting a duel, you can browse their equipment, but some skill combinations may have the effect of excessive damage.

The Benefits Of Having Powerful Mercenaries

But if you have powerful mercenaries, the benefit is that you can not only greatly increase your chances of survival in a duel, but also explore the map more fearlessly with their company, thereby obtaining more rewards and more powerful equipment. Most experienced PoE players will enrich their Divine Orb and Chaos Orb reserves to equip their mercenaries with some auxiliary items, such as a weapon that can prevent elemental ailments from affecting your allies.

How To Deal With This Unfair Situation?

However, since it is still the early stage of the league, many players have had such experiences. Maybe players will find more and more bad ways to match mercenaries in the future.

Pohx's bad experience obviously came from bringing mercenaries with him during the upgrade of a new character. As long as the player and his mercenary level do not exceed level 20, the player can always bring them with him. This is also why some players keep some mercenaries with them for quick upgrades later.

How the developers will balance the abilities of players and their mercenaries in the future is indeed a topic worth looking forward to. Of course, this ensures that they will not suddenly create new players to weaken them, so that you cannot randomly match with a stronger player than you, thus losing the challenge and fun of the game.

After all, no player wants a version where you are the auxiliary and your mercenary is the protagonist to complete all the tasks and battles.

To be honest, since the release of the sequel, POE 1 has been a little sluggish, and the suspension of updates for more than 10 months is unprecedented, because the developers have been busy with the development and release of PoE 2, which makes it difficult to continue the development of the original work, and the original planned update time has been postponed again and again.

These situations have caused complaints from old players. After all, the reason why PoE 2 has achieved such great success after its release is that the cornerstone lies in the good reputation accumulated by the original work over the years.

However, on the one hand, the number of online players of the sequel has been declining, and on the other hand, the old players are calling for PoE 3.26 more and more. Secrets of the Atlas expansion was finally officially released on June 13, and players flocked to it!

The Number Of Players Of POE 3.26 Exceeds The Sequel

So, will the restart after a long period of suspension of updates restore PoE 1 to its former peak? Facts and data tell us that of course it can!

In fact, within 24 hours of the 3.26 League Update for Path of Exile, the action-RPG had over 150,000 live players online on Steam! If you don’t have an idea of ​​that, you’ll see the difference in comparison, as Path of Exile 2 peaked at around 20,000 people a day after its initial release. Such incredible popularity tells everyone that the original has never been forgotten.

Currently, a week after its release, Path of Exile 1 still has 80,000-90,000 active players per day, and these numbers show how important Path of Exile 1 still is to players even with the sequel released and in ongoing development.

The original action-RPG, the spiritual successor to Diablo 2, has been around for over a decade since its initial release and continues to prove that it’s still a favorite among players, even compared to its sequel. What’s more, with major adjustments to the endgame and the addition of Mercenaries League, now is a great time to experience Path of Exile 1.

Why Was The 3.26 Update So Successful?

The highly anticipated 3.26 update brings a lot of exciting content to players, including a major endgame overhaul and a new Mercenaries of Trarthus league, which includes 40 core and 8 ruthless challenges, as well as several new unique items.

More importantly, this is another new Atlas expansion nearly 3 years after 3.17. I believe every old player knows that every Atlas expansion update in the past has reshaped our worldview and brought us an unprecedented gaming experience. This update is no exception. 3.26 now has a new POE currency mechanism, pinnacle boss, mapping and progress adjustments, which will help new players get started quickly.

In addition, this update also brings some skill balance adjustments and brings significant experience improvements. Pause system in the game is one of the important new features.

In the past, once a player joined the game, there was no way to stop the game midway unless it was completely shut down. This means that if you encounter any temporary situation that must be dealt with while playing the game, you can only choose to give up your life or lose your partner. To be honest, this greatly affects the gaming experience.

Now, though, players can pause the game by pressing Esc key on PC or opening the menu on consoles. The game can even be paused during an online session, as long as each player chooses to join.

So, perhaps because 3.26 is back after such a long time, and it carries so much anticipation, thousands of players continue to delve into PoE 1, or perhaps because it is the biggest update in recent years, in any case it clearly shows that despite PoE 2, the original is still a strong competitor in ARPG ranks.

What Can Developers Do To Improve PoE 1?

But, we all know that because of the release of Path of Exile 2 Early Access and the subsequent large amount of work required for the endgame, the developers had to reallocate PoE 1 resources to deal with all the problems and feedback that came up, which was the main reason that hindered the team from developing PoE 3.26.

The developers also said that they still have a lot to learn about running two games at the same studio. But to be honest, this is not something that can be solved overnight. Is it really possible to ensure that these two games can keep pace with each other, show completely different styles in the action RPG genre, and cater to different audiences just by temporarily forming a development team?

I highly doubt it. Therefore, in my opinion, if developers do not want to ruin both games, they must improve their workflow and manage their employees better. Transferring employees from one project to another simply does not work.

In addition, during the development of the sequel, it is crucial for developers to ensure that the original game continues to receive updates and improvements, especially in terms of performance and user experience. In particular, there have been frequent complaints from players that the animation effects of POE are flying around during combat, and even the basic buff and debuff icons cannot be seen clearly, which seriously affects the actual experience. 

Therefore, ensuring that user interface elements are always visible and easy to read, as well as related game interface optimization, is always the focus of developers.

In short, these issues need to be addressed if developers want to significantly improve the gaming experience of POE 1 players and ensure its longevity and higher playability.

In any case, although the release of the sequel has attracted the attention of some players, more old players still have expectations for the original game, and the 3.26 update is also telling everyone why POE 1 has been able to stand firm in ARPG ranks for decades through its own new features and new content that change the rules.

On June 5, 2025, the full content of Path of Exile 3.26 was revealed. This update is regarded as a milestone change for this classic ARPG.

The endgame gameplay has been reconstructed, and a new peak boss, new options and mercenaries have been introduced.

After almost a year of waiting, players have finally waited for the gorgeous return of POE 3.26, which not only responds to the attention of old players to the game, but also foreshadows a new beginning.

Endgame Remake

The focus of this time is on the endgame. Players will face the abnormal changes in Atlas. The distorted “memory clues” tear apart time and space, and the cartographer Zana is trapped.

The new character will help players go deep into these cracks and launch a series of coherent challenges. Each map is affected by the player’s Atlas tree, Scarabs, Fragments and other mechanisms.

These monsters are infused with memory petals, like the gommage vision in Clair Obscur Expedition 33.

Defeating these monsters allows you to absorb those petals, gaining temporary skills, and can further stack effects as the clues progress.

For example, Memory of Impatience can temporarily increase the character’s strength by absorbing the souls of nearby enemies.

Then use Memory of Panic and Memory of Disbelief. The former can revive monsters for a double harvest, while the latter can make the equipment dropped by monsters more valuable, such as POE Currency and maps.

At the end of the clue, players face a strengthened version of the pinnacle boss, whose difficulty is between the regular boss and the super boss. Defeating them can obtain memory fragments.

These memory fragments can unlock three new pinnacle bosses, and the loot includes some legendary equipment.

Mercenaries Of Trarthus

The first introduction of the mercenary mechanism provides AI companion support for single-player players. These fierce bandits from Trarthus City have their own characteristics, with complete equipment and skill trees.

The new version of POE 3.26 completely reforms the equipment crafting system. Some items will come with memory strands, and their number directly affects the strength of the affix.

POE 3.26 Secrets of the Atla brings a new experience to all players, which not only meets the needs of old players for deep content, but also provides a friendly entry way for novices.

The new Mercenaries of Trarthus system significantly improves the single-player experience, while the iconic end-game gameplay still maintains the series’ consistent complexity and challenge.

This major update is scheduled to be officially released on June 13, 2025, and players will be able to experience the most impactful map gameplay innovation in the history of the game.

Whether it is a loyal fan of the series or a first-time player, you can find your own fun in this version.