In recent patches we have had the goal to make the experience of item drops a lot more satisfying, but an area that we didn't address yet is finding chase Uniques. It's time to change that! In 0.2.1 we are significantly changing the way uniques drop and adding some great new Chase Uniques as well!

When we design Uniques we classify them into a few different rarities depending on how powerful we think they are. These are called “Common”, “Uncommon”, “Rare” and “Mythic”. Mythic Uniques are things like Headhunter, Mjolner or Astramentis. Mythic uniques are intended to be chase, but they were way too rare.

The first problem is that we balanced the relative number of Rare and Mythic uniques the same as it was in PoE1, but in PoE1 you get way more uniques. The second problem is that in PoE2, when you roll for uniques, the game first rolls what Item Class the unique will come from. This means that things like Amulets and Rings were significantly less common than other types of uniques. A mythic amulet like Astramentis was about 47,000x rarer than a divine orb.

When things are that rare they effectively don’t exist for most players. There are some cool items to find, but you are not going to find them.

The first change we made to bring this in line was to remove the Item Class from the equation. Astramentis is now the same rarity as a weapon like Mjolner. The second change was to make it so Common uniques get less common as more Rarity is added to maps, meaning that there is more chance for Uncommon, Rare and Mythic uniques. And the last change was to just massively buff the number of Mythic Uniques that drop.

These changes together should significantly improve the feeling that a good unique could be round any corner.

We have also improved the power of a few uniques that were classified as mythic, but were not really holding up to a “Mythic” standard. You will have to wait for the patch to find out what those are! But in the mean time, here are a couple of examples of new Mythic uniques that we are adding in 0.2.1.

The first item is a Unique Bow that might be familiar to seasoned players, Lioneye's Glare. Instead of our designers telling you about this item, Lioneye himself will, by recounting the battle of his Legion versus the fearsome Karui lead by Kaom. Check it out below:

If you're interested in our comics, you can purchase digital copies here[www.pathofexile.com].

The next item we'd like to showcase is The Last Lament, a Unique Crossbow that doesn't just pack a punch, but is also packed with lore. Check out the following video where Mark, one of the Game Directors will give you a run-down on its origins, its tragic tale and how it correlates to the modifiers it grants:

For all those spellcasters out there, here's another familiar Unique Staff, The Whispering Ice:

Here's a high resolution render of it, if you're interested in looking at its intricate details:

The Whispering Ice provides both the Heart of Ice aura, as well as the Icestorm Spell:

Lastly, we'd like to preview one of the new endgame Unique Quivers you can find, Cadiro's Gambit. This one will depend on the luck of your draw!

We hope you've enjoyed this taste of what's to come in 0.2.1, which we're currently expecting to deploy tomorrow.

From the corrupted lands of Ogham to the colourful markets of Utzaal, Wraeclast is a deadly yet breathtaking place. In this news post we've gathered pieces of concept art from our amazing environment artists. Check them out below:

Bruce Daya - Concept Artist

Ivan Onokhin - Environment Concept Artist

Patrick Manson - Environment Artist

Nick O'Brien - Environment Artist

Francis Tan - Environment Artist

Ian Hong - Environment Artist
If you’re interested in seeing more concept art from our team, check out the Path of Exile 2 Monster Art[www.pathofexile.com] showcase and a preview of our Artbook[www.pathofexile.com].