Watching Grinding Gear Games experiment is a fascinating thing. The original Path of Exile is a beloved spiritual successor to Diablo 2 that’s still active, better than ever after more than a decade, and which is expected to run alongside its sequel for the foreseeable future. But recently, we were told that – for a short while at least – PoE 1 was going to sit dormant, with GGG fully focused on ensuring smooth, timely updates for Path of Exile 2. And yet, after players lamented news that PoE 1 would fall silent, GGG has responded by crafting an emergency, ‘experimental’ event that promises to be one of the most unique and interesting in its history.
GGG pitches the month-long Path of Exile Legacy of Phrecia event as a home for some of its most “unhinged ideas” from over the years. It infuses one of the best games like Diablo with a dozen new ascendancies (the specialized subclasses, of which we’ve seen two for each class aside from the Marauder so far). These feature some particularly powerful abilities, ranging from trading your entire intelligence pool for strength to fusing your shock and frost skills together, or gaining massive bonuses while carrying a fishing rod. As if that wasn’t enough reason to check back in with the free Steam game – or to try it for the first time if you’re a recent Path of Exile 2 convert – there’s also a completely new way to progress through the PoE endgame.
At the core of the Path of Exile endgame lies a device that you use to tackle randomly generated maps, each featuring a variety of modifiers that adjust the potential dangers, rewards, and even the mechanics that can appear. As you progress, you’d usually refine and hone these to focus on the parts of the game you enjoy best, and the rewards you’re most eager to hunt down, using a special endgame skill tree called the Atlas passive tree. But not anymore.
In The Legacy of Phrecia, the Atlas tree has been removed. In its place is a new system that resembles the Trial of the Sekhemas used in Path of Exile 2 ascension (itself an evolution of an old PoE 1 league called The Forbidden Sanctum). As you play, you’ll find various Idols that can be placed into a grid on your map device to apply modifiers to your maps. In GGG’s own words, “This is a pretty drastic change to how the endgame will play given that the Atlas tree has been such a fundamental part of the endgame for some time.”
It’s important to stress that this is a temporary implementation for this event and won’t be staying around for the long-term. GGG notes that the concept is “an old, throwaway idea we didn’t think would be good enough to replace the Atlas tree,” but decided it could create a fun “alternate reality Wraeclast” to keep players busy until the next PoE 2 update. One of the elements that makes the Atlas system so beloved is its deterministic nature, putting the control of your endgame experience in your hands, but this should be a fun twist that adds a bit more random spice to your next playthrough.
GGG emphasizes that, while you’ll be somewhat more beholden by drops as a result, “it is not intended that you are at the whims of randomness to find these [Idols], as they are the gateway to fun.” You’ll see them in the core drop pool from the start of endgame, with a fixed 50% chance to drop from the final map boss, and “as you get further in and start applying more juice to your maps you will find more and more, certainly getting many per map.” Furthermore, as the event is running on the city-building Settlers of Kalguur league, progression for that will also be sped up to account for the shorter duration.
There’s no date for the start of the event yet, although Grinding Gear says to expect one “very soon.” It seems likely that its short duration is designed to tide us over until the team has more PoE 2 news for us, but it sounds like an absolute blast. GGG adds that it is “completely open to running additional events in the future based on your feedback,” as well as extending the duration of Legacy of Phrecia if players call for it.
For even more delicious loot and leveling, take a look through the best RPGs in 2025, or see how we rate the best Path of Exile 2 classes so far.
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