In the past few weeks, we have received news that Path Of Exile 3.26 will be released in June, but it has not been confirmed. However, on May 23, a new trailer was finally released, which revealed the name of the new league, the live preview time, and the release date.
The trailer is short, but there are many things worth exploring.
New Character
At the beginning of the trailer, it seems that a new NPC appears and communicates with us. He seems to have never appeared in the game.
From what he said, “The worlds are endless, but they are a prison.” He seems to know Atlas very well. Perhaps these words are based on his previous experience, or he has seen the impact of Atlas on people.
Listening to his voice, it seems to be somewhat similar to Venarius, and Venarius’s story happens to be related to Atlas. It is normal for him to appear in Secrets of the Atlas.
In addition, from Path of Exile Mobile that is under development, we can know that its timeline is 20 years before Path of Exile campaign, and the protagonists are the young Venarius and Valdor who has not yet become The Shaper.
Therefore, this update may echo POE Mobile, and this new character may be the story of Venarius from another period, or even the story of Venarius from another parallel timeline, just like Scourge League’s concept.
But when we zoom in on the clips in the trailer and take a closer look, we can see that he seems to be similar to some of the characters, but because the picture is too dark and he is heavily dressed, we can’t see his face directly. So we can’t be sure that he is an existing character.
Scene And Music
Although it is black at the beginning and we can’t see where the man is, when he lights up the tree-like thing, we can see that the place looks very similar to the trailer of War for the Atlas.
They are all a person walking through some places in Atlas. They all look empty, and the characters’ conclusions are also very similar, all thinking that the world in Atlas is a prison.
On the ground, we can see an image similar to a compass. Because it looks almost exactly the same as the one Venarius stood on at the beginning of Synthesis trailer. So, it is easy to think of Synthesis map and Synthesis Bosses.
Although POE has admitted that the music used in Secrets of the Atlas is a new song, we can find that its melody is very similar to the melody in the trailer of Atlas of Worlds.
All this seems to point to Shaper, and it is very likely that something related to The Shaper will happen.
Will Zana Return?
In addition, another focus character after the trailer was released is Zana. She is a Master Cartographer, and after we meet her, she will replace Officer Kirac’s functions as a new map supplier. Click on her to open the task interface, and we can run the highest level map by consuming POE currency and related items.
Although she does not appear in the trailer, there are many elements related to Zana in the trailer.
First, after the mysterious man lights up the tree-like thing, many lines spread out from the center, which feels like branches. They seem to be connected to each other, but separated from each other.
In the center is a red thing. When the man lights up this thing, some red light can also be clearly seen.
At the same time, there are many red petals on this pattern on the ground, which may lead to some places, or even this may be a chart of an atlas.
In POE, Zana is the most related to red and red petals. Is she Originator? Is she in this place? Is she in the center of Atlas?
We don’t know much about her, her powers, or why she’s not disturbed in Atlas. She’s always been mysterious.
Then a petal fell from the screen, which felt like the calm before the storm, and then numerous red petals bloomed from the word secrets, which may be another hint that Zana is hiding something from us.
As the music played, the red content on the screen was completely cleared and replaced with a more ethereal blue thing. The design of the league logo that appeared at the end was also half red and half blue.
Is it possible that the blue represents the new character, and the red represents this Zana? So who is the villain? Is it the new character or the mysterious Zana?
Zooming in on Secrets of the Atlas section, we can see that the red part has the map of Atlas, and Zana may be much more important to Atlas than we think.
Players’ Expectations
This update looks like an expansion of Atlas. Based on previous experience, Atlas expansion updates are generally very large. After the update, there will be new league challenges and skill balance and other updates.
This means that there may be new challenge leagues and bosses that will give players the opportunity to farm POE Divine Orbs, but players will also need to find ways to improve their own strength in order to better adapt to the new Atlas and survive.
At present, Atlas skill tree in POE are already very good, but I believe that the 3.26 update will take the players’ experience to the next level, because every game update will be unexpected, so overall players are still looking forward to this update.
That’s all about the trailer and the new league. The live broadcast date is 1PM, June 5 (PDT), and the official release date is 1PM, June 13 (PDT). In a few days, we will be able to see all the news about 3.26.
