Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath Upcoming Harbinger League Changes

The recently released The Fall of Oriath expansion for Path of Exile is a highly enjoyable addition to the action-RPG. However, the Harbinger challenge league that launched along with it could be considered a bit lackluster, especially compared to some of the challenge leagues that came before it. The developers at Grinding Gear Games acknowledge this fact and intend to tweak the Harbinger league to make it more challenging and rewarding for the players. Here’s how they plan to do this:

We have been listening to community feedback about the Harbinger league as well as playing it ourselves. The most common feedback is that the league content isn’t challenging enough and that Harbingers don’t yield enough rewards. We want to increase both the challenge and the volume of rewards that the league offers. The changes we’re making in the near future should make the league more enjoyable to play while also providing much better reward for you time spent fighting Harbingers.

Harbinger Abilities

Many of the skills used by the Harbingers only provide a threat towards characters who let the Harbinger’s minions get closer, rewarding characters that can lock them down and destroy them from range. To improve the situation, we’re planning to introduce new abilities for the Harbingers that both deal damage aimed directly at players, and empower the Harbinger’s minions caught in the effect.

Harbingers can also create new Obelisks when they summon their minions, providing defensive effects for their minions and control and damage effects towards players. Destroy the obelisks to break their influence.

Rewards

We’re going to to adjust the chances for various Harbinger currency shards to be dropped; You’ll soon see fewer Transmutation Shards, more Harbinger’s Shards, more Engineer’s Shards, and a larger overall number of shards dropped by each Harbinger.

We’re also going to increase the chance for Harbingers to appear in maps, and they’ll often be more powerful and capable of summoning more minions.

The Beachhead Map

We’re going to modify the Harbinger’s Orb to be more likely to create the unique Beachhead map. This should make it more reasonable to engage with end-game content, and make the special Harbinger unique items more obtainable, as well as the league challenges.

On a related note, we’re also going to reduce the number of Beachhead maps you need to complete for the “Complete Endgame Grinds” challenge, from 100 to 50.

We’re hoping to get these changes in alongside the release of the new Harbinger supporter packs, coming shortly.