What the 3.28 Mirage League Atlas Rework Means For Players

With the upcoming launch of the 3.28 Mirage League for Path of Exile 1, Grinding Gear Games have showcased an entirely reworked and streamlined endgame mapping system. Given the importance of this system and how players engage with it, we are going to take a deep dive into the Patch Notes and detail how this rework will change the endgame mapping experience for you.

What is Changing – A Summary

The Atlas is undergoing a significant redesign, with everything from the maps that you drop, how you earn Atlas Passives, juicing mechanics, pretty much everything is changing. Here is a brief list of some of the aspects of the endgame mapping system that will be covered in this post:

• Kirac Missions will no longer be offered.
• Several core Map crafting currencies have been removed from the game.
• The Atlas layout has changed completely.
• Map items now drop as generic Maps, rather than specific Maps.
• Endgame content is now gated behind slightly different systems.
• Changes to T17 Maps, now “Nightmare Maps”.
• Changes to Originator Influenced Maps, Eagon and his quest line.
• A rebalance of Scarabs

Alongside these changes to existing systems, there are also some new and interesting tools available to players to increase the value of rewards earned while mapping.

The Atlas Layout and Map Items

The largest structural changes are evident in the redesign of the Atlas and Maps. Players will now start their Atlas journey in the centre of the Atlas, with each quadrant of the Atlas representing a different region. Each region will be explored as you complete Maps, and will eventually lead you into the corner where a specific Endgame boss encounter, and any precursor encounters, can be found.

You will now find generic Map items, rather than Maps associated with a specific layout. Instead of a “Tier 10 Dunes Map”, you will find a “Tier 10 Map” and can choose to activate it on any location you have discovered on the Atlas. Cartographers Chisels have also been removed, so players will no longer need to add 20% Quality to all their maps. This removal of busywork and unnecessary clicks is a common theme across all the changes to the endgame systems.

Because you can now run any map layout you want, assuming you have discovered it, many systems that were implemented to smooth out Atlas completion have been retired. These include:

• Kirac Missions and Scouting Reports will no longer be available.
• Harbinger Orbs and Orbs of Horizon no longer drop.
• The Favoured Map system has been retired.

Unique Maps now also all appear on the Atlas, including several Maps that have never been available there. This does not, however, mean that you must complete all of them to earn all of your available Atlas Passive Points. You can earn 10 points in total from completing 10 different Unique Maps, but you can now choose which 10 of the approximately 20 available Unique Maps you want to complete.

Nightmare Maps and Why They Are Better Than T17 Maps

Alongside the standard Map items used to access any standard layout on the Atlas, players will also find a new type of Map called Nightmare Maps. Unique maps can be opened in the same way as normal Maps, and, unlike in the past, all Unique Maps can be found on the Atlas, including many that have never appeared on it.

Nightmare Maps are a replacement for the old Tier 17 Maps, with changes to the mod pool and their functionality. Several of the most obnoxious and build-breaking modifiers have been removed:

• Players and their Minions deal no Damage for 3 out of every 10 seconds.
• Area contains Petrification Statues.
• Players have reduced Action Speed for each time they’ve used a Skill Recently.
• Players are Marked for Death after killing a Rare or Unique monster.
• Rare and Unique Monsters remove Life, Mana and Energy Shield from Players or their Minions on Hit.
• When a fifth Impale is inflicted on a Player, Impales are removed to Reflect their Physical Damage multiplied by their remaining Hits to that Player and their Allies within 1.8 metres.
• Area has patches of Awakeners’ Desolation.
• Player Skills which Throw Traps throw fewer Traps.
• Players’ Minions have less Movement/Attack/Cast Speed.
• Damage Players’ Totems take from Hits is taken from their Summoner’s Life instead.

These new Maps can only drop late in the game, and are used to access the Endgame Encounter regions that are separate from the Standard Atlas. While they are slightly more rewarding baseline when compared to a Normal Map, as they are outside of the Atlas, they cannot benefit from many of the new juicing tools available to players, and as such should be less pervasive as “The” Endgame farming strategy.

Eagon, Originator Maps and Petal Powers

Many features added in the Secrets of the Atlas expansion have also undergone redesigns, with community feedback driving changes to Memory Threads, Petal Powers, and Originator Maps. When you encounter Eagon in your Maps you will no longer automatically have a randomly placed Memory Thread that must be completed in order to allow you to progress the questline or access bosses. Instead, you will receive an item that will allow you to place the Memory Thread wherever you would like on the Atlas when you are ready to run it, or, if you have no interest in engaging with the Memory Thread yourself, it can now be traded to other players.

Petal Powers have also been removed, so players no longer have to remember which powers they have, track their collected petals, or time their uses. Instead, many of the previous powers have been rolled into the reward altar earned upon completion of the map. They will automatically trigger and apply to relevant encounters in all remaining maps in the Memory Thread. You can still collect Petals while clearing the map, and these Petals will be used to automatically trigger these effects and will also provide a boost to the drop rate of items with more Memory Strands.

Map Juicing Systems Streamlined

With the removal of Cartographers’ Chisels, Map Device Crafts and many other changes to Scarabs and the Atlas Passive Tree, many players may be wondering how they will juice up their maps to earn more rewards.

While Cartographers’ Chisels have been removed, Mavens’ Chisels will still be available and now will add 20% Quality with a single Chisel. The benefits they provide have been lowered 33%-50%, depending on the Chisel. Additionally, Atlas Completion rewards will also include a generic increase to Pack Size as you complete more of your Atlas, resulting in a persistent 25% increase to Pack Size in all Maps once you have completed your Atlas.

A new item set has also been added to streamline the process of getting more encounters with better rewards into each of your maps. These Astrolabes can be placed on any Map on your Atlas and will generate a “Shaped Region”. The type of Shaped Region and the rewards and encounters it adds will depend on the type of Astrolabe used, with many different variants being showcased.

Shaped Regions will spread out from the initial Map and affect several nearby maps, providing a boost to the rewards, difficulty, and adding additional encounters to those Maps, depending on the type of Astrolabe used. Upon completing a Map in this Shaped Region, the region will shrink, and all remaining Maps in that region will get another increase to the rewards and difficulty. For players, this means an escalating series of Maps with better and better rewards, but increasing difficulty, to work their way through.

If you happen to be the kind of player who enjoys running one very specific map, or a small number of map layouts, GGG also has your preferred playstyle covered, with the addition of a Keystone Passive on the Atlas Passive Tree, Synthesised Stability, which grants: “Completing a Map Objective within a Shaped Region instead collapses a different Map within the Shaped Region”.

Atlas Passive Tree

Speaking of the Atlas Passive Tree, it will undergo several changes to support the new Atlas structure and the addition of Keepers of the Flame as a core mechanic. Keepers of the Flame will allow you to customise your experience by choosing specific types of Breach Encounter to be blocked or removing their chance to spawn entirely. If you would like to check up on your favourite league mechanics and nodes, we recommend going over the changes in the Patch Notes.

Conclusion

The changes coming in 3.28 Mirage are going to offer a significant shakeup of the existing Path of Exile endgame experience, with new and streamlined juicing systems, the removal of several painful map modifiers that limited endgame build diversity, and a faster and more polished mapping experience. It is, of course, impossible to predict how loot drops and gameplay within the new system will feel, and every player will have their own take on the experience but I for one am personally incredibly excited to dive into the endgame rework that we have been shown.

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