Path of Exile 1 will introduce nineteen new Ascendancy classes to make up for 3.26 delay

GGG has concocted a brilliant solution for the ongoing discontent in the Path of Exile 1 community. This discontent comes from the uncertainty of a roadmap for the next league of the decade-old ARPG, freshly overshadowed by its sequel. Last week, GGG explained that Path of Exile 2 Early-Access patch surgeries are holding back PoE1 maintenance, and there's no promise on when 3.26, the next League, is coming.

It's not an easy task to maintain two live-service ARPGs simultaneously, and GGG is still learning the ropes with that. Thankfully, they have figured out a compromise: a month-long Path of Exile 1 event where some 'wacky ideas' will come into play.

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Path of Exile 1 will have a month-long What If carnival to smooth over the road to 3.26

Path of Exile 1 is getting a brand-new event with brand-new ideas (Image via GGG)

For those who haven't been following Path of Exile 1 actively, here's a summary to contextualize the situation. Path of Exil 1 had one of its most successful leagues last year with Settlers of Kagluur (3.25). Yet, the once-celebrated League has far overstayed its welcome, currently stretching into its seventh month.

For reference, Leauges (seasonal resets) are supposed to last only three to four months. Settlers of Kalguur has already undergone a full reset in November 2024 and is officially on its second rerun. Why the hold-up? Because GGG has pooled all of its development resources into the release of Path of Exile 2.

Although wildly successful with a million-key sale on day one, Path of Exile 2 has its own issues that need the developers' attention. Currently, they're focusing on pushing out the 0.2.0 content update for the new game, which has delayed 3.26 indefinitely.

A realistic estimation of 3.26's release would probably put it sometime in late March. To smooth things over till then, GGG has now come up with the idea of a one-month event featuring a full replacement of the game's nineteen class Ascendancies with brand-new ones.

In a recent forum post, they laid out the sketch for this brainstorm-board-come-to-life event:

"What does Path of Exile 1 look like when the nineteen Ascendancy Classes you know and are familiar with are all of a sudden replaced by a different nineteen? What does Path of Exile 1 look like when you get to play a Witch and ascend to become a Harbinger? These are the questions our design team asked each other and in this event will provide you with some of our answers."

Rather than just throwing the PoE1 community a bone to stem the bleeding, this event will present the perfect occasion to test out new ideas and game-changing mechanics without the stress of having to balance it for a traditional League.

We also cannot write off the possibility that some of these new ideas and system designs might be the foundation of new content in Path of Exile 2. After all, the Affliction League was a soft playtest for Path of Exile 2 classes.

The developers are soon going to reveal more details about the event. Until then, stay on Sportskeeda for more Path of Exile guides and news:

• Skill Gems and Gemcutting guide
• Endgame systems guide
• Item Crafting guide
• Runes and Sockets guide
• Energy Shield, Armor, and Evasion explained