Path of Exile Legacy of Phrecia: New endgame specialization system, explained

Path of Exile's Legacy of Phrecia event is almost upon us, and it is changing the endgame in unexpected ways. The launch of Path of Exile 2 has changed the landscape of ARPGs. However, it has also put a question mark on the development cycle of the original title that is supposed to run parallelly.

When Path of Exile 2's release date was nearing, Grinding Gear Games stated that the sequel's development would not hamper the dev cycle of Path of Exile. As Path of Exile 2 continued to amass an increasingly large playerbase and an equally large number of bugs and problems, the priority had to shift to an all-hands-on-deck-type approach for PoE 2.

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Legacy of Phrecia event is going to try something radical with Path of Exile's endgame

Legacy of Phrecia-specific Idols will have many nifty quirks (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

The Legacy of Phrecia event is a response to the delayed development cycle of Path of Exile. Likewise, the event is a feedback-gathering opportunity for the developers at Grinding Gear Games. They have always strived to provide their playerbase with new and exciting ideas to play around with in an ARPG landscape. The Legacy of Phrecia event is slated to run for a month initially but the studio is open to extending it.

The Legacy of Phrecia event will feature two distinct flavors of new content. The first is previously unseen Ascendancy classes that got left on the drawing board during development, and the second is the Idol system for the Atlas of Worlds endgame. The Idol system is very similar to the Relic system from Path of Exile's Forbidden Sanctum league.

Upon reaching the endgame after finishing the campaign, players will be presented with an Idol Receptacle when interacting with the Map Device. They will be able to slot in different Idols of varying sizes and modifiers to make their maps packed with league-based content. For the duration of the event, the Atlas Passive Skill Tree will be disabled.

Players will earn Idols via normal gameplay during the endgame progression. These will be of three rarities: Magic, Rare, and Unique. Magic Idols will possess two modifiers, while Rares can have up to four. Unique Idols will spawn with Keystone Passives from the Atlas Passive Skill Tree. These Idols are tradeable but not modifiable.

Players are encouraged to farm for Idols that cater to their preferred league content and create Idol loadouts that can be swapped out on the fly for different farming strategies. Inventory management is expected to become an issue, and Grinding Gear Games has asked players to bear with it, promising quality-of-life updates after its launch.

The Idol Receptacle will not be fully accessible upon reaching the endgame, and players have to unlock additional slots using methods similar to how Favourite Map Slots are unlocked right now. During this event, players will earn a four-piece cosmetic armor set upon reaching certain level thresholds.

Unique Idols will drastically change up your endgame mapping (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

It should be noted that nearly everything discussed in this article is still subject to change. The launch date is unknown at the time of this article's publication, but the studio has promised more details in the upcoming days. The ongoing Necro Settlers event will conclude once Legacy of Phrecia launches.