​MMOSO - Why Path of Exile 3.20 Will Make Hex Buildings Stronger?

Oct-01-2022

Grinding Gear Games released their latest Path of Exile "3.20 Balance Manifesto", listing changes to curses to make them more effective against different higher tier mobs. Specifically, Hexes are being buffed to better fight top-tier bosses and unique enemies, while Doom mechanics will be scrapped in December's "The Forbidden Sanctum" expansion.

When is the PoE 3.20 release date? PoE 3.20: The Forbidden Sanctum release date is December 9, 2022. You can play The Forbidden Sanctum expansion pack on Xbox and PlayStation for free on PC and Mac on December 9 (PST) and on PC and Mac on December 14 (PST).

Path of Exile's next expansion, due out in December 2022, will add a challenge league. While the developers are still showing off the 3.20 update, the name of the December expansion and a brief overview of the boss fights are already available.

Path of Exile 3.20 Will Make Hex Buildings Stronger

The developers say that Hex Builds perform well against generally weaker creatures, but stronger creatures are a challenge due to mechanics/modifiers that break the strength of Hexes. The main culprit is the "hidden penalty" for players using Hexes, which ranges from 33% to 66% when fighting unique enemies and bosses, respectively. In update 3.20, Grinding Gear will remove these penalties to make Hexes more consistent against all monsters.

At the same time, Doom mechanics designed to make self-casting Hexes more effective than others - such as Blasphemy and Hextouch support gems - will be removed. As a tradeoff for removing it, Grinding Gear will change some mechanics that often interact with Doom, such as stats referencing Doom will be replaced by other Curse-themed modifiers. This also means that there will be some rework of Hex-related items, and especially uniquely, the developers will add new items that support Hex builds.

The Manifesto also addresses changes to Mystic Ascension levels to reflect the Hexes changes, Weakness and Time Chains have been buffed, and Hex gems will see some rebalancing to ensure self-casts are still relevant. Grinding Gear's plans for the Hexes may change, though. Official details will be revealed when The Forbidden Sanctum patch notes go live in December.

To simplify the Hex system, they are removing the Doom mechanics. That doesn't leave a void, because when this decision is made, they'll be redesigning anything Doom-related to retain comparable functionality. Enchantments also work differently, as they are weaker against normal monsters, but stronger against unique monsters and bosses. Some other mechanics have also been reworked or polished, such as weakening and temporary chains. Hex gems are also being reworked to keep self-cast viable.

When it comes to Hexes gaining different effects with monster levels, these changes are meant to counteract hidden penalties that reduce the effectiveness of unique monsters or bosses when you fight them. As you fight unique monsters and bosses, they do have hidden penalties that help increase the difficulty as needed, but the way HExes work is especially important. These changes will be effectively balanced so they work equally well on all types of monsters.

Removing bad luck also comes down to effectiveness. One of the reasons it was removed was that it added a lot of unnecessary complexity to the hex-related mechanisms.

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