The POE Legacy of Phrecia Event

The Legacy of Phrecia event has been officially announced for Path of Exile 1 (PoE 1), bringing a fresh shake-up to the game with new ascendancies and unique mechanics. Here’s a comprehensive guide to what’s coming.

PoE 1 Legacy of Phrecia Release Date

The Legacy of Phrecia League has been officially announced for Path of Exile 1, introducing 19 new ascendancies that replace the existing ones. Grinding Gear Games has stated that an official release date will be announced early next week, providing further details about the event. Given typical PoE league schedules, the expected launch window is late February or early March 2025. This event was developed in response to community feedback following the 3.26 update delay, offering a new way to experience the game with experimental mechanics and fresh ascendancies.

PoE 1 Legacy of Phrecia New Content & League Mechanics

The Legacy of Phrecia League is a special event designed to shake up the existing PoE 1 formula by removing all current ascendancies and replacing them with 19 brand-new ones. This change will force players to rethink builds, adjust strategies, and experiment with the new class mechanics.

Key Features of the League:

• 19 New Ascendancies: Each with unique playstyles and mechanics.

• Temporary Removal of Existing Ascendancies: Requiring fresh build approaches.

• New Mystery Mechanic: Tied to the Atlas, possibly affecting map rewards and progression.

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New Ascendancies: Harbinger & Gambler

One of the most exciting aspects of this league is the introduction of new ascendancies. So far, two have been revealed:

Harbinger (Witch Ascendancy)

The Harbinger ascendancy offers a time manipulation and summoning theme, making it a strong choice for spell-heavy, cooldown-dependent builds. With increased cooldown recovery rate, it enables faster skill activation, benefiting builds that rely on trigger mechanics like Cast on Critical Strike or Impending Doom. The ascendancy also grants access to Greater Harbingers, which provide buffs such as increased action speed, damage reduction, and ailment immunity while channeling. Additionally, it enhances Hex skills by increasing their area of effect and removing reservation costs when used with Blasphemy, making it ideal for Hexblast and Impending Doom setups. While it may not be the most powerful ascendancy, it presents unique mechanics and strong synergies for creative build possibilities.

Gambler (Duelist Ascendancy)

The Gambler ascendancy introduces a high-risk, high-reward playstyle, making it an exciting yet unpredictable choice. It features randomized defensive and offensive effects, such as a 50% chance for Elemental Resistances to count as 90%, which can either greatly reduce incoming damage or leave the player vulnerable to elemental hits. Offensively, it includes a 50% chance to invert enemy resistances, leading to huge damage spikes against resistant foes. Additionally, it provides randomized block efficiency, lucky crit chance, and a chance to deal double or triple damage at the cost of lower base damage. These mechanics make it well-suited for fast-paced melee builds like Flicker Strike or Crit Cyclone, where the variance in damage output matters less over multiple attacks. While extremely volatile, this ascendancy is a fun and chaotic option for players who enjoy gambling with their character’s fate.

Additional Ascendancies

Archmage of Chaos (Templar)

Archmage of Chaos is the premier ascendancy for Vaal skill builds, offering +3 to all Vaal skill gems, reduced soul cost, and Dissolution of Flesh, which provides a unique defensive mechanic that prevents one-shots. This ascendancy allows for Perma-Vaal setups, making it one of the most powerful choices for Vaal builds. While it excels in specialized setups, it offers little for general builds that do not rely on Vaal skills.

Servant of Arakaali (Shadow)

Servant of Arakaali is the best option for poison minion builds, granting a 50% chance for minions to poison on hit and Wither application, significantly boosting minion-based poison damage. Brood Guard allows for Raise Spiders on kill, similar to Arakaali’s Fang, making it a top-tier choice for poison-based summoners. While powerful, it is highly dependent on minion setups, making it less versatile than other ascendancies.

Stormcaster (Shadow)

Stormcaster is an exceptionally strong elemental ascendancy, providing 100% Lightning-to-Cold conversion while still applying Shock, allowing for double-dipping on elemental ailments. Its Reverse Chill mechanic turns a typically defensive effect into a massive speed boost, increasing movement, attack, and cast speed. This ascendancy is one of the fastest and most powerful in the event, offering both high damage scaling and strong defensive layering through Chill and Shock interactions.

Daughter of Oshabi (Ranger)

Daughter of Oshabi is a shrine-focused ascendancy that grants random shrine buffs every 10 seconds, making it a highly inconsistent but potentially powerful choice. It scales attack damage based on evasion and has Poison synergy with grasping vines, offering unique but situational mechanics. While shrine buffs can be strong, their random nature makes the ascendancy unreliable, and it generally lacks the offensive power of other Ranger-based ascendancies.

Antiquarian (Marauder)

Antiquarian is a defensive-focused ascendancy that converts Armor and Evasion into Ward, making it one of the tankiest choices in the event. It also offers Far Shot for ranged builds and unique block scaling, allowing for strong projectile-based tank builds. While it provides excellent defensive layering, it lacks strong offensive scaling, making it a situational choice for players looking for durability over damage.

More will be added in later articles.

The Idols System (Replacing the Atlas Tree)

The Idols system replaces the Atlas passive tree during this event, offering a different way to customize endgame progression. Idols are magical or rare, unmodifiable items that grant powerful bonuses, with some effects being 2-3 times stronger than their Atlas tree equivalents. However, some modifiers are more conservatively balanced to prevent excessive power scaling.

Idol Drop Mechanics

Idols become available in endgame maps, scaling with map juicing levels. They also have a 50% chance to drop from the final boss of a map, ensuring that players can access them consistently. This system aims to reduce reliance on randomness and provide a structured way to acquire powerful endgame bonuses.

Idol Inventory & Progression

Players start with 20 idol slots, which can be expanded up to 32 slots by unlocking them through endgame progression. Initially, teasers suggested 42 slots, but this was later adjusted for balance reasons. The arrangement of the slots (e.g., a 6x6 grid with missing corners or a 4x8 layout) remains to be confirmed.

Quality of Life Features

To improve the experience of using Idols, several quality-of-life features are being developed. One of the most anticipated additions is an Idol Loadout System, which will allow players to quickly swap between different idol setups. This feature might not be available at launch but will be implemented shortly after.

Implicit Map Sustain on Idols

Some Idols will have implicit modifiers that increase map drop rates, helping players sustain their maps more effectively. This is particularly useful in the absence of traditional Atlas tree sustain nodes, ensuring that players can progress without feeling starved for maps.

Atlas Blocking Idols

Certain unique Idols will act as Atlas blocker nodes, allowing players to disable specific mechanics (e.g., blocking Harvest with an equivalent of the Black Thumb Atlas node). This gives players more control over the types of content they encounter in maps.

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Rewards for Participation

Players who participate in the event can earn a free cosmetic armor set. To obtain all pieces of the set, players will likely need to reach level 80, which is a goal that is relatively easy for veteran players but still achievable for more casual participants. This reward system ensures that all players have a fair chance to obtain the cosmetic without excessive grinding.

Private League Availability After the Event

Although Legacy of Phrecia is a temporary event, its content will not go core but will be available in private leagues. Players will have the option to enable either the new ascendancies, the alternate endgame system (Idols), or both when creating private leagues. This means that while the content won’t be part of standard gameplay, players can revisit and experiment with it in future leagues.

Event Duration & Potential Extensions

The event is initially planned to last one month, but Grinding Gear Games is open to extending its duration based on player feedback. If the event proves popular, it may run until just before the launch of Patch 3.26, ensuring players have ample time to explore the new mechanics and builds.

Settlers League Integration & Changes

Since Legacy of Phrecia is built on the Settlers League framework, players will need to engage with town-building mechanics. Recognizing that early town upgrades can feel tedious, GGG is reducing the costs of early upgrades in both this event and the core Settlers League.

Character Migration After the Event

Once the event ends, characters will be migrated to Settlers League. Their ascendancy points will be reset, and they will be forced to choose one of the core ascendancies by running any Labyrinth. This ensures a smooth transition, allowing players to respec into a standard ascendancy with minimal effort.

The Legacy of Phrecia event is shaping up to be a wild experiment, introducing new ascendancies with unique mechanics. While some of these designs are high-risk, high-reward, they could lead to entirely new playstyles. Stay tuned for more ascendancy reveals and future breakdowns!