We recently announced the Echoes of the Atlas expansion which launches next week! After our livestream reveal, community streamer ZiggyD hosted a live Q&A with Chris Wilson to answer the community's burning questions. In this news post, we've summarised their discussion and rounded up other questions that have been asked by the community in the last 48 hours.

If you missed it, you can check out the full Q&A with ZiggyD and Chris below.

The Maven & Her Challenges

How does The Maven's gameplay progression work? Does it occur alongside the Sirus/Watchstone progression?

The Maven's progression is not tied to Sirus/Watchstone progression. After your first encounter with the Maven, you can call her to witness map boss kills using her beacon on the map device. Her presence makes the boss more difficult.

From time to time, you will be invited to the Maven's arena to fight an escalating number of bosses in the arena (3, 4, 5, 6 and 10). The 10 boss fight is repeatable and can be farmed. After the 10 boss fight, you may have the opportunity to fight the Maven herself.

The progression is on a per region basis with each successful fight in the Maven's arena awarding two passive points which can be allocated to the Atlas Tree for that region.

How do progression and rewards work for The Maven in party play?

If you invite the Maven to witness a boss fight and complete that fight with other members of your party, they'll also be counted as having completed that fight. You can also take on the bosses simultaneously with a party, but the success of that fight is awarded to the instance owner.

How exactly are bosses captured for use in The Maven's Challenge?

When you enter a map, you can click the Maven's Beacon on the map device to summon her to witness your fight. If you're successful, this boss will automatically be counted as witnessed. Once The Maven has witnessed enough boss fights in that region, an item will drop that allows you to travel to her arena to fight those bosses again.

The Maven seems like the expansion to the Sirus and Conquerors endgame in a similar fashion to how the Elder was an expansion to the Shaper endgame. Can we expect Maven's story to be connected to the Sirus arc or is this more independent?

The Maven's storyline exists in parallel with the Conqueror's storyline. Lorewise, the Maven is an Eldritch entity and more of a continuation of the Elder storyline, which is separate from Sirus and the Elderslayers.

How will the boss fights be scaled in difficulty within The Maven's arena fights?

The first invitations are quest items to progress through the increasing number of bosses you are fighting in her arena. After you have first completed the 10 boss fight, you have the chance to receive invitation items which can have mods and are craftable, allowing you to scale the difficulty of that fight. You cannot have duplicates of the same boss in the Maven arena, and the bosses are scaled to a fixed monster level based on the number you're fighting at once.

Yesterday's reveal mentioned The Maven is the “first” - is this planned as an expandable system?

The Eldritch entities have noticed that the Elder is missing. The Maven is the first to come seeking us but she may not be last.

Can the Maven witness unique map bosses?

No.

Does the tier of the map boss affect the captured boss, like how Watchstones alter tiers of maps?

The Maven's challenges have fixed monster levels, so the tier of the map doesn't directly impact the level of the map boss when you fight it again. Harder Maven challenges do also require that you capture bosses in higher-tier maps though.

How will bosses with more complex attacks, such as Rigwald's Wolf Barrage, Shock and Horror, Konley the Unrepentant, function in the arena?

Boss skills that are usually tied to that boss's arena have generally been adjusted to make sense in the context of the Maven's challenges rather than being removed entirely. Exactly how this was done was on a case-by-case basis.

How does the Maven interact with twinned maps?

Upon defeating both bosses, the Maven will add one copy to her challenge.

Can we instruct the Maven to witness boss fights on maps occupied by Elder Guardians?

Yes.

What happens if you die in The Maven's Challenge? Can you re-enter the arena?

It's opened from the Map Device and there are six portals like normal. You can re-enter if you have enough portals left.

Atlas Passive Trees

Are trees specific to each region of the atlas?

Yes. Each region has its own fixed tree, and only applies its bonuses to maps within that region. You earn passive points for each tree separately. However, Atlas respec points (which come from an Orb) are not region-specific.

At what stage will we unlock our Atlas regions? Around Awakener Level 8?

Awakener Level 8 is a good estimate for when you will be able to unlock all passives in all regions. You will be able to unlock a full region tree for a single region well before that.

With Atlas Passive Trees being specific to each region, does this mean that, for example, you'd only find Beyond in the Lex Proxima tree and no other?

Each Atlas tree is unique. However, some mechanics appear in multiple regions' trees.

Do the mechanics modified by Atlas Passive Trees still spawn randomly, or can they only spawn by using the trees?

They still spawn randomly in any map, at the same rates as they previously did.

Do Zana's map device crafting options still exist?

Yes, they work as they always have. The set of Zana mods available during patch 3.13 will be revealed this week.

This seems like a substantial step up in complexity with craftable Watchstones and Atlas Passive Trees alongside the current Watchstone progression systems - How do you feel the average or newer players handle the current Atlas and will handle this?

The craftable Watchstones are optional content that do not lock your progression and are introduced well into the endgame. Players that want to maximise their Watchstone bonuses will have a reasonable understanding of the mechanic by the time craftable variants are introduced. Both Atlas Passive Trees and craftable Watchstones are also permanent features that do not require continual upkeep or time investment.

How do you obtain Atlas respec points?

A new currency item will grant them. This item will drop randomly, but there are also more deterministic methods of obtaining them which you may discover while playing.

How hard is it to respec the Atlas Passive Trees? Is it something players would need to adjust often or leave intact most of the time?

There is a currency item which will allow you to respec your atlas passives. How often you want to change your passives is up to the player and what they determine to be profitable.

Endgame Rewards

How can I track which Watchstones and Atlas Passive Trees are affecting my maps?

When you put a map into the map device, there will be a pop-up that shows which stats are being applied to it by the Atlas Passive Trees and Watchstones.

Is there a limit to the number of craftable Watchstones you can use at once?

You can replace all possible Watchstones with craftable Watchstones. Note that each Watchstone is locked to a specific Atlas region. This will be indicated in the Watchstone's name. The idea behind this is to prevent optimal gameplay involving constant shuffling of Watchstones around your atlas.

Can I use multiple of the same type of craftable Watchstone in the same region at once?

Yes, and the effects of their mods will stack.

Do craftable Watchstones ever expire or need replacing?

No.

Are craftable Watchstones tradeable?

Yes.

Do craftable Watchstones contribute to Awakener level?

Yes.

Can you find craftable Watchstones before you get all normal Watchstones?

You can find and use craftable Watchstones before you receive your 32 Conquerors' Watchstones but you're unlikely to find many yourself before you receive the complete set of Conquerors' Watchstones.

What items can the Maven's Orb be used on?

Any influenced body armour, helmet, gloves or boots with at least two influence modifiers. Legacy modifiers or modifiers that can't be changed (e.g. suffixes on an item with the “Suffixes can't be changed” mod) aren't valid.

What mods exactly can the Maven's Orb upgrade?

It can upgrade any influence-specific mod. A tier 3 mod will be replaced with its tier 2 version, for example. If it selects a tier 1 mod to upgrade, it will replace it with a new "elevated" mod that has even stronger effects.

How does the Maven's Orb interact with items that have multiple influence types?

It doesn't distinguish between different influence types in any way. For example, if you use it on an item with three Shaper modifiers and three Redeemer modifiers, it will still just pick one modifier to remove and one to upgrade at random.

Can elevated mods be transferred with an Awakener's Orb?

Yes.

Roughly how rare is the Maven's Orb?

Similar to the Awakener's Orb.

Ritual

Who gets the rewards in Ritual when playing in a party?

The instance owner gets to choose the rewards.

Can party members view the Favours window (where you select your rewards)?

Yes.

Can you defer more than one Ritual item?

Yes.

Can you defer an item more than once?

Yes.

Is there an indicator in the Favours window that displays when something has been deferred from a previous area?

Yes.

What happens when two people are in an area with a Ritual and one of them is not in the Ritual Circle?

All players must be within the Ritual Circle when the Ritual starts to participate in it.

Can you leave a Ritual before the fight is over?

You can portal out or close the game client at any time.

Can you 'fail' at a Ritual?

If all players within the Ritual die or have left, then it fails. You can come back and spend any Tribute you did earn before it failed.

Can you lose access to the rewards you've deferred?

If a deferred reward comes up again in a later area, you should either purchase it or defer it again. If you don't defer it again, it doesn't completely vanish immediately, but it does recover some of its original cost. If you allow it to get all the way back to its starting value, then it will stop reappearing for you.

Are we intended to pull monsters to the Ritual sites?

No, a Ritual will spawn near monsters and will also spawn extra monsters around the altar. You must clear these monsters before you can start the Ritual. After activating the altar, you must kill the monsters again while fighting against the effects of the ritual. Each subsequent ritual in an area will include the previously-fought monsters as part of the ritual encounter to make them progressively harder to complete. Pulling other monsters into the Ritual site will not cause them to be added to the Ritual.

Do items from the Favours window use the new high-quality Rare item generation system?

Some Favours will use the smart loot generation system, but it depends on the type of item. There's quite a variety of stuff offered, so it only makes sense on some.

Do the set of Favours offered persist throughout an area, or do they change between Rituals?

All items appear in the first Favours window, but some are shrouded initially. These more expensive and advanced items will be unlocked after completing later Rituals in an area.

Do any Ritual-specific rewards, such as the new bases or uniques, drop from monsters during Rituals, or are they only purchasable with Tribute?

All of the new rewards introduced in Ritual are purchasable with Tribute and do not drop from monsters in a Ritual encounter.

Ritual Vessels capture monsters from a ritual site to use in later maps. Is this 'instead' of doing the Ritual, or just afterwards with nothing lost?

After completing a Ritual, you have the chance to 'capture' its monsters using a Vessel which can be used on a map to improve its challenge and rewards.

Do Ritual vessels apply the captured monsters to all Ritual sites in a new map? Can you then use a vessel to capture those again plus the new monsters from the map… stacking vessels again and again?

You can only use Ritual Vessels in a map that does not currently have a Vessel active.

Are there always three Rituals per zone, or does the number of Rituals per zone increase as you progress through the story?

The number of Ritual Altars in an area does scale slightly as you progress, with a current cap of 4 Altars.

Will there be any Sextant mods that affect the amount of Ritual points you get whenever the Ritual Mechanic spawns in the map?

There are no Ritual-specific sextant mods. However, mods that increase the number of monsters in a map will impact how many monsters you encounter in a Ritual.

How is the barrier around the Ritual Circle enforced?

You cannot enter or exit it. But it doesn't hurt you.

Ascendancy Classes

Bearing in mind we are going to have huge Ascendancy rework, what about the Scion?

The Scion has been included in the rework, and we think she's in a good place now.

How does Battlemage interact with Spellslinger?

The damage from Battlemage and Spellslinger add together.

How does the Primal Aegis skill on Elementalist's Bastion of Elements passive work?

Similarly to the existing Aegis skills. While the Aegis is active, it absorbs incoming elemental damage from hits instead of you. The Aegis will be restored to full if it doesn't take elemental damage from hits for a short time.

It's also worth noting that recharge for all Aegis skills now can't be interrupted if they're completely depleted. The recharge time is 5 seconds on Primal Aegis, unlike other Aegises. The amount of damage Primal Aegis can absorb is based on how many notable passives you have allocated.

Harvest

When does Harvest content start?

Harvest content can only be found in maps.

With the rework to the Harvest system removing the gardening side of things, how will the Oshabi questline and subsequent fight be accessed?

Occasionally, a portal to the Sacred Grove will contain the Oshabi fight. Her rewards have been rebalanced to reflect this change.

How will I locate the pairs of harvests in the Grove?

They appear on the minimap.

Heist

In Heist, the meta for getting the most value out of the system centered around 'splitting' valuable blueprints and running them infinitely for massive amounts of currency, will this change in Echoes of the Atlas?

You can still split copies of Blueprints. However, the copies are no longer fully revealed, requiring you to acquire and spend reveals and markers again in order to maximise their rewards. Rewards from contracts and blueprints have also been rebalanced.

Do we still get to use the Heist locker?

Yes.

Have you been able to solve the technical issues that required The Rogue Harbour to become private?

Yes, we have been able to fix the problems that forced us to temporarily make this area not public.

Miscellaneous

Will Sirus stay in the game?

Sirus' place in the endgame hasn't changed for now. The Echoes of the Atlas endgame content runs in parallel to the Conquerors of the Atlas content, rather than replacing any of it. That content may be removed from Path of Exile in the future.

What are the redacted items in the news schedule?

They are 'Atlas Passive Trees' and 'Ascendancy Classes'. We'll reveal the Atlas Passive Trees tomorrow and the Ascendancy Classes the day after.

Can we have the awesome background for the livestream as a wallpaper?

Yes, we'll get this sorted and share it in the news as soon as possible.

Does the resonance on Trinity Support have a cap?

Yes, each element's resonance is capped at 50.

How does ignite scale when you have Blackflame equipped?

It works like a "damage taken as X" stat. Essentially, your ignites will scale with your own fire/burning damage stats as usual and not with chaos damage stats. However, the monster's damage taken will be scaled by chaos damage affecting stats like chaos resistance and wither (and not by fire resistance, etc).

Are Alpha testers eligible for prizes in league start competitions?

No.

As this expansion is boss-driven, will there be rebalance of experience and item drops for boss encounters?

Experience and items that gained from bosses have not been rebalanced, as we don't expect these fights to take significantly more time to complete.

Will you ever implement the trade website in-game?

This is not against our philosophy about trade and we would like to include this at some point, but from a technical perspective this will take some time.

Do you have any thoughts on support characters?

It is really important to see a diversity of playstyles. Our team has a lot of love for support characters so there will likely be more for them in the future.

Are there going to be stash tabs for Heist, Harvest and Ritual?

There are no new stash tabs being introduced at this time.

Will the new maps add 11 to the maximum Atlas completion bonuses?

Yes. Well actually 10, since Hall of Grandmasters no longer grants completion bonuses in 3.13.