Today, we wanted to share a story from one of our supporters about their Divination Card, "Justified Ambition"! Inspired by the Synthesis League and added in the Siege of the Atlas Expansion, blah2k6 expands on their design choices for the card's reward and flavour. Check it out!



I have always been a fan of ARPG/Hack&Slay type of games - looting and leveling is just my thing. After having spent almost a decade of playing Diablo 2, I got first contact with Path of Exile during the closed beta in January 2013. At the time I didn't really get hooked and quit the game around level 40.

It took until 2016 when me and some of my Diablo 2 friends were giving Path of Exile another shot. The game was a lot more advanced, Ascendancies were just introduced and there was a lot to learn about the game. Here we are now, 7 years later and I played every single league since Perandus.

One league that particularly stood out to me was Synthesis. Not because of the mechanic itself, but especially because of the voice lines, the music, the whole atmosphere created. So when I purchased the possibility to design a divination card I knew it had to be something around Synthesis league. As I play a lot of SSF and getting access to Synthesis content can be quite difficult I really wanted there to be an additional way to obtain the Synthesis unique maps. I was also very happy to see that it drops from Conquerors and I was able to fill multiple sets of the card in SSF last league.

One particular moment that stuck from Synthesis league was the cut-scene where the player finds out that Cavas (Synthesis League NPC) is actually High Templar Venarius. I wanted the art of the divination card to resemble this cut-scene and was very impressed with the result.

I struggled a bit with an appropriate name and flavor text for the card and was not that happy with what I came up with by myself. Luckily the designers came back with this great suggestion that I really liked. High Templar Venarius was a very ambitious person who had the mindset: the end justified the means. He wanted to save Wraeclast at all costs even if it meant torturing Valdo Caesarius (The Shaper) and threatening to kill his daughter Zana.

I also like the fact that the card has different outcomes and you can end up getting "the jackpot" (Cortex). It has become a well established meme in my guild to post a Cortex resulting from a set of these cards in guild chat followed by a German message thanking me ("danke Robin").

Earlier this week, we announced the winners of the Crucible Fan Art Competition. There were so many incredible entries, so today we'd like to announce the runners-up of the competition. Check them out below!

Thank you again to everyone who submitted their amazing entries! We've once again been blown away by the massive amount of talent in our community. Runners-up can pick a Helmet Effect in the list below as their prize. We'll be contacting them over the next few days to arrange their prizes.



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Einhar Eating Melted Cheese by Meowlock

The Forge of Destiny by Charly0

Waiting by Aireta

PoE Widowhail by 51R3N

Crucible Encounter by Remdah

Champion Forging by Sk_Gunoo

Relics of the Past by ƙloƙɱacɧine

Lithomancer Armour Set by Lorian69

Crucible Scion by Mmidli

There are some regular tickets and balcony tickets available for ExileCon! Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to interact with the developers and community, play the Path of Exile 2 and Path of Exile Mobile game demos, and much more!

If you're interested in attending ExileCon in person, go to pathofexile.com/exilecon to get your ticket now!

Please note that the name on your ticket needs to match your photo ID, so when purchasing a second ticket for your friend or a family member, make sure that the name on that ticket matches their photo ID.

ExileCon 2023 is just around the corner! We can't wait to see you in New Zealand in July!

Our Crucible Fan Art Competition where we asked the community to show off their artistic talent by creating content themed around the Crucible Expansion concluded last week! All your entries were amazing and we're now ready to announce the winners!

Thank you to everyone from our community for your incredible submissions and congratulations to all the winners! We’ll be contacting you soon to arrange your prizes. We’ll also award runners-up in a follow-up post later this week.

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Top Three Winners

Crucible Tarot Card by IKoBuChI

The Molten One by xfey

Karui Crafting by rashkoradu

4th-5th Place

Crucible Title Scene by Karnivorous

Handmade Ceramic Ancestral Vision by Thesnakepit

6th-10th

Tunnel Bear on Break by Reverendwyrm

Forge of the Titans by StellaTheSlaya

Fingers Crossed by Akira159

Forging a Dying Breath by josha_01

Vaal Absolution by Natilo

11th-20th

Sword is Max Level, Amazing by Jakerper

Gifts Bestowed by the Giants by kari000

Crucible Forge Pixel Art by steelsoldier

Marauder at the Forge by PinnyVyx

Offering to the Forge by Torai_Kor

Maroider Forging by francodaniel01

Scion Wielding The Redblade by lolozori

Death Pour by OiKocchiKoi

Crucible Statue by ottom95

3D Printed Crucible Forge by KyIe

Microtransaction Prize Pool

This weekend we are running a Stash Tab Sale! You can view the full selection of discounted tabs here. The Stash Tab sale ends at May 30, 2023 8:00 AM (GMT+8) (this is displayed in your local time).

If you're missing points for the sale, be sure to check out the Crucible and Core Supporter Packs here!

Thanks for your support!

The final ExileCon Qualifier event begins in 30 minutes and you are now able to join the event. Tune into the official stream at twitch.tv/pathofexile to find out who will join imexile, tytykiller and Havoc in the ExileCon 2023 Finals in this last chance qualifier, casted by ZiggyD and RaizQT!

For more information about Qualifier events and their prizepool, check out this announcement.

We also want to remind everyone that the use of inappropriate character and stream names during your run will result in disqualification from this event or future race events in the series. You can find out more in our PSA last week here.

We'd also like to mention that while the event is fixed seed, when Einhar spawns by chance in an area, he can slightly affect parts of the layout of the zone but the rest of the area will be the same.

If you want to watch the last few qualifier events, you can check out the VODs below:

• Qualifier 1
• Qualifier 2
• Qualifier 3

Good luck everyone!

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If you missed the race, check out the VOD here or open the spoiler below to see the results!

The Third and second to last ExileCon Qualifier event begins in 30 minutes and you are now able to join the event. Who will join imexile and tytykiller at the ExileCon Finale in July? Tune into the official stream at twitch.tv/pathofexile to find out in this nailbiting race, casted by ZiggyD and RaizQT!

If you aren't able to compete in today's event, there is still one last ExileCon Qualifier after this one, same time next week on Thursday at 2PM PDT! For more information about Qualifier events and their prizepool, check out this announcement.

We also want to remind everyone that the use of inappropriate character and stream names during your run will result in disqualification from this event or future race events in the series. You can find out more in our PSA last week here.

We'd also like to mention that while the event is fixed seed, when Einhar spawns by chance in an area, he can slightly affect parts of the layout of the zone but the rest of the area will be the same.

If you missed the last couple of qualifiers, you can check out the VOD of the first qualifier here or the second qualifier here!

Good luck everyone!

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In today's news post, we sat down with long-time community member Waggle! Competing as a finalist in ExileCon 2019, Waggle is a multi-talented player that dabbles in both competitive and community events! Check out the interview below!

Hi Waggle, thank you for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself:

Hey, thanks for having me. I'm Waggle, a mostly HC trade enjoyer, but I've dabbled in just about every game/league mode Path of Exile has had to offer because I really like trying different things (except ruthless, sorry Chris, it's too RUTHLESS)

When did you first get into Path of Exile?

I heard about Path of Exile very shortly before the open beta at the start of 2013. A buddy I had played Everquest with told me about it, and I decided to give it a shot with basically no info on the game other than that it was an ARPG.

What one thing caught your attention in the beginning and what one thing kept you coming back?

Definitely the character customization, the passive tree in particular, was a huge pull for me when I first started playing. Final Fantasy 10 was one of my favorite games growing up and having the same reaction a lot of players did of "hey this is kinda like a newer, cooler sphere grid". Planning out new characters & builds is also the second biggest thing that keeps me coming back, with the main reason being the constant content updates themselves.

Are there any highlights from your time playing Path of Exile that stand out in your memory?

If I had to pick one, I think I would have to go all the way back to beating Uber Atziri for the first time in Ambush League (I was but a simple SC gamer at the time), that was the point where Path of Exile went from being "a" game that I played, to being THE game that I played.

Do you have a favourite build?

This is a question I get asked on stream from time to time, and it's always a hard one to answer because I really enjoy the process of making builds, and it's a very similar experience even if the builds themselves are extremely different. If I had to pick 1 build I think it would probably be Essence Drain CI Trickster, back when Trickster had Ghost Shrouds on the Ascendancy... and they were really OP :)

Which expansion has been your favourite so far?

EASILY Sentinel League, even ignoring how it was super OP for exp grinding, loot drops, AND crafting. The way it took a lot of items/mods that hadn't really been relevant, and gave you huge incentive to go farm them, was a really cool feeling. Plus the overall state of the endgame was (and still is) in a really good spot with that league YES EVEN ARCHNEMESIS GOING CORE IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD AFTER THE FIRST LIKE TWO WEEKS!

What's one thing every Path of Exile player should hear?

Tink

When did you first start streaming? How did you get into it?

I started streaming sometime in early-mid 2016, initially just to stream races during the old race seasons. Was watching my friends streaming their races and thought "hey I could do this too"

What can people expect from your stream and schedule?

When I'm playing Path of Exile, it's a lot of build planning/theorycrafting, farming new league stuff, and crafting gear. Occasionally mix in a league start race, or maybe some race commentary if there's an event going on. My usual schedule is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4pm-midnight EST, most days of the week.

What were you doing before you started streaming?

Before I started streaming I had recently graduated college with a degree in computer science. While in school I also worked part time at a preschool as an after school daycare teacher, the best training for dealing with twitch chat.

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?

Whether I'm streaming or not, I'd say the majority of my free time is either spent gaming or on twitch, or both. I really enjoy watching esports in particular, mainly CSGO.

How has your life changed from before you were streaming until now? What role has streaming played in that transition?

Lifestyle wise I wouldn't say much has changed. But streaming has introduced me to a ton of people I probably otherwise wouldn't have met, which is really cool.

Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the streaming community?

I would personally love to see more 1-2 day long community races/competitive events, but I think it can be a really hard thing to do well & find timing inbetween all the other community/official events.

Do you have any advice for people who are looking to make their own career out of streaming?

Probably a generic answer, but definitely don't start streaming with the intention of making it into a career. Start because you think you might enjoy it, and if you do, then maybe try and find one specific aspect of whatever you are streaming (for example, playing Righteous Fire builds in Path of Exile), and become THE Righteous Fire person. You probably all know who that is already which shows how well it can be done :)

Are there any up and coming streamers that you'd like to shine a spotlight on?

I'm generally not up to date with newer streamers, but with the recent ExileCon qualifier races I can shout out some very solid racers that may or may not stream other stuff as well. keld0rn, stone_cold_poe, phazeplays, sargetwo, allexpleblord, & gaijinlag (and probably more tbh, there's a lot of very solid racers now it's hard to keep track of them all)

Do you have any projects on the horizon you'd like to talk about?

I pretty much plan things day by day so I generally don't have any big projects in the works, the closest thing would be I set a goal for myself that I want to get a mirror to drop in Path of Exile before Path of Exile2 launches. Probably gonna have to roll SC trade and spam feared invitations and pray pretty soon to make that come true...

You competed as a finalist in the ExileCon 2019 race. Do you have any memorable moments from that race or the event in particular?

Nah, no memorable moments, especially not any within the very first minute of the race. I randomly ended up in the same PC cafe as Havoc the day of the race, both of us completely focused practicing while probably nobody else there even knew what we were playing.

Do you plan to come to New Zealand for ExileCon 2023? If so, is there anything outside of ExileCon that you're keen on checking out?

Sitting out ExileCon this year, I'll be at home restreaming the event and doing insanely top tier REACTION content, heckin love reacting!!!

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Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to follow Waggle, you can do so on YouTube, and Twitch.