Path of Exile 3.25: Settlers of Calgar Launch Review

Path of Exile's Settlers of Calgar saw record-breaking player numbers, but also faced significant launch issues for console players. Retaliate skills are highlighted as overpowered.

### Path of Exile 3.25: Settlers of Kelgar Launch Recap and Initial Impressions
* 🎮  Path of Exile's Settlers of Kelgar launch set a new record for peak concurrent players on Steam, reaching **228,000 players online at once**.
* 🎮  Console players faced a significant issue with the virtual keyboard, preventing them from **creating characters and playing for several hours after launch**.
* 💥  Retaliate skills are highlighted as **overpowered and essential for melee builds** in the new league, providing **active and powerful gameplay mechanics**.
* ⏱️  The league mechanic involves timers, so it's recommended to **start early** and not miss interacting with Johan in the first area to **begin the mining process**.
* 👍  Initial impressions from players are overwhelmingly positive, with many enjoying the **new league mechanics and improvements to the game**.
* 💰  The introduction of gold as a currency in the game is well-received, with players finding it **satisfying to collect and use for various purposes**.
* 🏗️  The combination of **city building, currency trading, and new gameplay elements** make Settlers of Kelgar a **highly anticipated and well-received league**.
* 🔮  The overall sentiment is that this league has the potential to be a **major success**, following a less popular previous league, and is expected to **attract a large player base**.

talana Exiles, welcome to another Path of Exile video. Now, I just finished about 12 hours of streaming PoE 3.25: Settlers of Calgar live here on YouTube and over on Twitch, and it was a phenomenal time. In this video, I'd like to talk about some of the most exciting, crazy, or just upsetting moments of the entire launch of PoE Settlers of Calgar, because a lot happened on the day. Even though I had a ton of fun, I was interrupted, many other things were occurring, lots of people popped into the chat, so I have some overpowered things about the game to share with you, maybe some strategies to go for in the new league if you are just starting when you see this video or right after you see this video, or you just want to catch up on the drama that actually occurred on day one of Settlers of Calgar. So, let's start with the most positive news first, and that's the fact that today is the highest peak concurrent players ever playing PoE on

Steam reached its peak. We beat the Crucible record of about 208,000. We hit about 228,000 PE players all online on Steam at the same time. With other platforms combined, including the Standalone client, PS5, Xbox, we likely broke the record for the most players ever on Path of Exile. And I'm going to have a huge video on that coming up later this week. But in today's video, we're just getting all the basics out of the way. That's super exciting, great for Grinding Gear Games. I'm very happy this occurred. However, it came with quite the big hiccup. Console players have been experiencing league launches simultaneously for a little bit now. However, with Settlers of Kelgar, there was a massive issue. The virtual keyboard was not usable on console. Therefore, console players could not create characters. Therefore, they could not enter the game for many hours after launch. The fix came through much faster for Xbox players than PS5 players, who eventually were able to get in, but they weren't playing until midnight Eastern.

Time essentially which is really unfortunate for them. People who were waiting for this big launch. It sucked because they had to wait a really long time. There were a lot of upset people, a lot of understanding people too because, you know, it wasn't Grinding Gear Games. Grinding Gear Games made that initial mistake. They fixed it very quickly but then they had to go through Sony and Microsoft. And this is one of the issues that people are thinking about crossplay and cross progression in PE2 because for issues like this, all the changes, even a changes minor of this, has to be approved by Sony and Microsoft. So I know a lot of people experienced or expressed trepidation with that happening with PE2 with everything being on one server. Well, we saw a little glimpse of it today. It was very unfortunate. They did get it fixed, however, it was quite the hiccup and lots of console players were upset. Of course, it was ridiculous seeing some of the forum posts, Reddit posts, and the like and people in chat were very heated about this. Chill, it's all right.

happens. It really does happen. I'm really happy that console players are now being able to play much faster than they were before because in the historic past, for a very, very long time, console players had to wait days and days and days to actually play The League after PC players got their hands on it. So we're in a much better state today, and I'm glad that Grinding Gear Games worked very hard to get that patch out ASAP, and then Sony and Microsoft approved it. So that was great, that was a great win, and that was an unfortunate occurrence. Now some stuff about the game itself. Number one, I just need to tell you right here, right now, retaliate skills are busted. If you are not using a retaliate skill and you're playing bleed last rate Gladiator, equip one now. I would recommend eviscerate or crushing fist. I used both, you can even use both, but eviscerate is definitely better. The way that these skills play is amazing. Essentially, I think retaliate skills, at least in this short window of time I've played PEW

with them in the game, they are the solution to melee and reactivity and action-oriented gameplay wherein Grinding Gear Games always thought they had to build PE2 to solve melee. While adding in these skills, which don't have new character animations, they just have skill effects and the like, really give you that PE V2 feeling because they're not automatic, they're active skills. Crushing Fist, you have to use once you've blocked an attack, and then you bring down a great fist upon your foes and a huge AOE slam. This rate is basically a massive lacerate in two diagonal swipes, it's super cool. Both of them are quite fulfilling. I haven't tried the other retaliate skills, but in addition to them just being awesome, they're also broken powerful. Their damage is as ridiculous as we thought it was on the skill gems. Once you get in-game and you actually start to buff them with support gems, it's ridiculous. I had Fist of War and Brutality support on my Crushing Fist, and I was blowing up.

monsters left and right. And now on my last Ray Gladiator, I have Eviscerate with Maim support and Volatility support, and it is dealing tremendous damage and setting up packs to be exploded by my Gleed Explosion Gladiator. And I just said Gleed Explosion. That was a little bit of a mistake there. I'm going to leave that in though. So yeah, check out retaliation skills if you haven't already. They are absolutely awesome and busted. Check those out now. Talking about the league mechanic briefly here. I would get in and start doing it ASAP because there are actually timers involved. And if you're just starting today, maybe you experienced the PS5 or Xbox issues or you couldn't play after work. And you're just starting Saturday morning. Once you get in, do not forget to talk to Johan in that first area after you kill Hillock. He's right there. He invites you to Kings March. You can go there and get started on your mining, which is what you should do first so you can start building up other areas of your town and start

sending ships off on shipping routes to get big boxes of resources in for you. It is vital to do this. I saw many people just completely miss out on Yoham. Zoom right past him and be like, Well, where's Kings March? How am I supposed to get to Kings March? It's Johan. He's in the first area. Talk to him. You can go straight to Kings March. And you want to get the mining going. And after you get the mining going, get your first shipment sent out. It'll probably take about 40 minutes. Lots of people are getting great started uniques from it. I got amazing rares. Lots of people were getting either gold rims or wand lust, very powerful St. uniques from these initial shipments. So if you really want a good League start and you are starting a little late, make sure you get your first shipment out there. Get into Kings March super fast so that you can have it arrive as you're arriving in, you know, maybe Act Two or the beginning of Act Three. All the items.

you get will still be super powerful. In addition to that, it just seems like the feeling around the league is amazing. Many people, besides the console players in my chat, were very pleased with their league start experiences. Lots of them started melee. Lots of them said the game has never felt this good. The campaign has never felt this great. I'm having a blast. I'm going to buy the KX Vault pass. Hey, can I use your link? Yes, that actually happened and it was very cool. I'm just very pleased with what Grinding Gear Games decided to do with this particular patch, and there's going to be a lot of analysis here on how exactly they decided to do this, how they enacted all these changes, and what the league is actually going to play out like because after Necropolis, which was a heartbreaking league, it introduced so many cool systems to the game like T17 maps and the like. With this league following that, it's going to make it even look even better because so many people did not enjoy themselves in a

copess and they're going to have an absolute blast in Settlers of kelgar. There are a lot of reasons that this league has broken the concurrent Peak users over on Steam and probably for the entire Path of Exile game. You know it's the currency trade market, which is basically an auction house. It's there being boats. It's the fact that it's basically kill things in a c league with a whole city Builder attached. It's respecing with gold, which by the way is so simple and easy and gold in the game. I haven't even talked about it yet. Gold being in the game actually feels good. I'm gonna say it. I have dopamine hits when I see that little gold being scooped up into my character and I'm collecting all this gold and then I can use it for all this different stuff, whether it's building up my town, respecing, gambling. Gambling is also fun and it feels like I'm just, you know, just oozing positivity, which is what I do.

seriously, guys. I just played for 12 hours, and instead of going into my bedroom and going to bed and sleeping, I thought, Okay, I should probably get out of video with my initial raw thoughts because I had such a good time. Please, everyone, let me know, did you have a similar experience? Are you starting soon? If you are, what are you League starting? I really can't wait for you to get in Settlers of kelker. It's a great experience. Please let me know what your thoughts are below, and if you liked the video, make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel for more Path of Exile1 or Path of Exile to content, and make sure you have a wonderful evening, afternoon, morning, whatever telura, my fellow exiles.

What the HECK Happened on League Start Day 1 in PoE 3.25: Settlers of Kalguur?!

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The game's launch was a huge success, breaking the record for the highest peak concurrent players on Steam.

However, console players faced a major issue with the virtual keyboard, preventing them from creating characters and entering the game for many hours.

The fix for this issue was faster for Xbox players compared to PS5 players, with the latter not being able to play until midnight Eastern time.

Launch Hiccup and Retaliate Skills in PE2

Grinding Gear Games faced a significant delay in the launch of PE2 on consoles, causing frustration among players, but the issue was eventually resolved.

The game's retaliate skills, particularly eviscerate and crushing fist, are highly recommended for players, as they offer amazing gameplay in the short time since the launch.

The approval process involving Sony and Microsoft for game changes has raised concerns about crossplay and cross-progression in PE2.

The Impact of New Retaliate Skills in the Latest Game Update

Grinding Gear Games has introduced new active retaliate skills in the latest update, which have significantly enhanced the action-oriented gameplay.

These skills, such as Crushing Fist and Eviscerate, have proven to be extremely powerful, especially when combined with support gems, leading to massive damage output.

Players are encouraged to try out these new skills due to their impressive performance.

Additionally, there is a sense of urgency for players to engage in the league mechanic as there are time-sensitive elements, and it is recommended to prioritize speaking to Johan and initiating the mining process early in the game.

Tips for a Successful Start in the New Gaming League

Talking to Johan in the first area is crucial for a fast start to Kings March and initiating mining.

Sending out the first shipment quickly, within about 40 minutes, can yield powerful and unique items.

Many players have had a positive league start experience, particularly with melee characters, and are excited about the new game patch and upcoming league.

The Success of Settlers of Kelgar in Path of Exile

Settlers of Kelgar has broken the concurrent peak user record on Steam due to its unique features like the currency trade market and city building.

The game's gold system provides a positive and rewarding experience for players, including respeccing and gambling.

The enthusiasm for the game is high, with players expressing their excitement and anticipation for the Settlers of Kelgar experience.