the dust has settled, and Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Calgar has been fully revealed, and the patch is massive. It's likely the largest expansion in Path of Exile history, but that's not the most important thing that we need to discuss today. In fact, the most vital piece of information about this entire patch cycle was answered during Ziggy's interview with Mark Roberts and Jonathan Rogers, the game directors on Path of Exile. And Path of Exile, it was the very first question, and it's so important that we reflect on Jonathan's answer to it. Essentially, Ziggy D asked, Well, this expansion, this league, all this content that you're delivering in Path of Exile 1 here today for 3.25, because this is a farewell to Path of Exile 1, this is a happy sendoff to a game that you've been developing for more than a decade, and after this, PoE 2 is coming. Coming out, early access starts soon, there's going to be a closed beta.

period. beginning with a small set of people. in the very near future. you can sign up for that on Path of Exile 2.com. register by the way. and essentially. Settlers of calgar is just the culmination of all the Path of Exile one expansions and updates and leagues that grinding gear games has put out over the years. you know they started with tiny ones like Anarchy an onslaught. slowly built up to systems like breach. and then the Forbidden sanctum. and just last League. we had a crazy crafting system with necropolis. and now in 3.25. we have a city building mechanic. trading ship building. new boss fights. endgame revamps. a complete change to some of the biggest balance systems in the game. currency auction houses in the game. and more. this is it. this is the end of path of EX one. after this. there's tiny expansions coming out right now. of course Ziggy asked it far more succinctly than that. and we can play a brief part of the clip right here. but

Jonathan simply answers and says, This does this feel like to you guys? And I've seen this theory float it around a lot of a bit of a a bit of a sendoff league for Path of Exile 1. I guess I don't really see it that way because, you know, we intend to keep on making POE1 leagues. It really is just, you know, the standard lead cycle. You know, we wouldn't want people to think, Oh yeah, this is like the last PEW League or something like that, right? It's definitely not the case. You should expect to see things of this size in the future as well. That's right, Jonathan Rogers doesn't want people to get the wrong idea. And it's an idea that I've been spreading for quite some time in the lead up to Settlers of Calgar. It's that this is the final Path of Exile one expansion before P2 comes out. And then after then, a lot of the focus is going to be on PUE 2. Well, that's not what Jonathan thinks in the

slightest, and I don't think that's what Mark Roberts thinks either. These people play their games, they're involved with their Community, they understand the fundamentals of why people enjoy Path of Exile 1, and they think they know why people will enjoy Path of Exile 2. And as development has furthered on that sequel that a long time ago was supposed to be a part of the main game, now they are just so so different that they know that they can capture two communities here. They can Run Two args at the same time and please both audiences. And settlers of calgar isn't the end of Path of Exile's expansions, no, not in the slightest. In fact, I'm seeing it as the beginning of 4.0, especially if a lot of these systems go core. I'm surprised they didn't change it from 3.25 to 4.0. Jonathan Rogers said this is going to continue in the future. When Path of Exile 2 comes out, we're still putting out Path of Exile 1 content, and it's

going to be quality. It's going to be of this size. The Cadence, hopefully, will be quicker. He understands that P2 won't be for everyone, and a lot of people will still play P1 and prefer that game. And a lot of P2 players, well, they'll come back and play P1. So, Settlers of Kar is really trying to cement that fact to us, the community, and the broader gaming space. There were so many eyes on this announcement today, and on a day when Diablo I announced their Spiritborn class. I mean, it's just interesting to see the differences between development, what happens when a developer really understands their audience, almost all the time, especially when a developer plays the game consistently. You know, finally, Mark Roberts, he is at the helm, Grinding Gear Games, and Path of Exile. One, I love Chris Wilson, he's great. I enjoyed listening to him talk endlessly about the game. His opinions, though, it appears that they might be outdated for a lot of people who are currently

enjoying ARPGs, and with Mark Roberts at the helm for PoE1, and Jonathan Rogers making some decisions for PoE1 and PoE2, a lot of PoE1 is being modernized while keeping that depth and complexity that lots of people love about the game. And of course, the Zoomin too. It's a lot to take in, I know, and I'd like to talk about a few different opinions that I see wandering around out there: a cynical opinion, a middle-of-the-road opinion on all this, and the right opinion, the good opinion, and the opinion that I have about Path of Exile 1's development and Path of Exile 2's future. The cynical take here is that they're just trying to grab as much money as possible with this last expansion before they completely halt development on Path of Exile 1 and put it all on Path of Exile 2 once it comes out. A lot of people are saying that there's some new supporter packs out there, two $90 supporter packs. They want people to buy those so they put out

a hella big expansion. It's going to last, you know, five, six months, maybe until Path of Exile 2 is solid on the ground and running with its own two feet. And that's the only reason they made Settlers of Calgar such a massive experience - to grab the money, to keep players playing until PoE 2 is ready to go. And then they're just going to say see ya, PoE1, I'm out of here. Now, I'll fully deflate that argument with my final argument here, but I'll just slowly combat it right now. I don't think that's the case at all. Maybe if Grinding Gear Games was a different developer whom we did not know too much about, who we did not see so transparently, and who didn't communicate so openly with us, maybe I'd believe you there. But after what Jonathan said today and what he said in the lead-up to this, I really believe that he's telling the truth. It's one thing to do what he's been saying and saying oh.

yeah, you know, we're going to continue putting out big PeeWee One updates even when Pee2 releases. So on and so forth. Well, this update in particular obviously has been cooking for a long time. And even though some of the systems that they're using in it are from Path of Exile to like respecing with gold or the currency auction house, it's still such substantial changes to the fundamentals of PU1. In such a good move in a positive direction. I do believe this will continue in the future. They're not done at all with PE1. This isn't just a cash grab anymore. They're not like other companies out there. They could be making a ton of money, a ton more money right now, especially if they released P P2. Honestly, they could smash sales records with a PU2 release. Instead, they've been delaying it and delaying it. I really think now after this PU1, keeping it up is not going to be a cash for grab in the slightest. I don't think that argument has any merit presently. So that

was the cynical take now the middle of the road argument here. Once pu2 releases Path of Exile 1 will slowly but surely fade into the distance. It's going to ride off into the sunset. This is the beginning of that ride and sometimes rides begin gloriously. Right? Settlers of calgar is a massive expansion. But how in the world could they top this expansion in the future? After all, they're bringing a bunch of modernizations from pe2 into pe1 with it. They're making tons of huge improvements, lots of balance shifts, the content. This content people have been asking for it for quite some time. How could they top themselves here? And to that, I say maybe this has some more credence to it once Path of Exile 2 releases. If pu2 consistently draws larger and larger player numbers than pee2 and pee1, rather, I could see Grinding Gear Games slowly phasing out pe1 updates over time. And I'm talking about 3 to 5 years, not quick like the

cynical people think you know oh pee2 is out pee1 is done forever now. I could see between 3 and 5 years pee1 slowly getting smaller and smaller and smaller in pee2 just becoming a Titan of the arpg industry. However, I do think if that core Community does stay there and the developers at Gro games still do enjoy developing Path of Exile 1 as they seem to right now, it's just going to continue to get these updates. Mark Roberts even though he enjoys pe2, he's designing lots of the bosses there, he probably has lots of input on the game design in that sequel, obviously loves pu1. The currency trading system is being implemented in pu1 right now because he was frustrated trading with catalysts. He plays the game, he understands our troubles, he understands why we love the game, and he knows some of the big issues with it right item quantity being one of them and now that's gone in pee1 essentially now it's just item Rarity we're no longer going

to have the extreme bloat that we've seen for so many leagues now. He understands that was a problem now gone from the game. I think that's just going to continue to happen, and they're going to continue to put wild ideas into the game. They've been impressing us for more than a decade now. Just because pe2 is releasing doesn't mean that it's going to stop. Like I've said a few times in this video, they are fundamentally different games now, and they may have fundamentally different core audiences, even though both of them might intersect a lot of the time. And finally, for the good right take, which is my take here, what's actually going to happen pu1 and pu2 are going to be the way that arpg or sequels should have always been developed. I'll take an example right here, right now that a lot of you may understand. You might not understand, and that's Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 are

fundamentally different games. Completely different. One is like a group finding dungeon fighter with, you know, Max party size of like eight or something or 10. And you go and you fight Dungeons and you can use AI Companions and collect stuff. It's not open world. Everything is instance. Then Guild Wars 2, pure open world, a very small endgame of instanced content, lots of achievement, blah blah blah blah blah. Very different games. Guild Wars 1 essentially ceased development when Guild Wars 2 began its production and then eventually when it released. And that has always upset people because Guild Wars 1 is such a distinct experience and lots of people could see the value in continuing to put out expansions and changing the game, changing the balance, adding new items, adding new classes, new monsters, new bosses, new fights, everything. And it just halted when Guild Wars 2 came out. And only Guild Wars I was developed. That Community fractured. It shattered. And it's a true shame. And I think grinding your games is seeking to do almost The

Impossible. Here, they're seeking to run PoE1 and PoE2 the way Guild Wars 1 and Guild 2 should have run. PoE2 is going to come out. It's going to be fundamentally different from PoE1, but they are going to continue developing them concurrently. They're basically going to try to do what Blizzard is now doing with World of Warcraft retail and WoW Classic. If WoW Classic just always continued to exist and get classic updates, and then retail just kept expanding the world, expanding the story, releasing lots of new broken stuff, you know, updating the graphics and animations, all that stuff. What they're doing is genius, and I'm all here for it, and I know lots of other people are too. We don't need to turn this into a war between Path of Exile 1 players and Path of Exile 2 players. The investment is there from Grinding Gear Games, and the commitment is there. They're making console native console updates to PoE1. They don't want to put all that effort in if they're not going to continue updating this game and make

sure, it's a compelling experience for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of players in the future. We have a long, long future ahead of us for both PoE1 and PoE2, and I think that's the one biggest thing we can take away from GGG live today. There were lots of balance changes. This is a completely new game, essentially, and we're going to talk about a lot of that on this channel in the next few days. It's going to be a wild ride. I cannot wait to see you on launch day. I will be streaming on twitch.tv/talk of try and here on this YouTube channel. I hope you joyed me. If you like this video, make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel for more Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2 content, and help me on my journey to 25,000 subscribers and Beyond in the leadup to Path of Exile 2's release. Thank you so much for your ongoing support, and thank you for watching this video right here. I really appreciate it.

exiles. I'll see you in the next video. Takakura, have a wonderful night.

PoE 3.25 - The BIGGEST WIN from Path of Exile Settlers of Kalguur League BY FAR...

Path of Exile's most positive and unhinged content creator.