Path of Exile Update 3.5.3 Out This Week With Betrayal Bugs and Fixes

Grinding Gear Games is gearing up to reveal plans for its free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile in the coming weeks. Before it announces its 3.6.0 expansion though, a new patch for the Betrayal league will be out this week. Along with a few new features – like eight new Grandmasters being added to the Hall of Grandmasters – it also brings a number of fixes and improvements to the league.

Ever felt annoyed about the Passive Skill Tree not immediately opening while the Betrayal Investigation board is open? You can now immediately go into the latter, even if the board is open. Entering Safehouses during a Research encounter is no longer possible, which is good, since the encounter can’t be re-entered if you leave. On the other hand, entering a Safehouse during a mission for Zana will no longer prevent you from re-entering her map.

Grinding Gear Games does note that the list of fixes could change before update 3.5.3 releases. The update will be live by the end of this week on both PC and Xbox One. As for the PS4 version of the game itself, it’s still scheduled to release in February. Stay tuned for more details, and check out the current patch notes for update 3.5.3 below.

Features and General Fixes

• Added eight new Grandmasters to the Hall of Grandmasters.
• Updated the appearance of the bridges in Crater Map..
• Adjusted the default location of the Map Device in the Brutal Hideout.
• The Stoneskin Elite monsters in the Primordial Blocks Map boss encounter can no longer be consumed or have their corpse destroyed.
• Fixed a bug that prevented SSF and Private League “Migrate All” actions from working.
• Fixed a bug where an Incursion Temple was generated using the area level of the area in which you last opened a Temple. This means that if you had opened an Incursion Temple from an area of level 67 or lower (including your hideout), the next temple would not be able to generate the Surveyor’s Study or the Royal Meeting Room.
• Fixed a bug where Alva’s minimap icon sometimes did not display.
• Fixed various visual issues where some monster skills didn’t render the correct visuals.
• Fixed a bug where totems could be summoned through closed doors by using the Multiple Totems Support gem.
• Fixed a bug where the Unnatural Instinct unique jewel did not grant “chance to Dodge Attack Hits” when placed above the Acrobatics keystone.
• Fixed a bug where players could take damage from Burning Ground while they had Soul of Abberath’s “Unaffected by Burning Ground” modifier if they had too significantly increased the effect of Auras on themselves.
• Fixed a bug where Herald of the Obelisk totems were not always removed upon killing a Sewer Goliath Bloodlines pack.
• Fixed a bug where the “Complete the Labyrinth Trial” Zana mission sometimes only spawned a single portal.
• While in PvP areas, the Invisible Buff Effect microtransaction no longer applies to Banner skills, auras and Herald skills, Phase Run, Blood Rage, Arctic Armour, Tempest Shield, Molten Shell and Vaal Molten Shell.
• Fixed various rare cases of discoverable hideouts not having monsters, making it impossible to claim.
• Fixed a visual bug with the Faith Guard Shield, Blood Guard Shield and Oriath Shield microtransactions which hid portions of effects behind the shield.
• Fixed a visual bug with the Scion’s left arm when wearing the Sin Body Armour.
• Ice Spear with the Swordfish Ice Spear Effect applied to it has been updated to better fit the new Ice Spear visual effects.

Betrayal Fixes

• You can no longer place Jewels, Abyss Jewels, Maps or Fishing Rods into Guff’s Essence-only Crafting Spree bench. This is because Essences cannot be used on any of these item base types.
• You can now open the Passive Skill Tree while you have the Betrayal Investigation board open.
• You can no longer open a Safehouse while in a Research encounter. This is because you are not able to re-enter a Research encounter once you have left, effectively preventing you from ever leaving or re-entering the Safehouse.
• Entering a Safehouse while in a “Don’t die or leave Zana’s Map” Zana mission no longer prevents you from re-entering Zana’s Map.
• Added an error prompt if you tried to open a Trapped Stash safehouse reward while the timer of another Trapped Stash was still running.
• Improved Vorici’s death animation and audio.
• Fixed various cases where Fortification encounters could spawn in unreachable locations.
• Fixed various cases where some Fortification encounters were heavily populated with trees.
• Fixed various cases where monsters could spawn in unreachable locations.
• Fixed a bug where Tzamoto, Architect of Torments and Zantipi, Architect of Concealment in the Incursion Temple did not count towards completion of the “Defeat Incursion Architects” challenge.
• Fixed a bug where the Interrogate option sometimes displayed the wrong division it would grant intelligence to.
• Fixed a bug where Syndicate members sometimes used incorrect dialogue.
• Fixed a bug where choices in the Betrayal Investigation board were not always on top and could be hidden by the Betrayal Help button.
• Fixed a bug where Vorici and the Mastermind’s body could be at a different location than their nameplate if they were killed as they were teleporting.
• Fixed a bug where the Mastermind’s ground effect skill rendered at a height lower than intended. This also fixes a case where players could sometimes take damage from an invisible ground effect.

Performance Fixes

• Optimised serverside calculation of damage and on-death explosions. This should result in a noticeable reduction in frame lag when killing large packs of monsters, especially when using explode effects (such as Inpulsa’s Broken Heart and Profane Bloom).
• Improved the performance of the Withered and Hindered debuff effects.
• Improved the performance of the Shrouded Bloodlines effect.
• Improved the performance of the on-death explosion from Hellion monsters.
• Improved the performance in the boss arenas of Shavronne’s Tower and Tower Map.
• Improved the performance in the boss arena of Villa Map.
• Improved the performance of various skills in the Merveil encounters.
• Improved the performance of various skills in the Malachai encounters.

Crash Fixes

• Fixed a client crash that could occur when entering the Arachnid Tomb Map.
• Fixed a rare client crash that could occur when using Essence Drain.