Path of Exile’s Atlas of Worlds expansion is huge, releases September 2

A few months after Ascendancy and its 19 character classes, we're getting close to a new Path of Exile expansion, and this is a big one. Atlas of Worlds releases September 2 and revamps the endgame, with 30 new maps for a grand total of 100. With this expansion, the maps are now interconnected, with different paths to get to the center of the Atlas and finally face the mysterious character known as the Shaper. However, you're not stuck in one path and one of the four Guardians to face, as the pathways branch out occasionally and you can change your path this way. The Shaper isn't the only one for you to face; there are 19 new bosses in total within Atlas of Worlds.

The Atlas of Worlds marks the start of the three-month challenge league called Essence. The goal is to find mobs frozen in Essence, set them free and then battle them to collect the valuable essence, which is a crafting material that comes in 25 varieties and is used to upgrade your items rarity and give them guaranteed properties.

Then there's an effort on optimization, with multi-threading to improve performance.

Widely considered as the one of the greatest hack and slash games ever made, with outstanding support and updates, and one of the best uses of the free-to-play business model (other studios should definitely look into it), Path of Exile currently has over 14 million registered players.