Path of Exile: Sentinel expansion adds ‘drones’ that can buff enemies, and improves the endgame

pcinvasion.com:

Grinding Gear Games revealed the next expansion to Path of Exile: Sentinel, in a livestream today. But while Sentinel won’t be as substantially large as previous expansions, it adds some interesting changes to the overall formula. Sentinels, for example, can be taken on your journeys. These constructs can buff enemies — an effect that improves your odds for better loot. Path of Exile: Sentinel also provides some changes to the reworked endgame brought by Siege of the Atlas.

Sentinels, of course, are the main draw of the new expansion. I got to preview the content ahead of the livestream along with a few others, but, as per the usual, GGG has introduced a ton of information to parse through. To keep it simple, Sentinels are “ancient constructs” that offer you more control of loot gathering.

Sentinels come in three types, and, when used, fire beams that empower enemies. There’s a Sentinel that can buff groups, and another that targets rare and unique enemies. Empowered foes are much stronger, but defeating them may reward in better loot. Sentinels come as drops in the game, and you’ll find more of them in the early game as opposed to later in your run, GGG’s Chris Wilson told us.

Meet your new “allies.”

There are three types of Sentinels to discover in Wraeclast. The red Stalker Sentinel hovers behind you for half a minute once activated, empowering every enemy you meet. The blue, Pandemonium Sentinel is the polar opposite of the Stalker, disappearing the moment it fires. Its shot will cover an area, with its effect chaining through enemies. Wilson described the Sentinel as “dangerous,” as it “empowers so many enemies at one time.” Finally, we have the yellow Apex Sentinel, which only buff elite enemies — but only for a