Path of Exile’s Act 4 gets a closed beta on 20 April

The fourth act of Grinding Gear’s aRPG Path of Exile will be yawning, stretching its arms and Awakening for a closed beta session on 20 April. You can sign up for a chance to get in on this page, where (by helpful happenstance) you can also read about Act 4.

Over at the Path of Exile forums, Grinding Gear say the plan for the beta is “starting out with a smaller Beta population and expand[ing] it to a large one over approximately six weeks.” So if you don’t get in on the first round of invites, you may very well find a chance to play a month or so down the line.

Act 4 will introduce a whole set of new quests and “all-new areas” to explore, as you face “the legends of Wraeclast” and seek to prevent a cataclysm called The Nightmare. Which, let’s face it, is probably not something you want to allow to happen.

There will be thirteen new skill gems introduced, including the ability to yell war-cries and summon golems to help you out in a fight. 70 new unique items will be showing up too.

As well as this deluge of newness, Path of Exile plans to make various quality of life improvements to the existing interface and in-game systems. These are said to be things like loot filters, chat customisation and even rumours of desync problems being addressed.

Here’s a trailer showing some combat bits and pieces.