The rebalancing for the Path of Exile expansion The Fall of Oriath, which will be released this summer, is in full swing. After a detailed explanation of how and why the Damage-over-Time effects are changed, followed tonight the 2nd developer blog on the subject.

We have selected and translated the most important points for you.

Poison and bleed as diseases / ailments

So far, Path of Exile knew 4 ailments: Ignite, Chill, Freeze, Shock
These were called Elemental Status Ailments, Poison and Bleed are now also classified in this category. This is mainly important for the classification as an effect, as it is not influenced by modifications for Skill Gems. For this, there will be special talent points with the expansion, which specifically enhance poison or bleed effects.
All existing effects that influence these categories will be adapted in the course of development.

Ailments are no longer affected by Critical Damage Multiplier. This is a side effect of the change that their base damage is no longer determined by the last hit.
Along with a new Keystone Talent that applies a large part of the Hit Mods to Ailment damage, Poison and Bleed characters are still possible and effective.

Path of Exile - Ailment immunities from bosses

These immunities that were previously present in the game had their justification in the story or for technical reasons. Nevertheless, these are now largely abolished in order not to punish characters who are based on Ailment damage. Especially with regard to chill and freeze effects, this is a tightrope walk between playability and trivializing opponents. The developers will pay more attention to this topic in the further beta.

A variety of new item mods will also be introduced such as:
Increased poison damage to daggers, claws, swords, and bows
Increased bleeding damage on clubs, axes, swords and bows
Etc.

Another skill must be adapted and changed accordingly: Essence Drain. Its modifier for Spell Damage previously worked on damage over time effects. For The Fall of Oriath this is now adjusted so that the character's spell damage really only affects the damage over time of the spell.

Some of the changes are really very technical, but it shows that the developers are addressing the issue and doing their best to provide a more balanced gaming experience. That they are trying to do this without digging into the ground with popular character builds is very positive.

The Path of Exile expansion The Fall of Oriath will probably be released in July 2017 and change the game from 5 acts to 10 including complete rebalancing of skills.

There are also some new graphics of the extension, On this page GGG shows two revised NPC models in a before and after comparison.