Overview
- Grinding Gear Games announced that most red, green and blue sockets will be removed and replaced by gray colorless sockets that accept any skill gem while a small number of colored sockets and color-match bonuses will remain.
- The developer will add a crafting bench in every town so players can more easily apply stats to gear instead of relying on the seldom‑used personal hideout bench.
- Curse of the Allflame will also deliver major activity updates, including reworks to the Abyss and Legion mechanics and the return of recruitable mercenaries shown using the new colorless sockets.
- Game director Mark Roberts and designer Octavian say the changes are intended to lower onboarding friction, bring back players who found the game too complex, and allow the team to rethink other long‑standing systems.
- Socket colors have defined Path of Exile for 13 years and were a common early stumbling block for newcomers; removing them should make gear upgrades and build changes easier and could shift player behavior around item use and crafting.