POE 3.23 Affliction patch notes have been released. In my opinion, this is the biggest and best Path of Exile update in a while. The patch notes are long, but I’m going to touch on the things that stood out to me.

There were many predictions about Affliction before it released the patch, but none of us expected new Ascendancies to appear in Affliction League. Honestly, when I saw the trailer, I was shocked, but in a good way.

Affliction is an in-map mechanic. Unlike Trial of the Ancestors or Heist, you don’t have to leave the map and enter a completely original area to do so. While mapping, you’ll encounter Sacred Wisps, which allow you to teleport to a place called Viridian Wildwood. You’ll be able to explore the forest and find new valuable rewards, new powers, and even new bosses.

New Ascendancies

Next comes the most exciting part of Affliction League - three new Ascendancies that you can choose from in addition to the regular Ascendancies.

The first Ascendancy was called Warden Of The Maji. This Ascendancy specializes in Flasks and Tinctures, while also providing some form of defense via Barkskin skill and Oath of the Maji.

The second Ascendancy, Warlock of the Mists, lets you manipulate corpses for more damage and provides protection against monsters that share the creature type with the corpse. In addition to gaining 3 new curses, you can purchase corpses from NPCs and summon them as spectres. This Ascendancy class should be suitable for Minion builds and Aurabots.

The last one is called Wildwood Primalist. This one is very interesting because if you have enough POE Currency budget, you can buy charms from NPCs to create your own Ascendancy class.

Also Read: Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction Is Coming! - Everything You Need To Know About Affliction

This Ascendancy class has very high potential. Imagine that we could buy some powerful charms from NPCs. This Ascendancy class could be pretty insane. I think most players will choose this Ascendancy class at the beginning of the league.

When Sacred Wisps run out of energy, they will take you back to where you came from, along with the other Wisps you collected. These Wisps then disperse into the environment and inhabit randomly selected monsters in the area, increasing their power and bonuses.

Buffs (Skill Gems)

Now, let’s talk buffs and nerfs. I’ll start with skill gem buffs.

Divine Ire’s damage is greatly increased. It now has up to 10 stages instead of 20. Meanwhile, after the first stage, the hits and failures in each stage will also receive more damage.

I’ve played self-cast Divine Ire before, but the channeling play style felt clunky. But Divine Ire Totem should be very good. Totem will automatically release its beam once it reaches its maximum stage. Since the maximum level is now 10, it can release faster the beam.

Cobra Lash gets a huge buff at both clear speed and single target thanks to the extra chain. I think this will be a popular league starter.

Animated Guardian now has more minion maximum life. Because some Animated Guardians are very expensive to set up, and the last thing you want is for them to die.

In addition to Animated Guardian, many minions now have more lives, such as Summon Carrion Golem, Summon Fire Golem and Summon Reaper.

Rolling Magma now gains +2 chains at 20% quality. Someone might come up with some insane and fun Rolling Magma builds with this change. Something like using Sire of Shards to clear the entire screen would be really fun.

Finally, Arc also gets a buff. The 15% increase in damage done by hits and ailments means Ignite Arc should be pretty good in the next league.

Nerfs (Skill Gems)

Continuing with the discussion of skill gem nerfs. Our endgame Righteous Fire was nerfed. Righteous Fire should perform better in the campaign, but you’ll quickly hit a wall when you get to the map.

This is because it has removed base fire damage from the skill gem, so now you can only adjust life and energy shield to get the same amount of damage. To do that, you’re going to have to sacrifice things like gear damage, which isn’t ideal.

Also, stacking health means you won’t be able to scale Fire Trap, which is a tremendous loss of damage to a single target.

Some people might build Righteous Fire using Rathpith Globe, but I think the additional Divine Orbs it would require would also be much higher.

Vortex, another popular league starter has also been nerfed. It is no longer instant, and it has significantly reduced its damage at gem level 20.

Finally, Purity Auras no longer provide higher AOE at 20% quality, which is a nerf to minion builds. However, if you use them yourself, this change is considered a buff.

Nerfs (Unique Items)

What would happen to Path of Exile if it wasn’t nerfed? This time around, the nerf hammer has finally hit some very popular unique items like Heatshiver and Kaom’s Spirit. I mean, these are all expected.

Many people thought that Heatshiver in Trial of the Ancestors would be weakened, but unexpectedly it survived. And now it’s finally time to be nerfed. Heatshiver now only allows you to gain 30% of cold damage as bonus fire damage against frozen enemies instead of 100%, which is obviously an enormous loss of damage.

This will affect builds such as Frost Blades, Ice Trap and Cold Shockwave Totem. My Cold Shockwave Totem build survives because it doesn’t use Heatshiver or Replica Dragonfang’s Flight.

As for Kaom’s Spirit, it now restores 1 Rage per second for every 300 health restored, instead of 100 health per second. This will affect a lot of builds, mainly attack builds like Frost Blades, Flicker Strike and Tornado Shot.

However, if you have very high life regeneration, such as if you play Inquisitor or Guardian, this recent change can be easily overcome.

Transfigured Gems

In Affliction League, Alternate Quality Gems, Labyrinth Helmet Enchantments and Unique Threshold Jewels will be combined into a new system called Transfigured Gems. It serves as an alternative version of the skill gem, with different functionality and balance.

The new Transfigured Gems offer huge potential for completely new builds, such as Raise Zombie of Falling. You can now summon zombies from the air instead of from the ground.

We’ll be getting over 100 Transfigured Gems, and I can’t wait to see how they interact with the monsters.

Also, any skill gem nerfs we receive will probably be turned into buffs for Transfigured Gems, but we won’t know until the details come out.

Ultimatum & Metamorph

Another thing is, Ultimatum is back. I think more people will choose this over the other mechanics they normally do because it’s such a great value.

With Ultimatum replacing Metamorph, we also get Ultimatum’s unique Atlas passives.

I’m glad to see Metamorph is actually gone. Because Metamorph, as one of the extra content, feels bland. It all depends on the reward. When we have other mechanics like Harvest and Expedition, there will be no reason to farm Metamorph as we do now.

Gemcutter’s Prism Vendor Recipe

Before I wrap up, I’d like to mention that Gemcutter’s Prism Vendor Recipe has been removed. This means you now have to pick up all the good gems and sell them to get Gemcutter’s Prism early in the game.

Also, we may see an increase in the price of Gemcutter’s Prism in Affliction, and a 20% reduction in the number of premium skill gems on the market during the start of the league. Note, however, that this change does not affect non-awakened support gems.

Conclusion

Let’s be honest, these patch notes are pretty heavy and there’s a lot to digest. Hopefully, I’ve covered all the important stuff.

However, I’m excited that there will be a meta shift where we will try different builds instead of the usual ones. Hopefully, these Transfigured Gems and new Ascendancies live up to their names and contribute to the diversity of the build.