Predictions For Path Of Exile 3.23 Affliction League – 3 Buffs & Nerfs

There are only 2 days left until the reveal live broadcast of Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction. Along with the reveal, we got some information about quality-of-life features.
First, new League will allow you to split POE 3.23 currency stacks while the trading window is open, which is very nice.
In addition, we can also see a new unique flask in the trailer. Some players speculate that this may be some kind of Flask MTX. But I think that’s unlikely. I think it could be a new unique flask that came out of Affliction league. It almost looks like some kind of candle.
We’ll likely get the full patch notes by the end of Thursday’s content reveal, which brings us to the topic of today’s content. What buffs and perhaps more importantly what nerfs will we see in POE 3.23? I spent some time thinking about this and came up with three things that I think are most likely to be buffed in Affliction League, and three things that I think will be nerfed.
Nerf Predictions
Let’s start with nerfs. Because I think it’s much easier to really think about what can be weakened. As we know, it is much harder to observe gain. Because there are a lot of things that can be done with improvements.
But which of these actually makes it my top guess on what to expect from nerfs in POE 3.23? It is Returning Projectiles.
Returning Projectiles
This isn’t necessarily a support gem, but a general mechanic for Returning Projectiles now, with some interaction with Returning Projectiles.
For example, using Returning Projectiles mechanic with Eye of Winter and Arcanist Brand, where a line of text on Arcanist Brand forces all projectiles to return. Because it prevents them from moving beyond a specified distance.
Or it could abuse Shrapnel Ballista and Sniper’s Mark again. Because the skill gem itself has an unlikely mechanic. If you already buy POE Currency, this can completely allow you to have multiple projectiles hitting the same target.
Now I do think the developers will address Returning Projectiles in some form in POE 3.23. But I’m not sure exactly how they’re going to handle it. It would be great if they actually fixed broken cases and changed this mechanism. Because there are a lot of actual use cases that don’t take advantage of broken interactions.
Pathfinder
The next potential nerf aspect is Pathfinder, and more specifically, the Flask effect. I think developers are unlikely to want to weaken Flask effect alone, as this would also weaken other classes. But Pathfinder is so powerful, even before the rework. If you can POE Currency buy a lot, Pathfinder can even help you clear everything!
I think they might want to weaken the amount of Flask effect, which can be easily obtained from the statistics. I expect this will be a lot of slight changes rather than one big hit.
For example, I can see Pathfinder Ascendency itself reducing Flask effect from 5% to 3% or 4% for the small nodes themselves. Meanwhile, Magic Utility Flask effect on Nature’s Boon notable Ascendancy may drop from 30% to 25%. Meanwhile, they may also make similar changes to passive skill trees and equipment modifiers.
Regardless, the overall goal is to reduce the overall amount of Flask effect that can reasonably be obtained. But I hope to see some kind of nerf in Pathfinder soon. And I prefer this approach to breaking Ascendency again or overhauling Flask.
Sanctum
Finally, in my predictions for POE 3.23 nerfs, it is Sanctum. They only added it to the game in Trial of the Ancestors league.
This one really doesn’t need much explanation. Sanctum is just completely over-tuned. It offers too many Divine Orbs and Mirror of Kalandra. Sanctum will most likely just change its reward structure. But it’s also possible that Sanctum Relic was changed to provide fewer advantages. For example, those revealing Relics may be nerfed or simply become more rare.
Overall, I think the current Sanctum is unlikely to make it to POE 3.23 without some changes.
Buff Predictions
Next is buff prediction. As I said before, I feel like nerfs are more predictable because you know what your strengths are. But there are so many things that could be buffed or reworked.
Melee
Of course, we have to start with the melee. Because I do feel that changes in the melee will happen eventually, and I have been waiting for a long time.
Long story short, there are two things that need to be addressed regarding the melee. First, the developers need to at least fix Ancestor Totem to take more melee damage from Ancestral Warchief and more attacks from Ancestral Protector, and convert those buffs into baseline-level melee abilities.
They could also then remove these buffs from Totem abilities and redesign those Totems into purely attack-based Totem abilities. This super simple change will make the melee less clunky and more fun to play with.
Next, why do so many melee abilities have huge negative attack speed multipliers built into them? I don’t know why this happens, but it should go away. Because this would go a long way to improving the feel of a melee game.
Mana Stacking Builds And Blood Magic Keystone
Next up are Mana Stacking builds and Blood Magic Keystone. Although these two prototypes are very different, they share the same problems. This makes these types of builds unable to compete with traditional builds.
Traditional builds retain powerful Aura or other Reservation skills in all ways. The problem now really is, with Blood Magic losing all mana, only keeping a free Aura with Eternal Blessing, or with Mana Stacking, not keeping all or most of the mana to counter Aura. For what you gain and lose outside of Ancestor league, it really isn’t worth it.
Blood Magic is only for builds that want to stack a lot of life. Such as Hexblast Mines or builds using Relic of the Pact. Using Blood Magic to gain a boost in skill is a non-factor. And Blood Magic really needs more support. Whether that’s on Keystone itself, or through support, through new gems or gear, or new options on the passive tree.
Meanwhile, Mana Stacking builds are in a similar situation. But they are few and far between, and again they are very specific about POE Currency cost of keeping the mana pool intact and retaining all the mana pool needs to be considered as well.
Gladiator And Raider Reworked
Finally, among the buff predictions, I made predictions for two Ascendancies that I think will be reworked in POE 3.23. This is Gladiator and Raider.
For Gladiator, I really just feel like this class needs to be better focused on the archetypes, which are near melee blood and anything to do with dual wielding or using a shield.
Now, Gladiator is really only good at Bleed Bow and Corrupting Fever settings. It either needs more support for the melee or some kind of more specific changes to these prototypes to help Gladiator gain an advantage on these types of builds.
Meanwhile, for Raider, the class is bland, and it largely lacks personality. I think it needs to get more options on the Ascendancy skill tree. Currently, it is Ascendancy with the least selection, and they locked all selections behind branches. Raider classes can be fleshed out with some two-pointer options.
Closing
That’s my prediction for buffs and nerfs in Path of Exile: Affliction League. There are only 2 days until the reveal and then we cn staart planning our journey to the start of the league, which is exciting! What do you think will be buffed and nerfed in POE 3.23? Have a great day!