How To Prepare For POE 3.23 Affliction League?

Path of Exile 2's economic market is complex and a source of enjoyment for players, but this enjoyment is being destroyed by inflation. A bug allowed some players to amass large amounts of Divine Orbs, causing an abnormally high value for items in the market.

This has had a negative impact on ordinary players, but it's not so severe as to make the game unplayable. Let's see how you should deal with this.

What Happened?

Abyss

Inflation isn't unique to this League. In Patch 0.3.0, players discovered that rare monsters in Abyss could drop Divine Orbs. This bug, caused by Sprawling Rapture Atlas passive, allowed many players to easily earn hundreds of Divine Orbs, but the developers didn't address this, leading to severe inflation in the market.

This bug was fixed in Patch 0.4.0, but this fix only affected ordinary players. Teams with top-tier gear can still utilize Unforeseen Consequences Abyss Precursor Tablet to massively produce Divine Orbs.

Temple

Another exploit revolves around Atziri's Temple, a key mechanic of this league. Players need to collect Crystals on the map to build rooms in Temple. Completing these rooms in a snake pattern and unlocking them one by one yields substantial rewards.

This exploit allows you to reset the zone, re-enter the map, and repeatedly cultivate Crystals on the same map to unlock the temple. With a sufficiently powerful build, you can complete a temple in one minute. Players using this method can earn approximately 50 Divine Orbs per hour, a feat impossible for regular players.

Impact of Inflation

Before the exploit was patched, players using this method became extremely wealthy, while those who didn't do so fell into an inflationary trap. The relative value of their PoE 2 currency earned during playtime drastically decreased.

Previously, you could obtain Exalted Orbs by farming dungeons, and approximately one hour's worth of Exalted Orbs could be exchanged for one Divine Orb. Now, due to the increased value of Divine Orbs, players need to farm for much longer to obtain even one.

Wealthy players, holding large quantities of Divine Orbs, have snapped up high-quality gear on the market, driving up their values.

A belt with good stats, crucial for a build, might have previously been worth 100 Exalted Orbs, but now it might only be worth 25. A truly exceptional belt could fetch as much as 25 Divine Orbs, and many essential base items for a build have also increased in value to dozens of Divine Orbs. This is unattainable for ordinary players.

Even if these bugs are fixed, wealthy players already possess top-tier builds, making their dungeon farming extremely efficient. Ordinary players with mid-tier builds will need 3 to 5 minutes per dungeon with lower rewards. The efficiency difference in acquiring Divine Orbs between the two is enormous, making it difficult for average players to close the gap.

Impact on Average Players

While the aforementioned cleanup sounds terrible, its actual impact on most average players is limited. In a normal league, there's already a significant gap between dedicated players who invest a lot of time and casual players who invest less.

Even under normal circumstances, most players struggle to break through this middle barrier. This inflation simply makes average players poorer, but it doesn't change the fact that you'll almost never reach the top tier of wealth.

Furthermore, all endgame content in the game doesn't require S-tier or unique items. You can use techniques like dodging, timing your attacks, and proper build construction to complete the game, but it certainly won't be as easy as it is for top-tier players.

This will also force average players to stop blindly copying top-tier builds and instead start researching equipment affixes, defensive mechanics, and how to adjust their builds to their own situation. This improves game understanding, allowing you to complete campaigns faster and more smoothly in the next league.

While Exalted Orbs have depreciated in value relative to Divine Orbs, many other crafting currencies and materials have also depreciated relative to Divine Orbs. This means you can trade for more crafting materials with fewer Divine Orbs, making it potentially more cost-effective for average players to craft their own gear in patch 0.4.0.

What Should You Do Now?

Don't forget that Path of Exile 2 is still in Early Access. This event exposed some mechanics issues, which will help the developers fix them in the next League.

If you don't have a Temporalis build, it's best not to choose the current best currency farming strategy, as this will actually reduce your farming efficiency.

You can analyze what content top-tier players are playing, what materials they need, and then supply those materials. Because they focus on a specific, efficient way to farm money, they can't play other content simultaneously.

On the other hand, you need to change your goals. Instead of focusing on how many Divine Orbs you can farm each day, use your developed build to defeat a Pinnacle Boss. This will also improve your overall strength.

While this economic collapse was triggered by bugs, diminishing the sense of reward for ordinary players grinding through levels, fundamentally, the strength of your build still depends on your time investment. If you haven't yet experienced all the content of this league, it's recommended that you adjust your mindset, change your strategy, and focus on learning and progressing within the game itself.

In Path of Exile 2, the simplest way to increase DPS is by leveling up to gain extra talent points and upgrading gear and skills.

However, upgrading to better gear means you need at least some currency, but the currency drop rate in Path of Exile 2 is extremely low, meaning you'll have to farm for a very long time before you can replace even one piece of gear. But this isn't the only method, and some overlooked mechanics can also significantly boost your DPS.

Weapon Sets

In Path of Exile 2, you can have two weapon sets: Weapon Set 1 and Weapon Set 2. Using different weapons allows you to allocate different talent points and specify different skills that only apply to a particular weapon set. This means 2 talent trees stack on one character.

If one set of gear provides critical strike chance while the other provides attack speed, switching between them during combat will result in a noticeable DPS increase.

Although there are two weapon sets, it doesn't mean you need two weapons. If your primary weapon is excellent, you can share it with the second weapon set.

Additionally, the main hand and off-hand can be shared independently. For example, you can share the scepter with two sets, but only equip a specific weapon in one set.

However, even with shared weapons, you still need to allocate weapon skill points independently for each weapon set. These skill points are not free, and they will consume your regular skill points.

After allocating skills, you need to bind the skills to specific weapon sets. Right-clicking on a skill icon allows you to select which weapon set the skill applies to.

PC Setup Steps

First, prepare your weapon, or share a weapon with two sets by right-clicking the lock icon of the weapon slot.

Ensure you have available Skill Points and Weapon Set Skill Points. Then, in the skill tree interface, click the arrow icon to switch to allocating points for Weapon Set 1 or Weapon Set 2, select and apply. Finally, right-click the skill in the skill bar and select the weapon set to apply it to.

Controller Setup Steps

In the weapon talent skill tree interface, the host player needs to long-press the confirmation button to bring up a menu. At the top, you can choose to allocate points to all sets, or go to Weapon Set 1/2 for independent allocation.

Binding skills is slightly more complicated. You need to enter the skill key binding settings, then move the cursor to the target skill and long-press the confirmation button to open the skill options. In the options, find and set which weapon set the skill belongs to. You can also do this through the quick menu in the key binding settings interface.

How To Improve Skill Gems?

The higher your skill level, the higher your DPS will be. However, directly trading or corrupting a level 20 skill gem in PoE 2 is very valuable, requiring approximately 600 Exalted Orbs. Corruption also carries the risk of downgrading or rendering the gem unusable, costing around 3 Divine Orbs per attempt. However, there are some techniques to reduce PoE 2 currency consumption of this step.

First, you need to disable Gem Cutting Restrictions in the game options, as this prevents further actions on corrupted gems. You don't need level 19 skill gems, and start with level 17, as they are much less valuable. Then use Gemcutter's Prism to upgrade their quality to 20%.

Before corrupting them with Vaal Orbs, remember to socket them with Perfect Jeweller's Orbs, as you cannot modify them after corruption. You can directly corrupt skill gems with Vaal Orbs, or combine them with Omen for a better outcome. Vaal Orbs may increase or decrease your skill gem's level by one, leave it unchanged, or even cause it to lose a slot.

In PoE 1, a failed corruption might render a skill gem useless. However, in PoE 2, gem upgrades are based on your account's skill level cap, not the gem's current state. Therefore, once you have a level 19 gem, all lower-level corruption skill gems of the same name can be re-upgraded.

So, if the corruption result is unsatisfactory, keep these corrupted level 17 gems and continue corrupting them until you obtain a level 19 corruption skill gem.

Then, returning to the gem upgrade interface in your stash, you can upgrade the previously failed level 17 corruption skill gem to a level 19 gem.

Using this method, just approximately one Divine Orb is required to attempt to obtain a higher-level skill gem, and this method also applies to Spirit Gems.

Better Jewelry

Upgrade Jewellery With Catalysts

Rings and Amulets can be upgraded to 20% quality using Catalysts, enhancing their associated attributes.

Enchant Necklaces With Instilled Emotions

Right-clicking an Instilled Emotion opens the crafting interface, allowing you to combine it with the necklace to add powerful bonus effects.

In Passive Skill Tree, holding down the Alt key will highlight the desired emotion type and order. You can then use Forging Bench to reforge lower-tier emotions into higher-tier ones in a fixed order, thus obtaining rare emotions.

Megalomaniac

Searching for Enchant and Jewel in Market will reveal Megalomaniac Diamond. This jewel randomly grants two talents, and the better the talent combination, the higher its value.

If you feel your build's damage is insufficient, check if you've utilized these tips. They allow you to achieve significant DPS increases without relying on bonus gear.

After the release of Patch 0.4.0, the most popular class in POE 2 is undoubtedly the new Druid. Its three animal forms provide a wealth of gameplay options and styles, giving rise to multiple builds based on these forms.

However, have you noticed that animal skills aren't Druid's only option? At least in terms of skills, Druid can also attack enemies using the power of nature and plants. Unfortunately, this type of gameplay doesn't seem to be very popular so far.

Based on this, we will approach this from this perspective and introduce you to how a simple and effective Plant Druid build is crafted.

Plant Druid Build Overview

Compared to builds with complex configurations and high requirements for gear and skill levels, crafting Plant Druid build is much simpler (not that complex builds are bad).

This is mainly because the build doesn't have many usable skills, but they are all very useful, including Entangle and Thrashing Vines, and the damage output is primarily skill-based.

These two vine skills were originally designed for sustained damage, but you can increase the damage of your storm and plant skills by obtaining the keystone passive Wildsurge Incantation early in the campaign, significantly reducing their mana consume and duration.

This transforms these originally support-oriented sustained damage skills into more direct damage skills.

On the other hand, Entangle itself can deal considerable damage and create fissures on the ground, and you can further enhance these fissures by adding the support gems Branching Fissures I & II to make them spread wider.

Then Entangle will cover the entire arena with vines, dealing significant direct damage and sustained damage to enemies upon casting, while also attaching to enemies to slow them down, making it difficult for them to hit you.

Skill Details

You can unlock Entangle skill at level one. Afterwards, you can choose to add Upheaval and Magnified Area to enhance the skill effect, or wait until a higher level to use Branching Fissures II with Entangle, which will be more effective.

It's worth mentioning that Volcano is also one of the skills you can quickly obtain in Druid's human form. Although it's not particularly outstanding in terms of synergy, you can cast Volcano first and then Entangle to quickly clear mobs.

If you want to further improve your clearing efficiency, you can acquire staff or wand-type weapons and then consume PoE 2 currency to roll or add affixes that increase weapons' spell damage.

Once you reach around level 14, you'll unlock Thunder Storm skill. This creates a great synergy, as all plant skills will cause plants to overgrow and produce additional effects when under the influence of Thunder Storm.

This way, Entangle will make the overgrown fissures last longer, and more vines will attach to enemies, dealing more damage and slowing them down more effectively. Thunder Storm, Entangle, and then repeat. It's simple.

The only tricky part is if you're facing a boss that moves around a lot in the arena; you'll need to frequently recast Thunder Storm. However, in the endgame, you can switch to crit-triggered casting for automatic activation.

Another important plant skill, Thrashing Vines, is level 9 and is expected to be unlocked after entering Act 3.

This skill causes giant vines to grow and randomly appear in the target area. After falling to the ground, the vines retract and attack nearby enemies. The attack range is generally small, and the number of vines depends on the cast duration.

For Thrashing Vines, slower casting speed results in higher damage, and each cast deals more damage. You just need to cast it occasionally and pay attention to its duration.

The last skill to add is Tornado, which is expected to be unlocked at the beginning of Act 4. Tornado isn't that crucial for Plant Druid Build, but it can be used to maintain buffs.

If there are any ground effects on the ground, Tornado will absorb them and deal a large amount of additional damage of the same element, and may also apply debuffs. You can use it with Thrashing Vines and Thunder Storm against a single target.

Best Ascendancy Class: Oracle

Of the two available Druid Ascendancy classes, Oracle is more suitable for Plant Druid Build because this Ascendancy increases damage by foreseeing the future and manipulating the surrounding environment while in human form.

Based on our analysis and description of the required skills, you should always be in human form when using this build, so Oracle can maximize the build's effectiveness by unlocking the following suitable Ascendancy abilities.

• The Unseen Path: Allows you to choose additional passive nodes that only Oracle can access.
• The Lesser Harm: Changes the critical hit chance and damage of enemies attacking you to Unlucky.
• Forced Outcome: You gain a critical hit when you meet the specific conditions displayed in Oracle's vision.

Gear Selection

For this build, gear selection isn't critical. Ideally, you should obtain a wand and maximize its spell skill level or physical spell skill level to deal more spell damage.

On top of that, ensuring your weapon or rings have cast speed bonuses is even better, as this is important for improving the build's efficiency. As for other gear, prioritize those with movement speed, health, and resistance bonuses.

Overall, Plant Druid Build is a gameplay style based on Druid's human form. Although it's not a mainstream build yet, its effectiveness shouldn't be underestimated, and it's likely to become popular later in the league. You can be ahead of the curve by trying it now!

With the introduction of Temple of Atziri mechanism in Fate of the Vaal league, in addition to more reward sources, it also means you will once again face the infamous boss Atziri in Path of Exile 2, who was so feared in the first game.

In Path of Exile 1, Atziri had two different difficulty versions, accessible and challengeable through the corresponding map device. Now, in POE 2 Patch 0.4.0, this boss is the core of the entire league mechanism.

Below, we will introduce how to find and defeat this boss in the current Path of Exile 2 league, and the rewards you can obtain for killing her.

How To Unlock Atziri Boss Fight?

Temple of Atziri, as a league mechanism, is accessible to all players. The temple provides four types of rooms, which combine to form an unlockable room path for you to challenge.

After determining the route, you need to complete the tasks in these rooms one by one, in order of increasing difficulty. The boss room is particularly dangerous, where you may encounter one of the Temple of Atziri bosses, Architects.

After defeating Architects to complete the current room, you can unlock Royal Access Chamber and place it within your room path, then connect it to your starting position using room cards and path cards.

Afterward, you can build a new room unlock path between these two points, and after completing the preceding rooms, you can start Atziri boss fight.

It's important to note that this boss fight has no resurrection mechanism, and if you fail, the entire path and unlocked rooms will be reset, and you must start all over again.

What Preparations Should You Make?

While you can minimize the difficulty of the preceding rooms, Atziri herself is very dangerous. To avoid wasting challenge opportunities, you should first maximize your character level, gear strength, and Ascendancy points.

Based on this, considering Atziri's damage types, you should also carry supplies that can resist lightning and fire damage, or buy PoE 2 currency and then re-roll affixes on your existing gear to include these resistances.

If you don't have enough currency but are eager to fight Atziri, now is the best time to replenish your currency reserves! Because until December 31st, you can enjoy a 10% discount with XMAS code at POECurrency!

Based on this, you can also consume more currency to upgrade your boots for increased movement speed and your armor for improved defense, ensuring you can survive until the end of the battle.

Atziri Boss Fight Mechanics

This boss has two forms, the second form being more dangerous as the boss's skills and attack patterns are more varied and chaotic. Therefore, it's best to remember the effects and countermeasures for all major skills.

Phase 1: Atziri, The Red Queen

The boss uses many skills in this phase. Your job is to constantly observe her movements to determine her skills, then dodge or counterattack accordingly.

Basic Melee Attacks

Atziri will attack you with her spear weapon using stabbing and wide-area sweeping attacks. The only way to dodge is to keep as much distance as possible from her and move along the edge of the arena.

Flame Ring

The boss will swing her staff, igniting a large circle of fire around her. Touching the fire will inflict fire damage. You can stay inside or outside the circle, but be careful not to touch the fire.

Fire Blast

The boss will create a large circle of fire on the ground by gripping her staff tightly. All the flames will then quickly rush towards the center and explode. To avoid taking critical damage, you need to immediately dodge away as soon as the fire circle appears.

Fire Rune

This skill involves the boss throwing a fireball at the ground, which generates a rune that then explodes in flames. However, this skill has a very small area of effect, so it's usually not a major concern.

Lightning Rune

This works the same way as the previous skill, except the damage type is lightning.

Thunder Sweep

The boss will step forward while swinging her spear, throwing an arc of lightning runes at you. These runes will explode immediately upon landing. You can dodge by rolling backward or towards the boss.

Bolt Storm

Atziri will summon lightning bolts that fall from the sky, striking the surrounding ground randomly. Each lightning bolt has a corresponding blue indicator to show its landing point, which you can observe to dodge.

Blood Orb

The boss will throw blood orbs at you, which explode upon landing, dealing physical damage. The only way to deal with this is to dodge and stay away from them.

Circle Of Blood

The boss will throw a blood-soaked spear onto the ground, simultaneously launching many dense orbs of light that will deal damage to you. You can choose to stay away from these orbs, or time your dodges to roll under them.

When you dodge the boss's skills and deal damage in the first phase until the boss's health is reduced to 10%, Atziri will enter Phase 2.

Phase 2: Atziri, The Fell Serpent

In this phase, the boss's appearance will also change, reflecting her corrupted actions in pursuit of immortality in the backstory. As for the attack methods, most skills are upgraded versions of the skills in Phase 1, including:

• Circle of Blood II: More blood orbs will appear, and they will overlap.
• Bolt Storm II: The bolts of lightning will turn red.
• Flame Ring II: All areas outside the ring are now covered in flames, forcing you to get closer to the boss.
• Fire Blast II: Two additional overlapping blasts imbued with Vaal Energy will appear.

There are three new skills that require your extra attention:

Leap Slam

The boss will suddenly disappear into the air, then slam down to the ground. You can determine Atziri's reappearance location by the red circular indicator on the ground.

Crimson Valley

The boss will release red lightning that fills the entire arena, leaving only a small area in the center. You must ensure you are within this area.

It's worth noting that this area is very narrow, so if you are in animal form due to using skills, it's best to transform back into human form in time.

Spreading Corruption

The boss will curl into a writhing ball, simultaneously forming a huge red circle of corruption around her that continuously spreads to the edges of the arena. You need to deal as much damage as possible from a distance to stop this attack.

What Are The Boss Fight Rewards?

After defeating the boss in all phases, she will drop a Medallion, which is the key to opening the large chest that appears in the center of the arena. This chest will randomly give you one of the following five unique items:

• Atziri's Splendour
• Atziri's Rule Staff
• Atziri's Contempt Spear
• Drillneck Quiver
• Flesh Crucible Diamond

The rewards in other smaller chests mainly consist of various types of currency. You can keep the useful ones for gear crafting and sell the less rare ones.

That's all the information about Atziri boss fight. If you haven't finished this battle yet, our guide can definitely increase your chances of winning!