A Very Budget League Starter For POE 3.23 Affliction League - Storm Burst Totem Hierophant

Path of Exile 3.27 has been running for over two weeks, and many players have moved beyond the early campaign phase and are focusing on mapping.

At this point, players typically need builds that offer high survivability and fast map-clearing speed to improve farming efficiency. Below are 10 of the strongest builds currently available.

1. Kinetic Blast Wander Build

Kinetic Blast Wander build theoretically boasts over 20 million DPS, making it an extremely powerful build, though it's highly likely to be nerfed in the next patch. This build primarily utilizes Bloodline node, Farewell to Flesh, and the new skill gem Kinetic Blast.

Kinetic Blast is a ranged projectile skill that explodes into multiple additional explosions upon hit, all of which hit a single enemy.

Farewell to Flesh node amplifies the damage of each Herald skill as long as mana is preserved. Combined with Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice, it achieves nearly 90% mana preservation. This build also boasts a permanent 24% shell, elemental immunity, and energy shield over-life drain, making it exceptionally survivable.

Early on, place Herald gem in Honourhome helmet, focusing on stacking power and elemental focus. Use Essence Worm Unset Ring for double scaling. Later, stack Herald effects with Tattoos, Cluster jewels, and Corruptions to ensure the buffs are self-circulating.

2. Earthshatter Berserker Build

Earthshatter Berserker is a classic power-based build, excelling in Hardcore SSF and the trade league. It's fast, brutal, and surprisingly tanky.

During the campaign, you can focus on crafting physical weapons, using PoE currency appropriately to ensure your magical or rare weapons have suitable affixes. During the farming phase, you can acquire an axe through gambling, then stack life, resistances, and movement speed on rare items.

While farming, you need to constantly use Blood Rage to maintain exerted attacks and destroy everything in its path. This build is very easy to gear up, allowing for high damage even on the first day of your league journey.

3. Archmage Hierophant Build

This build requires a transfigured version of Frostbolt, making Frostbolt have no cooldown and heavily reliant on cast speed scaling, and its gameplay is similar to a spell-based Flicker Strike.

By unleashing Frostbolts to fill the screen, you can instantly destroy hordes of monsters, while simultaneously adding overlapping explosions with Vortex of Projection. You no longer need to manually cast Vortex, and it's automatically triggered by the projectiles, allowing you to maintain movement and safety. After acquiring Echoing Shrine, it transforms into a spell-based Gatling gun.

4. Venom Gyre Deadeye Build

Venom Gyre Deadeye build scales damage and defense directly from Dexterity. Each point of Dexterity translates into Speed, Poison Power, and Evasion.

Early on, you can use Cobra Lash for a smooth upgrade path, switching to Venom Gyre later in the game. This build blends melee and projectile gameplay, excelling in content like Legion, Breach, Blight, and Strongboxes thanks to its high-resolution map speed and mobility.

5. Energy Blade Inquisitor Build

Energy Blade is a hybrid build that converts the energy shield into pure lightning damage, and it can enhance almost any spell. Initially, you only need a small number of Divine Orbs. Later, their powerful AOE capabilities provide substantial rewards, and you can use them as a base to develop various playstyles.

6. Penance Brand Of Dissipation Build

This build primarily involves placing brands to attach to enemies, accumulating energy, and then exploding them into pulse waves.

Mind Over Matter and Eldritch Battery can absorb damage using mana. The energy shield is used as mana, making this build incredibly tanky when fully charged.

In boss fights, timing and control are crucial. The explosion deals the most damage when the brand reaches maximum energy.

7. Cyclone Hollow Palm Gladiator Build

This build utilizes the signature Cyclone skill, but forgoes weapons. Every drop of its damage and defense comes from Dexterity, which simultaneously increases damage, attack speed, and evasion.

You can pair it with Devoto's Devotion helmet for increased attack speed, and Purity of Elements for elemental resistance, making your character almost impossible to hit. Gladiator Ascendancy also provides block and damage reduction, which, combined with potion effects and Ralakesh's Impatience boots, allows for even faster attack speed, making it one of the fastest map-clearing builds in the game.

8. Animate Weapon Of Ranged Arms Necromance Build

This classic summoner build is reborn with the new support ability Bladefall of Trarthus. The new ability eliminates the need to manually cast it every few seconds to generate weapons; it now continuously generates blades, perfectly maintaining the duration of Animate Weapon.

This build is more powerful, more resilient, and more flexible. It's viable in hardcore mode, capable of pinnacle bosses, and requires only simple gem switching between farming and boss fights. The primary damage comes from Animate Weapon itself, supplemented by Spectres, Animate Guardian, and Despair.

9. Poisonous Concoction Of Bouncing Build

This is the most beginner-friendly build and performs exceptionally well in the current version. It's fast, deadly, and has extremely low gear requirements, making it virtually immune to bad luck. Because its damage relies entirely on the character's health, potions, and skill gem levels, players don't even need a weapon. Simply stack health, resistances, and dodge on your gear to achieve this. Pathfinder provides permanent flask effects, a huge amount of movement speed, and powerful poison sustain.

10. Flicker Strike Frost Blades Champion Build

Flicker Strike is undoubtedly one of the most iconic and chaotic skills in Path of Exile, and in version 3.27, it returns faster, stronger, and more insane.

The fun of this build lies in its extreme speed and chaos. You can teleport infinitely between enemies, sometimes even your screen can't keep up with your movements. The rework of Champion Ascendancy further enhances this.

That concludes these PoE build recommendations. Hopefully, this will help you find a more fun and easier build.

It's been almost two weeks since Path of Exile 3.27, but most players should already have a general understanding of the league. The official event is Keepers of the Flame Uber Boss Kill event.

The event challenges players to defeat Uber Incarnation of Dread in designated matches, rewarding the first to succeed with prizes including a gaming laptop.

Date

The event lasts for one week, starting this Thursday:

• Start Time: November 13, 2025, 1 PM PST or November 13, 2025, 3 PM CST.
• End Time: November 20, 2025, 1 PM PST or November 20, 2025, 3 PM CST.

How To Participate?

To participate in this event, several conditions must be met:

• Your character must be on HC SSF. This is to prevent you from receiving help from other players (console players can participate through Softcore Self-Founded Server).
• Account sharing or similar activities are prohibited; otherwise, you will be disqualified.
• Players who participated in Alpha test server, as well as former and current employees of the official team, are not eligible for rewards.

This event is open to all players. The event panel will appear on the character selection screen 30 minutes before the event starts. Click Join to participate. Your character cannot move before the event starts. The official team also stated that if the event encounters technical issues, such as server instability, the team will launch a new league and restart the event.

Console players may not be able to receive the first-place physical prize, which is only available to PC players. However, console players can still claim other virtual item rewards.

Rewards

The first player to kill Uber Incarnation of Dread will receive a grand prize, while the top five players will each receive a microtransaction bundle. All players who participate in this event and reach level 50 during the event period will receive a Third Edict Mystery Box. Final rankings will be determined by the official team.

First Place Reward

The first place winner will receive an official Alienware 16X Aurora Gaming Laptop, with the following specifications:

• Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 275HX, 24 cores
• Windows 11 Home
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5070
• 64 GB DDR5
• 2 TB SSD
• 16” Non-Touch QHD+

Top Five Rewards

Each of the top five players will receive one of the following microtransaction bundles:

• Celestial Warlord Armour Pack
• Celestial Warlord Back Attachment
• Divergence Weapon Effect
• Celestial Emperor Finisher Effect
• Breach Hedron Portal
• Midnight Pact Character Effect
• Harmony Footprints Effect
• Tumbling Exalted Orb Pet

Level 50 Reward

Players who reach level 50 will receive a Third Edict Mystery Box, with a chance to obtain the following item:

• Charge Skin Variations (3 variations)
• Dodge Roll Effect Variations (2 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Helmet Variations (2 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Body Armour Variations (2 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Gloves Variations (2 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Boots Variations (2 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Alternate Helmet Variations (2 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Back Attachment Variations (2 variations)
• Fracturing Character Effect Variations (3 variations)
• Fractured Dreamer Weapon Skin Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Helmet Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Body Armour Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Gloves Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Boots Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Back Attachment Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Weapon Skin Variations (2 variations)
• Goblin Shaman Skin Variations (2 variations)
• Giant Sphynx Pet Variations (5 variations)
• Shifting Portal Effect Variations (2 variations)
• The Forgemaster's Map Device
• Molten Portal Effect
• Explosion Level-up Effect Variations (3 variations)
• Rhoa Mount Variations (2 variations)
• Well Hideout Decoration Variations (2 variations)
• Doryani's Rare Finisher Effect Variations (4 variations)

How Can Regular Players Obtain Rewards?

Although this event will last for 7 days, the prizes are clearly designed for players with time and skill, such as Ben, Alex, Jung, Exil, etc. However, Third Edict Mystery Box rewards are also quite good for regular players. The question is how to safely and quickly level up to 50 in HC SSF.

In Hardcore SSF,  you cannot buy PoE Currency or trade items with other , and your character is deleted upon death. Therefore, to reach level 50, survivability is paramount, followed by damage and leveling. Ideal builds maintain sufficient damage output while also possessing some AoE capabilities, allowing for quick monster clearing.

Melee Slam Builds

These builds utilize Slam-type skills for wide-area, high-damage attacks. Juggernaut is highly recommended due to its extremely high defensive capabilities, making it suitable for Hardcore Fighting (HCSF) progression.

It enhances survivability through Endurance Charge and additional elemental and physical damage reduction. You can complete all content and Tier 17 maps with only 5-link gear.

Alternatively, you can choose Slayer or Berserker, but their defense is not as high as Juggernaut's.

Wand Builds

Wand builds utilize Wands for attacks, primarily launching Projectiles. The wands in PoE 3.27 are incredibly powerful, especially with the new skill Somatic Shell and developer demos focusing on projectile attacks and wands. Three new wands have also been added this league. The damage and upgrade speed of wand builds are undeniable.

Kinetic Blast of Clustering Hierophant and Kinetic Rain Elementalist or Hierophant are also very powerful wand builds, but their survivability is lower than melee Slam builds, requiring a certain level of skill.

Mines builds

Mines builds can use mines to trigger abilities, creating large-area AOE explosions. In the current league, it's recommended to pair them with Exsanguinate and Reap. This proved effective in the previous league and doesn't have high gear requirements.

As for Ascendancy class, you can choose Trickster and Elementalist, although Trickster has been nerfed in this league.

If you're unsure which specific build to play, you can first check the performance of HCSSF ladder builds from the previous league to confirm their viability before choosing trap builds.

That concludes the overview of POE 3.27 Uber Boss Kill Event. We hope you achieve your desired ranking and win the grand prize.

The current Keepers of the Flame league in PoE is interesting because it not only adds several new mechanics, but its core mechanic, Breaches, is essentially a reset and echo of the permanent gameplay and the past Breach league.

Besides the new Breaches, which are worth experiencing, some permanent gameplay has been updated through 3.27 league, offering a better experience and a large amount of loot. Among these gameplay, Blights is quite important.

So why does Blights remain valuable among the many new gameplay elements, and how can you farm it in the new league to obtain currency and various items? We will explain.

Blights Mechanism Overview

Blights are essentially a tower defense encounter that generates through Fungal Growths in any map area. Generally, the probability of triggering it on non-unique maps is at least 8%.

In addition, you can also unlock Blight encounters by transferring other normal maps from using the modifiers. Blights on these special maps are larger, allowing you to earn more rewards by killing more enemies.

Compared to most Path of Exile encounters or events, Blights are easier to complete and trigger, and more importantly, offer a wider variety and greater quantity of rewards. Therefore, trading Blighted maps is very popular.

When Blights appear, they are represented in-game as fungi. The important NPC Sister Cassia will then place a purification pump on these fungi, causing them to randomly grow roots in various directions.

As the roots extend, you'll find a portal at the end of each root, from which enemies spawn and converge towards the center of the fungus. The number of roots that can spawn depends on the map tier you're in when Blights are triggered, with a maximum of 8 roots.

Your task is to build defensive towers on each root to prevent enemies from entering the fungus's core. Sometimes, certain roots may spawn even more enemies or special Blight bosses.

Furthermore, the enemies on different roots have different resistances, requiring you to build defensive towers based on their characteristics. The resources for building these towers are obtained by completing other game tasks or defeating Blight enemies.

Also Read: Path Of Exile 3.27 Explosive Arrow Champion: Best Starter Build - Easy And Powerful Guide In Keepers Of The Flame

Once an enemy breaches the defensive tower and reaches the core, the durability of the purification pump placed by Cassia will decrease until it disappears. While enemies will stop spawning, this also means your Blight challenge has failed.

However, if you successfully defend against and defeat all the enemies on the roots, a reward chest will spawn at the portal at the end of the root. Even if you fail, a portion of the reward will be retained, preventing you from returning completely empty-handed.

Changes To Blights In 3.27 League

While the main Blight mechanics weren't changed in 3.27 league updates, the experience was improved through several details.

Firstly, now when you open a chest, other chests within a 1.5-meter radius will automatically open, and their items will be automatically collected into your inventory, eliminating the hassle of walking between roots to collect items.

Secondly, the boss summoned by Blight Scarab of Blooming will no longer bring additional monsters, thus appropriately reducing the difficulty of completing Blight encounters and making it easier to earn rewards.

How To Choose Passive Nodes, Scarabs, And Maps?

Keepers League has updated the entire Atlas tree, so to more effectively clear Blights, you need to change your passive tree setup.

To this end, you should prioritize unlocking nodes in both small and large passive nodes that increase the spawn rate of Tier 1-15 maps, thereby increasing the chance of triggering Blight encounters by generating many maps.

An additional node to mention is Singular Focus, which will cause more regular maps to be converted into Favored maps instead of Blight versions, so you should avoid it.

Furthermore, you need to unlock nodes that increase the number or type of Scarabs dropped when killing enemies on the map, thus providing more enhancements to your Blight maps and increasing their farming value. Available Scarab nodes include:

• Amplified Artifacts and Remarkable Relics
• Scarab of Bosses
• Strongbox Scarabs
• Scarab of Fortifications
• Amplified Artifacts and Remarkable Relics
• Scarab Nodes for Specific Mechanics

Based on this, besides the already mentioned optimized Blight Scarab of Blooming, another recommended Scarab is Blight Scarab of Invigoration, which increases the difficulty and loot rewards of all Blight enemies within its effect range.

Since triggering Blights randomly during exploration is too random, converting existing maps is a better way to farm them efficiently. Therefore, we recommend prioritizing converting Toxic Sewer map.

Which Eldritch Altar Should You Choose?

You might find this altar on the map after defeating specific enemies. There are two types: the red Searing Exarch Altar and the blue Eater of Worlds Altar, each applying different buffs to your Blight map.

The red altar increases your chances of obtaining different types of currency, while the blue altar increases the quantity and rarity of your drops.

In 3.27 league, both blue and red altars are viable for Blight maps; the final choice depends on your desired effect: blue altars offer higher overall value and are better suited for upgrades, while red altars require less investment.

Tower Building Strategy

In the current league, Atlas passive skill Templar Ingenuity allows you to build all types of Blight towers and upgrade them to the highest level.

We recommend building one of each type of tower to diversify their attributes and ensure you can defend against a wider variety of enemy types.

These are the tips for continuing to farm loot using the classic Blight farming mechanic in Keepers of the Flame league. We hope this helps you progress through the league!

Path of Exile 3.27 Keepers of the Flame, besides introducing new unique items, also introduces a new mechanic: Foulborn Unique Items. These replace one or more affixes on existing unique items with entirely new ones.

Because the stats of these unique items' affixes are increased or changed, they provide affix combinations that were previously impossible or nerfed, thus giving rise to a large number of new builds.

Of course, the value of these unique items isn't uniform. Some are very useful but require too much currency, while others are practically worthless. So here are some of the most useful and cost-effective Foulborn Unique items.

Foulborn Tulborn

The core affix of Foulborn Tulborn is "To Level of all Cold Spell Skill Gems," ranging from 2 to 4. You can roll for the highest value using one or two Divine Orbs. It only provides a fixed amount of cold damage, and +4 versions are very common in Trade League. Therefore, an untainted Tulborn with the +4 affix only requires a few Chaos Orbs.

However, this item itself doesn't provide a percentage increase in spell damage, but you can compensate for this by adjusting your character's passive talents or using a 12-passive large cluster jewel. In short, it's one of the most cost-effective items for Cold Spell builds in the game right now, and you can even consider dual-wielding it to increase damage.

Foulborn Xoph's Heart

Foulborn Xoph's Heart reduces physical damage from hits to fire damage, with a perfect roll of 15% (range 5-15%), effectively reducing physical damage.

You don't need to take a lot of currency on Foulborn Xoph's Heart; even if it is the perfect roll, its value is only around 30 Chaos Orbs. Even without Foulborn affix, Xoph's Heart is still a decent piece of gear.

Foulborn Berek's Respite

Foulborn Berek's Respite exists in three versions, two single Foulborn affixes of which are particularly outstanding:

Double Foulborn Affix

Berek's Respite with two Foulborn affixes combines the effects of "exploding upon killing an Ignited enemy" and "exploding upon killing a Shocked enemy," with the fire damage from the explosions capable of electrocuting and the lightning damage capable of igniting.

This allows for chain explosions in builds like Elementalist, which can electrocute non-lightning damage and ignite non-fire damage, resulting in very high map clearing efficiency. However, it requires around 35-40 Divine Orbs, which most players may not have enough PoE currency for.

Shocked Version

This version transplants the iconic explosion affix from Inpulsa's Broken Heart to Foulborn Berek's Respite. The ring itself retains the ignite transmission affix, crucial for ignite builds.

This allows you to focus on ignite damage while frequently electrocuting enemies. The explosion can ignite enemies, and the damage spreads through the ring's conduction effect, so the more enemies on the map, the faster the damage increases. This item isn't particularly valuable, costing only about 1-2 Divine Orbs.

Ignited Version

The Ignited version of Foulborn Berek's Respite causes ignited enemies to explode, but retains the weaker Electrocution conduction affix of the original. It's primarily a budget alternative, costing only 60 Chaos Orbs.

If you want the effect of two Foulborn versions but don't have enough PoE currency, you can equip both the shocked and ignited versions simultaneously, using two ring slots to achieve a similar effect.

Foulborn The Embalmer

The core affix of Foulborn The Embalmer is Poison Transmission, which has the same effect as Master Toxicist talent from Bino's Kitchen Knife or Pathfinder. If you kill a poisoned enemy, nearby enemies will also be infected with poison.

Meanwhile, Foulborn The Embalmer allows classes other than Pathfinder to quickly clear maps using poison, and it's also a glove, allowing players using poison builds to use weapons other than Bino's Kitchen Knife. It's very common; even trading it won't be worth more than 10 Chaos Orbs if you don't want to farm it yourself.

Foulborn The Embalmer also has two Foulborn affixes. Its other affix increases the rate at which poison effects you apply take effect by 15%, a very powerful damage-boosting affix. The Embalmer with the double Foulborn affix requires about 2-3 Holy Stones; you can choose to upgrade it if your budget allows.

Foulborn Kikazaru

Foulborn Kikazaru's Foulborn affix significantly increases mana regeneration rate. This item is suitable for very specific builds, primarily Hierophant and any build that increases damage by stacking mana.

For the playstyle it suits, this item is extremely difficult to replace, providing a large number of core attributes and remaining usable until the endgame. Its value is determined by the mana regeneration rate roll (60-120), ranging from 10 to 60 chaos orbs, making it affordable for virtually all players.

Foulborn Intuitive Leap

Similar to the original "Intuitive Leap," Foulborn Intuitive Leap offers a wide-range effect on par with Thread of Hope (Massive Ring), allowing you to jump long distances to select a keystone.

This item saves a significant number of passive talent points and synergizes well with Timeless Jewel and Glorious Vanity. However, it's only suitable for a very niche build, applicable to approximately 2-3% of builds that require extensive keystone selection across the talent tree.

Foulborn The Surrender

Foulborn The Surrender has two Foulborn affixes, meaning it has three versions, and all are excellent.

• Energy Shield: Grants an energy shield on block, which can replace Aegis Aurora.
• Maximum Chance to Block Attack Damage: Provides +3% to maximum chance to block attack damage, a very rare and powerful defensive affiex.

Whether it has one of Foulborn affixes or both, it is incredibly powerful for defensive builds, and it's affordable for the average player, taking only around 100 Chaos Orbs.

Overall, POE 3.27 added many unique Foulborn items, but it's currently uncertain whether they will be added to the core game after the league ends. Therefore, builds relying on these items may be limited to this league. If your build can use them in this league, then go and try them out!