So the full patch notes for Blight and Path of Exile 3.8 are finally out. And POE players are frantically scrolling through them, looking for the best skills to play. We already went through a full rundown of all of the skill changes, and it’s pretty safe to say that GGG wants people to experiment with minions and traps for their builds this league.
The basic idea is that a few key areas got rebalanced this patch. Minions got pretty big buffs across the board. And when combined with other Ascendancy changes in Blight, things are about to get very crowded, but in a good way. Mana and Fire-based builds, like Mind Over Matter spellcasters for example, got a few more flexible gear options too with some new crafting changes. Minions are even tankier against Lab traps too. Quest rewards have also been tweaked to account for new and changed skills.
Slayer, Ascendant, Berserker, Cheiftain, Guardian, Hierophant, Raider, Saboteur, Trickster, Assassin, Occultist, Necromancer and Elementalist all got reworks. In general terms, minion, golem and totem playstyles were buffed, as were traps and mines. Slayer got another nerf.
More specific changes to old League mechanics are also in this patch. Incursion and Betrayal have had rewards tweaked to be in line with other changes. Syndicate progress is now account-wide. You now always have the option to ‘Release’ Syndicate members as well. Your Voltaxic Sulphite is now shared across all characters. Dynamite is instant now, and can be used while moving. The rate of level growth for monsters within the Azurite Mine is now faster, requiring significantly fewer depths to hit the maximum monster levels within the Mine. This was because most players progressed through the Atlas faster than the Mine, and the two difficulty levels would quickly become out of sync.
And yes, the Atlas has been shuffled again, check out our map shaping guide for details on that and what the plan is for Blight. And good news for Headhunter lovers, Nemesis is back as a Zana mod. Breach and Harbinger are back too, along with a stable of the typical Atlas mods.
If you want a video-based overview, Mathilification has an excellent rundown of all of the changes planned in POE 3.8. Check that out below.
