GGG has revealed the Path of Exile 3.17 Balance Manifesto. What’s coming in the next expansion? A lot. The Path of Exile 3.17 Balance Manifesto reveals a ton of planned nerfs and buffs. As is usual for these big expansions, a lot of skills are being adjusted in some way. And that’s not all either. Spells, bow attacks, minion builds and more are all being addressed in some way.
Spells Getting Buffed
One of the key areas is that a bunch of skills were identified as being underpowered. Grinding Gear Games is addressing this. Orb of Storms, Flameblast, Lightning Tendrils and Ice Spear are all examples pointed to by GGG as needing attention. The majority of spells gained around 45% more damage at gem level 20. There is one thing to note about this, and that’s Ignite-applying spells. The Ignite damage of these spells is being nerfed by around 28% to compensate for the raw damage buffs.
Another change concerning skills is that the DPS of Totem, Trap, Mine and Trigger effects will be reduced to bring them more in line with the aforementioned spell buffs. In short, the two skill classes will be a bit more similar in terms of damage.
Hit-based bow attacks got some buffs as well. An addition of elemental damage modifiers onto Quivers makes it a tad easier to get more DPS on these builds. Added Physical Damage modifiers on quivers have also been buffed a bunch. GGG also added an extra tier to the Attack Speed and Accuracy modifiers on quivers.
There are changes applied to certain Unique items as well, check the Game Balance Manifesto for everything about the new patch.
Recapped Changes in POE 3.17
The full list of skill and support gem adjustments is pretty big. Here is a rundown of a few major changes being planned for the patch by GGG.
- Most hit-based Spellcasting builds are being buffed with DPS increases to most spells. Mod pools also being expanded to support variant spellcaster builds.
- Many different skills relying on Threshold Jewels to be competitive are being buffed to help reduce reliance on rare items.
- +1 Arrow prefix has been removed from Influence mod pools.
- Mark curse skills are now permanent. Support Gems based around Marks being buffed.
- Unconditional “Added Damage” Support Gems are being nerfed. Will affect Added Cold, Lightning and Chaos Damage Support Gems.
- Hydrosphere and other off-class skill interactions being nerfed.
- Detonate Dead builds have been nerfed by a significant change to Desecrate and the Spectres it creates. The chance to create Specters is now fixed. This means Detonate Dead’s damage should be more consistent based on which area in the game you are in.