Path of Exile Affliction league is almost upon us and it's time to start at least penciling planning what League Starters are we going to play with? Which ones are going to be good? Which ones are probably not going to be so good? Today, we bring you the top 10 best PoE 3.23 builds for Affliction League!

1. Holy Summoner (Guardian)

Holy Summoner is one of the best Ancestor League builds and it is going to fair pretty well still because all that changes for the Affliction League right now is that Absolution skill and Herald of Purity which are two big skills that are a part of that build. They are changing in a way that the quality of your gem. Previously it used to increase the damage of your minions which was great now it changes the cooldown recovery rate. Instead of flat increasing the damage up to 20%, it's going to allow them to attack almost twice as fast which is not too bad. That is a good increase but a slightly minor Nerf to the damage. Overall, the Holy Summoner build is going to be as viable as it was in the previous League.

2. Vaal Arc

The build number two is Arc, Arc Witch, Arc Elementalist Witch, or Vaal Arc. They are simply giving Vaal Arc one extra chance of critical striking in the Affliction League. So they are boosting the damage of Arc and Vaal Arc a little bit. The quality of the gem now is going to give the skill, an extra chance to chain but not that much. It will chain one extra time so the clear speed is going to increase and all its benefits and shortcomings of Arc are still going to be the same. If you loved the play of the Arc and you know what it's good for such as the map clearing and what it's not so good for such as staying in one place and firing and fighting bosses, well it's still going to be the same but the build is going to be as viable.

3. Cyclone (Damaging, Non-Summoner)

One substantial change that they're making is any form of Cyclone-based build. Cyclone itself was not being used as a damage-dealing ability. Right now what they're doing is uh they are changing Cyclone's skill, it no longer has the first hit and deals 50% less damage. It's not nerfed as it used to be anymore and they are removing some things that used to reduce the damage of Cyclone itself. They want to start damaging items, and damaging enemies with Cyclone again. They're removing all that Nerf and Cyclone now has a 10% increased area effect per 0.1 meter additional strike range at all gem levels. So you increase the melee strike range as you scale melee strike range, it also creates an additional area of effect which is pretty good. The quality of the gem now provides more movement speed so you can spin faster and you can move faster not massively because it's 0 to 10%.

4. Tornado Shot Deadeye

Tornado Shot was a king of the Trial of the Ancestors 3.22 League and still, one of the best PoE 3.23 Affliction League builds. GGG is doing a good job by balancing the dominance of these builds and reducing that dominance a little bit by tweaking Tornado Shot with the quality of the gem. So quality now will cause the skill to fire plus one additional projectile instead of increasing the projectile damage by 20%. The difference between the damage and what it exactly does to you is going to be marginally insignificant. So Tornado Shot is not nerfed, not massively buffed but it will fire an additional projectile which is always nice.

5. Toxic Rain Pathfinder

Toxic Rain is bread and butter because it’s very easy, very cheap, and very successful Toxic Rain builds are one of the best Path of Exile 3.23 league starters with no gear investment, no skill, you just shoot and things around you are dying. That's why Toxic Rain has always been very popular and at this league, Affliction is not going to be any different. The quality of the gem will provide, a certain amount of seconds increase of the base duration of the skill instead of increasing the area of effect. So it's a marginal increase in damage as opposed to the area that it covers.

6. Zombie Necromancer

Number six PoE 3.23 best Affliction build is the Undead Summoner that focuses on zombies. Please be aware that while League Starter is viable you may choose to go with your zombie builds. Zombies as primary damage dealers have been nerfed overall. Zombies no longer attack enemies with an area of effect slam which is very handy especially when clearing maps and especially early on that's what made it an amazing League Starter before. They only attack enemies with a melee attack so until you have something that allows you to hit everyone a support gem. You are no longer clearing as well as you used to with the zombies that is a nerf.

The gem now provides minions with 0% to 38% of maximum life. Replacing the 0% to 76% increases the cooldown recovery rate and increases the area of effect for raising the zombie slam attack. So they are now going to be fatter, straight away the zombies. The quality of the gem now provides you with a maximum of plus one summon zombies, that's from the quality of the gem. Instead of increasing maximum minion life because we got it through other sources. Overall, they are not hitting everything now zombies but they are fatter by definition. It's not a particular nerf, not a particular buff.

7. Skeleton Summoner

This best PoE 3.23 league starter build number seven is still an Undead Summoner but specializing in skeletons. They've done to Skeleton Summoners not much, the quality of the gem will now provide you with an extra summon skeleton similar to zombies. Instead of causing them to deal more damage, there are other ways to boost the minion damage and there is no other change to summon skeletons which is not bad news. If you like your skeletons if you like to summon them when you need to, swarm the area and get them to kill everything for you. If that's your main damage dealer of your Undead Summoner build, you can still go ahead with those builds.

8. Summon Raging Spirit

Number eight best Affliction League build in Path of Exile 3.23 is Summon Raging Spirits. SRS is based on Dead Summoner and it's a different League starter to the zombie-based one. SRS builds are short-term, fiery skulls will find the targets and you don't need to work too hard because they do the work for you. What happens with Summon Raging Spirits is neither bad news nor good news. So Summon Raging Spirits no longer increases the gem and minion damage progressively. Instead the Raging Spirits melee attack now naturally gains damage scaling with the level at least according to the patch notes. Quality of the gem of SRS will now provide a chance to summon extra minions up to 30% which is not too bad at the top quality level of the gem. Instead of giving the minion up to 20% increased movement speed, so they will be inherently slower but there are other ways to boost their speed. They are going to be swarming the area a bit faster however implementing a support gem called unleash is something that would allow you to flood the area with them faster.

9. Raise Spectre

We will mention one last Summoner that's based on specters. We used Raise Spectre in the past to buff our minions and they can still do that. But basically, the change to the build to this gem suggests to us that the builds using specters front and center are still going to be viable where specters are going to be buffered and they're going to be meat shields. Meat Shields primarily do not damage dealers because the quality of the gem now causes minions to have up to plus 20% of all elemental resistances which is not terrible. Especially if you're already a mid-shield as a Raise Spector. Instead of providing up to 20% of increased minion movement speed. It's not a massive nerf not a massive buff. Specters are not designed to be primary damage dealers, they are designed to be a support to your minion army but still very viable.

10. Righteous Fire

Finally, we got to our last PoE 3.23 best Affliction build, Righteous Fire Juggernaut, and any other builds that are using Righteous Fire as the primary damage dealer. Righteous Fire no longer will deal a certain amount of base fire damage per second instead it will deal 70% of your maximum life and energy shield as base fire damage per second. Both of those values previously were 35%. Early on in the game, Righteous Fire is not going to be as powerful because the base damage will be probably lower while you're a bit skinny. As you gain more life as you scale your life, you're going to burn everything around. Quality of the gem will now provide plus up to 0.3 meters to radius instead of up to 20% to increase burning damage but that's enough. Still, Righteous Fire is a viable PoE 3.23 League starter for Affliction.