The latest Path of Exile 3.29 Curse of the Allflame patch notes have been released, featuring numerous balance changes to skills, items, and existing content.
Since these adjustments will directly impact league builds when the new league launches on July 23, players are closely watching every change, especially the spell skill buffs.
Based on GGG’s updates and community feedback, POECURRENCY.com has analyzed the most significant buffed spell skills in POE 3.29 to help players identify the strongest options and choose the ideal build based on their preferred playstyle.
Absolution – AoE Spell Skill
The first buffed skill I’ll introduce is Absolution, which deals lightning and physical damage. This is the second time this year it has received a significant buff. In Patch 3.28 in March, the duration of its base debuff and the duration of its base summon were increased, and its range and damage effectiveness were also increased by 40%.
In this context, builds that rely on lightning and wide-area damage to clear large numbers of monsters are already very powerful; and in 3.29, their base cast time has been reduced from 0.75 to 0.65, which will further improve their efficiency in advancing the campaign and farming XP and POE currency, thus significantly enhancing the gaming experience.
Forbidden Rite – Chaos Spell Skill
In all the major patches and hotfixes that GGG has released for Path of Exile, which has been running for over ten years, an increase in the damage of a certain skill is always accompanied by some penalty, such as a longer cooldown or higher resource consumption. However, in this Patch 3.29, Forbidden Rite breaks this curse.
Previously, Forbidden Rite generated base Chaos Damage equal to 12% of your maximum health during its cast; after the change, this value has been increased to 14%. While this may not seem like a significant improvement, the good thing is that the skill’s affixes themselves don’t contain any negative effects that could be increased, so this is essentially a free buff!
Given its immense buff, builds cored around Forbidden Rite Skill are perfectly reasonable as the best option as PoE league starter; in fact, it’s a perfect fit. If you share this need, feel free to give it a try. However, it’s worth noting that in the early stages of the league, you might not have many gear options with high suitable.
To avoid this predicament, you can buy POE currency with safe and affordable directly from POECURRENCY.com to trade or roll out any gear you want that is compatible with Forbidden Rite Build, allowing you to complete your craft faster. Most importantly, we ship extremely quickly, so it won’t affect your early league progress.
Winter Orb – Channelling Spell Skill
Next, POECURRENCY.com will introduce Winter Orb, whose gains in patch 3.29 have caused a huge stir in the community. The main reason is that in previous league changes, GGG provided only lukewarm, small buffs to this skill gem, but in 3.29, it received an epic buff.
In 3.29 Curse of the Allflame update, Winter Orb’s projectile count has been increased from one to two or three, an affix has been added that gives it a 25% chance to freeze the target, its critical strike chance has been increased to 7.5%, and it can deal 360-539 Cold Damage at max level, which of all are highly desirable for any spell-casting build.
But it became the center of discussion not only because of these significant gains, but also because of the wonderful collaboration with POE 3.29 Uniques necessary for Occultist Ascendancy class, which is much needed in the current league, such as Ralakesh’s Impatience, Malachai’s Loop, and Willclash.
Storm Call – AoE Spell Skill
Finally, POECURRENCY.com introduces another skill gem that received a major buff in POE 3.29 Curse of the Allflame: Storm Call. This skill places markers at a target location, and once the duration ends, lightning strikes all markers, dealing damage to enemies within range.
With the 3.29 buffs, its cast time was reduced from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds, maximum level bonus damage increased from 250% to 270%, and lightning damage improved from 1074 to 1994, greatly boosting its damage output.
However, the buff also comes with a drawback. As GGG often increases skill power while adding balancing penalties, Storm Call now has a 25% higher base mana cost. Therefore, players should consider adding mana regeneration or mana-related gear and buffs to ensure their build can maintain consistent skill usage.
Some Skills that Nominally Buffed But Actually Nerfed
After introducing the spell skill gem options that have been significantly buffed in Path of Exile 3.29, POECURRENCY.com also wants to warn you about some abilities that appear to be buffed in the patch notes but are actually nerfed, all of which have received the GGG penalty to varying degrees.
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Spark: The casting time is reduced by 0.05 seconds, but its base mana cost is increased by 25%.
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Arc: The casting time is reduced by 0.1 seconds, but its base mana cost is increased by 25%.
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Ball Lightning of Orbiting: The casting time is reduced by 0.1 seconds, but its base mana cost is increased by 25%.
In theory, the extra 25% mana cost won’t cause too much trouble for regular builds, but once it’s placed in caster builds, skill rotation becomes very difficult, and even the quality of life in the game is greatly reduced. Therefore, these skill gems will not be considered in POE 3.29.
These are some Spell Skill Gems that POECURRENCY.com will provide you with, which will receive a significant buff in POE 3.29 Curse of the Allflame, along with their specific uses. Since this new league focuses on spell-casting skills, feel free to experiment with the skill options recommended here; they’re sure to bring you many surprises!
