Will Tattoos go Core?

Path of Exile's Trial of the Ancestors league is ending soon, but, will Tattoos go core? In short, no.

Trial of the Ancestors isn't going core in 3.23 (Affliction League). Here's what to expect when Trial of the Ancestors ends on December 5, 2023.

If you play on Standard you'll be able to take your valuable Tattoos and Hinekora's Locks with you. As a limited resource, these items frequently reach staggering prices, especially when they aren't reintroduced to the core game later. The most famous example of this is the Eternal Orb.

Builds which relied on Tattoos for their viability in 3.22 aren't playable in 3.23. Additionally, Tattoos brought a lot of power and quality of life to all builds by converting unneeded Attributes into damage, defense, or speed. Luckily, other fan favorite leagues have seen a return (like Forbidden Sanctum). With the Sentinel throwback event we got a taste of Robots and Recombinators. So Trial of the Ancestors may be taking a few months vacation rather than saying goodbye forever.

Tattoos aren't a part of 3.23, but many of the cool Unique items from Trial of the Ancestors are going core! So if you wanted to make a build with Rakiata's Dance but just haven't found the time, you'll be able to do so during Affliction League.

The following Trial of the Ancestors Uniques are the most interesting:

Personally, I think it's a good idea to give Tattoos a cooling off time & balance pass. Attributes are an important part of the gearing process so having new ways to interact with them is awesome! Unfortunately, a lot of Tattoos offer significant generic power increases. Effects like Skills Fire an Additional Projectile, or 2% Increased Maximum Life need to be balanced carefully. I'd love to see players rewarded for optimizing unneeded Attributes, or using Supreme Ostentation to build around removing Attributes entirely.

There are many ways to approach balancing Tattoos. You can add an inbuilt malus to prevent the strongest Tattoos from being stacked infinitely. For example; Skills Fire an Additional Projectile, deal 5% Less Projectile Damage. Another approach would be lowering hard limits on Tattoos (currently 50). I have no idea which approach GGG will take, but I'm excited to find out.

The Affliction reveal is coming soon on November 30th after which we'll have more news about buffs, nerfs and new content! Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction League, releases on December 8th on PC & Mac, then on December 13th for Xbox and PlayStation.

That's everything we know so far about the timeline for Path of Exile's 3.23 Affliction League. Are you looking for more news on Path of Exile builds, events, and upcoming patches? Then head over to our Discord and select the Path of Exile role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Stay sane, Exile!