PoE 2: Unaffected Explained

Unaffected is a keyword status in Path of Exile 2 that causes an effect to have no impact on an entity.

What is Unaffected?

Becoming Unaffected to a Buff or Debuff will mean that the effect can be applied to you and will persist on you as normal, but will have no impact at all.

For example Wanderlust has the modifier 'Your Speed is Unaffected by Slows'. A character with these Boots equipped will still have any Slow Debuffs applied to them as normal, and their Durations will remain as normal, but the impact of those Debuffs on the character's Action Speed will be nil.

Unaffected shouldn't be confused with immunity, which is a mechanic with a similar outcome. When an entity is immune to an effect, that effect can never be applied to the entity under any circumstances. However, when the entity is instead Unaffected by the effect, then the effect will be applied as normal but will have no impact. This is an important distinction because being Unaffected means that you can take advantage of having the effect on you, such as a Debuff, by utilising modifiers that provide special bonuses while the effect persists on you.

Tip: see our guide on immunity here!

Unaffected & Reduced Effect

Modifiers that grant the Unaffected status are absolutes, but are functionally similar to reduced effect modifiers such as those on Bronzebeard. The key difference is that Unaffected is always true if the modifier is active, whilst reduced and increased effect modifiers are additive with each other so having 100% reduced effect of something on yourself doesn't necessarily mean that the effect will have no impact because increased effect can exist on the other side of the calculation.

Note: if Unaffected and immunity to the same effect exist at the same time, the immunity will take priority and the effect can never be applied to the entity.