Instant crash after recent patch

I played most of afflicion league just fine with no issues. Decided i would get the cosmic turtle in the supporter pack and organize some of my standard stash prior to new league. First, I log on, select character and crash. Then i tried it over and over again changing settings from DX12, DX11, Vulkan. I run Vulkan usually. Kept crashing. Eventually i was able to get in, get on my character, and choose the turtle hideout - crash. Then i followed the guide in the pinned post. I cleared cached files, moved my client config files, and nothing. As a matter of fact I now always crash within a few seconds of the game launching. I get to see the GGG intro video and crash. I was able to start re-typing my login info and crash. I gave up.

OS: Windows 11 (up to date)
CPU: Intel 13900K
GPU: Asus TUF RTX 4090
RAM: G.Skill 64GB 6000MHz

Repair steps taken:
1) GGG recommended from https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3072628
2) sfc /scannow on windows
3) memory test - no issues found

EDIT: to note, previously i was able to stay within the character select screen for any duration - no crash. The crash would only occur once i try to actually log into a character and it tries loading the map/character.

EDIT2: I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game as well. No change. Seems like im able to stay on login and character select indefinitely with Vulkan. DX12 and DX11 is instant crash.