Guide:Creating Your Own Path of Exile 2 Build

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Valid as of version 0.1d.0. Last updated on Dec 12, 2024.

Build Workshop: Creating Your Own Path of Exile 2 Build

Introduction

Welcome to the Build Workshop. This guide is a comprehensive resource for creating your own Path of Exile 2 (PoE2) character build. Whether you’re a new player just starting your journey or a seasoned exile looking to craft a unique and optimized setup, this guide aims to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to design and refine your own builds.

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Path of Exile 2 offers an incredible depth of customization, allowing players to tailor their characters through:

• A vast passive skill tree

• Diverse active skills

• Complex itemization

• Unique ascendancy classes

With so many choices, creating a build can feel overwhelming—but it’s also one of the most rewarding aspects of the game.

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In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of crafting a build step by step. From setting clear goals and selecting skills to mastering the passive tree and optimizing your gear, the guide is broken down into the following steps:

1. Setting clear goals
2. Selecting active and support skills
3. Planning the passive skill tree
4. Optimizing your gear

Each section is designed to help you understand the key considerations and decisions that go into build creation.

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Whether you’re aiming to clear maps efficiently, tackle endgame bosses, or experiment with off-meta playstyles, this guide will give you the foundation to make informed and creative choices. Remember, there’s no single “right” way to build a character—your journey of experimentation and discovery is what makes Path of Exile truly special.

Foundations of Build Creation

Building a character in Path of Exile 2 starts with understanding your goals and preferences. This section covers the essential decisions and thought processes that form the foundation of your build.

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Understanding Your Goal

• Define Your Playstyle: Determine how you want your character to interact with the game world. Ask yourself questions like:

1. Do you prefer melee combat, ranged attacks, casting spells, or summoning minions?
2. Are you aiming for high mobility, tankiness, or crowd control?

• Purpose of Your Build: Decide what content you’re planning for:

1. Leveling: Builds focused on efficient progression through the story.
2. Mapping: Builds optimized for clearing large groups of enemies quickly.
3. Bossing: Builds specialized in taking down single, high-health targets.
4. Hybrid: Balancing multiple objectives, such as clearing maps while maintaining boss viability.

Choosing Your Archetype

• Class and Ascendancy: Each class has unique starting points and ascendancies that define your build’s core strengths.

1. Strength Classes (e.g., Warrior): Great for melee combat and tankiness.
2. Dexterity Classes (e.g., Ranger): Focused on agility and ranged attacks.
3. Intelligence Classes (e.g., Witch): Excellent for spellcasting and summoning minions.
4. Hybrid Classes combine attributes and offer versatile options.

• Interlinking Skills and Ascendancy:

1. Choose an ascendancy that synergizes with your desired playstyle. For example, if you aim for a fire spell build, look for ascendancies that enhance elemental damage or casting speed.

Setting a Build Theme

• Core Concept: Define a unifying theme for your build, such as:

1. Focusing on a specific damage type (e.g., physical, elemental, chaos).
2. Building around a unique skill or mechanic.
3. Experimenting with off-meta strategies.

• Skill and Passive Synergy: Make sure your choices for active skills, passive tree nodes, and gear align with your theme to maximize efficiency and power.

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By starting with a clear understanding of your goals, playstyle preferences, and archetype, you lay a solid foundation for the rest of your build. This clarity will guide your decisions as you navigate the more complex aspects of build creation, such as skill selection and itemization.

Skill Selection

Skill selection in Path of Exile 2 revolves around the unique mechanics of uncut gems and the skill screen. Unlike the original Path of Exile, gems are not slotted into gear but instead managed entirely within the skill screen, allowing for a streamlined yet highly customizable system. This section explains the key aspects of skill selection and gem mechanics in PoE2.

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Uncut Gems: The Core of Your Skills

• Uncut Skill Gems

1. These are blank templates that allow you to create usable skills. As you level up an uncut skill gem, you are presented with branching choices at key milestones to define its identity.
2. For example, a level-up choice might allow you to select between various elemental spells, physical attacks, or hybrid abilities.
3. You can only slot one instance of any specific skill gem on your character at a time, encouraging diverse setups.

• Uncut Spirit Gems

1. Spirit gems are used to create passive, trigger-based abilities. For instance:

   - A "Trigger on Ignite" spirit gem casts a linked skill gem (chosen from its support slot) whenever the specified condition is met.
   - These allow for automated actions, adding a layer of strategic complexity to your build.

• Uncut Support Gems

1. Support gems evolve into abilities that enhance the functionality of skill or spirit gems.
2. For example, support gems can increase damage, add crowd-control effects, or improve defensive capabilities.
3. As with active skills, support gems must be carefully selected to align with your build’s goals.

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Skill Screen and Slotting Mechanics

• Skill Screen Slots

1. Instead of gear-based gem sockets, PoE2 features dedicated slots for active and spirit gems in the skill screen.
2. Each active skill gem has its own support gem slots, allowing for direct connections between active and support gems.
3. This system makes it easier to experiment with different combinations without needing to modify your equipment.

• Support Linking

1. Support gems are slotted directly into an active or spirit gem’s support slots on the skill screen.
2. The number of support slots available increases as the active gem levels up, allowing for more powerful setups over time.

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Choosing Your Primary Skill

• Core Playstyle

1. Your primary skill defines your character’s combat style. Consider:

   - Do you want a skill focused on Area of Effect (AoE) damage for clearing maps?
   - Would a high single-target damage skill be better for bossing?
   - Does your build benefit from hybrid skills that perform multiple roles?

• Theme and Synergy

1. Select skills that complement your passive tree and ascendancy. For example:

   - If you specialize in cold damage, choose abilities like Arctic Armour or Cast on Freeze.
   - If you plan to scale physical damage, focus on compatible melee or ranged attacks.

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Optimizing Support Gems

• Maximizing Synergy

1. For each active or spirit gem, choose supports that enhance its strengths. Examples include:

   - Increased Area of Effect for wide-reaching skills.
   - Controlled Destruction or Elemental Focus for single-target damage.

1. Don’t overlook defensive supports if survivability is a concern.

• Iterative Testing

1. Experiment with different support combinations to see what works best for your build.
2. Adjust based on content: you may prefer different setups for mapping versus bossing.

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Skill selection in Path of Exile 2 is a dynamic and iterative process. The uncut gem system provides unmatched flexibility, but careful planning and experimentation are crucial to building an effective setup. By understanding and leveraging the interplay between active, spirit, and support gems, you can craft a skill loadout perfectly tailored to your build.

Passive Skill Tree Planning

• Navigating the Passive Tree
  • Starting points, keystones, and clusters
  • Stat priorities: life, mana, damage, resistances
• Specialization
  • Focusing on critical passives for playstyle enhancement
• Cluster Jewels
  • Using cluster jewels for advanced optimization

Gear and Itemization

• Core Item Slots
  • Key stats for weapons, armor, and accessories
• Unique Items
  • When and how to incorporate unique items
• Crafting and Modifiers
  • Basics of crafting and filling gaps in your build
• Resistances and Defenses
  • Importance of capping resistances and choosing defensive layers

Testing and Iteration

• Skill and Gear Testing
  • Testing builds in gameplay scenarios
• Adjusting for Weaknesses
  • Troubleshooting low survivability, mana issues, etc.
• Endgame Scaling
  • Preparing for mapping, delving, or boss fights

Tools and Resources

• Path of Building (PoB)
  • Planning and simulating builds
• Wiki Links
  • Relevant pages for items, skills, and mechanics
• Community Builds
  • Forums and communities for inspiration

Conclusion and Final Tips

• Encouragement to Experiment
• Emphasizing Flexibility
• Next Steps and Advanced Guides