On December 6, POE 2 launched its early access and is expected to remain about six months, but that doesn’t mean it will be lacking in content. In fact, Path of Exile 2 currently has three full acts and six classes for you to explore and play, and there will be a lot of new content added before the official release, such as new quests that may drop POE2 Currency.
In addition, I believe you will find that the game’s skill system has also been improved and adjusted compared to the first game. The original POE skill system was simple, but it also made you feel limited - as skills and support gems were inserted into equipment, it also limited the polarity of the equipment and slots you had.
Although slots can be changed through in-game resources, this undoubtedly adds an extra tedious step when you need to use the skills you want. Fortunately, one of the biggest differences in POE 2’s skill mechanism is to simplify this and reduce restrictions.
Based on this, we will introduce you to some precautions for using skills in Path of Exile 2.
How To Acquire Skills?
If you want to acquire and equip skills in Path of Exile series of games, you first need to have the corresponding skill gems. Now in POE 2, skill gems have been simplified to a separate tab, where you can even equip up to nine unique skills!
In addition, in this tab, you can modify the skill gems you have and insert them into the hot bar; or hold down ALT key to check the skills to read the effects of each gem.
It is worth noting that this page will also display your weapon skills, because some skills are limited to matching with specific types of weapons. For example, a wand has a set of skills that can only be found on it, and you can only use these skills when you equip a wand. It is worth noting that you can also enhance these equipments with POE 2 Exalted Orb to expand the skill effects.
As for the acquisition of skill gems, no matter what type, they can be found by killing bosses or completing quests. Once obtained, they can be used to select skills or upgrade skills to the gem level. You need to note that skill gems can only choose to match skills of the same level or lower than it.
How To Upgrade Skills?
The upgrade of skills in Path of Exile 2 is carried out through support gems. Each skill has two slots for support gems, but this can eventually be increased to five using Jeweler’s Orbs.
The slots themselves do not have any polarity, but the support gems do, and the specific type and number of support gems that can be used depends on your character’s attributes. For every five points in each of your character’s attributes, you will be granted a new support gem slot, but the same support gem cannot be used twice with the same skill.
Each support gem will have a different effect on the skill, such as increasing damage, reducing cooldown, or applying a debuff to enemies. However, depending on the effect, some powerful support gems may also have disadvantages, such as increasing cooldown.
Uncut Spirit Gems Provide Skill Buffs
While Uncut Spirit Gems in POE 2 cannot grant you skills, they allow you to choose to equip some persistent skill buffs. These buffs are powered by spirit, a new game resource that can be permanently retained to enable these permanent buffs or summon permanent minions.
Related: Path of Exile 2 Currency Free Giveaways & Promotions
But to obtain Uncut Spirit Gems and unlock the persistent buffs they bring, you must take on specific challenges in each act or farm rare and boss in Cruel difficulty. Although Uncut Spirit Gems are extremely rare, as you clear maps faster and take on more challenging content, you’ll have the chance to get more Uncut Spirit Gems at higher gem levels.
How To Get Uncut Spirit Gems?
While Uncut Spirit Gems are difficult to come by, there are three places in POE 2 where you’re almost guaranteed to get them: Spirit-boosting bosses in Acts 1 and 3, and Golden Tomb area in Act 2. These areas all contain an item that increases your maximum spirit by 30, and each area will drop an Uncut Spirit Gem.
Besides these three locations, you’ll also have the chance to find Uncut Spirit Gems from rare and boss enemies. While all enemies in the game have a chance of dropping these gems, rare and boss enemies have a higher chance of dropping them than common or magic enemies.
To farm rare and boss enemies effectively, we recommend heading to areas that are two to four levels below your character’s level. This will allow you to swipe past enemies quickly and kill rare creatures and bosses more easily, allowing you to clear areas faster. Also, remember to loot all the boxes and containers along the way, as they may also contain Uncut Spirit Gems.
What’s Special About POE 2’s Skill System?
What makes Path of Exile 2’s skill system refreshing is that it gives you a lot of options and allows you to use eight skills at the same time. Even compared to POE 1, it’s easier to equip skills without having to worry about managing armor slots.
However, there is a downside to POE 2’s skill system, which is that the support gems don’t develop as much as they should. Although they work well in most cases, and the right settings can make an enormous difference. However, compared to the skill trees that handle upgrading skills in other games, POE 2’s gem mechanism seems a bit unsatisfactory. But fortunately, this won’t affect your gaming experience too much.
Overall, the adjusted Path of Exile 2 skill system is one of the many efforts made by the game to improve. In addition, each class can use any skill at will with the right weapon equipped, which provides more builds. And this change will only expand further as more content is added, continuing to upgrade the skill system in POE 2.
It is worth noting that if you enter IGGM Discord now, you can participate in the ongoing POE 2 Orbs giveaway event. We will draw 10 players on December 20th to share 100 Exalted Orbs, 100 Chaos Orbs, and 200 Regal Orbs. Believe in your luck! Hurry up and get involved!
