Cluster Jewels Explained

Cluster Jewels are a subtype of Jewel which roll special Notables and passive bonuses. Players use Clusters to customize their Passive Skill Tree.

What are Cluster Jewels?

There are 3 different types of Cluster Jewels in Path of Exile:

• Large Cluster Jewels which have 8-12 Passives, and up to 3 Notables.
• Medium Cluster Jewels which have 4-6 Passives and up to 2 Notables.
• Small Cluster Jewels which have 2-3 Passives and up to 1 Notable.

The primary source of Clusters is Delirium, but other League mechanics like Heist and Expedition sometimes offer Delirium Rewards. If you want to farm some Clusters for yourself, check out our Currency guides for a strategy.

Key Features

Cluster Jewels have implicit Enchantments which define many of the Jewel's properties. These cannot be modified with the use of Currency items.

• Adds # Passive Skills.
  • This is the number of Passives on the Jewel, when combined with the number of Notable explicit properties this defines the Jewel's layout.
  • Most builds use 8 or 12 Passive Large Clusters, and 4 or 5 Passive Medium Clusters.
• # Added Passive Skills are Jewel Sockets.
  • Large Clusters have 2 Jewel Sockets, Medium Clusters have 1, and Small Clusters have 0.

• Added Small Passive Skills Grant:
  • This Enchantment defines the bonuses from the non-notable passives on your Clusters.
  • The Jewel's explicit properties are determined by this Enchantment.
  • In the above example, we have a Spell Damage Large Cluster Jewel.

Like most items in Path of Exile, Cluster Jewels are craftable! They roll up to 2 Prefixes, and 2 Suffixes from a modifier pool determined by the base type, enchantment properties and item level of the Jewel.

In this example the Cluster Jewel has 4 affixes, but Cluster Jewels also roll special Notable passives such as Arcane Heroism which grants Arcane Surge or Burden Projection a way to introduce Knockback into your build.

The effect of Notables found on your Clusters stack.

Large Cluster Configuration

The most popular configuration for Large Cluster Jewels is 8 passives, and 3 notables. This is the most efficient way to access Notables and Jewel sockets.

For example, this setup uses 8 total Passive points including the 3 required to allocate the base Socket. You have access to Conjured Wall and Essence Rush with the option to allocate Burden Projection by spending 2 additional Passive points.

Most Notable Passives are Prefixes, however Large Clusters have a small pool of Suffix Notable Passives. The order of these Notable Passives are fixed and determined by the skill ID.

When shopping for new Large Clusters, use a tool like Path of Building to see the location of your Notables. This ensures the 2 Notables you're allocating are the ones you want. Since the order is fixed, some combinations always force a desirable Notable to the back position on the Jewel.

Notable Locations

Alternatively, you can find the Notable order on PoEDB. Nodes at the top of the list always appear at the front of the Cluster, nodes at the bottom of the list always appear at the back. Anything in between appears in order.

For example, a Large Cluster Jewels with 12% increased Damage with Bows.

• Vicious Skewering, and Arcing Shot appear first. They will always be at the front as a result.
• Feed the Fury always appears last, and defaults to the back of the Cluster.
• The rest appear in order, so if you had Tempered Arrowheads, Martial Prowess, and Devastator then Devastator would be in the back.

As a result, some Cluster Notable combinations are easy to use and others are more difficult. Always check other Enchantments to obtain the best configuration. If a Bow Cluster doesn't work, consider a Two-Handed weapon Cluster or Attack Damage Cluster.

How to Use Clusters

Cluster Jewels are exclusively placed into Large Jewel Sockets found on the outer edge of the tree. They cannot be socketed into Basic Jewel Sockets located throughout the Tree's central area.

The Large Jewel Sockets are directly between each of the base classes starting locations. We use the following references for Cluster Jewel locations in our Build guides.

1. Located between Witch and Shadow near the Eldritch Battery Keystone.
2. Find this between Shadow and Ranger near the Perfect Agony Keystone.
3. Located between Ranger and Duelist near the Point Blank Keystone.
4. Find this between Duelist and Marauder near the Call to Arms Keystone.
5. Located between Marauder and Templar near the Resolute Technique Keystone.
6. Find this between Templar and Witch, there isn't a Keystone nearby instead search for the Arcane Guarding Notable.

There are no Large Jewel Sockets near the Scion starting area.

Cluster Jewels work a bit like matroyskha dolls. You place smaller Jewels within larger ones, but larger ones cannot go within smaller Clusters.

• Socket Large Cluster Jewels in Large Jewel Sockets on the Passive Tree.
• Place Medium Cluster Jewels in Large Cluster Jewel Sockets, or Large Jewel Sockets on the Passive Tree.
• Socket Small Cluster Jewels in Medium Cluster Jewel Sockets, Large Cluster Jewel Sockets, or Large Jewel Sockets on the Passive Tree.

Completing a Cluster Jewel represents a significant amount of Passive Point investment, so many players opt to use a Large Cluster and 2 Medium Clusters, then fill the Medium Cluster Sockets with regular Jewels.

Restrictions & Respec

The added Passives from Cluster Jewels do not interact with Radius Jewels. Furthermore, when a Radius Jewel is placed within a Cluster Jewel Socket its effects are disabled.

Small Passives and Notables don't have a refund cost, but Jewel Sockets do. So grab a couple Orbs of Regret when redoing your Clusters and keep in mind that larger Clusters are more expensive to swap than the smaller ones.

Unique Cluster Jewels

There are several Unique Cluster Jewels dropped by the Delirium Bosses Kosis and Omniphobia or as a reward for completing Simulacrums.

• Calamitous Visions.
  • This grants Lone Messenger.
• Kitava's Teachings.
  • Which grants Disciple of Kitava.
• Natural Affinity.
  • Granting Nature's Patience.
• One With Nothing.
  • Which grants Hollow Palm Technique.
  • Alternatively you can obtain this from the Brotherhood in Exile Divination Card.
• The Front Line.
  • This grants Veteran's Awareness.
• The Interrogation.
  • Granting Secrets of Suffering.
• The Siege.
  • Which grants Kineticism
• Megalomaniac.
  • This Jewel rolls 3 random Notables from the entire pool.
  • You can get nonsensical combinations, or 3 perfect Notables for your build.
  • Due to the randomness of this item and massive number of options, it's notoriously difficult to buy or sell.
  • Alternatively you can obtain this from A Modest Request Divination Card.
• Voices.
  • This Unique Large Cluster offers 3 Sockets and 7, 5, 3, or 1 Passive which grants nothing.
  • A 1 Passive Voices is extremely rare and valuable.
  • Because the Passives grant no bonuses, it's usually better to use a Large Cluster Jewel over a 7 Passive Voices.
  • Alternatively you can obtain this from the Luminous Trove Divination Card.

Cluster Jewels in Builds

There are many ways to use a Clusters in your build. Ultimately, there's no hard and fast rule here. On League start, most players use regular Passives due to the ease of allocation. But as the League goes on and Cluster Jewels become more available many players add a Cluster or two. The most common configuration is 1-2 Large Clusters and up to 4 Medium Clusters. Many Cluster Notables offer 20-30% Increased Damage and other powerful effects. Many Notables support Archetypes that otherwise lack Passives on the tree like Physical Damage over Time builds.

Attribute Stacking builds and Aurabots look for 12 Passive Large Clusters to take advantage of the Added Small Passive Skills have 35% Increased Effect Prefix. The modifier is also valued by a variety of builds Life and Chaos Resistance Small Cluster Jewels. When rolling these clusters, Notable passives are detrimental.

This only rolls on ilevel 84+ Clusters making it rare and expensive.

Cluster Crafting

In comparison to other items in Path of Exile, the modifier pool for Clusters is limited. This makes Harvest crafting very effective at targeting specific Notables. For example, on a 10% increased Projectile Damage Medium Cluster Repeater is the only affix with the Attack or Caster tags. On the other hand, 12 Passive Synthesized Clusters with perfect affixes are some of the hardest items to craft in Path of Exile and regularly sell for 100+ Divine Orbs.

Trading for Clusters

Buying and selling Cluster Jewels can be obtuse, so here are a few best practices.

• Check the item level, some Affixes only roll on item level 50, 68, 75, and 84 Cluster Jewels.
• Use ~Enchant Adds to find the Adds # Passive Skills Filter, then set a number to limit the number of small passives which appear on your desired Jewel. If you want an 8 Passive Large Cluster Jewel set this to "8" Maximum.
• To search for Enchantments use ~Enchant Added and select: Added Small Passive Skills Grant: #
• Use ~Notable to set the number of Notables (1-3)
  • Then use the Notable's name to include options.
  • With a "Count" Group you can find Clusters with a variety of Notable configurations.

Summary

• Cluster Jewels are a subtype of Jewel used to customize the Passive Skill Tree in Path of Exile, there are 3 types:
  • Large Cluster Jewels which have 8-12 Passives, and up to 3 Notables.
  • Medium Cluster Jewels which have 4-6 Passives and up to 2 Notables.
  • Small Cluster Jewels which have 2-3 Passives and up to 1 Notable.
• The Jewel's Enchantment determines the Passives, bonuses and Affixes offered.
  • Enchantments cannot be modified with currency.
  • You can use a Vendor Recipe to recycle unwanted Clusters.
  • Most players use Large Clusters with 8 Passives and allocate 2 Notables, 2 Jewel Sockets, and 1 Small Passive.
• Place Cluster Jewels in Large Jewel Sockets on the Passive Skill Tree.
  • These sockets are located on the outside of the tree between the Class starting locations.
  • They cannot be placed in Basic Jewel Sockets on the Passive Tree.
  • Socket Smaller Clusters into larger Clusters.
  • Never place Radius Jewels within Cluster Sockets!
  • Use Trade filters to make buying Clusters easier.
• There are several Unique Cluster Jewels, obtained from Delirium Bosses and the Simulacrums.

Credits

Written by: Tenkiei

Reviewed by: Crouching_Tuna, Dredscythe