Skills in Path of Exile 2

In Path of Exile 2 your Skills come from collecting Gems and unleashing their innate power to devastate your foes. Each Skill in Path of Exile 2 has strengths and weaknesses. There are fast Skills designed to strike rapidly, and slow Skills that hit hard but have a longer animation. Movement is also a core part of Skills in Path of Exile 2 with most Skills moving your character in some way.

Skills

You create your build in Path of Exile 2 by combining Active Skills, Support Gems, and permanent bonuses like Auras or Meta Gems. The active here refers to something you actively use. Active skills are broken into broad categories like Attacks or Spells depending on whether they play more into the fantasy of striking an enemy with a weapon, or devastating them through a magical effect. They are further subdivided based on the type of damage dealt or what weapon is required to use them or whether they provide a utility effect. These categories are broadly referred to as "Tags." You may wish to combine skills from different elements to take advantage of crowd control effects or inflict multiple debuffs.

You pick a few synergistic Active Skills capable of dealing damage and then build around them. This involves adding Support Gems to customize how your skill behaves to strengthen the synergies between the Skills you use. Then, add some utility skills like Warcries to enhance your main damage dealers. After that, it's time to reserve your Spirit to enable powerful effects like Auras, Buffs, permanent Minions, or Meta Gems.

Obtaining Skill Gems

You can use Uncut Skill Gems and Uncut Support Gems to obtain a Gem of your choice. These drop as you kill monsters and are scaled to the level of the area where you obtained them. This offers you more freedom to choose the Skills you want while completing the campaign.

Skills have different tags and are sorted based on the weapons they're compatible with or the type of damage they deal. In addition to the Skills available from Gems, most weapons have an innate Skill. Think of this as an auto attack or basic attack which you always have available as it costs no Mana. Weapon Skills can be supported but probably aren't as powerful as the Skills provided by a Gem. Each Skill has both a level and attribute requirement which you need to meet before you can Engrave it. In addition, some Skills have minimum levels.

Most Skills in Path of Exile 2 don't have a cooldown, so it's unlikely this is going to result in a spender-generator playstyle. Instead, Weapon Skills are a backup for when you mismanage your rotation and run out of Mana, or for the early game when you don't have a lot of gem options.

Leveling Skill Gems

You level your Skills in Path of Exile 2 using Uncut Gems. When dropped each Uncut Gem has a level, so you might get a Level 7 Uncut Gem early on during the campaign, or a Level 19 Uncut Gem in the endgame. If you do not need this to Engrave a new Skill you can use it to level one of your existing Skills instead. This feature was discussed following the PoE 2 showcase as part of GamesCom 2024 and PAX West.

Movement

There are no Skills in PoE 2 exclusively dedicated to movement, instead most Skills in Path of Exile 2 have a mobility component. Some Skills require you to be stationary, but many are usable while moving to ensure the gameplay feels fluid. Melee attacks for example, often include step attacks where the character moves forward to aggressively strike foes. On the other hand, a ranged attack or spell designed to be fired from a safe distance might include a backstep. Movement can be used offensively as well, any attack which moves you can also be used to displace foes. Just be aware, this is based on your size relative to an enemy's size so you can displace small foes but larger foes may displace you.

Examples

Wave of FrostWhen you use this Skill, your character spins and backsteps, gaining distance on the target.

• Wave of Frost, when you use this Skill, your character spins and backsteps, gaining distance on the target.
• Sunder, leap into the air and then slam down fracturing the ground in a line as you strike enemies with Sunder!
• Falling Thunder, this Skill carries significant forward momentum making it great for aggressively closing distance on unprepared foes.
• Frost Escape, some Skills combine movement with crowd control to prevent enemies from reaching you.
• Rapid Shot, you can use Rapid Shot while moving, this makes it great for quickly dealing with smaller enemies!
• Supercharged Slam, movement is a huge part of most PoE 2 Skills, but some require you to hold still and charge them up.

Building movement into Path of Exile 2's Skills goes well beyond simply moving forward or backward while using a Skill. For example, you can use your dodge roll to interrupt a Skill. This is great for getting out of a sticky situation or dodging an enemy attack. Unfortunately, the dodge roll does not save you from AoE effects like Boss slams.

Skills also have better tracking which is especially important for keeping melee attacks on target as you or the enemy moves. As a result, you should find yourself landing blows on enemies more reliably. Skill animations are weapon-specific in Path of Exile 2 so if you use Sunder with an Axe it's going to look and feel different from using the same Skill with a Mace.

Support Gems

You use Support Gems to further customize how Skills behave. Don't think of these as direct damage bonuses, that's not how they work. For example, Lightning Rod is a bow attack which creates static conductors which react when struck by Electricity. Lightning Arrow fires electrified arrows, causing electricity to arc through the rods. If you add Multiple Projectile Support to Lightning Rod, it's easier to create a field of rods. That way when you fire Lightning Arrow, the electricity has more targets to arc through. In the example below, Jonathan is using Lightning Rod with Multiple Projectiles to set up a field and Lightning Arrow with Chain Support to electrocute even more enemies. This increctly increases the damage you do by modifying the Skills behave and interact.

Support Gems offer a variety of other ways to modify your Skills. You can raise or lower a Skill's duration, add status effects, or give yourself a defensive buff while using the Skill. Pierce Support is particularly powerful when combined with projectile Skills that trigger an explosion or similar effect when striking an enemy. Each time your Skill pierces, it explodes again. While most of these effects add utility to the Skill, they still provide damage increases through effects like Pierces, negating enemy defenses, and Additional Projectiles.

To make this more accessible to new players, GGG has recommended supports now, this is a short list of the things that are most applicable to your skill. Of course, if you're more experienced and wish to min-max you're free to use the "Show All" feature to cut any support you want.

Restrictions and Capacity

You can only use 1 copy of each Support gem on your build. So for example, if you're using two Projectile Bow Skills you can only support one of them with Greater Multiple Projectiles. This means you need to carefully consider where a Support Gem has the most impact. You can change your Support Gems at any time. So you should reassess your choices each time you gain access to a new Skill.

Recently at GamesCom 2024 GGG also teased the new Support Capacity system. Your Attributes, (Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence), determine how many supports you can use. So if you have more Dexerity, you can use more Support Gems with a Dexterity requirement. This system further reinforces the strategic nature of selecting the optimal Supports for your Skills.

Reservation Skills

Auras, Minions, and Meta Gems reserve Spirit to grant you a permanent effect. You can learn more about how to get Spirit with our dedicated guide.

Use Meta Gems to trigger the linked Active Skill(s) after meeting the correct conditions. Cast on Shock, for example, builds energy whenever you shock a foe. The energy requirement varies based on the base cast time of the triggered Skill. The goal is to make both fast and slow Skills desirable options for Meta Gems. Skills like Cast on Critical Strike and Cast When Damage Taken have set the META in Path of Exile 1, so it's likely that Meta Gems will be crucial to buildcrafting in Path of Exile 2.

Comboing Skills

Skill combos are a big focus in Path of Exile 2! This manifests in a few different ways, for example, Armor Piercing Burst Shot shatters Frozen enemies dealing AoE damage to all other nearby enemies. You can also use a Skill to create a void zone on the ground such as an oil slick or a poison cloud and then ignite the ground effect with Fire damage to create a huge explosion!

Another advantage you get by combining Skills in Path of Exile 2 is neutralizing enemy armor. Some Skills inflict Armor Break, lowering enemy armor. So if an enemy's armor is turning your smaller attacks, simply break it then try again. Some Skills also trigger additional effects against Armor Broken foes.

Frost Escape is a disengage Skill, you leap backward and shoot an icy arrow which has a high chance of Freezing foes. This is great for avoiding lethal damage or setting up for a Snipe. Snipe is a Skill shot with a long charge time, making it difficult to use on fast-moving foes. But hitting Frozen targets is just like shooting fish in a barrel!

Skills that share a theme often synergize. Plant Skills, for example, feed off the Poisons caused by your other Nature Skills, Physical Skills apply or consume Armor Break, Lightning Skills arc energy between each other, and Fire Skills may be more effective against ignited foes.

Major Differences

This section covers the major differences between Skills in PoE 1 and PoE 2:

• Your Sockets are incorporated into the Skill Gems, rather than on your items.
• Skills in PoE 2 are weapon based and animation driven, you deal damage as your weapon or spell makes contact with enemies.
• Each skill is more specialized than in the original Path of Exile to discourage players from making 1 button builds.
  • There are both fast and slow Skills.
• Support Gems are more about utility and quality of life instead of raw damage.
  • You can only use 1 copy of a given Support Gem on your character.
  • Attributes determines your Support Gem capacity, IE: how many Supports from a specific Attribute you can use across all Skills.
• Most Skills have a motion component. Many melee attacks close distance to aggressively, whereas a ranged Skill might have a small backstep to keep you safe.
• Auras, Minions, and Meta Gems reserve Spirit instead of Mana. Therefore, Mana is used to pay Skill costs.
• Weapons in Path of Exile 2 have innate Skills or supports, for example, it might be common to find a Fireball staff. This gives you more freedom to add a new damage type or pick up a powerful Skill while leveling.
  • Weapon Skills can be supported and do not cost Mana.
  • MoreSskills have weapon restrictions.
• Instead of quests rewarding specific Gems, you use Uncut Skill and Support Gems to expand your arsenal as you progress.
• Crowd Control effects are far more diverse in Path of Exile 2.
  • There are shorter light stuns and 8 second long Heavy stuns.
• Skills also inflict Stagger damage, with some being better than others at Staggering bosses.

Summary

Skills in Path of Exile 2 have a lot more movement than they did in the original game. They are also more specialized, so you need to combo multiple synergistic Skills to make a powerful build instead of relying on one button to rule them all. Gather some Uncut Skill Gems, pick your weapon of choice, and prepare to annihilate your foes!

Written by: Tenkiei

Reviewed by: Crouching_Tuna, Havoc616, Palsteron