Summary

  • Path of Exile 2 has a new skill gem system where support gems are socketed into skill gems by default.
  • Players can only use each support gem once across all skills, requiring strategic gem selection.
  • Tier 2 support gems like Splinter, Spell Echo, and Armor Explosion offer unique effects for different builds.

Path of Exile 2 takes a slightly different approach to its skill system than the previous game. Rather than having slots in a player's gear to combine skill and support gems, skill gems now come with slots to socket support gems into by default. That means no more hunting or rolling for gear with the right linked slots before support gems can be used.

Path of Exile 2 Hardest bosses mixed gameplay collage
Path Of Exile 2: 10 Hardest Bosses, Ranked

Players shouldn't be surprised to spend quite a bit of time with the following bosses in Path of Exile 2.

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The Path of Exile 2 approach comes with a restriction, though, as players can only use a support gem once across all of their equipped skills. That means that knowing which support gems work best for what skills is important. There are a lot of support gems to get to know, Tier 2 alone has 56 support gems in it. These gems are some of the best in the second tier, with the most varied use cases and strongest effects.

15 Splinter

Armor Breaker

Path of Exile 2 Splinter
  • Category: Strength
  • Cost to slot: +5 Strength
  • Effect: Skills break armor for 15% of physical damage dealt

Splinter is a straightforward Tier 2 support choice for any melee or physical damage-focused builds. If players are focusing on physical damage, being able to break armor is a must as players journey further into Path of Exile 2.

Splinter can make this a lot easier as the armor break scales with the melee damage of the skill, meaning it stays relevant as long as the player keeps their base physical damage high.

14 Spell Echo

Repeating Spells

Path of Exile 2 Spell Echo
  • Category: Intelligence
  • Cost to slot: +5 Intelligence, 150% cost multiplier
  • Effect: Spell skills repeat when cast, have 30% more area of effect, 30% more cast time

Spell echo can be a powerful support gem for magic-focused characters, causing spells that affect an area to repeat their effect when cast. It also increases the area of effect for the repeated spell but increases the cast time as a trade-off.

Increased cast time is not much of a downside compared to doubling the effect of area spells, so it's worth it. Players should be aware of the high-cost multiplier though. This means the supported skill costs more mana, so this requires high mana or mana regen to use effectively.

13 Armor Explosion

Explosive Blows

Path of Exile 2 Armor Explosion
  • Category: Strength
  • Cost to slot: +5 Strength
  • Effect: Skills cause an explosion when fully breaking an enemy's armor

One problem that melee builds can have in Path of Exile 2 is a lack of ability to deal with groups of enemies. Armor Explosion can massively increase the area damage potential for any melee hitter.

It needs to be used with moves that break armor, or another support gem like Splinter, but it causes an explosion of fire damage when the player breaks an enemy's armor. This can help with clearing mobs whose armor will break easily, causing explosions to deal with additional enemies.

12 Ricochet

Chains From Terrain

Path of Exile 2 Ricochet
  • Category: Dexterity
  • Cost to slot: +5 Dexterity
  • Effect: Skill projectiles have a 40% chance to chain again from the terrain

Ricochet is an excellent support gem for projectile-based classes like the Ranger and Mercenary. Projectiles from supported skills will essentially bounce when hitting terrain, dealing their chain effects to a nearby enemy. The gem doesn't just support physical projectiles though; spells that are considered projectiles can also be supported.

11 Fire / Lightning / Cold Penetration

Penetrate Enemy Defenses

Path of Exile 2 Fire Penetration
  • Category: Strength / Dexterity / Intelligence
  • Cost to slot: +5 Strength / Dexterity / Intelligence, 120% cost multiplier
  • ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills penetrate 30% of a target's Fire / Lightning / Cold resistance

For players who want to focus on a single element, having resistance penetration for that element is essential. These gems can be useful whether the player is focusing on one or multiple elements.

Enemy resistances creep up across the board as players progress through the game's acts toward the end game, and resistance penetration from skill gems and passives can be very useful for keeping a build's damage high.

10 Potential

Power Charge Critical Boost

Path of Exile 2 Potential
  • Category: Intelligence
  • Cost to slot: +5 Intelligence
  • ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills will consume a power charge if available to gain a 30% critical hit chance

Power charges can be a powerful mechanic in Path of Exile 2 if the player can get used to how to generate and use them effectively. Potential is a support gem that makes use of this mechanic.

It will consume a charge with the supported skill to give it a 30% additional critical hit chance. It also prevents the skill from generating charges, so players will need a separate way to gain charges to spend with this support gem.

9 Inevitable Critical

Ramping Critical Chance

Path of Exile 2 Inevitable Critical
  • Category: Intelligence
  • Cost to slot: +5 Intelligence, 120% cost multiplier
  • ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills gain 25% critical hit chance per second, up to 100%

Inevitable Critical is a support gem that increases the critical hit chance of a skill with no real downsides. The critical chance will increase by 25% every second (up to 100%) until the skill critically hits and the bonus resets. This is a good support gem for builds that want to focus on critical damage and can be very effective when combined with passive critical hit and damage bonuses.

8 Heavy Swing

Big Melee Hits

Path of Exile 2 Heavy Swing
  • Category: Strength
  • Cost to slot: +5 Strength
  • ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills have 35% increased melee damage, 10% less attack speed

Heavy Swing is another good support gem for players focusing on heavy-hitting physical damage builds. The bonus of 35% increased physical damage is well worth the trade-off of slower attack speed when used with high-damage physical skills.

Path Of Exile 2 split image of Skeletal Arsonist
Path Of Exile 2: Best Early Skill Gems For Witch Builds

Strong builds require the right skill gems in Path of Exile 2. When it comes to the squishy Witch class, this is especially key in the early game.

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This is obviously a gem that melee bruisers will want to use, but it's also useful for minion builds, as minions that deal physical damage like the Skeletal Reavers can also make use of this gem.

7 Maim

Debilitating Hits

Path of Exile 2 Maim
  • Category: Dexterity
  • Cost to slot: +5 Dexterity
  • ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills always Maim on hit

Maim is an effective physical debuff, and one that ranged characters will especially want to make use of. Maim gives enemies a 30% lower movement speed and a 15% reduced evasion rating. Spreading this effect around enemy mobs can make life a lot easier for a ranged character who wants to avoid damage while dealing consistent hits from afar.

6 Primal Armament

Elemental Weapon Booster

Path of Exile 2 Primal Armament
  • Category: Strength
  • Cost to slot: +5 Strength, 120% cost multiplier
  • ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills deal 25% more weapon elemental damage

Primal Armament is a strength gem that can be used by almost any character that wants to focus on weapon-based elemental damage. The gem can support any attack skill that uses a weapon, giving the skill 25% more of the weapon's elemental damage to its base.

If players are using a weapon with one or multiple elemental damage types, this damage is buffed 25% before being added to the damage calculation of the skill, making this a powerful buff with the right weapon.