Editor’s Note
Path of Exile 2’s skill system diverges from genre norms by tethering abilities directly to gems, which are universal across classes and central to progression. This guide outlines the two primary gem types to help players navigate this core mechanic.
Path of Exile 2 features a very unique and different skill system compared to other ARPGs like the Diablo series. In this game, every character class can learn or craft any skill through gems. Gems are among the most valuable and important items in the game, which is why it’s important to know their characteristics and how to obtain them in advance.
In Path of Exile 2, there are primarily two different types of gems you should know:
In this game, all character classes have at least 9 slots or sockets available to learn skills through “uncut skill gems.” Once a skill is learned, players can assign it to a shortcut to start using it in combat.
Skill gems can be associated with melee attacks, ranged attacks, spells, or minion skills. And, although any character can eventually learn any type of skill (regardless of class, similar to passive skills on the skill tree), you must keep in mind that many skills require having a specific weapon equipped or meeting an attribute level condition (for example, having 15 points in Dexterity and a staff equipped, to give an example).
On the other hand, support or assistance gems modify your main skill gems and enhance them, but they do not provide new skills on their own. These gems must always be socketed in slots alongside a skill gem; by default, you will have 2 spaces in each skill gem to insert support gems, but these spaces can be expanded up to a maximum of 5 by using orbs at a jeweler.
It is also important to note that each type of support gem can only be used once on your entire character (meaning you cannot have more than one of the same support gem socketed). Additionally, these gems increase the requirement of a specific attribute to use a skill, so keep that in mind before socketing them.
Obtaining new uncut skill gems and uncut support gems in Path of Exile 2 is quite simple:
Gems dropped by enemies upon death will be adjusted to the zone’s level.
It is also possible to obtain gems as a reward for completing quests.
Opening chests found throughout the world is another possibility for obtaining gems.
In addition to being able to improve skills by socketing support gems (as mentioned above), in Path of Exile 2 you can also level up your skills with uncut skill gems. That is, uncut skill gems can be used to craft new skills, but they can also be used to level up an already learned and equipped skill.
For this, keep the following in mind:
All you have to do is select one of your uncut gems in your inventory.
Then open the skill crafting menu.
When engraving a new skill, navigate between the sections to a tab called “Upgradable.”
Here you will see your already learned skills that you can level up with the gem.
It is important to mention that, obviously, if you have a skill at level 3 and want to raise it to level 4, you can only do so through an uncut skill gem of level 4 or higher. For example, if your gem allows creating or upgrading skills up to level 8, you can increase a skill’s level up to that threshold.
In short, if you don’t want to learn new skills and are interested in further enhancing the ones you’ve already learned in your build, don’t hesitate to use the uncut skill gems you have left in your inventory for this purpose.