Best Level 2 Support Gems In Path Of Exile 2

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.

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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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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.

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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

• 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

• 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.

5

Considered Casting

Slower Casts, Stronger Spells

• Category: Intelligence
• Cost to slot: +5 Intelligence
• ​​​​​​​Effect: Spell skills deal 40% more damage with hits, have 15% less cast speed

For players who are focusing on casting, Considered Casting is a support gem that shouldn’t be skipped. It’s best used for a player’s high-damage direct hitting casts, as the gem increases the spell damage of a skill by 40%, but decreases its cast speed by 15%. This works for Elemental skills like Frost Bolt and Ball Lightning, but it also works for casting minions like the Skeletal Storm Mages.

4

Coursing Current

Spreading Shocks

• Category: Intelligence
• Cost to slot: +5 Intelligence, 120% cost multiplier
• ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills have a 50% chance to spread shock to nearby enemies when applying shock

Coursing Current is a must-have support gem for lightning-focused builds. This will spread the shock effect from shocks applied by the supported skill to enemies in a 2.5-meter radius, with a 50% chance of activating.

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This helps spread damage around enemy mobs and causes enemies to take more damage thanks to the shock effect. The gem only makes sense for skills that shock, but it supports any skill that hits enemies, so it can work for a few different builds.

3

Close Combat / Long Shot

Close Range Or Long Range Booster

• Category: Dexterity / Dexterity
• Cost to slot: +5 Dexterity, 140% cost multiplier / +5 Dexterity, 120% cost multiplier
• ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills deal 25% damage to close enemies / Skills deal 35% damage to distant enemies

These two skill gems from the Dexterity category are lumped together because they essentially do the same thing, but which works for a given player will depend on their playstyle. Close Combat increases the damage skills deal to enemies within 1 meter (scaling down to no bonus at 3.5 meters away).

Long Shot increases damage against enemies 7 or more meters away (scaling down to no bonus at 3.5 meters or closer). So, whether players are fighting up close or at range, one of these options will work.

2

Practiced Combo

Combo Builder

• Category: Dexterity
• Cost to slot: +5 Dexterity
• ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills have a 40% chance to build additional combo on hit

Practiced Combo isn’t an easy support gem to understand on the surface, but its effect is powerful for the right build. It can only support melee strike skills, but it has a chance to add to the combo count of the skill on a hit.

This essentially makes it easier for a player to execute the final hit of combo moves, which is the part that does significant damage. The gem can be used in conjunction with Extended Combo for very powerful effects, especially with the Monk’s strike skills.

1

Ingenuity

Cooldown Reduction

• Category: Dexterity
• Cost to slot: +5 Dexterity, 110% cost multiplier
• ​​​​​​​Effect: Skills have a 30% decreased cooldown

Ingenuity isn’t a powerful gem on its own – its humble effect just decreases a skill’s cooldown. However, 30% is a significant reduction, and if players are relying on a cooldown-based skill for burst damage, then this gem is only going to increase their damage efficiency. It’s an easily overlooked support gem among the stronger buffs of Tier 2, but it can be very effective for certain builds.

Systems

Early Access Release

December 6, 2024