If skills are the bread of Path of Exile 2, then support gems are the warm butter that enhances the flavor of skill customization. With the right support gems, any skill can turn your character into a force to be reckoned with. Considering how hard Path of Exile 2 can be, effective support gems are especially important to get faster clear speeds and the bountiful loot that follows.
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With a game as complex as this one can be, let’s take a look at a few places to start if you’re intimidated to jump in!
To help you navigate an admittedly overwhelming number of options, here are the top picks for support gems that will be helpful in almost all situations. Whether you’re a seasoned Exile or a newcomer to the horrifying lands of Wraeclast, these gems will be essential additions to your build.
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Combo Finisher
Combo Finisher is a game-changer for anyone who likes to bash monsters with a quarterstaff or rend the earth with mighty slams. This support gem enhances your attack skills by turning the supported skill into a finishing blow that deals increased damage after accumulating enough combo points. It’s like adding a cherry on top of your damage sundae, providing a satisfying conclusion to your attack chains.
The beauty of Combo Finisher lies in its versatility. It seamlessly integrates into various melee builds, rewarding you for maintaining a rhythm of strikes during combat. By timing your attacks to maximize combo points, you can unleash devastating finishing moves that can knock bosses off their feet. If you’re looking to add a powerful finisher during the thick of melee, Combo Finisher is a must-have.
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Scattershot
If you’ve played any of the ranged-focused builds, Scattershot will be a staple support gem. It modifies projectile skills to fire two additional projectiles, effectively increasing your area of effect and crowd-control capabilities. Whether you’re launching arrows or casting spells, this gem ensures you hit more targets with each attack. After all, everyone knows that three projectiles are better than one.
However, great power always comes with a caveat. While Scattershot increases your offensive reach, it also spreads your damage across more projectiles, reducing single-target damage. Balancing this trade-off is key to maximizing its effectiveness. Of course, in scenarios where clearing groups of enemies is a priority, Scattershot will help you reduce a room to dust.
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Elemental Focus
Elemental Focus is the go-to support gem for builds aiming to amplify elemental damage, which applies to most of them. It significantly boosts the elemental damage of supported skills but comes at a cost: those skills can no longer inflict elemental status ailments like burning or freezing. Despite this drawback, the result is worth it if raw damage output is your primary goal.
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Incorporating Elemental Focus into your build requires a bit of tinkering. If your build doesn’t rely on status ailments for crowd control or additional damage, this gem can substantially increase your DPS. It’s particularly effective in builds that focus on a single element, allowing you to maximize your damage potential.
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Arcane Tempo
Since you’ll constantly find yourself surrounded by hordes of enemies, time is of the essence for spellcasters. Arcane Tempo provides a significant cast speed boost that will help you avoid getting bogged down. This support gem increases the casting speed of linked spells by 25%, allowing you to unleash a barrage of devastation in less time. It’s like adding a bit of grease to your build, allowing you to go through the motions of fighting quicker and more efficiently.
While the increased casting speed is advantageous, it’s essential to keep your mana consumption in mind. Faster casting naturally means more spells per second, which can quickly deplete your mana reserves if you’re not careful. Pairing this gem with mana regeneration or reduction suffixes will help maintain the balance between speed and sustainability.
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Ignition
Ignition is a fiery addition to any build looking to trigger the Ignite debuff on enemies. This support gem is straightforward, increasing the chance of igniting enemies by 100%. It’s particularly useful for builds that focus on using the spirit gem Cast on Ignite, adding an extra layer of devastation to your attacks.
However, it’s essential to note that Ignite is more effective with skills that don’t apply ignite effects continuously. For instance, channeling skills like Incinerate may not benefit as much since they apply ignite rapidly on their own. Selecting the right skills to pair with Ignite will ensure you maximize its potential.
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Hourglass
Hourglass is an interesting support gem that adds a cooldown to your skills. Considering that most skills in Path of Exile 2 don’t have a cooldown, this may seem like a hindrance. However, the support gem also boosts the damage to the supported skill by a whopping 40%. This makes it particularly effective with skills that drop a lot of damage off one cast. Examples like Hammer of the Gods or Comet are a great choice, as they will slice through boss health bars like a knife through butter.
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Of course, any time you add a cooldown to a skill, it can become a double-edged sword. While it offers the potential for significant burst damage, it requires precise timing and may not be suitable for all combat situations. It’s best saved for situations when enemies are crowd-controlled and can’t avoid the damage from an Hourglass-boosted skill.
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Magnified Effect
Magnified Effect is a support gem that enhances the potency of your skills by increasing their area of effect. This is another almost universally useful support gem that can be used by every type of build. From bigger curse zones, larger frost novas, to grander mace slams,
However, this increased potency comes with the trade-off of a higher mana cost. However, to be frank, this tradeoff is dwarfed by the benefits of increased area of effect. Magnified Effect can elevate your skills to new heights, making it a valuable addition to many setups.
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Spell Cascade
You know what’s better than one comet crashing down from the sky? Three comets. Spell Cascade takes a skill and triples it. Operating somewhat similarly to Multiple Projectiles, any skill supported by Spell Cascade will be cast again in two zones around you. This makes it very effective at both increasing a skill’s overall damage and area of effect.
There is a slight drawback to these boons. The adjacent skill activations will have decreased damage and a smaller area of effect. However, when keeping in mind that the skill will now inherently cover a greater area coupled with a three-part activation, that drawback seems less severe. Spell Cascade is a very powerful support gem and has enough flexibility to fit into a large variety of builds.
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