There are so many support gems inPath of Exile 2, it can feel overwhelming to sort through them all. If players want to work outside the limited suggested gems system, then understanding what each support gem can do, and what kind of skills it can support, are essential.
There are three tiers of support gems, but even in the first tier there are over 80 options. This can make it difficult for players to know what the best options are for their specific build and skill choices. It’s made even more difficult by the limitation that players can only use each support gem once in their build, so their choices matter. The following support gems are some of the best options that work across multiple builds and skill types, from the first tier of support gems only.
15Brutality
Physical Damage Booster
Brutality boosts physical damage at the cost of all other damage types. It can support any skill that damages enemies, but it’s best used with skills and builds that focus purely on physical damage. It pairs well with some of theWitch’s minion skills, likeSkeletal Reavers, as they tend to do physical damage only.
Using the game’s DPS calculator in the skill menu will show players at a glance whether adding this gem will benefit the skill, as some skills will allow it to be used even though they pair better with elemental gems.
14Glaciation
Freezing Touch
Glaciation causes a skill to deal significantly more freeze buildup when hitting a chilled enemy. As it pairs with any skill that hits enemies, that makes it a versatile support gem. The gem obviously pairs best with skills based on cold damage, but that coversskills for the RangerlikeFreezing Salvo,the witch’s Skeletal Frost Mages, the Monk’sIce Strike, and more. For players who want to use freeze as a crowd control mechanic, this is a must-have support gem.
13Scattershot
Multiple Projectiles
Despite the trade-offs to damage and attack speed, Scattershot is a worthwhile support skill for any skill that’s used primarily for clearing mobs. The two additional projectiles have spread and generally won’t hit the same target more than once. The gem makes skills more effective at spreading damage over an area or to multiple enemies. It works well with skills like theRanger’s lightning arrow,where the objective is to trigger lightning pylons or spread chain lightning between multiple enemies, as opposed todealing direct damage.
12Lacerate
If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It
Bleed can be an overlooked status effect inPath of Exile 2, but it’s useful for any skill that deals high physical damage. Bleeding will deal 15% of the damage of a hit to a target’s life, so the bigger the hit, the more damage over time.
It doesn’t stack, but it will deal 100% more damage if the target moves, or if the player has passive or active skills that can aggravate the bleed. That means Lacerate can give a powerful source of damage over time if used with the right skills.
11Bloodlust
More Damage To Bleeding Enemies
Bloodlust can be an important support skill for melee builds that want to focus on bleeding. It increases the damage that a skill deals to bleeding enemies. This can make it easier for melee bleed builds to deal with higher health enemies. Bleed focused players need to be aware that the gemonly supports melee attack skills, and it makes the skill it supports unable to deal bleed damage.This means that it can’t support the same skill as Lacerate.
10Envenom
Deadly Poisons
InPath of Exile 2, poison damage over time depends on the physical or chaos damage of the hit that inflicted the poison. Poison can’t be stacked by default, but certain support gems and passives will allow for additional stacks. Boosting the base physical (or chaos) damage of the skill inflicting the hit will increase the damage over time. Attaching this support gem tohigh damage attacksand combining it with a support gem for multiple stacks of poison can be very powerful.
9Martial / Arcane Tempo
Faster Caster
Despite these tier one support gems being in different categories, they’re lumped together here because they essentially do the same thing; they just support different types of skill. Whether players are performing physical attacks or slinging spells, more attack speed or more cast speed aregenerically useful buffs. There’s no downside to these support gems.
8Fire / Lightning / Cold Infusion
Elemental Specialization
These three support gems are all equally important for builds that specialize in one element, or for elemental skills that will always deal only one type of elemental damage. Each type of elemental damage has an associated stat, so the gems are split across the three categories accordingly. Players should be aware thatif they’re focusing on spreading multiple elemental types of damage, this skill might not be as usefuldepending on how that damage is applied.
7Heightened Curse
Curse Their Children, And Their Children’s Children
This support gem only works for specific builds, but it’s one of the most useful curse support gems in tier one. Curses gain a magnified effect with no downside, so any curse user will want to slot this gem for more efficiency. This works well for Occult skills likeVulnerabilityandEnfeeble, but is also good for the Elemental cursesHypothermiaandTemporal Chains.
6Elemental Army
Minion Resistance
Minion users will know that their summoned allies can be very squishy inPath of Exile 2, especiallyin the early gamebefore the player has many passive skill nodes to buff their health. Elemental Army can help with this, by granting 30% resistance to all elements to the minions from the skill it supports. It’sonly useful for minion users, but it’s great for keeping more valuable minions alive longer.
