Path of Exile 2: How To Craft Gear

Published Dec 15, 2024

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Crafting gear is an essential component for keeping characters consistently strong in Path of Exile 2. While Grinding Gear Games has already increased the drop rate of loot in a recent patch, gearing is still a required component in rounding out a character's strength.

There is a certain barrier to entry with the under-explained system. There is an abundance of different crafting materials, which, despite being understandable in isolation, can be overwhelming in their proper application. However, once players have a firm grasp on the underlying system, gear crafting can become an invaluable asset to building a character's strength.

When To Craft Gear

Identifying When To Craft Is Essential

Similar to upgrading skills in Path of Exile 2, crafting gear should be a priority throughout Act One. Finding gaps in a characters' gear, such as absent slots, low-level pieces, or underwhelming modifiers should be the first step in identifying when crafting can be useful, particularly when a character is struggling with enemies or bosses. There are multiple levers a player can use to enhance a character's strength, such as Skill or Gems, but often, crafting is necessary to add further .

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WIth the general removal of defensive nodes from the ive skill tree, gear is even more important in a character's survivability, especially with the designed difficulty of Path of Exile 2. Stats such as max health and elemental resistance are some of the best in the game. When struggling defensively, look towards gear first. For offense, the single most impactful piece of gear is a character's weapon. An upgraded weapon can often double or triple the damage of a character, depending on the time since an upgrade, and can be just the push needed to down a difficult boss.

How To Obtain & Use Orbs For Crafting

Loot, Disenchant, And Scavenge

As mentioned, the process of crafting is done through various crafting materials, often being Orbs. Every material can be looted from defeated enemies, but can also be accumulated through disenchanting and scavenging gear of the associated rarity. Using an Orb is as simple as right-clicking it in a character's inventory, and then clicking on the desired piece to upgrade.

Name	Effect
Orb of Transmutation	Upgrades a normal item into a magic item
Orb of Augmentation	Adds a modifier to a magic item, up to a maximum of two
Regal Orb	Upgrades a magic item into a rare item
Exalted Orb	Adds a modifier to a magic item, up to a maximum of six

There are countless other crafting materials within Path of Exile 2 that perform a variety of functions, such as adding gem sockets or more specific modifiers. However, the four listed in the tablea above are the core of the system. With them, a normal item with no modifiers can be upgraded into a rare item with up to six. First, upgrade a common item to magic with an Orb of Transmutation, and add a modifier with an Orb of Augmentation. After, repeat the process by upgrading it into a rare item and capping out its six modifiers with the corresponding orbs.

Magic items can have a maximum of two modifiers, while rare items can have a maximum of six.

Knowing when to stop upgrading is also important in conserving resources. When modifiers aren't particularly useful, it's a good idea to stop using more Orbs before upgrading the item to rare. Magic-item based Orbs are typically in a surplus, so experimenting with them is never a bad idea in Path of Exile 2.