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Path of Exile 2is quickly becoming notorious for offering one of the craziest skill trees ever seen in gaming. Featuring no fewer than 1,500 different skill nodes, the skill tree is both impressive and intimidating at the same time. That said, the tree only contains passive skills. If you want to acquire new active abilities, you’ll need to delve into an entirely different system.
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Passive skills can be unlocked by leveling up or completing certain quests, but active abilities are tied to Gems and items. This system may seem a bit confusing at first, especially if you’ve never played the original Path of Exile, but don’t worry because we’ll give you a quick breakdown of how everything works down below.
How to Unlock New Abilities
There’s no way to permanently learn an ability in Path of Exile 2. Instead, you’ll occasionally find special Skill Gems that give you access to certain abilities as long as you have them equipped. This system works similarly to socketing. However, instead of adding a Rune into an empty socket on a piece of equipment, you’re adding a Gem into an empty socket on your character.By default, your character can hold up to nine Skill Gems,but you’ll find ways to increase this limit as you progress through the game.
Uncut Skill Gems are sometimes given by NPCs as rewards for completing quests, and they can also drop from mobs and bosses. Interact with one of them to bring up the Gemcutting menu. This is where you unlock new abilities for your character. Once you’ve chosen an ability, theUncut Skill Gemwill transform to reflect that and can now be inserted into a socket.Interact with the cut Gem to assign it or drag and drop it from your inventory into the Skills Panel. All that’s left to do now is to add the new ability to your hotbar.
While most of the abilities you unlock via Gemcutting need to be manually activated every time you want to use them, some of them work more like passives that can be toggled on or off. Auras and Minion Summons are some of the best examples. Generally speaking, you’ll need to assign a portion of your Spirit to these passives before you may use them.Abilities that are tied to items instead of Gems won’t drain your Spirit, but you’ll lose access to those as soon as you remove the item.
Uncut Skill Gems can upgrade abilities via the same process used to unlock them.
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Support Gems
Skill Gems need to be added to sockets, but they come with their own sockets that support other Gems. This sounds a bit confusing at first, but the system is actually pretty straightforward. In addition to Uncut Skill Gems, you will sometimes come acrossUncut Support Gems. Instead of unlocking new abilities, these Gems can be used to enhance already existing ones. For example, you can use an Uncut Skill Gem to unlock theSkeletal Frost Mageability and then use anUncut Support Gemto unlock theScattershotpassive for your minions. Simply interact with the Gem to choose an upgrade and then use the Skills Panel to engrave it into a compatible socket.
Much like Skill Gems,Support Gems can be added or removed at any time without any special tools. Moreover, Support Gems can also be transferred to a different skill provided the two are compatible. For instance, a Support Gem that gives yourSkeletal Warriorextra health can be used to provide the same benefits to yourSkeletal ReaverorSkeletal Arsonist. However, the Gem can’t be used to enhance unrelated abilities likeBone CageorEssence Drain.
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