PoE 2: Crafting for Beginners - Part 1: Item Modifiers

If you're looking to learn to craft in Path of Exile 2, you're in the right place, but before we even touch a Currency Orb, we need to establish a strong foundation and understanding of how items themselves function. It would be very easy to show you a step-by-step process to craft an item, but that wouldn't actually help you to develop skills to use in different situations.

Today's guide will cover Path of Exile 2's item modifiers, tiers, and item level to help you truly understand the fundamentals of crafting on a practical level. This is going to be a lot of information, so strap in, but I promise that if you can take the time to understand this, you'll really gain a firm grasp on crafting.

Item Modifiers

All of the wording that you see on items are known as “modifiers”, or “mods” for short. Some people may also refer to these as “affixes” or “stats” so you’ll know what those words mean too when you see them. An item modifier "modifies" an item - the name describes what it does!

Here is an example of an item. The highlighted yellow section displays the modifiers of the item. 

Explicit and Implicit Modifiers

Modifiers are broken down into groups: Explicit and Implicit Modifiers. 

Implicit Modifiers

These are mods that exist on an item, regardless of its Rarity, and are always found above the the explicit modifiers. In the example above, a Topaz Ring will always have Lightning Resistance and this is known as its “Implicit”. The implicit mod is intrinsic to that item type and will not be affected by using a Currency item like a Chaos Orb or Orb of Alchemy. Not all items have implicit modifiers, but many Weapons and Jewellery items do.

Explicit Modifiers

Explicit mods are the mods found below the implicit (if an item has one) and these are the modifiers that can be changed when using Currency Orbs. If you find and identify 10 Rare Topaz Rings, all of them will have a Lightning Resistance implicit, but each of them will have different explicit modifiers. 

The yellow section marks the Implicit modifiers of the item, the red section marks the Explicit modifiers on the item. 

Prefixes and Suffixes

Item modifiers are further broken down into 2 sections: Prefixes and Suffixes. Certain modifiers will always be Prefixes, some will always be Suffixes.

This separation of mods can aid in more advanced crafting methods, but mods are  also separated in this way to prevent items from having too many mods of one type, such as Resistance modifiers or Damage modifiers. The guide will go deeper into this section shortly, but for now, let's discuss Item Rarity

Enchantments

Enchantments can be found above implicit modifiers in light blue text. Enchantments are additional modifiers that can be added to items to further increase their power in various ways. One of the most common ways to do this is by placing a Rune in an item's Socket. There are other ways to add Enchantments to items, but for the time being, this section is just here to draw your attention them to distinguish them from explicit and implicit modifiers.

The 60% increased Physical Damage in light blue text above the implicit is this item's Enchantment, granted by the Runes that were placed in its sockets

Item Rarity

The Rarity of an Item affects how many Explicit Modifiers it can have

Normal Item (White): 0 Explicit Modifiers

Magic Item (Blue): Maximum of 2 Explicit Modifiers (1 Prefix and 1 Suffix)

Rare Item (Yellow): Maximum of 6 Explicit Modifiers (3 Prefixes and 3 Suffixes)

Unique Item (Orange): Cannot be altered with most crafting Currency and may have even more than 6 modifiers in some cases.

It's important to note the word "maximum" here: just because a Rare item can have up to 6 modifiers, this doesn't mean that it can't have 3, 4 or 5 mods. It's even possible under specific circumstances to reduce a Rare item to having 1, 2 or even 0 modifiers! The Rarity of the item merely sets the limit on how many modifiers it can have, but not the types of modifiers it has. If a Rare item has a mod removed while crafting and goes from 3 mods to 2, it won't suddenly become a Magic item - it will stay Rare and keep its potential of having up to 6 explicit modifiers.

Normal Item

0 Explicit Modifiers

Magic Item

Maximum: 2 Explicit Mods (1 Prefix and 1 Suffix)

Rare Item

Maximum: 6 Explicit Mods (3 Prefixes and 3 Suffixes)

Unique Item:

Cannot be altered with most crafting Currency and may have even more than 6 modifiers in some cases.

Bases

The word “base” is used to describe any equippable item that can be crafted on. Bases are often presumed to be Normal Rarity, but don’t have to be. Most equippable items that your character can wear can be crafted, with the exception of Unique items.

The Mod Pool

Items have a list of potential Explicit modifiers that can appear on them, and this group of modifiers is known as the “mod pool”.

Different items types have different mod pools. For example, Maces can have certain modifiers that Body Armours cannot, such as Increased Physical Damage. On the other hand, a Body Armour could have “10% increased Armour”, which a Mace couldn’t.

I don’t want to get into the complexities of the Weight system in this guide, but just so you know, modifiers have a certain chance to appear on an item, meaning some mods are rarer than others. This chance for a mod to appear on an item that you craft or identify is known as the modifier’s “Weight”. 

For example

Resistances are commonly Suffixes. If you could have 4 Suffixes on a Body Armour, it could provide an excessive amount of Resistance. Instead, a Rare item is limited to having 3 Resistances on it because it can have a maximum of 3 Suffixes.

Important Prefixes and Suffixes to Remember

Learning the entire mod pool isn't easy or even possible. However, learning some important rules of thumb about which commonly used mods are prefixes and which are suffixes will greatly assist your initial understanding of crafting

Prefixes

Weapons

• % increased Damage
• Flat Physical and Elemental Damage (eg. Adds 10-20 Lightning Damage)
• % Elemental Damage
• % increased Spell Damage
• % increased Spirit
• Allies in Your Presence Deal Additional Damage (Physical, Cold, Lightning, Fire)
• Accuracy

Armour and Jewellery*

• Life, Mana, Spirit
• Armour/Energy Shield/Evasion Rating
• % Increased Movement Speed (Only on Boots)

*Armour: When the word "Armour" is used in this context, it implies Boots, Gloves, Body Armour and Helmet.

Jewellery: Belt, Rings and Amulet

Suffixes

Weapons

• Attack and Cast Speed
• Attributes (Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength)
• Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Bonus
• Level of All X Skills (such as +5 to Level of All Fire Spell Skills)
• Attributes
• Leech and Life Gain on Hit
• Life or Mana Gain on Kill
• Allies in Your Presence Have Increased Attack Speed/Cast Speed/Critical Hit Chance/Critical Hit Damage

Armour and Jewellery

• Resistances (Lightning, Fire, Cold, Chaos Resistance)
• Life Regeneration, Mana Regeneration
• Attributes

Modifier Tiers

Modifiers have a tiering system, which affects how strong a modifier is.  Think of tiers almost like a “level”: a low tier Life mod might only grant between 10-20 to Life, but a high tier Life mod could grant 190-200 Life. The value of the mod cannot be changed except within its value range -- this is important to know because you might find an item with all the right modifiers, but with low mod tiers and it would be wasteful to use an expensive Currency item like a Divine Orb to try to get better rolls above the maximum range of that mod tier.

Modifier tiers in Path of Exile 2 are different from Path of Exile 1 in that the lowest tier is now Tier 1 and the highest tier varies based on the modifier and item on which it appears. For example, +# to Maximum Life on Body Armour has 13 tiers, with Tier 13 being the highest and tier 1 being the lowest. However, Spirit only has 8 tiers, with Tier 1 being the lowest and Tier 8 being the highest.

To further complicate things: a Helmet has only 10 tiers of +# to Maximum Life, with Tier 1 being the lowest and Tier 10 being the highest

Item Level

The tier of modifiers that can appear on an item is affected by the Item Level of that item. Items with a higher item level can roll mods with higher mod tiers. Item level is affected by the area level in which you find that item, meaning that you will find items with higher item level the further you progress in the game. 

Items with low Item levels can't "get lucky" and somehow roll a Tier 7 modifier by chance: these higher item tiers are reserved for higher item level items.

Don't Panic

It isn't expected that you work all of this into memory immediately. Once you expand the mod pool to reveal all tiers of modifiers, you'll see that there are thousands of mods in Path of Exile 2, and learning all of this isn't easy or even all that useful.

What's much more useful is to start learning various breakpoints of important modifiers. As an example, the highest tier of Elemental Resistance is +41-45% and starts appearing on items with an Item Level of 82 and above. When the word "Elemental Resistance" is used in this case, it implies Fire, Cold and Lightning Resistances, but not Chaos Resistance. Chaos Resistance has a maximum tier that can be found on Body Armours with an item level of 81 or higher, instead of 82 as is the case with Elemental Resistances.

On Boots, the highest tier of % Increased Movement Speed requires Item Level 82 to appear. For the second highest Tier, Item Level 70 is required. The type of Boots you find won't affect how likely a specific tier of Increased Movement Speed will appear and this remains static across all Boot types.

Learning these breakpoints will take time, but it is a much more practical way to start familiarising yourself with the mod pool.

How to See Prefix/Suffix/Mod Tier/Item Level

You're probably wondering "But how do I see if a modifier is a prefix or suffix? How do I know its tier? How do I know what item level my item even is??"

Good news: you can see this all in Path of Exile 2. By pressing Alt while hovering over an item, small grey text will appear to the right and level of the modifiers on your item. This is very easy to miss but in the image below, these sections are highlighted inside the yellow box

To the left, you will see Implicit, Prefix and Suffix brackets which let you know which mods are Prefixes and which are Suffixes.

To the right, you will see the Tiers listed as "T7, T7, T7, T2..." etc. "T" is a shorthand way of writing "Tier"

Unfortunately, as of the time of writing, it isn't possible to see a list of the full mod pool in game to start learning the above-mentioned useful breakpoints and third party resources will need to be used to see all of those. It isn't extremely important to know these exact breakpoints until much later on into the endgame when tackling more ambitious crafts, so don't feel scared to craft on lower level items that you find to create possible upgrades.

Local and Global Modifiers

Local Modifiers

Many modifiers can provide boosts to players in the form of Life or Resistances, but mods can also affect the base stats on the item itself, further scaling the item's natural Damage or Defences. This means that some items bases more useful or powerful than others. These modifiers “modify” the existing affixes on the item. 

Explicit modifiers that affect the base stats on an item are known as “local” modifiers. When a mod affects a base stat, its colour will change from white to blue.

Let’s look at some examples:

Example 1: Physical Weapon

This is a Quarterstaff with 4 modifiers.

• Blue Section: Base Stats on Item
• Yellow Section: Explicit Modifiers 

The numbers at the top show the base stats on the item. These will appear in white text, but will change to blue when they are being affected by Local Explicit modifiers on an item.

In this case, the base Physical Damage at the top is being affected by the Explicit modifiers that increase Physical Damage (“65% increased Physical Damage” and “Adds 11 to 19 Physical Damage).

For example

Imagine you have a Staff that naturally does 10-20 Physical Damage. 

If it has a modifier on it that says
“100% increased Physical Damage”

The Physical Damage at the top will now show “20-40 Physical Damage” in blue. 

In this example, the Lightning Damage that shows on top is coming from the explicit modifier. This is shown in yellow to denote the element of Lightning. 

Because this item has no mods that affect the Critical Hit Chance, or Attack Speed, the next two base stats are shown at their base values in white. 

The 11% Increased Stun Duration will also affect how long stuns on enemies last for with attacks made with this weapon.

Let’s look at another example.

Example 2: Base Defences

In this example, the modifier “48% increased Evasion and Energy Shield” is affecting the base Evasion and Energy Shield values on the item. 

I’m pointing this out so that you aren’t confused that this modifier isn’t increasing your TOTAL Evasion and Energy Shield by this amount. If you have 1000 Energy Shield and equip these, your total won’t suddenly become 1480, but will instead be increased by the amount shown on the item (which will then be further increased by any Global increases to Energy Shield you may have, such as from the Passive Tree).

Global Modifiers

Global mods instead increase a character’s overall stats and not the item’s. These cover all modifiers that are not local. Modifiers such as “+10 to Dexterity” or “+50 to Maximum Life” can be considered Global modifiers.

Occasionally you will see this distinction made with modifiers such as “50% increased Global Hit Chance” - this mod would increase your Crit Chance with all Attacks and Spells, regardless of the source. However, if you found a weapon with “50% to Critical Hit Chance”, it would affect the base modifier on that item, improving the chance to deal Critical Strikes with Attacks made only with that Weapon.

Flat, % and Hybrid Modifiers

Explicit modifiers can also be found in different forms and you'll commonly hear the words "Flat Damage" "percent increased" or "Hybrid Life" thrown around and not know what they mean. This section will help you to understand these terms and why they exist

Flat

A flat value describes an amount granted that isn't a percentage. For example, +50 to Maximum Life is a flat increase to Life. On a Weapon like the one below, "Adds 11 to 19 Physical Damage" is known as "Flat Physical Damage". You may also see something like "Adds 10 to 20 Physical Damage to Attacks" on a Ring which would be described as "Flat Phys" by many players

Percent

Percent increases to modifiers are just what they sound like: any time you see a modifier like "65% increased Physical Damage" this is known as a percentage increase to that modifier

Hybrid Modifiers

There is another type of modifier you will encounter that is known as a hybrid modifier. Hybrid mods are a single mod that improve mor than one thing and can look like two separate modifiers. The values of hybrid modifiers are lower than their individual counterparts, but they can appear on items that already have modifiers of those individual types. I know that was confusing, so let's use an example:

Tier 1 Hybrid Physical Damage

15-19% increased Physical Damage, +16-20 to Accuracy Rating.

This is a single modifier and you will only be able to tell that it is a hybrid when pressing Alt while hovering over an item.

Normally, Tier 1 % increased Physical Damage is 40-49%, and Tier 1 Accuracy Rating is +11-32 to Accuracy Rating, but this hybrid modifier is a combination of both, but at lower values.

Hybrid modifiers can be incredibly powerful to further improve the power of specific modifier types on an item. An item cannot have two modifiers of the same type, so hybrids can be strong when trying to maximise an item's effectiveness. There aren't many hybrid modifiers in Path of Exile 2 - the most common ones you'll find will be hybrid defence modifiers such as a combined increase to Armour and Evasion Rating, or hybrid Physical Damage like the one we described above.

What's extra confusing is that if a hybrid mod exists on an item with a similar non-hybrid version of the mod, their percentages will be combined into one. So you might see an item that has 120% increased Physical Damage and get excited, when in reality the item has only 90% increased Physical Damage with a hybrid that grants 30% increased Physical Damage and +65 to Accuracy Rating.

Also important: even though hybrid mods are a double-mod, they only take up one modifier slot on your item, not two.

Since you now know that a Rare item can only have 3 Prefixes, if you wanted to squeeze out the maximum amount of Physical Damage on it, you'd want something with a Flat, Percentage and Hybrid increase to Physical Damage which might look something like this on a Crossbow:

Adds 39-66 Physical Damage

258% increased Physical Damage

+200 to Accuracy Rating

The 258% increased Physical Damage is a combination of 179% increased Physical Damage, (Tier 8 percent Physical Damage), and 79% increased Physical Damage from the Tier 8 hybrid Physical Damage/Accuracy mod

Why Does Any of This Matter?

Understanding how items function will help to inform your crafting decisions. The second part of this Crafting Guide Series will introduce you to some basic Currency Orbs and walk you through the thought process that goes into Crafting and the decision process behind which Orbs to use when.

I tried to keep it as simple as possible in this beginners guide to PoE 2 items, but the item system in this game is incredibly complex. As confusing as it might seem now, itemisation in Path of Exile 2 is absolutely fascinating and rewarding to understand.

If you'd like to learn more about Bases, you can read this Guide over here: PoE 2 Equipment Guide

If you’d like to learn more about Currency and how they can be used to craft items, check out our PoE 2 Currency Guide.