PoE 2 Basic Equipment Guide for Beginners

Today’s PoE 2 Equipment Guide will introduce you to the various kinds of items that your character can equip and the base stats that you might find on them. Equipment is generally referred to as “gear”, and equippable items that can be crafted on are called “bases”.

You can see the various types of available equipment slots for characters in the image below:

Most gear has an Attribute Requirement (Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength), that will influence its base stats, such as the type of defence it provides or damage it deals. Some items might be a blend of more than two Attributes (known as a “hybrid”), to further distinguish it from  “pure” Attribute gear. Let’s look at some examples:

Armours

When referring to “armour” in this case, I am talking about Gloves, Boots, Body Armour and Helmets. Don’t get this confused with the Armour stat which exists to reduce incoming Physical damage. All of these armour types will provide a base amount of a certain defensive stat, which can be scaled by modifiers on that item, or boosts you find on your Passive Skill Tree.

Let’s have a look at the different types of armour you can get and the types of defences they provide

• Dexterity: Evasion Rating

• Strength: Armour

• Intelligence: Energy Shield

• Dexterity/Strength: Evasion/Armour

• Strength/Intelligence: Armour/Energy Shield

• Intelligence/Dexterity: Energy Shield/Evasion

Image Source

Base Defences

I just used a lot of new words, so let’s explain them:

• Evasion Rating: a stat that increases your chance to avoid attacks. Often just referred to as “Evasion” 

• Armour: a stat that reduces damage from incoming Physical attacks

• Energy Shield: Energy Shield is complex enough that it will have its own guide, but for now, just think of it as an extra barrier that protects your Life. If you equip an item with Energy Shield, you will see a section of blue covering part of your Life Orb.

The light blue crescent around the right-hand edge of the player’s Life Orb indicates that they have Energy Shield

The highlighted section shows the base defence provided by the item (Evasion Rating and Energy Shield), which correlates with the Attribute Requirements of the item (Dexterity and Intelligence)

Note: Some very low level items may not have any Attribute Requirements, but they may still have a Character Level requirement.

In these images below you can see a variety of different items, along with their base stats that directly correlate to their Attribute requirements.

Armours with different Attribute types can also roll slightly different modifiers.

For the most part, two pairs of Boots will have a very similar mod pool – both will be able to get mods like increases to Maximum Life, Resistances and Movement Speed – but a pair of Dexterity Boots will be able to get a mod like “+50% increased Evasion Rating”, but not “+50% increased Energy Shield."

A Strength-based Body Armour would be able to roll modifiers like increases to Armour, but not increases to Evasion Rating and Energy Shield. However, hybrid equipment, such as a Dexterity/Strength pair of Gloves, could roll Armour, Evasion, or hybrid Armour/Evasion.

This has more layers of complexity, but as this is a beginner’s guide to gear, the main takeaway should be that if you want to focus on increasing your Evasion Rating, make sure you’re using Dexterity items that can actually increase it.

In Path of Exile 2, the term “Jewellery” refers to Rings, Amulets and Belts. Jewellery items will always have a useful implicit that will increase your character’s stats.

The term “implicit” refers to a modifier that inherently exists on a certain item type, regardless of its Rarity or item level. If you’d like to learn about the basics of item modifiers, check our Introduction to PoE 2 Item Modifiers Guide next!)

Rings

Rings will often have an implicit that increases your Resistances. Examples include Sapphire, Topaz and Ruby Rings that grant increased Lightning, Cold and Fire Resistances respectively. You may also find Rings that have an implicit that increase more than one Resistance, or ones that increase your damage with modifiers like Increased Cast Speed. Rings can also roll both offensive and defensive modifiers to further increase your Life, Resistances and damage. 

During the campaign, make sure to use Rings to improve your Resistances – even Normal Rarity rings can be very useful for this reason alone!

Amulets

Amulets more commonly have an implicit that increases your Attributes. Lapis, Jade and Amber Amulets have implicits that increase your Intelligence, Dexterity, and Strength respectively. And like Rings, you’ll also be able to find Amulets that provide more than one type of Attribute increase on its implicit, and other types that might provide more niche stats like Life Regeneration or increases to Spirit.

Similar to Rings, the implicit that an Amulet can provide can be incredibly useful during the campaign, even at Normal Rarity. Now that all Support Gems require +5 of a specific Attribute to use, equipping a simple Amulet with no other modifiers may be enough to allow you to fit in a few more Support Gems, or to equip an item you otherwise wouldn’t have the Attributes for. 

Belts

Belts have implicits that can provide different types of defensive or offensive boosts to your character. We haven’t seen too many Belt bases at this point, but we know that a Plate Belt exists that grants a flat increase to your Armour. With this in mind, it’s likely other Belts that increase your Evasion Rating or Energy Shield will exist, along with others that may increase your Life or help you to deal increased damage in some form or another.

Belts also can increase your Charm capacity up to a maximum of 3, allowing you to avoid more deadly ailments. This is a very important defensive layer that should not be overlooked!

Weapons are getting a huge makeover in Path of Exile 2 in order to give each Weapon type a more distinct identity. The Skills you’re able to use will directly correlate to the type of Weapon you choose to wield. 

Players have two Weapon slots (one for each hand) and alternate Weapon Swap slots in which you can carry a second Weapon setup. This allows players to Dual-Wield two Weapons, use one big Two-Handed Weapon, or a Weapon with an Off-Hand (such as a Shield or Focus) 

The Weapon Swap allows characters to switch seamlessly between different weapons for different Skills. This is a complex system that we have a full guide on that you can read more about in our Dual Specisalisation Guide.

Some of the beefy Strength/Dexterity Axes you can find in PoE 2! 

In general terms:

• Strength Weapons: Slow, heavy attacks that deal more damage per individual hit. 

• Dexterity Weapons: Very quick, but don’t deal as much damage per individual hit.

• Intelligence Weapons: Improve spellcasting abilities and increase the chance to land Critical Strikes.

Of course you will also be able to find hybrid Weapons that are a blend of these. Let’s have a look at some weapon types.

Below is a graph that describes the balance of Attribute to Weapon type that you’ll find in Path of Exile 2. We will have a full Weapons Guide on the site after the launch of PoE 2. 

Source

The term “Off-Hand” refers to items that are wielded alongside a character’s Main-Hand Weapon. Examples include items like Shields to improve defence, or a Focus that will increase the damage of spellcaster builds. Off-Hand items will also have Attribute requirements that inform their role and types of modifiers they can get. 

We don’t have a huge amount of information on Off-Hands yet, but know of the existence of Shields (100% Strength), Bucklers (100% Dexterity), Foci/Focuses (100% Intelligence) as well as hybrid Off-Hand items like the Targe and Kite Shield. This section will be updated after the launch of PoE 2’s Early Access on December 6th.

There is one other equipment slot we need to discuss, and it’s one that should never be overlooked: the Flask slots. Characters in Path of Exile 2 can equip a Life Flask, a Mana Flask as well as a maximum of 3 Charms that help to provide automatic immunity to certain ailments when they are applied to your character

Flasks and Charms will consume a certain number of Charges on use, and will gain Charges as you kill enemies. They also refill entirely when using the Well in towns.

Flasks and Charms can also be Magic Rarity which allows them to have up to two modifiers that can increase their potency. They cannot be Rare, but you may also find Unique Flasks and Charms that have special effects.

These items are incredibly powerful. If you are a new player, please do not overlook them. Your Flasks are as important as any other piece of gear on your character so treat them with the respect that they deserve!

Life Flasks

Recover an amount of Life over a specific time period

Mana Flasks

Recover an amount of Mana over a specific time period

Charms

Characters in Path of Exile 2 can equip a maximum of 3 Charms, depending on how many slots their Belt allows them to carry. Charms are powerful, automatic counters when certain Ailments are applied to your character. For example, an Antidote Charm will be used when you become Poisoned to instantly make you immune to that Poison for a short period of time. Another Charm might remove any Freezes, Ignites or Shocks that are applied to you.

Important: similar to Flasks, your Charms consume Charges when used. If your Charms do not have sufficient Charges to be used, they will not prevent you from avoiding the specific Ailment they usually protect you from.

I almost hesitate to include this, but it may be a helpful guideline for beginner players to understand the types of modifiers they should prioritise on different gear slots. Again, this is very generalised and you may have good reason to stray from this rule of thumb.

• Body Armour, Gloves, Helmet:
  defensive mods such as Life, Resistances and increases to Defence modifiers such as Evasion, Armour and Energy Shield. Attributes can also be useful here

• Boots:
  Increased Movement Speed is the most desirable mod on Boots as it is the easiest place to acquire this important stat. Increased Movement Speed will allow you to manoeuvre around the battlefield more quickly and will also increase the speed of your Dodge Roll. Other useful mods include Life, Movement Speed, Resistances and Attributes

• Rings:
  Rings can be an excellent source to gain a large amount of Resistances and Attributes, freeing up mod slots on other gear pieces for other stats you may want. Life is also desirable on Rings, but so are modifiers that fill in the gaps on your build such as Accuracy Rating, Mana, Damage to Attacks, or Attack and Cast Speed.

• Amulets:
  Another great source of Attributes, Resistances and Life, but also some more offensive modifiers such as Critical Strike Chance, Increased Critical Damage Bonus or mods that increase Elemental Damage to Spells and Attacks 

• Belts:
  Often reserved for more defensive modifiers such as Life and Resistances

• Weapon:
  Damage, or other useful utility mods that improve your offensive capabilities. For example, a Witch could find a Sceptre that hugely increases her Spirit, allowing her to summon a larger undead Army, which directly improves her ability to take down enemies. A Warrior on the other hand would likely want a Mace with more traditional Weapon mods that increase the Physical Damage of the Mace he’s killing everything with