PoE 2 Passive Skill Tree

The Passive Tree in Path of Exile 2 is extremely daunting at a first glance, but today’s guide will help to simplify it and make it less scary by helping you to understand it on a foundational level and know which Passive Points to take. 

To start off, one important concept to understand is that of Attributes. In Path of Exile 2, we have Strength (Red), Dexterity (Green), and Intelligence (Blue). These attributes generally align with certain types of skills - Strength for more heavy hitting, melee attacks, Dexterity for faster forms of ranged combat, and Intelligence for more spell-based, or summoning style skills. 

Let’s have a look at the Passive Skill Tree. I’ll be using the Path of Exile 1 tree for the time being as the PoE 2 one hasn’t been released, but the exact points are irrelevant for now – I’m using this just to explain the concept. Bear in mind that this is an extremely simplified, beginner-focused guide to introduce the concept of the Passive Tree to new players.

PoE 1 Passive Tree

Looks absolutely crazy right? Both PoE and PoE 2 feature well over 1000 different passive points to choose from, which allows players to expertly craft creative builds quite freely. A character is granted 1 Passive Skill Point every time they level up, and are sometimes granted more from completing certain quests - and don’t worry, you can change points around by spending Gold at The Hooded One, or with Orbs of Regret, but respeccing isn’t as cheap as it is in other ARPGs. With that out of the way, let’s break this down:

Imagine this same skill tree, but broken up into segments like this

Attribute Areas

The above image is a rough overview of how the Passive Tree is segmented by Passive and Attribute type. In extremely simple terms:

Intelligence Section (Top)

Most of these points will relate to the Class type you’re playing: Spell Damage, Summoning, Elemental Damage. 

If you’re playing a Witch, you will be considered a pure Intelligence Class, meaning you will start at the near the centre, and your points will lead in an upward direction initially

Dexterity Section (Bottom Right)

More focused on Ranged combat, evasion, and speed. 

If you’re a Ranger, you will be more to the centre-right, and your passive points will lead outward to the top right and bottom right.

Strength Section (Bottom Left)

More melee and defence focused 

As a Warrior, you’d start in the centre-left and your points would lead out to the left top and left bottom.

There are also hybrid classes that have more than two primary Attributes, and those classes start between the pure Attribute classes, and the points that appear in those sections will be relevant to the themes of those classes.

There are no limits or barriers to the Passive tree - just because you’re a Witch doesn’t mean you can’t allocate points toward the Strength section if there are points you need there! 

BUT WHICH POINTS DO I TAKE?! THERE ARE SO MANY!

Let’s break it down even more!

Pretend you’re new player starting the Witch, an Intelligence Class

These are the first few points available to you. Sure, it's less intimidating when you look at smaller segments, but even this is a lot to take in. So what do you know to take? 

Let’s go over another concept: Passive Point Types

1. Small Passives (Blue Square) - these are the small points that grant minor bonuses, such as small increases to Attack Speed, Spell Damage, Melee Damage, or Attributes

2. Notable Passives (Red Square) - these are the slightly larger Passive Points that grant greater bonuses than Small Passives, but they have stats on them that are often closely related to the Small Passives leading up to them. Think of these as “Checkpoints” to work toward

For example: at the start of the tree, on one of the paths, each of the small passives might grant something like “+10% increased Spell Damage”, and the Notable Passive at the end of the string of Small Passives will grant “20% increased Spell Damage, 5% increased Cast Speed, +20 to Intelligence” 

Use Notables to Simplify Tree

As a new player, instead of looking at what every single tiny Small Passive Point does, start looking at the Notable Passives and see what they do – if you’re playing a Summoner and see a Notable with something like “+20 to Spirit, +20% increased Minion Damage”, you might want to take it. From there, you just need to determine the best “pathing” to get there (essentially, which Small Passive Points you take leading up to that Notable). This way you won’t be overwhelmed by looking at 80 different Passives, and instead might look at 5 or 10 Notables to start to decide your direction. 

The Passive Tree also has a search function, so if you’re playing a Lightning Sorceress, you can press Ctrl-F and type “lightning” to see which passive points are highlighted. 

But there’s one more type of Passive Point: The Keystone

Keystones are build-changing, character-defining points that often provide a massive amount of power, with a downside. These downsides can be reduced, or worked around, but Keystones are the core of character-building in Path of Exile 2. Let’s have a look at a couple that we know of as the time of writing (bear in mind that some of these may be changed before release):

Giant’s Blood

You can wield a two-handed melee weapon in one hand. Weapon requirements are doubled.

In this first example, you can see that this Keystone could allow a character to wield a two-handed weapon with one hand, leaving their off-hand slot open for either another weapon or shield. This is incredibly powerful as it frees up an entire equipment slot. However, the downside is that you will now need to invest much more into the Attribute requirements needed to use that weapon. Giant’s Blood should be a good example of how build-defining Keystones are in Path of Exile 2. 

Necromantic Talisman

All bonuses from equipped Amulets are applied to Minions instead of you.

The obvious downside of this is that your Amulet now no longer grants you bonuses, but if you’re a Witch with a swarm of minions, you may far prefer to give them all the life, damage and resistances you have on your Amulet instead of using it yourself. 

Precise Technique

40% More Attack Damage if Accuracy is higher than Maximum Life. Never Deal Critical Strikes

Dealing 40% More Attack Damage is an absurdly large boost to a player’s attack damage, but the downside of this Keystone mean you’ll need to either find a large amount of Accuracy to make sure it is higher than your Life, or play as a glass cannon and take less life so you don’t need as much Accuracy to gain the effect of Precise Technique. This Keystone has a second downside that means you won’t be able to deal Critical Strikes, but it can be hard to reach a high enough chance to deal Critical Strikes at low levels for that to be a factor anyway. 

There are dozens of Keystones littered around the Passive Tree, each being build-changing and powerful. 

The Next Step

So now that you know what a Keystone is, what’s the next step? 

Let’s say you’re level 20, you’ve taken a few good Notable Passive Points – your next step should be to look at any nearby Keystones to see if any might be good for you. If you’re a Ranger with tons of Accuracy already who doesn’t care about Critical Strikes, heading over to Precise Technique might be the damage boost you were looking for.

If you’re feeling confident enough, you might even want to look at the Keystones near your starting area at Level 1 to see if anything inspires you before leveling up for the first time. Your process might be something like this:

1. Is there a Keystone I want to get as soon as possible? 

2. What’s the best path to reach that Keystone and which good Notable Passives are along the way?

3. Where should I go after getting those points? 

Bear in mind, you don’t HAVE to take any Keystones if none fit your build, and most builds don’t often take more than a couple, but using Keystones and Notable points as “checkpoints” or guiding lights will make the otherwise overwhelming Passive Tree a bit more digestible. 

Good luck! And don’t forget to experiment – once you’re more knowledgeable and understand the foundations, you’ll know how to get away with breaking all the rules – there’s nothing stopping you from playing a Two-Handed-Axe-dual-wielding Witch if you can make it work. Start simple, learn the basics, follow the rules, and then break them: that’s what Path of Exile is all about.