Decoding the Colors of Power: Understanding Gem Colors in Path of Exile
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In the complex and captivating world of Path of Exile (PoE), skill gems are the lifeblood of your character’s abilities. These gems are not just functional items; they are visually distinguished by color, each representing a different type of power and correlating with one of the core attributes of your Exile: Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Understanding these color distinctions is paramount to building a successful character and maximizing your potential in the game.
The gems in PoE come in three distinct colors: red, green, and blue. Each of these colors is intrinsically linked to a primary stat:
- Red Gems: Represent Strength. These gems primarily focus on melee combat, physical damage, and tanking abilities. Skills found in red gems often revolve around powerful blows, area-of-effect attacks, and abilities that grant high survivability. Examples include skills like Heavy Strike, Ground Slam, and Leap Slam.
- Green Gems: Represent Dexterity. Green gems are geared towards ranged attacks, evasion, critical strikes, and generally fast, agile combat styles. You will find skills like Barrage, Rain of Arrows, and Blink Arrow within the green category. Dexterity-based skills often prioritize speed and precision.
- Blue Gems: Represent Intelligence. These gems typically focus on magical spells, elemental damage, and skills that involve a more strategic approach to combat. Examples include Fireball, Arc, and Ice Nova. Intelligence skills are known for their raw power and versatility, often dealing elemental or chaos damage.
While your class is not restricted from using any skill gem, your class’s starting attributes will typically make using certain types of gems more effective than others, especially in the early game. For instance, a Marauder, which begins with high Strength, will typically be more efficient using red-gem skills early on, while a Shadow will find more immediate success with green gems due to their high starting Dexterity.
Understanding Gem Mechanics
Beyond just colors, it’s vital to understand other gem mechanics:
- Active Skill Gems: These gems, identified by their colors, grant you an ability to use.
- Support Gems: These gems augment your active skills.
- Linking: Support gems must be linked to active gems through your gear’s sockets in order to provide their augmentations.
- Gem Leveling: As you use your gems, they gain experience and level up, increasing their effectiveness but also often increasing their stat requirements and mana costs.
- Gem Quality: Gems can have quality, which improves their base effectiveness. Quality is typically capped at 20%, but it can be raised further through specific crafting methods such as Beastcrafting and the use of Perfect Fossils.
- Corrupting Gems: The use of Vaal Orbs can corrupt gems. This is the only way to obtain level 21 and level 23 quality gems. Corrupted gems may gain beneficial effects, but they can also be downgraded.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the highest quality gem possible in PoE?
The standard cap for gem quality is 20%. However, through special crafting methods, you can push quality higher. The Beastcrafting recipe “Corrupt an item with 30% Quality” or a resonator with a Perfect Fossil can increase quality up to 30%.
What are skill gems and support gems in PoE?
Skill gems are what grant you the abilities you use in combat. Support gems do not grant abilities themselves, but they augment the abilities of active skill gems that are linked to them. There are currently a total of 531 gems: 326 skill gems and 205 support gems. Many players simply refer to both as “gems” to avoid confusion.
Does the order of gems in sockets matter?
Generally, the order of gems in your item sockets doesn’t matter. The most significant exception to this is the Cast when Damage Taken support gem, which casts the spell in the top-right socket first, and then proceeds down the linked chain.
Can I use two of the same support gems?
Yes, you can link multiple support gems to an active skill gem, which will cause it to be modified by all of those supports. However, linking two copies of the same support gem to one skill will only apply the effects of the higher-level gem; the lower-level gem will only gain experience.
Why would you corrupt a gem?
The most common reason to corrupt a gem with a Vaal Orb is to potentially get it to level 21 or 23 quality. Corruption can also turn a normal gem into a Vaal gem.
What are Vaal Gems?
Vaal Gems are special versions of active skill gems that have an additional, typically more powerful version of the skill attached to them. They can be obtained by using a Vaal Orb on a normal skill gem or by finding them as drops.
Can gems stack their effects?
No, multiple support gems of the same type will not stack their effects. For instance, linking two added fire damage support gems to a skill will only apply the fire damage of the higher level gem, although both will gain experience and increase the mana cost.
Should I always level up my gems?
Not necessarily. While leveling up a gem increases its power, it also raises its stat requirements and mana costs. Some gems, like Arcane Surge and Cast When Damage Taken, can be much more effective at lower levels.
Should I pick up all gem drops?
It is generally not worth keeping gems with no quality unless they are particularly rare or useful. Quality gems that you don’t intend to use or sell can be vendored for Gemcutter’s Prisms when their combined quality exceeds 40%.
How do you get a level 21 gem?
The primary way to get a level 21 gem is by leveling multiple level 20 gems to max and then corrupting them with Vaal Orbs. There is a 12.5% chance of getting a level 21 gem. Leveling many gems of the same type to level 20 is a great way to increase your odds at a level 21 gem without quality.
How can you get a gem to 20% quality?
The main ways to achieve 20% quality on gems are to buy them already at 20%, level them up and then use Gemcutter’s Prisms, or level them, vendor them with a Gemcutter’s Prism and level them again.
Why might I want to stop leveling a gem?
Certain gems, particularly support gems like Arcane Surge or Cast When Damage Taken, function optimally at low levels. They are used specifically to trigger buffs at very low mana expenditure or trigger skills under certain conditions.
How can a gem reach level 26?
With the right equipment, gems can exceed their base level of 20. Items that grant “+1 to Level of Gems” and “+2 to Level of Bow Gems” can enable gems placed in them to reach higher levels like 26.
Can you level Awakened gems?
Awakened Gems have a maximum level of 5 (4 for exceptional awakened gems). Many awakened gems also unlock an additional effect upon reaching their maximum level.
What is a Double Corrupted Gem?
Gems can be double corrupted via the Lapidary Lens, a device found in the Incursion Room of the Temple of Atzoatl. This device corrupts the gem twice in succession, adding a higher degree of chance to gain beneficial gem corruptions.
By understanding the significance of gem colors, as well as the other related mechanics in Path of Exile, you can more strategically and efficiently plan the building of your character. Mastering gem colors isn’t just about recognizing red, green, and blue, but about understanding the underlying systems of power they unlock. This knowledge provides a strong base for success in the world of Wraeclast.