Unleashing the Power of Jewels in Path of Exile: A Comprehensive Guide
In Path of Exile (PoE), jewels are more than just shiny trinkets; they are potent tools that can dramatically alter your character’s power and playstyle. But what exactly do you do with jewels? The core function of jewels is to enhance your character by providing passive buffs and unique abilities when placed in allocated jewel sockets on your passive skill tree. These enhancements range from simple stat boosts to complex conditional effects, making jewels a critical aspect of character building. Essentially, jewels are customized power-ups that fine-tune your build, adapting it to your preferred way of playing and the challenges you face.
Understanding the Different Types of Jewels
Before delving into the specifics of what to do with jewels, it’s crucial to understand the different types available. There are three main categories:
Base Jewels
Base jewels are the most common type and come in three primary colors: Cobalt, Crimson, and Viridian. These jewels grant straightforward bonuses, such as increased damage, health, or resistance, based on their color and affixes. They can be placed into any allocated jewel socket on the passive tree and serve as a foundational layer of customization.
Abyss Jewels
Abyss jewels are obtained from the Abyss league mechanic and come in four types: Ghastly, Hypnotic, Searching, and Murderous. These jewels offer unique bonuses that can significantly impact a build. Notably, Abyss jewels are the only type that can be socketed directly into gear (specifically, items with an abyss socket). This makes them exceptionally versatile and powerful.
Cluster Jewels
Cluster jewels are transformative items that expand your passive tree, creating new clusters of nodes. These clusters can contain basic nodes, notable skills, and even keystones, offering a vast potential for build customization. They are placed in the outermost jewel sockets of the passive tree and can dramatically change the trajectory of your build by introducing new mechanics and scaling options. There are large, medium and small cluster jewels, each offering different sizes of added nodes.
Timeless Jewels
Timeless jewels are a unique category of jewels that interact with the passive tree in a very specific way. They have a range of effects, but rather than directly impacting the nodes they are close to, they transform the notables in a radius around them based on their particular seed number and the specific timeless jewel you use. These often convert nodes into strong and powerful but completely different stats. This allows for a high level of character optimization and customization, but may be complicated to understand.
Utilizing Jewels for Build Optimization
Now that you understand the different types, let’s explore how to effectively use jewels to optimize your build.
Filling Jewel Sockets
The most basic use for a jewel is to fill allocated jewel sockets on your passive tree. These sockets are highlighted and need to be unlocked in your passive tree before you can slot a jewel in it. This involves clicking the jewel in your inventory, and then clicking the jewel socket in the passive skill tree you wish to put it in. When filled, jewels provide immediate and significant stat increases. Carefully selecting jewels that complement your build can boost your damage, defenses, and mobility.
Enhancing Damage and Defense
Base jewels are ideal for stacking flat stats, such as increased physical damage, elemental damage, or life. A well-placed jewel can boost your chosen type of damage or provide crucial defense for survivability. By strategically using multiple of these jewels you can substantially increase power.
Unique Effects and Synergies
Abyss jewels and cluster jewels provide the means to introduce specialized mechanics into your build. For example, an Abyss jewel with the mod “X% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage” can significantly impact a physical damage build. Similarly, cluster jewels can provide access to powerful new notables or keystones that would otherwise be unreachable, enabling you to take your build in completely new directions.
Strategic Socketing with Cluster Jewels
Cluster jewels require additional consideration. They expand the passive tree, introducing new pathways and notable skills. When adding a cluster jewel you should take some time to plan out your desired nodes from the clusters before you allocate into them, to make sure they are going to be valuable. Once added, these cluster jewel nodes may dramatically change how your build operates.
Timeless Jewels and Build Transformation
Timeless jewels alter the passive tree around them dramatically. While they are extremely powerful they are difficult to understand and can only be used by advanced players with a deep understanding of the game. This type of jewel is not for beginners.
Refinement and Experimentation
Like any other item in PoE, jewels can be modified by orbs, allowing for re-rolling of affixes to get more powerful modifiers. This means you’re never stuck with a subpar jewel. Furthermore, constantly experimenting with different jewel combinations and placements allows you to find the optimal setup for your build and adjust your characters builds to suit your playstyle.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Where do I find jewel sockets on the passive tree?
Jewel sockets are specific nodes on the passive tree indicated by an empty circular outline. You need to spend passive points to allocate these nodes.
2. Can I remove or replace a jewel?
Yes, you can freely remove or replace jewels at no cost. Simply right-click the jewel to remove it from a socket and place it back into your inventory.
3. Can I socket a jewel of any shape?
No, the shape of the jewel must match the shape of the socket. This means that all the various jewel types all have the same basic shape, and can be placed in any allocated jewel socket on the passive tree.
4. How do I get Abyss Jewels?
Abyss jewels are found by completing Abysses, which can randomly appear in maps. They are more likely to drop from Abyssal Troves and Abyssal bosses within Abyssal Depths.
5. What are Cluster Gems?
Cluster gems is a term not usually found in Path of Exile, you’re probably thinking of Cluster Jewels. Cluster jewels extend your passive tree with additional node clusters, often containing powerful notables and keystones.
6. How do I use Cluster Jewels?
You place them into the outermost jewel sockets of the passive tree. This expands the tree, creating new nodes that you can allocate into.
7. Can Cluster Jewel notables stack?
Yes, unlike normal notables on the passive tree, the notables provided by cluster jewels can stack, which opens up many new customization options.
8. What are Timeless Jewels, and how do they work?
Timeless jewels transform notables in their radius based on their specific seed and the jewel type. They offer powerful build altering options but are complex to understand.
9. Can I upgrade the quality of a jewel?
Yes, you can change the quality of a jewel by using catalysts. Each jewel requires 20 catalysts to gain the maximum quality.
10. How do I corrupt a jewel?
You can use a Vaal Orb on a jewel to corrupt it, which adds new and sometimes very powerful modifiers, however, it also prevents you from re-rolling the jewel by normal means.
11. Can corrupted jewels level up?
Yes, corrupted jewels can still level up through experience. The only change is that you cannot use currency items on them.
12. What are white sockets, and how are they related to jewels?
White sockets are item sockets that can hold any color gem. These are not related to Jewels, but instead apply to gem sockets in items.
13. Can I use two identical support gems in PoE?
No, you cannot use multiple support gems for the same ability to stack the effects. Only the higher level gem will take precedence.
14. How can I find good jewels for my build?
Use the Path of Exile trade website to search for jewels with specific modifiers that your build requires. This can be the easiest way to find specific jewels, and the website allows for some extremely specific parameters when searching for jewels.
15. What is the value of selling jewels?
Some jewels, especially those with specific or desirable modifiers, can be valuable and sold on the Path of Exile trade website, or to other players for profit. However, most basic jewels are not usually worth that much.
By understanding the various types of jewels and their potential effects, you can substantially improve your character’s performance in Path of Exile. Jewels are an integral part of character customization and mastery in PoE. Good luck, Exile!