Best level 1 support gems in Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 ^[1] may have dominated the ARPG industry, but that doesn’t mean it’s instantly accessible for everyone. While the game is definitely more digestible compared to the first Path of Exile, players still have to memorize and learn about multiple gameplay mechanics and features that can make things a little tough.

One of those many mechanics is support gems. Support Gems have the potential to take a player’s build to the next level by giving them different effects. Most of these effects are passive, ensuring players can benefit from them without having to actively press any button. However, which support gems are the best in Path of Exile 2?

Today, we want to go through our picks for the best level 1 support gems in Path of Exile 2. If you don’t have the required currency to level your support gems, you can always buy some orbs from Eloking’s Path of Exile 2 marketplace. Here, we ensure buyers and sellers can do business in a safe and regulated environment.

10: Brutality

Category: Strength

Effect: Abilities deal 35% extra physical damage.

Brutality is a good gem for physical damage-focused builds. It strengthens physical damage at the cost of eliminating chaos and elemental damage, making it incredible for skills and builds that rely on physical damage, like Witch’s Skeletal Reavers. 

Although it works with any skill that damages enemies, it’s best when used with physical skills. Players can use the in-game DPS calculator to check if the Brutality gem will help their skill. Its damage boost makes it a good choice for beginners and veterans.

9: Glaciation

Category: Intelligence

Effect: Skill causes 50% more freeze buildup.

Glaciation is a support gem that buffs freeze build when hitting chilled enemies. It works well with cold-based skills like Ranger’s Freezing Salvo, the Witch’s Skeletal Frost mages, and the Monk’s Ice Strike.

The gem is something every player should have if they need crowd control because it allows them to stun enemies and create breathing room. This gem is perfect for builds that rely on cold damage or have chilling effects.

8: Scattershot

Category: Dexterity

Effect: Skills fire two additional projectiles, deal 20% less damage, and have 20% less attack speed.

Scattershot is an essential gem for skills that can clear groups of enemies. Although it reduces damage and attack speed, the two extra projectiles make it easier to damage multiple targets simultaneously. It’s incredible with skills like Ranger’s Lightning Arrow, where players must trigger chain lighting or hit numerous enemies.

Although its debuffs seem harsh, the extra area coverage outweighs the disadvantages, especially in situations with several enemies. Scattershot is an excellent choice for players prioritizing area control and mob clearing over single-target damage.

7: Lacerate

Category: Strength

Effect: Skills have a 50% chance of inflicting bleeding.

Lacerate is a spectacular choice for builds that deal heavy physical damage. Bleeding inflicts 15% of the hit’s damage over time, making it effective against opponents with lots of health. Although bleed doesn’t stack, it deals 100% damage if the target moves or if the player has skills that worsen the bleed, making it a good source of damage over time with the right skills.

It’s helpful in builds focusing on hit-and-run tactics or forcing enemies to move with knockback or taunt effects. Lacerate is an incredible option for players who love strategic and sustained damage.

6: Bloodlust

Category: Strength

Effect: Skills deal 30% more melee physical damage to bleeding enemies and cannot cause a bleed.

Bloodlust is an incredible support gem for melee builds that prioritize bleeding. It increases damage to bleeding enemies but prevents the supported skill from inflicting bleed. 

These downsides make it hard to use Lacerate on the same level, but it’s useful alongside other bleed-inflicting skills. The best place to use Bloodlust is against stronger enemies with melee bleed builds.

5: Martial/ Arcane Tempo

Category: Dexterity, Intelligence

Effect: Skills have 25% more attack speed / 25% more cast speed.

Martial and Arcane Tempo are easy-to-use and effective support gems. They increase attack speed for physical skills and cast speed for spells respectively. 

Without any downsides, these gems are helpful for any build, making them incredible for players who want to enhance their skill execution speed.

4: Envenom

Category: Dexterity

Effect: Skills have a 50% chance of inflicting poison on hit.

Envenom is a spectacular for builds that focus on poison. Poison damage over time depends on the physical or chaos damage of the hit that caused it. Attaching Envenom to high-damage attacks and combining them with gems that allow for multiple poisons will enable players to create potent poison builds.

It’s useful when paired with skills that deal high base physical or chaos damage. Poison builds are strong when mixed with other damage-over-time effects or crowd control. Envenom is amazing for players who need to increase their poison strength.

3: Heightened Curse

Category: Intelligence

Effect: Curse skills gain 25% more curse effect.

Heightened Curse isn’t well-known, but it’s powerful for curse-focused builds. It buffs the effect of curses without any downsides, making it something any player with Vulnerability, Enfeeble, Hypothermia, and Temporal Chains skills should use.

It’s effective for Occult builds that rely on curses. Curses can weaken enemies or enhance the player’s damage output, and the Heightened Curse enhances its effects. 

2: Comorbidity

Category: Dexterity

Effect: Skills can poison an enemy an additional time. Poisons have a 30% shorter duration.

Comorbidity is perfect for builds that utilize poison because it allows skills to stack poison an additional time. It can turn any physical skill into a poison skill when mixed with high base physical damage skills and poison chance.

Players can invest in passive nodes that increase poison magnitude to strengthen the gem. Stacking poison multiple times allows gamers to deal massive damage over time to bosses and high-health enemies.

1: Persistence

• Category: Strength
• Effect: Skills have 40% more effect duration.

Persistence is a universally helpful gem because it increases the length of skills with an effect timer. It’s terrific for buffs and debuffs, making it great for any player. Although it’s not the most powerful gem, its versatility makes it popular among the Path of Exile 2 community.

Longer-lasting buffs allow more uptime for critical effects, and extended debuffs can keep opponents weaker for longer. Persistence is essential in builds that rely on sustained effects like damage-over-time skills or defensive buffs.

FAQs

What are support gems in Path of Exile 2?

In Path of Exile 2, support gems are special skill gems that modify the behavior of active skills when linked together in a socketed item. Unlike regular skill gems that let you cast spells or attack, support gems enhance those abilities by adding effects like extra damage, faster casting, or additional projectiles.

While some players wrongfully assume they can just use any support gem they want, that isn’t the case. Every support gem must be linked to an active gem to be used. That too in the same gear, making things a little more technical and requiring players to put in thoughts to maximize their build’s efficiency.

References

1. [1] "Official PoE 2 website". pathofexile2.com. Retrieved February 01, 2025