Skill gems, sockets and links

Why this lesson matters

In Path of Exile 1 your skills come from gems you put in your gear, not from the passive tree. A skill with the right supports linked to it can do several times the damage of the same skill on its own, so gems and links are the biggest early power boost there is.

Skill gems and support gems

A skill gem gives you a skill, such as Fireball, when it sits in a socket on gear you wear. A support gem changes the skills it is linked to. A support only helps skills it can support, and its description says which: Faster Attacks supports attack skills, so it does nothing for Fireball, which is a spell. Only one copy of a given support affects a skill.

Links

Linked sockets are joined by a bar. A support only helps skill gems in sockets linked to it. A gem in a socket with no links works on its own.

Socket colours (changed in 3.29)

Gems are red (Strength), green (Dexterity) or blue (Intelligence). Sockets are red, green, blue or white.

Any gem fits any socket. A gem in a socket of its own colour gains +10% quality, which makes its quality effect stronger. That is the only thing colour does now. Older guides say a gem needs a matching socket; that stopped being true in 3.29.

Items drop with white sockets by default. Each socket has a small chance to be coloured, weighted by the item's attribute requirements, and the chance grows with item level.

How many sockets

• Body armours and two-handed weapons: up to 6.
• Helmets, gloves and boots: up to 4.
• One-handed weapons and shields: up to 3.
• Most rings, amulets, belts and quivers: none.

Item level caps the count too: 4 sockets need item level 25, 5 need 35 and 6 need 50.

Changing sockets

• Jeweller's Orb: rerolls the number of sockets. Since 3.29 any socket it adds is white.
• Orb of Fusing: rerolls the links.
• Chromatic Orb: since 3.29 it forces one socket to be coloured; the rest roll normally. Chromatic Orbs are rarer and no longer sold in towns. The crafting bench has "at least two, three or four non-white sockets" options (5, 20 and 75 Chromatic Orbs); the old red, green and blue bench options are gone.

Gem levels and quality

A socketed gem gains 10% of the experience your character earns and never loses it when you die. When it can level, an icon appears on the right of the screen; click it. Higher levels need more character level and attributes. Most gems stop at level 20. A Gemcutter's Prism adds quality; hold Alt over a gem in game to see what its quality does.

Getting gems

• Most campaign quests let you pick a gem, and the town vendor then sells more. Which gems depends on your class.
• Since 3.29 every class can buy Faster Attacks from Nessa after The Caged Brute, and Faster Casting from Yeena after Sharp and Cruel.
• Siosa in the Act 3 Library sells every gem with a required level of 31 or lower.
• Lilly Roth sells almost every gem from Act 6 onwards, after the quest Fallen from Grace.