This guide breaks down all of the currently possible crafting methods in Path of Exile 2 and how best to use them.
Path of Exile 2 has plenty of currency items that can be used for crafting. These range from simple crafting, which is closer to gambling than crafting, to more complex multi-step processes which give some control.
These longer and more controlled methods are often reserved for items that are nearly perfect as-is and often used as a means to fix and improve them.
Table of contents
Beginner Tips
Before we jump straight into the items and how to use them for crafting, let’s cover a few basic things that are important throughout the process and some useful tips.
Items and Affixes have important values that are hidden from view normally. These extra details can be revealed by holding Alt while hovering over an item. These are important to understand and will help identify both good and bad affix rolls.
Of these hidden details, Item Level is the most important line to pay attention to. This is because Item Level determines which affixes are available and what ranges they can roll in.
The Reforging Bench can take three items of the same item type, smash them together, and reroll their affixes. This is referred to as a 3-to-1, which works with most items in Path of Exile. This is primarily used to take multiple terrible rolls to get a chance at a better roll.
PoE2DB is your best friend when crafting. This helpful database site lists all of the available Affixes, their Tiers, Item Level requirements, as well as any tags related to them. This can help determine the effects of different Essences, Omens, or other more advanced crafting.
Crafting is expensive, this goes doubly so for high-end crafts. This means we won’t use much beyond the basic processes while leveling or gearing up a character. The one exception to this is the Solo Self-Found (SSF) mode which disables trading. In which case we’re limited by what we can get personally.
If you’re looking to play around with Crafting and want to get a feel for how it works without spending currency to do so, Craft of Exile is another great community site for that.
Basic Crafting
As the name implies, this is the simplest and most effective crafting strategy due to its ease of use and low cost. Though all the rolls it generates are random, it’s still a gamble if we get anything worthwhile, but the low cost makes it fairly reasonable.
Step 1 – Find a Base
The first step is to find an item to work with. This can be any item you want, but the higher-level base items are better. Currently, most of these can be identified by having ‘Expert’ as part of their names.
For the best results, we’ll want items that are at least Item Level 75. This opens up most tiers of many affixes, save for a few affixes that will ask for Item Level 80+.
Our item to craft can be any rarity, though the higher the rarity, the less control we have over it. However, we could also be lucky and be able to essentially skip the Basic crafting portion depending on what it rolls.
If an Item is Normal (White) or Magic (Blue) we’ll go to Step 2, if it’s Rare (Yellow), we’ll start at Step 3 instead.
Step 2 – Transmute, Aug, Regal
When starting with a Normal Item or Magic Item with just a single Affix, we’ll start here. The goal of this step is to get 1-2 affixes we want, before moving on to further steps.
With a Normal Item, we’ll use an Orb of Transmutation first. This will upgrade the Item to Magic Rarity and give it one Affix. We may get something we want, we may not. At least with this Basic Method, there’s nothing to influence what we roll. However, we’ll cover a slightly different method later that helps with this.
After using an Orb of Transmutation, or if the item started as a single-affix Magic Item, our next step is to use an Orb of Augmentation. This added a second affix and will be fill the open Prefix or Suffix based on what its left open by the Transmutation.
At this point, if we hit two undesirable stats, we can set the item aside for a 3-to-1 to get a new Magic Item to start with. If we hit one decent affix, we can apply a Regal Orb to the item, upgrading it to Rare.
At this point, if at least two of the three affixes on the item are good enough, we can move on to Step 3. If not, we can set it aside for a 3-to-1 for a new rare, or trash it if we’d rather start fresh.
Step 3 – Exalted “Slamming”
The final step of the Basic Crafting is to fill the remaining Affixes. We’ll do this by “Slamming the Item”, or using Exalted Orbs to add the remaining affixes.
After applying each Exalted Orb, evaluate the item. If it didn’t hit another desirable affix, don’t waste another Exalt. If it hits an affix that is either passable or not one we’re concerned about, then we can slam it again.
After this, we’ll hopefully have a 6-affix item, with the rolls we want. Due to the heavy RNG nature of this, it’s not likely to be in our favor, but we do have options to fix it through other crafting methods if it’s not perfect.
Step 4 – Finishing Touches
Should we end up with something we want to use, it’s time for the finishing touches. This means applying Quality to Martial Weapons and Armour or using Catalysts on Jewelry, as well as adding sockets with Articifer’s Orbs. Below is a table of these currencies.
| Currency | Icon | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Arcanist’s Etcher |  | Adds Quality to Wands, Staves, and Sceptres |
| Blacksmith’s Whetstone |  | Adds Quality to Martial Weapons |
| Armourer’s Scrap |  | Adds Quality to Armour |
| Artificer’s Orbs |  | Adds 1 Socket to Martial Weapons or Armour |
| Catalysts |  | Improves the quality of Rings and Amulets, boosting specific Affixes. |
We only want to do this to items we’re sure we’re keeping, using, or selling, as these items can be fairly limited early on. All of these can be gotten from salvage and will build up decently as long as we’re not spending them.
These are important for everything that doesn’t use Arcanist’s Etchers. For Armour, Quality will improve the item’s Defenses such as Armour, Energy Shield, or Evasion. For Martial Weapon, this will increase the base damage of the Weapon.
Sockets are also fairly flexible, allowing us to increase the damage of our weapons in various ways. They can further improve the defenses of Armour, or allow us to add resistance easily.
These Sockets can be filled with Runes or Soul Cores of our choice to add a wide variety of stats. The most common of these is to use Iron Runes in Armour for increased Defenses or Martial Weapon for Physical Damage, Soul Cores of Citaqualotl in Armour for All Elemental Resistance, or Soul Cores of Azcapa in Armour for Increased Rarity at the very late stage of a character.
Catalysts are something we’ll only use in the endgame, and very sparingly as it will require a lot of Breachs to get enough. Due to how these work, these can be exceptionally powerful as the select stat boosts allow us to improve many Affixes that cna be useful to a variety of builds. Such as using Reaver Catalyst for Rings that are stacked with Damage to Attack Rolls, or Sibilant Catalysts for items that have Cast Speed and Spell Damage on them.
Essence Crafting
Essence Crafting is largely similar to the basic method, except we have more control over what was previously an Orb of Transmutation or a Regal Orb roll.
What is an Essence
Essences are useful crafting tools that we can get by defeating monsters imprisoned essences. These can be found at any point, but are far more common in Endgame Mapping.
Using one of these guarantees a specific type of Affix, based on the essence used. Below is a table of the available Essence Types and what Affixes they target where possible.
| Name | Affixes |
|---|---|
| Body | Maximum Life, Life Leech, Life Regen, Recoup as Life, Hybrid Life, Life Flask Recovery, Life on Hit, Life on Kill |
| Mind | Maximum Mana, Mana Leech, Mana Regen, Recoup as Mana, Hybrid Mana, Mana Flask Recovery, Mana on KLill |
| Enhancement | Increased Armour, Increased Energy Shield, Increased Evasion, Hybrid Armour, Hybrid Energy Shield, Hybrid Evasion |
| Torment | Physical Damage, Added Physical Damage, Reduced Bleeding Duration, Thorns, Spell Physical Damage |
| Flames | Added Fire Damage to Attacks, Gain Damage as Fire, Fire Resistance, Reduced Ignite Duration, Chance to Ignite, Level of all Fire Spells, Increased Fire Damage |
| Ice | Added Cold Damage to Attacks, Gain Damage as Cold, Cold Resistance, Freeze Buildup, Increased Cold Damage, Reduced Chill Duration, Reduced Freeze Duration |
| Electricity | Added Lightning Damage to Attacks, Gain Damage as Lightning, Lightning Resistance, Chance to Shock, Level of Lightning Spells, Increased Lightning Damage, Reduced Shock Duration |
| Ruin | Chaos Resistance, Level of All Chaos Spells, Increased Chaos Damage |
| Battle | Added Damage to Attacks, Level of all Melee Skills, Critical Hit Chance for Attacks, Critical Damage Bonus for Attacks, Attack Speed, Life on Hit, Accuracy |
| Sorcery | Spell Damage, Hybrid Spell Damage, Cast Speed, Critical Hit Chance for Spells, Critical Damage Bonus for Spells, Level of All Spell Skills |
| Speed | Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Cast Speed, Projectile Speed |
| Infinite | Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, All Attributes, Reduced Attributes Required |
Step 1 – Essence
We’ll assume that we’ve already found a base for our craft, unlike the basic crafting, this has to be a Normal (White) Rarity item. This is because the basic Essences work as substitutes for Orbs of Transmutation, increasing their rarity to Magic while guaranteeing a category of affix.
We’ll assume that we’ve already found a base for our craft, unlike the basic crafting, this has to be a Normal (White) Rarity item. This is because the basic Essences work as substitutes for Orbs of Transmutation, increasing their rarity to Magic while guaranteeing a category of affix.
Almost every item has an ideal Essence to start with, as they all have a stat that is considered desirable to have. This doesn’t guarantee the highest tier of it, but does ensure it is present.
Martial Weapons should use Torment to try and hit Increased Physical Damage or Added Physical Damage, but this may also result in a Leech roll. Physical Damage is exceptionally strong and will scale the majority of skills of these weapon types.
Caster Weapons should use Sorcery to hit the Level of Spells Affix, but this can also hit Cast Speed, Spell Damage, or Spell Crit. Spell Levels are the most important damage increase for Spells, next to Cast Speed.
Foci should instead use haste for Cast Speed, as it’s the only roll that can be guaranteed with an Essence, outside of using Infinite for Intelligence. Foci have nearly every Caster-tagged mod available to them, making Sorcery a terrible option unless you want all of them.
Body Armours should use Ice, Electricity, or Ruin to guarantee a Resistance roll. These are less guaranteed compared to the Increased Armour, Evasion, or Energy Shield rolls. Flames is also a less useful Essence as they can also roll reduced Ignite Duration. Body can be a useful option too, to guarantee it rolls Maximum Life.
Boots should always use Haste, as Movement Speed is mandatory for them to be worth using in most cases. Flames or Ruin are also decent for guaranteeing a Resistance, should the Movement Speed not be needed due to other items.
With Gloves for an Attack Build, Haste is the best as it always results in Attack Speed. With a wider Prefix pool compared to most Armour slots, Enhancement can be good to guarantee at least one Defense Modifier.
Helmets should go for Electricity, Flames, Ice, or Ruin for a guaranteed Resistance. Otherwise, Enhancement is good for the Defenses Affix, which is better if our resistance is taken care of by other items.
For a Caster build, Rings should use Speed for the guaranteed Cast Speed Affix. Mind can also be good for the guaranteed Mana for Archmage builds. Otherwise, Infinite is the next best for guaranteed Attributes.
For Casters, Amulets should use Sorcery as this guarantees Cast Speed, Spell Damage, or Levels to all Spells; though this is a fair bit of a gamble. Melee can get similar results with Battle, though if they miss the Level of all Melee Skills, they’ll get Accuracy instead. Otherwise, Enhancement is exceptionally good for the Global Defense Modifiers, though we may not always hit the one we want.
Belts have multiple great options. Infinite will guarantee a Strength Affix and Defences guarantees Armour. Electricity, Flames, Ice, and Ruin all guarantee their respective Resistance. It’s hard to go wrong with any of these.
Step 2 – Augment and Greater Essence
Regardless if we use an Essence or not, we’ll use an Orb of Augmentation to add a second Affix and see what we get. Then we can use a Greater Essence, which acts a Regal Orb that can guarantee the same affixes as their normal Counterparts. It worth noting that these are often far more expensive compared to their
Doing this allows us to guarantee two Affixes on an item, which given the otherwise RNG nature of crafting, can be a very good thing. The unfortunate part is that Greater Essences are extremely rare to find.
All of the same rules and notable essence information from the previous step also apply here. Except we’re often using the second best option for a given item unless we’re only opting to use a Greater Essence
After this point, we can decide if the item is good enough to continue crafting in which case we carry on to Step 3. We’ll likely end up with something that should be saveable via
Step 3 – Slam and Finish
Like with the basic crafting method, the only thing left to do is Slam the remaining affixes with Exalted Orbs.
Given the investment, especially when a Greater Essence is used, we’ll want just to fill the Affixes with Exalts and see where it ends up. It’s not necessary if we get something usable before then, but still helpful.
Either way, if it ends up being worth using or selling, it’s best to give it the finishing touches. Quality it up and add those Sockets.
Omen Crafting
Omen crafting is one of the only slightly deterministic ways to do any crafting in POE2. These Omens are only available through Ritual Altars, which makes many of them rare and prohibitively expensive.
There is just a total of 6 Omens that matter for crafting: two Omens of Annulment, two Omens of Erasure, Omens of Whittling, and Omens of Corruption.
It’s important to remember that Omens need to be activated in our inventory to be used. If we do not activate them, they will just stay in our Inventory.
Omens of Annulment
Omens of Annulment comes in two varieties, Dextral and Sinistral. Each of these will limit the effects of Orbs of Annulment to hit either a Prefix or Suffix on an item. In this case, the Dextral variant will only hit Suffixes, while Sinistral will only hit Prefixes.
These are a safer way of attempting to remove an unwanted affix. It’s not perfect, as it can hit any Affix of the respective type. However, this is still useful as it allows us to protect the good affixes on either side of the item and attempt to clean up the affixes on one side.
Omens of Erasure
Much like Omens of Annulment, Omens of Erasure come in Dextral and Sinistral varieties. Instead of modifying Orbs of Annulment, they instead affect Chaos Orbs. Dextral will still only hit Suffixes, while Sinistral only hits Prefixes.
Much like Omens of Annulments, these also work similarly to clean up unwanted affixes. However, unlike Orbs of Annulment, Orbs of Chaos will instantly replace the modifier. This means instead of leaving us with an open Affix and having to spend an Exalted Orb to replace it’s done all in one motion.
Omen of Whittling
The Omen of Whittling is easily the most expensive Omen, being incredibly powerful and sought after for its effect. This powerful Omen also modifies Chaos Orbs, in this case however, it removes the Affix with the lowest item level requirement.
This will unfortunately mean a bit of time spent on a search on PoE2DB, as this information is not currently displayed in game. While this will often hit the lowest tier modifier, there are a few Affixes that get rather high values at very low item Levels. So again ensure that the Omen will remove the affix you think it will with a database check before committing it.
This effect is incredibly powerful because of exactly what it does, which is to replace the “weakest” affix. This can very easily take an item that has just one bad roll and make it a very high-tier item that will be hard to replace.
Omen of Corruption
The Omen will very often be the last step of any high-end crafting if done at all, or commonly used on powerful unique. This Omen modifies how Vaal orbs work, doing two notable things for them.
First, it removes the safe option of No Change. This guarantee that the item will experience some effect of corruption. This can be a change for the better, gaining a powerful Enchantment Affix; or for the worse making its stats worse or occasionally, even changing the item entirely.
Second, it will apply two Corruptions instead of one. These two options chosen will never be the same, but there are multiple good and bad outcomes to be aware of. We can end up with powerful results like Affixxes being strengthened in combination with a powerful Enchantment Affix. However, the total opposite can happen as well where we get an entirely worthless Enchantement Affix as well as have the Affixes weakened.
Vaal Orbs are useful on their own, which often means that this is often only used on high-value Uniques as a result. Getting luck with rolls will result in incredibly powerful items, and depending on the results can increase their value substantially.
This is a very high-risk, but high-reward way to push a build even further, just remember the golden rule of Corruption: Don’t Corrupt something you cannot replace or have a replacement for.
