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Even in its early access state, Path of Exile 2 is a complex game. The skill tree is vast and sprawling, there are a colossal number of items and skill permutations at your disposal, and trying to figure out the best way to smash through the enemy hordes as quickly as possible can be a challenge. Fortunately, things should now be much smoother, as the most-anticipated PoE 2 build crafting tool is finally here to make creating, testing, and sharing those top loadouts easier than ever before.
Making the best Path of Exile 2 builds is hard. There’s a lot on the table, and even the smallest change can have a big impact that reverberates across your entire loadout. That’s not a bad thing – in fact it’s precisely why Path of Exile 2 is shaping up to become one of the best RPGs on PC alongside its predecessor – but what if you want to test a change before you commit? Respecs cost gold, crafting materials are a valuable resource, and even with the most recent update allowing you to overwrite runes in your gear you still probably won’t want to throw them away casually.
Enter Path of Building, or PoB. This community-created tool has been a high-priority recommendation for anyone playing the original Path of Exile for many years, and now the PoE 2 version is finally ready for action. It stands alongside the FilterBlade Path of Exile 2 loot filter as a must-have, even if you’re not typically someone who bothers with external add-ons and tools. There’s even a long-running community joke that PoB is “the real game” and that Path of Exile is simply a place to toy around with the builds you’ve made using it.
Put simply, Path of Building contains everything you need to hone and optimize your build, from a full, functional recreation of the Path of Exile 2 skill tree to the ability to create custom versions of every possible item in the game with the exact modifiers you’re looking for. You can plug in your current loadout as it exists in the game, then see how any change you make will impact your DPS and defenses alike.
Is it worth hunting for a bow type that fires two arrows instead of one, even if it means your base damage per shot is lower? Pop it in and you’ll quickly find out whether it’s a must-have upgrade, or whether you’d need to roll one with such perfect stats to see a benefit that you’re better off focusing on another way to get stronger. Found an item that looks really good on the Path of Exile 2 trade site, but want to check whether it’s worth the price? PoB has got you covered.
Even if you aren’t planning to create your own builds from scratch, you’ll still want to get your hands on PoB. It’s a tool that’s used by all of the game’s top buildcrafters, and they’ll typically share a simple string of text along with any build they create. You can then copy and paste this into Path of Building to load up their full creation in the app.
Once you’ve done so, there’s the option to step through the guide level by level to see exactly when you should be taking certain passive points or looking for that next big gear upgrade. Many creators will even include detailed notes in their build to help you understand why certain choices are being made, or when it might be a good time to make use of the PoE2 respec feature or try to do some crafting to upgrade your gear.
As exciting as this is, it’s important to remember that this is just the first release of PoB, and as such project lead ‘LocalIdentity’ warns that there may be some bugs, miscalculations, missing values, or occasional crashes with this initial version. It’s also a good idea to not get too hung up on the numbers if you’re just having fun playing – but part of the joy of the Path of Exile 2 endgame is squeezing out those extra few percentage points, and Path of Building is the best way to do so.
The Path of Building community fork for Path of Exile 2 is out now. You can download it via GitHub. The download was briefly unavailable after its release due to an issue with the developer’s GitHub repo, but is now working as expected.
LocalIdentity also shares one note of caution. “I’ve had a few people message me about getting banned in Marvel Rivals because they had PoB 2 open at the same time. So out of caution for the moment, don’t have them both open. I have no clue what is causing the issue, and am not sure how to get hold of Marvel Rivals.” Keep that in mind, then.
Have you beaten all the Path of Exile 2 bosses yet? Each offers special rewards, so make sure you aren’t missing any. Then check you’ve ticked off all Path of Exile 2 quests as well.
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