Unique Items are the most powerful type of gear in the game, offering a variety of generally useful affixes alongside one or multiple modifiers exclusive to that Unique item. These modifiers grant extremely powerful effects or modify spells or spell archetypes in positive ways, allowing players to create builds around them.
In Path of Exile 2, Uniques are categorized into tiers based on how powerful they are. Uniques like the Headhunter, Mageblood, or Kalandra’s Touch are tier 0, as they have some of the most powerful effects in the game. The higher the tier, the lower the drop chance for those respective items is.
How to get Unique items in PoE 2?
Depending on the Unique item you desire, there are three different ways to obtain a Unique:
Uber or Normal boss exclusive Uniques can only drop by defeating a specific end-game boss, with each encounter having its own specific loot pool. Uber versions of the bosses can also drop items that are in the normal difficulty’s list of drops, and most chase Uniques have a drop chance of around 2%.
As a random drop from any mob in the game. Any unique that is not tied to a boss’s loot pool can randomly drop from any monster you defeat. They have a low chance of dropping and using MF (Magic Find) gear can significantly increase your chances of finding your desired unique item.
By trading in Divination Cards. Most chase or powerful Unique have Divination Cards tied to them. These can drop from specific maps, and after obtaining a full stack (with the number of cards for a full stack varying from 1 to 21, depending on the set), you can trade them in for the item listed on the div card.
Can you modify stats on Unique items in PoE 2?
You cannot fully modify the stats present on Unique items, but you can alter them in two different ways: you can reroll the affix values using Divine Orbs, and you can also attempt to corrupt the item with a Vaal Orb or inside of a Vaal Temple for a random outcome.
When corrupting an item, there’s an equal chance it will gain a random corrupted implicit, become a Rare item with random modifiers, completely disappear, or just gain the “Corrupted” tag with no changes. Once an item has been corrupted, it cannot be further modified with the exception of Tainted currency.
Most popular Uniques
We are yet to see what new Unique items may show up in PoE 2, but the developers mentioned that powerful Uniques from the first game will appear in the second as well, with different bases or minor changes. Below, you can find a list of the most powerful Uniques from the first game that may see a reoccurrence in PoE 2, alongside their exclusive effects:
Original Sin: Converts all your Elemental Damage to Chaos Damage and provides a constant aura that reduces nearby enemies’ Chaos Resistance to 0
Mageblood: Makes your leftmost 4 flasks’ effects persistent
Headhunter: Allows your character to steal the modifiers of Rare monsters when slaying one
Kalandra's Touch: Duplicates all the modifiers from your other ring
Progenesis: Staggers part of damage taken over 4 seconds
Voices: Extends your passive skill tree with an additional 3 Cluster Jewel sockets
The Squire: Gems socketed in this shield are linked to the gems in your main hand
Path of Exile 2 Item Affixes
Affixes from your gear are one your character's main sources of power. There is a large variety of modifiers, and each type of gear has its own affix list from which the item can roll up to 6 affixes. These offer a variety of offensive and defensive stats, like flat damage, % increased damage, maximum life, and elemental or chaos resistances.
Affixes are also classified into tiers, with some having a single tier and others having up to 11 tiers. Tiers determine the minimum and maximum values the affixes can roll, with Tier 1 being the best tier affixes can roll.
Also, the chance to get a tier 1 modifier is way lower than getting a T4 or T5 modifier. Generally, T1 has a set chance, and the following tiers have twice the chance to roll, except for a few stats with equal weighting for all tiers.
Implicits
Implicits are modifiers tied to the item base, offering modifiers that augment the item type. Generally, implicits cannot be modified outside of rerolling the values using blessed orbs. Examples of implicit modifiers would be increased elemental damage on weapons, movement speed on boots, or projectile speed on quivers.
Prefixes
Prefixes take up half the explicit modifiers on an item and generally offer offensive and defence-related stats, like flat, or percent increased Armor, Evasion, or Energy Shield. More unique prefixes can be found on items with different influences or dropped from specific areas like Vaal Temples and Delve.
Suffixes
Suffixes will take up the other half of explicits on any item, and they range from critical strike-related bonuses and attack speed increases to elemental resistances. Influenced items may have suffixes with more outstanding effects, themed around the boss that they are influenced by.
Item Levels in PoE 2
Gear in Path of Exile has a set item level from when it drops based on the area level. Item Level does not directly impact the item's stats, but it matters when crafting.
What is the max iLvL?
We are not sure what the max iLvL would be in PoE 2, but based on PoE 1, we can expect items to go up to item level 88, from strongboxes with the +5 to item level of drops modifier in Tier 16 maps.
How to get max iLvL gear?
In order to get max item level gear players should run the highest tier maps available and opt into mechanics that can increase the iLvL of drops. Since Item Level is set based on the area level, combining these two strategies will lead to dropping gear of the highest iLvL possible.
Does item level matter in PoE 2?
Despite not having a direct effect on the power of the item, iLvL is very important in PoE 2. The item level of gear will determine what affixes can roll on the item, alongside the maximum tier that affixes can roll. Sometimes, getting items of a specific or low iLvL can help greatly with crafts, as it will limit the number of tiers and modifiers available, making it way easier to get a desired outcome during a craft.
