Active skills | Characters and their advancement Path of Exile Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Skill gems
Aside from passive skills that can't be simply used in a fight, there are also active skills that can. Active skill system is very original here so you should definitely see its description. Character skills (either physical or magical) are linked to the well-known attributes. All of skills in the world of Wraeclast are shown as colorful gems that can be found or obtained from NPCs (or bought from other players). To use their power, they need to be placed in special slots in items. Of course colors must be matching for everything to work. Every item (except amulets, rings etc.) has from one to six slots so you may possess many useful skills. For example, when you place strength gem with "Heavy Strike" attack in a proper slot in a sword, you'll be able to perform a powerful strike that throws the enemies back aside from basic attack. Gems (stones, gems, crystals, whatever) that haven't been used by other players are on the first experience level. When you use the weapon with it, it levels up and improves its abilities. In a word, it becomes more useful.
It's worth mentioning that a gem that had once been placed in an item may be removed at any time with no consequences. This way you may sell weaker equipment after you remove the gems and place them in new, more deadly weapons. Last but not least, the controls. By default, left mouse button is responsible for the basic attack while middle and right for skills that you use the most. The remaining 5 - QWERT are usually additional skills - spells, summoning etc. Of course assigning skills to keys is up to the player.
Support gems
When the storyline progresses and you visit new, more challenging places, you'll be able to acquire many different items. More rare and powerful, of course. One of the categories you'll see later in the game are support gems. They're responsible for supporting the skill gems with many bonuses and skill modifiers, so the former ones are much more effective. As it was said before, you'll get new, more powerful items. At one point we'll start getting items in which gem slots will be linked. To upgrade a skill gem with a support gem, you have to place both in the item so that both slots are connected. It's the simplest possible solution. For example combining "Double Strike" with "Added Cold Damage" lets you perform two quick hits that additionally deal cold damage.
If there are more slots, you can obviously experiment with number of skill and support gems. You can get several bonuses for a single skill (support gems don't have to be directly connected to skill gem but any connection must be made) or the other way around - one support gem may modify all skill gems. Before you do anything, remember two important rules. First, combining two gems of the same category will not give you any results. Second, using support that has nothing to do with a particular skill will always result in a failure. For example "Discipline", that gives the character and allies an energy shield has nothing to do with "Minion life" that's responsible for increasing health of summoned units. The last thing - remember about matching colours.