Path of Exile 2
Path of Exile 2

Gem Quality & Vaal Gems

Enhance your Path of Exile 2 builds with Gem Quality and potent Vaal Gems. Learn how to apply these mechanics for significant power boosts to your skills.

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Gem Quality & Vaal Gems

Beyond simply leveling up your Skill and Support Gems, you can further enhance their power through Gem Quality and transform them into potent Vaal Gems. These mechanics offer significant boosts to your build's effectiveness, but often come with a degree of randomness and resource investment.

Understanding Gem Quality

Gem Quality provides a percentage-based bonus to a specific stat of a gem, unique to each individual gem. This bonus scales with the gem's quality, up to a maximum of 20% (or higher with specific unique items or crafting methods). For instance, a quality bonus on a damage skill might increase its damage effectiveness, while a support gem's quality might boost the supported skill's area of effect or mana efficiency.

How to Increase Gem Quality:
  1. Gemcutter's Prism (GCP): This is the primary currency item used to increase a gem's quality. Each GCP consumed on a gem increases its quality by 1%. You can obtain GCPs through various means:
    • Vendor Recipe: Sell a gem with 20% quality to any vendor to receive one Gemcutter's Prism. This is a common way to convert unwanted high-quality gems into valuable currency.
    • Vendor Recipe (Fragmented): Sell a total of 40% quality across multiple gems (e.g., two 10% quality gems and one 20% quality gem) to a vendor to receive one Gemcutter's Prism.
    • Drops: GCPs can rarely drop from monsters throughout the game, particularly in higher-level areas and from strongboxes.
    • Trade: Players often trade GCPs for other currency items like Chaos Orbs or Exalted Orbs.
  2. Blacksmith's Whetstone & Armourer's Scrap (Vendor Recipe): While not directly for gems, it's worth noting that selling a weapon with 20% quality or armor with 20% quality to a vendor will yield a Blacksmith's Whetstone or Armourer's Scrap, respectively. These are analogous to GCPs for equipment.
  3. Harvest Crafting: The Sacred Grove, accessed through Harvest mechanics, can offer crafts that directly increase gem quality or even reroll it. Keep an eye out for "Reforge a Gem with a random Quality value" or "Sacrifice a Gem to gain a Gemcutter's Prism" crafts.
  4. Temple of Atzoatl (Alva's Incursions): Certain rooms within the Temple, such as the Gemcutter's Workshop, can offer unique ways to modify gem quality, sometimes even exceeding the 20% cap.

Actionable Step: As you progress, always keep an eye out for gems with high quality that you don't intend to use. Stockpile them and sell them to a vendor once they reach 20% quality to consistently generate Gemcutter's Prisms for your main skill gems.

Vaal Gems: Unleashing Corrupted Power

Vaal Gems are corrupted versions of regular skill gems that grant an additional, powerful Vaal skill. This Vaal skill has its own cooldown and typically consumes a certain number of souls gained from killing monsters. Vaal skills are often much more potent than their regular counterparts, offering burst damage, crowd control, or defensive utility.

How to Obtain Vaal Gems:
  1. Vaal Orb Corruption: The primary method to obtain a Vaal Gem is by using a Vaal Orb on a regular skill gem. This process is irreversible and has several possible outcomes:
    • The gem becomes a Vaal version of itself (e.g., Fireball becomes Vaal Fireball). This is the desired outcome.
    • The gem's quality is rerolled to a random value between 0% and 20%.
    • The gem's level is rerolled to a random value between 1 and 20.
    • The gem is destroyed.
    • The gem gains an implicit modifier (less common for skill gems).

    Strategy: It's generally recommended to use Vaal Orbs on gems that are already at level 20 and 20% quality to maximize your chances of a powerful Vaal Gem. However, be prepared for the risk of losing your investment.

  2. Corrupted Areas (Vaal Side Areas): These mini-dungeons, identifiable by their distinct purple glow on the world map, often contain a Vaal Vessel at the end. Opening this vessel has a chance to drop a corrupted item, including Vaal Gems.
  3. Trade: Players often trade Vaal Gems, especially highly sought-after ones, for other currency.
Important Considerations for Vaal Gems:
  • Soul Gain Prevention: After using a Vaal skill, you enter a "Soul Gain Prevention" state for a short duration, during which you cannot gain souls for any Vaal skill. This prevents spamming powerful Vaal abilities.
  • Separate Cooldowns: The regular skill and its Vaal counterpart have independent cooldowns. You can use both in succession if available.
  • Gem Links: Vaal Gems still benefit from linked support gems, just like their regular versions.
  • Corruption Implication: Once a gem is corrupted, it cannot be further modified by most crafting methods (e.g., using a Gemcutter's Prism or Orb of Scouring).

Mastering Gem Quality and understanding the risks and rewards of Vaal Orbs are crucial steps in optimizing your character's power in Path of Exile 2. Experiment with different combinations and always weigh the potential benefits against the cost of corruption.