Path of Exile 2 Attributes guide: Should you take Strength, Dex, or Int?
Path of Exile 2 has the traditional trifecta of character attributes: Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), and Intelligence (INT) - same as the first game. These three generally correspond to their stereotypes: Strength is for brawn, Intelligence is for brains, and so on. Given how fundamental attribute was to your overall stat spread in the first game, picking the right one can seem a hard decision to make.
However, in this guide we'll explain why it's not as daunting as it appears. Let's start with a comprehensive rundown of each Attribute type and the associated benefits.
What do attributes do in Path of Exile 2?
For starters, Attributes in Path of Exile 2 do not directly scale your damage (although they do have indirect interactions geared towards that). In the original Path of Exile, Strength was incentivized for melee builds because they added Melee Damage. In the sequel, the secondary stat each attribute gives you is much simpler.
Strength
Each point of Strength only provides +2 Life in Path of Exile 2, as opposed to the prequel where each two-point investment contributes toward +1 life and five points gives +1% Melee Physical Damage. However, it should be noted that this is the only attribute in Path of Exile 2 that grants a directly defensive stat over time.
Dexterity
Each point of Dexterity adds +5 Accuracy Rating, which makes you less likely to miss martial and ranged attacks and attack Skills (i.e. Skill Gems that come with the Attack tag). Note that Skills with the Spell tag are not affected by accuracy, making this stat relatively less useful for pure casters like Sorceress.
Intelligence
Each point in Intelligence +2 Mana for each point invested (whereas it also used to add Energy Shield in the first game). Other than allowing you to spam Skills more liberally, there's also one more major function of the Mana stat. With the Mind over Matter Keystone passive, your Mana pool can become a protective layer of defense.
Beyond the direct stat they grant, Attribute modifiers also help determine the type of gear drops you'll get from monsters more commonly, as well as Skill Gem compatibility. When it comes to gear, Armour has mainly been separated by attributes to differentiate between defensive layers. For example, an Armour with both Evasion and Energy Shield will have both Dexterity and Intelligence requirements, which have to be fulfilled beforehand.
How to increase attributes in Path of Exile 2
You character does not organically gain Attributes as they level up in Path of Exile 2, even though their max Life and Mana increase with each level. There's only two way to pad out Attributes in Path of Exile 2.
Firstly, you can itemize with +Attribute gear. Rings and Amulets can come with +Attribute as their primary modifier. The other way is +5 Attribute Skill nodes that form a large part of Path of Exile 2's massive skill tree. These are also often called travel nodes, because you need to get through them to go from one node cluster to another in many cases.
These Passive Skill nodes are also customizable at will. Previously, players would purposefully travel toward attribute nodes they lacked. In Path of Exile 2, players will be able to reallocate any +5 Attribute node by respeccing that individual node without touching the rest of their skill tree progression. This move virtually eliminates the fear of accidentally fumbling a lengthy build guide and unnecessary allocation of travel nodes.
Things to consider when taking Attribute points in Path of Exile 2
By default, you want to take Attributes that are required by your Skill Gems as they go up in levels. This will generally be aligned with the class the Skill Gems are aligned to, so hybrid classes like Witch and Mercenary will have to split their attributes, and thus make for trickier buildcrafting.
Furthermore, Skill Gems have a special interaction with Attributes as these determine the maximum possible quantity of Support Gems of a specific color (red ones are STR, green ones are DEX, blue ones are INT). Each 5 point in an attribute lets you have two Support Gems of that color on your loadout. If you want to have two green ones, for example, you'll need to get 10 DEX.
Attributes can also play a huge role in build crafting, as long as the right Keystone is active and used properly. Like the Iron Will Keystone in Path of Exile, Grinding Gear Games has introduced the Giant's Blood Keystone passive, which triples one's attribute requirement of all weapons but allows them to dual wield.
A caster-oriented example of attribute-based scaling is the Pure Power Skill node near the top edge of the Skill tree, giving you 2% increased Lightning Damage for every 10 INT. There's also more indirect examples of this: the Force of Life Ascendancy node for Stormweaver grants 1% increased Effect of Arcane Surge on you per 15 maximum Mana.
Check out our other articles on Path of Exile 2
- Path of Exile 2: All classes and ascensions available in Early Access
- Path of Exile 2 Atlas system, explained
- Path of Exile 2 Ascension Trials, explained
- Will Path of Exile 2 have crossplay and cross-save?
- Path of Exile 2 platforms: Will Early Access be on consoles?
- Path of Exile 2: All returning League mechanics confirmed so far
- Does Path of Exile 2 have co-op features?