Best Unique Items Every Path of Exile Player Should Know About

Path of Exile is an incredible ARPG that is fun to play with enough build diversity to keep things interesting for a very long time. It has plenty of ascendancy classes that have something different to offer. The game also has a plethora of unique items that can make certain builds work.

That being said, with a ton of options to choose from, you might have a hard time choosing the right unique item for your build. Well, you are in luck!

In this article, we will go over some of the best unique items that every Path of Exile player should know about!

What Are Unique Items?

Before we give our picks for the best unique items in the game, it would be prudent for us to tell you what they actually are. Unique items in PoE are those that have a predetermined set of modifiers. 

These mods cannot be changed by certain PoE Currency, such as the Chaos Orb and Orb of Scouring. However, you can use Divine Orbs to change the values of the mods that are already on there.

Unique items are great because you do not have to think about crafting items in the game. You simply equip them and you are off to the races! Now, there are some important things that you need to keep in mind with regard to these things.

First, almost all unique items still possess the same implicit modifiers as that of their base types. For example, the Mageblood, which is a unique heavy belt, has STR as an implicit mod similar to other heavy belts in the game. 

There are exceptions to this, however, like the Starforge, whose implicit modifier is different (30% Increased Global Physical Damage) is different from its base item (Infernal Sword, 30% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills). 

Second, unique items have distinct effects that make them, well, unique. The Replica Dreamfeather is the only one-handed sword in the game that increases your attack damage based on your total armor value.

Third, while unique items offer beneficial effects, most of them come with certain downsides as well. The Dawnstrider is a pair of boots that increase the buff effect your Ancestor Totems provide you by 100%, albeit you can only have one buff from an active Ancestor Totem at a time.

Fourth, the vast majority of unique items can be obtained just by farming maps. However, there are those that require you to beat specific monsters or bosses. The Voidforge is a fantastic two-handed sword that you can only acquire by defeating the Uber Elder.

Lastly, there are some items that are quite rare and are often referred to by the PoE community as “Tier 0 uniques.” The Mageblood is a perfect example of this. The said item is so rare that people often trade Divination Cards just to get one (though it is possible for you to obtain it as an ultra-rare drop if you are lucky).

Best Unique Items

With all of the necessary information out of the way, it is now time to divulge our top picks for the best unique items in Path of Exile. We will provide them to you by category so that you can easily skip to specific sections if you want to.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Body Armors

Tabula Rasa

If you have scoured the internet for information about Path of Exile, you will often find this particular unique item being mentioned or thrown around. The Tabula Rasa is an incredibly useful body armor due to the fact that it provides you with six linked sockets.

Why are linked sockets important in this game? Well, unlike other ARPGs, Path of Exile allows you to use any skill you fancy. You typically put a skill gem into the body armor (because that is often the slot capable of having six sockets) and then enhance it with up to five “support gems.”

Having said that, actually obtaining six-linked sockets requires a ton of PoE Currency, such as Jeweller’s Orbs and Orbs of Fusing. The Tabula Rasa offers a simple solution in that you just equip it and you are good to go.

The fact that it can be worn at level 1 tells you about the amazing value it provides. No wonder the Tabula Rasa is considered as one of the best leveling uniques in Path of Exile.

The only problem with this body armor is that it does not contain any modifier whatsoever (which perfectly exemplifies being a “blank slate”). Be that as it may, the Tabula Rasa helps you immensely during your leveling journey if you can get your hands on it early.

Loreweave

Elemental resistances in the game plays a crucial role in your survivability. If they are not capped at 75%, you will have a hard time taking on the enemy’s hits, especially those that deal elemental damage.

When you are rolling maps with Orbs of Alchemy or Chaos Orbs, you might come across a modifier that reduces your elemental resistance by a specified amount as soon as you enter the map. This is, of course, quite dangerous.

Fortunately, developer Grinding Gear Games created a unique item that can aid you in rectifying the situation. The item in question is the Loreweave. This body armor makes it so that your maximum elemental resistances are set to a number between 76 to 78%

Why is the Loreweave amazing in that regard? Because that unique modifier prevents you from going below that amount no matter what. If you equip the Eternal Damnation, for instance, the Loreweave makes it so that your maximum fire, cold, lightning, and chaos resistance do not go under 76% at the very least.

The Loreweave’s unique effect is quite beneficial for a lot of builds in the game, though the problem with it is that you cannot go beyond 78%. If you want to achieve 90% to all of your maximum resistances, then the said body armor is not for you.

But, if you are okay with having a hard cap on your maximum resistances, then the Loreweave is a fantastic body armor for sure! You can get this by using the vendor recipe, where you sell a full inventory’s worth of unique rings (60 pcs, to be exact) to any vendor NPC in the game.

Cloak of Flame

The Cloak of Flame has been quite popular in PoE for quite some time now and for good reasons. This thing is best known for converting 40% of the physical damage you receive to fire damage. This thing alone helps squishy builds that do not have a ton of armor to work with survive longer on the battlefield.

Another famous use-case for the Cloak of Flame is to address the huge downside of the Transcendence keystone passive. If you do not know what this keystone does, it changes how armor works in that instead of mitigating physical damage, it reduces the elemental damage you take. If you have that allocated, the Cloak of Flame improves your survivability by converting a sizable chunk of physical damage so that you can take it as fire damage.

Lightning Coil

This next body armor has the same physical damage taken as elemental damage property as that of the Cloak of Flame. The Lightning Coil converts 50% of physical damage from hits to lightning damage. Take note that the unique effect explicitly states “from hits,” which means that physical damage over time effects like Bleed and Corrupted Blood do not count.

Aside from that, the Lightning Coil contains other useful modifiers, including added lightning damage to attacks, increased armor/evasion, and maximum life. However, just like other unique items, this body armor does have a downside in that it reduces your lightning resistance by 60% just by wearing it.

That is why you often find people using the Topaz Flask when they equip the Lightning Coil. Even though this body armor’s negative effect is too big to ignore, the Lightning Coil still provides a ton of value nevertheless.

The Fourth Vow

Chaos damage in Path of Exile always bypasses energy shield, meaning, it immediately reduces your life without being mitigated by the said defensive layer. The Fourth Vow has an interesting property wherein the inherent physical damage mitigation provided by armor applies to chaos damage taken from hits as well.

That effect is precisely the reason why people often pair The Fourth Vow with Divine Flesh – a keystone passive that not only raises your maximum chaos resistance by 5%, but also converts half of the elemental damage you receive to chaos damage.

Now, when you wear this body armor, the physical damage you take will bypass energy shield. This is something that does not happen in normal circumstances because physical damage is inflicted on energy shield first before your HP is reduced.

Although that can be seen as a negative, spreading the damage you take actually helps improve your chances of survival. That is why people are not discouraged from wearing The Fourth Vow despite its apparent “downside.”

Hyrri’s Ire

Spell suppression is another form of damage mitigation in Path of Exile. If you have a 100% chance to suppress spell damage, you effectively reduce the damage you receive from spells by half.

That said, Hyrri’s Ire is an easy way to get a huge amount of spell suppression. This body armor alone provides you with a sizable 30% chance to suppress spell damage. Because of this, you only have to wear a couple more pieces of gear and you will have spell suppression sorted out.

Hyrri’s Ire is often worn by bow builds specifically for that added cold damage modifier. Builds such as the Lightning Arrow and Elemental Hit of the Spectrum Deadeye can greatly benefit from this particular body armor, so if you are playing one right now, you might as well grab this from the trade website if you have the PoE Currency on hand.

Utula’s Hunger

Utula’s Hunger is a staple among builds that use Righteous Fire as their main skill. This is due to the changes GGG has made to the skill gem itself, where 70% of the player’s HP and energy shield are taken into account when calculating Righteous Fire’s damage.

This body armor is best known for its unique modifier, where you gain up to 1,000 HP if your other pieces of gear do not have any life modifiers on them. Some examples of life modifiers are:

• + to Maximum Life

• Regenerates # Life per Second

• Increased Life Regeneration

• % of Physical Damage Leeched as Life

That specific requirement of Utula’s Hunger might seem like a huge downside at first, but it actually makes gearing your character a lot easier since you do not have to think about getting life modifiers on them.

In addition, even though it is explicitly stated that no life mods should be on your “equipped items” for you to gain the +1000 HP bonus from this body armor, this does not apply to jewels and flasks. So, items like the Watcher’s Eye are safe to use.

Dialla’s Malefaction

Skill gems and support gems in PoE are color-coded, which means that you can only insert them into an item if that item you want to use has the right colored sockets. You might look at this as a non-factor because you can color your sockets with Chromatic Orbs anyway, right? Well, that is quite challenging to do if your item does not conform to the skill/support gem you want to use.

You see, the gems have different colors for a reason. Red gems are associated with STR (armor), green gems are associated with DEX (evasion), and blue gems are associated with INT (energy shield).

Having said that, suppose that you want to insert a red gem into an energy shield-based armor like the Vaal Regalia. Getting red-colored sockets on this thing is hard, so you might end up using an exorbitant amount of Chromatic Orbs unless you are very lucky.

Why suffer when you have items like Dialla’s Malefaction? This body armor ignores normal conventions by allowing you to socket any gem that you fancy without having to worry about the right socket colors.

You only have to think about what colored socket you put the gem into if you are after certain bonuses. For example, spell skill gems always scale better at higher gem levels, so putting them into red-colored sockets makes a lot of sense.

If you want to increase the quality of gems beyond 20%, then insert them into the said body armor’s green sockets. Dialla’s Malefaction does not offer anything substantial on the defensive side of things. However, the bonuses it provides are just too hard to pass up.

The Ivory Tower

Chaos damage, unlike the other damage types in PoE, often bypasses many defensive layers like energy shield and armor. Typically, if you take chaos damage, your HP will always be reduced first, which is only mitigated somewhat by the amount of chaos resistance that you have.

If you like to bolster your defense against the said damage type, you may want to invest in The Ivory Tower. This particular body armor has a unique effect, where chaos damage is taken from mana before life. It has a similar effect to Mind Over Matter, but instead of taking just 40% (like what the said keystone passive does), The Ivory Tower makes it so that the full extent of the damage is taken from mana. The only way for your HP to be reduced is if your mana is fully depleted.

The Ivory Tower is good on its own. However, if you want to take your tankiness to a whole new level, you can also use the Coruscating Elixir. This makes it so that chaos damage does not bypass your energy shield. Together with the Ivory Tower, this combo will virtually make you unkillable, provided that you have a ton of mana and energy shield to begin with.

Helmets

Crown of the Inward Eye

A helmet that can only drop from Sirus, Crown of the Inward Eye is pretty awesome, not only in terms of providing you with defenses, but also increasing your damage by sorting out your life, mana, and energy shield.

The effects we are discussing here are the Transfiguration of Soul, Transfiguration of Body, and Transfiguration of Mind. Let’s take Transfiguration of Mind as an example. Every time you increase your maximum mana (either by equipping items with “+ to Maximum Mana” or taking some nodes on the passive tree), you increase your damage as well (albeit at 30% of their value).

Builds that have energy shield as their main defensive layer, including the Forbidden Rite Occultist and Penance Brand of Dissipation Inquisitor, can find great value in the Crown of the Inward Eye.

The Devouring Diadem

Developer Grinding Gear Games has removed certain mods that reduce the mana cost of skills in Path of Exile: Necropolis League. A lot of people were bummed out about it, but the good news is that the community has found numerous ways to solve the mana problem. One of those solutions is in the form of The Devouring Diadem.

PoE players equip The Devouring Diadem mainly for Eldritch Battery. As you know, it has a similar effect as that of the keystone passive with the same name. For the uninitiated, Eldritch Battery spends energy shield to cast or activate skills before mana. This is quite useful for builds that require a ton of mana for their main rotation.

The Devouring Diadem also increases your reservation efficiency, which should help you save on resources to activate one more aura, or have enough left in the tank to cast your more active skills.

Take note that the reservation efficiency applies to both life and mana, so if you use something like Arrogance Support or the Blood Magic keystone passive, you will still have a comfortable amount of HP to work with.

Indigon

Do you want to have more power? If so, the Indigon is a unique item that gives you what you need. This helmet grants you a ton of spell damage just by spending mana! More specifically, you gain 25% increased spell damage every time you spend 200 points of mana. You have to be quick, though, because this effect only adds up if you have spent mana in the last four seconds.

Now, you might think that this helmet can be used by any build in Path of Exile. However, that is just far from the truth. The Indigon is only suited for mana-stacking builds due to the fact that the mana cost of your skills when this helmet is equipped is increased by up to 60%.

In other words, your character must have copious amounts of mana to truly take advantage of what Indigon has to offer. Despite the steep requirement, the Indigon is such an amazing helmet that you might consider using it for your next build.

Honourhome

As mentioned earlier, GGG removed modifiers that reduce the mana cost of skills in Path of Exile, particularly on jewels and flasks. As a result, you may have a hard time sustaining mana, thus preventing you from spamming skills like there’s no tomorrow.

However, did you know that there is a unique helmet that solves all of your mana cost problems? Yes, you have heard that right, there is such an item! That item is called Honourhome.

The Honourhome is a unique helmet that reduces the mana cost of your skills by up to 20%. This is huge for the reasons stated above. That is good and all, but that is not the only thing that this item gives you.

This thing raises the level of gems you have socketed into it by two. If you want to improve the elemental resistance buff provided by Purity of Elements, you can slot it into the Honourhome for maximum benefit.

Aside from that, the added lightning damage (to both attacks and spells) and the increase in armor and energy shield make your leveling journey a whole lot easier!

Seriously, we are astounded that GGG made the Honourhome available to wear at level 12! All you have to do now is grab it off the trade website!

The Gull

Leveling in Path of Exile can be a struggle, especially if you are not equipped with the right items. While there are some builds that require you to wear a specific helmet, the vast majority have a bit of flexibility. So, if your character happens to be in the latter group, then you should get The Gull if you have the PoE Currency.

The Gull grants you the ability to create “Lesser Shrines” on kill. These shrines provide you with the same buffs as that of normal ones, except at considerably lower effectiveness. Still, if you eliminate enemies quickly, the buffs that you get from the lesser shrines add up, making your character exceptionally stronger than before.

Another thing of note is that The Gull is one of the few unique items in the game that does not have any apparent downsides. So, if you are still in the process of leveling your character to 100, then be sure to grab this unique helmet, pronto!

Gloves

Tanu Ahi

Do you play builds that utilize attack skill gems in Path of Exile? If so, the Tanu Ahi is a great choice for the gloves slot! This thing has a nice collection of modifiers that can benefit your character, including increased attack speed, armor/evasion, and life leech.

However, the main selling point of the Tanu Ahi is its unique effect, which grants you a chance to gain Adrenaline and Onslaught for several seconds if life leech is removed by filling unreserved life.

Basically, every time you leech life off of your enemies, the effect is removed when your HP is back to 100%. When this occurs, the said gloves will grant you increased damage, attack speed, and movement speed for a short duration.

To make the effects of the Tanu Ahi proc more frequently, you might want to use Blood Rage or (something similar) that reduces your life slowly.

Asenath’s Gentle Touch

A huge portion of your time playing Path of Exile is devoted to running maps. As such, you will encounter swarms of enemies that are just too cumbersome to defeat if you are only using a skill that hits one target at a time.

With Asenath’s Gentle Touch, that problem goes away. Why? Because these gloves have a distinct effect where enemies near corpses affected by your curses explode, dealing a sliver of their life as physical damage.

You do not even have to think about cursing the enemies yourself because these gloves will apply Temporal Chains on hit.

Now, PoE has a one-curse limit, which means that you cannot apply an additional curse unless you have “Whispers of Doom” allocated on the passive tree. Since Asenath’s Gentle Touch already curses enemies with Temporal Chains, you should increase the limit somehow if you want to apply other curses besides the one just mentioned.

When you have the Asenath’s Gentle Touch equipped, clearing maps will be a cinch!

The Celestial Brace

The Celestial Brace is a pair of unique gloves that were introduced in Patch 3.24. These gloves are fantastic for melee builds, mainly because hitting monsters with strike skills, such as Lightning Strike or Frost Blades, enables you to gain Fortification stacks.

If you are wondering why that is a big deal, each Fortification stack reduces the damage you receive from hits by 1% (up to a maximum of 20%). Speaking of which, wearing The Celestial Brace raises your Maximum Fortification by up to 10 stacks (for a total of 30).

That’s not all! These gloves bolster your armor by up to 120% and you gain 1% increased attack speed per Fortification stack as well.

Seriously, these gloves are a perfect way to boost survivability, which is something that melee builds in PoE desperately need.

Hands of the High Templar

Did you know that you can “corrupt” almost any item in PoE? Corrupting an item may lead to the addition of an implicit modifier that can be of great use to your character. For instance, you can corrupt a pair of gloves for a chance to get “Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit,” which alleviates the need to cast the spell curse yourself.

Anyway, this next item we are going to talk about here is one of a kind and deserves a lot of attention. The unique item we are referring to is none other than the Hands of the High Templar.

These gloves have some of the usual modifiers you can find on other similar equipment, including increased armor/energy shield, life, and fire/lightning resistance. But, what separates it apart from the pack is its unique modifier, where you can corrupt it with Vaal Orbs up to five times!

Normally, items in Path of Exile, regardless of rarity, can only be corrupted once. This means that if you use a Vaal Orb to corrupt them, you can no longer use another Vaal Orb after that.

With Hands of the High Templar, you can actually corrupt the item several times. However, using Vaal Orbs on these gloves carries the same risks as that of any other item in the game. What we mean by this is that the Hands of the High Templar could end up becoming a rare pair of gloves if you are unlucky with the corruption.

Corrupting these gloves is quite risky, but if you manage to do it successfully, you will have something special in your hands! Imagine having five juicy implicit modifiers on a single equipment slot. That is nothing short of amazing!

Shadows and Dust

If you employ a “zoom-zoom” playstyle, where you move in and out of maps as quickly as possible, then maybe you’ll find Shadows and Dust very appealing. When you have them equipped, you will get an increase in crit chance, critical strike multiplier, and evasion/energy shield. 

However, the gloves’ main selling point is providing you with a ton of movement speed and damage via Rampage. For the uninitiated, Rampage is a mechanic in PoE that incentivizes killing enemies at a rapid pace. So long as you keep on slaying monsters in quick succession, you will enjoy a considerable boost in the aforementioned stats.

Since you can wear these gloves at level 31, getting Shadows and Dust that early is possible by sniping one from the trade website.

Boots

Atziri’s Step

When it comes to boots, you want to grab a pair that grants an increase in movement speed. Atziri’s Step does not have any unique effects like the other items on this list, but what it does have are modifiers that can improve your quality of life, such as increased movement speed, evasion rating, and maximum life.

Once you have completed the game’s main campaign and are ready to embark on your mapping journey, you should think about improving your defenses in any way that you can. Spell suppression is a huge defensive layer because most enemies in the endgame commonly use spells more often than attacks.

Atziri’s Step gives you up to 26% chance to suppress spell damage, which is considerably higher than any evasion-based boots in the game.

Ralakesh’s Impatience

Ralakesh’s Impatience is one of the popular boots in Path of Exile right now. That is because of its main effect, where you count as having the maximum number of Endurance/Frenzy/Power Charges, in addition to boosting your cold resistance and chaos resistance by up to 25%.

Now, why is that particular unique effect awesome? Well, it is amazing because it allows you to utilize certain mechanics that would otherwise force you to lose those charges if certain conditions are met.

To illustrate, suppose that you have Olesya’s Delight equipped. This unique item converts all of your Frenzy Charges into Affliction Charges for a significant boost to damage with ailments like Poison or Bleed. Obviously, that is a bit of a tradeoff considering that each Frenzy Charge increases your damage, attack speed, and cast speed by 4% per charge.

Luckily, Ralakesh’s Impatience allows you to circumvent that, so you can still enjoy the bonuses granted by Frenzy Charges despite having Affliction Charges at the same time.

Another reason why Ralakesh’s Impatience is so invaluable is that it negates the downsides of items that make you lose all of your charges when certain conditions are met, such as Malachai’s Loop and Daresso’s Defiance.

Although GGG has nerfed Ralakesh’s Impatience in Patch 3.24 by removing the movement speed modifier, these boots are still very useful unless the company decides to nerf them once more.

The Stampede

Are you struggling to choose which notable passive skill you want to anoint on your amulet? If so, you should consider getting The Stampede! But wait, isn’t this unique item a pair of unique boots? You are absolutely correct! The thing is, these boots allow you to anoint another notable passive skill that you want, similar to what you would do on an amulet.

Let’s say that you plan on increasing your mana reservation efficiency because you need to fit in another permanent aura. You could anoint Charisma on your amulet and put Sovereignty on The Stampede and you should be good to go!

If that still does not satisfy you, these unique boots set your movement speed at 150% of its base value. Things that would normally hinder you will not take effect, which means that you still travel as fast as having a 50% movement speed boost.

March of the Legion

Are you set on creating a new character in PoE that uses Smite as the main skill? Then you need to get acquainted with March of the Legion! These boots are commonly used by armor-stacking builds like the Smite Juggernaut.

The reason why the said boots are popular is that they raise the level of aura gems you socket into them by up to five points. This results in much higher bonuses granted by the aura.

Path of Exile players who use March of the Legion usually put Grace into the boots. The incredibly high evasion provided by the said aura will then be converted to armor with the Iron Reflexes keystone passive allocated.

March of the Legion grants you the effect of a level 25 Divine Blessing Support as well. This turns a permanent aura into a temporary one that you can activate on a whim, with a 34% increased effect.

Replica Alberon’s Warpath

One of the things that make Path of Exile such an awesome game is that it provides you with so many avenues for experimentation. Strength-stackers, or builds that increase STR exorbitantly high for maximum effect, were created as a result of this.

Replica Alberon’s Warpath is a unique item that is worn by many STR-stacking builds in the game. This is mainly due to the fact that the boots grant you added chaos damage per 80 STR. 

On top of that, these boots make it so that you do not deal any damage type other than chaos damage, thus giving you full confidence to run maps that have mods that reflect physical damage and elemental damage.

It is also worth noting that the Replica Alberon’s Warpath is one of the few unique items in the game that grant a percentage increase in STR (up to 18%, to be exact).

Because of the effects provided by the boots, expect that the Replica Alberon’s Warpath is not cheap to obtain. That is why you have to save enough PoE Currency before you can make the purchase.

Belts

Perseverance

Are you playing a melee build in Path of Exile and you feel that your character could use a damage boost? If so, Perseverance can help you with that. This unique belt increases your attack damage by 1% per 200 points of armor and evasion, whichever is the lowest between the two.

To maximize this belt’s unique effect, use things that can boost your armor and evasion, such as a Granite Flask and Jade Flask, respectively. Wearing equipment with hybrid armor/evasion can also aid you in that regard.

Perseverance has an added benefit where melee skills that have a high chance to stun enemies, such as Boneshatter or Ground Slam, can grant you Fortification. If you are “Fortified,” you can enjoy the increased attack speed, cast speed, and movement speed provided by the Onslaught buff as well.

Darkness Enthroned

Abyss Jewels give a ton of value to almost any build in Path of Exile. Each jewel can roll a wide variety of mods, including added elemental/chaos damage, attributes, and increased damage, just to name a few.

That said, if you plan on incorporating some abyss jewels into your build, you should think about getting Darkness Enthroned. This unique item can increase the effect of socketed abyss jewels by up to 100%. Moreover, you can insert one more abyss jewel, so make sure to put your best ones into the belt for maximum benefit.

Darkness Enthroned can be acquired by defeating Amanamu or Ulaman at the Abyssal Depths. Alternatively, you can purchase this unique belt from the trade website. If you are going for the latter, spend enough PoE Currency to obtain a Darkness Enthroned belt that has a 100% (or close to 100%) increased effect.

Immortal Flesh

There are certain skill gems in the game that have a self-damaging mechanic. Righteous Fire is a perfect example of this. When you have the said skill activated, it will gradually deplete your HP and you need to have enough life regeneration in order to survive. Thankfully, GGG created some unique items that can address these negative mechanics – one of which is the Immortal Flesh.

The Immortal Flesh is absolutely amazing when it comes to modifiers that have something to do with HP. This belt increases your maximum life by up to 100 HP and regenerates that at a maximum rate of 350 HP per second.

Sure, this belt reduces your elemental resistances, but you can easily rectify that by using certain flasks, jewels, skills, and pieces of gear. If you have Purity of Elements activated, the Immortal Flesh boosts your armor by 40% simply because you are immune to elemental ailments, such as Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite.

When you equip the Immortal Flesh, do not forget to use 20 Fertile Catalysts on it beforehand to enhance the life modifiers on the belt.

Ryslatha’s Coil

Ryslatha’s Coil, you could say, is the definition of an item that is cheap yet effective. This unique item is known for increasing your physical damage immensely at an inexpensive price. The “more maximum” and “less minimum” physical attack damage modifiers actually affect both direct hits and damage over time effects (like Bleed and Corrupted Blood).

You may have seen this belt’s unique modifiers before, and that is because they are quite similar to Volatility Support. In fact, you can use the said support gem in conjunction with Ryslatha’s Coil without a problem!

If you are playing a build that deals physical damage during league start, you could grab a Studded Belt of normal rarity and use Orbs of Chance to possibly turn it into a Ryslatha’s Coil.

The Tides of Time

The Pathfinder is one of the many ascendancy classes in Path of Exile. She specializes in dealing so much pain with chaos damage, but is also known for improving the effects and duration of flasks.

Having said that, many Pathfinders use The Tides of Time – a unique belt that allows the user to gain flask charges every few seconds. This belt, in the hands (or shall we say waist) of the Pathfinder, grants near-permanent uptime of flasks.

That’s not all! This unique item increases the life and mana recovery of Life Flasks and Mana Flasks by 100%, respectively. Moreover, flasks that are used while the belt is equipped have a 25% increased effect.

It is no wonder that the Tides of Time is considered by the community as one of the best unique items in Path of Exile to date.

Headhunter

The Headhunter is one of the Tier 0 unique items in Path of Exile. It belongs to this exclusive group due to its very low drop rate. GGG planned it that way because this belt gives a ton of value to those who use it.

So, what makes this belt so special, and why is it one of the most highly sought-after uniques in the game? Well, every time you kill a rare monster with this thing equipped, you gain all of its explicit modifiers for one whole minute.

The Headhunter’s unique effect can snowball, which means that if your build can kill enemies quickly, then all it takes is to kill one rare monster and you should be off to the races!

While the Headhunter can be beneficial for most builds in PoE, it is not accessible to the general public, particularly due to its high price on the market. However, if you are willing to make an investment, then you can never go wrong with the HH!

Mageblood

If you ask us what the most in-demand unique item is in Path of Exile right now, it is, of course, none other than the Mageblood. Even though this belt costs upwards of 150 Divine Orbs, most people would diligently farm currency just to obtain one. So, what is the reason why so many PoE players do not hesitate to pull the trigger when it comes to purchasing this unique item?

Before we answer that, it would be prudent for us to explain to you the importance of utility flasks in the game. Utility flasks are a subtype of flasks that grant buffs that last for a brief period of time. Examples of such flasks include the Jade Flask (evasion), Granite Flask (armor), and Quicksilver Flask (movement speed), among many others.

With that said, the Mageblood is special because it grants you the effects of four Magic Utility Flasks at all times. The buffs provided by these flasks will only disappear if you unequip the belt.

Because the buffs last indefinitely with the Mageblood equipped, people would often roll their flasks with certain types of PoE Currency until they get a total of 95% increased effect (25% from Abecedarian/Alchemist/Dabbler prefix and 70% from Enkindling Orbs).

When you have a Granite Flask with a 95% increased flask effect, for example, it boosts your armor by 2,925 points. Take note that this is “added armor” and not a percentage increase. This means that any “% Increased Armour” mods on your gear can certainly amplify that number exponentially.

The Mageblood is a Tier 0 unique in Path of Exile for a reason. It is so rare that, oftentimes, people would resort to collecting Divination Cards like The Apothecary just to get their hands on it.

Be that as it may, this unique item is definitely a must-have!

Weapons

Mjölner

Archmage Support is one of the most popular gems in PoE right now. It rose to prominence after GGG made substantial changes to it. To give you some context, Archmage Support provides you with added lightning damage.

Back then, that damage bonus was only granted to you after spending copious amounts of mana. But now, the added lightning damage provided by Archmage Support can be yours just by stacking the said resource. The amount of lightning damage that is granted to you by this support gem is based on 19% of your unreserved maximum mana (at gem level 20).

So, how does the next unique item on this list factor into the equation? The Mjölner has a distinct effect, where socketed lightning gems are triggered when you hit enemies with a skill. The skill that is often used with Mjölner is Cyclone due to its high base attack speed.

That said, any lightning gem that you have inserted into the weapon will be triggered whenever you spin and hit enemies using Cyclone. Some of the gems that are commonly socketed into Mjölner are Ball Lightning (or its transfigured version, Ball Lightning of Orbiting), Lightning Conduit of the Heavens, and Shock Nova.

This unique item is one of the best out there today. Because of how awesome its unique effect is, it is unlikely that Mjölner will be dethroned anytime soon (unless GGG decides to nerf it in the next expansion, that is).

Widowhail

Unlike most of the unique items on this list, a quick look at the Widowhail might deter you from getting this weapon. Despite having only one mod, it is more than enough to take some builds to the top.

The Widowhail does one thing and it’s good at it. This bow effectively increases the implicit and explicit modifiers on your equipped quiver by up to 250%! While you can certainly use unique quivers, you will find much better value in a crafted quiver with mods that are fit for the endgame.

Paradoxica

Ever want to eliminate enemies in a jiffy? Of course, you do! But, how exactly can that be achieved? There are many things you can do. However, one quick way is by getting your hands on the Paradoxica.

The Paradoxica is a staple among builds that utilize a one-handed sword to great effect, such as the Splitting Steel Champion and Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Juggernaut. It is a popular sword mainly because it gives you the ability to deal double damage when you attack monsters with this weapon.

Furthermore, this unique item has two veiled modifiers that can be unlocked by talking to Jun in your hideout. Some of the most useful mods that can roll on this weapon include chaos penetration, elemental penetration, and increased chaos damage, to name a few.

As you can tell, the Paradoxica can only be acquired by interrogating the leaders of Intervention Safehouses via the Betrayal mechanic.

Void Battery

The Void Battery was made by GGG specifically for Power Charge stackers that deal spell damage like the Hexblast Mines Occultist and Penance Brand of Dissipation Assassin.

This has the Prophecy Wand as the base, so you get increased spell damage right off the bat. Its main draw, however, is that it boosts your spell damage by 25% for every Power Charge that you have. That is why if you are going to use the Void Battery, you have to increase your Maximum Power Charges as high as you can.

Quill Rain

Do you like playing builds that use Toxic Rain as the primary skill? How about totems that fire Explosive Arrows? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you’ll be interested in getting the Quill Rain as soon as possible.

The Quill Rain is absolutely incredible, so much so that it has been deemed as one of the best leveling uniques in Path of Exile. Its main selling point is that huge increase in both attack speed and projectile speed. These modifiers are beneficial for most bow builds, particularly in the early game, when you do not have access to “mirror-tier” items just yet.

While that “30% less damage” mod is too hard to ignore, the other modifiers on this bow pretty much make up for the downside.

The Annihilating Light

While there are certain things in the game that allow you to deal double damage to enemies (Paradoxica comes to mind), there is only one that enables you to deal triple damage. Yes, three times the amount of damage you normally do with a spell or an attack! This is possible by equipping The Annihilating Light.

This unique item only comes with two mods – one positive and one negative. Its downside is that it reduces your elemental resistances by up to 70%. However, the upside is that this weapon grants you the ability to deal triple damage with elemental skills or those skill gems with fire, cold, and lightning tags on them.

The positive effect of this weapon is great and all, but how can you address the negative? You could activate Purity of Elements for a huge boost to elemental resistance and couple that with elemental flasks, including the Ruby Flask (fire resistance), Sapphire Flask (cold resistance), and Topaz Flask (lighting resistance). In addition, roll fire, cold, and lightning resistance on your gear wherever possible.

Once you have your resistances sorted out, The Annihilating Light is a fantastic weapon that gives you the capability of downing even the most formidable monsters in the game!

Shields

Dawnbreaker

Transcendence is a very powerful keystone passive that basically changes the way armor works. Instead of mitigating physical damage, armor (with Transcendence allocated) reduces the elemental damage you receive. If you want to have Transcendence on, you have to make sure that any physical damage you take from enemies is converted to elemental damage. Well, the good thing is that the Dawnbreaker can aid you in that regard.

This shield converts up to 20% physical damage so that you take it as fire damage. The Dawnbreaker also does the same thing for cold and lightning damage, therefore bolstering your defenses against multiple damage types.

The damage conversion mechanics of the Dawnbreaker certainly make it one of the best shields in the game in terms of improving your survivability, but there is one downside here that you need to know about: Your chance to block the enemy’s attacks is reduced by 1% for every 200 damage taken from hits recently.

Not to worry! If you have other damage mitigation measures, such as Fortification, reduced fire damage taken from hits, and increased max fire resistance, you can mitigate the negative effect considerably.

Redblade Banner

Path of Exile has an abundance of warcry skills that you can utilize to your advantage. The Battlemage’s Cry is mandatory for STR-stacking builds that have the “Iron Will” keystone passive allocated.

Basically, with Battlemage’s Cry, any increases in spell damage will also affect attack damage, up to a maximum of 150% of their value. This percentage is contingent upon how many enemies are nearby when you use the said warcry skill.

So, how does this next unique item work in this case? Well, the Redblade Banner makes it so that your warcries always have infinite power. In other words, using your warcry skills grants their maximum effect regardless of whether any enemy is present at the time of activation or not.

In Patch 3.24, there is a new support gem called “Call to Arms” that automatically activates the warcry skill it is linked to. This has a penalty, though, in that warcry skills have a slightly longer cooldown. Thankfully, the Redblade Banner resolves that by increasing warcry cooldown recovery rate by 50%.

If you play any build that uses warcry skills as part of its rotation, then the Redblade Banner is definitely a must-have!

The Squire

Your main skill gem is often placed inside the body armor because it is that one piece of gear that will always have six sockets. You could use a two-handed weapon to add another six-socket gem configuration, but that is not possible for builds that use one-handed weapons.

If you are forced to use a one-handed sword, for example, but you still want to have the power similar to using a two-handed weapon, then The Squire will solve that problem for you.

This unique item always comes with three white sockets, so socket colors are not going to be an issue at all. More importantly, any gem you have socketed in here will support the ones from your main hand.

The Squire is a fantastic shield that you want to spend PoE Currency on, especially if you are fond of playing builds that use a specific one-handed weapon.

Rathpith Globe

As they say, there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world. The same goes for Path of Exile. What are we referring to? The Rathpith Globe exemplifies that perfectly.

You see, this shield grants a 5% increased spell damage and critical strike chance for every 100 points of HP your character has. All this power comes at a price, though, because every time you use a spell (either self-cast or triggered), you sacrifice 10% of your life in the process.

When you look at builds that use the Rathpith Globe, you will find that most of them pair it with the Dissolution of the Flesh. Why is that, you ask? Because Dissolution of the Flesh essentially negates the downside of this unique shield.

So, if you want to gain more spell power, the Rathpith Globe can help you with that.

Mahuxotl’s Machination

Did you know that there is a shield in the game that grants you the effects of six different keystones? That’s right, there is! The name of the shield is Mahuxotl’s Machination.

This unique shield grants you the effects of Corrupted Soul, Divine Flesh, Eternal Youth, Immortal Ambition, and Vaal Pact. It is also the only item in the game, at least at the time of writing, that lets you get a hold of the Everlasting Sacrifice keystone passive, which enables you to gain +5% to all maximum resistances for several seconds when you reach full energy shield.

Path of Exile players who use Mahuxotl’s Machination typically want it for the Divine Flesh keystone. Together with a Lethal Pride (Rakiata) that lets you allocate Tempered by War, you can heavily improve your chances of survival thanks to the said combo.

So, if you want a character that is almost impossible to defeat, you may want to snipe for a Mahuxotl’s Machination on the trade website for a good deal today!

Quivers

Ahuana’s Bite

Introduced in the Ancestor’s League, Ahuana’s Bite is a unique quiver that is perfect for bow builds that deal cold damage. The Ice Shot of Penetration comes to mind, but you could also look at the ever-popular Tornado Shot Deadeye with 100% physical-to-cold-damage conversion.

Anyway, Ahuana’s Bite is a very useful leveling unique because it not only grants you added cold damage, but ensures that you deal more damage against chilled enemies as well. Dealing cold damage naturally gives you the power to inflict Chill and Freeze upon your foes, so this requirement is taken care of just by equipping the said quiver.

Ahuana’s Bite aids you in finishing the game’s main campaign with ease. But make no mistake, this thing can be used well into the endgame or, at least, until you get your hands on a much better self-crafted quiver.

Hyrri’s Bite

Ahuana’s Bite is an awesome unique item that benefits most bow builds in Path of Exile. However, you cannot equip it until you are at least level 56. You have probably just started a new Ranger character too, making the said quiver out of your reach. Is there something that you can equip for the time being? Of course, there is!

If you are looking for a good quiver that can carry you to Act 9 or Act 10, then set your eyes on Hyrri’s Bite. This unique item grants you a considerable amount STR, DEX, and INT, which should help you with the attribute requirements on your gear and gems early on.

In addition, this quiver increases your attack speed, allows you to gain life per enemy hit, and widens the area of effect of skills like Toxic Rain or Rain of Arrows.

To give you a comfortable time leveling up your character, invest in a Hyrri’s Bite for sure!

Amulets

Astramentis

This game is filled with a lot of mechanics that you can utilize to your advantage. Attribute-stacking builds, or those that use items to stack one particular attribute as high as possible, are pretty expensive to put up. You can spend upwards of 200 Divine Orbs or more on average and that is still subject to market prices. If one attribute-stacking build gets popular, you can expect the prices of items that provide a ton of attributes to skyrocket as well.

If you are thinking about playing an attribute-stacking build in PoE and you do not have the currency for it, do not fret. The Astramentis can help you realize that dream and the good thing is that it does not cost you an arm and a leg.

The Astramentis is simple in what it provides. By wearing the amulet, you gain up to 100 points for all attributes, including STR, DEX, and INT. The four-point physical damage reduction from attack hits is just an added benefit.

So, if you want to boost your attributes in an expensive way, the Astramentis is a great choice!

Ashes of the Stars

At some point, Ashes of the Stars was the most used amulet in the game before it was nerfed by GGG in Patch 3.23. It used to give you a 20% increased reservation efficiency of skills, along with “+1 to Level of All Skill Gems” and “+(20-30)% to Quality of All Skill Gems.”

Despite the nerf, however, Ashes of the Stars is still a pretty popular amulet in PoE. This is commonly used in builds with skills that get better at higher gem quality, such as Boneshatter of Complex Trauma Slayer, Kinetic Blast Deadeye, and Spark Inquisitor, among many others.

Spell skill gems can also greatly benefit from the Ashes of the Stars. That is because they get a considerable damage increase for every gem level beyond 21, which the said unique amulet can do thanks to that “+1 to Level of All Skill Gems” modifier.

Atziri’s Foible

Do you want to get the most out of Archmage Support? Choose the Hierophant as the ascendancy class and then equip Atziri’s Foible. By doing so, you will have established a solid foundation for a build that has a ton of mana. 

In case you do not know, Archmage Support grants added lightning damage to the spells it is linked to. The amount of damage provided by this support gem depends on a percentage of your unreserved maximum mana (meaning, your total mana before any auras or skills are activated).

Having said that, Atziri’s Foible is just an incredible addition to any mana-stacking build in PoE. This amulet has got it all! It increases your maximum mana significantly (thanks to a flat amount plus a percentage increase). Besides that, it heavily improves your mana regeneration rate, so your mana gets topped up pretty quickly after using a spell.

The Atziri’s Foible also reduces the attribute requirements of your items and gems by 25%. This makes gearing your character a lot easier. Seriously, this amulet is just awesome! What more can you ask for?

Crystallised Omniscience

Do you play builds that deal elemental damage? If so, this next amulet is quite possibly the upgrade that you need for your character. This amulet is called the Crystallised Omniscience.

The Tornado Shot Deadeye and the Wardloop Ice Spear Ascendant make Crystallised Omniscience a crucial part of their makeup, especially if the endgame version of these builds is concerned.

So, what makes this a popular amulet in PoE to this day? Well, equipping this amulet will turn your core attributes (STR, DEX, INT) into a pseudo-attribute known as Omniscience. That said, the more Omniscience you have, the higher your elemental penetration value will be (as well as your character’s elemental resistances).

Elemental penetration can greatly increase your damage output against monsters with high resistance to elemental damage. That is why you want to focus on getting pieces of gear that have T1 attribute rolls to take full advantage of this amulet’s modifiers.

Here’s a pro tip: When looking for mods on your gear, always go for modifiers that provide a specific attribute and not those that increase all. For example, “+ to Intelligence” and “+ to Strength,” not “% Increased Attributes.” Why is this important? Because “% Increased Attributes” only applies once, whereas flat increases to STR, DEX, and INT are considered individually and, therefore, provide you with more Omniscience.

Hyrri’s Truth

Precision is one of the most useful auras in Path of Exile. Activating it gives you a huge chunk of accuracy, making it easier for you to get a 100% hit chance. Hyrri’s Truth provides insane value at an affordable price.

What this amulet does is it grants you the effect of a level 30 Precision aura, which translates to 1,087 points of accuracy and 78% increased critical strike chance. Now, you would think that activating Precision here requires a huge mana pool, but the thing is, Hyrri’s Truth increases Precision’s mana reservation efficiency by 100%.

Thanks to that, Precision only needs 128 mana to use. It can be reduced even further if you have other reservation efficiency mods on your gear and passive tree.

If you are playing a bow build, consider getting Hyrri’s Truth for sure! This amulet has a culling effect, which instantly eliminates enemies that are below 10% of their HP when you hit them with a bow skill.

Replica Dragonfang’s Flight

Remember what we said earlier about Ashes of the Stars being one of the most popular amulets in Path of Exile? Ever since that thing got nerfed, many people looked for viable alternatives, especially items that provide increased reservation efficiency. Fortunately, there is one such amulet; one that has ousted Ashes of the Stars from its throne.

The amulet in question is Replica Dragonfang’s Flight. Despite the “Replica” word on its name, it is not a replica item at all. Anyway, there are a couple of things that make this amulet great. 

For one, Replica Dragonfang’s Flight increases the level of specific gems by three. If you plan on using this amulet, make sure to acquire one that affects your main skill gem. Suppose that you are playing the Exsanguinate Mines Trickster, the version you have to purchase should have the mod: “+3 to Levels of All Exsanguinate Gems” to make it count.

Additionally, this unique item grants a 10% increase in reservation efficiency, assuming that you get one that has a perfect roll.

Because Replica Dragonfang’s Flight is in high demand right now, you must save up a considerable amount of PoE Currency to obtain it.

Badge of the Brotherhood

Take a quick look at the Badge of the Brotherhood and you will find an assortment of mods that are superfluous at best. However, the only modifier that you really need to concern yourself with is the last one, which states: “Your Maximum Frenzy Charges is Equal to Your Maximum Power Charges.”

For those who do not know how that works, you just focus on raising your Maximum Power Charges as high as you can and the Frenzy Charges will follow suit. So, if you have a total of eight Power Charges, you will have eight Frenzy Charges as well.

Now, there is another interaction that you need to know about. If you are playing a build that uses the Slayer, one of the ascendancy classes available to the Duelist, you can take the Masterful Form node and take advantage of the amulet’s unique effect. Why? Because by doing so, you also gain Endurance Charges equal to your Maximum Frenzy Charges when you have the Badge of the Brotherhood equipped!

Defiance of Destiny

Capping your elemental resistance to 75% is a crucial thing that you must do in order to survive later on in the game. The amulet slot is a great way to resolve any elemental resistance issues you may have. But, if you need more juicy modifiers, then maybe the Defiance of Destiny is the one you are looking for.

The Defiance of Destiny has been used by many Path of Exile players because of its unique effect, where you gain up to 35% of your missing unreserved life before being hit by the enemy. Sounds complicated, right? Do not worry, we will explain it in the simplest way we can.

That effect essentially means that if you have been hit previously and some of your HP has been lost as a result, the Defiance of Destiny will restore a significant portion of your missing life before you receive damage from another attack.

This single unique item helps you survive, especially if you are on the brink of death.

Eternal Damnation

Have you capped your elemental resistance to 75% and you still find yourself struggling to survive? If that is the case, the Eternal Damnation is an amulet that bolsters your defenses against fire, cold, and lightning damage.

When you wear this amulet, you gain additional elemental damage reduction that is equal to half of your maximum chaos resistance. For example, if your maximum chaos resistance is 80%, you will get a 40% damage reduction against the elements.

If you are wondering how you can get your hands on this thing, the Eternal Damnation can be acquired by defeating Lycia, Herald of the Scourge, which is the final boss of the Forbidden Sanctum. Make sure that you have “The Power and the Promise” Tome Relic inserted at the Relic Altar before you start the run.

Rings

Praxis

Sustaining enough mana while you are still in the process of leveling your character is hard, especially if you do not have access to passive skills that help reduce the mana cost of skills like Righteous Decree (and the small nodes that connect to it).

Thankfully, the folks over at Grinding Gear Games have developed a unique item that solves most of your mana issues early on. That is in the form of a ring that is known as the Praxis.

The Praxis contains a bevy of mana modifiers that can help ease your leveling journey significantly, such as + to Maximum Mana, Regenerate # Mana per Second, -(8-4) to Total Mana Cost of Skills, and 8% of Damage Taken Recouped as Mana.

Since this ring has a relatively high drop rate, you can find it on the trade website even on the first day of a new league. Just be diligent enough to search for a great deal.

The Taming

Bows with triple elements, two-handed weapons with added cold, fire, and lightning damage, and other weapons that can deal elemental damage, in general, can find great benefit in The Taming.

The Taming is a unique item that heavily increases elemental damage. You get a 30% boost upfront and an additional 20% for every elemental ailment that is present on the target, particularly Freeze, Shock, and Ignite.

This ring can roll up to 30% of all elemental resistances as well, which eases gearing immeasurably.

To obtain this ring, you have to take advantage of the vendor recipe, where you sell one of each “Berek” ring, including Berek’s Grip, Berek’s Pass, and Berek’s Respite to any vendor in the game.

Death Rush

Do you want to gain a lot of power at level 30? If you can get your hands on the Death Rush that early, then that wouldn’t be a problem at all!

The Death Rush only has two modifiers, but they are more than enough to get you going. First up, this ring lets you recover up to 5% of your life on kill.

However, the real reason why this ring is magnificent is that it grants you the Adrenaline buff that lasts for a few seconds. This buff is amazing because it boosts your damage by 100%, increases your attack/cast/movement speed by 25%, and provides you with 10% additional physical damage reduction. All of these can be yours if you can acquire this ring, stat!

The ring is aptly named because Death Rush incentivizes you to move quickly to keep Adrenaline up for a longer period of time.

Ventor’s Gamble

A common fixture among Magic Find builds in Path of Exile, the Ventor’s Gamble has some very useful mods if you can manage to get one with a good roll.

You see, this ring is capable of giving you huge amounts of life, elemental resistances, item quantity, and item rarity. The catch? They can roll negatively as well!

If you are unlucky, you could get a Ventor’s Gamble that has all good rolls, except for a couple of resistances that are at -25%. This also goes for the ring’s IIQ (aka Increased Item Quantity) and IIR (or Increased Item Rarity) modifiers.

The Ventor’s Gamble is not only for Magic Find characters, though. That is because builds that utilize Doryani’s Prototype, which has a distinct effect that makes the enemy’s lightning resistance similar to your own, can hugely benefit from the minus (-) lightning resistance roll on the ring.

Be prepared to gamble (pun intended) because a well-rolled Ventor’s Gamble is not cheap. But if you ask us, it is definitely a worthy investment!

Nimis

Projectile-based skill gems will never go out of style, especially when these projectiles return to you. This behavior is only achievable by doing two things. The first is by linking the Returning Projectiles Support with your main skill gem. The problem with this is that the projectiles that do come back to you have a huge damage penalty, and we are going to assume that you do not want this.

The second approach is to simply equip the Nimis. This unique ring is similar to the support gem mentioned above, albeit without the downside. The only thing that may be a slight problem here is that the projectiles you have fired will go in random directions. For the most part, that is a non-issue.

Some projectile-based builds that utilize the Nimis to a great extent are the Splitting Steel Champion, Lightning Arrow Deadeye, and Molten Strike Ascendant.

This unique item can only drop by defeating the Uber Eater of Worlds. As you can see, this is not an easy feat to accomplish. In most instances, you will have to fork a ton of PoE Currency to get one.

Be that as it may, the usual high price of the Nimis is warranted, especially with how popular and powerful projectile-based builds are in Path of Exile.

Anathema

If you have played PoE for a while, you know that this game only lets you apply a single curse on the enemy by default. You can increase that to two if you take “Whispers of Doom” on the passive tree. But, even with that, there are still a lot of curse spells in the game that are left on the table. If only there is a way for you to go beyond that limit. Oh wait, there is! You can actually go beyond the two-curse limit by equipping a unique ring called the Anathema.

The Anathema has an incredibly beneficial effect that makes it so that your curse limit is equal to your Maximum Power Charges. This is the reason why you often see this ring being used by Power Charge stackers and builds that go for the Hierophant as their ascendancy class of choice.

Why the Hierophant? Because this Templar ascendancy class has a notable passive skill called “Conviction of Power” that increases the Hierophant’s Power Charges to four.

If you find Path of Exile’s default curse limit to be far too limiting, the Anathema is a great solution for that.

Original Sin

There are plenty of sources of elemental damage in the game. You have flat elemental damage that gives you a specific amount of fire, cold, and lightning damage. Then, there are mods that provide a percentage elemental damage boost as well.

While weapons that have three flat elemental damage mods have become commonplace, they can only dish out so much pain. If you want to take things a step further, then you might want to invest in a unique ring, the Original Sin!

This unique item, when equipped, converts all of your elemental damage to chaos damage. This includes elemental damage from all sources, including flat (or added) damage and percentage increases.

That is not all! Monsters that are within a six-meter radius from you have their chaos resistance set to zero. This effect allows you to make quick work of the enemy. The Original Sin gives you more than enough power to defeat even the toughest pinnacle bosses in Path of Exile, even their “Uber” variants!

The ring is good and all, but how exactly can you obtain it? Well, if you are going to acquire this yourself, then you have to complete a full Forbidden Sanctum run without getting hit. If you want to have a go at it, insert “The Original Scripture” at the Relic Altar located at the entrance of the sanctum.

Of course, you do have the option of purchasing it from somebody on the trade website, but be prepared to spend an exorbitant amount of currency. 

Kalandra’s Touch

Do you have an awesome synthesized ring and you wish that you have a perfect copy of it? Well, in that case, you can equip the Kalandra’s Touch on the other ring slot specifically for that purpose!

The Kalandra’s Touch does not have any modifiers of its own. Instead, it copies the stats and mods of the ring that you have inserted on the other slot. This includes explicit modifiers, implicit modifiers, and synthesized mods, if any.

As you can see, this unique item is invaluable no matter which build you play in PoE. For this reason, it is no wonder that GGG made this a Tier 0 unique, meaning, it is very rare. So rare, in fact, that you are less likely to get one anytime soon unless you buy it on the trade website.

Flasks

Dying Sun

The Dying Sun is a unique flask that makes projectile-based builds powerful on a budget. This is due to the two additional projectiles that you can fire when the flask is active.

Toxic Rain and other skill gems that deal damage in an area can also find great benefit in the Dying Sun. This is because this unique item increases the area of effect of skills for the duration of its flask effect.

Even though this unique flask can only be obtained by eliminating The Shaper, it is a common drop, so its price on the market is very affordable. If you find this thing on the trade website a few days after a new league has started, the Dying Sun may be a bit expensive at this time. However, its price drops significantly after that, so be patient and scout for a good deal.

Taste of Hate

This next flask has mods that improve your offense and defense while it is active. The Taste of Hate is one of the most popular unique flasks in PoE, mainly for its defensive mod: “(10-15)% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Cold Damage.”

Another benefit to using this flask is that it grants you up to 15% extra cold damage. This is applied on top of the damage that you already deal with your main skill, making it a nice addition to your build.

It is important to keep in mind that the Taste of Hate’s defensive mod only works for physical damage from hits. This means that it will not convert the damage you have taken from ailments that deal physical damage over time, such as Bleeds and Corrupted Blood.

Bottled Faith

The Bottled Faith has been one of the most popular unique flasks in the game for so many leagues now and for good reason. Whenever it is used, it creates a Consecrated Ground that lasts for a set duration.

Normally, Consecrated Ground only provides you with life regeneration (based on 5% of your maximum life) and 50% curse effect reduction while you remain in its area of effect. 

However, with Bottled Faith, the Consecrated Ground it creates actually gives another benefit in that monsters who step on it take increased damage from all sources.

Additionally, you have up to 150% increased critical strike chance against enemies that are on the Consecrated Ground.

This unique flask is a bit expensive, but it is one of those things that are worth the investment for sure!

Oriath’s End

The best builds in Path of Exile are those that allow you to go in and out of maps in less than two minutes. Obviously, you need “mirror-tier” items to achieve this, but what if you do not have that amount of PoE Currency to make that happen? Well, if you do have some currency to spare, you might want to invest in Oriath's End.

This unique flask gives you the power to make enemies explode on kill, dealing a tenth of their maximum life as damage of a random element. The last bit refers to fire, cold, and lightning damage.

Oriath’s End can greatly improve your map-clearing speed. You may not have the power to finish maps in less than two minutes, but this unique flask should still give your character enough oomph to dispose of enemies quickly.

Progenesis

Petrified Blood is a useful buff that heavily improves your survivability. When you take damage from enemy hits while it is active, a considerable portion of that is taken as damage over a period of four seconds. This should give you more than enough time to use a Life Flask or recover via life leech.

While Petrified Blood is indeed useful, particularly in the endgame where enemies hit hard, it requires you to save one gem socket in order to fit it in. If your build is already starved for gem sockets, this is a huge problem.

Fortunately, you can have a watered-down version of Petrified Blood in the form of Progenesis. This is a unique flask that works similarly to the said buff, albeit it only takes 25% of life loss (instead of 40%) and spreads that over several seconds.

If you are unable to fit Petrified Blood into your build, the Progenesis is a viable alternative.

Jewels

Watcher’s Eye

If there is one unique item to rule them all, it would be the Watcher’s Eye. This unique jewel is used in almost all of the builds in the game due to the fact that it can roll incredible modifiers that you cannot find anywhere else.

The bonuses provided by the Watcher’s Eye can only be yours if you activate specific auras. For instance, the mod, “% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Cold Damage,” is only enabled if you have Purity of Elements activated.

Having said that, purchase a Watcher’s Eye with modifiers that can benefit your build. Make sure to activate the specific auras mentioned on the jewel you are going to buy as well.

The Watcher’s Eye comes in two flavors: one with only two unique mods, and the other that comes with three. The former can be obtained by defeating the Elder (with The Shaper left alive), while the latter is acquired by eliminating the Uber version of this boss.

Timeless Jewels

The next entry on this list is actually a collection of five different unique jewels known as the “Timeless Jewels.” These are:

• Lethal Pride

• Brutal Restraint

• Militant Faith

• Glorious Vanity

• Elegant Hubris

These unique jewels give you a lot of different bonuses depending on which one you use. For example, the Lethal Pride adds bonus STR to each node within its radius. More importantly, notable passive skills are also granted extra bonuses, such as the chance to deal double damage, increased strength, and increased warcry buff effect, among many others.

In addition, any keystone passive that is within the Timeless Jewels’ radius is transformed into specific keystones. A popular example of this is Glorious Vanity which has the line: “Bathed in the Blood of # Sacrificed in the Name of Xibaqua.”

Placing that specific unique jewel into a socket that has a keystone passive nearby transforms that keystone into Divine Flesh. The Divine Flesh, when allocated, makes it so that half of the elemental damage you take is converted to chaos damage. This keystone passive perfectly synergizes with The Fourth Vow unique armor mentioned much earlier in this article, which is why this specific Glorious Vanity jewel is popular in Path of Exile today.

Stormshroud

There are three elemental ailments in PoE that are a pain to deal with. Freeze is arguably the most annoying, while Shock and Ignite are up there as well. Unless you have Purity of Elements active, you must find a way to make yourself immune to these ailments. The good news is that there is a simple solution; one that is pretty easy to adopt no matter what build you play.

The Stormshroud is your answer to fully immunize yourself against Freeze, Shock, and Ignite. You just have to satisfy its specific requirement, where you have to put “% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” modifiers on some of your gear. The things that can roll that specific modifier include the boots, belt, and flasks (via flask mod).

Once you have achieved 100% Shock avoidance, then your immunity to the other elemental ailments is also sorted out thanks to Stormshroud!

Inspired Learning

There is no doubt that the Headhunter is an amazing unique item. That is the only thing in PoE right now that allows you to gain all of the modifiers of a rare monster simply by killing it.

Because of how awesome the unique belt is, you can expect it to cost a ton of PoE Currency to buy. In some cases, it is out of reach for a sizable portion of the community, particularly for those who do not have time to farm enough.

Thankfully, GGG provides you with a glimpse of what the Headhunter can do by socketing the Inspired Learning unique jewel on the passive tree. When that is done, every time a rare monster is killed, you will gain one of its modifiers for 20 seconds. 

Although you only get a single random modifier from the enemy (and one that lasts for a shorter duration), it is still an acceptable alternative until you have the currency to purchase the Headhunter.

It is worth noting that you have to allocate four notable passive skills within Inspired Learning’s radius. Otherwise, its unique effect will not work.

Melding of the Flesh

This Eater of Worlds-exclusive definitely deserves a spot on our list of the best unique items in Path of Exile. The Melding of the Flesh is one of the most useful jewels in the game, mainly because it raises your maximum elemental resistances in an easy way.

So, how does Melding of the Flesh work? Well, this unique item makes your elemental resistances equivalent to your highest maximum elemental resistance. If this sounds confusing, let us explain.

Let’s say that your maximum fire resistance is 90% and your lightning and cold resistance is at 75%. With Melding of the Flesh, both your lightning and cold resistances will be equal to your fire resistance as well.

That is indeed quite beneficial. However, powerful effects always come with considerable downsides. In this case, your elemental resistances are reduced by up to 80%, and your maximum elemental resistances are also decreased by up to 6%.

Luckily, they can be addressed by focusing on elemental resistance modifiers on your gear and accessories. Flasks that grant additional resistance to the elements, including the Ruby Flask (fire), Sapphire Flask (cold), and Topaz Flask (lightning), certainly help.

Take note that your elemental resistances, other than your highest one, should be capped at 75%. Otherwise, this unique jewel will not make them on par with each other.

In summation, to fully utilize the Melding of the Flesh, you raise one of your elemental resistances as high as you can (aim for 90%). Then, you address the downsides of this unique item by putting elemental resistance modifiers wherever possible.

Thread of Hope

How’s your experience playing Path of Exile for the first time, particularly when you have opened up the passive tree’s interface? It looks quite daunting, right? Well, did you know that you only have 123 points that you can use to allocate passive skills on the tree? That is certainly quite limiting, especially if you do not follow a good build guide for optimal pathing.

If you do not mind the small nodes that connect to a notable passive skill, then you will find the Thread of Hope very useful. You see, this unique jewel allows you to take passives that are not connected to your tree, thus saving you a lot of passive skill points in the process.

When slotted on a jewel socket (anywhere on your tree except on cluster jewels), you are going to see a ring of various sizes depending on the specific Thread of Hope that you have. This ring is a significant part of this jewel because you can only allocate passive skills that are directly touched by it. This is the reason why you should obtain the specific Thread of Hope that encompasses the nodes that you want to take.

Another thing of note here is that this jewel reduces your elemental resistances by 20%. This can be a good thing if your build uses Doryani’s Prototype and you want to reduce your lightning resistance even further.

The Perandus Pact

A unique item that was introduced as part of the Necropolis League, The Perandus Pact is an incredible jewel that grants certain bonuses that can benefit your build. Do you need more chaos resistance? This jewel can help you with that. Do you need more fire damage? This jewel can give you a bump in this department too!

If you are going to use The Perandus Pact, make sure that you insert this into a jewel socket with plenty of passive skills allocated for maximum benefit.

Unnatural Instinct

In line with what we have said earlier regarding the limited number of passive skill points you can use (read: Thread of Hope), the Unnatural Instinct helps you save a lot of points by granting you the effects of unallocated small passive skills in its radius.

The best way to utilize the Unnatural Instinct is to make sure that you only allocate the small passive skill that leads up to the jewel socket where you’ll insert this unique item into.

Impossible Escape

Since we are on the topic of saving passive skill points, this next unique jewel makes some builds work even better.

Impossible Escape is a unique item that allows you to allocate passive skills in the radius of a specific keystone without being connected to the tree.

One popular version of Impossible Escape is the one where you can take passive skills within the radius of Magebane. In this area, you will find the node called “Exceptional Performance,” which increases skill effect duration by 25%.

When shopping for this jewel, always look at the keystone before making the purchase.

The Adorned

Look at the top builds in Path of Exile right now and you will most likely find them using The Adorned as part of their jewel collection.

The Adorned is a unique item that increases the effect of corrupted magic jewels by up to 150%. This effect applies to both implicit and explicit modifiers on the jewels. Furthermore, you can use abyss jewels, but only those that are socketed on your passive tree will enjoy the boost that The Adorned provides; not those socketed into your Stygian Vise or whatnot.

Aside from the fact that a perfectly rolled “The Adorned” costs boatloads of PoE Currency, another challenge you must face is to actually corrupt the Magic Jewels yourself.

You see, using a Vaal Orb to “corrupt” items in the game has a lot of risks involved. If luck is not on your side, you could end up rolling a different set of modifiers, or worse, destroy the jewel completely.

However, if you manage to get a lot of corrupted Magic Jewels with the right mods that work for your build, then the Adorned is certainly one of the best unique items in Path of Exile!

Forbidden Flame/Forbidden Flesh

Forbidden Flame

In Path of Exile, most classes in the game can only allocate four notable ascendancy passive skills. Careful planning must be exercised to make each node count. However, it would be nice to get the effect of one more notable ascendancy passive skill, no? The good news is that this is quite possible with the aid of the Forbidden Jewels set.

The Forbidden Jewels set comprises two unique jewels, namely the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh. The former can be obtained by defeating the Searingf Exarch, while the latter can drop from the Eater of Worlds.

These unique jewels allow you to allocate any notable passive skill from the ascendancy classes available to your character. For instance, if your base class is the Duelist, you can utilize the Forbidden Jewel set to take any ascendancy node from the Champion, Duelist, or Gladiator.

Forbidden Flesh

Do keep in mind that when you purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels from the trade website, they should have a matching modifier. If one has the “Heart of Destruction” notable passive, then the other must have the same modifier as well.

Split Personality

The Split Personality is a unique jewel that is widely used by “stacker builds” in PoE. This thing comes with two random modifiers, including attributes, defensive layers, and resources like HP and mana.

Now, the two modifiers get a 25% increased effect per allocated passive skill between your character’s starting point on the tree and the jewel socket where you have inserted Split Personality. This is the reason why you always put this in one of the jewel sockets found on a Large Cluster Jewel. 

Here’s a pro tip: You can use a couple of Split Personality jewels with a different set of modifiers. If you play the Armor-stacking Smite Chieftain build, for example, you could go for one Split Personality that gives +5 STR and +5 to Maximum Life, while the other can have +5 STR and +40 to Armor.

Megalomaniac

The last unique item on this list is truly one of its kind. The Megalomaniac is a Medium Cluster Jewel that can roll a wide variety of notable passive skills available to other cluster jewels as well. In other words, you could get a set of notables that come from all over the place.

Normally, a Medium Cluster Jewel can only acquire a set of notable passive skills that are within the realm of its base. So, a Medium Cluster Jewel that provides 12% increased projectile damage is only able to get modifiers that have something to do with projectiles and nothing else.

With the Megalomaniac, however, you can get notable mods from any size cluster jewels in the game. For instance, this unique jewel could roll with the Arcane Heroism node from a spell damage large cluster, Shrieking Bolts from a projectile damage medium cluster, and Uncompromising from a mana reservation efficiency Small Cluster Jewel.

If you plan to buy one anytime soon, you can use the trade website’s stat filters to search for the specific notable passive skills that you need.

Conclusion

So there you have it! We have shared the best unique items in Path of Exile that you should consider getting when you have the PoE Currency to do so.

This is a pretty comprehensive list, but we hope that the information that is laid out here can help you in your journey. Be sure to bookmark this page for future reference.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!