How to find gear upgrades in Path of Exile 2

Start with what each item is holding up

The most common mistake when upgrading is buying an item that's better on its own but worse for your character. Your current gear is doing jobs you might not notice: one ring caps your cold resistance, the amulet gives the Strength your gems need, the body armour carries Spirit for an aura. Replace it with something that's missing one of those and you've traded an upgrade for a problem.

So before you search for anything, go slot by slot and write down what each item contributes that you can't lose:

• Resistances that keep you at the 75% cap
• Attributes your gems and gear need
• Spirit for your buffs, auras and meta gems
• Life, energy shield or mana - your health pool
• Movement speed on boots

Everything else on the item is the part you're trying to improve.

Find the weakest slot

Some slots have far more room to grow than others. A weapon is usually the biggest single source of damage for an attack build; for a caster, +levels to spell skills on the weapon, amulet and focus are huge. Rings, belts and boots are where resistances and attributes tend to live, which frees your other slots for damage and defence.

A slot is weak when it's doing one job poorly. Boots with movement speed and resistances but no life, or a helmet carrying only resistances, are cheap places to gain a lot.

Measure it, don't guess

Path of Building is the reliable way to compare items: paste a candidate into the Items tab and hover it to see the change to your damage and defences. Compare like with like - check the item at the rolls you can actually afford, not perfect ones.

Make sure Path of Building's configuration matches how you play. If it thinks you always have maximum charges, a shocked enemy or a boss in front of you, every comparison inherits that assumption. Our guide to reading Path of Building's numbers covers the common traps.

Search trade the right way

Once you know what you need, search for it as a set of requirements rather than an exact item:

• Use the pseudo total resistance and total attribute filters, so any mix of rolls that keeps you capped counts
• Set minimums for the stats you're upgrading, at a level you can afford
• Leave the item base open unless the base itself matters (an armour type, or a weapon's implicit)
• Filter to instant buyout if you want to skip messaging sellers

If the search finds nothing, loosen the least important requirement first. If it finds hundreds, raise the stat you care most about until the list gets short and the prices start to climb - that's usually the best value point.

Spend where it counts

Upgrades don't scale evenly with price. The first few points of a stat are cheap; the last few are expensive. Most characters get more from three mid-priced upgrades in weak slots than from one expensive upgrade to an already good item.

Uniques deserve their own check. A build-defining unique can be worth more than any rare, but a popular unique on a build that doesn't use its special effect is usually worse than a decent rare.

Doing it faster

This process is exactly what PoE MVP automates: it reads your character from poe.ninja or a Path of Building code, works out what each item is holding up, tests the mods that can roll in every slot in Path of Building, and builds the trade searches with your resistances, attributes and Spirit kept intact. It's free - paste your character on the home page to try it.