This guide is based on public teasers and official information available prior to Path of Exile 2's release. It offers a comprehensive look at damage scaling mechanics and strategies in the game. As new details emerge, expect updates to refine and expand this guidance.

Key Categories for Scaling Damage

Damage scaling in Path of Exile 2 can be grouped into four primary areas:

Monster-Related Scaling - Increasing damage monsters take.

Player-Related Scaling - Boosting your character's raw damage.

Avoiding Failed Actions - Preventing situations where skills fail.

Increasing Damage Uptime - Maximizing time spent dealing with damage.

Monster-Related Scaling

Shock

Shock increases the damage a monster takes. Lightning damage skills can inflict Shock, making it a powerful offensive tool. The Stormwater Ascendancy enhances Shock further, allowing you to stack its effects beyond normal limits.

Curses

Curses like Despair or Flammability reduce enemy resistance, making them take more damage. These are most effective against tanky enemies or bosses.

Exposure

Exposure reduces elemental resistances, offering another way to enhance elemental damage output. Look for skills or gear that apply Exposure to maximize elemental damage.

Avoiding Failed Actions

Crowd Control (CC) Prevention

Stuns freezes, and other CC effects can interrupt actions. Equip charms to mitigate these effects and learn to anticipate dangerous enemy skills.

Skill Misses

Misses can occur when enemies evade or move out of your attack's range. Solutions include:

Increasing attack speed, cast speed, or projectile speed.

Mastering enemy movement patterns.

Investing in Area of Effect (AoE) to cover more ground.

Accuracy

Low accuracy leads to missed attacks. Balancing accuracy investment with other damage stats is crucial. Future updates will include recommended accuracy thresholds.

Increasing Damage Uptime

Maximizing time spent attacking or casting is essential for higher damage output. Strategies include:

Durability: Investing in life, resistances, or life leech can reduce the need for evasive maneuvers.

Mobility: High movement speed allows for quick dodging and returning to combat faster.

Skill Execution Speed: Faster attack speed or cast speed minimizes the downtime caused by dodging.

Player-Related Scaling

This is the most critical component of damage scaling and includes passives, skills, and gear.

Understanding Multipliers

"More Damage": A multiplicative boost that significantly increases overall damage. Effects like "200% more damage" stack multiplicatively, leading to exponential growth.

Example: Five "200% more damage" modifiers = 3^5 - 243× baseline damage.

"Increased Damage": An additive boost that stacks linearly with other similar modifiers.

Example: Five "200% increased damage" = 1000% = 11× baseline damage.

Focus on obtaining "more damage" modifiers, as they provide far greater benefits compared to "increased damage."

Sources of Damage Scaling

Weapon Base Damage: High base damage on weapons is critical for physical and elemental attack builds.

Spell Gem Base Damage: Spell damage scales with gem level, so prioritize leveling your main skill gems.

Critical Strike Modifiers: Boost critical chance and multiplier for substantial damage gains.

Damage as Extra Damage:

Example: Gain 20% of Physical Damage as Extra Lightning Damage provides a flat damage increase across multiple damage types.

Attack/Cast Speed: These act as effective "more multipliers" but also increase mana consumption.

Specialized Damage Stats

Focus on element-specific damage for simplicity and synergy (e.g., stacking cold damage for a cold build).

Flat damage mods no longer appear for spells but still exist for attack-based builds. This shift emphasizes scaling weapon damage or leveling spell gems.

Final Notes

Some skills indirectly boost damage by debuffing enemies, such as reducing armor or resistance. Combining these support skills with high-damage abilities is vital for maximizing damage output.

With these insights, you're well-equipped to start scaling your damage in PoE 2 and optimizing your character for both tough encounters and high-end content. Don't forget that POE currency and PoE items play a huge role in this journey gear and the right items can provide essential damage boosts and augment your scaling strategies. Keep an eye out for those key items to boost your build to its maximum potential!