In Path of Exile 3.20, GGG changed how rare and unique the unique jewels were, giving them weight and value when they were found. They also added several powerful jewels, while retiring most of the less used ones. With this balance pass, it changed the whole landscape for unique jewels and their accessibility. So here is a list of the best jewels and how you can get them!
10 – Unique Cluster Jewels
While perhaps not the strongest jewels nowadays, they are some of the most build-enabling or even defining unique jewels in the game, allowing you to play unique builds that were previously unheard of or even possible to exist.
It has 7 unique variations, and each do a completely different thing. The most coveted one is The Interrogation, which enables the alternative ailments (Brittle, Scorch and Sap) at the cost of losing the regular ailments (Chill, Freeze, Ignite, Shock). For many builds, that is a fair trade-off, though you still most likely want other sources of Shock, if possible.
Why the Unique Cluster Jewels are Great:
- Enables a variety of new builds
- One of the best source of Alt Ailments
- Ideal for Herald Auto-bombers
How to Get Unique Cluster Jewels:
- Delirium boss hunting. Either by doing Delirium Mirror and getting lucky, or with Delirium Orbs. Even 20%, you already have a chance of spawning either Kosis or Omniphobia, but the more orbs you add to the map, the higher the chance of them appearing. At 100%, you have 100% of at least one of them showing up, and often both do.
- Simulacrum. Similar to Delirium boss hunting, Simulacrum is one of the best sources for Cluster Jewel farming in general, and the Kosis and Omniphobia show up regularly past wave 10, and past wave 20, you’re almost guaranteed one of them in each wave.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Small_Cluster_Jewel
9 – Grand Spectrum
This set of 9 jewels is entirely unique because it increases its stats based on how many other Grand Spectrum you have socketed into your passive tree as well, up to 3. A long time ago, when you only had 3 G.S., and when they were released, you could socket as many as you wanted, granting you thousands of % increased elemental damage. We aren’t so lucky anymore.
However, GGG added 6 new ones in 3.20, during their Unique Jewel rebalancing, and some of them are borderline insane.
What makes the Grand Spectrum Great:
- Flexibility to fix issues in your build in unique ways
- Interesting mechanic to use and add up
- Enables a ton of build variety
How to Get Grand Spectrum Jewels:
- There’s only one way of getting them nowadays: through Izaro’s Treasure and Silver Key chests, in any Labyrinth difficulty. However, it’s extremely rare and hard to find, with an average 1% drop rate from the chests.
- However, getting it from the Uber Uber Lab variant Tribute to the Goddess becomes a lot easier, which opens up the Eternal Labyrinth of Fortune. In this Lab, you have about 15~18% chance to get a Grand Spectrum jewel from Silver Key chests.
Here is a convenient table with the values that Grand Spectrum give based on how many G.S. you have socketed, taken from the Wiki:
For more info, click here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Grand_Spectrum
8 – Melding of the Flesh
What was once a staple jewel in any build that used Aegis (due to simplicity) was heavily nerfed. However, it still has its niches, and with Crucible Trees on Shields, it has found renewed strength.
With the substantial drawback of having -4 to -6% Maximum Elemental Resistance and -70 to -80% Elemental Resistance, it’s a hard jewel to seamlessly socket it in. However, the benefit this Jewel brings will outweigh its drawbacks in most cases if you can make it work.
It makes it so all your Maximum Elemental Resistance is equal to your highest Maximum Elemental Resistance.
What makes Melding of the Flesh Great:
- One of the best ways of mitigating elemental damage, especially combined with Divine Flesh.
- Enables use of Doryani’s Prototype builds, by reducing your Lightning Resistance significantly.
- Allows you to avoid certain debuffs targeting only one of the Maximum Resistance.
How to get Melding of the Flesh:
- There are really only two ways. The most obvious and fairly easy way is to kill Eater of Worlds. A Lot. It has around a 4% drop rate, so you need to kill him 25 times on average.
- The only other way is if you get insanely lucky and drop a Visceral Reliquary Key, which has an even lower drop rate, less than 1% (getting an Ashes is ‘easier’) and then opening it up. It can give you a Foil Copy of any of Eater’s uniques, Melding being one.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Melding_of_the_Flesh
7 – Sublime Vision
This Jewel is one of the more unique and weird jewels introduced in 3.18, and it has a similar concept to Watcher’s Eye, where it comes with several variations and can be divined, but it can’t change its variation.
It’s a jewel that makes it so all auras are disabled except the one the Jewel is ‘allowing’. The exchange for this drawback is that the aura gets a massive boost to aura effect and has an additional Bonus Effect. The Hatred variation lets you Brittle, Anger Scorch, Wrath Sap, etc. All things that are associated with the Aura-variation of the Jewel.
What Makes Sublime Vision Great:
- Build Enabling and Defining
- Best source of Brittle
- Best way of turning immune to anything except Fire and Chaos Damage.
How to get Sublime Vision Jewel:
- It’s an Uber Drop, meaning it can only be dropped by the Uber variants of a boss. In this case, we are lucky as it can drop from 2 different fights, Uber Shaper and Uber Uber Elder.
- It has around a 4% chance of dropping from both U. Shaper and U.U. Elder.
Here is a table with all the variants and what they can give you:
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Sublime_Vision
6 – Stormshroud
This Jewel is a beauty that got added in 3.20 during the Unique Jewel Rebalancing, and though it doesn’t look like it belongs among these other jewels, it is very much the best source of Elemental Ailment Immunity in the game. Elemental Ailment Immunity is so egregious to get and horrible to play without, and this Jewel solved so many problems people had while creating a lot of crafting opportunities and unique strategies to socket this Jewel and make full use of it.
What makes Stormshroud Great:
- Easiest way to get Elemental Ailment Immunity
- Opened up new possible builds that would’ve been miserable to play without being Immune to Ailments
- Created a lot of crafting opportunities and made new niches for profit.
How to get Stormshroud Jewel:
- It can literally drop anywhere in the game. However, with the changes to how rarely unique jewels drop and their internal weighting, this makes for a very rare jewel to find.
- You can also get it from Divination cards as well as gambling from Gwennen.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Stormshroud
5 – Watcher’s Eye
Perhaps not the oldest unique Jewel in the game, but certainly the most popular and most well-known, with good reason, the Watcher’s Eye will almost always be able to improve your build, regardless of what it is, as long as you use an aura and have a jewel socket in reach.
Like Sublime Vision, it has special variations that can’t be Divined and changed, and not only that, but it has 2 major variations, depending on where you drop it. If it’s a regular Elder, it only has 2 mods. If it’s from Uber Elder, it can drop with 3 mods. Uber Elder variants are much stronger (though not rarer) because it has an extra mod that can roll something major, like Damage Over Time Multiplier while you have Malevolence.
What makes Watcher’s Eye Great:
- Can benefit significantly pretty much all builds in the game
- Enables too many mechanics to count
- One of the best sources of damage and/or survivability in a single jewel.
How to get Watcher’s Eye:
- The 2-mod variant drops from Elder, which you can access with all of his guardian’s fragments, in the Absence of Value and Meaning arena. All 2-mod jewels will have an item level of 85.
- The 3-mod variant drops from Uber Elder, which you can access with the 2 fragments that Elder himself drops, the Fragments of Terror and Emptiness, and with the 2 fragments Shaper drops, Fragments of Knowledge and Shape. 3-mod jewels will either have an item level of 86 or 87, depending on whether the fight is an Uber variant or not.
- The final way to get the Jewel by naturally dropping it is through The Feared Invitation, where you must kill Chayula, Elder, Shaper, Atziri and Venarius in Maven’s Crucible. Regardless of which Elder variant you killed, it will always drop a 2-mod variant.
- Several divination cards can give you Watcher’s Eyes, but the most known and common is The Samurai’s Eye.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Watcher%27s_Eye
4 – Impossible Escape
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One of the items created by one of the winners of the 3.17 Boss Kill event, Steelmage, is one of the most build-enabling powerhouse of a jewel that allows you to allocate passives around a specific Keystone in the passive tree.
It has the same concept of variations as W.E.s and Sublime Vision, where you can’t divine to change the Keystone.
What makes Impossible Escape Great:
- Grants a ton of power, both defensively and offensively, to the player
- Can be used in combination with Timeless Jewels (particularly strong with Glorious Vanity and Elegant Hubris) for easy allocation of notables without travelling.
- Enables cross-tree notable allocation without travelling, which creates viability for specific builds.
How to get Impossible Escape:
- Similarly to Melding of the Flesh, the only way to get it is by killing one of the Pinnacle Bosses, The Maven. Or her Uber variant.
- You can also get it from her Shiny Reliquary Key to get a foil variant of the Jewel.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Maven
3 – Thread of Hope
Introduced back in 3.9, when Sirus first showed up together with his Conquerors, this Jewel has been a staple in most min-maxing builds, and it only grew when the Massive version was introduced when the Uber Pinnacle Bosses arrived, in 3.18.
With every change to the passive tree, this Jewel fluctuates in power and uses, and it can also be used with Timeless Jewels for even more power. The drawback of the Jewel (-10 to -20% all elemental resistances) can also be an advantage for certain builds like Doryani’s Prototype builds (similar to Melding).
What Makes Thread of Hope Great:
- Build enabling
- Flexibility always evolves with the game itself as the passive tree changes.
- One of the best sources of damage and/or defence in the game because of its easy access to notables in the passive tree without travelling to it.
- Can also be used to take advantage of its drawback for specific builds.
How to get the Thread of Hope:
- Just like Melding of the Flesh and Impossible Escape, it’s a Pinnacle boss drop only, in this case, Sirus, the Awakener of Worlds.
- You can only get the Massive Variant by killing Uber Sirus in a zone 85, and it’s still not a guarantee that if you get a jewel, it will be a Massive.
- Can drop from Sirus’ Reliquary Key as well, with a foil variant.
For more info, click here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Thread_of_Hope
2 – Timeless Jewels
This set of revolutionary jewels introduced back in 3.7, Legion League, is the pinnacle of optimization and build-enabling jewels. While Forbidden Jewels are arguably stronger in many regards, nothing beats the sheer flexibility and range that Timeless Jewels offer to the game.
Not only do you get 15 new possible Keystones that can be extremely build-defining or enabling – like Tempered by War or Divine Flesh – but they also add a variety of significant attributes and passives that you can’t get anywhere else or with such ease.
You want better flask sustain, they have it. You want to become immortal, they have it. You want to get a button of E.S. based off on your Life, they got it. You want to equip items and not care about attributes requirement? They got that too.
What makes Timeless Jewels Great:
- It’s the deepest and most thorough Min-Maxing aspect of a build
- Enables a plethora of builds
- Provides near-infinite options to improve your build
How to get Timeless Jewels:
- You can only get them (besides divination cards specific for it) by completing the Domain of Timeless Conflict, with 2, 3, 4 or 5 Emblems, one of each Army, Karui, Eternal, Vaal, Templar and Maraketh.
- The Uber variant of the Domain of Timeless Conflict can also drop, using the Unrelenting Emblems.
- You can get them from 2 divination cards, the Peaceful Moments and The Eternal War.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Timeless_Jewel
1 – Forbidden Flesh and Flame Jewels
As mentioned previously, Forbidden Flesh and Flame jewels, the combo that enables you to ‘borrow’ an Ascendancy notable from your fellow starting class, is the strongest.
Arguably, Ascendancy is the highest power creep introduced to the game, and this pair gives it essentially a 25% increase to that power creep, going from 4 total Ascendancies to 5. And not only that, but you can take it from your fellow classes; Deadeyes with a Pathfinder Passive or Juggernauts with Berserkers Passives.
But it is crucial that you MUST have both pairs of the same variant (they also can’t be Divined, just like Watcher’s Eye) to ‘borrow’ the notable.
What makes Forbidden Flesh and Flame Great:
- Enables a ton of new builds and merges potentially synergistic notables from 2 different Ascendancies within the same class.
- Gives the best bang for your buck as far as damage potential goes.
- Uniquely enabling.
How to get Forbidden Flesh and Flame Jewels:
- These jewels come directly from Eater of Worlds and Searing Exarch, respectively. They also have a hidden Ascendancy Notable locked behind the Uber variants of these bosses that grant a whole new Ascendancy Notable that does not exist within any of the Ascendancies in the game.
- As with the other unique Jewels gained from Pinnacle Bosses, you can also get the foil variants from their Reliquary Keys, the Visceral and the Archive Keys.
For more information, check here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Forbidden_jewel
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