What Can Path of Building Community Help You Plan in Your Path of Exile Build?

Path of Building Community (PoB) is a build planner for Path of Exile that lets you plan a character before or after you create it. You can map out your passive skill tree, test gem links, build and compare items, and see how each change affects your stats. It is most useful when you want to compare options without spending currency or respec points in-game. The planner is open source, and the site offers separate downloads for Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2.

Plan your passive skill tree

The passive tree planner shows which paths are more efficient and can advise you on which nodes are most beneficial to your current build. You can also observe how taking a notable passive point would change your stats before committing to it.

The site lists these tree-related features:

• Added oil combinations to notables on the passive skill tree.
• Highlight nodes by per-point power and opportunity cost.
• A Power Report that ranks all passive skills on the tree and cluster jewels so you can prioritise upgrades.

If you are deciding between two routes to a keystone, this is where you compare them. The Power Report is the fastest way to see which passives give the most for the points they cost.

Plan skill gems and links

You can prepare your skill gem links and watch the benefits of socketing them in different items. PoB also offers suggestions for the most powerful gems to add to your setup, which helps when you are unsure which support gems actually improve your damage.

Supported gem mechanics listed on the site include:

• Warcries and Brands
• Awakened Spell Echo
• Vaal Arc
• Carrion Golem
• Alternate Quality skill gems, with most effects already supported

This means you can test a link setup in the planner, move the gems between gear slots, and compare the results before buying anything.

Build and compare items

PoB understands most mods that can be found on items and lets you perform anointments, crafting, corruptions, and more. You can set up gear sets and compare the effects of your changes.

Item-related features include:

• Apply Catalysts to rare and unique items.
• Craft (double) influenced items.
• Filter mods by Prefix or Suffix.
• All uniques available, steadily updated, with most of their mods supported.
• A UI for anointing items: search notables, sort them by node power, and preview their effects.

A practical use case: if you are choosing between two amulets, you can enter both, anoint each one, and compare the stat changes side by side instead of guessing.

Plan defences and special mechanics

The planner covers defensive and mechanical systems that are hard to calculate by hand:

• Pantheon gods: pick your Pantheon powers to plan your defences better.
• Keystones: The Agnostic, Crimson Dance, Eternal Youth, Glancing Blows, Imbalanced Guard, and more.
• Mechanics: Impale, Exposure, Elusive, Warcries and Exerted Attacks, Bonechill, and more.
• Unique mechanics: Timeless Jewels, Perquil's Toe, Thread of Hope, Split Personality, and more.
• Alternative Ailments: Scorch, Brittle and Sap.
• Added many spectres: Redemption Sentry, Baranite Thaumaturge, Baranite Sister, and more.
• Configurable Shock value, with guaranteed sources of Shock applying automatically.
• Minimum and average calculation modes for Ailments, Regeneration, Armour, and effective health.

These options matter when your build depends on a specific interaction, such as a keystone that changes how your defences work or an ailment that scales your damage.

What it is best for

Use PoB when you want to:

• Compare two passive tree paths or two gear setups before spending currency.
• Check whether a gem link actually increases your damage.
• Plan anointments, crafts, or corruptions on an item.
• Rank your passive points by value so you know what to upgrade next.

It is a planning tool, not a replacement for playing the game. The value comes from testing changes in the planner first, then applying the ones that work.