Top 10 Path of Exile Leveling Uniques

Leveling is a mandatory part of your adventure in Path of Exile, and you need to repeat the process on every new league start or with a new character, so it's important to do it as quickly and efficiently as you can. The campaign is split into two parts and ten acts. Leveling also includes the early mapping sequence if you can't yet equip your end-game build-defining items. Throughout this journey, you will need to progressively upgrade your items to better ones. You can't put on all the most powerful Items right from the start - there are level restrictions on them. Rare Items are often good, but it's the Unique ones we will focus on here. Unique Leveling Items are characterized primarily by their distinctive usefulness, but also price. They're often the most needed at the league start, it's when players don't have much to spend. Searching for high values on their modifiers is not important - it matters only on very few or late-game uniques.

We would like to give you some leveling tips and present the most useful leveling Unique Items. There are plenty of Uniques that you can use during leveling, that's why we have decided to select the Top 10 Leveling Uniques in Path of Exile. Some of those items listed can be bought right after you start, and with some, you will be able to get to the Mapping phase. We will try to keep this list filled only with universally good items for all the classes and characters. If you want to see more in-depth guides for a specific build, check our separate Leveling Guides at the bottom of the article.

Keep in mind that items on our list are not sorted from worst to best or the other way around, except for Tabula Rasa which is undoubtfully the most popular leveling Item in the game, but it will also work on all character classes and builds. There are a lot of other interesting leveling Items, but we tried to exclude those with more specific requirements to use or obtain them. We have also avoided including Weapons, as for the most part they should be changed regularly every couple of levels, and it would be nearly impossible to select just the single best one for the job.

(Body Armour) Tabula Rasa - The most popular (and most likely the best) Path of Exile leveling unique. It is extremely expensive during the first days of new leagues. Tabula Rasa found during the first 24 hours of a newly started league is priceless. The Mana Cost of Spells liked with 5 Support Gems, even on early levels, is very high (Each support gem has Mana Multipliers on them, affecting the supported Gem's Mana Cost). Take it into account. It has no level requirements.

Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden)

(Helmet) Goldrim - This is one of the best leveling unique helmets due to the extra Elemental Resistances it provides. It makes it completely viable until the late game. We advise you not to enforce upgrades to this slot until you want to swap to your final gear and build.

+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

(Helmet) Thrillsteel - Only if you have enough Elemental Resistances, Thrillsteel will be the optimal headpiece. Onslaught Grants 20% increased Attack, Cast, and Movement Speed, so it's great in almost every situation. Only Minion Builds doesn't particularly need Cast or Attack Speed, but the Movement Speed itself makes it still excellent.

Onslaught

(Belt) String of Servitude - Be careful with this Belt, there are a lot of variants with different Implicit modifiers, making them completely different. The modifier we recommend is up to "16% to all Elemental Resistances" Multiplied by three, it grants 48% to all Elemental Resistances. It is extremely expensive or straight-up unobtainable during the first days of a new league, and even later it retains its value as it's the best-in-slot Belt for leveling. Can be equipped at level 1.

<(1-2) Random corrupted implicit modifiers> Implicit Modifier magnitudes are tripled Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

(Boots) Wanderlust - A budget-friendly option. These provide a decent 20% movement speed bonus, as well as extra Mana Regeneration (great if using Tabula Rasa, it's a perfect combination). The Freeze immunity will be useful in areas like The Brine King's Reef or The High Gardens. Wanderlust Boots quickly become obsolete as you can easily find a rare pair of boots with up to 35% increased Movement Speed later in the game. Freeze immunity is not uncommon too.

+5 to Dexterity +(10-20) to maximum Energy Shield (20-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 20% increased Movement Speed Cannot be Frozen

(Boots) Seven-League Step - Amazing leveling boots. This piece, however, is suggested to players with a higher budget. Not only these boots are rather expensive, but their lack of defensive stats will force you to make up for it with investments in other gear slots.

50% increased Movement Speed Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden)

(Ring) Praxis - You won't be able to use it right away, but it should come in handy right when you actually can 6-link your spells in Tabula Rasa (there are not that many available support Gems this early). It provides a Mana Regeneration bonus and is very cheap. It can quite possibly make your Attacks have no Mana Cost whatsoever.

+(20-30) to maximum Mana +(30-60) to maximum Mana Regenerate (3-6) Mana per second -(8-4) to Total Mana Cost of Skills 8% of Damage taken Recouped as Mana

(Amulet) Atziri's Foible - Pretty much the best leveling amulet in Path of Exile. Grants amazing mana and mana regeneration bonuses, while also lowering attribute requirements for items and Gems.

(20-30)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate +100 to maximum Mana (16-24)% increased maximum Mana (80-100)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate Items and Gems have 25% reduced Attribute Requirements

(Amulet) Astramentis - You may find yourself short on Attributes if your Gems or Items have particularly high requirements. Astramentis is an easy solution as most of the Gems will not require over 100 of any Attribute early on. It's also important to take into account the inherent bonuses from these Attributes - roughly 50 Maximum Life, 20% increased Melee Physical Damage, 200 Accuracy Rating, 20% increased Evasion Rating, 50 Maximum Mana, and 20% increased Maximum Energy Shield.

+(10-16) to all Attributes +(80-100) to all Attributes -4 Physical Damage taken from Attack Hits

(Jewel) Brutal Restraint - Not many people know this, but Historic Jewels have no level requirement. You can use it to obtain some of their powerful Keystones, and there is no better example of it that "The Traitor" from Brutal Restraint. This Jewel has to be of the "Balbala" variant to work. Put it in a socket in a Skill Tree near a Keystone to transform it. Equip only one or two Flasks (there aren't many useful Flasks early in the game anyway), one of them being a Silver or Quicksilver Flask for increased Movement Speed. You will basically never run out of Flask Charges. Use an Instilling Orb to drink it automatically via "Reused at the end of this Flask's effect" or "Used when Charges reach full" mods.

Denoted service of (500-8000) dekhara in the akhara of (Asenath-Balbala-Nasima) Passives in radius are Conquered by the Maraketh Historic

General tips on how to upgrade your weapon

Which stats are the most important? Movement Speed and Elemental Resistances (until reaching 75%). After finishing the fifth act, your Elemental Resistances are reduced by 30%, and then again by the same amount as you finish the 10th act. Remember to upgrade your gear if you lack them. Maximum Life is equally valuable but early on it comes mostly from other rare items and Skill Tree. Damage too is something to keep an eye on, obviously. After starting a new character you should grab a starting weapon for your specific character class and build. This method will get you to level 70 or 80 when you start to get the required items for your build. All the following item upgrades should be easily affordable with just the self-found leveling PoE currency, especially Essences. Our recommendations are:

1. Spell damage/Caster class - Lifesprig. You should be able to level up with this till at least level 30. After that, start looking for a higher Spell Damage weapon - it's up to your personal preference which one. You can also upgrade the Wand to one of the following commonly used weapons: Axiom Perpetuum (level 10), Ashcaller (Fire Spells - level 12), Reverberation Rod (level 24), or Storm Prison (Power Charges - level 24). Keep in mind you can dual-wield wands to get additional stats. Staves may be great too, The Searing Touch (level 62) is great with Fire Spells.
2. Ranged/Bow user - Bury in mind that builds using Attacks rely more on a weapon than Spell-casters. As a lot of the cheap Unique weapons are great for leveling, it's not a big expense early on. Quill Rain is the best Bow you can equip at level 5. Storm Cloud (level 9) is great with Lightning or Elemental Damage Skills. At level 28 you can upgrade to Doomfletch. For purely Physical Damage Bows, you may want to use a rare one, or Lioneye's Glare at level 66.
3. Melee physical class - Redbeak or Last Resort (for Claw users) as your starting weapon. Usually, it is the best solution to upgrade the weapon to the highest Physical DPS weapon you find during leveling, with optionally trading for a good piece (according to the guidelines provided) every 10 or so levels. Here we recommend using two-hand Axes. Nearly all of the unique ones can be considered a major upgrade as soon as you're able to wield them.
4. Summoner - It's the most distinct class as increases to your Spell Damage or Weapon's base stats have no effect. Here it is more important to have items with good defensive stats and the right gem sockets for skills to put in. We recommend going for a hybrid Spell/Melee and Minion-summoner playstyle with Absolution (Spells) or Dominating Blow (Attacks).

For more comprehensive articles definitely check out our list of Leveling Guides for specific characters or archetypes. There you can find more information about not only items, but Skill Gems, and how to spend your Skill Points too. We try to have them updated immediately after any major change occurs as well as on a regular basis.

We would love to hear your opinions about the listed items, or if you have another suggestion feel free to leave that in the comments.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.