Read First, Summary of all Information (continues to be updated)

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The other players in the game would see bought stuff too?
Chris: Yes. Almost everything that we sell we want other people to see. That's why people buy that stuff.

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We're looking at more visual flair and fun stuff. So you might buy something that would change your spell effects; give your character a dragon's head or something like that.

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Chris: Exactly. For example, there's a unique item with a property that gems in that item gain double experience. So it becomes an incubator item that you'd use just to level up gems, rather than because it's useful for your character. You might wind up with a character who just runs around leveling up gems instead of leveling up the character.

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“Chaining” support gem: Once the linked spell has hit one target, it replicates itself and targets another nearby valid target. For example, the fireball would explode and then launch another fireball at a nearby monster. Higher levels of the Chaining support gem cause it to target additional consecutive monsters. This support is useful for more than just the obvious damage increase, because it makes the skill somewhat fire-and-forget. The player isn’t locked in place like they would be with the “Multiple Casts” support gem (which causes several copies of the spell to be cast in series).

“Protection while casting” support gem: Puts a temporary additional Energy Shield on the caster for the duration of the linked spell’s cast time. This is very useful for skills such as Ice Nova where the player is generally in the middle of a group of monsters. It’s also useful for use with the “Multiple Casts” support gem where the player spends longer than normal casting a sequence of spells.

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There are specific active skills, passive skills and support gems designed with PvP in mind. It’s likely that dedicated PvP players will create specific PvP characters that have taken into account appropriate meta-game concerns. The items that are found in PvE (or awarded in PvP) are usable in both modes, and although they may be better suited to one style of play, there aren’t many stats that are only useful in PvP or PvE alone.

An example of a PvP-specific support gem is the “Resist Skill” gem. If linked with an active skill gem, your character will have some degree of resistance to attacks made against it with that skill. For example, if you expect that a PvP tournament is going to have a meta-game consisting of many fireball wielding characters, it might be sensible to link “Resist Skill” to “Fireball” in addition to the usual fire resistance gear you’d wear.

We do care about PvP balance and will try to make sure that it’s a fun, fair playing field. It’s not that we want Path of Exile to become an e-sport, but it’s not healthy if there’s one dominant PvP build that everyone has to either play or beat. We’d prefer that it’s a constantly changing environment with many different viable builds.

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Wilson: Armor pieces in Path of Exile use different damage mitigation techniques depending on whether they are aligned with strength, dexterity or intelligence. Intelligence armor pieces add “energy shield,” which is the mentioned barrier. It’s a damage buffer that must be depleted before the character’s life total is damaged. Once the character is out of combat, it regenerates. It’s not unique to the Witch class, but she’s the class who finds it easiest to obtain and has the most synergies with it.