When you start crafting weapons or armor in Path of Exile 2, one of the smartest moves you can make happens before any currency touches the item: increasing its quality with Whetstones. Many players skip this step because it feels small, but it affects almost every future upgrade you add to the item. This is why experienced crafters always treat quality as a high-value anchor before crafting begins.
Quality Makes Every Stat Roll Better
Raising quality on a weapon improves its base physical damage. For armor, it improves defenses like armor rating, evasion, or energy shield. Because many affixes scale from the item’s base values, a higher base means stronger results after you craft.
That means one simple step—maxing quality—directly boosts the end result of your whole crafting plan. You won’t need as many attempts, and your currency goes farther.
Better Quality Means More Value From Crafting Mods
Here’s a practical example:
If you craft added physical damage on a weapon with low quality, the rolls are tied to a weak base. The same craft on a 20% quality weapon hits harder every time.
This applies to resistances, life, energy shield, and hybrid mods too. Improving the item early prevents wasted crafts later.
Save Currency by Doing the Easy Steps First
A lot of new players rush into crafting without preparing the base. This leads to throwing away Orbs because the item simply isn’t ready.
By raising quality first, you make every following craft more efficient. This is especially useful when dealing with valuable poe 2 currencies, since those are best used on items that already have strong potential.
Quality Helps You Spot Good Bases
Sometimes quality reveals whether a base is worth investing into. Once you raise it to 20%, you’ll see if the numbers look strong enough to justify further crafting.
If they don’t, you saved yourself a pile of currency by not pushing forward with an item that could never reach high value anyway.
Combine Quality With Smart Market Awareness
If you explore structured buying options like u4gm poe, you’ll notice that high-quality bases tend to sell faster because experienced players know they lead to more reliable crafting outcomes.
This doesn’t mean you need to buy every item you see—it simply shows how much the community values prepped bases.
Use Fast Trading to Support Crafting Plans
When preparing for a new league or rushing to upgrade your main weapon, having quick access to resources helps. That’s why some players look for cheap poe 2 currency fast trade for new league to speed up early crafting steps. Getting enough Whetstones and supplemental currency early lets you upgrade bases properly before you pour expensive orbs into them.
Practical Steps You Can Apply Immediately
If you want to craft smarter starting today, use this simple routine:
- Always raise weapon or armor quality to the maximum before adding mods
- Test the base after quality to confirm it’s worth pushing further
- Only invest currency after you confirm the base rolls meet your goals
- For high-end crafts, map out which prefixes and suffixes you want before spending
- Avoid crafting on low-quality, low-potential items at all costs
Quality is one of the cheapest, easiest upgrades in the entire crafting system, and it amplifies every next step you take. Start with quality, and you’ll see better gear, stronger stats, and fewer wasted resources every time you craft.