The Pillar of The Caged God in Path of Exile 2 is a very strong item that has a lot of secondary effects, depending on the Attributes of your character: Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. This also brings along a lot of constraints and synergies that mostly benefit particular classes and playstyles, requiring the players to pay closer attention to building around these Attributes to maximize its value in optimal gear and abilities- an excellent weapon for mid to end-game builds.
Pillar of the Caged God POE2
The Pillar of The Caged God provides additional secondary effects based on your character’s Attributes: Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. For every 5 points in Strength, you get a 10% increase in Weapon Damage; for every 5 points in Dexterity, you will gain 2% increased Attack Speed; and for every 5 points in Intelligence, you will see a 2% increase in Area of Effect for Attacks.
How to Use Pillar of the Caged God
While the Quarterstaff that comes with this item starts as a simple weapon with a modest 9-18 damage range (averaging 13.5 on swing and 18.9 DPS), players who focus on Strength stacking can significantly boost their DPS. Even though it’s a basic, low-level weapon, martial classes can quickly scale their damage output into the five-digit range, thanks to the powerful Strength-based bonuses. The weapon type itself comes with certain limitations. For instance, you can’t use it as an off-hand stat stick with Giant’s Blood on a Warrior.
Class for Pillar of the Caged God
To wield a Quarterstaff, you will need to use Quarterstaff Skills, making the Monk class the most natural fit for this weapon. Monks typically don’t rely on Strength as much, instead focusing on Intelligence and Dexterity. However, with the Pillar of The Caged God, you can keep your Physical-scaling DPS Skills at lower Skill Gem levels to reduce the requirements, while still gaining additional Strength from travel nodes to make the most of the weapon’s bonuses.
For optimal min-maxing, the Astramantis unique Amulet is an ideal choice, as it can provide over 100 points in each of your Attributes. This would not only boost your Strength but also help reduce the requirements for your Gem setup. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of this amulet, it’s more of a distant goal for now. Instead, you will need to focus on stacking additional attack damage and Strength through your gear.
To get the most out of Pillar of The Caged God, it’s not ideal to start with Monk. The item actually works best with another class, allowing you to leverage its full potential and maximize the synergy with your Strength and DPS scaling.
The Mercenary class, specifically through the Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy, offers a great synergy with Pillar of The Caged God. Using the Ascendancy Passive Adaptive Capability, you can easily reroll your existing Attribute nodes to focus entirely on Strength. This boosts your Strength significantly, and thanks to the Enhanced Effectiveness passive, you will also gain a much larger Life pool. For gear, prioritize STR-scaling items, although armor might not be the best defensive choice due to limited options.
But this is not exactly the situation in which leveling is optimal, even for low stat requirements. Pillar of The Caged God is better for a mid-game or end-game build switch, where Attribute backlog can be a strong help starting from the very beginning, making your game better without the need to spend too much on early-game growth.
