Farming Artificer's Orbs efficiently in Path of Exile 2 is crucial for players looking to enhance their gear with rune sockets, a key component in powerful endgame builds. The cornerstone of this process revolves around using the Salvage Bench and taking advantage of poe 2 currency exchange opportunities to gather enough shards and convert them into orbs.

The most effective method to farm Artificer's Orbs begins with targeting socketed gear. Only items with visible sockets, marked by white square icons next to their names, yield Artificer's Shards when salvaged. These shards accumulate, and every 10 shards form one Artificer's Orb. To acquire socketed gear efficiently, players should focus on killing unique enemies, elite mobs, and bosses who have increased chances to drop rarer items, especially socketed weapons and armor. Exploring higher-level maps or zones with dense monster populations also increases drop rates, especially if repeating runs in the same area.

Once players collect a substantial amount of socketed gear, they return to town and use the Salvage Bench—unlocked early in the game through a side quest—to dismantle these items. Each piece salvaged this way rewards Artificer's Shards along with other crafting materials. Setting up a loop of farming, collecting socketed items, then salvaging creates a steady and efficient source of these shards and therefore orbs. This loop can be optimized by running areas with many monsters and an abundance of loot drops to maximize the number of socketed items obtained.

In addition to farming, players can expedite their orb accumulation by utilizing the Currency Exchange NPC, unlocked after progressing to Cruel difficulty. This vendor allows players to trade other currency items for Artificer's Shards, making currency conversion a viable method if the player has excess common materials but lacks shards. However, it is generally recommended to conserve currency early in the game and only rely on this exchange once a need for specific crafting resources arises. For those who prefer a faster path, it’s often convenient to buy poe 2 currency directly from other players through trade, skipping some of the grind.

For players aiming to maximize efficiency, prioritizing gear with multiple sockets to salvage is important, as these grant more shards than single-socket items. Additionally, managing inventory space and choosing optimal farming zones where socketed gear drops frequently can save time and boost shard collection rates. Some players also highlight the value of revisiting earlier zones at higher difficulty since socketed gear drops become more abundant and valuable when the area is refreshed and enemies scale up.

Efficient farming of Artificer's Orbs in PoE 2 hinges on a few well-practiced strategies: hunt and collect socketed gear from high-density and elite enemy areas, utilize the Salvage Bench consistently to convert these items into shards, and strategically use the Currency Exchange NPC when necessary to trade excess currency into shards. By maintaining a focused farm-and-salvage cycle and planning resource management carefully, players can accumulate Artificer's Orbs at a steady pace, ensuring the availability of rune sockets for building powerful and highly customizable endgame gear.