AILMENTS
6.1 Ailment Mechanics
An ailment is an effect on a target that lasts for a duration. Most ailments deal damage, apply stat debuffs, or both, and most can be applied to the same target multiple times (or “stack”).
Ailments can either by applied by a hit, or by area effects that attempt to apply ailments at a fixed interval.
Most ailment applications are chance based. However, having an ailment chance greater than 100% allows you to apply multiple stacks at once.
For example, if I have 235% ignite chance with Fireball, each Fireball hit will apply 2 stacks of ignite, with a 35% chance to apply a 3rd stack of ignite.
Each damaging ailment, such as Bleed or Ignite, has a fixed base damage, but is affected by damage modifiers from the skill tree and attribute scaling of the skill that applies it.
Even when an ailment is applied by a melee skill or a hit, that does not make it count as melee damage or hit damage and does not cause it to be affected by stats like “increased melee damage”.
If a target has the maximum number of stacks for a given ailment, attempting to apply another stack of the ailment will replace the oldest stack.
The most common ailments are described in other pages within this section. If an ailment isn’t described here, the tooltip (or [Alt] tooltip) of the node or item that grants it should explain the ailment’s functionality.
6.2 Ailment Duration and Effectiveness
The duration of an ailment can be lengthened by “increased ailment duration” effects. “100% increased ignite duration” will make a stack of ignite last 5 seconds, rather than the default 2.5 seconds. “Reduced ailment duration” effects are also possible.
Changing the duration of an ailment that deals damage affects the total amount of damage it will deal, but does not affect damage per second (DPS). This results in it increasing the total damage the ailment deals over its duration.
For example, if a stack of Bleed dealt 120 damage over its default 3 second duration, then a “50% increased duration” modifier would result in it dealing 180 damage over 4.5 seconds.
“Increased ailment effectiveness” effects apply to all stat modifiers an ailment grants.
For example, “50% increased armour shred effectiveness” would cause stacks of armour shred to reduce armour by 150, instead of the default 100.
6.3 Resistance Shred
Each damage type (Fire, Lightning, Cold, Physical, Poison, Necrotic, and Void) has a respective Resistance Shred ailment. Resistance Shred ailments reduce the target’s resistance for that particular damage type. By default they subtract 5% resistance and last 4 seconds. Each Resistance Shred ailment can stack up to 10 times.
Resistance shred applies before the resistance cap.
Resistance Shred ailments have 60% reduced effect against bosses and players (multiplicative with other modifiers).
6.4 Armour Shred
Armour Shred reduces armour on the target, increasing how much damage it takes from hits. By default it subtracts 100 armour and lasts for 4 seconds.
Armour shred shares the same formula and characteristics of armour, though armour shred uses it to increase damage taken rather than reduce it. Armour shred caps at 85% increased physical damage and 59.5% increased non-physical damage (multiplicative with other modifiers). However, to reach these caps it would require a nearly unobtainable amount of armour shred stacks due to the substantial diminishing returns of the armour formula. Armour shred only affects hit damage, so damage over time (DoT) builds will not gain any benefit from this ailment.
6.5 Bleed
Bleed deals physical damage over time. By default it deals 53 physical damage over a 3 second duration. There’s no limit to how many Bleed stacks can be applied within its 3 second duration.
6.6 Blind
Blind reduces critical strike chance and causes ranged attacks to be inaccurate. By default it applies a 50% less critical strike chance modifier and last for 4 seconds. Blind does not stack.
When enemies use an ability they target a specific point (i.e. the location of a player or minion). Blinded enemies instead aim at a random point in an area around the target, so they don’t always hit the spot they intend.
6.7 Chill
Chill reduces cast speed, attack speed, and movement speed. By default it applies a 12% less modifier for each of these stats and lasts for 4 seconds. Chill can stack up to 3 times.
Chill has 50% less effect against players (multiplicative with other modifiers).
6.8 Critical Vulnerability
Critical Vulnerability increases enemies chances of being critically hit. By default it increases enemies chances of receiving a critical strike by +2% and lowers enemy critical strike avoidance by -10% over a 4 second duration. Critical Vulnerability stacks up to 10 times.
6.9 Damned
Damned deals necrotic damage over time and also reduces health regeneration. By default it deals 35 necrotic damage and applies a 20% reduced health regeneration modifier over 2.5 seconds. There’s no limit to how many Damned stacks can be applied within its 2.5 second duration.
6.10 Doom
Doom deals void damage over time and increases melee damage taken. By default it deals 400 void damage over a 4 second duration and increases melee damage taken by 4%. Doom can stack up to 4 times.
6.11 Electrify
Electrify deals lightning damage over time. By default it deals 44 lightning damage over a 2.5 second duration. There’s no limit to how many Electrify stacks can be applied within its 2.5 second duration.
6.12 Frailty
Frailty reduces damage dealt by 6% (multiplicative with other modifiers), stacks up to 3 times, and lasts 4 seconds.
6.13 Frostbite
Frostbite deals cold damage over time and increases the chance to be frozen, making targets easier to freeze. By default it deals 36 cold damage and increases the chance to be frozen by 20% over a 3 second duration. There’s no limit to how many Frostbite stacks can be applied within its 3 second duration. However, only the first 30 stacks will each increase the chance to be frozen by 20%.
6.14 Ignite
Ignite deals fire damage over time. By default it deals 40 fire damage over a 2.5 second duration. There’s no limit to how many Ignite stacks can be applied within its 2.5 second duration.
6.15 Mark for Death
Mark for Death reduces all resistances by -25% for 8 seconds and does not stack. Mark for Death applies before the resistance cap.
6.16 Plague
Plague deals poison damage over time and spreads between enemies. By default it deals 150 poison damage over 4 seconds. Plague does not stack.
Plague will attempt to spread to a target within 6m every 0.6 seconds. Plague will also attempt to spread if the entity it is on dies before Plague expires.
6.17 Poison
Poison deals poison damage over time and also reduces poison resistance. By default it deals 28 poison damage and subtracts 5% from the target’s poison resistance over a 3 second duration. This inherent poison resistance reduction is separate from poison resistance shred. There’s no limit to how many Poison stacks can be applied within its 3 second duration. However, only the first 30 stacks will each decrease the targets poison resistance by 5%.
The poison resistance reduction has 60% less effect against bosses and players (multiplicative with other modifiers).
6.18 Shock
Shock reduces lightning resistance and increases the chance that the target will be stunned. By default it subtracts 5% lightning resistance, applies a 20% increased chance to be stunned modifier, and lasts for 4 seconds. This inherent lightning resistance reduction is separate from lightning resistance shred. Shock can stack up to 10 times.
Shock has 60% less effect against bosses and players (multiplicative with other modifiers).
6.19 Slow
Slow reduces movement speed. By default it applies a 20% less movement speed modifier and lasts for 4 seconds. Slow can stack up to 3 times.
Slow has 50% less effect against players (multiplicative with other modifiers).
6.20 Time Rot
Time Rot deals void damage over time, while also making stuns last longer. By default it deals 55 void damage and increases stun duration by 5% over a 3 second duration. Time Rot can stack up to 12 times.
6.21 DoT Scaling Example
When making a Damage over Time (DoT) build it’s important to first understand how to scale its damage. For this example we’ll be using the Ignite ailment, but this scaling information can be applied to all other DoT’s in the game. However, you’ll have to adjust it for the appropriate damage type you’re scaling – Bleed (physical DoT), Frostbite (cold DoT), Electrify (lightning DoT), Poison (poison DoT), etc.
By default ignite deals 40 fire damage over a 2.5 second duration. DoT’s are displayed on the enemy every 0.5 seconds, thus creating 5 damage ticks on the enemy over the course of a default ignite stack. Each of the other DoT ailments will have a different base damage amount and duration from which they scale.
You can increase the damage of your ignite DoT with any of the following:
- Increase your ignite chance. Having an ignite chance greater than 100% applies multiple stacks of ignite from a single hit.
- For example, having an ignite chance of 350% will apply 3 stacks of ignite with a 50% chance to apply a 4th stack for each hit you do.
- Increasing the number of hits per second you do to the enemy will also increase the number of ignite stacks you apply to the enemy.
- Generally, the limiting factor of DoT builds is how many stacks you can apply in the short time before the first stack falls off, so high attack speed and high ailment chance are key components for any DoT based build.
- Increase all percent damage increases that apply to ignite.
- These include: “X% increased fire damage”, “X% increased elemental damage”, “X% increased/more global damage”, “X% increased damage over time”, “X% increased elemental damage over time”, “X% increased fire damage over time”.
- Reduce enemy fire resistance with Fire Resistance Shred and/or Fire Penetration.
- Fire resistance shred reduces the enemies fire resistance by 5% (2% against bosses) for a 4 second duration and can stack up to 10 times for a total of -50% (-20% against bosses) fire resistance shred on the enemy.
- Fire penetration is additive with fire resistance shred and subtracts fire resistance from the enemy, causing ignites to deal more damage.
- Increase the ignite duration.
- For example, “100% increased ignite duration” will make a stack of ignite last 5 seconds, rather than the default 2.5 seconds. This ignite stack will now do 40 / 2.5 = 16 damage per second over the 5 second duration for a total of 80 damage. This affects the total amount of damage it deals, but does not affect its damage per second (DPS).
- Increase the ignite effectiveness.
- For example, “100% increased ignite effectiveness” would cause each ignite stack to deal 40 x 2 = 80 fire damage over a 2.5 second duration, instead of the default 40 fire damage over that same 2.5 second duration.
- Attribute scaling that applies to the skill also applies to the ailment.
- For example, the Fireball skill gains “4% increased damage” per 1 point of Intelligence. Ignites applied by Fireball will also receive this increased damage from the skills attribute scaling.
- Certain skill tree nodes can boost ailment damage.
- The damage of any ailment isn’t affected by how much damage the hit/ability dealt. However, if there are nodes within a skill tree that don’t specify hit damage specifically, such as the Fireball skill tree with skill nodes that only state “Fireball deals X% more damage”, then ailments applied by Fireball will gain the damage modifiers of this node as well.