Despair - Path of Exile

Despair is an active skill gem.

Curses all targets in an area, lowering their chaos resistance and increasing damage over time they take. All hits will deal added chaos damage to the cursed enemies.You are cursed. You have reduced Chaos Resistance, take increased Damage over Time, and hits against you deal additional Chaos Damage.

Spell, AoE, Duration, Chaos, Curse, Hex. Level: 1–20. Cost: 16–33 Mana. Cast Time: 0.50 sec. Requires Level 24.

Base duration is (8–11.8) seconds
+(0–10) to radius
Cursed enemies have (-30–-15)% to Chaos Resistance

Place into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.

Name	Additional Effects From Quality	Weight
Despair	0-10% increased Effect of Curse	50

PoE 3.20 Changes

Despair

Added	10% increased Effect of Curse
Removed	Curse gains 10 Doom per second if you Cast this Spell yourself Cursed enemies take 35% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects Adds 46 to 57 Chaos Damage to Hits against Cursed Enemies
Modified	New: Base duration is 11.80 seconds Old: Base duration is 10.90 seconds New: Cursed enemies have -30% to Chaos Resistance Old: Cursed enemies have -29% to Chaos Resistance
New: Curses all targets in an area, lowering their chaos resistance. Old: Curses all targets in an area, lowering their chaos resistance and increasing damage over time they take. All hits will deal added chaos damage to the cursed enemies.

PoE 3.20: Despair no longer causes Cursed enemies to take 15-25% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects, and it no longer adds 9-46 to 12-76 Chaos Damage to Hits against Cursed Enemies. It now causes Cursed enemies to have -15% to Chaos Resistance at gem level 1 (previously -20%), up to -30% at gem level 20 (previously -29%). Quality no longer causes Cursed Enemies to take 0-10% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects. Instead, it now provides 0-10% increased Effect of Curse.

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Related Gems

Name	Additional Effects From Quality	Weight
Despair	0-10% increased Effect of Curse	50
Anomalous Despair	Cursed Enemies to take 0-10% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects	100
Divergent Despair	Spell Hits have (0–10)% chance to Hinder Cursed Enemies	100

Level Effect

Level	Requires Level	Dexterity	Intelligence	Cost	Adds 9 to 12 Chaos Damage to Hits against Cursed Enemies	Base duration is 9 seconds	# to radius	Cursed enemies have -20% to Chaos Resistance	Cursed enemies take 15% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects	Experience
1	24	25	37	16	9, 12	9	0	-20	15	118,383
2	27	28	41	17	11, 13	9.1	1	-20	16	175,816
3	30	31	45	18	12, 15	9.2	1	-21	16	254,061
4	33	34	49	19	14, 17	9.3	2	-21	17	359,090
5	36	36	53	21	15, 19	9.4	2	-22	17	498,508
6	39	39	56	22	17, 21	9.5	3	-22	18	682,057
7	42	42	60	23	19, 24	9.6	3	-23	18	921,777
8	45	45	64	24	21, 26	9.7	4	-23	19	1,727,879
9	48	48	68	25	23, 29	9.8	4	-24	19	1,138,877
10	50	49	71	26	25, 31	9.9	5	-24	20	1,368,233
11	52	51	74	26	27, 33	10	5	-25	20	1,638,338
12	54	53	76	27	28, 36	10.1	6	-25	21	1,956,648
13	56	55	79	28	30, 38	10.2	6	-26	21	3,655,184
14	58	57	82	29	32, 40	10.3	7	-26	22	3,017,327
15	60	59	84	29	34, 43	10.4	7	-27	22	7,793,914
16	62	60	87	30	36, 45	10.5	8	-27	23	15,206,031
17	64	62	90	31	39, 48	10.6	8	-28	23	26,185,582
18	66	64	92	31	41, 51	10.7	9	-28	24	62,755,923
19	68	66	95	32	43, 54	10.8	9	-29	24	211,877,683
20	70	68	98	33	46, 57	10.9	10	-29	25
21	72			34	49, 61	11	10	-30	25
22	74			34	51, 64	11.1	11	-30	26
23	76			35	54, 68	11.2	11	-31	26
24	78			36	57, 72	11.3	12	-31	27
25	80			36	60, 76	11.4	12	-32	27
26	82			37	64, 80	11.5	13	-32	28
27	84			38	67, 84	11.6	13	-33	28
28	86			39	71, 89	11.7	14	-33	29
29	88			39	75, 93	11.8	14	-34	29
30	90			40	79, 98	11.9	15	-34	30
31	91			40	81, 101	11.95	15	-34	30
32	92			41	83, 104	12	15	-35	30
33	93			41	85, 106	12.05	15	-35	30
34	94			42	87, 109	12.1	16	-35	31
35	95			42	90, 112	12.15	16	-35	31
36	96			42	92, 115	12.2	16	-36	31
37	97			43	94, 118	12.25	16	-36	31
38	98			43	97, 121	12.3	17	-36	32
39	99			43	99, 124	12.35	17	-36	32
40	100			44	102, 127	12.4	17	-37	32

Despair is a spell that curses all targets in an area, making them take increased chaos damage, damage over time, and chaos damage on hit.

Skill functions and interactions

Cursed enemies take increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects: Because these stats are an increase to the target's damage taken, they are multiplicative with attacker's damage dealt and additive with any other effects to damage taken on the defender.
Adds Chaos Damage to Hits against Cursed Enemies: Skills, passives, and items that grant Increased effect of your Curses will increase the added chaos damage granted by this curse (Note: These increases are not reflected in the tooltip, they only display base values). This added damage is identical in function to other sources of added damage, such as Added Chaos Damage Support, and thus can be further increased by any of the applicable increases to the attacker's damage.
Cursed enemies have -x% to Chaos Resistance: The reduction to Chaos Resistance granted by this curse (after modifiers) stacks additively with the Occultist's Void Beacon Ascendancy passive and other similar effects.
Despair can be turned into an aura by linking it with either Blasphemy Support or Awakened Blasphemy Support.

Item acquisition

Despair can drop anywhere.

Recipes

Despair can be created from the following recipes:

Amount	Part	Description
3	The Bitter Blossom	Random corrupted level 21 Chaos gem with 23% quality
13	The Cataclysm	Random corrupted level 21 Spell gem
6	The Fox	Random level 20 gem
8	Dying Anguish	Random level 19 gem with 19% alternative quality
8	The Hook	Random corrupted level 21 gem with 23% alternative quality
3	Gemcutter's Promise	Random gem with 20% quality
1	Gemcutter's Incubator	Random gem with 1–20% quality
1	The Void	Random divination card set exchange

Quest reward

This item is given as a quest reward for the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Lost in Love Act 3	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗

Vendor reward

This item can be bought at the listed NPC vendors, after completing the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Lost in Love Act 3 Clarissa	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✓
A Fixture of Fate Act 3 Siosa	✓
Fallen from Grace Act 6 Lilly Roth	✓

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Despair.

Name	Level	Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Despair Duration 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	30% increased Despair Duration	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Despair Duration 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	45% increased Despair Duration	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Despair Effect 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	20% increased Despair Curse Effect	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Despair Effect 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	30% increased Despair Curse Effect	helmet 100 default 0

Related unique items

The following unique items are related to Despair:

Item

Base Item

Level

Stats

The Putrid Cloister

Museum Map

Players are Cursed with Vulnerability
Players are Cursed with Conductivity
Players are Cursed with Flammability
Players are Cursed with Frostbite
Players are Cursed with Despair
Unique Boss drops divination cards

Witchfire Brew

Stibnite Flask

Creates a Smoke Cloud on Use50% increased Charges per use
Grants Level 21 Despair Curse Aura during Flask Effect

Impresence

Onyx Amulet

+(10-16) to all Attributes(30-40)% increased Damage over Time
Adds (17-19) to (23-29) Chaos Damage
+(50-70) to maximum Life
+(17-23)% to Chaos Resistance
Despair has no Reservation if Cast as an Aura
Gain Maddening Presence for 10 seconds when you Kill a Rare or Unique Enemy

Impresence

Onyx Amulet

<Secondary Curse> has no Reservation if Cast as an Aura

Related passive skills

Cluster Jewel passive skills

The following Cluster Jewel passives are related to Despair:

Name	Stats
Misery Everlasting	40% increased Despair Curse Effect 10% increased Skill Effect Duration

Other sources

Mods

Name	Generation Type	Group	Level	Stats	Spawn Weighting
of the Hunt	Suffix	CurseOnHitLevel	75	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with 20% increased Effect	ring_basilisk 200 default 0
of the Hunt	Suffix	CurseOnHitLevel	80	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with 32% increased Effect	ring_basilisk 200 default 0
of the Hunt	Suffix	CurseOnHitDespair	78	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with 40% increased Effect	wand_basilisk 500 default 0
V2CurseOnHitDespair	Corrupted	CurseOnHitDespair	30	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with (40-48)% increased Effect	gloves 1000 default 0

Delve Fossil Mods

Note that since version 3.10.0, most fossil-only mods are disabled to spawn, including the mods below:

Name	Domain	Generation Type	Group	Level	Stats	Spawn Weighting
of the Underground	Delve	Suffix	CurseOnHitDespair	1	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with 40% increased Effect	abyss_jewel 0 jewel 0 one_hand_weapon 2000 default 0
of the Underground	Delve	Suffix	CurseOnHitDespair	1	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with 40% increased Effect	abyss_jewel 0 jewel 0 two_hand_weapon 2000 default 0

Delve Drop-only modifiers

Name	Generation Type	Group	Level	Stats
of the Underground	Suffix	CurseOnHitLevel	60	Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit, with 20% increased Effect

Legacy variants

Despair gems dropped before version 3.1.0 use the gem art of the current Vulnerability gem.