Elemental Damage over Time - Path of Exile

Greatly improve the base strength of Ignite, Burning and Cold Damage over Time

Greatly improve the base strength of Ignite, Burning and Cold Damage over Time, while making Elemental Overload and Elemental Equilibrium less powerful or require more investment with Damage over Time skills. Rebalance skills that could apply Ignite effects around the new base damage of Ignite and remove the Ignite Damage multipliers.

Player Ignite now inherently deals 150% more Damage than before (previously 50% of base Damage over 4 seconds, now 125% of base Damage over 4 seconds). Cold Damage over Time Skills now deal more damage:

  • Creeping Frost Creeping Frost now deals 18.4 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 16.7), up to 2225.6 at gem level 20 (previously 1391.2). Its Hit Damage remains unchanged.
  • Wintertide Brand Wintertide Brand now deals 13.7 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 12.5), up to 261.2 at gem level 20 (previously 164.6).
  • Cold Snap Cold Snap now deals 34 to 52 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 32 to 47), up to 1057 to 1586 at gem level 20 (previously 666 to 999). It also now deals 28.7 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 26.3), up to 1894 at gem level 20 (previously 1193.2). It now has 240% Effectiveness of Added Damage at all gem levels (previously 140%).
  • Vaal Cold Snap Vaal Cold Snap now deals 37.8 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 34.3), up to 2454.4 at gem level 20 (previously 1532.7). Its Hit Damage remains unchanged.
  • Vortex Vortex now deals 42 to 63 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 38 to 57), up to 833 to 1250 at gem level 20 (previously 524 to 787). It now deals 116.2 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 106.5), up to 2315.1 at gem level 20 (previously 1456.9). It now has a Critical Strike Chance of 6% (previously 6.5%), and 180% Effectiveness of Added Damage at all gem levels (previously 100%).
  • Siphoning Trap Siphoning Trap now deals 16.9 Base Cold Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 15.5), up to 760.7 at gem level 20 (previously 426.3).

Burning skills now deal more damage:

  • Searing Bond Searing Bond now deals 32.2 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 29.4), up to 3899.6 at gem level 20 (previously 2459.5).
  • Scorching Ray Scorching Ray now deals 12.8 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 11.7), up to 696.3 at gem level 20 (previously 439.4).
  • Righteous Fire Righteous Fire now deals 39 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 35.8), up to 2447.9 at gem level 20 (previously 1541.8). It also now deals 35% of Life and Energy Shield as Base Fire Damage per second (previously 20%).
  • Vaal Righteous Fire Vaal Righteous Fire now deals 120% of Sacrificed Energy Shield and Life as Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 80%), up to 158% at gem level 20 (previously 99%).
  • Fire Trap Fire Trap now deals 35.7 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (previously 32.5), up to 2934.9 at gem level 20 (previously 1833.6). Its Hit Damage remains unchanged.
  • Flame Wall Flame Wall now deals 2.2 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 679.9 at gem level 20 (previously 456.3). Its secondary Debuff now deals 7.2 Base Fire Damage per second at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 2266.4 at gem level 20 (previously 1520.9).
  • Infernal Legion Support Infernal Legion Support now has “Minions from Supported Skills Deal 15.4 Fire Damage per second to Enemies near them” at gem level 1 (previously 15.6), up to 2092.6 at gem level 20 (previously 1315.9).

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Many Skills that had an Ignite Multiplier have had that Multiplier removed. The Skill has been balanced to compensate for this, if necessary. Certain Skills have been rebalanced due to the change to Base Ignite Damage, taking into account whether they’re able to take full advantage of Elemental Overload now. Note that examples below do not include the effect of Elemental Overload or Elemental Equilibrium, hence why the Ignite value is much higher for many of the skills:

# Description
1 Fireball Fireball no longer has 50-88% more Damage with Ignite. It now has 25% chance to Ignite at all gem levels (previously 20-39%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 33.0% higher.
2 Vaal Fireball Vaal Fireball no longer has 50-88% more Damage with Ignite. It now has 25% chance to Ignite at all gem levels (previously 20-39%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 33.0% higher.
3 Discharge Discharge now has 55% less Damage with Ailments (previously 30%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 60.7% higher.
4 Flameblast Flameblast now has 60% more Damage with Ailments for each Stage (previously 90%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 75.0% higher at 10 Stages.
5 Vaal Flameblast Vaal Flameblast now has 70% more Damage with Ailments for each Stage (previously 100%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 81.8% higher at 10 Stages.
6 Incinerate Incinerate now has “Final wave deals 250% more Damage with Ignite” (previously 500%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 45.8% higher. It received a harsher damage loss because it still works very well with Elemental Overload.
7 Quality on Anomalous Firestorm Firestorm no longer grants “(0.00)-(-0.06) seconds to Base Duration”, or “First Impact deals 0-60% more Damage with Hits and Ailments”. Instead, it now grants 0-10% chance to Ignite Enemies. Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 150% higher. If using the Anomalous quality, the Ignite is now 110% higher.
8 Fire Burst (Granted by the “Cast Level 20 Fire Burst on Hit” Essence Modifier) now deals 752 to 1127 Fire Damage at level 20 (previously 1122 to 1683). Now has a 1 second Cooldown (previously 1.5 seconds). It now has 170% Effectiveness of Added Damage (previously 250%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 67.5% higher.
9 Hexblast Hexblast now deals 103 to 155 Chaos Damage at gem level 1 (previously 74 to 110), up to 965 to 1447 at gem level 20 (previously 689 to 1034). It now has “40% more Damage with Hits per 5 Doom on Hex with most Doom” (previously 60%), and “15% more Damage with Ailments per 5 Doom on Hex with most Doom” (previously 40%). It now has 210% Effectiveness of Added Damage at all gem levels (previously 150%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 95.6% higher at 30 Doom, and 83.3% higher at 40 doom.
10 Doom Blast (from Impending Doom Support Impending Doom Support) now deals 54 to 81 Chaos Damage at gem level 1 (previously 39 to 58), up to 602 to 903 at gem level 20 (previously 430 to 645). It now has “40% more Damage with Hits per 5 Doom on Hex”, and “15% more Damage with Ailments per 5 Doom on Hex”. It no longer has “60% more Damage per 5 Doom on Hex”. It now has 140% Effectiveness of Added Damage at all gem levels (previously 100%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 44.6% higher at 30 Doom, and 32.8% higher at 40 doom.
11 Divine Ire Divine Ire now has “Beam deals 30% more Damage with Ailments per Stage after the first” (previously 70%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 7.1% higher at 20 Stages. It received a harsher damage loss because it still works very well with Elemental Overload, and was already one of the highest Ignite damage skills.
12 Penance Brand Penance Brand now has “Explosions deal 60% more Damage with Ailments per Energy after the first” (previously 100%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 54.8% higher.
13 Explosive Concoction Explosive Concoction no longer has “Deals 30-49% more Damage with Ignite if Charges were consumed from a Ruby Flask”. It now has “+40-78% to Damage over Time Multiplier with Ignite if Charges were consumed from a Ruby Flask”. Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 155.0% higher if you had +50% to Fire Damage over Time Multiplier.
14 Armageddon Brand Armageddon Brand now deals 40 to 69 Fire Damage at gem level 1 (previously 34 to 51), up to 613 to 920 at gem level 20 (previously 398 to 597). It no longer has 120-250% more Damage with Ignite, or 25% chance to Ignite Enemies. It now activates every 1 second while Attached (previously 0.75 seconds), and has a base Critical Strike Chance of 5% (previously 6%). It now has “Deals 10% more hit Damage to Branded Enemy” at gem level 1, which scales up to 29% at gem level 20. It also now has 135% Effectiveness of Added Damage at all gem levels (previously 85%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 10.1% higher. It received a harsher damage loss because it still works very well with Elemental Overload.
15 Shattering Steel Shattering Steel now has “Projectiles deal up to 100% more Damage with Hits per Steel Shard consumed at the start of their movement, lowering this bonus as they travel farther” (previously Hits and Ailments). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 16.7% lower when consuming 2 shards. This skill is not intended to work well with ignite so it doesn’t justify having its own unique multiplier stat.
16 Explosive Arrow Explosive Arrow now has “Explosion deals 5% more Damage with Hits per Explosive Arrow Explosive Arrow on Target” (previously Hits and Ailments). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 66.7% higher with 10 arrows on the target. Ignite with the skill is now 25.0% higher with 20 arrows on the target.
17 Sentinels of Purity summoned with Herald of Purity Herald of Purity now have 40% less Life. Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 50.0% higher when using the Death Wish skill from the Maw of Mischief Maw of Mischief Unique Helmet.
18 Frost Bomb Frost Bomb now deals 8 to 13 Cold Damage at gem level 1 (previously 14 to 21), up to 930 to 1395 at gem level 20 (previously 1336 to 2003). It no longer has 25% reduced Energy Shield Recharge Rate. It now has “4% more Damage with Hits per 0.1 seconds Duration”. It now has 210% Effectiveness of Added Damage at all gem levels (previously 300%). Because of base Ignite damage changes, Ignite with the skill is now 74.1% higher when it is able to ignite.

The Elemental Overload Keystone Passive Skill now gives more Hit and Ailment Elemental Damage to Skills if they crit in the last 8 seconds. This means that you can’t use a second rapidly hitting skill, making a small amount of critical chance investment much more important to skills taking advantage of Elemental Overload.

The Elemental Equilibrium Keystone Passive Skill now applies 25% Exposure of the Elements not Hit with, removing Exposure of the Elements you Hit with. It’s now an easy way to apply a strong Exposure effect rather than a huge damage boost that we balanced Elemental Damage over Time Skills around. Some other skills have been reviewed because of these changes.

  • The damage dealt by Flame, Ice and Lightning Golems has been increased by roughly 30% at all gem levels.
  • Summoned Raging Spirits now convert all of their Damage to Fire Damage.
  • Moved the Elemental Equilibrium Keystone Passive to the Ranger section of the Passive Skill Tree, where there is much less existing access to Exposure for Elemental builds and access to Skills that rotate Elements, such as Wild Strike Wild Strike.

More scaling options have been added to Damage over Time builds on the Passive Skill Tree and items, raising the top end of damage over time for well geared characters.

  • There are now 5 tiers of the Global Damage over Time Multiplier Suffix modifier that rolls on all Weapons, going up to 26% on one-handed Weapons, and 45% on two-handed Weapons.
  • There are now 5 tiers of the Global Damage over Time Multiplier Suffix modifier that rolls on all Amulets as part of their base modifier pool, going up to 26%.
  • The Influence modifiers on Rings that had a chance to Ignite/Freeze/Shock as well as some flat Damage have been changed. They no longer provide a chance to apply the Ailment, but provide a lot more added Damage instead. The Fire version rolls up to 23-30 to 47-54 Fire Damage against Ignited Enemies, the Cold version rolls up to 20-26 to 41-48 Cold Damage against Chilled or Frozen Enemies, and the Lightning version rolls up to 4-8 to 82-86 Lightning Damage against Shocked Enemies.
  • Essence of Delirium Essence of Delirium no longer rolls “Hexes you inflict have +5 to maximum Doom” on Rings, or +10% to Damage over Time Multiplier on Amulets. Instead, it now rolls +12-15% to Damage over Time Multiplier on Rings, and “Hexes you inflict have +10 to maximum Doom” on Amulets.
  • Fire, Cold, Physical, and Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier modifiers on Jewels now have values of +6-8% (previously +3-4%).
  • There is a new Global Damage over Time Multiplier Suffix modifier that can roll on all Jewels with a value of +4-6%.
  • All Jewels can now roll a Faster Damage of Ailments Prefix modifier, with a value of 4-6%.
  • The chance to Ignite/Freeze/Shock Suffix modifiers on Weapons now have multiple tiers, with their chances now 10%, 15%, and 20% respectively. Staves have a 20%, 25%, and 30% chance respectively.
  • Damage over Time Multiplier modifiers on Influenced Gloves and Amulets now roll values up to +16-20% at its highest tier (previously +13-16%).
  • Faster Ignite, Poison, and Bleed modifiers on Influenced Boots now roll up to 10-12% (previously 8-10%).
  • Emberwake Emberwake added a bit too much damage and crowded out any other options you could use with an Ignite build, and the downside has gotten weaker over time due to us adding more sources of Faster Ignite Damage. It no longer has “Ignited Enemies Burn 50-65% slower”, and it now has “40% less Burning Damage”. This change does not affect existing items.

Redesign the skill without a secondary stacking burning effect

Redesign the skill without a secondary stacking burning effect, but with high added fire damage against Ignited enemies.

  • No longer has a stacking Burning Effect. Now deals 150% base Damage at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 214% at gem level 20 (previously 184%). Now adds 3 to 4 Fire Damage to Attacks against Ignited Enemies at gem level 1, up to 201 to 302 Fire Damage at gem level 20. Now has an Attack Speed of 90% of Base (previously 100%). Now has a 25% chance to Ignite (previously 50%).
  • Vaal Burning Arrow Vaal Burning Arrow can now store 4 Uses (previously 3), and has a 2 second Soul Gain Prevention (previously 1 second). It no longer has a stacking Burning Effect, and now adds 3 to 4 Fire Damage to Attacks against Ignited Enemies at gem level 1, up to 201 to 302 Fire Damage at gem level 20. It now has an Attack Speed of 90% of Base (previously 100%), and deals 200% of base Attack Damage at gem level 1 (previously 160%), up to 284% at gem level 20 (previously 198%). It also now has 200% Effectiveness of Added Damage at gem level 1 (previously 160%), up to 284% at gem level 20 (previously 198%).
  • The Sudden Ignition Sudden Ignition Unique Jewels no longer has “With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Burning Arrow Burning Arrow can inflict an additional Ignite on an Enemy and cannot apply its Burning Debuff”. Existing items now have “Ignited Enemies Killed by your Hits are destroyed”. Note, this item has not been obtainable since 3.9.0.
  • The Pitch Darkness Pitch Darkness Unique Jewel no longer grants Burning Arrow Burning Arrow chances to spread Burning Ground or Tar with at least 40 Dexterity in Radius. Existing Items now have “+10% to Fire Damage over Time Multiplier”. Note, this item has not been obtainable since 3.9.0.

Flame Surge

Flame Surge now creates a burning ground that deals damage equal to a percentage of that ignite if you hit an ignited enemy. Burning Ground can be created every 2 seconds, with a percentage of Ignite Damage on the enemy converted to Burning Ground.

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