Lightning Strike - Path of Exile

Lightning Strike is an active skill gem.

Infuses your melee weapon with electrical energies as you swing. In addition to converting some of your physical damage to lightning damage, the stored energy is released from the weapon as projectiles as you strike, flying out to hit farther-away enemies. The projectiles cannot miss if the melee attack hits a target.

Attack, Projectile, Melee, Strike, Lightning. Level: 1–20. Cost: 6 Mana. Effectiveness of Added Damage: 135–225%. Requires Level 12.

50% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage
(1–9) to (13–179) Added Lightning Damage
Fires 2 additional Projectiles

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
Lightning Strike	(0–20)% increased Projectile Speed	50

PoE 3.20 Changes

Lightning Strike

Removed	20% increased Damage
Modified	New: Fires 2 additional Projectiles Old: Fires 7 additional Projectiles

Problem: Lightning Strike is currently overperforming in comparison to other skills. It is very good at both clearing and dealing single-target damage.

Solution: We've changed the number of additional projectiles fired by Lightning Strike. It now requires more investment in additional projectiles for improved clear speed.

Specifics:

Lightning Strike now Fires 2 additional Projectiles at all gem levels (previously 4 at gem level 1, up to 7 at gem level 20). Quality on Lightning Strike no longer provides 0-20% increased Damage.
Quality on Vaal Lightning Strike no longer provides 0-20% increased Damage.
Quality on Divergent Lightning Strike no longer provides "Fire 0-2 additional Projectiles." Instead, it now provides 0-20% chance to Shock enemies.
Labyrinth Helmet Enchantments that cause Lightning Strike to fire additional Projectiles now have values of 1 and 2 (previously 2 and 3).

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Related Gems

Name	Additional Effects From Quality	Weight
Lightning Strike	(0–20)% increased Projectile Speed	50
Anomalous Lightning Strike	Projectiles Pierce (0–2) additional Targets	100
Divergent Lightning Strike	0-20% chance to Shock enemies	20
Phantasmal Lightning Strike	(0–20)% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage	100

Level Effect

Level	Requires Level	Dexterity	Intelligence	Base Damage	1 to 13 Added Lightning Damage	Experience
1	12	21	14	135%	1, 13	15,249
2	15	25	17	139.7%	1, 16	41,517
3	19	30	21	144.5%	1, 20	81,983
4	23	35	24	149.2%	1, 25	147,968
5	27	41	28	153.9%	2, 31	250,557
6	31	46	32	158.7%	2, 37	405,086
7	35	51	36	163.4%	2, 45	447,718
8	38	55	38	168.2%	3, 51	615,318
9	41	59	41	172.9%	3, 59	834,639
10	44	63	44	177.6%	3, 66	1,570,760
11	47	67	47	182.4%	4, 75	1,633,987
12	50	71	49	187.1%	4, 85	2,151,030
13	53	75	52	191.8%	5, 95	2,812,189
14	56	79	55	196.6%	6, 107	5,099,360
15	59	83	58	201.3%	6, 120	9,400,731
16	62	87	60	206.1%	7, 134	15,273,366
17	64	90	62	210.8%	8, 144	26,286,582
18	66	92	64	215.5%	8, 155	62,890,590
19	68	95	66	220.3%	9, 167	212,046,017
20	70	98	68	225%	9, 179
21	72			229.7%	10, 192
22	74			234.5%	11, 206
23	76			239.2%	12, 221
24	78			243.9%	12, 237
25	80			248.7%	13, 254
26	82			253.4%	14, 272
27	84			258.2%	15, 291
28	86			262.9%	16, 311
29	88			267.6%	18, 333
30	90			272.4%	19, 355
31	91			274.7%	19, 367
32	92			277.1%	20, 380
33	93			279.5%	21, 392
34	94			281.8%	21, 405
35	95			284.2%	22, 419
36	96			286.6%	23, 433
37	97			288.9%	24, 447
38	98			291.3%	24, 462
39	99			293.7%	25, 477
40	100			296.1%	26, 492

Lightning Strike is a melee strike attack skill that converts physical damage to lightning damage. It has a secondary effect where it launches projectiles that deal damage based on the player character's weapon damage with each swing.

Skill functions and interactions

An attack with Lightning Strike consists of two parts:

An initial melee hit with the gem tags Lightning, Attack, Melee, Strike
A projectile attack with the gem tags Lightning, Attack, Projectile

When the melee attack is made, a number of lightning projectiles (five at level one, increasing with gem level) will shoot out in a ~85 degree arc, traveling in a straight line untill they strike an enemy. Unmodified projectiles will do 75% of full weapon damage, of which 50% of physical damage is converted to lightning damage (the bolts benefit from added damage, e.g. as from aura's), against any target struck. Linking a Lesser Multiple Projectiles Support or Greater Multiple Projectiles Support support gem will multiplicatively reduce the damage of each projectile and spread further projectiles out within the 85 degree arc.

Cannot Miss: This applies only to the projectiles launched after you initiated the strike. Swinging in enemies' general direction will result in projectiles with a hit/miss chance equal to that of the skill itself. Projectiles that miss will be dissipated without doing damage.

Damage conversion: Like all converted damage, the lightning portion of Lightning Strike's damage will be modified by both lightning damage and physical damage increases. Furthermore, the damage done by the lightning bolts is considered projectile damage (instead of melee), therefore any Strength bonus does not apply.

It is important to note that despite the confusing wording of this skill, the projectile portion of this attack in no way scales off the melee portion of the attack - in essence, the Lightning Strike skill does two completely separate things simultaneously, a melee attack (which deals x% of the base damage, and of which 50% of the physical damage is converted to lightning damage), and a ranged attack (which shoots projectiles, which deal 75% of the attack damage of the attack each, and of which 50% of the physical damage is converted to lightning damage).

This means that increasing the melee portion of the hit through melee-exclusive means such as Melee Physical Damage Support will not actually increase the projectile damage; the projectile damage is not "converted melee damage", a common misconception. Do not be deceived by the tooltip DPS of this skill which will change if you apply a melee-exclusive modifier; the tooltip DPS only shows the DPS of the melee portion of the attack and things that modify that, but not the projectile part of the attack.

That said, passive points that grant Increased damage with one-handed melee weapons for example will in fact affect the projectile attack as well if one is using a one-handed weapon, since it is still an attack that is dealt with a melee weapon (though the damage you're dealing is not actually melee damage). However, Increased melee damage with one-handed weapons would only apply to the melee portion of the attack, as it increases melee damage.

Any flat elemental damage gains from gear, auras, weapons or any other source will apply to both the projectile and the melee portion of the attack.

Dual Wielding: Dual wielding attacks with Lightning Strike will alternate the weapon being swung.

Life on Hit: The stated amount of life on hit will be restored for the initial hit and each time a projectile strikes an enemy.

Piercing Projectiles: Lightning Strike projectiles which pierce an enemy and strike another will do the usual projectile damage to all enemies struck.

Point Blank: Projectiles are affected by Point Blank even though the melee attack is not.

Iron Grip: Taking iron grip will apply Strength damage bonus to projectile portion of attack. Without iron grip only the melee portion of attack receives damage bonus from Strength.

Reflect: Reflected attack damage (whether physical or elemental) can be evaded, blocked and dodged.

Chain: Projectiles can chain (for example if linked with Chain Support), however they won't chain if they pierce.

The modifier x% of Physical Damage added as from things like Hatred and Added Fire Damage is based on physical damage before conversions. So it will be based on the full base damage, not just the 50% physical part. This applies to both - melee damage and projectile damage.

Ancestral Call Support: If there are additional targets within range, Ancestral Call will target and attempt to strike additional enemies; these strikes will release projectiles in the direction of the target struck. Without additional targets, Lightning Strike will not swing aside from the main strike and thus not produce extra projectiles. However, against single targets, you can benefit from additional strikes from Ancestral Call Support and other similar bonuses by attacking outside melee range. This will create two lightning strikes, one from Ancestral Call which hits the target, and one from your own attack which will fire projectiles that can also hit the target. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxiBvBzunj8

Behead Support: Lightning Strike can be linked with Behead Support. Both the melee strike and projectile portions of Lightning Strike can grant the Behead buff on killing blow as well as refresh the buff on hit.

Item acquisition

Lightning Strike can drop anywhere. Drop level: 12.

Recipes

Lightning Strike can be created from the following recipes:

Amount	Part	Description
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
The Siren's Cadence Act 1	✗	✗	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗

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
The Siren's Cadence Act 1 Nessa	✗	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
A Fixture of Fate Act 3 Siosa	✓
Fallen from Grace Act 6 Lilly Roth	✓

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Lightning Strike.

Name	Level	Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Lightning Strike Additional Pierce 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Lightning Strike pierces 1 additional Targets	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Lightning Strike Additional Pierce 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Lightning Strike pierces 2 additional Targets	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Lightning Strike Damage 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	25% increased Lightning Strike Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Lightning Strike Damage 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	40% increased Lightning Strike Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Lightning Strike Num Of Additional Projectiles 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Lightning Strike fires 1 additional Projectiles	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Lightning Strike Num Of Additional Projectiles 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Lightning Strike fires 2 additional Projectiles	helmet 100 default 0

Alternate skill effects

Lightning Strike has the following alternate skill effects:

Item	Effect(s)
Myrmidon Lightning Strike Effect	Your Lightning Strike becomes a Myrmidon Effect.