Vaal Molten Shell PoE Build, Links, Support Gems

Vaal Molten Shell Vaal Molten Shell is a vaal spell that creates a shell around the user that grants extra armour and absorbs incoming hits, absorbing more damage with increased armour. Each second or when expiring, the shell deals fire damage around it based on how much damage it has absorbed.

Applies a buff that raises your armour, and takes some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. Each second, the skill deals reflected damage to surrounding enemies based on the damage taken by the buff in that second. When the buff is removed, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken by the buff. You cannot have the buff at the same time as any other Guard skill.Applies a buff that adds to your armour, and can take some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. When the buff expires or is depleted, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken from the buff. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.

Spell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Vaal, Guard. Level: 1–20. Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec. Souls Per Use: 50. Can Store 1 Use. Soul Gain Prevention: 14 sec. Cast Time: Instant. Requires Level 4. Level: 1–40. Cost: 8–17 Mana. Cooldown Time: 4.00 sec. Requires Level 4.

  • Base duration is 9 seconds
  • Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill"s Soul Gain Prevention
  • (35–39)% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield
    Buff can take Damage equal to 30% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 30000
  • Reflects (300–9000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage each second,
    or when Buff expires or is depleted
  • Buff grants +(50–858) to Armour
  • CorruptedBase duration is 3 seconds
  • This Skill"s Cooldown does not recover during its effect
  • 75% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield
    Buff can take Damage equal to 20% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 10000
  • Reflects (100–10230)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage when Buff expires or is depleted
  • Buff grants +(50–1929) to Armour
  • base skill show average damage instead of dps [1]
  • damage originates from initiator location [1]
  • is area damage [1]
  • skill override pvp scaling time ms [200]

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

NameAdditional Effects From QualityWeight
Vaal Molten Shell(0–20)% increased Skill Effect Duration50

Vaal Molten Shell Support Gems

  • Cast when Damage Taken Support Cast when Damage Taken Support – It causes a linked spell to trigger when the player takes a certain amount of damage.
  • Increased Duration Support Increased Duration Support – It will increase the duration of any effects produced by the supported skill.
  • Enlighten Support Enlighten Support – Reduces the mana reserved of the aura by the amount of the mana multiplier.
  • Empower Support Empower Support – Adds levels to supported auras, but increases their cost by the mana multiplier.
  • Enhance Support Enhance Support – Increases the quality of the gem, granting increased area of effect, but at increased mana cost.

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Related Gems

Vaal Molten Shell Strategy

Unlike its non-Vaal counterpart, Vaal Molten Shell Vaal Molten Shell will persist for the full duration, regardless of how many times an explosion is triggered. This unique property offers potentially vastly more utility than Molten Shell Molten Shell at the cost of less availability. Because of this, it is recommended that Vaal Molten Shell Vaal Molten Shell be saved for an occasion in which it will offer the greatest benefit, such as during an encounter with a unique monster or even a troublesome rare.

Due to the nature of Vaal Molten Shell Vaal Molten Shell, it has synergy with support gems that utilize the potentially frequent explosions, such as stun or life leech; however, the rather steep soul cost of Vaal Molten Shell Vaal Molten Shell gates the strength of the gem. In addition, while the armour offered during Vaal Molten Shell Vaal Molten Shell’s duration is first-rate, it may cause conflicts with Cast when Damage Taken Support Cast when Damage Taken Support.

Items which deal damage to you will also trigger the explosion:

  • Scold’s Bridle Scold’s Bridle when using any skill
  • Eye of Innocence Eye of Innocence when igniting an enemy

Most popular skills build with Molten Shell

  • Cyclone Cyclone(Green): 37%
  • Vaal Cyclone Vaal Cyclone(Green): 7%
  • Lacerate Lacerate(Green): 7%
  • Raise Zombie Raise Zombie(Blue): 4%
  • Raise Spectre Raise Spectre(Blue): 3%
  • Flicker Strike Flicker Strike(Green): 3%
  • Spark Spark(Blue): 3%
  • Herald of Agony Herald of Agony(Green): 3%
  • Aspect of the Avian(Aspect Skill): 3%
  • Puncture Puncture(Green): 3%

Level Effect

LevelRequires LevelStrengthBuff grants +50 to Armour35% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield
Buff can take Damage equal to 30% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 30000
Reflects 300% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage each second,
or when Buff expires or is depleted
Experience
14165035, 30, 30000300, 1841
26206035, 30, 30000390, 13,099
39277435, 30, 30000540, 17,433
412339135, 30, 30000750, 122,895
5164111536, 30, 30000990, 149,725
6205014136, 30, 300001260, 195,714
7245817136, 30, 300001590, 1169,595
8286720436, 30, 300001950, 1283,759
9327524137, 30, 300002340, 1453,996
10368328237, 30, 300002760, 1703,128
11409232837, 30, 300003240, 11,061,223
124410037837, 30, 300003750, 12,065,870
134810943338, 30, 300004290, 12,507,110
145211749538, 30, 300004860, 12,573,731
155512354538, 30, 300005460, 17,611,351
165813059938, 30, 300006120, 113,437,908
176113665739, 30, 300006780, 125,052,147
186414271939, 30, 300007500, 143,869,436
196714878639, 30, 300008220, 1242,081,178
207015585839, 30, 300009000, 1
217290940, 30, 300009810, 1
227496240, 30, 3000010650, 1
2376101840, 30, 3000011490, 1
2478107640, 30, 3000012390, 1
2580113741, 30, 3000013320, 1
2682120141, 30, 3000014280, 1
2784126841, 30, 3000015270, 1
2886133841, 30, 3000016290, 1
2988141242, 30, 3000017310, 1
3090148842, 30, 3000018390, 1
3191152842, 30, 3000019500, 1
3292156942, 30, 3000020640, 1
3393161042, 30, 3000021780, 1
3494165342, 30, 3000022980, 1
3595169642, 30, 3000024180, 1
3696174143, 30, 3000025440, 1
3797178643, 30, 3000026700, 1
3898183343, 30, 3000028020, 1
3999188043, 30, 3000029340, 1
40100192943, 30, 3000030690, 1
LevelRequires LevelCostBuff grants +50 to ArmourReflects 100% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage when Buff expires or is depletedExperience
14850100
26860130
39874180
412891250
5169115330
6209141420
7249171530
8289204650
93210241780
103610282920
1140103281080
1244103781250
1348114331430
1452114951620
1555115451820
1658115992040
1761126572260
1864127192500
1967127862740
2070128583000
2172139093270
2274139623550
23761310183830
24781310764130
25801411374440
26821412014760
27841412685090
28861413385430
29881514125770
30901514886130
31911515286500
32921515696880
33931616107260
34941616537660
35951616968060
36961617418480
37971717868900
38981718339340
39991718809780
4010017192910230

Vaal Molten Shell is a vaal spell that creates a shell around the user that grants extra armour and absorbs incoming hits, absorbing more damage with increased armour. Each second or when expiring, the shell deals fire damage around it based on how much damage it has absorbed.

Skill functions and interactions

  • Duration: Skill duration modifiers will increase the duration of Vaal Molten Shell.
  • Critical Strike Chance: Since Vaal Molten Shell deals reflected damage, its damage cannot critically strike.
  • Damage reflection: Vaal Molten Shell doesn't trigger on reflected damage.
  • Molten Shell: Molten Shell and Vaal Molten Shell will replace each other's respective buff when cast, if possible. Due to how guard skill cooldowns are shared you can cast Molten Shell constantly without risking removing your Vaal Molten Shell buff, because if you do so Molten Shell will never be off cooldown while Vaal Molten Shell is active.
  • Order of Operations: Guard skills happen after all other mitigation when receiving damage, so your character always takes 65-70% of damage directly to their base resources (ward, energy shield, life, mana). To reach the damage cap of a level 20 gem, the character would need to heal (.65/.35*30000=) 55714 points of the affected resource(s) over the buff's duration.
  • Soul Gain Prevention is only applied after the buff effect is calculated, so the modifier Chosen will grant additional Armour during and after the skill's effect, but the added Armour will not be taken into account when calculating the buff's damage absorption.

All Guard skills

Below are the 5 skill gems with the Guard gem tag:

Gem Level Level Level Level
Arcane Cloak N/A N/A 16
Immortal Call N/A N/A 34
Molten Shell N/A N/A 1
Steelskin N/A N/A 1
Vaal Molten Shell N/A N/A 1

Strategy

Unlike its non-Vaal counterpart, Vaal Molten Shell will persist for the full duration, regardless of how many times an explosion is triggered. This unique property offers potentially vastly more utility than Molten Shell at the cost of less availability. Because of this, it is recommended that Vaal Molten Shell be saved for an occasion in which it will offer the greatest benefit, such as during an encounter with a unique monster or even a troublesome rare.

Due to the nature of Vaal Molten Shell, it has synergy with support gems that utilize the potentially frequent explosions, such as stun or life leech; however, the rather steep soul cost of Vaal Molten Shell gates the strength of the gem. In addition, while the armour offered during Vaal Molten Shell's duration is first-rate, it may cause conflicts with Cast when Damage Taken Support.

Items which deal damage to you will also trigger the explosion:

  • Scold's Bridle when using any skill
  • Eye of Innocence when igniting an enemy

Item acquisition

Vaal Molten Shell has restrictions on where or how it can drop. Drop level: 4. Vaal Molten Shell can drop from the Vaal Vessels found in Vaal side areas.

Recipes

Vaal Molten Shell can be created from the following recipes:

Amount Part Description
6 The Magma Crab Level 21 Vaal Molten Shell
9 Volatile Power Random corrupted Vaal gem with 20% quality
1 The Void Random divination card set exchange

Alternate skill effects

Vaal Molten Shell has the following alternate skill effects:

Item Effect(s)
Invisible Buff Effect Removes the visual effects on the player from arctic armour, tempest shield, blood rage, molten shell, plague bearer, phase run, petrified blood, any aura, any blasphemied curse, or any herald gem.
Stygian Molten Shell Effect Your Molten Shell becomes a Stygian Effect.
Viper Molten Shell Effect Your Molten Shell becomes a Viper Effect.

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