Rozemondbell

The core mechanics of Elemental Ailment Builds in Path of Exile (PoE) revolve around utilizing various elemental status effects—Ignite, Shock, Freeze, and Chill—to deal damage or debilitate enemies. These ailments scale with elemental damage and other modifiers, making them ideal for players who prefer non-critical strike builds. Here"s an in-depth breakdown of these mechanics:

 

1. Elemental Ailments

Ignite: Deals fire damage over time based on a percentage of the hit’s fire damage. Ignite can stack multiple times, but only the strongest ignite on a target deals damage.

Shock: Causes the enemy to take increased damage (up to 50% more) from all sources. The magnitude of the shock is based on the lightning damage dealt by the hit that applies it.

Freeze: Completely immobilizes the enemy for a duration based on the amount of Path of exile currency cold damage dealt in the hit.

Chill: Slows the enemy"s action speed, reducing their movement, attack, and cast speed by up to 30%. The strength of the chill is determined by the cold damage dealt.

2. Scaling Ailment Effects

Elemental Damage Scaling: Since ailments like Ignite, Shock, Freeze, and Chill are based on elemental damage, builds focus on increasing fire, cold, or lightning damage to maximize ailment effectiveness.

Ailment Duration: The longer an ailment lasts, the more potent its effect. Increasing ailment duration through passive nodes, gear, and skill gems will improve overall damage or debuff duration.

Damage Over Time: Ignite is a damage-over-time ailment, meaning that its damage can be amplified by modifiers to burning damage, fire damage over time, or increased damage over time.

3. Non-Critical Scaling

Elemental ailments can be applied regardless of whether or not a hit is a critical strike. This means builds can focus on raw elemental damage increases rather than crit chance or buy POE orbs crit damage multipliers, making them ideal for non-crit playstyles.

Many builds focus on elemental penetration, added elemental damage, and ailment duration rather than critical hit mechanics to enhance overall damage output.