Are ailments viable these days?

[Dr. Sarkasmus]

Does an ailment stacker work in this game?

Due to the fact, that you can reach any ailment from gear/skilltree/item stats, does it make to give it a try to build around them? Or are they too weak?

Do they scale with int/over time/damage like fire dmg for ignite or phys dmg for bleed?


Would like to get some thoughts about it. Thanks in advance :)

[Mekal]

1 - ailment are viable
2 - there are skills/items that shred enemy resistance
3 - skills/items that improve damage based on how many ailments the enemy has
4 - they scale

[Psykrom]

I made ailments work on void knight (void), paladin (fire/bleed), lich (poison/necrotic) and runemaster (lightning). There are definetly more options. Should work very well on Warlock too.

[Dr. Sarkasmus]

Originally posted by Mekal:

1 - ailment are viable
2 - there are skills/items that shred enemy resistance
3 - skills/items that improve damage based on how many ailments the enemy has
4 - they scale

thanks for the answer, thant sounds good

Originally posted by Psykrom:

I made ailments work on void knight (void), paladin (fire/bleed), lich (poison/necrotic) and runemaster (lightning). There are definetly more options. Should work very well on Warlock too.

thanks for the answer aswell :)

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Because we cannot login for now to watch the guide section, another summarizing question...

Does ignite scale with fire damage or damage over time or intellect or do ailements scale with an own seperate "ailment damage modifier"?
Would be cool to know, if you can scale them up passively anyway or if you would need to force their scaling with seperate own stats.

[76561198101928033]

First, you can make an ailment based build with any mastery. They all offer this possibility, although they tend to gravitate each around specific types (i.e. rogue is more suited for bleed/poison builds).

Added flat damage is irrelevant for ailments, as they have their own base damage value, and doesn't scale with the hit that applies them. So to scale up ailment damage you need :

- A lot of hits. So either a very fast hitting skill, one that hits multiple time when used, or skills that trigger other skills. In any case, attack/spell casting speed is critical.
Important : ailment don't "hit", but they need a skill that "hit" to apply them (as a rule : anything that can crit is a hit).
- A lot of %chance to apply the ailment. You want it as high as possible, as having more than 100% chance is still beneficial (200% chance to apply bleed will apply 2 stacks at once).
The damage of the hit, as well as its damage type, doesn't really matter, what's important here is the %chance to apply you get from your passives, gear, and the skill itself.
For example, one popular option for paladin is delivering bleeds with hammer throws triggering ligthning smites. The lightnng conversion here is not because we want this damage type specifically, but because it can hit in AE, shotgunning and applying at once a lot of bleed stacks to a mob in the middle of a group when multiple smites are triggered.
- Finally, ailments also scale with Damage other time, and the appropriate damage type (physical damage for bleed, Fire damage for ignite, etc.)

These three things are multiplicative, so it is possible to scale up ailments pretty well into end game. The advantage of ailment is that they are less affected by armor, so they keep consistancy as mobs become tougher, and can ignore some defense mechanisms.
The disadvantage of course is that you letting go instantaneous damage in favor of a ramping over time style, which means generally mobs tend to survive a bit longer and this can forces you to invest in more defense.

[Psykrom]

"damage over time" can appear as its very own % multiplier, or for specific elements or damage types (spells) as well on items and some skills. Not sure if it is unique item exclusive though. I think there are like 22 unique items that I found through damage over time in the filter.

[Psykrom]

The Ghost Maker has + flat necrotic damage for damage over time spells for example. So there are a few exceptions here and there but normal flat damage should not apply as was mentioned by theslay66.

[76561198101928033]

Originally posted by Psykrom:

The Ghost Maker has + flat necrotic damage for damage over time spells for example. So there are a few exceptions here and there but normal flat damage should not apply as was mentioned by theslay66.

Damage over time spells are not ailments. They do get benefit from flat spell damage, as well as intel/attunment scaling. I am specifically talking about ailment based builds.

[Psykrom]

Yes ailments are not damage over time spells. It was only an example. There is eye of reen for example, build around ignite and with stacks increasing fire damage over time, which should scale ignite ailment fire damage in consequence.

[Psykrom]

You mean in the example of the ghost maker, the flat damage to damage over time does nothing for the Damned hybrid ailment?

EDIT: I found my error now, because it states on The Ghost Maker, that the damage over time is working exclusively for spells...
Aberrant Call might be a better example then.

[Psykrom]

Damage over Time ailments:

Bleed (physical DoT)
Electrify (lightning DoT)
Ignite (fire DoT)

Hybrid ailments with damage over time components and debuffs:

Damned (necrotic DoT)
Doom (void DoT)
Frostbite (cold DoT)
Poison (poison DoT)
Time Rot (void DoT)

[Dr. Sarkasmus]

Thanks again, very much appreciated.

Good to read some calm and clear infos during this hectic time <3

I guess, i have no more questions. Thanks again :)