How Does Chaos Damage Work in Path of Exile?
Chaos Damage Overview
Chaos damage is one of the five damage types in Path of Exile. It is the rarest damage type and the hardest to get resistance against. Notably, chaos damage can bypass energy shield, directly reducing life or mana.
Mechanics of Chaos Damage
- Chaos damage reduction is based on resistance value.
- However, it is not considered elemental damage.
- One can become immune to chaos damage through the Chaos Inoculation keystone passive.
Debuffs Related to Chaos Damage
Additionally, poison is a debuff that deals chaos damage over time. In-game, chaos damage seems to be analogous to poison, suggesting that chaos damage fundamentally equates to poison damage.
Comparison with Other Damage Types
Interestingly, there also exists a kind of soul-related damage type, as seen in skills like forbidden rite and essence drain. Overall, the only form of defense against chaos damage is the Chaos Inoculation passive, as there are no other resistances available.
Understanding Poison as a Type of Chaos Damage
In Path of Exile, poison is a damaging ailment that deals chaos damage over time. It specifically deals 20% of a hit’s combined physical and chaos damage (before mitigation and damage taken modifiers) as chaos damage per second for 2 seconds. This percentage can be affected multiplicatively by ailment effect/magnitude.
The base magnitude of poison is chaos damage per second equal to 20% of the physical and chaos damage dealt by the hit that inflicted it. This calculation involves the final damage from the hit, excluding any modifiers on the target that impact damage taken. Modifiers affecting the enemy’s ability to mitigate damage, such as Shock, can influence poison damage, but modifiers like Penetration that apply specifically to hit damage do not.
Each instance of poison has an independent duration, with a default base duration of 2 seconds. Therefore, increasing poison duration results in a longer-lasting poison with the same damage per second, leading to more total damage. Although poison can stack, it has a default stack limit of 1, which can be increased through various stats or modifiers. Only the highest damage instance(s) up to this stack limit will deal damage.
The poison damage per second from a single application is based on 30% of the combined flat physical and chaos damage of the hit. Notably, this damages per second does not depend on hit damage taken by the enemy; it begins with flat damage (base and added modified by conversion) prior to modifiers. As a consequence, this prevents chaos resistance from mitigating poison damage twice.
Additionally, critical strikes that deal physical or chaos damage do not inherently increase chance to poison. However, damaging ailments from critical strikes benefit from a bonus +50% damage over time multiplier, which stacks additively with other sources of damage over time multipliers. Thus, modifiers that apply to ailments can significantly enhance the effectiveness of poison damage in gameplay.
Moreover, poison is exclusively inflicted by hits of physical and chaos damage by default. It is important to note that the damage delivered by poison is derived directly from the physical and chaos damage of the hit that applied it and cannot be altered afterward. More poison magnitude results in more damage transferred, and greater regular hit damage leads to increased poison damage from transfer.
In summary, one can utilize skills and modifiers to boost the duration of poisons on enemies, enhancing the potency of chaos damage over time. Overall, chaos damage is less common than other damage types and is frequently represented as damage over time effects.
What Are the Gameplay Implications of Poison vs. Chaos Damage?
In Path of Exile, understanding the gameplay implications of poison versus chaos damage is essential for optimizing your builds.
Poison Damage:
- Poison does chaos damage. It is a damaging ailment typically applied by a Physical or Chaos hit.
- Poison deals 20% of a hit’s combined physical and chaos damage dealt (before mitigation and damage taken modifiers) as chaos damage over time per second for 2 seconds.
- More poison magnitude increases this base 20%, leading to greater damage output.
- However, nothing directly boosts the damage of poison after it has been applied.
- The tooltip can be confusing, but despair and resist reduction do affect poison damage over time; however, resist penetration does not.
- Wither and curses that lower enemy chaos resistance can enhance poison damage.
- For a poison bow build, projectile damage, attack damage, and physical damage nodes are as crucial for increasing poison damage as usual poison and chaos nodes.
- Poison builds are known for their high damage potential and the capability to take down tough enemies quickly.
Chaos Damage:
- Chaos is a damage type alongside Physical, Lightning, Fire, and Ice.
- Chaos damage bypasses energy shield and directly affects life, allowing players to circumvent certain enemy defenses.
- Players utilizing chaos builds often rely on skills and items that deal chaos damage, which requires a thorough understanding of enemy resistances.
- Chaos builds are recognized for their versatility, effectively handling various enemy types.
Key Differences:
- Poison damage is derived from the physical and chaos damage of the hit that applies it and cannot be altered afterward.
- Both playstyles, Poison and Chaos, offer unique gameplay experiences. Poison focuses on damage over time, while Chaos can directly interact with life, making it versatile against enemy defenses.
- Ultimately, the choice between Poison and Chaos depends on personal preference and playstyle.
