Frat’s Wolcen Guide -
If you don’t mind leaving a thumbs up or some stars on the Steam posting, it would help other players find the guide, and I would appreciate it!
Table of Contents
Game Rating
At release: 2/10
Currently: 8/10
Compliments and Complaints
This game suffered HEAVILY from a bad launch (including a couple of major bugs), and it's image never recovered from it. However, the game actually improved tremendously, including fixing all of the major bugs, adding tons of quality of life (like item filters and sorting buttons), and adding an end-game system.
Here are my compliments:
I absolutely LOVE that they use a classless system, so any character can use any skill in the game. Skills are instead tied to weapons, so a simple weapon swap allows you to try out any skill or build without needing to make a new character and run through the entire story again.
Their end-game system allows for a lot of player choice, like:
what activity you want to do (3 options with a variety of completion objectives)
what level/difficulty to run missions at (including a true end-game push system with a slide-scale for difficulty and rewards)
whether or not to face lieutenants, and which lieutenant you face (which can affect either the boss fight mechanics or rewards)
It is fun and feels good to play. The gameplay flow of movement and kill speed, plus the visual feedback for responding to enemies or map affixes is excellent.
Here are my complaints:
Once you complete a mission, you should be able to teleport back to town from anywhere on the map, and not have to rely on going back to the purple portal. It isn't a big deal in the small arena maps, but if you do a Wrath of Sarisel (where you are racing to the end) or a Cursebreaker map (where you might go back for wealth omens), it can be annoying.
The pop-up window for rewards from missions (including the map reward from the City of Stormfall) can be a bit annoying, particularly when there isn't a choice in a reward, but you still have to click on the reward and the okay button anyway. Even simply making it so that clicking on the reward itself closes the window would be a nice change.
Similarly, when leaving a mission, you click on the portal and have to click okay, then it tells you you are leaving and you have to click okay again for no reason.
I feel like it could use another balance pass on the skills. They have worked on this a lot, but I still feel like some skills just have no use, either because of low damage or general clunkiness of use.
Bugs
In the Graphics Settings menu, the scroll bar doesn't go all the way down, so the bottom of the window gets cut off.
When I open my inventory, there is usually a white outline around the location of the last item I clicked on.
Tooltip damage doesn’t change when I take “Frenzied Blows” (double damage and double cost for skills while over 750 rage). The tooltip cost does change, and the damage multiplier IS working based on testing though!
There used to be a bug (which affected online characters) with bruiser (and possibly other) armors that caused them to gain way too much health and all resistance when you increased their quality. It is fixed in patch 1.1.7.16 (or likely at some point before), but if you have items from that time, they will still be bugged.
Sometimes my map and minimap completely disappear, usually when leaving a sublevel of a map. Opening up the inventory, then closing it again causes the map to refresh and temporarily fixes the issue.
Sometimes the consumable maps snapshot the level for future consumable maps, and you aren't able to increase the level with the slider or benefit from Infinity (though it will let you select and Accept as if it works).
There is a bug with the Sacred version of the Solarfall skill that sometimes happens, which I am pretty sure is related to Dawn's Pious Striker. I think what it does is while channeling Solarfall, if you kill an enemy with a proc of Dawn's Pious Striker, it will then transfer that killing blow to every other enemy you hit afterwards during that channel (even full health enemies that have just spawned).
The "Blades of Pestilence" modifier for Plagueburst doesn't appear to be working.
The minor passive node “Dominator” in the ring 2 Warlock tree is supposed to give 20 willpower on hit, but it doesn't work (with the possible exception of Infinity Blades, which already has this ability, and thus the number might be increasing).
Probably a bug: The "Fervour’s Smoke" modifier is supposed to cost resource to trigger the explosion, but the coding appears to have a positive number of "umbra" and the positive numbers generate willpower.
Tips
Pressing the Left Shift when comparing rings and weapons allows you to switch between left & right.
Right-clicking on an item in your inventory swaps it onto what the character is wearing. Pressing Left Shift while Right-clicking will equip the item in the other slot of that type (shoulders, gloves, rings, or one-handed weapons).
During each mission, along the right side of the screen is a tooltip that lists the magic find for the mission. This tooltip increases for each mission you run, until you logout (when it resets).
Screenshots
Hitting F12 takes the screenshot (as it seems to use the Steam settings), but this information isn’t found anywhere. Additionally, the screenshot appears in the Wolcen screenshot folder not somewhere sensible like your pictures folder. The location of the Wolcen screenshot folder is: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Wolcen\wolcen\screenshots”.
Settings
The “Profiles” folder in the “user” folder of the Wolcen game folder was meant to save online settings, so it can be deleted or emptied.
Graphics Settings:
There is an option called "Motion blur" (which is checked by default). For me, Motion Blur broke how all of the characters and summons looked until I turned it off.
Gameplay Settings:
"Enemy blink" means that enemies that get hit flash white for a split second.
"Allies' Health bars" and "Summons Health bars" actually show as red (which regularly makes me try to attack them like enemies), so I turn them off.
"Usable Silhouette" causes your mouse to highlight items that you can click on (like chests or destructible items).
"Friendly Silhouette" often causes minions to get in the way of clicking on things like portals, but unchecking the boxes seems to reduce the problem (though it still happens sometimes).
Contextual Text means combat messages like “Dodged” or “Blocked”.
Basic Attack: “With this enabled you can just hold down the left mouse button to move and if you hover a mob you will attack. Without this Option you have to release the button and press again to attack.”. If you turn it off, you can use it to run around without accidentally stopping to attack enemies, since clicking on a blank spot, then holding down on the button won’t acquire new targets.
Controls:
Spacebar + Left click drops the item your mouse on from your bag onto the ground.
Mods
First, it should be noted that no mods are up to date with the most recent patch, so using them might not work, and if they do work, they might cause other problems. I am linking two that were updated the most recently (since the last major patch of 1.1.7.0), and are the most likely to work.
This mod allows you to bind any active skill to your left-mouse button, as long as there is an active effect it causes on triggering (so summons in that slot don’t automatically summon).
This includes 6 “mods” that can be helpful in single player.
For Steam Version 1.1.7.2 OFFLINE MODE ONLY.
Unlock All Pets (no longer works)
Loot Mod
Unlock All Cosmetics Mod (unlocks everything but the Kickstarter cosmetics)
Camera Mod
Apocalyptic Form Mods
Item Size Mod
If you want to create something for the game or get access to the game files, the Github Wolcen unpacker can be used (or so it says, as I haven't tried it).
Account Editing
Files can be edited by opening the listed files using the Notepad program on Windows. If you plan to edit any files, always make sure you back them up first. I like to put a copy of the file I plan to edit on my desktop (for easy access), then edit the one in the folder.
Character files:
In each character file, at the very top, there is a section for character customization that you can play with in case you decide you want to change how your character looks after making them (there is no option in game).
To get the hardcore achievements, there is a setting in each character file called "DeathCount". Just change that (and possibly the "DeathCountPerBossrank") numbers to 0.
In the “Stats” section near the top of the character file, you might need to add levels ("Level") and experience ("CurrentXP") to just below the amount needed for the unlock required first, so that when you level, it triggers the achievement.
To get the pick up gold achievements, there is a setting in each character file called "GoldPicked", and you can simply change the number to gain each tier of gold picked up.
In each character file, there is a section about half way down called "InventoryEquipped" and all of the items your character is wearing and carrying in the inventory are shown there. Editing items to get the desired outcomes can be a slow process, but here are some tips that should make the process smoother:
Make sure you preserve spacing, and punctuation (including parentheses and brackets). If any of these things is off, when you load the game, the character will not be found, because the game cannot read the file properly.
Simply changing the numbers of the rolls on affixes (to get the max roll) is easy, but keep in mind that there are roll ranges for each tier of affix, so you likely will need to increase the tier as well.
This information can be found using the Erossen website that datamined all of the information and listed it in a helpful fashion.
Click on the item type you are editing (Weapons, Shields, Armors, Accessories, Gems, Reagents) under "Loot" (for normal) or "Uniques" (for uniques).
Then click on the specific item type you want (Bow, Brawler Shoulder, et cetera), and scroll down to select what tier item you want (as they have 16 tiers of quality). You also can choose between different base types for accessories (amulets, belts and rings).
Once you have the exact item, it shows you a list of all possible affixes. By clicking on an affix, it will show you the different affix tiers that can roll, and what level item they can appear on.
Unfortunately, it only shows the affix ranges for the first 12 tiers, as the 13th tier (which rolls 50% higher multiplicatively) was added after this site was last updated. The good news is that you can simply change the tier to 13 and multiply by the 50% and it still works. An exception to this rule are the Ahriman affixes, for which you need to ad a "_t13" instead (because the normal Ahriman affix doesn't have a tier listed at all).
To edit the type of affix on an item, you use the same process for changing the numbers, but you will need to add a few more steps:
When viewing the affix tiers, on the rightmost side of the box, there is a blue "s" that you need to click on.
You will need to copy the new Effect ID (just the part in parentheses) from the line "<MagicEffect EffectId="elemental_resistance">" into the top line of the item affix.
The next line requires the Affix ID (just the part in parentheses) from the line "AffixId="ar_elemental_resistance_12"".
Skip the "MaxStack" and "Parameters" lines which can be left the same.
The last two lines require information found in the line "<HiRoll CharacteristicScoreInt="200" />". The "CharacteristicScoreInt" gpes into the "semantic" line, and the "200" goes into the "value" line.
Make sure you save.
If you wish to add special affixes to the item you are working on, there a some special considerations:
If you wish to add an Ahriman affix, you will need to copy the affix from another item (since Erossen doesn't have that information). I recommend putting the items you wish to copy from in your inventory so everything is on the same document.
Note: The website was not updated with any or the Ahriman affixes (Yellow Horns), and likely isn’t quite up to date with some of the other patch changes since that patch dropped. Luckily, they can be found in these patch notes.
If you wish to add or modify Sarisel affixes, keep in mind that there is a prefix and a suffix version on weapons, and one of them drops normally (the prefix), while the other is from crafting (the suffix).
If you with to add a Hunt affix, keep in mind that Hunt affixes are technically supposed to be part of a pair (a master and slave set), but the good affix (master) can be on an item by itself if it is edited that way. To get the slave affix, you can either copy it from another item like is mentioned with Ahriman affixes, or you can add another affix chunk (make sure you preserve spacing and punctuation, as this is where you are the most likely to mess them up).
Also, make sure that if you are copying an affix from a different item type, that you know they can actually appear on that item type (for instance some affixes are restricted to certain slots, or brawler items, but not bruiser items). If it should appear on an item, but after you copied it and opened the game, it isn't there, it might be because the source affix was on a heavy item (and the affix ID contains the word "heavy"), but you added it to a brawler item (so the affix ID needs the word "warrior" substituted in that spot).
The penalty cannot be the same as one of the other affixes already on the item (asnd the game will instead just combine them if you try to do it). This helps you know what other affixes can and cannot be added when upgrading a rare Hunt item into a legendary.
Simply changing the inherent item properties like level, quality, and either damage or defenses (health, force shield and all resistance), is the easiest.
The maximum level for at item is 219 (reached from items at the end of expeditions), or 217 (for everything else).
The maximum quality is 5.
The all resistance, health or force shield numbers should include the normal number multiplied by the quality (1.5 for 5 stars). The game won't do this multiplication for you, so you have to enter it manually.
If you are looking to simply min/max your items, keep in mind that at item can only have 6 affixes (7 if you include the negative hunt affix), 3 of which are prefixes, 3 of which are suffixes.
You don't have to follow these rules though, so if you are simply trying to break the game with crazy items, you are able to have more affixes. Additionally, the inherent damage or defenses on items can be changed to ridiculous proportions (which I discovered from some items that I accidentally bugged in a previous live version of the game using the improve quality project in the City of Stormfall).
Some values need to have decimal places, and those also often need to have a 0 before the decimal for the game to read it correctly.
If you get stuck, a lot of the affixes can likely be found on other items on your character, their inventory, or in the stash.
Account files:
There are a few files that to the best of my knowledge provide no reason to edit:
steam_autocloud only lists the account ID.
LeagueRetrieval doesn't really have anything to edit.
lootfilter could technically be edited, but I can't imagine doing so would be less effort than simply adjusting the loot filter using the in game menu.
pets theoretically would be a good file to edit (or replace with this pets file, as it is supposed to unlock all of the pets, but it no longer works in patch 1.1.7.16 (which seemed to link the pets to Steam somehow). What is weird is that if you edit a character file and put a kickstarter pet as the pet name, it appears next to the character in the main menu, but then disappears when you log into the game (and then that pet name is wiped from the character save file upon exit).
In “C:\Users\[user]\Saved Games\wolcen\savegames”, there is a file named “playerchest", you can unlock all stash tabs by changing every case of “Locked”: true to false. You might need to repeat this process with "playerchest_1_2" (which actually contains all of the information about what items are there), and "playerchest_1_3".
In “C:\Users\[user]\Saved Games\wolcen\savegames”, there is a file named “playerdata”. If you open this, then go to the "AccountCosmeticInventory" section, it lists cosmetic lists that you have unlocked. Simply changing all of the characters in the “bitmask” line to “f” unlocks everything (except the Kickstarter rewards which seem linked to your Steam account). To make things easier I am copying the section here so you can just paste it to your file and not worry about counting. It should preserve the correct spacing (starting at the quotes and ending the line before both kinds of closed brackets):
"CosmeticColorsUnlocked": {
"version": 0,
"bitmask": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff"
},
"CosmeticWeaponsUnlocked": {
"version": 0,
"bitmask": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff"
},
"CosmeticArmorsUnlocked": {
"version": 0,
"bitmask": "ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff"
If you want all of the City of Stormfall upgrades unlocked, copy this chunk into the “FinishedProjects” section (starting at the quotes and ending before both kinds of closed brackets):
"FinishedProjects": [{
"Name": "expert_forge_construct"
}, {
"Name": "expert_forge_project_0"
}, {
"Name": "expert_forge_project_1"
}, {
"Name": "expert_forge_project_2"
}, {
"Name": "expert_forge_project_3"
}, {
"Name": "expert_forge_project_4"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_training_equipment"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_batch_one_dependency"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_roadworks"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_aqueduct"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_sewers"
}, {
"Name": "bank_construct"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_batch_two_dependency"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_irrigation"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_crop_rotation"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_windmill"
}, {
"Name": "seekers_garrison_construct"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_batch_three_dependency"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_trauma_center"
}, {
"Name": "buy_stash_1"
}, {
"Name": "wonder_2_construct"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_working_conditions"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_education"
}, {
"Name": "buy_stash_2"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_sawmill"
}, {
"Name": "enneract_lab_construct"
}, {
"Name": "injector_seat_construct"
}, {
"Name": "siphon_chamber_construct"
}, {
"Name": "transmutation_forge_construct"
}, {
"Name": "enneract_lab_skillcopy_1"
}, {
"Name": "trade_assembly_construct"
}, {
"Name": "wonder_6_construct"
}, {
"Name": "shipyard_construct"
}, {
"Name": "anankis_artifact_construct"
}, {
"Name": "expert_forge_project_5"
}, {
"Name": "transmutation_forge_upgrade"
}, {
"Name": "dark_market_construct"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_iron_mines"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_quarry"
}, {
"Name": "wonder_1_construct"
}, {
"Name": "dark_market_item_quality_upgrade"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_housing"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_lighthouse"
}, {
"Name": "wonder_4_construct"
}, {
"Name": "dark_market_item_rarity_upgrade"
}, {
"Name": "dark_market_leg_reagent_upgrade"
}, {
"Name": "wonder_3_construct"
}, {
"Name": "wonder_5_construct"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_theater"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_rift_initiative"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_supply_stockpiles"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_checkpoints"
}, {
"Name": "city_hall_crystal_excavation"
}, {
"Name": "hunt_merchant_upgarde1"
}, {
"Name": "hunt_merchant_upgarde2"
In the "SoftcoreStandard" section, in the “ExpeditionMap” subsection:
there is a line called "lvl": x, where x is the level for missions you have unlocked.
there is a line called "cur": "x", where x is the amount of skulls you have earned.
In the "SoftcoreStandard" section, in the “ExpeditionMap” subsection, then the "ins" sub-subsection, it will have 3 chunks of data separated by double brackets. Each of these is a mission on your war table.
The "flo" section indicates the level, so if there are 3 parts to it, it is an expedition.
I think the "uaf" line indicates what category of item the reward will be (1 is armor, 2 is weapon, 3 is accessory). The "ari" line is probably also related, but I am not sure how.
The "fir" line seems related to the reward (rare, legendary or unique), but I am not sure how to edit it to get a desired effect.
The "fig" and "lan" lines tell you the position (1, 2, or 3) of the mission (from left to right).
I think the "bio" line indicates the monster type, but that probably isn’t something worth changing.
The "dif" lines say “easy” (1 red dot), “medium” (2 red dots), or “hard” (3 dots).
If the "rar" line seems to be used along with the “fir” line to determine the reward. I think if “rar” = true, then it provides a unique item as a reward (meaning if you are trying to farm uniques, you can use this to speed the process along).
Reference
100% [Achievements] the cheesy way - This method uses the account editing strategy mentioned in the section above this one.
Kickstarter Rewards
Aspects of Apocalypse
In the introduction of the story, your character goes into a special mode that makes it giant and immortal, plus (at the time) it deals a lot more damage. While the form is an intriguing plot point that drives the main story, it also becomes a usable fighting mechanic in the game from that point on.
To trigger the form, there is a button that can be pressed to engage it, but only if you have a full primordial essence meter (seen in the middle of the interface bar at the bottom of the screen). The essence meter will be black when empty, and fill up with yellow from left to right (upon reaching the right it becomes full).
As you kill enemies, you earn primordial essence. Champion enemies sometimes also drop a white globe or two which fills the primordial essence meter much faster. Occasionally, you can find a shrine filled with white light that (once clicked) throws out tons of white globes. I believe enough to fill the meter several times over.
Once you have filled the bar and triggered the form, there are two choices:
Let the bar continue draining (which happens both over time, and per skill cast) as you fight, until it is empty and you change back to normal.
Hit the button again to leave the form (and preserve your essence).
Unfortunately in the endgame system, the forms are not particularly useful as you actually tend to lose a ton of damage-per-second (because it doesn't seem to benefit from damage bonuses). They can still be good for becoming immortal at a key moment (or key moments) during certain fights in order to stay alive though (which is why leaving the form early can be helpful).
There are four apocalypse forms that you can unlock, but only one can be selected at a time. You unlock the first form after you use it initially. As you progress through the story you get two tokens to choose what other forms you want to unlock. The final unlock token can be earned in the City of Stormfall through the "Anankis Artefact" project.
Each form as a different playstyle, and five different skills that can be used.
It is known by the game as "Tank", and carries a one handed mace and shield.
It is the melee tank type apocalypse form that resembles a holy angel, deals sacred damage, and has a skill that can heal allies.
The Hammer of the Aurora skill can actually be cast, then continue after the form ends (which means it then gains all of the damage bonuses).
It is known by the game as "Mage", and carries a scythe.
It is the ranged caster type apocalypse form, which deals aether damage, and the skills resemble the character caster skills.
It is known by the game as "Rogue", and it basically duel-wields blades (which are it's hands).
It is a melee assassin type apocalypse form which deals rend damage, and has a lot of mobility.
It is known by the game as "Warrior", and carriers a two-handed axe.
It is the bruiser type apocalypse form, which deals fire damage.
Bosses
Champion Tips
Champions are the bigger stronger enemies and can appear as blue, yellow, or orange colors (indicated by both the enemy color and the nameplate color). All champions come with different rarities:
Normal have 0 champion affixes
Magic have 2 champion affixes
Rare have 3 champion affixes
Legendary have 4 champion affixes
Champions appear as red skulls on the minimap and map overlay, while UBER champions (which can be found during the campaign or in missions) appear as a white skull with a red aura.
Champions tend to either rush to you (Alpha Svriir, Tainted Primordial Guardian, Justicar of the Republic, Flayer Warmaster, Pacified Punisher Exoskeleton, Pacified Aurora Knight, Penumbral Lurker), interrupt you (Alpha Svriir, Tainted Primordial Guardian, Justicar of the Republic), trap you (Demon of Souls), or pull you in (Devourer, Demon of Flesh).
For ranged characters, you should never throw more than 3 volleys of certain skills before moving and kiting the champion (1 for skills that fire off multiple salvos like Havoc Orb - Baptism by Hail). Charge-up skills might not even get one full charge off. After that, the champions will use their movement and interrupt skills on you and you will need to move.
One nifty trick for certain champions is using Duskshroud. When you go invisible, they stop casting and channeling skills, so Demon of Souls stop casting chain lightning, Twilight Champions stop casting whirlwind, and Justicars stop casting the clear/white reflect shield. Additionally, Snipers stop casting Deathlazer Railgun.
Dome Shield enemies can be a giant problem to ranged characters, and even more so to ranged summon builds. I BELIEVE that the affix only ever appears on melee enemies though, so they should come to you or your summons instead of just staying where they can't take damage.
One exception to this general rule is that the sabotage pillars can also have dome shields, and they will not move, so you have to rely on the repositioning function of the active skills. Feeding Swarm is easy to use, but for Hunting Swarm, you have to actually put your mouse past where you want them to hit by about 3 inches to get them to land inside the dome shield.
Champion Affixes
Enemies have several affixes listed underneath their names. This list includes:
Aether Imbued - extra aether damage
Aether Missiles - slow moving purple ball pursue players and do aether damage
Blood Ring - a phantom blade circles around at a distance (sometimes smaller rings)
Bombing runs - very similar to meteor strike, but maybe a different damage type
Buffeting Winds - pushes players away from the boss and interrupts them. This is the worst affix for melee characters.
Creeping Jolts - yellow lightning strikes that have a medium area of effect where they hit and occur fairly consistently
Deep Frost - frost patches on the ground that stay still and remain until you kill the boss
Dome Shield - absorbs ALL projectile damage outside of a certain range (maybe 5 yards). This is the worst affix for ranged characters.
Elemental Shield - absorbs elemental damage until it hits 0
Engulfing Flames - a small aura around the boss that does fire damage to nearby players
Fast - faster movement speed
Fire Imbued - extra fire damage
Flaming Missiles - slow moving orange ball pursue players and do fire damage
Frost Imbued - extra frost damage
Frozen Missiles - many light blue orbs float around randomly and deal frost damage
Fury Split Missiles - I am not sure what this does.
Lightning Bolts - lightning strikes occasionally from the sky in different patterns that change distance
Lightning Imbued - extra lightning damage
Lightning Strikes - several lighting balls from the sky strike a very small area in rapid succession
Lightning Surges - lots of rapid striking lightning bolts in very close proximity to the boss
Material Shield - absorbs material damage until it hits 0
Meteor Strike - fireballs periodically fall from the sky
Miasma - green pools on the ground that do toxic damage and stay until the boss is killed
Occult Shield - absorbs occult damage until it hits 0
Pestilent Scatter - very small purple? projectiles that are released infrequently in random directions, but fly VERY far (at least as far as mortar beast lightning)
Physical Imbued - extra physical damage
Powerful - higher damage attacks and spells
Rend Imbued - extra rend damage
Rending Circles - temporary patches of red ground that move around and cause damage plus ailment stacks
Rending Missiles - very small red projectiles that are released infrequently in random directions, but fly VERY far (at least as far as mortarbeast lightning)
Sacred Imbued - extra sacred damage
Seeping Shadows - three slow moving purple orbs that spread straight out and back into the boss 120 degrees from each other
Seething Beams - several red beams from the sky that are always channeling (probably rend damage)
Shadow Imbued - extra shadow damage
Shifting Earth - temporary patches of dark ground (which looks like earth) that move around and cause (I think) physical damage plus ailment stacks
Soul Surges - I am not sure what this does.
Spiraling Bolts - spiralling orbs of electricity that start at the boss and move outwards then exploding as lightning bolts
Stalking Shadows - slow moving flaming purple orbs spawn randomly and slowly chase characters
Storms - bolts that look like lightning but are yellow (and thus might be a different type of damage) strike the ground in several random places at once
Tough - higher health (and/or resistances)
Toxic Imbued - extra toxic damage
Toxic Strike - toxic balls periodically fall from the sky
Toxic Missiles - toxic balls periodically fall from the sky
Unstoppable - immune to slow and crowd control effects
Whirling Blades - many small blades circle around the boss at a far distance
Act Bosses
Wolcen Edric: how to kill the act one boss
Tips for dodging Edric's attacks
Dave Irwin avatar
Guide by Dave Irwin Former Guides Writer
Published on Feb. 19, 2020
Follow Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
You saw this big armoured lad early on in Wolcen, slamming into enemies while screaming at the top of his lungs. The bad news for you here is that by the time you face him Edric is even bigger, and he's packing some serious heat in that sword of his. It's not every day that a boss gives players such a large amount of trouble so early on in a game.
Wolcen Edric guide
Edric is a boss fight with three distinct phases, and it's highly likely that this is the first real difficult bit you'll face in Wolcen. While the first two phases are quite damaging, it's the third section that is likely going to kill you outright. This Edric boss guide will go over all the phases and show you how to beat him. Our Wolcen guide has some tips and tricks for beginners that are also very useful to use against every enemy in the game.
Before you even go into this boss fight, I highly recommend that you equip the two best healing potions. This will double how many times you are able to heal, since healing items use charges that refill upon attacking enemies with regular attacks. Since Edric hits really, really hard, you'll want that little bit of extra healing to hand. I'd also recommend looking at the gems section of our Wolcen items guide as ailments can help push you closer to eliminating this hard boss.
I've also recorded my successful fight against Edric, using the tips below, in the video above this section.
Wolcen Edric fight: phase one
This is the easiest phase of the fight, but it is still a lot more difficult than the majority of bosses you've faced so far. Edric has a massive health bar, but he also has a bar underneath it. This is the stun gauge, and when it's empty Edric will be stunned for a few seconds, allowing you to hit him hard with spells and abilities. He also takes more damage from any attack while stunned.
While stunning him is as easy as hitting him constantly, there are several attacks he has that you need to watch out for:
If you see a line appear in front of Edric, he's about to scream and charge forward a few metres. Begin running to the side and dodge roll to avoid this charge, as it can inflict stun.
When a cone appears in front of him, move out of the range of the cone.
If you are far away from Edric, he will frequently hunker down behind his shield and fire six waves of three shot bursts at you. Run in a circle around him and as the bullets get close, dodge in the opposite direction and keep running.
If you are close, he can swipe his sword for damage or push you away with his shield. Pushing you away will leave you stunned for a few seconds.
At around a quarter of health being depleted, you'll find that regular soldiers will begin spawning occasionally.
At around a third of Edric's health remaining, the solders will stop spawning and Alastors will spawn instead. The Alastors can disappear into thin air, before reappearing for a slashing attack. This is telegraphed by a red line appearing moments before they do, so stay out of the area it indicates.
A good build for this fight is the Plaguelord build in our Wolcen builds guide, as it can use these respawning Lost Souls with the poison gas modifier enabled to damage him quickly.
Wolcen Edric fight: phase two
For the second phase, Edric will take off his helmet and throw away his shield. Lost Souls will now appear instead of Alastors, which is probably for the best as Lost Souls are relatively harmless.
When he begins screaming, try to dodge to the side and towards him. He will charge forward, before swinging his sword, firing off a cone of bullets in front of him.
If you're not at close range and Edric stops with his sword glimmering for a short time, this means he's about to fire a single shot in front of him. It's very damaging, so make sure you're not in front of him.
Edric has a second ranged attack that's harder to avoid. If he has stopped moving and you hear a small metallic sound that sounds like a sword unsheathing, he will begin firing multiple spread shots. From the direction he is currently facing, cones will appear to his left, then right, then behind him, and finally in front of him. Try not to stand inside the cones, or else dodge as the shot fires if you can't escape them in time.
He also has access to standard swipes of the sword if you're up close. There's no tell for this, but it can stun you for a short time if you are hit.
Breaking his stun gauge and whittling down his health is still the main aim. Once you do, he'll knock you down to the lower levels and the third phase will begin.
Wolcen Edric fight: phase three
This is mostly likely the phase that is giving you problems. It requires some really good timing on your part and conservative use of your dodges, so that you can avoid some brutal attacks. The strategy is still the same as the previous phases when it comes to damaging him, but your window of opportunity is greatly diminished in this phase. Here are tips for how to deal with the phase three attacks:
When he dashes forward, Edric will swing his sword around him a couple of times, before swiping hard once more. You can roll to the side to dodge this flurry of attacks, but you may get caught in the initial spin. This attack can stun you.
Whenever he leaps into the air, dodge at a 45 degree angle to not only avoid the slam, but also the damaging waves he shoots out. This attack can emit either four waves normally, or five waves if Edric is landing in the centre of the battlefield.
Whenever he leaps to the centre of the battlefield and emits five waves, he will then put down many shields surrounding him, before making spots on the ground explode in random locations, seven times. He's invulnerable while in this state.
After the seventh explosion, Edric will emit a wave of fire, moving outwards. You'll need to dodge at the last possible moment to avoid this hitting you. If it does, you will likely lose all your health.
Edric does the leaping attack fewer times if you're up close, instead favouring the standard sword swipe. Try to get behind him as much as you can.
By dodging these brutal attacks, you should be able to overcome the difficult third phase and beat Edric. You'll get plenty of rare gear and items for defeating him, as well as unlock the Aspects of the Apocalypse. As for how best to deal damage to Edric, we've got a few Wolcen builds to get you started. I used the Plaguelord build against this boss, which does massive damage in short bursts. Passives also help in this fight, so our Wolcen skill tree (classes) and Wolcen skills guides can help with that.
If you're struggling with the next end-of-act boss, then the strategies can be found in the Wolcen Act 2 boss guide.
Wolcen Lambach: how to kill the act two boss
Tips for dodging Lambach's attacks
Guide by Dave Irwin Former Guides Writer
Published on Feb. 20, 2020
Follow Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
Throughout Wolcen's second act, you are tormented by a rather odd presence. It seems that this entity is converting everything and subjecting them to its hive mind. With the right gear setup, the second act boss is nowhere near as hard as the previous act's final duel, but knowing where to stand seems to be the biggest hurdle.
Wolcen Lambach guide
While you fight Lambach drones constantly, the boss fight is fought over two phases. One is against the figure that has been stalking you, while the other is against its true form. This Lambach boss guide will go over all the phases and show you how to beat it. Our Wolcen guide has some tips and tricks for beginners that are also very useful to use against every enemy in the game. If you found yourself here before beating act one's boss, head on over to our Wolcen Act 1 boss guide for tips on how to beat them.
Before you even go into this boss fight, I highly recommend that you equip the best healing potion and either a willpower or rage potion. This will reduce the time needed to stand around waiting for your ability resource of choice to recharge, meaning you can hammer it with damage inducing skills. Having status ailment gems can also help push you over the edge, so have a look at our Wolcen items guide for more on those.
If you want a really good build for this fight, the Plaguelord build in our Wolcen builds guide is probably the best one as its spells deal tons of damage onto it really quickly. I've also recorded my successful fight against Lambach using this build and as you can see, it's disgustingly good. You will still need to dodge its attacks, as they still hit hard, so look below for the tips.
Wolcen - Lambach Boss Fight Gameplay Walkthrough
Wolcen Lambach fight: phase one
In this first phase, Lambach will be stuck in the middle, as more and more creeps are flushed out of the pods that decorate this grim arena. Lambach does not move from the centre, so you're free to cast as many spells and abilities that place a damaging effect in one spot. You can then focus a little more on attacking the monsters that appear and avoiding the attacks.
This form is easily weakened while its armour is broken, but it does have some very damaging attacks:
When Lambach fires a beam of light, stay close and run anti-clockwise around it. As long as you keep moving, you should not get hit by this instant-kill beam. Dodge roll if it gets close.
If a line flashes from Lambach in the middle to the outside, it'll raise spikes in a line. Dodge to the side as soon as you see the line appear.
If Lambach reels backwards, it will swipe two times in front of it. Dodge behind it to avoid the attack.
If Lambach raises its right arm, it will slam its fist into the ground and cause corruption to appear where you stand. Just move out of the way of the circle that appears and you should be fine. The corruption will linger for a while and will damage you if you enter it.
Occasionally, the pods in a section of the arena will glow, before regular enemies burst out of it. This corrupts that particular area, which will damage you if you walk on it.
As for the enemies that swarm the battlefield in this phase, they include all the regular kinds of enemies that you've faced while exploring the Lambach's lair. The main ones to watch out for are those that pounce, the large harvesters, and the humanoids with railguns. Damage can easily stack up if you aren't careful, though you should mainly be avoiding Lambach's attacks over theirs as the Lambach's attacks hurt a lot more.
Upon defeating Lambach, it will retreat momentarily, before something much bigger appears.
Wolcen Lambach fight: phase two
Well this one's a lot bigger. Lambach's true form is a huge multi-eyed demon with lots of arms and lots of tentacles. Like before, Lambach stays in one place, dominating the centre of the platform. However, you have a lot less room to move around in. It does have the word "Unstoppable" underneath its health bar, but this just means it can't be stunned. Much of the same strategies apply for defeating this phase, including the vulnerability of spells that linger on a designated spot, but the attacks are very different.
Lambach will frequently vomit new minions onto the very small platform you're moving onto. The minions are not as strong as the phase one minions, but you may find a harvester or two that can pack a punch.
There is a very slim chance you'll get stuck on the spot, which is a glitch. To avoid getting stuck, don't walk up to the northern edge in the middle of the platform.
Look carefully at the far sides of the arena. If you see a third hand appear on either side, Lambach will corrupt that half of the platform. Move to the other side to avoid the corruption.
The other attack to worry about is the tentacles that slam onto the battlefield. If you see circles, dodge roll to avoid being crushed. These tentacles leave eggs that explode after a few seconds, so don't be close to them.
If Lambach dives down and you see big lines appear, it means it's about to punch with the tentacles. It will attack multiple times and may attack with multiple arms at once.
When it's attacking with the punching tentacles, the area in front of it will be corrupted with blood in a cone. Lambach is invincible in this state.
With Lambach finally slain, you'll get plenty of rare gear and items for defeating it, completing the chapter. With clever use of skills and passive perks, you should be able to overcome this boss with minimal issues, so have a look at our Wolcen skill tree (classes) guide for tips on the Gate of Fates progression tree or the Wolcen skills for stuff on active skills. The next boss is a bit broken however. Find out how what the glitch and the workaround is in our Wolcen Act 3 boss guide.
Wolcen Heimlock: how to defeat the act three boss
Tips for dodging Heimlock's attacks
Wolcen's final boss was for the longest time more than a bit broken. It was impossible to beat him if damaged him while he was transforming in the second or third phase. Now the game has been patched, he is able to be killed with ease, well, if you have the right build of course.
Wolcen act three boss guide
Our main Wolcen guide has further tips for the rest of the game, but for now, we'll be explaining in this Wolcen act 3 boss guide what is happening in this fight and how to beat Heimlock. A particularly strong build against this boss is the Plaguelord build as detailed in our Wolcen builds guide, as you don't even need to be near him to damage his health. Poison damage will also go through his base armour, making this boss rather trivial.
If you don't want to just use a build that someone else has made, make your own while using our Wolcen skill tree (classes) guide to assist in learning what passives might help or our Wolcen skills guide for active skills that can deal damage.
Wolcen - Heimlock Boss Fight Gameplay Walkthrough
Wolcen Heimlock fight: phase one
First, let's talk about the arena you are fighting in. It's a circular room with three orbs that can be attacked by you or your enemies. When an orb sustains enough damage, it will produce a negative effect that will hinder you in the fight. The top orb sends an aether pulse outwards in a circle, the bottom right orb pumps out a lot of regular enemies, and the bottom left orb emits a freezing wave that will make you stick to the spot for a short time.
On top of this, the arena is being bombarded with meteors and there's a small electric ball circling the arena. The meteors will do a fair bit of damage, but it's the electric ball that can do a lot of damage if you're not careful. Thankfully the meteors will have red circles indicating where they will land and the electric ball moves so slowly that it soon becomes an afterthought. Occasionally you'll also see lines appear from the centre of the arena. This is the fiery pit about to send out a wave of flames outwards. While this isn't very damaging, it's very difficult to avoid without dodging.
If all that wasn't bad enough, there's Heimlock. He's a beefy lad with a massive axe that likes to swing it around with his borrowed demonic strength. He has a few attacks that he can do at any time.
When Heimlock leaps into the air, a larger circle will appear nearby. Dodge to avoid this attack as it will instantly knock you down if he lands it.
If Heimlock stands in place, he'll likely swing his axe around him. It has a sizeable range but the axe moves in a spiral and is easily avoided by just timing your movement. You can also dodge the axe if it gets close.
Standing close to him may make Heimlock attack with his axe multiple times. He'll swipe forward three times, before slamming his axe down onto the ground. You can get behind him and hit him a few times while he's attacking.
A good strategy to defeat him is to time your attacks as his ones end. He spends a surprising amount of time unable to move after every attack finishes. By using hit and run tactics, those builds that don't rely on ailments can get some quick damage in before Heimlock decides he wants to attack once more.
Wolcen Heimlock fight: phase two
This phase is largely the same as phase one, along with all the hazards that came with it. The only big difference with the hazards is that the lines from the centre of the arena are larger and harder to avoid.
Where things are truly different is that Heimlock can now transform into an "ascended form". You can tell when this happens as he grows fiery wings. This was the transformation that was broken, but with the latest patch, you can now hit him while he transforms. As he's transformed, he'll gain an extra shield bar underneath his health bar that must be depleted before you can damage him. He'll begin this phase already transformed, so you'll need to watch for the following attacks.
With Heimlock's melee combo, the final hit now emits a stasis inflicting pulse. Try not to approach him until he's finished the combo as that pulse has a decent range.
If Heimlock stands still, he'll likely drag his axe along the ground. This causes several tremors to be sent in a fan-shaped pattern outwards, before coming back towards his position. Get some distance from him and stand in-between the tremors.
As Heimlock jumps, instead of a red circle, a blue circle that slows you down will be there instead. Make sure you're conserving stamina throughout the fight as this is the attack you want to use the dodge roll to escape the trap and not die to his axe slam.
If red rings appear near Heimlock, he'll punch the ground a few times, emitting flames within the range of the circles. As long as you're a fair distance away, you should not be affected by this attack.
Once you've damaged Heimlock's ascended form enough, he'll revert back to his regular form. He has the same attacks as in phase one, so see the previous section for tips to dodge his attacks. He will not transform again until he has his armour broken in his regular form. Take out his health to reach the climax of this battle.
Wolcen Heimlock fight: phase three
Just as things look bleak, your friend returns to the battle and begins to close the portal. He also puts three domes between the orbs. They supposedly protect you from being damaged, but in my experience they only really protect you from attacks that don't come from Heimlock. Heimlock isn't all that much different from phase two, except his transformations are no longer tied to having his armour being broken.
He also gains one more attack. When standing still, he can swing his axe at the air to send out electrical darts. These move very quickly, so you may wish to dodge roll to avoid them entirely, or just position yourself between them.
Your main concern here is with the amount of spell effects being thrown at you from the portal itself. Meteors, flame waves, and all the other stuff that was a minor nuisance beforehand, now appears with such frequency that they'll keep you on your toes. The three protective shields will prevent damage from these spells, but you'll likely need to move quickly to avoid Heimlock's more brutal attacks.
Defeating Heimlock will give you a bunch of items, gold, and rewards for completing the quest. Chief among these is a Genesis Stone, which is a new type of gem item that can be fitted into a gem slot. Find out more about these gems and how they work in the Wolcen items guide. You'll also get a Greater Entropy Orb, which can only be applied to legendary equipment.
You'll also unlock the "Champion of Stormfall" mode, and we have our Wolcen Champion Of Stormfall guide which will go over everything you need to know about that.
NOTE: Since Chapter 4 has been added, you need to complete that before Champion of Stormfall mode becomes available!
City of Stormfall
Once you complete the story, you unlock the City of Stormfall, which is viewable by clicking on Thunderblade Zalahir just to the right of the city center. Since the city is basically yours to command, you can work on various projects that gain progress from completing missions. Though this isn't really an endgame activity, it is a way for you to modify your account, characters, and items. These are the benefits of each project (in English reading order of left to right, then top to bottom):
The Cartographical Archives - Buying prices at merchants are decreased, and selling prices at merchants are increased.
Primordial Institute (West) - Unlocks a 5th skill slot (technically a 6th if you include the right-click).
Primordial Institute (Main) - The primordial essence meter is increased by 500 (from 1000 to 1500).
Primordial Institute (East) - You get 2 Gate of Fate points.
Stormfall Palace - These are all permanent productivity upgrades, which cause future projects to complete faster. There are 19 upgrades in total, and each one costs more gold and productivity to complete.
Seeker’s Garrison - Randomized repeatable missions will generate here (and rotate after each mission), that provide a variety of rewards from weapons, armor, accessories, reagents, gold, primordial affinity, and a temporary productivity boost. The rewards from the same mission can vary based on chance, and some missions have higher success rates than others.
Dark Market - This option mainly focuses around acquiring and modifying items. You can get uniques, reagents, "Memory's Echo" maps of level 70, 80, or 90 (which allow you to fight act bosses again for large rewards). Even once the city is complete and you are in the endgame, this still provides many valuable options.
Increase Item Quality - Wearable items have a quality to them, which can range from 1 to 5 stars. The quality is a multiplier on the items inherent damage or defense (1 + .1(number of stars times)).
Increase Item Rarity - The upgrade chain is common to magic to rare to legendary. Usually when upgrading a rare to a legendary, you get a 5 affix item, but sometimes it is a 6 affix item.
Increase Reagent Rarity - ONLY works if you separate one reagent from a stack.
Retrieve Anankis Artefact - Grants an additional Aspect of Apocalypse Token (the 4th and final token).
Diamond Bank - Unlock two more stash tabs, or restock the two city vendors.
Oshara's Council - Just as you used the council to run missions during Chapter 4, you can rerun those missions on a higher difficulty for greater rewards. You can also unlock the ability for Quartermaster Havar to sell armors and accessories.
Mirrormaid Ship - Acquire 6 new armor skins for transmogs!
Transmutation Forge - You can place an item in and it will randomly spit out a different item. This isn't worth your time, or the project slot.
Enneract Laboratory - Demetra can now create two duplicates of every skill (instead of the one she normally can).
Energy Instillator - This is just a way to convert gold currency to Primordial Affinity currency.
Siphon Chamber - This is just a way to convert Primordial Affinity currency to gold currency.
Regent Assembly - These 7 projects are temporary (for the current Ahriman loop) bonuses that make the Ahriman fight easier by nerfing his skills, or the enemies that are with him.
Salt Baths of Stormfall - A permanent 20% magic find.
Stormfall Shipyard - It says "Projects that require ships will become available". This includes the Stormfall Trade Assembly, and I think the Mirrormaid Ship.
Stormfall Trade Assembly - Randomized repeatable missions will generate here (and rotate after each mission), that provide a variety of rewards from weapons, armor, accessories, gems, gold, primordial affinity, and a temporary productivity boost. The rewards from the same mission can vary based on chance, and some missions have higher success rates than others.
Refuge for the Blind - A permanent gold find boost.
*Note: the missions that give weapons, armor, or accessories as rewards give versions with items levels 100 levels above your current level.
War Table Missions
To launch a mission, simply go to the right side of the town center, click on the war table, and then click on the mission you want (where it will zoom in on). Finally, click on the “Start Operation” button.
You can always lower the level of the mission if it is too difficult, but you will not earn skulls (which are used to unlock higher levels/difficulties). You will still earn the mission rewards though.
Additionally, if you want to add area modifiers (which increase the difficulty, magic find, item quantity, and productivity of the mission), you can spend 2500 gold to keep adding them, for up to 5 total.
The war table will always provide 3 mission options (four if you include the consumables available in “Champion of Stormfall” mode). The mission options are always different types, and include (listed in order of how long they usually take):
Headhunter - Kill one champion enemy in a circular room (though other enemies will spawn with it).
Onslaught - Kill all of the enemies in a circular room, which completes upon killing the third champion.
Sabotage - Kill the summoning pillar in a circular room, which also requires killing three champion enemies that are summoned to protect it (along with hordes of other enemies). The pillar does not take damage while the champions are out.
Mandate - Either kill enough enemies to fill the bar, or kill several of a specific champion enemy type, which are spread out around the map.
Wrath of Sarisel - Kill enough enemies to fill the bar to summon a boss at the end. Kill the boss, then open a special chest at the end of the level. More information can be found in the next section.
Cursebreaker - Escort a robot as it channels power into several spheres to fight back the curse. It will not progress if you are not within a certain distance (which also protects you from the cursed area dealing damage).
Expedition - Kill enough enemies to fill the bar to summon a boss at the end (which also needs to be killed) for 3 levels is a row. Each level increases its level number by 1.
As of patch 1.1.7.4, you can also use consumable maps at any level or difficulty (making the listed level useless), but they no longer grant productivity, nor do they progress the Ahriman progress bar. Additionally, since they don't move the Ahriman progress bar, the area modifiers don't change (so you can run all your maps on the area modifiers you want if they come up). There are several different consumable map types:
Bounty Target Map - Kill one champion enemy with no adds.
Treasure Map - Kill enough enemies to fill the bar. These maps have additional large treasure chests compared to normal.
Wealth Omens - Kill enough enemies to fill the bar. They have 3 wealth omens (golden scarab beetles) in them. The subfloors of Wealth omens maps don’t have an increased chance for omens.
Summoner Bounty - Kill one champion enemy with two specialist adds.
Treasure Map - Kill enough enemies to fill the bar. These maps have additional large treasure chests compared to normal.
Wealth Omens - Kill enough enemies to fill the bar. They have 4-6 wealth omens (golden scarab beetles) in them. The subfloors of Wealth omens maps don’t have an increased chance for omens.
Black Maria Incense - The map is just a small room with 3 cursed chests, and clicking on them initiates a timer. For every chest you open, more enemies will spawn. If you kill all of the enemies from that chest, you get its rewards, and each successive chest have greatly increased rewards. The map itself also has a timer, and once the timer hits 0 seconds, a portal out appears and everything disappears (including the loot on the ground).
Greedlead Incense - It is basically the upgraded version of a Treasure Map, but with a timer.
Goodroot Incense - It is basically the upgraded version of a Wealth Omens Map, but with a timer. These maps have at least 7 wealth omens (golden scarab beetles).
Chamber of Trials Map - It is basically the upgraded version of the Black Maria Incense, but the map itself doesn't have a timer.
Hidden Coffers Map - It is just a small room with several high quality chests and no enemies.
Memory's Echo (80) - The level listed is the only level you can run the map at. This does not drop and can only be earned using the Dark Market. The fight involves killing the first half of the Lambach boss.
Concentrated Memory's Echo (100) - The level listed is the only level you can run the map at. This does not drop and can only be earned using the Dark Market. The fight involves killing the first half of the Lambach boss.
Pure Memory's Echo (217) - The level listed is the only level you can run the map at. This does not drop and can only be earned using the Dark Market. The fight involves killing the first half of the Lambach boss.
For hunts (performed through expeditions):
You can go into side areas and not lose the hunt trail.
If you miss a hunt marker on a level and move onto the next level, there is no way to continue it or go back.
Any bonuses you get during the hunt (like extra projectiles) end immediately upon killing the hunt boss.
Wrath of Sarisel
This mission functions mostly like a regular mission where you kill enemies to summon the boss, then kill the boss. However, there are several differences:
There are no drops during the mission, and instead all of the loot happens at the end when you complete the mission and open the chest.
Special Sarisel only bosses called "Untainted" appear periodically (preceded by drums, then the untainteds talking).
Untainteds will have white text for their name and a ghostly/smokey appearance. If you don’t kill the untainted in a certain amount of time, it will come back and you will have two of them at once.
There seems to be special untainteds which are rare spawns (that have RED [flaming?] skull on the minimap). Instead of white text on their name, it is orange like with the special enemies you have to kill to complete most message boards. *Needs further testing, but these might be the “Nemesis” monsters which are stronger versions of untainteds made when a player is killed*
There is a special chest at the end. When you click on the chest, it puts you in the victory screen and gives you a ranking (based on number of bosses killed, untainteds killed, knock-outs received and time taken). Upon leaving the screen, the chest will pop open and a very large amount of items will pour out. The rank received determines the number of items in the reward screen:
S+ gives 5
S gives 4
A gives 3
B gives 2
C gives 1
The damage tracker in the “Details” of the Sarisel success sheet only counts damage done by the player, but not by summons.
Curses and Blessings are a new set of random Modifiers for Operations launched from the War Table. These modifiers sit on top of the War Table’s existing mission modifiers in both game modes. While they are far fewer in number, they are much more powerful and unique and will enable, or necessitate, more strategic play.
They will begin to appear on Operations as you eliminate more of Ahriman’s Lieutenants in Chapter IV, or as you ascend to higher difficulty levels at endgame. The more Lieutenants you have slain, or the higher the difficulty you have chosen, the more Curses and Blessings you will have on each Operation (up until the very highest difficulties, where the cruel machinations of Ahriman will take one Blessing away from you).
Curses
Wave after Wave - Specialist enemies spawn lower tier enemies on death.
Meteor Strike - Meteors will strike random positions on the map.
Lightning Storm - Lightning strikes random positions on the map.
Blood Rain - Projectiles successively fall on to your position, leaving a damaging Area of Effect.
Exhaustion - Every time you cast a skill, a stack of a slowing effect is applied on your character, reducing your speed (total reduction is capped).
Blessings -
Counter Strike - Double Skill Damage for the first skill used immediately after an Active Dodge.
Vampiric Ancestry - Regenerate Health on killing an enemy (or Force Shield if Health is full).
Apocalyptic Surge - Aspect of the Apocalypse will automatically activate when the player's Health is critically low (if the player has enough Primordial Essence). This does not count as a death/knockdown, and the player will have full Health upon exciting the Apocalyptic Form.
Ferocity of Baäpheth - After dealing a certain amount of damage, automatically cast a modified version of “Sovereign Shout” to boost Attack speed and Spell Casting speed.
Impurity Incarnated - Hitting enemies with a Spell/Attack/Skill applies a modified version of “Mark of Impurity” on the target.
Curses and Blessings in Chapter IV
Curses and Blessings at Endgame
End Game Loop
The end game loop is essentially running missions until you fill the Ahriman progress bar to trigger the Ahriman fight (the same fight you ended the campaign with). Once you kill him, the bar resets and the loop starts over. What you choose to do for fights leading up to Ahriman in each loop is up to you.
The Ahriman fight progress bar is separate for each character.
As you are running missions, you have the option of completing projects at the Regent Assembly (from the Champion of Stormfall interface) that will make the Ahriman fight easier.
These projects will only last for the current loop though, so I don’t usually bother with them. However, when you are really pushing the hardest difficulties, they might be necessary for you to beat Ahriman.
After completing 3 missions, the “Fight Lieutenant” bar will become filled and a button will appear. You can launch the lieutenant fight then, or keep running missions until Ahriman arrives.
Every time you fight a lieutenant, you will have the option of fighting one of three skills that Ahriman possesses. The skill you choose will be used against you by a shade of Ahriman that appears periodically, but the shade can’t be harmed. You just need to kill all of the spawns and survive to win. If you die, you get nothing and the opportunity is lost. If you survive during the Chapter 4 version, the skill will be disabled in the final Ahriman fight. If you survive in the Champion of Stormfall mode version, you can choose to disable the skill, or gain extra rewards.
The Ahriman fight, and his Lieutenant fights don't provide productivity for the City of Stormfall projects, nor do they progress the Ahriman bar (but killing Ahriman does reset it).
If you successfully complete all missions and fight all Lieutenants at the first opportunity, you can unlock all 8 lieutenant fights, then still have one mission left over before fighting Ahriman.
This means that if there is a mission that you want to do instead somewhere along the way (with a unique reward for example), you can without messing up your progress.
During each mission, along the right side of the screen is a tooltip that lists the magic find for the mission. This tooltip increases for each mission you run, until you logout (when it resets).
I think the magic find goes up by 80 times the number of red dots for each mission.
It is strange that it doesn't reset upon killing Ahriman, but resets upon logging out. Theoretically that should mean that if you just stayed logged into the game forever, you will get a near infinite magic find boost.
Since magic find increases with each mission and lieutenant fight, you have the best chance of getting good legendaries and uniques in the last Lieutenant fight.
Some very rare unique items can be target-farmed from these lieutenant fights. Nemorga made this wonderful visual guide for it:
As long as you aren't getting progress on your Ahriman bar, the level modifiers will not change (so you can run all of your maps on modifiers you like).
The fastest way to increase the levels of the war table is to run “Headhunt” missions, with “Onslaught” and “Sabotage” being the second fastest. This is even true if these three mission types only provide 3 skulls (but is especially true if they give more).
Since the best way to gain experience is to run the highest level mission you can still do fast, this is also the fastest way to level your character (to a point).
In mandates (and only in mandates), you can actually teleport back to town to sell. This is a holdover from the original structure of the endgame activities where mandates came from a mandate board and usually were closer to your level, while every other activity was separate.
If you are looking to optimize your gear, running “Sarisel” missions for Sarisel affix items, or “Expedition” missions for the hunt affix items can be useful.
Difficulties
There is a long progression of running missions to earn skulls, and unlock higher levels, then eventually turn into tier unlocks. The tier and level unlocks are shared by characters on the same account. The tiers and associated levels are:
When you run in a group, you get credit for all of the skulls earned (regardless of the leader) and it adds to your unlock total (though it starts from whatever level mission you left off at).
After accumulating 1114 skulls, you unlock Infinity, the final tier. To engage it, you need to spend 1000 skulls (which unlocks it for all characters on the account). The mode then allows you to spend additional skulls to further increase the difficulty, which is the real way to push your build (and possibly a deeper version of the end game).
For each skull you spent:
enemy health increases by .1x2+1.9x, where x is the number of skulls spent
enemy damage increases by .025x2+.475x, where x is the number of skulls spent
magic find increases by .01 per skull spent (which is added onto the base 4)
item quantity increases by .01 per skull spent (which is added onto the base 3.32)
Successfully completing the mission will return the spent skulls to your character.
Successful Operations below 100 skulls will award one-time bonuses of 5 Attribute points for every Skull spent, and 1 Gate of Fates point for every 5 skulls (per the 1.1.7.8 patch notes).
After the first 100 skulls, successful Operations will grant 1 Attribute point for every 2 Skulls spent, and 1 Gate of Fates point for every 50 Skulls spent (per the 1.1.7.8 patch notes).
These rewards are capped at 1000 Attribute points and 40 Gate of Fates points (per the 1.1.7.8 patch notes).
All of the attribute and Gate of Fate points unlocked apply to all characters on the account.
Fate-Adjucatrix Zeitgeist
This is a glowing purple vendor that sometimes appears in a random location during missions and sells a variety of rare items, one unique item, and gems (based on the level of the mission).
Fate-Adjucatrix can be found on the main level, on a sub-level, or both within the same mission.
When with a party, different players will likely get different uniques from her (but it is possible they get the same unique).
Chests
Chests and Cursed Chests: the loot amount and quality seems to reflect the color of the chest (which matches the item quality system). The better the cursed chest color, the harder the enemies. A purple cursed chest spawns 3-4 blue enemies.
Per the version 1.0.0 Patch Notes: “The Altar of Greed spawns 6 cursed chests. You have a limited time to open them and kill the monsters they spawn. Each chest open gives a bonus of rarity to the other ones.” *Note: due to shrine location and obstacles, it seems like it sometimes only spawns 5 chests.
Stats
Attributes
You get 1 point for every attribute per character level for a total of 90 at level 90.
You can get 1890 freely spendable attribute points total:
You get 10 freely spendable attribute points per level up. At level 90, this means 890 points (because you start at level 1 and level up 89 times).
You can get 1000 from completing Infinity tiers (from the 1.1.7.8 patch notes):
Successful Operations below 100 skulls will award one-time bonuses of 5 Attribute points for every Skull spent, and 1 Gate of Fates point for every 5 skulls. After the first 100 skulls, successful Operations will grant 1 Attribute point for every 2 Skulls spent, and 1 Gate of Fates point for every 50 Skulls spent. These rewards are capped at 1000 Attribute points and 40 Gate of Fates points.
You can also find attribute points in the Gate of Fates passive tree, and on equipment.
To spend points, you click on the "+" icon to the right of the attribute you want to spend the points on. Holding shift will spend 5 points at a time, holding control will spend 50 points at a time, and holding both will spend 250 points at time.
When spending points, the attribute you put them in will turn green showing you what is going to change. You can actually go to the other tabs (like skills and defense) to see how much of a difference those points will make, before locking in the spending of the points (which is done by clicking on the "Confirm" button in the bottom left corner. Closing out the window will not spend the points.
You can pay gold to reset your attribute points, and it costs about 500 gold per attribute point (though you can only reset all of them at once).
While all attributes increase damage (as there is a damage increase for total attributes shown near the bottom of the window), only toughness provides a defensive bonus, and that defensive bonus coupled with the offensive bonus is usually larger than any other attribute (even at 920 toughness, since it doesn’t receive score scaling diminishing returns like the other three attributes).
This is especially true if your gear provides you with additional ferocity, critical chance score, agility, attack speed score, spell casting speed score, wisdom, or ailment chance score.
Active Skills
General Info
When leveling, enneracts will drop that teach you the skill named on the enneract. If you already have the skill learned, right-clicking on the enneract will instead convert it into primordial affinity.
To purchase additional skills, you can visit Demetra, who is to the bottom right of the city's center. The 2nd through 4th tabs have a variety of skill enneracts.
The skills equipped on your skill bar when you are killing enemies gain experience and can level up. Just like your character, a skill can reach level 90 (but the experience required for a skill to reach level 90 is much lower than it is for the character).
As a skill levels up, skills get skill modifier points which allow you to change either the function of the skill, or some of the numbers related to it (like damage, critical chance, critical damage, cooldown, resource cost, ailment chance, et cetera).
Skills gain 1 skill modifier point every 6 levels up to a maximum of 10 points (at level 60).
There is an active skill feature in the game called “Duplicate Skill”. To duplicate a skill, go to Demetra who is in the bottom right of the city's center. In the left window, click on the skill you wish to duplicate, then on the right side, make sure the "Original Skill" button is selected, then click on the "Duplicate:" button.
To duplicate a skill the first time, the skill needs to be AT LEAST level 10, and it will cost 2000 primordial affinity.
To duplicate a skill a second time, the duplicated skill needs to be selected, it needs to be at least level 40, and it will cost 20000 primordial affinity.
Duplicate versions of a skill share the same cooldown, so duplicating most skills seems useless. These are the exceptions I have found:
You can raise the amount of summons you can have out at once.
You can raise the amount of turrets you can have out at once.
You can use a buffing skill (like “Consuming Embers”) with different elements.
You can use a buffing skill with different modifiers.
You could also have a skill with several different modifier combinations equipped, with each one being useful in a certain situation.
Skill List with Details
Aether Jump - 10/10
This is the best movement skill, as it can travel through objects, across long distances (with certain modifiers), can be held down to continuously jump (with a modifier), and it can provide buffs.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 5, 10, 11, 16, Any
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 125.0%.
The skill is normally aether, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Spirits of the Void" modifier causes the skill to deal 125% damage, and guarantees one stack of the corresponding ailment type.
The "Void Paralysis" modifier causes the the skill to apply the corresponding ailment type to enemies in a 3 meter radius at the beginning and end of the jump.
The "Veil of Illusion" modifier creates a decoy that lasts 5 seconds.
The"March of the Time Devourers" modifier causes successive jumps to cost 50% more each time.
The "Aethereal Bounce" modifier provides a 5% attack and cast speed bonus for 5 seconds (but this duration is additive with the "Interstitial Boost" modifier).
The "Interstitial Boost" modifier gives a 20% movement speed bonus for 10 seconds (but this duration is additive with the "Aethereal Bounce" modifier).
Annihilation - 8/10
It can deal very high damage with 3 beams, especially when channeled for over 2 seconds (with a specific modifier). It doesn't have cooldown and it isn't too resource intensive either, so you can get the benefit most of the time.
My preferred skill modifiers: 4, 6, 13, 15, Sacred
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally aether, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The closer the mouse is to the caster, the wider the spread between the beams (up to a 75 degree spread).
It does not count as a projectile, and therefore isn't blocked by domes.
It has a .1 second warm-up time, then hits every .3 seconds.
This base tick rate is 3 attacks per second, but max tick rate is 5 attacks per second.
The "Swing of the Pendulum" modifier increases the turn rate by 110% (from 120 to 230).
The "Breadth of Infinity" modifier increases the beam width by .35 (from .4 to .75).
The "Toxic Entropy" modifier gives a 20% damage bonus, but the bonus is additive with a few other bonuses, so it might only show as an ~14.8% increase. This effect falls off after 10 seconds.
Anomaly - 7/10
It provides another convenient way of triggering the "Dawn's Pious Striker" node from the Eos tree to a huge area, and it gather enemies in a huge area (which is great for pairing with death explosion skills when you deal damage to a single target or small area). The problem is the long cooldown.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 14, 16, Sacred
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 100.0%.
The skill is normally aether, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The skill "fires" after .66 seconds and can hit a maximum of 20 enemies.
The "Dislocating Threads" modifier increases the radius by 1 meter.
The "Event Horizon" modifier deals 50% damage every pull.
The "Critical Point" modifier causes new casts to explode previous vortexes for 500% damage.
The "Echoes of Infinity" modifier allows the vortex to "pulse" multiple times, which happens every .8 seconds (and likely still hits a maximum of 20 enemies). Normally this means 6 pulses (initial pulse, plus 4 seconds/.8 seconds = 5 pulses), but with the "Temporal Dilation" modifier, this means 8 pulses (initial pulse, plus 6 seconds/.8 seconds = 7.5 pulses).
The "Erratic Progression" modifier gives a 20% movement speed bonus for 8 seconds if you step inside the area of effect.
The "Confluence of All Things" modifier causes health globes in the area to explode for 500% damage.
Anvil’s Woe - 5/10
The skill is very spammable, but the damage is low, plus the attack speed is a bit slow, making it difficult to stay alive while using it.
My preferred skill modifiers: 5, 7, 9, 10, 16, Physical
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 400.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Warlike Inspiration" modifier reduces cost by 25%.
The "Remnants of Shock" modifier gives a 20% chance for a ghost to hit enemies again for 150% damage.
The "Bonebreaker" modifier gives +50% critical chance against stunned enemies.
The "Striking Flint" modifier changes the skill into a 60 degree cone attack that probably reaches about 8 meters. It also reduces the damage by 15%.
The "Balanced Handle" modifier increases attack speed by 120%, but decreases ailment chance by 20%.
The "Radical Shake" modifier causes critical hits to stun, and deal double damage, but it adds a 4 seconds cooldown to the skill.
Arctic Spear - 10/10
Being able to move while firing is cool, but it can be rather hard to aim effectively, especially with the delay (though this is remedied with the "Sublime Fracture" modifier). Also, it fires crazy fast, so it really burns through resource.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 6, 11, 12, 13, 16, Any
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 150.0%.
The skill is normally frost, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
This is the ONLY skill in the game that can be cast while moving (though some others can move while attacking after the initial warm-up cast).
The "Prolonged Deceit" modifier doesn't show any buff icons, so it is really difficult to tell if the stacks refresh when hits continue occurring, but I don't think so. I also have no idea how hits and misses from the "Sublime Fracture" modifier interact with it, for the same reason. I do see the damage increasing after hits though, so I am confident that the modifier is working.
The "Sublime Fracture" modifier appears to fire off 8 smaller shards, but it is hard to count even in slow motion. This modifier is one of the most fun in the game for me.
The "Hiemal Ambush" modifier deals 33% damage per lance held, and holds up 3 lances.
“Avenger” Autoturret - 9/10
Overall, this is an excellent skill for damage, and if placed on the ground, it will continue to deal damage while the character can move, attack, or place even more turrets.
If you enjoy placing auto-turrets on the ground, I recommend avoiding the “Ballistic Reinforcements” modifier and instead duplicating the skill once or twice to get the same effect without the damage loss.
There is a bit of a delay with placing the turrets, and if you try to cast and move quickly, sometimes the delay will cause it to place the turret facing the wrong direction. Increased attack speed reduces having this problem, though it won’t change the actual DPS of the skill.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, Lightning
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 120.0% (which is per shot).
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
It only has 50% of the chance to apply ailments of normal attacks and skills (which is multiplicative with the “Wild Splinters” active skill modifier.
Additional projectiles don’t affect this skill at all, so a “Targeting Ring”actually hurts this skill due to the damage multiplier reduction.
It fires the same number of shots regardless of attack speed or type of weapon (bow or pistol). Despite saying that the base tick rate should be 3 (according to WolcenDB), it actually shoots 4 shots per second (minus 1 shot for deploying, and the final number of shots is rounded).
“Flak Launcher” multiplies the tick rate by .66, which reduces the overall rate by 41.7%.
“Twin Repeater” multiplies the tick rate by 1.33 (so 4*1.33 = 5.32), which would be an overall increase of 33%, but there is a max skill tickrate of 5, so some of this active skill modifier bonus is wasted (8%) if you don’t take “Flak Launcher”.
Using “Twin Repeater”, and “Flak Launcher” together multiplies the base tick rate of 4 by both and 4*1.33*.66 = 3.5112, so there is still a net loss in tick rate.
The number of shots with modifiers are:
19 shots over 5 seconds
24 shots over 5 seconds with “Twin Repeater”
14 shots over 5 seconds with “Flak Launcher”
17 shots over 5 seconds with “Twin Repeater”, and “Flak Launcher”
26 shots over 5.5 seconds with “Sleepless Sentry”, “Twin Repeater”, and “Unstable Engine of Destruction
19 shots over 5.5 seconds with “Sleepless Sentry”, “Flak Launcher”, “Twin Repeater”, and “Unstable Engine of Destruction”
27 shots over 7 seconds with “Sleepless Sentry”
34 shots over 7 seconds with “Sleepless Sentry”, and “Twin Repeater”
20 shots over 7 seconds with “Sleepless Sentry”, and “Flak Launcher”
24 shots over 7 seconds with “Sleepless Sentry”, “Flak Launcher”, and “Twin Repeater”
Holding it in your hands causes it to fire twice as many shots (and thus doubles the DPS), but you cannot move while holding it (though you can rotate).
The “Flak Launcher” modifier does a large cone of damage (~100 degrees), and seems to shoot about 7 - 8 m deep.
Benefits:
increases the damage by 50%
gives it a very powerful AoE
100% pierce chance, which negates the need for Come What May (which causes all projectiles within 6m to pierce)
Drawbacks:
reduces the overall fire rate by 41.7% (or 36.8% with Twin Repeater)
costs 2 points (providing a 6.6% increase per point when you factor in the fire rate)
shorter projectile distance
weaker against bosses
As of patch 1.1.7.0, it gained the ability to auto-target enemies with a 60 degree radius and 15 yards of where it was first pointed towards.
This makes the 3 point auto-targeting active skill “Autonomous Sensors” modifier less necessary.
With the “Twin Repeater” modifier, this is the most expensive ranged skill (but the damage it does is worth it).
Bladestorm - 7/10
While the ability to channel an attack and quickly move (to enemies or away from danger) are amazing, the damage is lacking.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 6, 11, 12, 15, Toxic
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 240.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Bladestorm ignores attack speed, and instead relies on tick rate for how often it deals damage.
Bladestorm ignores movement speed, and has its own movement speed while channeling (which is noticeably faster than normal movement speed with +40 movement speed on boots).
Bladestorm does not count as movement for the passive node “Disallowing Vessel” in the Siegebreaker tree, which means if you can keep channeling, you can move around the map with a permanent 30% multiplicative damage increase!
The "Lethal Momentum" modifier gives 20 rage per kill.
The "Ceaseless Current" modifier reduces cost by 15%.
The "Unrelenting Strikes" modifier deals triple damage when the skill channel ends.
The "Long Pommel" modifier reduces the tick rate by 25%.
The "Unfettered Determination" modifier allows the skill to become a channeled skill (with an unlimited duration as long as you have resource). It also reduces the damage by 15%, and ailment chance by 50%.
The "Wheel of Pain" modifier increases damage by 1% per ailment stack, up to 30%.
The "Chaining Wrath" modifier gives a 25% chance to cast chain lighting which deals 100% weapon damage.
The "Cascading Rhythms" modifier increases the tick rate by 50%.
The "Cleaving Gyration" modifier increases critical chance score by 25%.
Bleeding Edge - 9/10
A solid skill and probably the best option in the melee category.
My preferred skill modifiers: 3, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, Physical (red)
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill has a small casting delay before the axe appears, and you cannot move until the axes returns to the characters hand.
The skill is normally rend, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Self-adjusting Principle" modifier increases the projectile speed by 30%, but reduces the damage dealt by 20%, and reduces ailment chance by 25%. Theoretically, it still increases the DPS of the skill by 4% (1.3 x .8), since there is a limit to the number of axes that can be out at once.
The "Wicked Swing" modifier increases the area of effect for the skill, but it is hard to tell by how much. It looks like double the radius to me.
The "Delayed Bladespin" modifier allows the skill to cast at the cursor (making it ranged).
The "Unstoppable Momentum" modifier gives the skill a 6 second cooldown, but allows the axes to keep spinning in the cast location for 4 seconds (during which you can move around). It also reduces the damage by 30%, and increases the cost by double.
The "Despotic Perseverance" modifier increases damage by 1% per ailment stack, up to 30%.
The "Astral Orbit" modifier causes the axe to follow you, and rotate for another second at the cost of 15% damage.
Blood for Blood - 6/10
The buff is cheap and lasts longer than the cooldown allowing it to be up all the time, but the bonuses aren't the most useful.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, Physical (red)
The skill is normally rend, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Blood for Blood seems to increase damage by about 15%.
The "Reaching Claws" modifier increases the area of effect by 20% per ally.
The "Secret Move" modifier allows the skill to be moved after .5 seconds, but it costs 20 rage.
The "Unrelenting Attrition" modifier allows the skill to follow the target it was cast on (your character if you don't have "Directed Bloodletting"). This modifier is amazing if you are solo and are not using the skill on summons.
The "Directed Bloodletting" modifier allows the skill to cast at the cursor.
The "Unstable Flesh" modifier gives a 30% chance for enemies below 30% health to die instantly.
The "Spontaneous Brio" modifier gives 25% resource generation.
The "Pervasive Attrition" modifier gives 35% increased ailment chance.
Bulwark of Dawn - 6/10
It provides another convenient way of triggering the "Dawn's Pious Striker" node from the Eos tree, or it can be used to keep a couple of defensive bonuses up (buffs, health or force shield). The damage is too low to to be good as DPS.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 5, 9, 13, 14, Sacred
The skill is normally sacred, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Sacred Grounds" modifier deals 130% damage and ticks every 1 second.
The "Haven of Men" modifier gives 5% force shield per tick.
The "Blade of Truth" modifier gives a 15% damage bonus, but the bonus is additive with a few other bonuses, so it might only show as an ~11.1% increase. This effect falls off after 10 seconds.
The "Boundless Cornucopia" modifier decreases the tick rate from 1 second to .9 seconds (so by .1).
The "Rejuvenating Light" modifier increases stamina regeneration by 20%.
The "Embracing Conviction" modifier consumes resource again when you move the area of effect.
The "Burning Balm" modifier increases ailment chance by 30%.
The "Aegis of Hope" modifier gives a 20% all resistances increase while the skill is active, but the bonus is additive with all other bonuses, so it might only show as an ~4.9% increase.
The "House of Rest" modifier decreases the tick rate from 1 second to .8 seconds (so by .2).
Consuming Embers - 10/10
With the "Fervour’s Smoke" modifier, this is probably the best skill there is. Without it, this is still a solid skill, as it can deal decent DPS and doesn't have a cooldown, or it can be used as a buff.
My preferred skill modifiers:
For DPS: 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, 16, Any
For Buffing: 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 13, Any
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 170.0%.
The skill is normally fire, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
With the additional projectiles modifiers "Meteor Shower" and "Gift of Flame", the distance of the cursor from the caster dictates the angle of the spread of projectiles (the farther the cursor, the smaller the spread).
The "Catching Spark" modifier increases the skills spell casting speed by 20%.
The "Heartpiercer" modifier changes the area of effect explosion into a piercing attack (which technically pierces 999 targets). The size of the projectile increases by 50%, and apparently turns the damage into a moving zone that ticks every .5 seconds.
The "Fervour’s Smoke" modifier allows the fireballs to explode upon recasting, dealing 100% damage in a 2 meter radius (but timing it to hit enemies that aren't right in front of you is difficult).
It is supposed to cost resource to trigger the explosion, but the coding appears to have a positive number of "umbra" and the positive numbers generate willpower. Also, the willpower generated ignores the rage and willpower reduction costs. That makes this a uniquely amazing skill for generating willpower, which allows you to use the skill indefinitely (even without enemies), or replace the normal options.
The “Object of Desire” modifier gives a 35% multiplicative damage bonus that falls off after 10 seconds.
You can actually duplicate this skill, and pick different elements for each duplicate to get the buff more than once.
“Deathgazer” Railgun - 3/10
The skill damage is laughably weak, and even with the full charge-up it doesn’t hit all that hard unless you take “Inflexible Blast”. Even then, you are exposed during the entire charge time (and you are really unlikely to get the skill off without dying).
If you are going for the full charge to deal extra damage, “Protean Aim” is great since it makes the late charges hit a large area. Similarly, “Slow Learner” gives 20% crit chance per charge (for a total of 100%, which brought my 56% crit to about 70-75%). “A Promised Bullet” would also be required in that case to get an extra charge level and maximize the damage.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 14, 16, Lightning
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 170.0%.
The skill is normally lightning, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
It fires 1 fully charged shot every 4.5 seconds.
It fires 9 shots in 10 seconds (without charging).
Additional projectiles don’t affect this skill at all.
This skill doesn’t get blocked by enemy domes.
The damage percentage increase per stage is 100 / 200 / 350 / 500 / 900 (per 1.1.7.0 patch notes).
The “Inflexible Blast” modifier makes it so that releasing the skill before having full charges deals no damage (and basically cancels out the projectile).
The “One Simply Shot” modifier is a HUGE damage increase if you have a reasonable amount of crit chance. At 56% crit chance, it was a 34% damage increase (44% - 10%).
The “Reckless Gunner” modifier is helpful, because it generates either 350 (according to WolcenDB), or 250 (according to the patch notes) rage, which is more than it costs. This makes the skill useful for generating rage, as long as you don’t hold the button to charge it. This modifier is the best use for the skill in my mind, but it still has the drawback that consumed rage still doesn’t replenish right away, so you will slowly build a brown bar between you purple (willpower) and yellow (rage) bars.
The “Judicious Trigger” modifier gives a 50% damage increase, and you have .25 seconds after hitting a tier to gain the bonus. It can be a bit tricky to get the timing though.
Duskshroud - 8/10
This skill is excellent for survival, because it has threat reduction, which will make enemies stop chasing you and either stand there looking confused (in solo) or go towards other players (in multiplayer).
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, Default
This skill also will cause bosses to cancel their channeled skills including:
Demon of Souls lightning beam
Justicar reflect shield
The base skill decreases threat by 80 (% maybe?) which is usually enough to drop enemies off of you, but sometimes enemies that you have already hit a lot will stay with you (something like a boss probably is the most likely to stay with you after you have damaged it a bunch and caused a bunch of threat to it).
The “Unseen Thrills” modifier adds 15% damage as shadow (per the in-game damage calculation) to your skills for 5 seconds (per WolcenDB).
The “Soothing Night” modifier can be helpful for removing ailments (especially DoTs).
The “Lapse in Focus” modifier can be helpful for removing crowd control.
Eclipse - 4/10
It hits pretty hard, but the 5 second cooldown (which can't be removed), prevents it from being a main damage dealer. It can be a good "OH CRAP" button due to the knockback and stun, but I find the knockback to spread enemies out too much to be good for any other purpose.
My preferred skill modifiers: 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, Any
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 1000.0%.
The skill is normally shadow, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The skills damage hits an ~100 degree cone.
The "Cover of Darkness" modifier regenerates 5% force shield per enemy hit.
The "Rushing for Curfew" modifier does generate 30% willpower on hit.
The "Entwining Volutes" modifier just changes the cone from 100 to 360 degrees.
Evasion - 7/10
Good for survival, but awkward to use since you fly backwards (sometimes REALLY far). Best used to keep enemies at a distance, then hit them with your main attack.
It seems less effective when playing in co-op, because the decoys don’t end up in the way as often.
I couldn't seem to get the decoys to aggro the bosses in co-op either.
If they added a skill modifier that removed the jump backwards, I would love this skill.
My preferred skill modifiers: 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 16, Toxic or Rend
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally shadow, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
A “Targeting Ring” does not give extra projectiles/decoys/areas of effect for this skill.
It fires 1 shot in 6 seconds (because of a 6 second cooldown).
The “Second Wind” and “Effortless” modifiers each reduce this by 2 seconds (down to 2 seconds total).
The “Weightless Sprint” modifier increases the distance traveled from 8 to 10 meters, but I usually end up needing to move forward again to see what I am shooting at if I use it.
The “Enshrouded Distance” modifier is supposed to knock back enemies 2 m, but the effect wasn’t noticeable.
The “Parting Gift” modifier turns the skill into a mine that explodes when enemies get close.
I wouldn’t pair it with “Shadow Cast”, as the decoy doesn’t spawn until after the mine goes off.
The “Boiling Ink” modifier gives 20 rage per hit (but only for the initial impact, so the “Primis Tenebris” modifier doesn’t increase the amount of rage generated).
The “Barrage” modifier adds a projectile, but with a 90 degree split between projectiles.
“Barrage” with “Shadow Cast” spawns two decoys (and presumably other additional projectiles do the same)!
The “Shadow Cast” modifier makes a decoy clone that lasts for 5 seconds which aggros nearby enemies and is GREAT!
The “Primis Tenebris” modifier adds an area of effect around the impact point that deals skill damage every .66 seconds for 5 seconds.
This pairs PERFECTLY with “Shadow Cast”, as it ensures that the melee enemies will stay in the area of effect.
If you have “Barrage”, “Shadow Cast”, and “Primis Tenebris” together, along with either enough cooldown (or “Second Wind” and/or “Effortless”), you can have multiple pairs of areas/decoys (I have had 3 pairs or 6 areas/decoys total).
Normally, the projectiles don’t travel very far, so the 90 degree split between projectiles doesn’t matter that much. However, if you take “Stunning Reach”, casting the skill causes the areas of effect (and decoys) to have a gap between them.
Shooting the skill really close to your character causes the areas to become close enough to close the gap, or for them to overlap (when thrown at your feet). This brings the width back to normal.
The “Immobilizing Smoke” modifier adds a 1.5 second stun and a 3 second cooldown (which is 50% more than the base cooldown).
The “Stunning Reach” modifier adds some more range which can be helpful (but not if you are using “Barrage”, and especially not if you are also using “Shadow Cast” or “Primis Tenebris”).
Feeding Swarm - 8/10
One of the main summon skills, which pairs well with either Hunting Swarm or Livor Mortis. By itself it is rather weak, but if you duplicate it a couple of times, then pair it with other summons it is a great option.
While the damage listed in the tooltip is comparable or even a bit higher than the ranged summons, it doesn't benefit from a lot of the good damage multipliers (which are exclusive to projectiles), they don't have area of effect or pierce, and they have to spend time moving to each enemy they want to fight. At least they thank for you a bit more than the other summons.
My preferred skill modifiers: 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, Toxic
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The summon automatically respawns ~.75 seconds after death.
The modifiers that increase minion damage provide a smaller increase than expected, suggesting the damage increase is additive with other sources. This includes: “Wretched Elects” (3.7%), “Evangelists of Death” (3.7%), “Decay’s Bannermen” (3.7%), “Splintering Hands” (23.8%) and “Mortuary Brawl” (3.7%).
The “Cadaverine” modifier causes the swarm to explode at the end of their charge, consuming the swarm.
The “Putrescine” modifier doubles the health of the swarm, increases their damage by 94.7%, and increases their size.
The “Saturated Tissue” modifier claims it provides a temporary damage buff, but that increase isn’t shown in the tooltip, nor is there any buff icon, so I don’t think it is working.
Flight of Gaavanir - 2/10
The long cooldown on a skill with mediocre damage and no versatility make it mostly useless in my mind. Personally, I also hate having to recall the skill to trigger almost all of the bonuses.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, Physical
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 360.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Casting the skill throws a spinning hammer, and hitting the button again calls the hammer back. The hammer does damage again on the way back.
The "Howl of Battle" modifier gives 15% rage per enemy hit.
The "Ram Hammer & Bludgeon" modifier regenerates 10% force shield per enemy hit.
The "Mountainous Impact" modifier causes an explosion that deals 150% damage in area of 5 meters.
The "Pounding Shakes" modifier gives a 40% damage increase to the return hit.
The "Sister Hammer" modifier adds a projectile. Both projectiles are launch at the same time in a V pattern with about a 60% degree split.
The "Tectonic" modifier causes the return to deal 50% damage to areas 2.5 meters wide.
The "Standing Boulder" modifier gives a critical chance bonus based on 50% of the character's block chance.
The "Shockwave" modifier gives a 20% chance to stun for 2 seconds.
The "Heavyweight Precision" modifier gives 40% critical chance score.
Gunslinger’s Brand - 7/10
Base skill is VERY weak and weird to use (but you can get used to it). You have to mouse over 5 enemies in order to target them and cause it to release the shots. I usually do this by just waving around my mouse quickly, and if I don’t get 5 enemies, I release the button anyway (and fire at however many I targeted).
There are several options for making targeting enemies faster and easier, but I prefer to skip targeting all together and just use the “Wild Gunman” modifier which causes it to unload all bullets toward your cursor.
A weird thing about this skill is that it has 20% increased base damage per bullet NOT fired (per WolcenDB), so it actually hits harder with less targets (like when there is only a boss left).
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 3, 5, 6, 12, 14, Lightning
If you shoot a Justicar with his reflect shield up using this setup, you are almost definitely dead.
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 250.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
It fires 6 shots in 10 seconds.
According to the 1.1.7.0 patch notes, the “Scattering Blast” modifier was supposed to no longer reduce the damage to 90%, but it still does (per the tooltip and in-game calculation).
Gunslinger’s Brand - Order Through Chaos rune is currently bugged. It applies the entire damage buff if you only shoot once. The damage is multiplicative and has some of the highest critical hits in the game. While it isn’t listed, “Order Through Chaos” also increases the damage of the skill by 50% (per the 1.1.7.0 patch notes [but not the in-game calculation]).
The “Flak Handcannon” modifier also increases the damage of the skill by 30% (per the in-game calculation and the 1.1.7.0 patch notes).
With this huge damage boost, plus the AoE effect, this modifier seems mandatory.
The “Leave No Witnesses” modifier not only increases the amount of shots to 10, but decreases the maximum time to 1 second.
If you are going to take “Leave No Witnesses”, I would take “Wild Gunman” with it, to make sure you get all of the shots off easily (though you don’t have to).
Havoc Orb - 8/10
I love the damage of this skill, but despite having the highest damage burst, it has a medium cooldown (and thus lower DPS). Without the cooldown it costs a TON of rage. It also doesn't always hit groups in front of you ir you try to just spam it (because the missile itself is small).
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, Lightning
Without the cooldown: 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, 14, 16, Lightning
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 350.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
It fires 5 shots in 3.5 seconds.
There is a 25 degree angle between additional projectiles (per Wolcen DB).
The “Glory to Mankind” modifier
It cannot be used with the “Disintegrating Payload” modifier.
It will fire two grenades or rockets at the same time in a spread (think Stings of Krearion).
The “Disintegrating Payload” modifier increases the area of effect, but actually decreases the damage of the skill, because each shot breaks into 6 projectiles that each deal 15% of regular damage (and 6 ∙ 15 = 90%).
It cannot be used with the “Glory to Mankind” or “Mine Launcher” modifiers.
The “Contained Destruction” modifier reduces the minimum arming distance from 7 to 5 meters. The maximum arming distance is still 15 meters.
The “Baptism by Hail” modifier fires 5 shots.
This changes “Glory to Mankind” to fire six missiles in quick succession with no spread.
You can now have rockets and mines equipped and it actually gets both projectiles (so 10 total)! SELF-TESTED.
Adding more projectiles no longer shoots 6 shots.
A “Targeting Ring” does not give extra projectiles for this modifier.
The “Mine Launcher” modifier creates mines that explode when enemies step on them. If no enemies trigger the mine, it will still EVENTUALLY blow up, but it takes 60 seconds.
It cannot be used with the “Disintegrating Payload” modifier.
Hunting Swarm - 9/10
One of the main summon skills, which pairs well with either Feeding Swarm or Livor Mortis. By itself it is rather weak, but if you duplicate it a couple of times, then pair it with other summons it is a great option.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, Toxic
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The summon automatically respawns ~.75 seconds after death.
Hunting Swarm has a default +10% attack speed increase.
When trying to get them to hit enemies inside of a dome shield, you have to actually put your mouse past where you want them to hit by about 3 inches to get them to land inside the dome shield.
The modifiers that increase minion damage provide a smaller increase than expected, suggesting the damage increase is additive with other sources. This includes: “Venomous Points” (4.8%), “Chosen Undead” (23.8%), “Chestsplitter” (4.8%), “Lethal Effort” (23.8%), “Dead Marksman” (9.5%), and “Unfeeling Exertion” (4.8%).
The “Rotburst Arrow” modifier does just what it says, and functions just like the “Liquid Smooth” (rend) damage variant of Livor Mortis. It is amazing against densely packed groups, but does nothing against a single target.
The “Tactical Manoeuvre” modifier claims it provides a temporary attack speed buff, but that increase isn’t shown in the tooltip, nor is there any buff icon, so I don’t think it is working.
Inescapable Skirmish - 9/10
This is basically the skill "Hunting Swarm", but for someone holding a melee weapon. By itself it is rather weak, but if you duplicate it a couple of times, then pair it with other summons it is a great option.
My preferred skill modifiers: 3, 5, 11, 13, 14, 16, Toxic or Rend
If you want to do a summon build with a two-handed melee weapon, you can use this skill plus either Livor Mortis, Hunting Swarm, or Feeding Swarm as a Sarisel affix.
The skill is normally lightning, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The summon automatically respawns .7 seconds after death.
The “Explosive Ammunition” modifier does just what it says, and functions just like the “Liquid Smooth” (rend) damage variant of Livor Mortis. It is amazing against densely packed groups, but does nothing against a single target.
The “Focus Fire” modifier claims it provides a temporary attack speed buff, but that increase isn’t shown in the tooltip, nor is there any buff icon, so I don’t think it is working.
Infinity Blades - 10/10
With the "Warriors of Aeons Past" modifier, this is one of the best skills in the game due to the flexibility with resources it provides. Without it, it is still a very good option, as it: is spammable, has built in willpower generation options, hits a large area, and deals good damage.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 14, 15, 16, Any
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 250.0%.
The skill is normally aether, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The skill inherently generates 10 willpower on hit, making this skill much easier to sustain than most.
The skill is a 4 step combo (up to 6 with modifiers) that travels forward, where each step hits a 180 degree cone, but each step hits further (reaching a larger area). The pattern is:
swipe from right to left (this takes twice as long as the other steps)
swipe from left to right
swipe from right to left
swipe from both sides, crossing in the middle
two large fast swipes from left to right, then right to left (but they are twice as fast as the others, so it still takes the same amount of time)
a backhanded slash, then a kick (but they are twice as fast as the others, so it still takes the same amount of time)s
Holding shift while casting keeps the skill from stepping and moving.
With the "Sublime Cut" and "Critical Momentum" modifiers, plus a ton of rage and willpower cost reduction, you can just use this one button infinitely as long as there are enemies.
The "Three-Dimensional Scoring" modifier actually adds two attacks in quick succession.
The "Printed Record" modifier gives an 8% chance to deal 100% damage. I think you can have a maximum of 3 ghosts hitting at a time.
The "Rehearsal for Armageddon" modifier gives a 30% damage bonus, but the bonus is additive with a few other bonuses, so it might only show as an ~22.2% increase. This effect falls off after 60 seconds.
The "Cruel Persistence" modifiers 1% damage increase per ailment stack doesn't have damage cap that similar modifiers usually have.
The "Warriors of Aeons Past" modifiers allows you to use any of the skills with the "Warrior" skill tag.
This is one of the strongest and most creative modifiers in the game, as it allows you to access a bunch of skills that you otherwise would need a 1-handed pistol or melee weapon with a catalyst, one of several uniques like Veiled Eclipse unique pants, or a Sarisel affix to use. Additionally, since it costs willpower and almost all of the warrior skills cost rage, you automatically get a build in way to generate willpower while dealing reasonable damage (instead of relying on auto-attacks that deal almost no damage and don't generate that much willpower).
The "Quantic Charge Distribution" modifier gives a 20% damage bonus, but the bonus is additive with a few other bonuses, so it might only show as an ~14.8% increase. This effect falls off after 10 seconds.
The "Spherical Repulsion" modifier is great if you are trying to keep the "Beacon for the Lost" Gate of Fates node active, and good if you want to use the "Force Field Condensator" modifier.
The "Static Environment" modifier increases your block chance by 17% while using the skill.
The "Cosmic Recursion" modifier actually adds two attacks in quick succession.
The "Wounds Bled Eternal" modifier increases critical damage by 25%.
Iosonic Rain - 9/10
It has a bit of a delay before firing, but once it starts, it can be channeled for a long time (due to a low rage cost) and decent DPS (which becomes amazing with a Targeting Ring).
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 16, Toxic
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 25.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Holding the button down causes the skill to channel, locking you in place, but allowing you to rotate towards enemies.
Channeling Iosonic Rain only counts as one point of Anointed Ammunition from the passive node “Blessed Silver”.
A “Targeting Ring” gives extra projectiles for this skill, and feels mandatory if you are planning on using this skill in the end-game.
The "Solar Magnetism" modifier provides a 25% increase in fire rate and thus a 25% increase in DPS, plus a larger collision area to hit enemies with.
The "Spear versus Shield" modifier increases the rage cost (reduced by rage cost reduction), and increases damage, but removes projectile pierce. I wouldn’t recommend it since a lot of the damage dealt to the tougher enemies is done with pierce because the weaker enemies are always in the way.
The "Angel of Death" modifier causes the two beams to sweep outwards and inwards, which makes it easy to stand in one place and not have to aim, but also means you can’t focus on specific enemies, and you miss most of your shots.
The "Embraced by Rage" modifier provides up to a 50% increase in damage (after 2 seconds).
The "Panoptic Shot" modifier causes the character to fire while spinning in a circle. Each shot seems to be about 50 degrees rotation from the last, meaning 7 shots per rotation, but also meaning that the shots don’t fly in the same direction each pass. In practice, you only hit where your cursor is with every 8th bullet in that direction (which is insanely inefficient). To me this skill modifier must be avoided.
Juggernaut - 1/10
At high levels, the damage absorption is so low that it isn't even worth the time to cast the skill.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, Toxic
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 700.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Grudges Collected" modifier gives 10 rage on hit (which is supposed to be when the shield is hit).
The "Crushing Wall" modifier deals 40% damage to enemies that hit the shield.
The "Halted Momentum" modifier gives a 10% chance for enemies that hit the shield to be stunned for 2 seconds.
The "Brace for Impact" modifier converts 60% of your force shield to the shield's damage absorption.
The "Banners Held High" modifier gives the shield damage absorption based on 100% of your block chance.
Light-bringer - 5/10
The 8 second cooldown prevents it from being anything other than a utility skill. With a couple of modifiers, it is excellent for stunning and weakening enemies, plus you can heal and generate willpower with it.
My preferred skill modifiers: 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 16, Sacred or Aether
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 100.0%.
The skill is normally sacred, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The skill mentions having stages, and that each increases the damage, but does not mention that there are 3 stages.
The "Insuppressible Rhapsody" modifier regenerates 5% force shield per enemy hit.
The "Proud Rider" modifier gives me ~12% total to all resistances for 1 second, which based on my bonuses means it should be about 35% to all resistances in the additive category.
The "Plasmic Discharge: modifier causes an explosion at start with +.8 meter radius that deals 50% damage.
The "Holy Ground" modifier leaves an area of effect that deals 50% weapon damage over second.
The "Sudden Dehydration" modifier gives a 100% chance to apply weakness stacks. This node works with "Sunstruck", as both ailments will be applied even without the "Grievous Afflictions" Gate of Fates node which normally allows for it.
The "Hope’s Arrival" modifier heals 25% upon landing.
The "Sheen of Hope" modifier gives 30 willpower per hit.
The "Noble Rider" modifier gives all resistance per enemy hit, and lasts for 10 seconds.
The "Sunstruck" modifier gives a 100% chance to stun enemies in a 3 meter radius for 1.5 seconds. This node works with "Sudden Dehydration", as both ailments will be applied even without the "Grievous Afflictions" Gate of Fates node which normally allows for it.
The "Solar Logos" modifier adds a 4th charging stage.
The "Blinding Ray" modifier increases the critical damage amount by 25%.
The "Pious Supremacy" modifier converts the element to physical, though it isn't listed.
Livor Mortis - 10/10
This skill is absolutely amazing, as it provides summons that passively deal damage, tank, and can provide damage reduction (with a modifier). The different elemental forms also greatly change how the summon behaves giving it a lot of flexibility both with its passive and active abilities.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16, Rend
The skill is normally toxic, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Differences between the different elemental versions:
The toxic version has the most health, but the least damage. The active skill (pressing the button) taunts enemies at the cursor.
Compared to toxic, the shadow version has ~38% health, but ~50% increased damage. The active skill (pressing the button) causes a leap attack at the cursor.
Compared to toxic, the lightning version has ~25% health, but ~210% increased damage. The active skill (pressing the button) creates a dome at the cursor that blocks incoming projectiles.
Compared to toxic, the rend version has ~25% health, but ~210% increased damage. The active skill (pressing the button) causes a grenade attack at the cursor.
The summon automatically respawns ~2 seconds after death.
It always has a +20% damage bonus listed on the skill details (which is multiplicative damage, but is additive with the other skill nodes).
Mark of Impurity - 10/10
A universally amazing skill for increasing damage dealt, and it can be autocast by "The Trial" belt.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 7, 10, 14, 16, Default
If you are wearing “The Trial” belt, it will automatically use the active skill modifiers with the skill, even if the skill isn’t on your bar.
Mark of Impurity causes marked enemies to take 25% (according to WolcenDB) more multiplicative damage.
The “Big Game Hunting” modifier (which seems to last 5 seconds per WolcenDB) and “A Sentence Accepted” modifier (which seems to last 8 seconds per WolcenDB) each increase the damage taken amount by 10%.
The “Weight of Culpability” modifier (which seems to last 8 seconds per WolcenDB) presumably would as well, but it used to be bugged (and might still be): https://youtu.be/2l1ngGXZzrw?t=122
The Mark of Impurity skill modifier "Strange Mercy" functions exactly like the passive node “Dawn’s Pious Striker”, except that it procs at 10% instead of 15%. The problem is that it doesn’t work on champion monsters (including all bosses). SELF-TESTED.
The “Fate of the Unholy” modifier is one of the best ways to generate area damage from builds that normally don’t have area of effect skills (like single-target, piercing, thin path skills, etc.).
Parasite (though this page has no information about the modifiers) - 6/10
It is kind of a weird skill, because it is great for leeching health, force shield, or willpower while other things (like summons) deal damage, or it is great for acquiring summons that you choose, but it isn't great for doing both, because you don't want to leech once you have the summons you like.
Unfortunately, the summons don't last long if you haven't specifically built for them, and they don't automatically respawn, so you are almost always better off using other summon skills if that is your playstyle.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 5, 8, 12, 14, 15, 16, Shadow
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 150.0%.
The skill is normally toxic, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
This skill requires a target to cast.
There is an unlisted delay of about 1 second before the skill starts dealing damage.
This channeled skill has a tick rate of 3 attacks per second, with a maximum of 5 attacks per second. Unlike most skills with a tick rate, attack speed affects the tick rate.
Parasite summons seem to last forever (at least 10+ minutes), but can be killed. They do follow you between zones/maps (including town).
The "Gift Not Given" modifier
The "Rust Drinker" modifier says it reduces the tick rate, but the tick rate tooltip doesn't change with the modifier selected.
The "On Shoulders of Giants" modifier gives possessed summons increased resistances, but there is no information on how much.
The "Morale Drinker" modifier allows you to cast the skill basically without cost, because as the willpower starts to drain, the damage dealt restores the full amount drained.
Phantom Blades - 8/10
This skill is decent as part of a rotation, but the damage is a bit low, and there is a short cooldown. If you duplicate it and use it in 3 slots, you can spam it though (without any rage cost). It also can give AMAZING crowd control.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, Lightning
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
It fires one attack in 1 second.
The projectile automatically pierces everything.
With additional projectiles, the closer the mouse is to the character, the wider the angle between the blade.
It normally can store up to 2 charges, but the “Bladeslinger” modifier raises the amount to 3.
The “Loyalty of the Blades” modifier changes the change time from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
The charging time isn’t affected by cooldown reduction.
The “Immobilizing Bola” modifier is extremely effective crowd control, since it has a 100% chance to slow enemies by 100%.
The “Windforged” modifier is really awkward to use, so I avoid it.
The “Gliding Friction” modifier leaves a trail for 3 seconds that ticks every .66 seconds for 1/3 of the base damage of the skill. It also has 1/3 of the ailment chance.
The “Death’s Last Decay” modifier removes the automatic piercing, and instead causes the projectile to stick to an enemy, then explode in a HUGE area.
It states that the projectile will go off after a few seconds, but it is actually .5 seconds, plus the modifier causes the skill to deal 3.5 times more damage (making up for the lack of pierce if you want a harder hitting skill in a single spot).
Plagueburst - 7/10
By itself, the skill is pure garbage due to a long cooldown and very low damage. However, if you treat the skill like Mark of Impurity, and use it to trigger enemy death explosions, it becomes a good skill to have in the rotation (particularly on caster builds where Mark of Impurity cannot be used without a 1-handed pistol or melee weapon with a catalyst, one of several uniques like Veiled Eclipse unique pants, or a Sarisel affix). You can cast it right after Anomaly, then kill something in the closely packed group to maximize this effect.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, Aether
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 170.0%.
The skill is normally toxic, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Plagueburst corpse explosion damage seems to be a percentage of the max health of the enemy (but I am not sure what percentage).
The "Foul Guardian" modifier states that killed enemies leave behind an area that deals Toxic damage, but this damage will change to whatever element the skill is using.
The "Metempsychosis" modifier has a 10% chance to spawn a health globe. Ignore the negative damage numbers above the skill weapon damage: -25% , as they just reflect the same information.
The "Blades of Pestilence" modifier doesn't appear to be working.
The "Vitiation" modifier increases damage by 1% per ailment stack, for up to 30 stacks.
The "Mortiferous Guest" modifier has a 10% chance to summon a rat that [I think] lasts 40 seconds, for up to 10 rats. However, when I tried this modifier in a mission, I never actually saw any rats, so it might be bugged.
The "Corruption’s Bloat" modifier increases the summon explosion damage by 50%.
Slayers Flurry - 7/10
The damage seems decent, particularly for the inexpensive cost, and it is excellent at chasing wealth omens.
My preferred skill modifiers: 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, Toxic
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 250.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Despite being a melee skill, it is usable with a bow or pistols.
The "Crashing Moons" modifier makes the area wider (I think twice as wide), but it doesn’t change the shape of attack (still a path).
The "Trail of Dust" modifier has a width of 2.2 meters.
The "Kindly Stopped for Me" modifier has a 20% chance to trigger the ghost who hits and additional time for full damage (so essentially a 20% damage increase).
The "Fullered Blades" modifier increases the dash speed by 30%, but not the actual attack speed.
The "Cosmis Ambush" modifier:
The 50% damage increase alone makes this choice worth it, but being able to hold the button down and still jump around to enemies is also nice.
When it does dash, you start channeling the attack in the wrong direction (which is kind of annoying).
This skill only dashes if you aren’t already in melee range (and thus won’t even dash behind the target).
The "Astral Escalation" modifier increases the range of the skill, and if you hit an enemy with it, it fires off two projectiles with a 20 degree spread, which have +1 pierce strength. Unfortunately, the increased range seems to change the targeting behavior as well, so instead of jumping to the enemy, then getting additional hits behind the enemy, you still hit the same number of enemies, but from farther away.
The "Zealous Blades" modifier increases the damage by 5% if used again on the target within 5 seconds (stacking up to 20 times). There is no buff icon to show this working, but the damage jumps up per skill usage indicating that it is working.
Solarfall - 10/10 with the bug, 8/10 without the bug
There is a bug with the Sacred version of the Solarfall skill that sometimes happens, which I am pretty sure is related to the "Dawn's Pious Striker" node from the Eos tree. I think what it does is while channeling Solarfall, if you kill an enemy with a proc of Dawn's Pious Striker, it will then transfer that killing blow to every other enemy you hit afterwards during that channel (even full health enemies that have just spawned).
With the above bug, the skill is excellent. Without the bug, it is still a solid choice since it provides another convenient way of triggering the "Dawn's Pious Striker" node from the Eos tree, and if you use the "Golden Hour" modifier (which allows you to cast other skills in the meantime) you gain this benefit while fighting normally. Even without both of those it is still a good choice as a primary skill due to the ability to move the beam, decent area of effect, and decent damage.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 3, 5, 9, 12, 16, Sacred
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally sacred, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The channeled skill will follow the cursor around, allowing you to target any enemies you want.
There is a .8 second delay that isn't mentioned before the channeled beam actually creates a damage area on the ground.
The base tick rate is 2 attacks per second, with a maximum of 5 ticks per second.
The radius is 3 meters, but it isn't mentioned.
It does not count as a projectile, and therefore isn't blocked by domes.
The "Punishing Brilliance" modifier starts the damage multiplier at 0% damage, and goes up to 300%.
The "Glare of Judgment" modifier increases the tick rate by 15%.
The "Scorching Salvation" modifier causes the beam to start at 3 meters, and slowly increase to 4 meters (but it doesn't seem to go further).
The "Plasmic Eruption" modifier causes an explosion dealing 120% damage to 1 meter on critical hits. This effect has a 1 second cooldown.
The "Devastation" modifier adds a damage trail to the skill that deals 40% damage to a 3 meters radius every .5 seconds for 5 seconds.
The "Golden Hour" modifier is amazing, but has a misleading description. The "static" description it refers to not only means that the area of effect doesn't move, but that just tapping the skill actually continues dealing damage as if it was channeled for 5.5 seconds.
Since it has a 5.5 second cooldown, you can actually cast it right after the previous cast ends to keep it up continuously (minus the .8 second warm-up time).
What is weird is that you can still treat the skill as a channeled skill by holding the button down, and that while holding the button, the skill can be moved around. It also causes the cost to increase by 150%.
The main reason this is amazing is that it allows you to deal damage to an area without continually costing resources, and while allowing you to cast other skills!
The "Solar Animus" modifier gives me ~10% total to all resistances for the duration the beam is there, which based on my bonuses means it should be about 30% to all resistances in the additive category.
The "Dawn Abridged" modifier reduces the .8 second warm-up time by .7 seconds to .1 second.
The "Grit and Mettle" modifier has a 1 second internal cooldown.
The "Stellar Swiftness" modifier increases the travel speed of the beam from 8 to 11 (I think it is meters per second).
Sovereign Shout - 9/10
A great buffing skill with some nice variety in options for things to buff.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, Default
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
Sovereign Shout works on summons.
The buff from Sovereign Shout lasts for 5 seconds (though it isn't indicated anywhere).
The "Cry of the Fearless" modifier generates 250 threat.
I think the "Hold The Line" modifier gives +5% all resistance score per enemy hit.
The "Blood Drunk" modifier deals double your weapon damage with 100% life leech.
The "Marble House" modifier grants 12% block chance.
The "Infectious Determination" modifier makes Sovereign Shout last 8 seconds.
The "To Rise Again" modifier regenerates 2 stamina points.
The "Hostile Inspiration" modifier increases the attack and spell casting speeds by 5%, plus the buffs by ~20%.
The "Belligerent Promises" modifier generates 250 threat.
Stings of Krearion - 4/10
The base skill seems too sluggish with the cast delay and small movement backwards upon firing (which isn’t listed).
It costs very little rage, so it is fairly spammable (especially if you are charging up each time which doesn’t cost additional rage). Additionally, there are tons of good options for skill modifiers that adjust how the skill functions.
My preferred skill modifiers (better for killing close enemies): 2, 5, 6, 12, 15, 16, Toxic
Other good ones: 2, 4, 5, 6, 12 (more arrows in a wider path might do more damage to bosses, but only if you are in melee range)
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The “Pride of The Deerstalker” modifier increases the damage percentage per stage to 140 / 160 / 180 / 200 / 250 (per 1.1.7.0 patch notes).
It fires 1 shot every 1 second.
It fires 1 fully charged shot of 5 volleys (verified with slow-motion in a video) every 5.5 seconds.
It is a great pick both if you are charging the skill up, and if you only fire a quick burst (since it cuts the cast time down a bunch in the first stage and removes the step back).
Charging the skill up to fire several volleys doesn’t seem worth it though, as you will likely get attacked a lot first and die (though at least you can release the skill whenever you want and still do damage).
The distance your mouse is from the character determines the angle between the projectiles (the closer to the character, the more spread out). However, if you take Phantom Volley, the arrows turn into a path skill (which is really good for hitting a boss enemy with lots of arrows at a far distance).
After testing, and taking screenshots, it looks like only 5/7 of the arrows from Phantom Volley will hit a large enemy/boss at a time (tested on a hulking fatty summoner). You might be able to hit enemies with more arrows without Phantom Volley, but they would have to be in melee range.
The “Perfect Aim” modifier increases the damage per remaining pierce strength by 20% (per WolcenDB).
The “Explosive Barrage” modifier is the best option for keeping enemies at a distance, but seems to limit the overall area damage.
The “Ardent Nock” modifier increases the animation speed by 15%, which is like a 15% damage boost that also has utility.
The “Focused Shot” modifier increases the damage by 50%, but losing 2 arrows means a 67% overall damage decrease (or 40% if you take the “Pincushion” modifier for 2 more projectiles). This means at best a 10% damage increase for 2 skill points (which is not worth it).
Talon Shot - 2/10
One big problem with this skill is how long it takes to be able to release a single projectile (it feels close to a second). With the delay, it functions like a charge up skill (but the indicator that it is ready is the projectile itself).
The other big problem is that you can interrupt the attack by moving. While getting to safety sounds good in theory, it leads to a lot of unfired shots due to missing the timing.
This is the most inexpensive ranged attack skill in the game, so it is easily spammable, plus it can be channeled for forever (for free, since the channeling doesn’t cost additional rage).
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, Lightning
With Archion’s Teachings: 1, 2, 5, 11, 12, 14, 15
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally frost, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
If you can get some additional projectiles, it can continuously cover most of the screen in projectiles.
It fires 6 shots in 5 seconds (when channeled).
Additional projectiles are 20 degrees apart.
The "Blizzard’s Call" modifier works well when you have the passive tree node “Archion’s Teachings”. Otherwise, the even number of projectiles means you miss enemies at your cursor (unless they are in melee range).
The" Impaling Perch" modifier causes projectiles automatically explode after 5 stacks accumulate on the target, or 5 seconds pass (whichever happens first). The explosions deal double damage.
The "Calculated Strike" modifier causes holding the button down to charge the skill cancels out the natural channeling effect that the skill has. The damage percentage increase per stage is 100 / 200 / 350 / 550 / 800 (per WolcenDB).
The "Wingblast" modifier causes the cone effect occurs at the end of the travel distance (not at the release point), or when it is triggered.
Tear of Etheliel - 5/10
Without a bunch of cooldown reduction on your gear and both cooldown reduction modifiers, this skill just doesn't hit hard or often enough to do much. Even with all of those, the damage pers second still isn't great.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, Any
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 600.0%.
The skill is normally frost, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
There is a one second cast delay before the strike hits,. You can move or cast other skills during this time.
The "Stalactite Rain" modifier removes the cast delay, and causes the skill to deal area damage over 3 seconds (hitting every .5 seconds), but reduces the damage by 60% and increases the cost by 100%.
The "Glass Firmament" modifier removes the cast delay, and allows you to charge the skills damage up to 3 tiers. While you are charging, you can reposition the skill by moving your cursor. The cooldown timer on the skill starts when you begin charging.
Thunderstrike - 8/10
This is a great skill with tons of damage modifiers. It has a really short animation which can burn through resource fast, but it feels good to use due to easy aiming for the first target, and auto-targeting of all additional targets.
My preferred skill modifiers: 4, 7, 9, 10, 14, Shadow
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 130.0%.
The skill is normally lightning, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The skill description says the bounces increase the damage dealt with each bounce, but it actually decreases with each bounce.
The skill damage bounces from the first enemy hit to another close by enemy, and so on, up to 4 bounces total (6 with a specific modifier). The bounces work as follows (and assumes the original damage was 240%):
Bounces up to 8 meters, dealing 220% damage
Bounces up to 6 meters, dealing 200% damage
Bounces up to 5 meters, dealing 180% damage
Bounces up to 5 meters, dealing 160% damage
Bounces up to 5 meters, dealing 140% damage
Bounces up to 5 meters, dealing 120% damage
The "Law Manifest in Lightning" modifier gives a 25% chance to trigger a lightning strike from the sky to damage enemies hit by Thunderstrike.
The "Path of Woe" modifier increase the number of bounces by 2 (which finishes the bounce pattern listed above). Even with the damage decrease for each bounce, this equals a 26% damage increase, or a 40% damage increase with the "Unwavering Conviction" modifier.
The "Rippling Currents" modifier makes critical hits cause the lightning to fork to enemies within 8 meters.
The "Unwavering Conviction" modifier should cancel the damage loss for each bounce. This equals a 20% damage increase normally, or a 33.3% damage increase with the "Path of Woe" modifier.
The "Rebuilding the Trinity" modifier modifier gives a 30% damage bonus, but the bonus is additive with a few other bonuses, so it will only show as an ~22.2% increase. This effect falls off after 10 seconds.
Tracker’s Reach - 5/10
This skill is great for grouping up enemies and for generating rage (with Unrelenting Hunt and Chain-slinger taken together). It can also be used as a movement skill to jump between packs if you hit an enemy with it (which is my preference).
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 15, Rend
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 150.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The chain travels about 10 meters.
The "Feeding the Spirit" modifier has a 10% chance to drop 1 health globe. It can't drop more than one.
The "Chain-slinger" modifier generates 30 rage per enemy hit, up to 210 rage total.
The "Unrelenting Hunt" modifier launches 8 hooks in different directions with a 45 degree angle between each chain. The chains have a 5 meter range, which is much shorter than the regular hook.
The "Sudden Embrace" modifier increases the skills attack speed by 25%.
Wailing Arrows - 7/10
With the larger area, the single hit dealing all damage at once, and all of the damage runes, this skill hits a large area for a lot of damage.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 14, 16, Rend
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 900.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
There is a short delay while the skill draws and fires the arrows during which you cannot move or cancel the attack (which can lead to taking some hits). There can also be a short cooldown (but it can be negated with certain skill modifiers).
With the “Fluid Movement” modifier, the cooldown is over before the skill even fires though.
It fires 8 shots in 10 seconds.
This skill does damage 9 times over 3 seconds or 3 times per second (per the in-game skill math and WolcenDB).
Additional projectiles don’t affect this skill at all.
This skill doesn’t get blocked by enemy domes.
The “Aching Accuray” modifier increases the damage percentage per stage to 100 / 200 / 450 (per 1.1.7.0 patch notes).
The “Black Cloud” modifier makes the skill deal all damage at once (instead of being an area of effect damage over time).
The “Spirited Advance” modifier makes the skill slowly move away from the caster and deal damage across a very large area.
When taken with the “Black Cloud” modifier, it hits the extra large area for damage all at once.
The “Vanquisher’s Overlook” modifier removes the damage calculation, and does 10% damage per enemy, so if you hit more than 10 enemies, you deal extra damage, but hitting less than 10 enemies reduces the damage.
The “Reemergence” modifier reduces the cooldown by .5 seconds per kill (which can be good, but costly at 3 skill points).
Warpath - 4/10
This skill moves too fast to be able to use it continuously, and it has too long a cooldown to be able to rely on it as a main attack, so it's only real use is as a movement skill.
My preferred skill modifiers: 3, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, Lightning
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 110.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Sprinting Strides" modifier doubles the moment speed and increases the animation speed by 20%. It also reduces the turn rate by 20%.
The "Inflexible Stance" modifier gives a damage bonus equal to 50% of your block chance.
The "Overwhelming Impact" modifier causes 100% damage.
The "Lingering Vision" modifier has a 10% chance to summon a ghost to make an additional hit that deals 100% damage.
The "Forge a Path" modifier changes the skill to be a channeled skill. It claims that it extends the duration, but there is no time limit as long as you have enough resource (and more importantly don't run into a wall, which is the real limiter).
The "Burning Lifeblood" modifier leaves a trail of circles 4.5 meters wide on the ground that deal damage.
The "Vexilloid" modifier seems to provide about 35% all resistance, but this is additive with other sources of all resistance.
The "Mania" modifier gives 20% rage per enemy hit.
The "Gold Tooth Scavenger" modifier increases block chance by 20%.
The "Unstoppable Charge" modifier causes the skill to reduce the damage of projectiles coming from all directions.
The "Bull of the Battlefield" modifier increases critical damage by 25%.
Wings of Ishmir - 8/10
It is a fun skill to use, but you spend a long time floating through the air in animations, which hurts its usefulness.
My preferred skill modifiers: 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, Rend
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 110.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The movement from the skill does not remove stacks from the "Disallowing Vessel" Gate of Fates node.
The "Lightspeed" modifier increases the leap speed by 60%.
The "Noble Bearing" modifier removes .5 seconds of cooldown per enemy hit (so with enough enemies, you could potentially spam the skill).
The "Berserker’s Onslaught" modifier is a great way to generate rage while moving to the next group.
The "Strength of the Hated" modifier regenerates 5% force shield per enemy hit.
The "Relentless Pursuit" modifier removes the cooldown to cause the skill to consume stamina points instead.
I consider this the most important skill modifier, as it allows you to use the skill more than once in a short time. In fact, with enough stamina regeneration (I had 1.4 s), you can just hold the button down and jump forever. Unfortunately, the damage is rather low, so you can't really use it as the main skill in your build.
The "Meritorious Crew" modifier gives about a 15% damage bonus (which is additive with most damage).
The "Rippling Impact" modifier creates a circular wave on impact that moves outwards, but can only hit 20 times.
Winter’s Grasp - 4/10
This skill is great for applying ailments, but mostly useless otherwise.
My preferred skill modifiers: 2, 4, 9, 12, 15, Shadow
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally frost, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
The "Long Range Thermal Drain" modifier increases the radius by 2 meters (from 3 to 5).
The "Glacial Blast" modifier causes kill to have a 50% chance to trigger another nova. I am not sure if this skill works, because I can't tell if additional novas are going off.
The "Admire from a Distance" modifier allows you to cast the skill on the cursor up to 12 meters away.
The "PermaFrost" modifier causes a persistent damage patch on the ground lasting 7 seconds.
The "Hail the Ice Queen" modifier gives a 30% damage bonus, but the bonus is additive with a few other bonuses, so it might only show as an ~22.2% increase. This effect falls off after 10 seconds.
Wrath of Baapheth - 5/10
It has great area of effect and it is easy to move around to enemies while using it, but the damage is a low and the cost is a bit high if you want to spam it.
My preferred skill modifiers: 1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 15, 16, Rend
Level 90 skill weapon damage is 300.0%.
The skill is normally physical, but it isn't indicated in the tooltip.
This skill has a lot going on that isn't indicated in the description:
Each time you cast the skill, your character steps in the directions of the cursor.
If you hit the skill once, then use other skills, or wait for a second between casts, you will see one cast animation.
If you continually hit the skill, it will actually use a series of cast animations (in this order):
Swing two chains from right to left in a sweeping motion (hitting a wide cone about 5 meters deep)
Swing two chains from right to left in a sweeping motion again (hitting a wide cone about 5 meters deep)
Swing two chains from left to right in a sweeping motion (hitting a wide cone about 5 meters deep)
Overhead swing the chains in front of the character (hitting in a line about 5 meters deep)
Put chains out to the side and spin in a circle (hitting in a full circle of about 8 meters) with "Taste for Vengeance" modifier
The movement from the skill does not remove stacks from the "Disallowing Vessel" Gate of Fates node.
The "Primal Rush" modifier gives 20 rage on kill.
The "Rapid Swings" modifier adds 20% attack speed.
The "Whirlwind of War" modifier increases the area of effect, but the difference is probably only 1 meter (so it is wider, but not much deeper).
The "Final Moments" modifier increases the damage based on missing health, up to 3.5 times damage at no health.
The "Blood Brothers" modifier gives 1% attack life leech and spell life leech for 10 seconds.
The "Taste for Vengeance" modifier adds step #5 in the series of cast animations, plus 25% damage.
The "Draining Life Force" modifier adds life leech, but the amount is zero at full health and increases the lower your health is up to 5%.
Gate of Fates
The Gate of Fates is the passive skill tree in Wolcen.
You can earn a total of 131 Gate of Fate points:
89 from leveling up (one per level and you start at level 1 with no points)
2 from the “Primordial Institute East” City of Stormfall upgrade
40 from completing Infinity tiers (from the 1.1.7.8 patch notes):
Successful Operations below 100 skulls will award one-time bonuses of 5 Attribute points for every Skull spent, and 1 Gate of Fates point for every 5 skulls. After the first 100 skulls, successful Operations will grant 1 Attribute point for every 2 Skulls spent, and 1 Gate of Fates point for every 50 Skulls spent. These rewards are capped at 1000 Attribute points and 40 Gate of Fates points.
To spend Gate of Fate points, open the Gate of Fates window, then click on the nodes you want to put points into. There are some rules you need to follow though:
You have to start in the center, and can only add points to nodes connected to places you have already spent points into.
There are three concentric rings for the points, and each ring can be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise to get the desired alignment.
You can reset passives in the Gate of Fates tree by clicking on the "Reassign" button along the left side of the Gate of Fates window. When you click the button, it will pop-out a small window on the right that includes a "Remove all" button, and a "Confirm" button. If you don't want to remove all of your points, you can instead left-click on all of the points you want to remove, then click the "Confirm" button.
To reassign points at level 90, the primordial affinity cost is 1000 per point.
You cannot reassign nodes that would break access to following nodes, unless you first rotate the rings to break the access (noted by the nodes going dark, but the bright outline staying), then refund the points.
For instance: if you want to keep the points in the third ring, but refund the second ring, rotate the third ring so the nodes go dark, then refund the second ring, redo the points the way you want, and move the third ring back to the desired position.
How the bonuses work as of patch 1.1.7.16:
When a Gate of Fates node or item says it has an effect, it is for all basic attacks and skills (attacks and spells).
When checking things on Erosson: "DamagePercentFloat" is multiplicative damage, and "DamagePercentInt" (or any Int) is additive damage. All of the "DamagePercentFloat" nodes that I have tested (and could test easily) have confirmed this.
The major passive node “Second Wind” in the ring 1 Soldier tree multiplies your current Health regeneration amount by 1000%.
The major passive node “The Heat of Battle” in the ring 1 Soldier tree gives rage when hit. This works even when you block the attack.
The major passive node “Kingless Aegis” in the ring 2 Praetorian tree gives a -10% multiplicative damage bonus.
The major passive node “Selfless Courage” in the ring 2 Praetorian tree gives an additive all resistances bonus.
The major passive node “Retaliator” in the ring 2 Praetorian tree gives a -50% multiplicative critical damage bonus. The damage increase per physical resistance is additive.
Unless you are relying on summons, or are intentionally building for this node (and likely take the Legacy of the Willbreaker unique shield with the similar affix), this will almost always end in a loss of damage.
The major passive node “Manic Slaughter” in the ring 2 Warmonger tree gives an additive damage bonus.
The major passive node “Blood Reaper” in the ring 2 Warmonger tree gives a -10% multiplicative damage bonus with a Bow, but all the other weapon bonuses are additive.
The major passive node “Gods Among Men” in the ring 2 Warmonger tree gives a 20% multiplicative damage bonus, at the cost of dealing other types of damage.
The major passive node “Bestial Frenzy” in the ring 2 Warmonger tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
The major passive node “Dawn's Pious Striker” in the ring 3 Eos tree causes underling and specialist enemies below 10% health to die instantly upon taking ANY sacred damage. The node "Sudden Death" that hangs off of it, causes this to also apply to champion enemies and bosses.
Champions are the enemies that appear at the end of mandate and expedition missions, or can be found in various arena type missions. They are usually magic, rare, or legendary difficulty.
The major passive node “Beacon for the Lost” in the ring 3 Eos tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
Regardless of the damage type, this node actually adds +25% damage as Sacred damage. This pairs particularly well with Dawn's Pious Striker.
The major passive node “Unflagging Prayer” in the ring 3 Eos tree is partially useless now that we only have single player (as it can't resurrect allies), but the additive all resistance bonus might still save your character's life.
The minor passive node “Brutal Imposition” in the ring 3 Siegebreaker tree only counts the shield block chance listed on the shield.
The major passive node "Salvatory Anchor" in the ring 3 Siegebreaker tree and the "Elevated Gain" node hanging off of it have tooltips that are misleading. The decimal listed is actually the percentage it will add, so 0.5 is actually a 50% multiplicative bonus.
The major passive node “Disallowing Vessel” in the ring 3 Siegebreaker tree gives a 3% multiplicative damage bonus per point (up to 30% multiplicative damage total).
Clicking the mouse to move on the location you are already standing (but not actually moving) still causes stacks to fall off.
The Active Dodge skill also doesn’t count as movement for this passive node.
Bladestorm does not count as movement for this passive node.
Wings of Ishmir does not count as movement for this passive node.
The steps from Wrath of Baapheth do not count as movement for this passive node.
The minor passive node “Flurrying Flames” in the ring 3 Child of Fury tree gives an additive attack speed bonus (but it isn't based on attack speed score), and an additive all resistances score bonus.
The minor passive node “Frenzied Blows” in the ring 3 Child of Fury tree (hanging off the major node "Furious Appetite") is supposed to give double damage (multiplicative), but this damage is not reflected in the skill tooltips. The tooltip cost does change, and the damage multiplier IS working though!
Additionally, the bonus comes when the skill is cast, so channeled skills receive this bonus for their entire duration.
The major passive node “Virtuose Stance" gives two stances that can be swapped between using active dodge, but it can be difficult to make use of them because of their downsides. The -20% attack speed is a multiplicative bonus, and the -20% all resistances score is an additive bonus.
Typically only one of the can be useful for a build, and you sometimes need to use your dodge to save yourself, so you either get stuck in the wrong stance, or double roll to stay in the correct stance, but waste some charges and end up in a possible worse spot.
One exception to this is a build like Bladestorm that isn't affected by attack speed, and can move freely while attacking (and thus doesn't rely on an active dodge).
The major passive node “Covert Operative” in the ring 1 Sentinel tree gives a passive dodge chance score that is additive with all other sources.
The major passive node “Safe From Afar” in the ring 2 Ranger tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
This bonus starts at 6 meters and reaches maximum at 15 meters.
The medium passive node “Meditative Focus” in the ring 2 Ranger tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
The major passive node “Archion's Teachings” in the ring 2 Ranger tree gives a -20% multiplicative damage bonus, but adds a projectile.
The extra projectile does not apply to “Avenger” Autoturret or Tear of Etheliel.
The medium passive node “Persistence Hunting” in the ring 2 Ranger tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
The major passive node “Come What May” in the ring 2 Ranger tree increases pierce, but the pierce on basic attacks does NOT increase resource generation.
The major passive node “Merciless Lethality” in the ring 2 Assassin tree gives a 20% multiplicative critical damage bonus.
The major passive node “Clandestine Execution” in the ring 2 Assassin tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
The major passive node “Deadly Weaving” in the ring 2 Assassin tree doubles the dual-wielding damage bonus effects. These are the inherent bonuses on weapons like +15% critical damage on pistols, or +5% Block Efficiency on swords.
The major passive node “Blessed Silver” in the ring 3 Exorcist tree gives a 5% multiplicative damage increase per point (up to 25% multiplicative damage total).
The major passive node “Academic Fieldwork” in the ring 3 Exorcist tree gives a 15% multiplicative bonus, and stacks multiple times, plus there is no listed limit to the number of stacks (though the time will likely run out before you get that many).
It doesn’t show the same counter of stacks as with Tenet and Overload points, but it DOES appear as a small icon with a number just above the potions.
Picking up new stacks does not refresh the duration of the others.
If you deal no material damage (like when converting physical damage to something else), it does nothing.
Champions are the enemies that appear at the end of mandate and expedition missions, or can be found in various arena type missions. They are usually magic, rare, or legendary difficulty.
The major passive node “Branded Burst” in the ring 3 Exorcist tree is multiplicative with other sources of damage reduction, but the stacks are additive with each other (so one point is 10%, 5 points is 50%). This becomes a whopping 75% damage reduction if you are at max stacks and also have the node "Indifference" hanging off of it.
The major passive node “Intravenous Neural Cord” in the ring 3 Alastor tree gives a 20% multiplicative attack speed bonus.
The major passive node “Sparkling Dart” in the ring 3 Alastor tree gives a multiplicative damage bonus based on the number of Power Charge points. It is .5% times the number of points, up to 100 points (up to 50% multiplicative damage total).
Additionally, the damage provided is based on the number of points when you start the cast, then it subtracts the points.
The major passive node “Static Transferral” in the ring 3 Alastor tree says you gain a 20% damage bonus per point, but each point actually gives a 26.7% multiplicative bonus, so all 6 points equals a 160% multiplicative damage bonus.
The node hanging “Protracted Effort” that hangs off of it rounds down when cutting the points in half.
The major passive node “Life's First Movement” in the ring 3 Duskglaive tree should multiply the bonus damage of the opposite damage type by .5, then add it onto the used damage type. The overall numerical damage bonus depends on the difference between the damage bonus pools.
If they are equal, then it should be a 50% multiplicative damage bonus all the time.
If one is 10 times more than the other, then you get a 5% multiplicative damage bonus in one direction, and a 500% multiplicative damage bonus in the other direction.
The major passive node “Waltzing Smoke” in the ring 3 Duskglaive tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
Regardless of the damage type, this node actually adds +60% damage as Shadow damage to the skill used.
The major passive node “Wintry Hail” in the ring 3 White Arrow tree causes basic attack projectiles to bounce to additional enemies.
The additional hits don’t increase the amount of resource gained.
The additional hits don’t increase the amount of stacks from “Static Transferral” in the Alastor tree.
The major passive node “Acute Tracking” in the ring 3 White Arrow tree gives a 4% multiplicative damage bonus per point (up to 40% multiplicative damage total).
The major passive node “Hungry Stalactite” in the ring 3 White Arrow tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson), but the bonus won't show on the stat sheet due to the conditional nature of pierce strength.
The minor passive node “Increased Awareness” in the ring 1 Scholar tree increases pick up of all globes (including undertaken toxic globes) by 10 meters, which is basically to the top of the screen.
The major passive node “Purifier's Will” in the ring 1 Scholar tree gives multiplicative bonus damage reduction, but it only works if your force shield is greater than half of your maximum health.
The major passive node “Attrition Strategist” in the ring 1 Scholar tree gives an ailment chance score that is additive with all other sources.
The minor passive node “Dominator” in the ring 2 Warlock tree is supposed to give 20 willpower on hit, but it doesn't work (with the possible exception of Infinity Blades, which already has this ability, and thus the number might be increasing).
The major passive node “Reining In The Darkness” in the ring 2 Warlock tree gives a spell critical chance score that is additive with all other sources.
The major passive node “Residual Energy” in the ring 2 Warlock tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
Regardless of the damage type, this node actually adds +25% damage.
The major passive node "Immortal Offering" in the ring 2 Cabalist tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
The major passive node “Captured Velocity” in the ring 3 Time Weaver tree uses points that either give 5% additive attack speed (but not attack speed score) or 5% additive spell casting speed (but not spell casting speed score), up to 5 points for 25% total speed.
The major passive node “Dire Juncture” in the ring 3 Time Weaver tree gives health and force shield a -15% multiplicative bonus.
The main point of this node is to reduce the chances of getting one-shotted by spreading out the damage, but if you are taking damage fairly continuously (as you will in Infinity mode), and you can't life leech fast enough to fully recover, it will likely hurt you.
The major passive node “Which Time Cannot Heal” in the ring 3 Time Weaver tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
It does 25% multiplicative damage, and the"Deferential Wounds" node hanging off of it does 15% (they were upgraded from 10 and 5 respectively in patch 1.1.7.5).
This extra hit cannot crit.
The major passive node “Elementary Destabilization” in the ring 3 Oracle of the Trinity tree generates 25% willpower.
The major passive node “Ancient Fervour” in the ring 3 Oracle of the Trinity tree requires you to deal damage with a skill that has physical damage converted to fire, frost, or lightning. Simply having more lightning damage than any other type does not proc the accord.
The fire damage bonus is additive.
The lightning crit bonus is additive.
The frost ailment bonus is additive.
The minor passive node “Dual Allegiance” in the ring 3 Oracle of the Trinity tree (hanging off the major node "Ancient Fervour") allows for two accords, but requires a skill with each elemental type converted from physical damage. Simply having fire damage on a skill converting physical damage to lightning will not cause both accords to proc (even if there is more fire damage than lightning damage).
The major passive node “Sacrifice of Flesh” in the ring 3 Plaguebringer tree, and the “Endless Litany” nodes that hang off of it are:
Health - additive with each other
Force Shield - should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
Damage Reduction - should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamagePercentFloat” on Erosson).
The major passive node "Undertaker" in the ring 3 Plaguebringer tree, and the "Horde's Vitality" node that hangs off of give a 20% multiplicative bonus, and stacks multiple times, plus there is no listed limit to the number of stacks (though the time will likely run out before you get that many).
Picking up new globes does not refresh the duration of the others.
I have reached over 6-7 times normal damage from these green globes.
The major passive node “Fatal Pact” in the ring 3 Abyssal Shaper tree gives an additive movement speed bonus for removing stasis stacks, an additive all resistance score bonus for removing curse stacks, an additive damage bonus for removing weakness stacks, and a heal for removing damage over time stacks.
The major passive node “Occult Affliction” in the ring 3 Abyssal Shaper tree should give a multiplicative damage bonus (since it is listed as “DamageIncreasePercentFloat” on Erosson), but I am not sure.
Mechanics
You must be in range to receive the following:
experience
shrine buffs
loot (but the distance is much farther than the other two)
Basic attacks with combinations of weapons and off-hands have normal average damage, attack damage, and spell damage except for:
Dual-wielding pistols, which reduces the average damage by 1/3 (but increases attack speed).
A pistol with a shield, which reduces attack damage by 3/4 (but causes the attack to spray in a short cone like a shotgun).
Buffs from active skills are unaffected by Gate of Fates nodes and item affixes (except for First Men’s Legacy).
Several of the character stat numbers shown in town are don't reflect what you would see in a level. Basically, the ones that differ are all of the numbers that rely on scores, which includes: critical chance, ailment chance, dodge chance, and all resistance.
According to Racthoh, they are "reduced depending on the level difference between you and the zone you're in".
Below is a diagram of distance that should be fairly accurate:
Status Ailments
Ailments are conditions applied to enemies that persist over time. What ailments do can be broken into three categories:
Damage Dealing Ailments:
Bleed (from rend damage)
Poison (from toxic damage)
Burn (from fire damage)
Shock (from lightning damage)
Damage Modifying Ailments:
Weakness (from sacred damage), it decreases the damage dealt by the target
Curse (from shadow damage), it increases the damage received by the target
Crowd Control Ailments:
Stun (from physical damage), though it seems to be broken at the moment, it prevents the target from acting or moving
Freeze (from frost damage), it prevents the target from acting or moving
Stasis (from aether damage), basically a slow that affects move, attack speed and spell casting speed
The ailment applied is always whatever damage type is the highest from the attack. If you want multiple ailments up at once, you need to take the major passive node "Grievous Afflictions" in the ring 2 Cabalist tree (which allows for two at once), or hit with skills that use two different elements.
Ailment damage is actually derived from your overall damage, and it is affected by increases to all damage and material, elemental, or occult damage.
Ailments ignore force shield, unless you take the medium passive node "Resilience to Corruption" in the ring 2 Warlock tree.
For Stasis, Weakness, and Curse stacks: the first number listed on the Ailments tab is how much one stack does, and the second number is how much max stacks do, This means that:
The first stack of stasis does 10%, then each one after it does 1%.
The first stack of weakness does 5%, then each one after it does 1%.
The first stack of curse does 5%, then each one after it does 1%.
Formulas
The average damage amount listed in a skill’s tooltip is not affected by attack speed, critical chance, or critical damage.
Quality improves the intrinsic base stats (damage, health, all resistances, etc.) by 10% times the number of stars (.1x, where x is the number of stars).
Any other affixes on the item like damage percentage or health percentage are applied afterwards as a separate multiplier.
Damage calculation on weapons:
Base physical damage of the weapon is multiplied by (1+.1x), where x is the number of stars (quality).
This new number of base damage, plus all other added damage (from affixes) is multiplied by the intrinsic weapon multiplier (like 1.5 when it says “50% All Damage on Attacks and Spells with this weapon”).
The following stats are calculated as a percentage derived from a raw score. The numerical bonuses to the score are added to the BASE score, while percentile bonuses to the score are a percentage of the BASE score (and these bonuses are additive with each other).
Critical Chance
Attack Speed
Ailment Chance
Dodge Chance
All Resistances
Several of the character stat numbers shown in town are completely wrong, but if you go into a level, it will show you the correct information. It is all of the numbers that rely on scores, which includes: critical chance, ailment chance, dodge chance, and all resistance.
shef_roxy on YouTube created this text file, which I converted into a Google Doc for easier viewing score scaling for the options above.
The Ahriman affixes for Attack Critical Chance and Spell Critical Chance are both additive with the total crit chance.
Attack Speed:
Weapon speed only affects basic attacks, not skills (as skills have their own internal speeds). On Erosson, two-handed melee weapons are listed as slow, and all other weapons are listed as fast.
Increased attack speed affects basic attacks and skills.
Anything with a tick rate like Bladestorm or "Avenger" Autoturret doesn't get more ticks from more attack speed. Most channeled skills call into this category.
The following skills benefit from attack speed in the listed way according to this video by shef_roxy:
Anvil’s Woe: fast attacks, charge speed
“Avenger” Autoturret: damage per second isn’t affected, but can rotate to new targets faster
Bleeding Edge: cast animation is fast, but not blade rotation
Consuming Embers: faster animation
Havob Orb: faster animation
Phantom Blades: faster animation, but not charge replenish speed
Slayer’s Flurry: faster start up and higher damage ticks
Stings of Krearion: faster animation
Thunderstrike: faster animation
Tracker’s Reach: faster animation
Wings of Ishmir: faster flight animation
Wrath of Baapheth: faster animation
One of the best things about attack speed score/spell cast speed score is that it takes you out of animation lock sooner, allowing you to move if necessary.
All Resistance (including "Secure Parry")::
All resistance percentages on armor items (which state "score on this item") are not in the same category as all resistance percentages from the tree or jewelery (which are overall all resistance score). Basically the armor item affixes only affect that local all resistance score, which tells the game how much all resistance the item has overall, but the tree and jewelry affixes, take all of the items score added together, and multiply that (effectively making the two scores multiplicative with each other).
The following stats are calculated as a percentage. These stats do not have scores and thus, percentile bonuses are simply a percentage of the BASE score (and these bonuses are additive with each other). Sometimes an item or skill will state that x% block chance is ADDED, in which case that number is simply added onto the base (which makes these items or skills more powerful than the normal percentile bonuses).
Block Chance (with a cap of 100%)
Block Efficiency (with a cap of 75%)
Health and Force Shield (which take damage after damage reductions from all resistance and block have occurred):
Force Shield takes damage before health.
The exception is ailments (damage over time), which go straight to health you don't take the "Resilience to Corruption" node in the ring 2 Warlock tree.
All sources or +# health on this item, and +% health on this item only affect the amount of health on the item.
All sources of % maximum health (like the +% maximum health Ahriman affix) are additive with each other, AND are additive with the toughness health percentage (so % max health is crappy with tons of toughness, but great with almost no toughness).
The total health formula is base health (character's levels, plus all health from items, and Gate of Fates) then multiplies it by the % health total (from items, attributes and Gate of Fates).
The Force Shield math works the same way as health.
Skill Cooldown Reduction:
Skill Cooldown Reduction listed on the utility tab of the game treats the sources as additive, but for some reason, the percentage applied to skills equals half of what it should.
I think this is why the cooldown reduction cap was increased to 200% in patch 1.1.7.5.
You cannot have negative cooldown reduction, so if you don’t have any sources of cooldown reduction and get the hunt affix that gives -% cooldown reduction, it actually doesn’t do anything.
Rage and Willpower Cost Decrease:
When items have the cost reduction affix, the numbers are actually rounded, but their true amount can be found by checking the character stats.
The cost reduction from the passive tree nodes is not multiplicative.
The bonus for Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction when having 150% on one item versus having it on several different items is the same (disproving the idea that sources are multiplicative). Since the sources can go above 100, they also can’t be additive.
After MUCH testing, the equation should be relatively close to:
final mana cost = base mana cost / (1 + (resource cost reduction/100)^~1.25)
Transfer Time Speed between Willpower and Rage (formerly known as transfer time reduction)
Characters normally have 1000 resource (willpower and rage combined), and when you use skills, the resource transfers between willpower and rage depending on the skills used.
When you use a skill that consumes willpower, the willpower cost is removed immediately, but there is a delay before that cost is converted into rage (represented by a brownish portion of the willpower bar). The same happens when you use a skill that consumes rage, and it gets converted to willpower.
While that brownish bar exists, that amount or resource is unavailable to the character, and the usual willpower regeneration (or rage regeneration if you have the “Furious Appetite” node) is suspended.
The brownish bar begins to shrink, and the opposite bar begins to grow by the same amount at the same time (this is the actual conversion process). Transfer Time Speed affects the rate that the brownish bar shrinks at, and thus the rate that the opposite resource grows at.
This means that +% Transfer Time Speed is a beneficial stat, because it decreases the amount of time some of your resource is unavailable, and allows the use of skills to continue. Without +% Transfer Time Speed (and especially with -% Transfer Time Speed), more and more of your resource becomes unavailable and you end up not being able to cast skills at all, as your entire resource bar becomes brownish.
Damage Calculation
Base Damage (all +# to attacks or spells) found on:
weapons (including inherent physical damage, quality, added +# to attacks or spells, then damage multipliers [inherent 50%, all, material, et cetera])
gems in weapons (in offensive I [for attacks] or offensive II [for spells] slots)
accessories (either +# to attacks, or +# to or spells)
some unique armor items (Treaty of Guns and Daggers, Argand’s Hearth, Shimmering Shadows, Imbued Legacy of the Willbreaker)
Damage Conversion (from the bottom row of skill modifiers)
Category A Damage ("additive" damage, because almost all sources of increased damage are added together here)
should include all things listed as "DamagePercentInt" on Erosson. Check the Gates of Fates section for more information about which nodes fall into this category.
Category B Damage ("multiplicative" damage, but sources in this category still add together with each other)
should include all things listed as "DamagePercentFloat" on Erosson. Check the Gates of Fates section for more information about which nodes fall into this category.
Category C Damage (true multiplicative damage that multiplies damage by the listed amount)
sources that double damage like "Virtuose Stance" and "Frenzied Blows" (for attacks since it requires rage)
Veiled Eclipse (pants) do not allow shadow spells to use "Frenzied Blows" (despite making skills cost rage)
Critical Damage Multiplier (if a crit occurs)
Note: Sources that kill enemies below a certain % life ("Dawn’s Pious Striker", or Mark of Impurity) ignore the damage calculation, and instead continually do checks.
This is an old Damage Calculator created by Mirenu that should still be applicable.
This is an old Effective Hit Point Calculator created by Mirenu that should still be applicable.
Summon Mechanics
Summons can’t do critical hits (as the critical hit numbers are removed from the skill information for them).
At one point very early on, summons could critical hit for double damage, but the game does not recognize the hits as critical hits. If you turn on “Show Critical Damage”, it will not show the numbers in yellow. I believe because it doesn’t use the critical damage formula and thus only hits for the +100% damage that a character starts with, not whatever your current critical damage amount actually is.
Summons can’t apply ailments (as the ailment numbers are removed from the skill information for them), unless the skill modifier adds it.
Since summons can’t crit, benefit from attack speed, or apply ailments, the only attribute that is beneficial to a full summon build is toughness.
Summons cannot leech life.
From the 1.1.7.16 patch notes: “Fixed an issue where some Gate of Fates nodes and Affixes would not affect summons. This includes the nodes Safe From Afar, Undertaker, and Academic Fieldwork; as well as the Affix +Projectile Speed and The Trial's +100% Chance to inflict Mark of Impurity.”
Summon damage does benefit from:
+% damage
+% material, elemental and occult damage
+# to spell damage
+% to spell damage
Projectile Speed
Projectile damage (if they are ranged and even though the tooltip doesn’t indicate it)
The passive node “Gods Among Men” in the Warmonger tree (+20% material damage multiplier)
The passive node “Beacon for the Lost” in the Eos tree (+25% sacred spell damage)
The passive node “Disallowing Vessel” in the Siegebreaker tree (up to 30% multiplicative damage if you don’t move)
The passive node “Safe from Afar” in the Ranger tree (more projectile damage at a distance)
The passive node “Archion’s Teachings” in the Ranger tree (+1 to projectiles)
The passive node “Meditative Focus” in the Ranger tree (more damage when no enemies are in 6m)
The passive node “Come What May” in the Ranger tree (projectiles piece everything within 6m)
The passive node “Waltzing Smoke” in the Duskglaive tree (dodge roll makes you invisible and adds 60% multiplicative damage as shadow to the next skill [though this buff only lasts for 3 seconds])
The buff duration is NOT affected by taking Protracted Effort (which increases the invisibility time)
The passive node “Acute Tracking” in the White Arrow tree (up to 40% multiplicative damage if you haven’t been hit)
The passive node “Hungry Stalactite” in the White Arrow tree
The passive node “Blessed Silver” in the Exorcist tree (up to 25% multiplicative damage don’t attack)
The passive node “Academic Fieldwork” in the Exorcist tree
The passive node “Undertaker” in the Plaguebringer tree (Enemies that die in 20m radius around you have 10% chance to drop green globes. Picking up green globes gives you an additional 20% Damage as Toxic Damage per green globe during 5s)
The active skill “Consuming Embers” 35% damage buff
The active skill “Blood for Blood” 15% damage buff (including the version from Imbued Veiled Eclipse)
Summon damage doesn’t benefit from:
+# to attack damage
+% to attack damage
+% melee weapon damage
+% two-handed weapon damage
% attack speed
% spell cast speed
The passive node “Life’s First Movement” in the Duskglaive tree
The passive node “Static Transferral” in the Alastor tree
The passive node “Sparkling Dart” in the Alastor tree, even when they are lightning summons (though it will still consume the resource when you command them)
The active skill “Sovereign Shout” attack and cast speed buff (including the version from Imbued Gaälnazek)
Seal of the Arbiter (ring) doesn’t affect Feeding Swarm
Summon projectiles:
The spread for additional projectiles on the hunting swarm is 4 degrees
The spread for additional projectiles on the livor mortis is 8 degrees
+ 1 projectiles for minions can hit the same enemies with both arrows
Pets from the pet shrine DO NOT follow you to between zones/maps (including town), but wait for you where you left them when you come back from town.
Item Mechanics
Autarchic Secret doesn’t seem able to have sockets for some reason.
Frostweave Qullittuq doesn’t convert the freeze chance to critical chance in the tooltips, but it does zero out the freeze chance.
The Trial belt uses the skill modifiers of Mark of Impurity even when the skill isn’t on your skill bar!
Imbued Figurehead cast the Bulwark of Dawn skill:
It doesn’t change any numbers on any page of the stat sheet, nor does it show any buff icons. Since this is the case, it is really difficult to test how long it lasts (especially since the visual effect seems to last several times longer than it is supposed to).
Might have these modifiers:
Everlasting Aurora
Haven of Men
Generative Star (which would be pointless)
Inspiration (which would be pointless)
Extended Protection
Doesn’t have these modifiers:
Vitality Exhumed
Sacred Grounds
Blade of Truth
Vanguard of the Morning Star
Boundless Cornucopia
Rejuvenating Light
Embracing Conviction
Burning Balm
Divine Omnipresence
Aegis of Hope
House of Rest
Imbued Gaalnazek casts the Sovereign Shout skill:
Lasts 5 seconds
Does not generate rage
Increases attack speed by 7.5% (instead of the normal 15%)
Has these modifiers (though the number amounts differ from the basse skill):
Marble House (Increases block chance by 12%)
Raging Berserker (Increases rage generation by 20% of base weapon)
A Princeps’ Lead (Increases critical chance score by 25%? [the percentage I got was 13.3%, but is probably additive with other sources])
Enemy’s Pallor (Increases life leech by 1%)
Red Earth Tracks (Increases movement speed by 20%)
Summon hits can proc the effect.
Items
Item filters and automatic sorting can found in the inventory. For both, open up the inventory:
A little above the top-right box of the inventory is an icon with an eye. That button opens up the Loot Filter window. At the top of the window is a dropdown menu that lists all of your loot filters, as well as a default loot filter. To the right of the dropdown menu are three buttons: one to edit the name of the filter, one to add a new filter, and one to delete a filter.
Once you have created the new filter, you can click on the highlighted colored boxes (indicated in the diagram) to turn off drops for that rarity of armours, weapons, accessories, or miscellaneous (or click on a unhighlighted box to turn it back on). Clicking on the golden triangle on the left side of the item type allows you to specify individual items that you want to turn on or off (like bows or bruiser pants), even if you have the rest of the group doing the opposite. Any changes to filters are saved automatically and apply to all characters on the account (if they use that filter).
If you hide "Ethereal Reagent", it hides the regular and legendary quality drops, so you will eventually see a legendary star on the minimap for a legendary, but not be able to see a label for it or pick it up.
Potions can't be hidden for some reason.
Just above the top-right box of the inventory is a button with a weapon and amulet icon. That button automatically sorts items in the inventory.
There are also matching icons at the bottom-middle of every stash tab that do the same thing.
Cosmetics
Cosmetics are the tools in the game associated with physical appearance, but have no bearing on character power. To apply cosmetics, open up the inventory. Just above the top-left box of the inventory is a button with a paint palette and a paw print. Click on that to open the cosmetics interface. There are three tabs along the top of the left window (listed in order from left to right): Skins, Dyes and Pets.
Skins - Here you will be able to view all of the unlocked transmogs for your account. They are unlocked by picking up items with those transmogs, from City of Stormfall projects, or account editing (in single player). Click on a slot in the right window (like weapon or shoulders), then click the transmog you want for that slot in the left window, then click the "Accept" button in the bottom left of the left window. Transmogs are applied to the character, not the items, so swapping items will not change the look of your character. The exception to this rule is weapons, which will change if you swap the type of weapon (like from bow to pistol), because they transmogs won't fit on that weapon. They are still stored though and if you swap back to a bow, it will be the one you chose.
Dyes
Dyes can be found from random drops in the game, or from account editing (in single player). There was an announcement of 140 dyes, and the list below (based on some data mining) confirms it.
Either before or after you have picked your transmogs (either individually or after they all are done), you can click on the middle "Dyes" tab, and across the top of the window, you will see up to 7 boxes (listed in roman numerals). Transmogs have a varying number of dye slots and arrangements, so you won't always see all 7 boxes, or even the same boxes each time (as each box represents dying a different layer or aspect of the armor).
Click on the box you want to adjust, then click on the color you want on it. Clicking "Accept" in the bottom left corner of the window will save the look. Getting the look just the way you want can take a lot of trial and error, so be patient! Like with the transmogs, the dyes are applied to the character, not the items, so swapping items will not change the look of your character.
Unlike with transmogs, you cannot dye weapons. Their base look is a transmog, but the glow effect matches whatever damage type has the highest minimum added damage on the weapon. In damage ties, I know that physical comes before lightning, but I otherwise am not sure. These are the following colored effects per damage type:
Physical - Light orange
Rend - Red
Toxic - Green
Fire - Orange
Frost - White
Lightning - Blue
Sacred - Yellow
Shadow - Indigo
Aether - Violet
Pets
The right tab shows the pets you have unlocked. Pets can be equipped by simply left-clicking on the box of the one you want to use.
If you have all of the pets, this is the order they will appear on the in-game pets list.
The icon below allows you to turn off having a pet.
Name: Dog
Game Tag: pet_dog
Earned from: Click on him just before exiting Stormfall’s city gate for the first time
Name: Wolf
Game Tag: pet_wolf
Earned from: Possibly champion of Stormfall mode? Racthoh: Regular wolf is from beating A3 if I remember right.
Name: Time-Devourer Wolf Pet
Game Tag: pet_wolf_lava_twitch
Earned from: Time-Devourer Wolf pet (formerly a Twitch drop reward)
Name: Armored Baby Dragon
Game Tag: pet_babydragon_armor
Earned from: Defeating the Uber Chronicle Boss
Name: Blue Armored Baby Dragon
Game Tag: pet_babydragon_armor_blue
Earned from: Defeating the Uber Chronicle Boss
Name: Green Armored Baby Dragon
Game Tag: pet_babydragon_armor_green
Earned from: Defeating the Uber Chronicle Boss
Name: Red Armored Baby Dragon
Game Tag: pet_babydragon_armor_red
Earned from: Defeating the Uber Chronicle Boss
Potions
Max level Health Potion: Ultimate which has 50 charges and uses 10 charges to heal for 20000 health.
Max level Willpower: Ultimate which has 50 charges and uses 10 charges to convert 500 Rage to Willpower.
Max level Rage: Ultimate which has 50 charges and uses 10 charges to convert 500 Willpower to Rage.
Weapons and Armor
Item Tiers
All items come in up to 16 tiers. Each higher tier increases the base values of the base stats (but not the affixes which are based on item level).
Item types
Weapons - there are three different types: melee, ranged, and caster. Each type allows access to a certain group of skills:
Melee -
One-handed: Axe, Mace, Sword, Dagger (which includes some ranged type skills), Shield
Two-handed: Greatsword, Battleaxe, Warhammer
Ranged -
One-handed: Pistol
Two-handed: Bow
Caster -
One-handed: Catalyst
Two-handed: Staff
You can use combinations of one-handed weapons from melee, ranged and caster to allow access to the active skills from each category (Melee, Ranged, Caster, Assassin).
All melee one-handed weapons have the same average damage, with the pistol at slightly less damage, and the bow at slightly more. All melee two-handed weapons have DIFFERENT average damages, with the mace having the highest (and the most rage generated).
With the 25% Attack Speed reduction to bows, they now generate less rage/second than pistols (since 75*.75 = 56.25 which is less than the 60 from pistols). This also means that additional resource gained from other locations is less effective with a bow.
Armor - there are four different types for every slot: heavy, bruiser, rogue, and sorcerer. Each type has several variations with inherent bonuses available:
Helmet -
Heavy: added block chance
Bruiser: health regeneration rate
Rogue: movement speed
Sorcerer: force shield recharge from globes
Spaulders (2 slots) -
Heavy: toughness
Bruiser: ferocity
Rogue: agility
Sorcerer: wisdom
Chest-piece -
Heavy: added block chance
Bruiser: health regeneration rate
Rogue: movement speed
Sorcerer: force shield recharge from globes
Gauntlets (2 slots) -
Heavy: toughness
Bruiser: ferocity
Rogue: agility
Sorcerer: wisdom
Pants -
Heavy: added block chance
Bruiser: health regeneration rate
Rogue: movement speed
Sorcerer: force shield recharge from globes
Boots -
Heavy: toughness
Bruiser: ferocity
Rogue: agility
Sorcerer: wisdom
Accessories - there are three different types: amulets, rings, and belts. Each type has several variations with inherent bonuses available:
Amulet -
Amethyst Amulet: wisdom
Ruby Amulet: ferocity
Goldstone Amulet: toughness
Emerald Amulet: agility
Omnistar Amulet: all attributes
Rings (2 slots) -
Topaz Ring: force shield
Aquamarine Ring: elemental resistance score
Sapphire Ring: occult resistance score
Emerald Ring: passive dodge score
Ruby Ring: material resistance score
Bloodstar Ring: maximum health
Steel Ring: critical chance score
Belt -
Utility - max health
Steel Belt - force shield
Quickdraw Leather Band - critical chance score
Champion Girdle - attack damage
Catalytic Strap - spell damage
Restrictions to Affixes
Catalysts are considered weapons based on the affixes they have access to.
Shields are considered armor based on the affixes they have access to.
Primaries:
Weapons:
Staves, pistols, one-handed swords, and two-handed swords can have all damage types (as well as the % damage increase for each type [except for staves which has spell damage])
Bows, daggers, one-handed axes, and two-handed axes can only have the material, and elemental damage types (as well as the % damage increase for those types [except for bows which only have material])
One-handed maces, and two-handed maces can only have the material, and occult damage types (as well as the % damage increase for those types)
Catalysts can only have the elemental, and occult damage type
Staves and catalysts can only have +[60]% to spell power hunt prefix, while all other weapons can have +[45]% to all damage hunt prefix
Staves and catalysts can only have +[40]% to spell power, while all other weapons can have +[30]% to all damage
Staves can have Willpower Regeneration, while all other weapons (besides catalysts) can have resource generation
Only catalysts have added damage ranges of +12-15 [at max], while all other weapons have 70-89 [at max]
Armors:
+# or % to all resistance can only roll on heavy and bruiser armors, or shields
+# to health can only roll on bruiser and rogue armors, or shields
+# to force shield can only roll on rogue and sorcerer armors, or shields
+% to health can only roll on bruiser and rogue armors
+% to force shield can only roll on rogue and sorcerer armors
Passive Dodge chance can only roll on bruiser and rogue armors
CRAFT ONLY: health can only roll on heavy and sorcerer armors
CRAFT ONLY: force shield can only roll on heavy and bruiser armors
Accessories:
Amulets and belts can only roll + material damage to attacks and + occult damage to spells, but not + elemental damage.
Rings can only roll + to elemental damage on either attacks or spells, but not + material or occult damage.
Slot restrictions:
Only weapons, shields, and catalysts can have Sarisel prefixes
Only armors (not shields) and weapons can have hunt prefixes
Only armors (not shields), catalysts, and weapons can’t have craft prefixes
Shoulders, gloves, and boots can only roll all damage on bruiser and rogue armors
Secondaries:
Weapons:
All weapons have the same suffixes, except that:
Catalysts and staves have spell critical chance and spell casting speed, plus occult ailment chance
All other weapons have attack critical chance and attack speed, plus material ailment chance
Armor type:
Force Shield Regeneration Delay Reduction can only roll on rogue or sorcerer armors
Force Shield Regeneration Rate can only roll on rogue, and sorcerer armors
Stamina Regeneration Rate can only roll on rogue, and sorcerer armors
Attack speed can only roll on heavy, bruiser, and rogue armors
Spell speed can only roll on rogue, and sorcerer armors
Willpower regeneration can only roll on rogue, and sorcerer armors
Slot restrictions:
Only weapons, and armors (not shields), can have hunt suffixes
Only weapons, catalysts, and armors (not shields), can have craft suffixes
Only weapons, catalysts, shields, heads, and chests can have [Craft only] Sarisel suffixes
Only weapons, catalysts, and armors can have spell casting speed
Only weapons, and armors can have attack speed
Only head, chests, and pants can have:
Skill Cooldown Reduction
Health Regeneration Rate
Force Shield Regeneration Delay Reduction
Stamina Regeneration Rate
Willpower Regeneration
Transfer Time Speed between Willpower and Rage
Hunt suffixes
Only Shoulders and gloves can have:
Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
Attack and Spell Casting Speed (hunt suffix)
Only boots can have Movement Speed
Only boots can have 1 Stamina point
Only shields can have Block Chance on this item
Only shields can have Block Efficiency on this item
Item Rarities
The NAME of the item is based on the base item (white) and all magic, rare and legendary versions retain the base item name.
Rarities:
Normal has 0 affixes
Magic has 1-2 affixes: 1 prefix, 1 suffix
Rare has 3-4 affixes: 2 prefixes, 2 suffixes
Legendary has 5-6 affixes: 3 prefixes, 3 suffixes
Unique has 5-6 affixes, but the affixes aren't constrained to the normal rules, and it can include affixes found nowhere else
Uniques
Unique items are special items that always roll the same affixes, but the affix ranges are based on the item's required level (versions are 10, 35, 60, and 80 [only for some weapons]).
Unique items usually don’t have the base effect of the white item (attribute, block chance, health regeneration rate, movement speed or force shield recharge from globes). They can have sockets, but the original (legacy) versions of them cannot have sockets (unless you add them by modifying the character file).
A few of the uniques can be target farmed from the Ahriman Lieutenant fights, and Nemorga made this wonderful visual guide for it:
Special Affixes
Special affixes can appear on items from running a specific map type. When these affixes are present, there will be a corresponding icon in the bottom left corner of the item icon, and if you hover over the item, the icon will appear in the top right, as well as next to the special affix on the affix list (near the bottom). Special Affixes include:
Red Dragon (looks like a Batman logo) = Hunt (Expedition maps)
Yellow Horns = Ahriman activities
Pinkish-purple Crystal = Wrath of the Sarisel (Wrath of Sarisel maps)
They can also appear as Cosmic items, which includes all the parts of a red/yellow/pinkish-purple color swirl, as shown on the icon in the bottom left corner of items. This guarantees 3 special affixes:
On weapons, shields, catalysts, amulets, rings, belts, helms, and chests, you will get one Hunt, one Ahriman, and one Sarisel affix.
On shoulders, gloves, pants, and boots (for which Sarisel affixes don’t exist), you instead will get one Hunt and two Ahriman affixes (but no Sarisel affixes since they don’t exist).
The Hunt affix penalties cannot be the same as an affix already on the item. The game simply will not drop or show them that way.
Also, if you edit an item to make them the same, the game will combine them, deleting the penalty affix, and lowering the other affix.
Ahriman items drop exclusively from Ahriman and his lieutenants. Ahriman items come with one or two random special affixes from a unique pool of possible affixes (drawn from affixes that could be found on some Unique items, or on some Gate of Fates nodes).
Weapon Affixes - They appear to always count as a prefix (except on staves and catalysts, where they are a suffix).
~5-7% Attack Critical Chance (doubled for two-handed weapons)
~5-7% Spell Critical Chance (doubled for two-handed weapons)
~15-21% Projectile Critical Chance Score
~10-16% Projectile Critical Damage (doubled for two-handed weapons)
~20-27% Ailment Damage (doubled for two-handed weapons)
~24-31% Damages dealt by summons
~12-14% Attack and Spell Casting Speed for Summons
Armour Affixes - They appear to always count as a suffix (even when there are two affixes together).
+1-2 maximum ailment stacks
+2.5% additional Block Efficiency (shows as 2%)
+15-20% Maximum Health
+15-20% Force Shield
+X% Force Shield Delay Reduction (though I have only seen this as a hunt affix, it probably is Ahriman and Hunt combined)
+15-20% Health Regeneration
+15-20% Summons Health
Accessory Affixes - They appear to always count as a suffix.
~11-16% One Handed Weapon Damage
~15-29% Two Handed Weapon Damage
~10-15% Projectile Damage
~30-50% to Ailment Stack Duration
~12-16% Rage Cost Reduction
~10-14% Spell Cost Reduction
~20-30 to All Attributes
Sarisel affixes on:
Weapons always drop as prefixes, but craft as suffixes.
Armor always drop as suffixes, and craft as suffixes.
Jewelry always drop as suffixes, but craft as prefixes.
Cosmic combination found on weapons, shields, catalysts, amulets, rings, belts, helms, and chests:
Cosmic combination found on shoulders, gloves, pants, and boots:
Green Affixes
All affixes from dropped items have the potential for being green affixes. This includes the special affixes listed above, and all of the normal affixes.
I am not sure if you can get tier 13 affixes from crafting, but I doubt it.
Per the 1.1.7.10 patch notes:
A new affix tier has been added: tier 13!
Tier 13 affixes have a very rare chance of rolling on rare and legendary items with an item level of 217, and offer a +50% increase in power over tier 12 affixes.
Per the 1.17.13 patch notes:
Items with tier 13 affixes now show their name and the relevant tier 13 affixes in green text on their tooltips.
From testing, the chance actually seems to be about 10-20%, though it might be getting raised by other factors.
The most green affixes I have found on a single item is 4, but it can theoretically have 6.
Sockets
Some of the items in the game can have sockets, which can be filled with the gems listed in the next section. There are different types of sockets, and the following data table shows which types are available on the different item slots, as well as how many sockets can be there.
In addition to the different socket types, there are also three variations for each socket type (represented by the roman numerals I, II, and III).
If an item type listed in the data table above drops without the number or variations of sockets you want, you can modify the sockets to get the desired effect. This can be done in town by Zanafer Stark (on the left side of the city's center) by using the second tab. Open the window, then right-click on the item you want to remove gems from and click the "Re-roll Cost: x" button. It costs gold to reroll sockets (the x represents the cost, but it seems to be a fixed amount late game).
Rerolling sockets to get what you want can take a bit of time and gold, because it relies on two factors: the number of sockets and the socket type variations.
You will always want the maximum number of sockets an item can have, but rerolling can make the socket number anywhere between zero and the maximum amount. Based on testing, if an item can have 3 sockets: there is a 10% chance to get no sockets, a 30% chance it will have 1 socket, a 30% chance it will have 2 sockets, and a 30% chance it will have 3 sockets.
There is usually a socket variation you are going for on an item (like offensive I on weapons for attack skills, or offensive II on weapons for spell skills). Since the socket variations seem to have an equal chance of occurring, if you are only needing one socket, you have a 1/3 chance of getting the one you want. That also means the odds of getting both variations you want on a 2 socket item are 1/3*1/3, or 1/9 (provided you actually roll two sockets to begin with). To get all three variations you want, it becomes 1/27 chance, and when you factor in getting three sockets, it is 1/90 (1/27*3/10 = 3/270).
Gems
Gems can be added for free to any empty socket by simply clicking on the gem (to pick it up) and then clicking on the socket you want to place it in (to put it down).
Gems can be removed in town by Zanafer Stark (on the left side of the city's center) by using the first tab. Open the window, then right-click on the item you want to remove gems from and click the "Gem removal cost: x" button. It costs gold to remove the gems (the x represents the cost which is affected by the tier of gems and the number of them), but you get to keep both the item and the gems when you are done.
Gems come in different tiers that affect the number of the bonus they provide. Lower gems cannot be combined, or used for anything that higher tier gems cannot, so once you have a reasonable supply of Tier 12 gems (the highest), simply sell off the lower tier gems.
While there are a variety of gems (mostly based around the various damage types), one gem can also provide different bonuses depending on the type of socket it is placed into. A complete list is shown in the Google Sheet shown below:
Crafting
The crafting system is is a way to modify items to better meet the needs of your character. While there is still some chance involved, there are certain strategies (that use gems) which can greatly increase or sometimes guarantee getting the affix you want.
In order to use crafting to modify items, you need the several reagents:
Abyssal Tear - randomly removes one affix from the rare item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to keep the affix associated with the gem).
Erieban Tear - randomly adds one affix to the rare item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to choose the affix associated with the gem).
Ohm’s Echo - randomly removes one affix, then adds one affix to the rare item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to choose the affix associated with the gem).
This seems to be the previous two reagents put together, which seems better than using the other two, but the problem is that you have neither the control over which affix will be lost, nor the knowledge of which affix will be lost. Thus, won’t know what gem to use to put an affix on (because you first might need to put the one you lost back on).
I am curious if using an Ohm’s Echo can swap out a suffix if there are two prefixes and only one suffix to start (I am assuming it can).
Entropy Orb - randomly rerolls ALL affixes on a rare item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to keep one affix associated with the gem).
Greater Abyssal Tear - randomly removes one affix from the legendary item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to keep the affix associated with the gem).
Greater Erieban Tear - randomly adds one affix to the legendary item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to choose the affix associated with the gem).
Greater Ohm’s Echo - randomly removes one affix, then adds one affix to the legendary item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to choose the affix associated with the gem).
This seems to be the previous two reagents put together, which seems better than using the other two, but the problem is that you have neither the control over which affix will be lost, nor the knowledge of which affix will be lost. Thus, won’t know what gem to use to put an affix on (because you first might need to put the one you lost back on).
Greater Entropy Orb - randomly rerolls ALL affixes on a legendary item (UNLESS you put a gem in to force it to keep one affix associated with the gem).
Above it keeps mentioning the use of gems. Here are a few additional details about the use of gems:
To figure out what the affix associated with each gem type is (and what range you get from each gem tier), use: Erosson. While in the list of affixes for the item you are trying to work on, it will
It is always best to only socket ONE gem when using reagents, since the reagents will consume ALL gems, but only guarantee keeping one affix. Also, this way you know exactly which affix you will keep or gain (or at least have very few options).
The Dark Market:
In addition to changing affixes, you can improve the items rarity in the Dark Market, which affects the number of affixes an item can have.
Usually when upgrading a rare to a legendary using the “Item Rarity” project in the Dark Market, you get a 5 affix item, but sometimes it is a 6 affix item.
You can also upgrade the quality of the item using the Dark Market, which affects the amount of the affix on inherent item affixes (like weapon damage or all resistance).
You can either upgrade item quality or upgrade item rarity first. There is no wrong order to do it in, but the order does affect the costs of improving quality or rarity, so in that case, you likely will want to increase the quality first. However, you may not want to bother increasing the quality if you aren't going to end up keeping the item (because the crafting process didn't give what you wanted).
Here are a few guides to crafting that I have come across:
Wolcen Crafting - How to make powerful legendaries by StupidFatHobbit
Wolcen - Crafting Basics by BinaQc
He states MANY times that you should always use the maximum number of gems (and thus the maximum number of sockets). I disagree with that statement if you are removing/protecting affixes, since the affix roll won’t change because of the number of gems.
As I have pointed out earlier, since all weapons have base physical damage, you are going to want to stick with material damage affixes in order to maximize damage.
The first step is to get a rare weapon with the highest item level possible (while 187 is the highest level, 163 or above still gives the highest tier rolls).
Next, you want to get the weapon to have two material damage prefixes. According to the video above, the best way to do this is to remove 1-2 affixes from the rare weapon using Abyssal Tears (until you end up with two left).
Next, you want to make sure you have two prefixes (which can be determined using this Wolcen Database). IF NOT, add one affix back on with an Erieban Tear, then remove one again with an Abyssal Tear. Repeat until you have two prefixes.
Then, using Ohm’s Echos, keep rerolling the two prefixes until you have two +to material damage prefixes (the best of which is +% material damage because it will multiply the based damage AND gems).
After that, you can either rare upgrade to get the weapon back up to 5-6 affixes, or use more Erieban Tears along with gems (three of the same gem in a three socket weapon yields the highest affix ranges).
The first step is to get a rare ring with the highest item level possible (while 187 is the highest level, 163 or above still gives the highest tier rolls). The best ring to get is a Steel Ring which has base critical damage (and thus yields not only the highest damage, but the greatest overall increase to your offense or defense).
Next, you want to get the ring to have +# to damage prefixes. According to the video above, the best way to do this is to remove 1-2 affixes from the rare ring using Abyssal Tears (until you end up with two left).
Next, you want to make sure you have two prefixes (which can be determined using this Wolcen Database). IF NOT, add one affix back on with an Erieban Tear, then remove one again with an Abyssal Tear. Repeat until you have two prefixes.
Then, using Ohm’s Echos, keep rerolling the two prefixes until you have two +# to damage prefixes.
After that, you can either rare upgrade to get the weapon back up to 5-6 affixes, or use more Erieban Tears along with gems to get the suffixes (in this case two alexandrites to get critical damage and critical chance score) FIRST, THEN rare upgrade.
Sursisyor's Visual Guide to affixes:
Sarisel Affixes
CaiusMartius on what Sarisel items to hold onto:
Well, you'll get a mixed response out of this because of several mitigating factors.
1) crafting a Sarisel is best because you can't get sarisel's on hunt items and the hunt items are the highest boosts
2) Livor Mortis is the primary one that people want. It cannot be crafted so you can ONLY get it on a Sarisel drop it allows you to coordinate use of the Poison Helm so you can do poisons archers and rend livor mortis
3) havoc orb or aether on an axe or hammer is pretty usable but see #1 for best version of this (I actually have a build where I use aether jump on a crafted shield)
4) everything else based on the current balance in the game is kind of meme status.
Just had a brain fart and remembered something.
5) rings/amulets have some affixes that are worth it, though they're still probably easier to craft. Like additional dmg based on spell/100 rage/wp or to a lesser extent +1 pierce/+1 or 2 ailment.
6) armor also has a big one "Damage/rage points" but that's also better left to crafting because you often want the hunt cooldown.
Character Builds
Wolcen Character Planner with Gate of Fates, attributes, skills, and skill modifiers.
Streamers to get build of build information from:
The best YouTube streamer for information is Binashole. You can also find a lot of his builds on Wolcen Universe. There is also his Reddit channel.
General build order:
Start by picking a skill or group of skills that feel right for your playstyle.
Make sure you try the different skill modifiers.
Once you have the skills selected, start looking through their skills tags (like attack, spell, projectile, frost, etc.). Based on the common tags (or the most important), start filling in your Gate of Fates tree to maximize the effect of the skill(s).
Unless you have a weapon with a Sarisel affix for the skill from another class (melee, archer, or caster) that you wanted to use, make sure you pick the weapon type that matches the skill.
The rest of your gear should complement the skills and skill tags that you were just looking for in the Gate of Fates. Generally though, you should stick to heavy gear or bruiser gear, as the all resistances turns into damage reduction that will outperform the other armor types almost every time.
Spend your attribute points (usually in 1 or 2 attributes). Most of the time Ferocity is going to give you the best damage increase, and overall increase up to a certain point (when you switch to putting points into toughness). If the build can't crit or doesn't get benefits from crits, spend your points differently (like summon builds where you put points into toughness, or ailment builds where you put points into wisdom).
If you are going for ailments, use these Ailment Build Guidelines.
Tips:
There are basically two strategies to take with resources:
Use one resource - with this strategy, you focus on +% rage or willpower cost reduction, and finding ways to generate resource, which include (listed in order of usefulness):
the "Dominator" node in the Warlock tree (for willpower on hit)
the "The Heat of Battle" node in the Soldier tree (for rage when hit)
the "Appetite for Bloodshed" node in the Warmonger tree (for rage on kill)
the Discordant unique chest-piece (for rage on globe pickup)
the Blood Tear Bastion unique chest-piece (for rage when hit)
the Bloodlust unique helm (for rage on kill)
the Purifier's Statement unique shoulders (for rage on block, though this requires more block investment and reduces the amount generated by auto-attacks)
the Imbued Purifier's Statement unique shoulders (for rage on block, though this requires more block investment and reduces the block amount)
willpower regeneration (which can be found on Amethysts or some item slots, but only triggers after a delay)
the "Furious Appetite" node in the Child of Fury tree (for rage generation)
auto-attacking (for rage on hit or willpower on hit depending on the weapon, but this is usually the worst option)
Use both resources - with this strategy, you focus on +% transfer time speed between willpower and rage, then having at least one skill that consumes willpower (and generates rage), and at least one skill that consumes rage (and generates willpower). From there, you are able to alternate between the two skills and never run out of resources. There are a few ways to create this pairing (listed in order of usefulness):
Sarisel affixes on weapons (that allow you to cast skills not normally available with that weapon, though this is the hardest option to acquire)
the Veiled Eclipse unique pants (to use Shadow skills, and have them consume rage)
the Worm-Tooth unique helm (to use Toxic skills)
the Bio-Flow Symbiosis unique chest-piece (to use "Deathgazer" Railgun)
the Quintet of Sundowns unique shield (to use Sacred skills)
the Zephyron, Herald of Change unique greatsword (to use Frost, Rend, Fire, Aether, Sacred, Toxic, Shadow, or Lightning skills
a 1-handed pistol or melee weapon with a catalyst (while this is the easiest option to acquire, the catalyst has a -75% transfer time speed affix on it, which causes the resources to temporarily run out)
You almost always want to convert the damage type to something other than physical because of the extra damage you will get to one element from gems in accessories.
I recommend lightning for the Sparkling Dart passive (which doubles the damage), unless the skill is going to be spammed (which would make you run out of power charges and defeat the purpose of it).
If the skill is going to be spammed, then I recommend rend or toxic, because you will get the most benefit out of a weapon with either: physical, main element, and % material damage on the weapon, or physical, main element, and another material element. There is also a Gate of Fates node to increase material damage by cancelling out other types.
If you are running a material build that doesn’t specify physical damage, instead of physical gems, do rend or toxic gems, because they cause ailment damage. It might also depend on which passive nodes you take though (some increase physical specifically).
If you are planning on using Beason of the Lost which does more damage based on force shield percentage, add force shield on an accessory, since that slot has the least impact on your overall damage and defense.
In every slot, rogue armor's health + force shield equals the mage armor's force shield. This means that rogue will always be better for toughness (but this excludes passives which might make the mage armor slots better).
I recommend using the heavy helmet and chest-piece along with the Siegebreaker - Salvatory Anchor. By my math, you would be gaining a smaller percent resistance increase than you would have gained from having health, but reducing the bursts of damage smooths out your death total, plus it makes life leech more effective (since the life pool is smaller).
The rest of the slots seem to mathematically be best to use bruiser pieces, but it may still be beneficial to increase your all resistance and toughness further.
As a general rule, you should try to get affixes with +# to scores instead of +% to scores, since the passives skills ALMOST NEVER provide +# to scores (though there is one that gives 100 health).
An exception to this rule is +% armor on this item (since it is only on that item and the percentage always give more than the +# amount (even with a hunt version of the affix).
The dagger (Lordsmail Piercer) is the best one-handed melee weapon since it does the same damage as all of the others, but it also allows access to more skills (the assassin type ones).
The two-handed warhammer (Demonic Gravitas) is the best two-handed melee weapon, because it has the highest damage and generates more resource on hit.
Attributes
Put all of the points into ferocity, which gives the most overall bonus (until 1300 attribute points, where toughness becomes better).
Ferocity - 1505
Agility - 140 (spend 0)
Wisdom - 105 (spend 0)
Toughness - 245
Note: If you are having trouble surviving, take some points out of ferocity and put them into toughness. 40000-50000 health seems to be a safe spot for most content.
Active Skills
The playstyle is to jump to enemies to engage and spam Sovereign Shout and Bleeding Edge the rest of the time.
A - Livor Mortis: 5, 7, 8, 15, 16, Shadow (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
S - Sovereign Shout: 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 12 ,13, NA
D - Bleeding Edge: 3, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, Shadow
F - Livor Mortis (Duplicate I): 5, 7, 8, 15, 16, Shadow (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
G - Livor Mortis (Duplicate II): 5, 7, 8, 15, 16, Shadow (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
RMB - Wings of Ishmir: 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, Shadow
Mark of Impurity: 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, None
If you are wearing “The Trial” belt, the skill doesn’t need to be on your bar to get the benefit.
Gate of Fates
111 passive point version (earned from completing the first 100 Infinity skulls)
Items
Weapon - Demonic Gravitas
Prefixes
+% All Damage
-# Attack Speed
+# Shadow Damage
+# Physical Damage
Suffixes
Allows Livor Mortis
+% Life Leech
+% Critical damage
Sockets
Offensive I - Tier 12 (Eternal) Sapphire (15-15 Shadow Damage added to Attacks)
Offensive I - Tier 12 (Eternal) Sapphire (15-15 Shadow Damage added to Attacks)
Offensive I - Tier 12 (Eternal) Sapphire (15-15 Shadow Damage added to Attacks)
Helm - Elemental Bascinet
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Occult Damage
Suffixes
+% Damage per 100 remaining Rage points
+% Maximum Health
Toughness or Ferocity
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Shoulders - two Discordant Spaulders
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistance
+% Occult Damage
Suffixes
+% Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Chest - Festering Exoskeleton
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Occult Damage
Suffixes
+% Damage per 100 remaining Rage points
+% Maximum Health
Toughness or Ferocity
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Gloves - two Tritonic Lined Armguards
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistance
+% Occult Damage
Suffixes
+% Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Pants - Grand Duet Greaves
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Occult Damage
Suffixes
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Transfer Time Speed Between Willpower and Rage
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Boots - Imperious Sollerets
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
+% Occult Damage
Suffixes
Movement Speed
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Amulet - Omnistar Amulet
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
-% Attack Critical Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
+# Physical Damage added to Attacks
Suffixes
+2 Ailment Stack(s) applied
% Rage Cost Reduction
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Sapphire (20% Shadow Damage)
Rings - two Steel Rings
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
-% Attack Critical Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
+# Force Shield
Suffixes
+2 Ailment Stack(s) applied
% Rage Cost Reduction
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Sapphire (20% Shadow Damage)
Belt - The Trial
Affixes:
(15-20)% to All Resistances Score
0.5% Global Life Leech
(500-600) Maximum Health
(25-35) Agility
100% Chance to inflict Mark of Impurity to an Enemy on Hit
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Sapphire (20% Shadow Damage)
Attributes
Put all of the points into ferocity, which gives the most overall bonus (until 1300 attribute points, where toughness becomes better).
Ferocity - 1505
Agility - 140 (spend 0)
Wisdom - 105 (spend 0)
Toughness - 245
Note: If you are having trouble surviving, take some points out of ferocity and put them into toughness. 40000-50000 health seems to be a safe spot for most content. Also, attack speed is almost useless to DPS, since Autoturrets shoot bullets at their own internal rate. It does affect the rate that the turret turns to attack targets though, and it can increase the speed you generate rage with auto-attacks.
Active Skills
The playstyle is to simply rotate through the Autoturret buttons to keep the maximum amount up, then auto-attack as needed to generate rage.
A - “Avenger” Autoturret (Duplicate II): 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, Lightning
S - “Avenger” Autoturret (Duplicate I): 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, Lightning
D - “Avenger” Autoturret: 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 15, 16, Lightning
F - Livor Mortis (Duplicate II): 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, Lightning (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
G - Livor Mortis (Duplicate I): 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, Lightning (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
RMB - Livor Mortis: 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, Lightning (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
Mark of Impurity: 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, None
If you are wearing “The Trial” belt, the skill doesn’t need to be on your bar to get the benefit.
Gate of Fates
111 passive point version (earned from completing the first 100 Infinity skulls)
Items
Weapon - Dual Sinful Machines
Prefixes
+% All Damage (on both)
-# Ailment Chance Score (on both)
+# Lightning Damage (on both)
+# Physical Damage (on both)
Suffixes
Allows Livor Mortis (on pistol 1)
+% Life Leech (on pistol 2)
+% Critical damage (on both)
+# Attack Critical Chance Score (on both)
Sockets
Offensive I - Tier 12 (Eternal) Lapis Lazuli (15-15 Lightning Damage added to Attacks) (on both)
Offensive I - Tier 12 (Eternal) Lapis Lazuli (15-15 Lightning Damage added to Attacks) (on both)
Offensive I - Tier 12 (Eternal) Lapis Lazuli (15-15 Lightning Damage added to Attacks) (on both)
Helm - Elemental Bascinet
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
+% Damage per 100 remaining Rage points
+% Maximum Health
Toughness or Ferocity
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Shoulders - two Discordant Spaulders
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistance
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
+% Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Chest - Festering Exoskeleton
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
+% Damage per 100 remaining Rage points
+% Maximum Health
Toughness or Ferocity
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Gloves - two Tritonic Lined Armguards
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistance
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
+% Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Pants - Grand Duet Greaves
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Transfer Time Speed Between Willpower and Rage
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Boots - Imperious Sollerets
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
Movement Speed
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Amulet - Ruby Amulet
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
-% Ailment Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
+# Physical Damage added to Attacks
Suffixes
+1 Projectile Pierce Strength
% Rage Cost Reduction
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Lapis Lazuli (20% Lightning Damage)
Rings - two Steel Rings
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
-% Ailment Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
+# Lightning Damage added to Attacks
Suffixes
+1 Projectile Pierce Strength
% Rage Cost Reduction
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Lapis Lazuli (20% Lightning Damage)
Belt - The Trial
Affixes:
(15-20)% to All Resistances Score
0.5% Global Life Leech
(500-600) Maximum Health
(25-35) Agility
100% Chance to inflict Mark of Impurity to an Enemy on Hit
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Lapis Lazuli (20% Lightning Damage)
Special Note for Consuming Embers: you need to make the skill cost just under 100 willpower to be able to spam it endlessly, which requires about 140% cost reduction.
Attributes
Put all of the points into ferocity, which gives the most overall bonus (until 1300 attribute points, where toughness becomes better).
Ferocity - 1505
Agility - 140 (spend 0)
Wisdom - 105 (spend 0)
Toughness - 245
Note: If you are having trouble surviving, take some points out of ferocity and put them into toughness. 40000-50000 health seems to be a safe spot for most content.
Active Skills
The playstyle is to simply rotate through the Autoturret buttons to keep the maximum amount up, then auto-attack as needed to generate rage.
A - Consuming Embers (Duplicate II): 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 13, Shadow
S - Consuming Embers (Duplicate I): 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 13, Toxic
D - Consuming Embers: 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 12, 16, Fire
F - Livor Mortis (Duplicate II): 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, Lightning (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
G - Livor Mortis (Duplicate I): 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, Lightning (possible from a crafting Sarisel suffix)
RMB - Aether Jump: 2, 5, 10, 11, 16, Any
Mark of Impurity: 2, 6, 7, 10, 16, None
If you are wearing “The Trial” belt, the skill doesn’t need to be on your bar to get the benefit.
Gate of Fates
111 passive point version (earned from completing the first 100 Infinity skulls)
Items
Weapon - Stave of Venality
Prefixes
+# Physical Damage
+# Fire Damage
+# Lightning Damage
Suffixes
+% Life Leech
+% Spell Casting Speed
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Offensive I - Tier 12 Genesis Stone (+15% Spell Damage)
Offensive I - Tier 12 Genesis Stone (+15% Spell Damage)
Offensive I - Tier 12 Genesis Stone (+15% Spell Damage)
Helm - Elemental Bascinet
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
Transfer Time Speed Between Willpower and Rage
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Maximum Health
+% Added Block Chance and allow any weapon to block
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Shoulders - two Discordant Spaulders
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+% Elemental Damage
+# Critical Chance Score
Suffixes
+% Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
+% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
-# All Resistances Score on this item
Toughness, Ferocity, or Agility
Chest - Festering Exoskeleton
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
Transfer Time Speed Between Willpower and Rage
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Maximum Health
+% Added Block Chance and allow any weapon to block
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Gloves - two Tritonic Lined Armguards
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+% Elemental Damage
+# Critical Chance Score
Suffixes
+% Rage and Willpower Cost Reduction
+% Attack and Spell Casting Speed
-# All Resistances Score on this item
Toughness, Ferocity, or Agility
Pants - Grand Duet Greaves
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
Transfer Time Speed Between Willpower and Rage
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Boots - Imperious Sollerets
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Attack and Spell Casting Speed or -% Rage and Willpower cost Reduction (if you have more than you need)
+% Elemental Damage
Suffixes
Movement Speed (though you could probably change this to something else since you can teleport everywhere)
+% Maximum Health
+% additional Block Efficiency
Amulet - Ruby Amulet
Prefixes
+# Sacred Damage added to Spells
+% All Resistances Score on this item
-% Ailment Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
Suffixes
+1 Projectile Pierce Strength
+# to All Attributes
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Topaz (20% Fire Damage)
Rings - two Steel Rings
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
-% Ailment Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
+# Fire Damage added to Spells
Suffixes
+1 Projectile Pierce Strength
+# to All Attributes
+% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Topaz (20% Fire Damage)
Belt - The Trial
Affixes:
(15-20)% to All Resistances Score
0.5% Global Life Leech
(500-600) Maximum Health
(25-35) Agility
100% Chance to inflict Mark of Impurity to an Enemy on Hit
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Topaz (20% Fire Damage)
Attributes
Points all points into Toughness.
Ferocity - 290 (spend 0)
Agility - 230 (spend 0)
Wisdom - 135 (spend 0)
Toughness - 1910
Note: Summons can’t crit or apply ailments, and their attack speed is independent of yours, making toughness the only useful attribute.
Active Skills
The playstyle is to simply avoid damage while your summons kill everything. Use the Hunting Swarms' active skills to reposition them as needed, but Dome enemies should walk towards your summons so they can be hit.
A - Hunting Swarm (Duplicate II): 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, Toxic
S - Hunting Swarm (Duplicate I): 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, Toxic
D - Hunting Swarm: 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, Toxic
F - Livor Mortis (Duplicate II): 2, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16, Rend
G - Livor Mortis (Duplicate I): 2, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16, Rend
RMB - Livor Mortis: 2, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16, Rend
Mark of Impurity: 2, 6, 7, 10, 16, None
If you are wearing “The Trial” belt, the skill doesn’t need to be on your bar to get the benefit.
Gate of Fates
111 passive point version (earned from completing the first 100 Infinity skulls)
Items
Weapon - Stave of Venality
Prefixes
+# Physical Damage
+# Toxic Damage
+# Rend Damage
Suffixes
% Attack and Spell Casting Speed for Summons
+% Life Leech
+% Spell Casting Speed
Sockets
Offensive I - Tier 12 Genesis Stone (+15% Spell Damage)
Offensive I - Tier 12 Genesis Stone (+15% Spell Damage)
Offensive I - Tier 12 Genesis Stone (+15% Spell Damage)
Helm - Autarchic Secret (best damage and overall if you ignore force shield), James’ Tall Tale (best overall if you include force shield) or a legendary
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Material Damage
Suffixes
% Summons Health
Toughness
+% Passive Dodge Chance Score during 5.0s after being Hit
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Shoulders - two Discordant Spaulders (best survival and overall) or two Feast of Cankers (best damage)
Prefixes
+# Passive Dodge Chance Score
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+% Damage
-% Cooldown Reduction
Suffixes
% Summons Health
% Maximum Health
Toughness
Chest - Beauty Eternal
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Material Damage
Suffixes
% Summons Health
Toughness
+% Passive Dodge Chance Score during 5.0s after being Hit
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Gloves - two Tritonic Lined Armguards
Prefixes
+# Passive Dodge Chance Score
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+% Damage
-% Cooldown Reduction
Suffixes
% Summons Health
% Maximum Health
Toughness
Pants - Grand Duet Greaves
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Material Damage
Suffixes
% Summons Health
% Maximum Health
Toughness
Sockets
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Defensive III - Tier 12 (Eternal) Alexandrite (7% all resist)
Boots - Imperious Sollerets
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+# All Resistances Score on this item
-% Cooldown Reduction
+% Material Damage
Suffixes
Movement Speed
% Summons Health
% Maximum Health
Amulet - Goldstone Amulet
Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+% Damage
-% Ailment Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
Suffixes
+1 Projectile Pierce Strength
+# to All Attributes
+% Material Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Emerald (20% Toxic Damage)
Rings - one Targeting Ring, and one Emerald Ring
Targeting Ring Affixes:
2 Projectile(s) with Projectile Skills, Staves, Pistols and Bows
(0.65-0.7) Projectile Damage Multiplier
(50-55) Ferocity
(-70--75) Wisdom
(30-35)% Critical Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Emerald (20% Toxic Damage)
Emerald Ring Prefixes
+% All Resistances Score on this item
+% Damage
-% Ailment Chance Score
+# Maximum Life
Suffixes
+1 Projectile Pierce Strength
+# to All Attributes
+% Material Damage
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Emerald (20% Toxic Damage)
Belt - The Trial
Affixes:
(15-20)% to All Resistances Score
0.5% Global Life Leech
(500-600) Maximum Health
(25-35) Agility
100% Chance to inflict Mark of Impurity to an Enemy on Hit
Sockets
Support II - Tier 12 (Eternal) Emerald (20% Toxic Damage)
Note: To clarify, there were a couple of items (James’ Tall Tale, and Mark of the Blackstaff) that might have technically provided a larger overall bonus if you counted the force shield that they provided (though only by a percentage point or two). I ignored that for this build, since at the highest levels, I am continually getting hit, and my force shield mostly stays at zero.
Frat Settings
Graphics Settings
Display Mode - Borderless Window
Resolution - 1920x1080
VSYNC - Checked
Enable FPS limit - Unchecked
FPS limit - 30
Show FPS - Unchecked
Antialiasing - High: SMAA 1TX
Sharpengin - 0.2
Chromatic aberration - 0.1
Vignetting - Checked
Motion blur - Unchecked
Lens flares - Checked
Blood optimization - Checked
Graphics Quality - Very High
Shadows quality - Very High
Animation quality - Very High
Object details - Very High
Water quality - Very High
Textures quality - Very High
Volumetric effects quality - Very High
Audio Settings
Master Volume - 50
Music Volume - 0
Dialogue Volume - 0 (once I have completed the story), or 50 (while going through the story)
Effects Volume - 25
Cinematic Volume - 50
Ambience Volume - 10
Sound in Background - Checked
Gameplay Settings
English
HUD Scale - 1.2
Map overlay opacity - 75
Map overlay zoom - 1
Camera shake - Unchecked
Enemy blink - Checked
Enemy Health bars - Checked
Allies’ Health bars - Unchecked
Summons Health bars - Unchecked
Allies’ Indicators - Checked
Enemy Silhouette - Checked
Usable Silhouette - Checked
Friendly Silhouette - Unchecked
Controller Camera - Checked
Show Damage - Unchecked
Show Critical Damage - Unchecked
Show Summons Damage - Unchecked
Show Tutorials - Unchecked
Show Contextual text - Unchecked
Basic Attack - Unchecked
Gore mode - Checked
Display Health and Resource Values - Checked
Auto-equip Potions - Checked
Auto-equip Skills - Checked
Auto-equip Armour - Checked
Show Item type of dropped Items - Checked
Show Item level - Checked
Controls
Resurrect yourself or someone else: left-click once
Active Dodge - Mouse 3
Forced movement (hold) - Control
Forced attack (hold) - Shift
Basic Attack - mouse 1 (Left Mouse Button)
Secondary Attack - mouse 2 (Right Mouse Button)
Skill Slot 1 - A
Skill Slot 2 - S
Skill Slot 3 - D
Skill Slot 4 - F
Skill Slot 5 - G
Secondary Skill Trigger - Alt
Belt Item 1 - C
Belt Item 2 - V
Aspects of Apocalypse transformation - W
Character Sheet - N
Inventory - B
Cosmetic Inventory - Y
Active Skills - K
Gate of Fates - J
World Map / Stormfall Overview - M
Local map overlay toggle - Tab
Crafting - U
Town Portal - mouse 4
Show Items on ground - Space
Show Enemies’ health bar - none
Toggle auto dash - none
To Do List:
Maybe try to install one of these patches and see if you can unlock the last remaining pet.