Recent Community Questions Answered!

How does the new stackability of poison work with Bino's Kitchen Knife?

The stat on Bino's spreads the largest Poison stack on an enemy to enemies around it. This means that if you have three poisoned enemies each with two stacks all standing close together and you kill two, their largest poison stack on each slain enemy will spread to the third enemy, so the enemy will now have four poison stacks.

And I assume the new poison/regen instances always have a 2 second duration? Or can this duration also be altered with increased skill duration passives?

The base duration is two seconds, and is modified by Skill Duration.

Will the 8 second viper strike poison instances on the killed target cause new 8 second duration poison and regen instances?

The spreading poison and regeneration are both based on your default Poison duration, not the skill's poison duration, so it'll be a base of two seconds regardless of the skill used.

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If Poison is linked to a Projectile attack does "increased projectile damage" also increase poison damage?

In this case, the Projectile Damage will also increase the Poison damage, meaning the bonus will apply twice if the poison is applied by a projectile

I'd like to know if this is also true for the new introduced Essence drain since it's a Projectile Spell. So to say: Does Projectile damage also increase the Poison damage of Essence Drain if i link it to the Poison Support gem?

Yes, it will. To amend the above quote; "apply twice" was slightly misleading. It only applies once to each value. It applies twice in total because it applies once each to two different (but in this case related) values. A modifier cannot apply twice to the same value.

Does Rapid Decay with Righteous Fire work with the degen + duration tag?

It will not work with Righteous Fire, as Righteous Fire doesn't have a duration.

Why does Mortem Morsu apply Poison on hit to physical/chaos spells on off hand and not the main hand?

This isn't correct behaviour, it shouldn't be applying to spells at all, as the stat is only for the weapon itself. We'll fix this up!

Can Poison apply multiple times at once ? For instance using Viper strike + Adder's Touch from tree + Poison support gem? Would that result in 2-3 stacks of Poison per hit depending on the proc of Adder's Touch.

No. Any given hit either does or does not apply poison. Applying chance to poison to something that already always applies poison is redundant.

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Is there any benefit to "feeding" talismans to monsters?

Not directly, although it can help with some specific challenges. Some players have also found interesting utility from some of the modifiers they grant.

What exactly is being referred to here? because, unless it has been fixed, you can't give an unique monster a talisman to get the challenge for killing a unique monster holding one. It has to spawn with it. Is this a bug or intended?

The challenges specify whether you have to "Encounter, then kill" a monster with a talisman (as in the talisman is already on the monster), or simply kill them while they have a talisman in which case feeding the monster the talisman counts towards the challenge. This is particularly useful for the Rogue Exile challenge.

Is it possible to use Item Rarity support gem with the Contagion + Essence Drain combo? If so, are you supposed to link it to Contagion or Essence Drain?

There is no way to decide which degeneration effect killed an enemy, so it picks the one that has been on the monster the longest. If an enemy is affected by Essence Drain, Contagion and Righteous Fire, it will pick whichever one was applied first and check the Rarity of that skill. In other words, if you want to link a degen skill with Item Rarity, ensure you use that skill first.

How is Talisman's rarity determined?

When sacrificing 5 Talismans, each Talisman adds a 20% chance of a Talisman of its rarity being the resultant one.

So if you sacrifice one white, one magic, two rare and one unique, your odds are a 20% chance of a white talisman, 20% chance of a magic, 40% chance of a rare, and 20% chance of a unique.

If I get Area Damage nodes, do these increase the damage of my contagion?

This should not be the case. Contagion puts a separate effect on each enemy, the damage effects do not have an area, they're single-target. The equivalent non-degen case is ball lightning. Area damage degen would be an aura type effect, like burning ground.

Projectile damage was intentionally extended to affect anything caused by a projectile, even indirectly (for things like quill rain, etc, so proj damage penalties couldn't be gotten around. If it resulted from a projectile hitting an object, obstacle or location and does damage, that's projectile damage. So things like the Caustic Arrow cloud or Explosive Arrows explosions count as projectile damage.

Something is considered to be "Area Damage" when one source is dealing one "set" of damage to everything in an area - skills where regardless of how it works under the hood we can think of them as dealing the "same" hit to each thing.

Thus, Flameblast, which effectively does one "hit" event that simultaneously hits everything in an area, is area damage. Ball lightning also affects all things in an area, but it tracks each one individually with it's own timer, and puts separate single-target beams to each of them. Thus it is not area damage.

A Caustic Arrow cloud is area degen damage - everything in the area is taking damage over time from the same source (an aura). Contagion doesn't work like that; it works much more like Ball Lightning (or even more like Lightning Arrow, since it only "hits" once). It applies a debuff to each thing in the area at the time it's cast. Each thing has it's own separate debuff that's only on it and isn't affecting an area.

They keep it if they leave the area. Each debuff is entirely separate and dealing damage only to one target - they'll tick down separately (and at different speeds if some things have temporal chains) They can be separately removed or replaced without affecting each other in any way; that's important - every monster has it's own debuff dealing it damage that's a single-target thing, just like the ball lightning/lightning arrow case with individual beams.

There is a challenge requiring to kill a monster possessed with 2 (two) Tormented Spirits. Is this right? Was it meant to be 2 talismans instead? Seems like an odd challenge for this league to me.

Yes, this is correct. Initially we had a series of challenges that references past leagues, but not all were challenging or good enough.

This challenge was kept, as it is a task that enterprising players can influence with some effort, but will be also be unlocked naturally with enough gameplay.

I was just wondering if the unique "Death's Oath" chaos damage is stackable over time?

No, neither the aura or the damage-to-self stack.

If skill effect duration nodes affect the duration of poison, then why don't they affect the duration of other status ailments? It seems very strange to me that poison would be an exception to this rule (except for a poison generated by viper strike of course)

Poison was changed to be modified by Skill Duration to be in line with Bleeding, rather than acting like elemental status ailments, as it is not a status ailment. We may further standardize the system, or give Poison, Bleed and other similar effects their own category that makes them easier to define.

If I link Increased duration to a poison delivering spell/attack does that affect the poison's duration, and if so, are there any exceptions? (this appears to have been answered but i'd like it to be clear if it's only for things like viper strike or any skill that delivers poison)

Currently, it will work for any skill that can be affected by Increased Duration. We'll be reviewing how this works for other skills to see if we can let you use the Duration support on any skill that can apply poison, but that has a number of negative consequences we'll need to find solutions for first.

Let's say I'm using Consuming Dark + Infernal Mantle Incinerate to deliver my poison, and have the following from my passives. 134% increased damage over time, 45% increased projectile damage, 184% increased chaos damage and 125% increased poison damage. (488% total) So if I'm understanding the previous answers this should all apply to the poison damage which should change the 10% into 58.8% of each hit. Is there a flaw in my math or do any of thouse modifiers not work in the way i think they do?

If you're using a Projectile skill to deliver the poison, that is correct. From a design standpoint, it was a goal with the Poison rework to have it be something you could really specialize in if you wanted to, turning the support from a 25% damage increase into something much stronger if a player invested.

How does the Poison support gem affect Viper Strike? Does the Poison damage on hit stack additively from the two sources?

The only thing on the Poison support that will affect Viper Strike is the Increased Poison Damage, as Viper Strike already always poisons.

What is the future of Essence drain? Will it be useable with traps or have improved cast speed in future?

We're looking at ways we can have it work on traps if possible. It won't be able to apply healing to you, just like the Totem version, but once we're able to find a way to have it spread correctly, we'll be enabling the skill on Traps.

Since the increase skill duration modifiers apply to poison, shouldn't the poison support gem have a "duration" tag?

This is one way we could change the Poison Support to let it work with the Duration support gems, if we can solve some of the negative consequences that would occur in doing so.

If :
- my attack does 200 damage as physical
- my attack does 100 damage as chaos
- my attack has 10% chance to poison
- I attack an enemy one time

=> What are my odds of poisoning the enemy?
=> For which amount of poison damage?

Your chance will be fixed at 10%, and the poison will be based on the combined Physical and Chaos damage, meaning you'll be doing 30 chaos damage per second for two seconds before any other modifiers.

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If Poison is linked to a Projectile attack, does "increased projectile damage" also increase poison damage?

In this case, the Projectile Damage will also increase the Poison damage, meaning the bonus will apply twice if the poison is applied by a projectile.

Now, this is VERY unintuitive to me, is this intentional? Could you clarify this a bit?
- if Poison is linked to a Spell, does "increased spell damage" also increase poison damage? (double dipping on degeneration)?
- same question about Area of Effect.
- is this true for other degeneration effects? Does increase projectile/spell damage affect not only initial hit, but also degeneration effect of bleed/burn?

This is a result of the Degen Refactor made a while ago. Many of the modifiers that apply to one and not the other will need to be reviewed to make the system easier to understand.

Spell damage and Projectile damage, despite sounding similar, are fundamentally very different things, and need to be.

There are four "categories" of damage - the different kinds of damage calculation can happen. They can't overlap and all damage has to be exactly one of them. Those are Spell, Attack, Secondary and Damage Over Time.

Spell damage does not mean "damage dealt by a spell", it means damage which uses the "spell damage" pipeline. It is not possible for something to be both spell damage and damage over time.

It is possible for a special stat to cause some modifiers to apply to multiple "categories" of damage - such as Crown of Eyes. Contagion and Essence Drain have a stat that makes "spell damage" modifiers behave as "spell damage or damage over time" modifiers. This means for those specific skills, poison applied by their hits will benefit from those modifiers, because the skill has that stat.

In contrast, "projectile damage" doesn't refer to a strict category of damage, but anything that deals damage and results from a projectile hitting something (or some special cases that are explicitly flagged, like Rain of Arrows). "projectile damage" is shorthand for "projectile spell, attack, secondary or over time damage". It applies to all the categories, but has a restriction on the specific circumstances that caused the damage. Since it applies to all four, we use the shorthand.

In response to the specific questions:

- No, unless the skill has a modifier that makes "spell damage" modifiers apply as "spell damage or damage over time" modifiers, such as Essence Drain

- No. A poison is inherently single target (each poison debuff is only on the one enemy, after all), so isn't area damage, even if the original source of the damage was.

- Correct, none of this is specific to poison, this is how any degen created by a skill would work (such as ignite, etc). It will be affected by projectile damage if it's caused as a result of a projectile hitting something (for example, the bleed from Puncture), will be area damage if (and only if) the damage over time effect itself has an area (Fire Trap's burning ground), and will not be affected by spell damage modifiers unless a stat changes those to also apply to damage over time.

If I hit twice with poison, would the after poison effect refresh the former poison or does the former poison effect always disappear in two seconds?

Unlike charges, Poison duration won't be refreshed by applying another. Think of them as separate effects that are dealing damage and ticking down independently.

When hitting 1 enemy multiple times with 1 cast (e.g. Bladefall) is it true the poison gets applied multiple times? For example, 3 hits result in 3 poison stacks.

That's right. Poison gets applied every hit, rather than every cast, to keep it doing the same relative damage with skills that deal lower damage but hit multiple times.

Are there any instances you know of where poison can be applied twice per hit (e.g. Viper Strike with Poison support), or is a 100% chance to apply a single stack of poison the most that can be achieved with regard to appliance?

There is currently nothing that will apply more than one poison stack per hit.

I am playing a 100% Fire to Chaos conversation character - will % Increased Fire apply to both the initial hit and to the Poison DoT? Will the poison DoT keep the fire damage tag from the conversion?

Poison is only Chaos Damage, and isn't modified by Fire Damage at all, even if it would be applied by Fire Damage or Chaos Damage converted to Fire Damage.

Regarding Talisman: Will the league be added to standard instances like Vaal Zones, Masters, Strongboxes and Shrines etc etc, or will it be Zana only like Warbands and Tempest at the end of the league ?

As with most leagues, we'll review how the league performed and whether it has a place in the regular game, or only as a Zana feature.

So the 100% poison talent thing won't work on essence drain right?

The only way it would apply is to any poison Essence Drain creates, not to the built-in Essence Drain damage over time effect.

If I support a minion with poison, do any of my passive skills (including duration) affect their poison effect?

They won't, no, as your minions are not you, and do not have your passive skills. Only your passive skills that specify that they apply to minions. If you can support the minion with Increased Duration, the support gem will apply to the minion's poison. Minion damage will apply to both the hit and then again to the poison damage. Both these instances of damage are dealt by the minion and so will be affected by minion damage.

I'm surprised to see that poison stacking is unlimited. There were serious problems with game crashes due to too many ignites with Emberwake (had to be limited to 250 iirc). Has this issue been fixed, or is it somehow different with poison?

It has been improved, and is far less dangerous without Elemental Proliferation.

With the change to Viper Strike, does the 25% of the damage that gets converted to poison still figure into the damage calculation for how much damage the poison actually does, or is it still just the physical component?

Poison deals the combined damage of Chaos and Physical, not the highest. It's also important to note that nothing can currently be converted to poison. We have assumed this question refers to converting to chaos and have answered accordingly.

With increased skill duration affecting poison, which is considered a status effect, does that mean increased skill duration affects other status effects, e.g. freeze duration?

Poison is not and never has been considered a status ailment.

Will the life leech support gem leech from the poison debuff?

Leech only works on hits, and doesn't apply to Damage Over Time.


Poison support is linked to a flameblast. Will fire/area/spell damage modifiers increase poison damage, like say chaos damage or damage over time will?

Unless you have a stat that says otherwise, neither the Area Damage, Spell Damage or Fire Damage will increase the poison damage further.

I'm still not clear on Void Manipulation and Poison. Say I have a skill that deals 1000 physical damage and 5 chaos damage, which in turn would deal like 100.5 poison damage per second over 2 seconds. Would Void Manipulation apply only to the 5 or both the 5 and 100.5?

It will apply to the 5, and then to the poison damage (Which will at base now be 100.6 per second)

Why does Wither not increase the damage of Essence Drain DoT?

Wither increases the damage something takes, which is different to the damage the skills deal, and thus will not affect the life regeneration granted by Essence Drain. The Essence Drain effects continue to deal the same amount of damage regardless of Wither, so regeneration won't change, but the monster will take increased damage due to the effects of Wither making it more susceptible.

What about if I'm using Consuming Dark to apply the poison instead of the support gem? Is it still supported by all the supports on the attack (Essence Drain for example)

The effects of the skill will be modified by all of the supports on the attack. It is affected by the relevant supports on the skill, it isn't supported by them. The only things that can be supported are active skills and poison is not a skill.