Notes about Vaal skills gems and triggering in 3.3.0

I posted this on Reddit in reference to a question about triggering the base skills on Vaal skill gems, so I thought I would also post here:

Vaal skills do not trigger, so it won't trigger. However if the base skill can validly trigger then it will.

The gem provides two skills, and each is separately referenced for supports and triggering.

I realise previously we have have always had one gem = one skill, but now we can have a skill gem with more than one skill.

Skills can be supported, have a mana cost, can have a cooldown, have stats (including things like critical strike chance) and are used or triggered independently of other skills (even if from the same gem). Note that these are all things that skills already have entirely separate from gems, in cases where mods grant a skill, without any gem being involved.

Gems have a level, tags, a level/attribute requirement, a quality value, experience and a colour (matching their highest required attribute). They grant a skill or skills when socketed in a matching-colour socket.

Both gems and skills have a level - if a skill comes from a gem then it's level will be the level of that gem, or if a skill comes from some other effect, that effect will specify the skill's level. Gems have quality, and skills do not, but skills granted by gems gain bonus stats based on the quality, and what stats those are varies on a skill-by-skill basis, rather than being determined by the gem. The two "gem-level" supports, Empower and Enhance are special in that they're supports that affect properties of gems (level and quality) which affect the skills those gems grant, rather than affecting skills directly, which is why unlike regular supports they explicitly say they support gems.

(Thanks Mark for the assist in getting this all right)

So what you're saying is, a Vaal Fireball gem at level 20 in a chest that provides +2 to vaal gem levels *will*, in fact, provide level 22 fireball?

Thanks for the clarifications :)

Might be interesting to have Elemental Hit actually grant three skills, one for each element, that the player could select as they wanted.

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codetaku wrote:

So what you're saying is, a Vaal Fireball gem at level 20 in a chest that provides +2 to vaal gem levels *will*, in fact, provide level 22 fireball?

Thanks for the clarifications :)

Yes, the gem has the "Vaal" tag, so it's level is raised to 22. All skills granted by the gem inherit it's level.

Cheers and thanks for the info Qarl \o

Peace,

-Boem-

Literally my entire league is going to be spent trying to get a +2 vaal gems / +1 gems (or +2 fire gems if that becomes available for chests) Inpulsa's now. LEAGUE GOALS

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Vaal skills do not trigger, so it won't trigger. However if the base skill can validly trigger then it will.

I don't get this at all.

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Thegzagenius wrote:

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Vaal skills do not trigger, so it won't trigger. However if the base skill can validly trigger then it will.

I don't get this at all.

There's two skills in the one gem. One of those skills is a vaal skill that will never be triggered. The other can be triggered like any other gem.

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Thegzagenius wrote:

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Vaal skills do not trigger, so it won't trigger. However if the base skill can validly trigger then it will.

I don't get this at all.

Then you missed the news post about vaal skill gem changes a while ago. For example, vaal fireball as a skill gem now grants both vfb and fireball as skills.