As part of our effort to revamp many existing skills in Content Update 3.3.0, we're also making some improvements to Elemental Hit! Today's news shares more details about what's changing and a video from ZiggyD where he interviews Rory about Vaal Skills!

Elemental Hit is receiving large mechanical changes as well as some damage adjustments with the goal of bringing it in line with other impactful skills. It will still choose a random element of damage to deal with each attack, but it will not deal any other type of damage with that attack. For example, if Cold damage is chosen, the attack will only deal Cold damage. It's also important to note, Elemental Hit cannot deal the same type of damage sequentially unless it can only deal one type of damage; more on that later.

We have increased the chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite. At level 1, it is now 30% and scales up to 49% at level 20.

Each hit from Elemental Hit causes a small explosion which deals damage in an area around the monster. Hits against monsters that are affected by an Ailment of the chosen Element will cause much larger explosions. For example, if you hit a frozen monster with Cold damage, it will create a much larger explosion.

Elemental Hit attacks deal 10% more Damage per Elemental Ailment on the Enemy. This means that if you have all four Elemental Ailments on your target, you'll be dealing 40% more Damage.

You may be wondering how you focus on an element of your choice. The answer lies in a new jewel that we're adding in Content Update 3.3.0 which has three variations. Each variation of the jewel supports Elemental Hit in a different but similar way.

Each variation of the jewel has a unique property that restricts the type of damage that Elemental Hit can deal. Socket two of these jewels into your tree and you suddenly have an Elemental Hit that always deals Fire Damage. On the other hand, socket just one of these jewels and suddenly you're left with a skill that only deals Fire and Cold damage. Remember that we noted that it can't deal the same type of damage sequentially? Suddenly you have a skill that pairs very nicely with Elemental Equilibrium, as each attack will alternate between the type of damage it deals, taking full advantage of the reduced resistances.

Finally, gone are the days of an Elemental Hit that lacks unique visual effects. We have added new effects for each of the elements as well as effects for the explosions that occur around monsters. Check out a preview below!



If you haven't yet sated your appetite for more details about skill gems in Content Update 3.3.0, you're in luck! While Ziggy was in New Zealand he prepared an interview with Senior Game Designer, Rory Rackham, about Vaal Skills! Check it out below.