Cast when Damage Taken

Honestly, the gem is pretty sweet, but I thought it was kind of strange that there were zero mana costs associated with the support spell. It seems strange to me that not only do you get to cast the spell without cast time, you also get it for no cost either.

Also, how does this gem target mobs with spells? Say I have fireball linked, will this gem toss fireball out at the closest enemy to me? Or is it just a random direction?

Currently playing a 66 spectral throwing scion that had to get this gem for herself, but found some OK gear in the standard stash.

The char is just short of 3k life, 3300 armor, running 77 in all normal resists with purity and has -22 chaos resist. The weapon is a physical, "good" but not spectacular physical mace. I have several other 2h weapons of the same, non-stunning standard, from levelling a lvl 66, 64 and 70.

It was sweet to get this gem. The library and gardens were annoying to do. Keep the decoy totem up, use warlords mark to leech some mana. Never bother with endurance charge as they are a chore.

With this I run endurance charge, decoy totem and enfeeble on a level 1 gem. I gain some endurance charges, but they are prone to expire. I have less mana issues, probably since I no longer pay for my decoy totems. The flow of combat and decoy totems changed from "please go over there", to "please stay, I will stand over there".

The library and garden went from being frustrating to being a nice, but not totally safe, grind.

Recognize that level 1 gems are a good use, but I think a possible nerf could focus on the mana part. Make spells cast cost a fraction of the normal cost. Ideally levelling up should have two paths, one to reduce mana, and one to increase damage needed to trigger. Maybe there is a sweet spot where it could do both, and quality could reduce the mana use further.

If multiple gems are potential abuse cases, tweak that by possibly limiting multiple gems, but one could also balance the rest of the game around that. These days it is safe to assume that this gem will be used by everyone that has a lvl 66-ish character. Making many good trigger gems is a way of balancing, sockets would become a limiting factor.

I really like the design of this gem, it allows you to do a lot of powerful things. I got one yesterday on my Cyclone character who has stacked evasion. Now I can spin through mobs and have Molten Shell proc and help me with my defenses and clears. Having Molten Shells throughout my spinning spree is glorious because the additional armor scales well with the evasion I have, and since I'm in the middle of mobs the explosions improve my clears.

I think it needs to reserve mana though.

Sorry, my post (it's on Page 14) may have been a bit misleading.
The example i made there was just to show off the high end of absurdness.
This gem is weird, no matter if you have top-end gear or not.

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Fusion_Power wrote:

[...]Well I diddn't start a new chara just for using this skill, I just strumbled over it and suddenly my Marauder was useful. ^^ I doubt that everyone now will use this skill, would be boring but even if so, it's not an auto nerf imho just because a Skill combination may be useful in the game.
I remember all these Sporker and Discharge Builds, never used these, needs good Items n stuff, nothing I would have. Not sure if these builds are still valid but I have not read much about complainings about these builds. [...]

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RagnarokX wrote:

This gem is imbalanced, op, and its blatant obvious.
I found one really early and BY ACCIDENT linked it with Molten Shell, Reju Totem and Warlords Cry. When before it was hard for me end cruel, im blazing through early merci now.

Totally bonkers. Needs a nerf. Especially the weird progression is a problem (you know, where ppl want to keep it at lvl 1).

So.., no offense here.., but there is a char, not working in some way, (probably not enough defense, build wrong.., bad gear... whatever) and then, there comes 1(!) support gem.., lvl 1 (!!!!)
which makes a char from crap to useful, from stumbling to blazing...,
something has to be wrong there


This can't be compared to OP-sporkers pre 1.0 . That has mainly been because of shavronnes, the way that totems and shock worked.

But still, it was all build around a skill, spork in this case, and using it with totems.
So if walking around, dropping totems, waiting for them to kill stuff while you run in circles trying not getting hit was not fun for you to play,.. well yeah, you played something else.
It was one of the most effective builds, but not actually too much fun, (at least for a variety of people who chose to not do so despite its effectiveness)

But Cast when dmg taken does not require any special build-set up, it's just a huge buff, no matter which build you play, which gear you have.

Its not a decision of, " I don``t like spamming the screen with sparkles, I would rather pew pew with bows..," its more like "ok I do whatever build I want, and either I add a CWDT-setup on it, having huge benefit, or
....I don't."

Auras have been nerfed for the sake of Build-diversity since GGG didn't want to give the people the feeling that they are mandatory to stack up.

How about this gem then ?, it doesn't even require any special setup (other than linking the right gems with it). For aura-stacking you had to "at least" have a good mana-management (what you should have anyway)

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Frozen_Beans wrote:

I'm not a "pro gamer" that has uber-equip and skill to squeeze out everything out of the game.

That's actually the point. With this gem, you don't need no skill at all.

Every time I watch people using that gem, i just have to laugh when I hear Chris's voice in the back of my head..
( http://www.gamespot.com/videos/path-of-exile-scion-class-and-new-updates-now-play/2300-6415315/ starting at 7min)
" there are players that are able to micromanage 8(!) different skills at once(!), TRIGGERING THEM ALL.. (wtf ?^^ XD )[...] then there are players like me.., having trouble using more then 1 or 2 atacks at once [..]".. later he explains that of course it would be better to do the stuff yourself rather then using trigger-gems (aka cast when damage taken) but it's good for lazy people.
(if you read this chris, you are hero, but that's just ridiculous what your saying there ;) )

Maybe my imagination is low, but i can't imagine myself how skilled someone has to be that:
using 3+ skills, on after another, each with cast time, each requiring you to have enough mana, stand still for a while, not doing damage for like 2-3 seconds thus not leeching life for that time,.., how this can be better then doing them all at once, while moving, while leeching, while not having to worry about mana. (probably i am bad at starcraft..)

Sorry if it may appear to some of you as such, but in no way I wan't to destroy fun for people because i feel less OP compared to others then before.
I am no pro-gamer myself, neither do I have fully busted out equip.
But I want this game to stay fun, not only for 2 more weeks where people like to breeze through merciless while waiting for the next steam hit.
Like many others who are rely into this game, I want it to succeed for many more years. This requires challenge, this requires balance, this requires diversity.
That's why i am not calling for a "nerf" but for a reconsideration of what this gem does, and how it does it.

I have a 4-links gear free to use some Cast when Damage Taken setup ...
I play a Split Arrow Ranger and even if I stay away ... some mobs still hit me and get close to me .... so I want to use this 4 linked gear item to make my char more "tanky" using this Cast When Damage Taken gem ....

So.... can you ppl tell me if I got how this gem works ?!


- Enduring Cry a few endurance charges and nice and wellcome
- Molten Shell so basically when I take x damage.... the Molten Shell will activate automaticaly with 0 cost....and will protect me long enough so that I will have enough time to replenish my lost health and run for cover if things looks ugly .... right ?!
- Temporal Chains - this is a curse and it's aoe .... if I place it with Cast When Damage Taken ...what will happen ? .... will the curse become single target and will affect only one mob ? or will remain AOE and affect more mobs ?!


These 3 are my choices that I wish to link to my Cast When Damage Taken ....
but I also have a question about Freeze Mine and Smoke Mine .... how these 2 work when linked with Cast When Damage Taken ?!?!

Regards, Infinity !!!!

Infinity At End:

I prefer Enfeeble over TC and when you have 2x CoDT the link Molten Shell with Life Leech also. The AoE of the curse still takes place but it's centered on the mob that did pass the threshold with damage.

couldn't get Freeze Mine to work with it... but didn't bother for too long either.

@hyper_ch

I only have room on one gear piece with 4 links (helm,boots or gloves) .... the rest are filled with aoe/main attacks and aura/buffs ....

Molten Shell with Life Leech is great... but for melee chars since those will be in the middle of the pack when Molten Shell explode..... I play ranger .... so I try to keep distance.... so life leech on Molten Shell not so good on me.....

and yes... it seems Enfeeble might be better than Temporal Chains ....will try to test them both and see if it's a difference ....



Also ... I didn't find anywere info regarding Skills that are cast when damage was taken .... they do cast with 0 mana cost right ? .... but will the CD of those skill pe ignored or not ?!

A have a question. Are the skills linked to that gem effected buy faster casting? I've put it with endurance cry and immortal call, for instance, but can't see if it has started to work more effective. Thx.

i would change the gems, so that it's not 100% sure to cast supported spells when damage taken. other supports havent that as well.

so lets maybe start 30% at lvl 1 ending up having 100% at lvl 20, but buff spell damage starting at 50% but still increasing in a 4%/per lvl step.
and quality adds 0,5% spell damag and 0,5& cast chance per 1% quality.

would still be a nice gem ;-)

or get a cooldown on it, like they did with enduring cry, so it cant trigger twice within some seconds..

the gem is cool, but its kinda overpowered to the rest of the gems you can choose.