Status ailments also referred to as elemental status ailments encompass a variety of detrimental effects that are associated with elemental damage. In hunting for POE Items status ailments are in some ways similar to debuffs and curses, but they are categorically different. There is no inherent limit on the number of different status ailments a target can have at any given time.
Getting an Ailment in Hunting POE Items
Any hit of cold damage has the potential to chill the target, as long the chill duration would result in lasting at least 300ms.
Ignite, freeze, and shock can be inflicted by critical strikes of their corresponding element. Certain effects and passives add a chance to apply a status ailment, which can be applied on non-critical strikes. Elemental ground effects also apply elemental status ailments on units over them.
Alter the default behavior; there are few ways to change the default mechanics:
- The unique The Three Dragons changes which element can apply a particular status ailment.
- Elemental Conflux makes all hits apply chill, shock and ignite based on damage dealt from all combined damage types.
Proliferation is an Elemental proliferation is a modifier that makes hits apply debuffs from status ailments as auras to targets; these debuff auras have the same effects and durations as the original debuffs. Hence nearby enemies under affects of these auras do not gain them, because only a target that has received a status ailment as a result of being hit gain. Auras are still considered as status ailments which mean there can be more than one proliferation effect on the same target at the same time, but only the strongest one work at a time.
Area Effect Ailments for Path of Exile Items
Modifiers to area of effect radius and damage will apply to status ailment auras. But if a skill cannot be supported by AoE gems (such as Increased Area of Effect and Concentrated Effect Support), proliferation effect will not benefit from them as well if you’re on the hunt on Path of Exile Items.
Since status ailments (ignite, chill and shock) stay on corpses after death, debuff auras also stay and spread their effects to enemies around these corpses as long as debuff durations run out, or a corpse is destroyed (e.g. shattered due to being frozen, detonated or raised).
Ground effects such as burning or chilling ground do not count as status ailments and therefore will not be proliferated.
Sources of elemental proliferation:
- Elemental Proliferation Support
- Doryani’s Catalyst
- Thousand Ribbons
Elementalist’s passive Beacon of Ruin