InPath of Exile 2, damage conversion is a crucial mechanic that allows players to modify their skills’ damage types, enhancing their effectiveness in different builds. With multiple damage types in the game, understanding how to convert one into another can lead to powerful build optimizations, which you may find quite useful.
How Path of Exile 2 Damage Conversion Works
Whether you’re using passive skill nodes, unique items, or support gems, knowing how to manipulate damage types can drastically change how your skills function. Most Skills inPath of Exile 2deal multiple of them at once, influenced by numerous in-game mechanics. Most abilities do not deal a single damage type; instead, they oftenconverta large percentage of Physical damage into an elemental type while retaining some of their original Physical damage. This is inherently tied to the skills.
For example,Freezing Salvoconverts a portion of its Physical damage into Cold damage, with the remainder staying Physical. Because of this, the skill benefits most from Cold and Physical damage modifiers while still interacting with other elemental damage bonuses. If you have a ring that gives you added Fire damage, Freezing Salvo will deal a small portion of Fire Damage because it is not a pure element. The gains from this will be small, however, because the skill mostly does Cold damage, and any +DMG type that doesn’t match itwill not benefit or improve the DMG type.
Thanks to the unique mechanics of theWidowhailUnique bow, you can forcefully convert a majority of a damage type into a different one based on the most significant damage on your equipped quiver. This allowed me to turn Freezing Salvo into a skill that does mostly Fire Damage, and this is just one type of Damage Conversation available to you inPath of Exile 2.
Damage types can be converted into others using specific items,passive nodes, andsupport gems. Using Freezing Salvo as the example again, the Cold damage it deals can be converted into purely Fire damage using theAvatar of Firecapstone node in the passive skill tree. With Avatar of Fire, Freezing Salvo no longer dealsanyCold damage or applies Freeze/Chill effects. Instead, it only deals Fire damage and gains the ability to apply Burn.
Avatar of Fire prevents you from dealing any type of damage that isn’t Fire, thus, the above-mentioned methods of boosting damage or converting damage will not functionally work with the node active. The only way to increase your damage would be to purely focus on boosting Fire Damage. Using +Cold Damage items or skill nodes wouldhave no benefitdespite Freezing Salvo being tagged a Cold damage skill.
This is also the case with purely elemental skills, such as Flame Blast. These do not benefit from any damage type other than their default element. However, if you convert Flame Blast’s Fire damage to another type, such as Cold, by using a unique item, it will no longer receive any benefits from Fire damage bonuses. This is even though Flame Blast was originally a Fire damage skill.
All Damage Conversion Methods in Path of Exile 2
Path of Exile 2is a massively complex game even without throwing Damage Conversion into the mix. With it there, though, you must actively consider when and how you want to convert damage into another type without suffering the potential penalties involved. Here are all the ways you can accomplish this goal.
Damage Conversion Takeaways
Ultimately, Damage Conversion is an optional but powerful tool for your build. Some builds may not require it at all, so ensure it aligns with your playstyle and overall build strategy before committing. The key takeaways you must understand are the following:
