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How Does Damage Conversion Mechanic Work In Path Of Exile 2?

Sep 14, 2024

Path of Exile 2 Early Access will be officially launched on November 15th! So here, we will focus on the changes in the mechanics between Path of Exile 2 and 1 so that you are ready on the release day! This guide aims to introduce Damage Conversion mechanic in the game, such as converting to and gaining additional modifiers.

In fact, this change is one of the biggest changes in the mechanic balance of POE 2, which not only has a great impact on a series of builds but also is equally important for GGG to balance the game in the future. So let’s get into Damage Conversion mechanic in Path of Exile 2.

How Does Damage Conversion Mechanic Work In Path Of Exile 2?

Different Forms Of Damage Conversion

Typically, Damage Conversion has two forms: one is to convert a part of the damage of one type to another type, eliminating the source damage; the other is to add a part of the damage of one type to another type, keeping the source damage unchanged. These are defined as converting to modifiers and gaining as additional modifiers.

Conversion Order

Damage Conversion always follows the following conversion order: Physical → Lightning → Cold → Fire → Chaos.

Although Damage Conversion only works in one direction, you can skip damage types to reach the next direction in Damage Conversion chain. For example, Physical Damage converts to Fire Damage, but you can’t go backwards. You can’t convert Chaos Damage to Lightning Damage.

Therefore, you must invest in the correct equipment to ensure the successful and effective operation of Damage Conversion mechanism. Otherwise, you will not only waste your hard-earned POE Currency, but you may also be fatally hit by the enemy!

In POE 1, however, damage always remembers its source damage type. For example, Physical Damage converted to Fire Damage will remember its physical source, meaning that modifiers applied to Physical Damage can still be applied to damage even if it’s processed as Fire Damage. Therefore, players can use modifiers for both Physical and Fire damage to scale this damage.

Damage Conversion Priority

Damage Conversions over 100% will now be scaled back to 100%. This only affects modifiers that are converted, not additional modifiers that are gained.

However, there is a priority system for Damage Conversion, with the highest priority being any conversion that is considered a Skill Type Conversion. This is any conversion that exists on Skill Gems, such as the one on Smite Skill Gem.

This also includes any conversions from Support Skill Gems, such as Physical to Lightning Support. These types of conversions have the highest priority and will not be scaled down if possible, and any other conversion modifiers, such as those from equipment modifiers or Passive Skill Tree, will be applied afterwards.

As an example, let’s say a character is using Smite with Physical to Lightning Support, so 100% of their Physical Damage will be converted to Lightning Damage, which is all a Skill Type Conversion. If this character has Unique Gloves Hrimsorrow equipped, 100% of their Physical Damage will be converted to Cold Damage. But since 100% of the damage has already been converted via Skill Type Conversion, this modifier has no effect.

Changes To Damage Conversion Mechanic

Now in POE 2, there is a very important change to Damage Conversion mechanic, and that is that damage will no longer remember its source type.

Using our previous example as a comparison, in POE 1, Physical Damage converted to Fire, and the player could scale this damage using modifiers for both Physical and Fire. But this is not the case in POE 2.

The converted damage portion can only be scaled by the modifiers that apply to the final converted damage type, which is the damage being dealt. This is a vast change that will have a tremendous impact on build crafting. Because this will significantly change the way damage scales in a build that converts damage, and some of the vectors that were previously used to scale damage are gone in POE 2.

Does The Change To Damage Conversion Mean A Nerf?

Now the important thing to mention here is that this does not mean that Damage Conversion chains are necessarily useless in POE 2, because the modifiers that provide the additional damage are calculated before the conversion.

For example, one modifier that is still very powerful in a Damage Conversion chain is that it provides additional Chaos Damage for each non-Chaos Damage type in the chain.

Another interesting aspect of this change from a developer's perspective is balance. As mentioned before, the current Path of Exile has a strict Damage Conversion order. But we don’t know yet if this order will remain in POE 2, or how it will be enforced. They may keep the order, but simply to prevent looting in the presence of mirror conversions. They may also remove the order for general use, allowing for more possible conversions.

But we don’t know anything about this, so you can safely assume for now that it will work exactly as it did in POE 1 until further notice. That’s Damage Conversion mechanic in Path of Exile 2, and knowing more about how it works will help you deal with all the enemies in the upcoming Early Access with aplomb!

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