Welcome to the Ailments guide. This guide covers the 5 Ailment status effects in Torchlight Infinite. Ailments are debuffs that are be applied to enemies with your hits. Many builds revolve around specific Ailments to deal massive damage, while other builds appreciate the utility they provide. Learning how Ailments work is an essential prerequisite for many builds. The knowledge within this guide serves to improve your build-making skill.
Talent Trees are important for empowering Ailments, learn about Talent Trees with this guide.
Frostbite & Freeze
Frostbite and Freeze are non-damaging Crowd Control Ailments. Frostbite itself does nothing, it instead eventually causes afflicted targets to Freeze. Targets affected by Frostbite receive 10 Frostbite Points every second, and receives more points when taking Cold Damage Hits; targets Freeze after receiving 100 Frostbite Points, causing all Frostbite Points to be removed. Normally, Frozen targets are immune to Frostbite.
Targets affected by Freeze deal 20% less damage and are immobilized for a base duration of 1.5 seconds, though Bosses are immune to the immobilization aspect of this Ailment. Gemma: Frostbitten Heart specializes in Frostbite and Freeze, those fond of the Cold should check out our Gemma: Frostbitten Heart Leveling Guide.
Frostbite & Freeze Modifiers
Neither Frostbite nor Freeze deal damage; these status effects simply lessen enemy offensive capabilities. Frostbite and Freeze enhancing modifiers are found in the Goddess of Knowledge and Arcanist Talent Trees.
Crowd Control is made into Crowd Annihilation using modifiers that grant Frostbite and Freeze offensive bolstering effects. Sources include Frostbitten and Extreme Coldness.
Damage Over Time Ailments
Trauma, Ignite, and Wilt are Ailments that deal damage over time (or DoT) to affected targets. Because they deal damage over time, Reaping is used to make these Ailments especially lethal; for more information, check out our DoT & Reaping Guide!
Trauma
Trauma is an Ailment that deals Physical damage over time. In addition to Ailment chance, applying Trauma requires hitting a target with at least 1 Physical damage and having at least 1 Base Trauma Damage. Trauma's default duration is 4 seconds and is unstackable at base.
Because Trauma deals damage over time Affliction bolsters it, and it's affected by Reap. Reaping Trauma has the added bonus of additional 30% Reap time.
Trauma Modifiers
Trauma enhancing modifiers are found in the God of War and Shadowdancer Talent Trees. The Warlock and Psychic Talent Trees also bolster Trauma.
Modifiers like Medium Talent, and Medium Talent increase the damage of Trauma.
Modifiers like Medium Talent increase the duration of Trauma while Medium Talent modifiers do not.
Trauma centric builds require high base Trauma damage; this primarily comes from equipment. Items like Aeterna Martyr and Scarlet Axe provide tons of Base Trauma damage.
Reap Purification is synergistic with Trauma's high base duration.
Ignite
Ignite is an Ailment that deals Fire damage over time. In addition to Ailment chance, applying Ignite requires hitting a target with at least 1 Fire damage and having at least 1 Base Ignite Damage. Ignite's default duration is 4 seconds and it doesn't stack at base.
Because Ignite deals damage over time Affliction bolsters it, and it's affected by Reap. Ignite gains 30% additional power from Affliction effect.
Ignite Modifiers
Ignite enhancing modifiers are found within the God of Might and Warlord Talent Trees. The Warlock and Psychic Talent Trees also bolster Ignite.
Modifiers like Medium Talent, Medium Talent, and Medium Talent increase the damage of Ignite.
Modifiers like Medium Talent increase the duration of Ignite while Medium Talent modifiers do not.
Ignite centric builds require high base Ignite damage. This primarily comes from equipment, like King Lionheart's Ambition.
Ignite builds also make use of modifiers to gain additional max Ignite stacks which massively increase damage. Sources include Starfire and Sun's Embrace.
Reap Purification is synergistic with Ignite's high base duration.
Wilt
Wilt is an Ailment that deals Erosion damage over time. In addition to Ailment chance, applying Wilt requires hitting a target with at least 1 Erosion damage and having at least 1 Base Wilt Damage. Wilt's default duration is 1 second and it stacks infinitely.
Because Wilt deals damage over time, Affliction bolsters it, and it's affected by Reap.
Wilt Modifiers
Wilt enhancing modifiers are found in the Goddess of Darkness and Shadowmaster Talent Trees. The Warlock and Psychic Talent Trees also bolster Wilt.
Wilt damage is increased with Medium Talent, Medium Talent, and Medium Talent.
Modifiers like Medium Talent increase the duration of Wilt while Medium Talent modifiers do not.
Most Wilt centric builds require high base Wilt damage. This primarily comes from equipment like Memory.
These builds try to inflict as many Wilt stacks as possible. This makes high hit rate skills like Sparkle and Chromatic Shot valuable.
Other Wilt centric builds use Wilt as damage scaling for Erosion hits. These builds value things like Beyond Cure, Medium Talent, and Chaos Abyss.
Ailment Base Damage Sources
Ailment Damage over Time centric builds revolve around obtaining high Base Ailment Damage. Though achievable in a myriad of ways, many methods involve complex or confusing scaling. Note that DoT Ailments inherit Support Skills linked to the Skill that applies them.
We recommend revisiting this list of Ailment Base Damage sources whenever you're playing or creating a DoT Ailment build, helping you make the best decisions for your build.
- Weapons with affixes that add a percentage of your Main-Hand Weapon's Damage to base Trauma / Ignite / Wilt. These refer to the Weapon's localized Gear Damage, most commonly Physical, and are affected by your Skill's Damage Multiplier.
- Weapons with affixes that add a percentage of the Skill's Fire Damage to base Ignite Damage. This refers to your Spell's average Fire Hit Damage as displayed on the Skill, and isn't affected by your Spell's Damage Multiplier.
- Weapons with affixes that add a percentage of the Skill's Damage to Base Wilt Damage. This refers to your Spell's average Hit Damage as displayed on the Skill, and isn't affected by your Spell's Damage Multiplier.
- Forms of additive Ailment Base Damage, with sources ranging from Equipment to Talents. These are affected by your Skill's Damage Multiplier.
- Support Skills like Added Erosion Damage and Added Fire Damage behave differently dependent on whether they're linked to an Attack or Spell Skill.
- For Attacks, they take a percentage of your attacking Weapon's Gear Damage, multiplying that by your Attack Skill's Damage Multiplier, and then adding that value to your Base Ailment Damage.
- For Spells, they take a percentage of your Spell's average Hit Damage as displayed on the Skill, adding that value to your Base Ailment Damage.
Shock
Shock works differently from other Ailments. Shock is an Ailment that adds secondary Lightning damage to your hits. In addition to Ailment chance, applying Shock requires hitting a target with at least 1 Lightning damage. Shock scales with your Lightning hit damage, 5% of it becomes Shock Base Damage. Hitting a Shocked enemy settles Shock once. Shock is able to be settled 12 times before vanishing, and each settlement deals secondary Lightning damage equal to the Shock's Base Damage.
Shock is not viable as a primary damage source, it instead serves as a compliment to Lightning damage builds. Shock's damage is not modified by increases to Ailment Damage. Shock is unaffected by Lightning resistance.
Shock Modifiers
Shock enhancing modifiers are found in the Goddess of Hunting and Bladerunner Talent Trees.
Shock's Settle Damage isn't able to be increased by any means other than increasing Base Shock Damage.
This is done by increasing your Lightning hit damage, increasing the percent of Lightning hit damage that becomes Base Shock Damage, or directly adding Base Shock Damage with modifiers like Minor Talent.
Increasing the amount of times each of your hits settle Shock massively increases the damage output of Shock. This is done with items like Thunder Jawbone and Thunder Manipulator.
Summary
Here are the most important things you need to know about Ailments in Torchlight: Infinite:
- Apply Frostbite with Cold damage. This Ailment eventually Freezes targets. Frozen enemies deal less damage, and non bosses are immobilized.
- Trauma, Ignite, and Wilt deal damage over time based on your Base Ailment damage.
- ApplyTrauma with Physical damage to deal Physical damage over time, it doesn't stack.
- Apply Ignite with Fire damage to deal Fire damage over time, it stacks through modifiers.
- Apply Wilt with Erosion damage to deal Erosion damage over time, it stacks infinitely. Usage varies from being a damage source, or for scaling Erosion hit damage.
- Apply Shock with Lightning damage. This Ailment settles a percentage of your Lightning hit damage as secondary damage.
Credits
Written by Xtra37
Reviewed by Raxxanterax, Tenkiei