Welcome to the Ailments guide. This guide covers the 5 Ailment status effects in Torchlight Infinite. Ailments are debuffs that can be applied to enemies with your hits. Many builds revolve around specific Ailments to deal massive damage, while other builds appreciate the utility they can 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 Ailments. Frostbite is a stackable Ailment that reduces enemy speed by 10%, up to 20%. In addition to Ailment chance, applying Frostbite requires hitting a target with at least 1 Cold Damage. Hits apply 2 additional Frostbite stacks for every 0.2% of the enemies maximum health dealt as Cold Damage. Every stack of Frostbite slows the enemy down by an additional 0.1%, and maximum base Frostbite is 100.
Freeze occurs when an enemy receives 100 stacks of Frostbite. Enemy speed is set to 0 for a duration and all stacks of Frostbite are removed. Freeze has reduced duration against most bosses, and cannot be applied at all to the most dangerous bosses: The Watchers, Traveler, Keegan, the Training Dummy, and more. Instead, these enemies maintain maximum Frostbite stacks. Gemma: Frostbitten Heart specializes in Frostbite and Freeze, so if your fond of the Cold by all means check out our Gemma: Frostbitten Heart Frost Impact Guide!
Frostbite & Freeze Modifiers
Neither Frostbite nor Freeze deal damage; these status effects simply lessen enemy offensive capabilities. Frostbite and Freeze enhancing modifiers can be found in the Goddess of Knowledge and Arcanist Talent Trees.
Crowd Control can be made into Crowd Annihilation using modifiers that grant Frostbite and Freeze offense bolstering effects. Sources include Frostbitten and Extreme Coldness.
Some builds rely on rapid Frostbite application for offense (modifiers to apply additional Frostbite stacks help with this). Sources include Robe of Judgment, Restless Glacier, and Medium Talent.
Damage Over Time Ailments
Trauma, Ignite, and Wilt are Ailments that deal damage over time (or DoT) to affected targets. These Ailments are reliant on Base Ailment damage for scaling. Because they deal damage over time, Reaping is used to make these Ailments especially lethal. Youga: Spacetime Elapse specializes in damage over time and Reaping.
Damage over time Ailments don't scale with your Hit damage; they need to be scaled with Base Ailment damage.
Ailment damage is affected by a Skill's damage effectiveness stat. A Wilt from Focused Shot deals far more damage than one from Scorching Beam.
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 it cannot be stacked.
Because Trauma deals damage over time Affliction can bolster it, and it can be Reaped. Reaping Trauma has the added bonus of additional 30% Reap time.
Trauma Modifiers
Trauma enhancing modifiers can be found in the God of War and Shadowdancer Talent Trees. The Warlock and Psychic Talent Trees can also bolster Trauma.
Modifiers like Medium Talent, Medium Talent, 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 Thorn Shield and Scarlet Axe can provide tons of Base Trauma damage.
Reap Purification is synergistic with Trauma's high base duration. Vile and Instant Smash compliment that.
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 cannot stack at base.
Because Ignite deals damage over time Affliction can bolster it, and it can be Reaped. Ignite gains 30% additional power from Affliction effect.
Ignite Modifiers
Ignite enhancing modifiers can be found within the God of Might and Warlord Talent Trees. The Warlock and Psychic Talent Trees can also bolster Ignite.
Modifiers like Medium Talent, 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, Additional Ignite, and Sun's Embrace.
Reap Purification is synergistic with Ignite's high base duration. Vile and Plague compliment that.
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 can stack infinitely.
Because Wilt deals damage over time Affliction can bolster it, and it can be Reaped.
Wilt Modifiers
Wilt enhancing modifiers can be found in the Goddess of Darkness and Soulbender Talent Trees. The Warlock and Psychic Talent Trees can also bolster Wilt.
Wilt damage can be increased with Medium Talent, Medium Talent, Medium Talent, and Medium Talent and similar modifiers.
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 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.
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 can 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 Modifiers
Shock enhancing modifiers can be found in the Goddess of Hunting and Bladerunner Talent Trees.
Shock's Settle Damage cannot 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 can be 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 slows enemies down and can eventually Freeze them. Many Endgame Bosses cannot be Frozen.
- 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 cannot stack. Trauma pairs well with Reap Purification.
- Apply Ignite with Fire damage to deal Fire damage over time, it can stack through modifiers. Ignite pairs well with Reap Purification.
- Apply Wilt with Erosion damage to deal Erosion damage over time, it can stack infinitely. It can be used as a damage source or to assist Erosion hit damage scaling.
- 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
