4. Ailment Threshold
Elemental ailments, such as Freeze and Shock, depend on the damage dealt relative to the enemy's health pool. For example:
Shock Threshold: The strength of the shock applied is proportional to the lightning damage dealt. Higher damage shocks the enemy for more increased damage taken.
Freeze Threshold: A hit must deal a significant portion of the enemy’s life as cold damage to freeze it for a meaningful duration.
5. Elemental Proliferation
A key mechanic in some builds, Elemental Proliferation allows the spread of ailments such as Ignite, Shock, or Freeze to Path of exile currency nearby enemies. This mechanic can amplify the area-wide effect of elemental ailments, making it easier to control large packs of enemies by spreading damage and debuffs.
Skills like Elemental Proliferation Support and items like Inpulsa’s Broken Heart help spread ailments to nearby foes, greatly improving clear speed and area control.
6. Combining Ailments
Many elemental builds can apply multiple ailments simultaneously, such as shocking and igniting enemies, or freezing and chilling them. By stacking ailments, you can both debilitate enemies (with shock and chill) and deal damage over time (with ignite).
Certain skills and items allow you to enhance or guarantee ailment application. For instance, the Elementalist Ascendancy offers notable nodes that guarantee specific ailments on buy POE orbs hit, such as Shaper of Storms for guaranteed shock.