Molten Strike

Molten Strike is a strike (attack) skill that strikes an enemy, with some of the physical damage converted to fire damage. Each strike creates multiple molten ball projectiles that land to deal damage in a small area.

Skill functions
An attack with Molten Strike consists of two parts: Modifiers that require the keywords Melee, Projectile, or AoE only apply to the appropriate portions of the attack. For example, supporting Molten Strike with will increase the damage of the melee hit but not the projectiles. That said, passive points that grant Increased damage with one-handed melee weapons for example will in fact affect the projectile attack as well if one is using a one-handed weapon, since it is still an attack that is dealt with a melee weapon (though the damage you're dealing is not actually melee damage).
 * An initial melee hit with the keywords Fire, Attack, Melee
 * A projectile attack with the keywords Fire, Attack, Projectile, AoE

Magma projectiles: Unmodified projectiles will deal (72 to 87.96)% of full weapon damage, of which 60% of physical is converted to fire damage. Supporting Molten Strike with or  will increase the number of projectiles fired while reducing their damage, but will not affect the initial melee hit in any way. Since the projectiles are not a melee attack, Strength's melee physical damage bonus does not apply (unless the player has Iron Grip). It is possible for more than one projectile from this skill to hit a single enemy, including the one that was already hit by melee attack, although the chance to hit the initial target is considerably reduced because of deadzone around it. The projectile explosions themselves have a radius of 9.

Travel distance: Projectiles have a minimum travel distance of 2 units and a maximum travel distance of 25 units by default. Modifiers to projectile speed and area of effect affect the distance projectiles can travel.

Damage conversion: Like all converted damage, the fire portion of Molten Strike's damage will be modified by both fire damage and physical damage increases.

Tooltip damage: Damage per hit and DPS displayed on the skill tooltip show only the melee portion of the attack, with that of projectiles dependent on the average number of hits expected from the skill. An estimate to the area DPS and total single target DPS of the skill can be obtained using the calculator on the link [broken link].

Skill interactions
Dual Wielding: Dual wielding attacks with Molten Strike will alternate the weapon being swung.

Gain on hit: The stated amount on hit will be restored for both the initial hit and for each projectile that strikes an enemy.

Area of effect: Projectiles are spread randomly over a 270 degree circular area within a radius of 5 to 20 units around the target struck. Increased AoE bonuses affect both the explosion area of individual projectiles and the area they are spread over, resulting in similar degree of coverage over a larger area. Increased AoE bonuses only affect the outer radius; the inner radius is always 5. Unlike other skills such as Firestorm, Molten Strike ball landing positions are sampled uniformly over the arc's angle and radius rather than over the area of the circular arc.

Piercing, forking and chaining projectiles: Molten Strike projectiles cannot chain, pierce or fork, since they are ground-targeted.

Point Blank: Projectiles are affected by Point Blank even though the melee attack is not. While the description of Point Blank doesn't make this exactly clear, the damage multiplier received from it is proportional to the distance it has traveled from the melee target's location at the time the projectile was created.


 * The Projectiles will receive the damage multiplier, however Molten Strike attack speed will not be lessened because it is a Melee Attack that triggers a Projectile Attack, and is not a Projectile Attack itself.

Version history

 * The visual effects have been improved.
 * Now deals base Damage and has an added Damage effectiveness of 110% at gem level 1 (from 120%), up to 148% at gem level 20 (from 139%).
 * Projectiles now have a minimum travel distance of 2 units (from 6) and a maximum travel distance of 25 (from 20) by default. Modifiers to projectile speed, as well as modifiers to area of effect, now affect the distance projectiles can travel.


 * Now deals base damage equal to, and has an added damage effectiveness of, 120% at gem level 1 (unchanged), up to 130% at gem level 20 (from 160%).
 * Now adds 2 to 3 fire damage to attacks at gem level 1, up to 75 to 113 at gem level 20.
 * Now requires that you hit an enemy in order to produce projectiles, and splits the number of projectiles it produces evenly among all targets (if it can).
 * Projectiles now deal 50% less damage at all levels (from 40% less at gem level 1, to 30% less at gem level 20 previously).
 * Damage over time from projectiles now deals 50% less damage at all levels (from 40% less at gem level 1, to 30% less at gem level 20 previously).
 * Now has +2 to melee range at gem level 1 (from 0), up to +6 at gem level 20 (from +2).


 * Now deals 120% of base damage at gem level 1, and 161% of base damage (up from 147%) at gem level 20.
 * Projectiles deal 40% less damage at gem level 1, and 30% less damage (from 40%) at gem level 20.
 * Molten Strike Labyrinth Helmet enchantments now grant 1 additional projectile from the Merciless Labyrinth (down from 2) and 2 additional projectiles from the Eternal Labyrinth (down from 3).


 * Now gain additional melee weapon range every 7 levels, up to +2 at level 20 (and +3 at level 21).


 * Now grants 1% increased fire damage per 1% quality (was 0.75% per 1% quality).


 * Molten Strike has been added to the game.
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