Ball Lightning

Ball Lightning is a lightning spell that creates a slow-moving projectile which periodically zaps nearby enemies.

Skill functions and interactions

 * Strike interval: Lightning bolts will strike nearby targets every 150 milliseconds while they are inside the area of effect of the ball. This restriction is shared between multiple balls fired on the same cast (such as when using ). Balls cast by do not share a 150 ms cooldown between each other because every trap is a seperate cast. Likewise for.
 * Projectile speed: The base projectile speed is roughly 48 units per second. Reductions to projectile speed such as can increase the amount of time an enemy spends within the ball's area of effect, resulting in a higher potential number of lightning strikes per cast.
 * Area of effect: Increases and reductions to area of effect will alter the range of the ball, making it hit enemies further away or closer. Modifiers to area damage (such as ) do not apply.


 * Fork and Chain: Ball Lightning projectiles will always pierce, and therefore can never fork or chain.


 * Tooltip damage: The tooltip DPS assumes that the skill will only hit once per cast. A more accurate estimate can be obtained using the calculator on the following link. It is worth noting that the calculation will not be precise for general use, as enemies will move around and the skill will not pass over them using its entire diameter. However, it should be fairly reliable when the skill is used on stationary targets.

Alternative quality
The alternative quality Divergent Ball Lightning granted per 1% gem quality.

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Trivia
Ball Lightning was accidentally added to the game in an unfinished state in version 1.1.0 and was removed shortly afterwards. It was officially added to the game in version 1.1.5. A history of the skill can be found in Supporter newsletter 73.

Version history

 * Now has a base radius of 18 (from 22).
 * Now deals 3 to 48 lightning damage at gem level 1 (from 3 to 57), up to 22 to 426 lightning damage at gem level 20 (from 28 to 533).
 * Now has alternative quality.


 * Now deals 3 to 57 Lightning Damage at gem level 1 (from 3 to 48), to 28 to 533 Lightning Damage at gem level 20 (from 22 to 426).
 * Now has an added Damage effectiveness of 50% (from 40%).
 * Now costs 12 mana at gem level 1 (from 13), up to 23 mana at gem level 20 (from 25).
 * Now has a base cast time of 0.7 seconds (from 0.75).


 * Mana Cost at gem level 1 is now 13 (was 14).
 * Mana Cost at gem level 20 is now 25 (was 27).
 * Now has a cast time of 0.75 seconds (from 0.8).
 * Now deals 3 to 48 Lightning damage at gem level 1 (from 2 to 35) and 22 to 426 Lightning damage at gem level 20 (from 22 to 420).
 * Now has an added damage effectiveness of 40% (from 35%).


 * Now deals 2-35 lightning damage at gem level 1 (up from 2-32), up to 22-420 lightning damage at gem level 20 (up from 14-260). Now has an added damage effectiveness of 35% (up from 20%).
 * The projectile's base speed is now 33% faster. The projectile hits 33% more frequently to compensate. The base radius has increased by 10%.
 * Disabled the "Reduced Ball Lightning Projectile Speed" enchantment from appearing.
 * Ball Lightning no longer has a 10% damage boost against players.


 * Ball Lightning's radius has increased from 16 to 20 units.


 * Damage increased by around 20% higher at level 20.


 * Base radius increased by 33% (from 12 to 16). Damage reduced. At player level 68 it should deal approximately 24% less damage.


 * Damage has been increased by 30% at all levels. Critical chance increased to 5%.


 * Added to the game.
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