Gem tag

For a list of active skill gems ordered by gem tags, see List of active skill gems by gem tag.

For a list of support skill gems ordered by gem tags, see List of support skill gems by gem tag.

All skill gems have gem tags (also called keywords) listed in the first line of the mouseover description. They are used for dividing the skills into groups and to clarify which type a skill is. They do not indicate which modifier (or stats) apply to a skill however.

Mechanics

Gem tags only categorize skills into groups, so effects like +x Level of Socketed <gem tag> Gems can apply to them.

In particular, there are common misconceptions about gem tags:

• gem tags are only granted by skill gems, skills granted from items or threshold jewels do not modify gem tags in any way
• they do not describe which gems can support other gems and are not meant to, even if it often does line up
• they do not describe which stats (and to that extend modifiers) apply to a skill

Overview of gem tags

Category	Mainpage	Description
AoE	Area of effect	Skills that have some area of effect portion to them. Note that some skills with the AoE tag may not be affected by area damage but only benefit from increases and reductions to the radius.
Arcane		Skills which care about the amount of mana you have or spend for the purposes of that skill or support
Attack	Attack Damage	Skills that use a weapon.
Aura	Aura	Skills that grant or modify auras. An aura is a permanent effect focused on your character that also affects nearby party members and minions. Most auras reserve a portion of the player's mana pool.
Blink		Skills that move the character and share the same cooldown.
Bow	Bow	These skills require a bow to be used. They implicitly have the projectile gem tag.
Brand	Brand	Brands attach themselves to an enemy and have some sort of effect while they are attached.
Cast	Cast	Skills marked with the Cast tag deal secondary damage. Cast gems are not spells, and are therefore not affected by modifiers that would normally only modify spells.
Chaining	Chaining	Skills that have the ability to chain. Support skill gems with the Chaining can also be linked to active skill gems with the Projectile tag.
Channelling	Channelled skill	Channelled skills are activated continuously as long as the respective keyboard button is pressed.
Chaos	Chaos Damage	Chaos is one of the five damage types.
Cold	Cold Damage	Cold is one of the five damage types.
Curse	Curse	These skills weaken enemies to make them less dangerous or easier to kill.
Duration	Duration	Certain skills have an effect over time or activate after the duration. In some cases, such as curses, reusing the skill will reset the timer.
Fire	Fire Damage	Fire is one of the five damage types.
Golem	Golem	Golems are a type of minion that provides a direct Buff to the person who summoned them, but not to anyone else.
Guard	Guard Skill	Skills with defensive buffs. These all share the same cooldown.
Lightning	Lightning Damage	Lightning is one of the five damage types.
Melee	Melee	Some melee skills require certain weapon types. These skills all deal melee damage.
Mine	Mines	Mines can be placed down have to be remotely detonated or triggered with . Using it is possible to turn any active skill gem into a mine and benefiting from any other support gems with the Mine tag.
Minion	Minion	These skills let characters raise minions to fight enemies.
Movement		Skills that affect the movement of the character.
Prismatic		Skills which pick a random element to attack with, avoiding choosing the same element twice in a row
Projectile	Projectile	Skills that emit projectiles.
Physical	Physical damage	Physical damage is one of the five damage types.
Spell	Spells	Skills that do not require weapons to be used.
Strike	Strike	Skills that strike a single target or all within melee swing range. Many proc secondary effects such as the blades from and are supportable with to repeat the secondary effect on multiple targets. Can also be supported by to create overlapping aoe effects on each enemy within a melee swing radius.
Support	Support skill gem	Tag exclusively used by support skill gems.
Totem	Totem	Totems are stationary summons that assist in battle. Note that many other skills can be turned into a totem with the or support gems. See totem damage.
Trap	Trap	Traps are skills that trigger when an enemy walks over it. Note that many other skills can be turned into a trap with the support gem. See trap damage.
Travel		Skills that move the character.
Trigger	Trigger	Certain skills can't be activated manually, and happen automatically when specific conditions are met. Getting hit by these skills does not activate any trigger effects, like or the energy shield recovery of .
Vaal	Vaal skill	Vaal skills need to be charged in order to use them, but are a lot more powerful than their regular counterparts.
Warcry	Warcry	Warcries are active skills that provide situational benefits to players and are typically aligned with melee characters, because they only affect nearby enemies and allies. Warcries are not spells therefore cannot be supported by support gems that specifically link with spells, such as . They all share a cooldown.

Version history

Version	Changes
3.15.0	Added Prismatic , Arcane gem tags
3.13.0	Added Orb gem tags
3.12.0	Added Hex and Mark gem tags
3.11.0	Added Slam gem tag (Not documented in patch note) Added Stance gem tag
3.7.0	Added Physical, Guard, Strike, Blink gem tags
Unknown	Introduced to the game