Molten Strike

Molten StrikeAttack, Projectile, AoE, Melee, Strike, Fire
Level: (1-20)
Cost: 6 Mana
Attack Damage: (110-148)% of base
Effectiveness of Added Damage: (110-148)%
Projectile Speed: 750Infuses your melee weapon with molten energies to attack with physical and fire damage. This attack causes balls of molten magma to launch forth from the enemies you hit, divided amongst all enemies hit by the strike. These will explode, causing AoE attack damage to enemies where they land.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent4Phantasmal1% increased Fire Damage1% increased Projectile Speed+0.1 to Melee Strike Range2% increased Damage over TimeDeals (110-148)% of Base Attack Damage
60% of Physical Damage Converted to Fire Damage
Fires 3 additional Projectiles
Projectiles deal 50% less Damage
Damage Over Time caused by Projectiles deals 50% less Damage
+(2-6) to Melee Strike Range
(2-75) to (3-113) Added Fire DamagePlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.Acquisition
Area level: 5Vendor Prices

Normal

1x Scroll of Wisdom

Vendor Offer
1x Scroll FragmentMetadata
Item class: Active Skill Gems
Metadata ID: Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemMoltenStrike

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:

• An initial melee hit with the keywords Fire, Attack, Melee
• A projectile attack with the keywords Fire, Attack, Projectile, AoE

Modifiers that require the keywords Melee, Projectile, or AoE only apply to the appropriate portions of the attack. For example, supporting Molten Strike with Melee Physical Damage SupportMelee Physical Damage SupportMelee, Physical, Support, Attack
Icon: M
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 18Supports melee attack skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills deal 0.5% increased Melee Physical DamageSupported Skills have +0.1 to Melee Strike RangeSupported Skills Overwhelm 0.25% Physical Damage ReductionSupported Skills deal (30-49)% more Melee Physical Damage
Supported Skills deal (30-49)% more Damage with Bleeding and Poison caused by Melee Hits
Supported Skills have 10% less Attack SpeedThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. 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).

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 Lesser Multiple Projectiles SupportLesser Multiple Projectiles SupportSupport, Projectile
Icon: l
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 8Supports projectile skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills have 0.5% increased Attack Speed
Supported Skills have 0.5% increased Cast SpeedSupported Skills have 1% reduced Mana Cost
Supported Skills have 0.5% increased Projectile SpeedProjectiles Fired by Supported Skills have 1% increased Projectile spreadSupported Skills fire 2 additional Projectiles
Supported Skills deal (15-6)% less Projectile DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. or Greater Multiple Projectiles SupportGreater Multiple Projectiles SupportSupport, Projectile
Icon: P
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 150%Requires Level 38Supports projectile skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills deal 0.5% increased Projectile DamageSupported Skills have 1% reduced Mana Cost
Supported Skills have 0.5% increased Projectile SpeedProjectiles Fired by Supported Skills have 1% increased Projectile spreadSupported Skills fire 4 additional Projectiles
Supported Skills deal (35-26)% less Projectile DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. 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.

Vicious Projectiles SupportVicious Projectiles SupportProjectile, Attack, Physical, Chaos, Support
Icon: d
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 18Supports projectile attack skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills deal 0.5% increased Physical DamageSupported Attacks have 0.5% chance to cause Bleeding
Supported Skills have 0.5% chance to Poison on HitSupported Attacks have 0.5% chance to Impale Enemies on HitSupported Skills deal (30-49)% more Physical Projectile Attack Damage
Supported Skills have 10% less Projectile Attack Speed
Supported Skills deal (30-49)% more Physical Damage over Time
Supported Skills deal (30-49)% more Chaos Damage over TimeThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket.: 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.

Gem level progression

Level			Damage Effectiveness	Attack Damage	Melee Range	Attack Fire Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	1	0	110%	110%	2	2 to 3	0	0
2	2	0	112%	112%	2	2 to 3	70	70
3	4	16	114%	114%	2	3 to 4	308	378
4	7	22	116%	116%	3	4 to 6	1554	1932
5	11	31	118%	118%	3	5 to 8	6667	8599
6	16	41	120%	120%	3	7 to 11	26047	34646
7	20	50	122%	122%	3	9 to 13	49725	84371
8	24	58	124%	124%	4	11 to 17	95714	180085
9	28	67	126%	126%	4	14 to 20	169595	349680
10	32	75	128%	128%	4	16 to 25	283759	633439
11	36	83	130%	130%	4	20 to 30	453996	1087435
12	40	92	132%	132%	5	24 to 35	703128	1790563
13	44	100	134%	134%	5	28 to 42	1061223	2851786
14	48	109	136%	136%	5	33 to 49	2065870	4917656
15	52	117	138%	138%	5	39 to 58	2507110	7424766
16	56	125	140%	140%	5	45 to 68	5798936	13223702
17	60	134	142%	142%	6	52 to 79	15083919	28307621
18	64	142	144%	144%	6	61 to 91	27792735	56100356
19	67	148	146%	146%	6	68 to 102	43869739	99970095
20	70	155	148%	148%	6	75 to 113	242081556	342051651
21	72	159	150%	150%	7	81 to 122	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	152%	152%	7	87 to 130	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	154%	154%	7	93 to 140	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	156%	156%	7	100 to 150	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	158%	158%	8	107 to 160	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	160%	160%	8	114 to 172	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	168%	168%	8	123 to 184	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	170%	170%	8	131 to 197	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	172%	172%	9	140 to 210	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	174%	174%	9	150 to 224	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	175%	175%	9	155 to 232	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	176%	176%	9	160 to 240	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	177%	177%	9	165 to 248	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	178%	178%	10	171 to 256	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	179%	179%	10	176 to 265	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	180%	180%	10	182 to 273	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	181%	181%	10	188 to 282	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	182%	182%	11	194 to 292	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	183%	183%	11	201 to 301	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	184%	184%	11	207 to 311	N/A	N/A

Item acquisition

Upgrade paths

This item can be acquired through the following upgrade paths or vendor recipes:

Amount	Ingredient	General Notes	Type
8	Dying AnguishDying Anguish8Level 19 Gem Alternative Quality: +19%Moribund, he gazed upon the journey taken as blood trickled down his chin. His eye closed on the city ahead that he would never call home.	random level 19 gem with 19% alternative quality	Automatic
1	Gemcutter's IncubatorGemcutter's IncubatorAdds an incubated Quality Gem item to an equippable item Item drops after killing # monstersQuality GemRight click this item then left click an item to apply it. The Incubated item drops after killing a specific number of monsters.	random superior gem	Automatic
6	The FoxThe Fox6Level 20 Gem"Masters of wit, strength and cunning. To survive the harsh winters, you must be like the fox." - Ezomyte Proverb	random level 20 gem	Automatic
3	Gemcutter's PromiseGemcutter's Promise3Superior Gem Quality: +20%"I swore to use my position to help the people. What good is power when it just accumulates on the already-powerful?" - Erasmus, Imperial Gemcutter	random superior gem with 20% quality	Automatic
1	The VoidThe Void1Reach into the Void and claim your prize.	random divination card set exchange	Automatic

Quest reward

This item is given as a quest reward for the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓
Enemy at the Gate Act 1	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓

Vendor reward

This item can be bought at the listed NPC vendors, after completing the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓
Enemy at the Gate Act 1 Nessa	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
A Fixture of Fate Act 3 Siosa	✓
Fallen from Grace Act 6 Lilly Roth	✓

Threshold jewels

The following threshold jewels augment Molten Strike:

Item	Limit	Radius	Stats
WildfireWildfire Crimson JewelLimited to: 1 Radius: Medium(10-15)% increased Fire Damage With at least 40 Strength in Radius, Molten Strike Projectiles Chain on impacting ground With at least 40 Strength in Radius, Molten Strike Projectiles Chain +1 time With at least 40 Strength in Radius, Molten Strike fires 50% less ProjectilesNews of Kaom's victory in the south spread quickly. Those in support of the coming rebellion bided their time. The rest fled like rats from a fire.Place into an allocated jewel socket on the Passive Skill Tree. Right click to remove from the Socket.	1	Medium	(10-15)% increased Fire Damage With at least 40 Strength in Radius, Molten Strike Projectiles Chain on impacting ground With at least 40 Strength in Radius, Molten Strike Projectiles Chain +1 time With at least 40 Strength in Radius, Molten Strike fires 50% less Projectiles

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Molten Strike.

Name		Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Molten Strike Damage 1	66	25% increased Molten Strike Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Molten Strike Damage 2	75	40% increased Molten Strike Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Molten Strike Num Of Additional Projectiles 1	66	Molten Strike fires an additional Projectile	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Molten Strike Num Of Additional Projectiles 2	75	Molten Strike fires 2 additional Projectiles	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Molten Strike Area Of Effect 1	66	16% increased Molten Strike Area of Effect	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Molten Strike Area Of Effect 2	75	24% increased Molten Strike Area of Effect	helmet 100 default 0

Alternate skill effects

Molten Strike has the following alternate skill effects:

Item	Effect(s)
Celestial Molten Strike EffectCelestial Molten Strike EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Molten Strike becomes a Celestial Effect.	Your Molten Strike becomes a Celestial Effect.
Stygian Molten Strike EffectStygian Molten Strike EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Molten Strike becomes a Stygian Effect.	Your Molten Strike becomes a Stygian Effect.

Version history

Version	Changes
3.15.0	Now deals 185% of Base Damage, and has 185% Effectiveness of Added Damage at gem level 20 (previously 148%).
3.11.0	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.
3.7.0	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).
3.5.0	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).
3.4.0	Now gain additional melee weapon range every 7 levels, up to +2 at level 20 (and +3 at level 21).
2.0.0	Now grants 1% increased fire damage per 1% quality (was 0.75% per 1% quality).
1.1.3	Molten Strike has been added to the game.