Last Epoch Damage Over Time Guide: From Ignite to Bleed ~ HaploGamingChef

Understanding Ailments in Last Epoch

Ailments in Last Epoch are a huge part of how builds deal damage, especially if you're leaning into damage over time (DOT) mechanics. Whether you're following a build or theorycrafting your own, knowing how ailments work can seriously boost your effectiveness. This guide walks you through the basics — and then gets a little deeper — so you can make better decisions about skills, passives, and gear.

This is a no-fluff, easy-to-understand breakdown aimed at both beginners and experienced players. Let’s start with the foundations.

What Are Ailments and Why Do They Matter?

Ailments in Last Epoch are effects that deal damage over time or debuff enemies. The most common damage-dealing ones are:

Ignite – Fire DOT
Poison – Poison DOT
Bleed – Physical DOT
Damned – Necrotic DOT

These are not spells, and they do not scale with spell damage. That’s a key difference between Last Epoch and other ARPGs like Path of Exile.

🔑 Key Points:

Ailments are not hits
They can’t crit
They don’t scale from added flat damage
They scale from specific tags (e.g., “fire,” “DOT,” “necrotic”)

Base Damage and Duration of Ailments

Each ailment has a fixed base damage and set duration. You can’t change the base number — what you can do is stack them, scale their damage, or make them last longer.

For example:

Ignite does 40 base fire damage over 2.5 seconds
Poison deals poison damage over 4 seconds
Bleed causes physical DOT over 3 seconds

⚙️ How Duration Works:

Increasing the duration doesn’t increase the damage per second — it increases the total damage over time. If ignite lasts longer, more stacks can apply before the old ones expire.

Unlimited vs. Capped Ailments

Some ailments have unlimited stacking (like ignite, poison, bleed), while others are capped:

Unlimited: You can apply as many stacks as your build allows.
Capped: Like Time Rot (60 base necrotic damage), which caps at 12 stacks.

The higher the base damage, the more likely a cap is in place to keep things balanced.

How Ailments Are Applied

Any hit-based skill can apply ailments if you have a chance to apply on your gear, passives, or skills. This includes melee attacks, spells, throws — anything that hits.

Example:

If a spell has a 30% chance to ignite, every hit from that spell has a 30% chance to apply an ignite stack.

Scaling Ailment Damage: What Really Matters

You can’t increase the base damage of ailments directly. Instead, you scale ailments using:

Damage Over Time modifiers
Elemental or Type-Based Increases (like Fire, Poison, Necrotic)
“More Damage” multipliers
Intelligence or other scaling attributes (if applicable)

❗ Important:

Spell damage does not scale ailment damage.
DOT tags are your best friend for ailment builds.

Scaling Tags and How They Work

Every skill in Last Epoch comes with a set of scaling tags. These tags tell you what kinds of stats will boost that skill’s initial hit and any ailments it might apply.

For example, a skill might have these tags:

Fire
Spell
Damage Over Time
Intelligence

This means:

Fire damage scales the hit and any ignite applied.
Spell damage only scales the hit, not the ailment.
DOT modifiers boost the ailment damage (like ignite).
Intelligence could boost both if the skill has that stat tag.

🔍 Real Example – Chaos Bolts:

Base Hit: 10 fire + 10 necrotic
Ailments: Ignite (fire), Damned (necrotic), Poison (poison)
Tags: Fire, Spell, Necrotic, Intelligence

You’d scale the hit with spell/fire/necrotic damage. You’d scale the ailments separately:

Ignite with fire + DOT + intelligence
Poison with poison + DOT (no intelligence)
Damned with necrotic + DOT + intelligence

Attack Speed, Duration, and Penetration

Once you understand scaling, the next step is applying and extending your ailments effectively.

🕐 Duration

Longer durations = more active stacks
Example: Ignite with 2.5s base → +100% duration = 5s duration
More stacks on the enemy means more damage ticking at once

⚔️ Attack & Cast Speed

Faster skills = more hit attempts = more chances to apply ailments
Key for stacking ailments like poison or ignite quickly

🔻 Resistance Penetration & Shred

Resistance Shred lowers enemy resistance before penetration applies
Penetration reduces resistance directly after shred
Can push enemy resistance into negative values, increasing your DOT damage significantly

Ailment Damage Calculation: Step-by-Step

Let’s break down how a hit-based skill applies and scales ailments like poison, ignite, and damned. We'll walk through each effect using a sample scenario.

💥 Scenario Setup:

Skill used: Chaos Bolts
Chance to apply: Ignite, Poison, Damned
Gear/Passives stats:
- +20 Fire Damage
- +50% Spell Damage
- +100% Fire Damage
- +200% DOT Damage
- +100% Ignite Duration
- 10 Intelligence (grants 4% ignite/damned damage per point)

🔹 Step 1: Initial Hit (Not Ailment)

Chaos Bolts does:

10 Fire + 10 Necrotic base hit

Calculations:

Fire part:
Base 10 + Added 20 = 30
30 x (1 + 0.5 spell + 1.0 fire + 0.4 from INT) = 87
Necrotic part:
10 x (1 + 0.5 spell + 0.4 INT) = 19

👉 Initial Hit Total = 106 Damage (Fire + Necrotic)

🔹 Step 2: Ignite DOT

Base Ignite = 40 fire damage over 2.5s
Scaling from fire, dot, and INT:
40 x (1 + 1.0 fire + 2.0 dot + 0.4 INT) = 180
Now double duration due to 100% ignite duration:
180 over 5 seconds = 36 DPS per stack

👉 Ignite = 36 fire DPS per stack

🔹 Step 3: Poison DOT

Base Poison = 30 poison damage over 4s
No poison-specific scaling from INT or skill tags
Uses only DOT modifiers:
30 x (1 + 2.0 DOT) = 90
90 ÷ 4s = 22.5 DPS

👉 Poison = 22.5 poison DPS per stack

🔹 Step 4: Damned DOT

Base Damned = 35 necrotic damage over 3s
Scaling from necrotic, dot, and INT:
35 x (1 + 2.0 DOT + 0.4 INT) = 119
119 ÷ 3s = 39.6 DPS

👉 Damned = 39.6 necrotic DPS per stack

Takeaway from the Math

Even though each ailment has its own base damage and duration, your gear and passive setup can drastically change how much they hit for. The key is stacking:

DOT-related stats
Damage types (Fire, Poison, Necrotic)
Attributes (like Intelligence, if relevant)
Ailment duration (more stacks = more DPS)

Wrapping It Up: Scaling Ailments Like a Pro

Understanding how ailments work in Last Epoch is key to squeezing out the most damage from your DOT-focused builds. Whether you're stacking ignite, bleeding enemies dry, or layering poison and necrotic effects — it's all about knowing how your stats interact with each piece of the puzzle.

The best approach? Break things down into two parts:

The Hit – This includes any immediate spell or attack damage.
The Ailment – The lingering DOT effects applied by the hit.

These two areas scale separately, and knowing how to build for each will make your setup far more effective.

Quick Ailment Scaling Recap

Spell Damage: Only affects the hit, not the ailment.
DOT Modifiers: Apply to all ailments.
Type-Specific Modifiers: Boost DOTs of the same damage type (e.g., Fire → Ignite).
Attributes (e.g., Intelligence): Sometimes apply, depending on the skill’s scaling tags.
Attack/Cast Speed: Faster attacks = more chances to apply ailments.
Duration: Longer duration = more stacks = higher sustained damage.
Penetration/Shred: Reduces enemy resistance, boosting DOT effectiveness.

Final Thoughts

Ailments might seem tricky at first, but once you get a handle on how they scale, they become one of the most powerful tools in your Last Epoch arsenal. Want to melt bosses with a stack of ignites or watch poison stacks tick down enemies? It all comes down to understanding the mechanics — and now, you do.

Play around with different setups, experiment with scaling, and don’t forget to check your skill tags. With the right mix of speed, damage, and duration, you’ll be stacking DOTs like a pro in no time.

FAQs

Q: What are ailments in Last Epoch?
A: Ailments are effects that apply damage over time or debuffs. Common ones include ignite, poison, bleed, and damned.

Q: Can spell damage increase my DOT damage?
A: No. Spell damage only affects the initial hit, not the ailment's damage over time.

Q: How does ailment duration affect damage?
A: It doesn’t change DPS, but it increases how long a stack lasts, allowing more stacks to build up and more total damage over time.

Q: What’s the best way to scale ailments?
A: Use damage over time bonuses, type-specific damage (e.g., fire for ignite), and apply them faster with attack or cast speed.

Q: Do all ailments stack infinitely?
A: No. Some like ignite and poison do, but others, like Time Rot, have stack limits.

Q: What stats are most important for ailment builds?
A: DOT damage, relevant damage types (fire, poison, etc.), ailment duration, and penetration/resistance shred are most impactful.

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Last Epoch Damage Over Time Guide: From Ignite to Bleed