Gratuitous Violence

Gratuitous Violence is a notable Ascendancy passive skill for the Gladiator that makes bleeding enemies killed by the player explode, dealing a percentage of their life as damage, and grants more damage to bleeding.

However, this does not directly work with Ancestral Warchief or Ancestral Protector. While these totems can cause bleeding, if they land the killing blow, enemies won't explode. But if the bleeding itself kills the enemies, they will. This is especially relevant if you are using Ancestral Bond and can't deal damage yourself.

Enemies that die from the explosion do not count as they have been killed by an active skill a player used, and therefore modifiers that support that skill do not affect killed enemies; modifiers that affect the character are still applied. This is mostly noticable with mods to item rarity and quantity.