Elemental Overload

Elemental Overload (often referred to as EO) is a Keystone passive skill that grants the player 40% more elemental damage for 8 seconds on critical strike, but prevents critical strikes from dealing extra damage.

Mechanics

Whenever the player deals a critical strike, the damage bonus from Elemental Overload will apply for 8 seconds. This effect does not count as a buff and is not affected by modifiers to duration, nor can its expiry rate be modified by Temporal Chains. The damage bonus does not apply to the critical strike that originally caused Elemental Overload's effect to activate.

Only skills you use yourself can activate Elemental Overload. Traps, mines, and totems benefit from the damage bonus if you activate it with a skill you use yourself. Minions do not interact with Elemental Overload in any way.

The Ailments never count as being from Critical Strikes effect causes any Damage Over Time Multiplier specific to ailments from critical strikes to not apply. This includes the character's inherent +50% DOT multiplier for ailments from critical strikes, Perfect Agony, and modifiers such as +50% to Damage over Time Multiplier for Poison from Critical Strikes from Cobra Lash.

If the keystone passive Resolute Technique is allocated, Elemental Overload cannot activate.

Strategy

Elemental Overload is best allocated on characters that do not invest in critical strike but still deal critical strikes occasionally. Modifiers to critical strike multiplier no longer have any effect and can be ignored when assessing equipment.

Ideally, when Elemental Overload is allocated, the player will strive to deal at least one critical strike every 8 seconds in order to keep the damage effect active. This can be achieved by balancing critical strike chance and hit rate. An average of one critical strike every 8 seconds is achieved by performing 12.5/(Critical Strike Chance) hits per second. For example, with the minimum critical strike chance of 5%, a character who performs 2.5 hits per second will on average deal a critical strike every 8 seconds (this assumes your accuracy for melee/ranged weapons allows a 100% chance to hit).

For players whose primary damage skill is not suitable for maintaining Elemental Overload, a secondary skill that hits quickly can instead be used. Most notably, it is useful to cast Orb of Storms linked to Increased Critical Strikes Support, since the skill will hit nearby enemies over a duration, thereby activating Elemental Overload, while the player can continue using their primary skill.

Elemental Overload and Ignite

Although the 40% More Elemental Damage modifier may seem less powerful than the +50% to damage over time multiplier an Ignite applied by a Critical Strike would apply, note that damage over time multipliers are additive with each other. The EO 40% More modifier, on the other hand, scales all other damage and isn't additive with anything. If you have at least +25% to your DoT multiplier, EO will grant your Ignites more damage than the additional DoT multiplier with a crit. EO also only requires that you crit occasionally, which could be with a support skill, rather than consistently with your main damage skill.

Elemental Overload vs Critical Strikes?

This table compares average damage of critical strikes versus elemental overload.

It assumes that you have a 100% uptime on elemental overload.

The crit chance used in the table is effective crit chance, i.e. the real critical strike chance including accuracy.

Location

Elemental Overload is located at the middle layer of the northwest part of the tree, near the transition area between Witch and Templar.

Related items

Base items

• Oscillating Sceptre

Unique items

• Skin of the Lords Random Keystone

• Augyre