Gem tag

All skill gems have keywords listed in the first line of the mouseover description. In addition to dividing the skills into groups, keywords partly determine which support gems can modify a certain skill.

Support Skill Keywords

While you can technically link any support gem to any skill gem, some combinations will have no effect. If a support gem contains one of the following keywords, the skill must have the keyword as well to be affected. Note that any skill with the Bow keyword counts as having Projectile.

• AoE: Concentrated Effect, Increased Area of Effect
• Attack: Additional Accuracy, Cast on Melee Kill, Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Faster Attacks, Life Gain on Hit, Point Blank
• Curse: Curse on Hit
• Duration: Increased Duration
• Melee: Endurance Charge on Melee Stun, Melee Damage on Full Life, Melee Physical Damage,
• Minion: Minion Damage, Minion Life, Minion Speed, Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance
• Movement: Minion Speed
• Projectile: Chain, Faster Projectiles, Fork, Greater Multiple Projectiles, Iron Grip, Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Pierce, Point Blank, Ranged Attack Totem, Slower Projectiles
• Spell: Cast on Crit, Cast on Death, Cast on Melee Kill, Cast when Damage Taken, Cast when Stunned, Faster Casting, Iron Will

For example, Freezing Pulse and Ethereal Knives get no benefit from being linked to Point Blank: although they are Projectiles, they are not Attacks.

Active Skill Keywords

AoE

Certain skills have an Area of Effect (AoE for short) and can affect multiple enemies or allies at once.

• Strength: Anger, Cleave, Decoy Totem, Determination, Enduring Cry, Ground Slam, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Molten Shell, Punishment, Rejuvenation Totem, Shockwave Totem, Sweep, Vitality, Warlord's Mark
• Dexterity: Cyclone, Detonate Dead, Explosive Arrow, Fire Trap, Freeze Mine, Grace, Haste, Hatred, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Poison Arrow, Projectile Weakness, Rain of Arrows, Reave, Smoke Mine, Temporal Chains
• Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Clarity, Cold Snap, Conductivity, Critical Weakness, Discharge, Discipline, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Fireball, Firestorm, Flameblast, Flammability, Frostbite, Ice Nova, Lightning Warp, Purity of Elements, Righteous Fire, Shock Nova, Vulnerability, Wrath

Attack

An attack is an offensive ability which uses a weapon, unlike Spells, Traps, Mines, and Totems (with one exception). "Attack" is NOT a generic term for any offensive ability.

• Strength: Cleave, Dominating Blow, Glacial Hammer, Ground Slam, Heavy Strike, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Lightning Strike, Shield Charge, Sweep
• Dexterity: Barrage, Burning Arrow, Cyclone, Double Strike, Dual Strike, Elemental Hit, Explosive Arrow, Flicker Strike, Frenzy, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Poison Arrow, Puncture, Rain of Arrows, Reave, Spectral Throw, Split Arrow, Viper Strike, Whirling Blades
• Intelligence: Power Siphon

Aura

An aura is a permanent effect focused on your character that also affects nearby party members and minions. Auras reserve a portion of your mana pool. Most of them reserve a percentage of your Mana, only Clarity reserves a flat amount. See Aura.

• Strength: Anger, Determination, Purity of Fire, Vitality
• Dexterity: Grace, Haste, Hatred, Purity of Ice
• Intelligence: Clarity, Discipline, Purity of Elements, Purity of Lightning, Wrath

Bow

These skills require an equipped bow and are considered projectiles.

• Dexterity: Barrage, Burning Arrow, Elemental Hit, Explosive Arrow, Frenzy, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Poison Arrow, Puncture, Rain of Arrows, Split Arrow

Cast

These skills use cast speed, but are not affected by spell damage, although modifiers which do not mention the "spell" keyword affect them just as they would a regular spell.

• Dexterity: Bear Trap, Detonate Dead

Chaining

Arc effectively has the Chain support built in, but can be linked to Chain for additional chains.

• Intelligence: Arc

Chaos

See Chaos Damage.

• Dexterity: Blood Rage, Poison Arrow, Viper Strike

Cold

See Cold Damage

• Strength: Glacial Hammer
• Dexterity: Elemental Hit, Freeze Mine, Hatred, Ice Shot
• Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Cold Snap, Discharge, Freezing Pulse, Frostbite, Frost Wall, Ice Nova, Ice Spear

Curse

These skills weaken enemies to make them less dangerous or easier to kill. See Curse.

• Strength: Punishment, Warlord's Mark
• Dexterity: Projectile Weakness, Temporal Chains
• Intelligence: Conductivity, Critical Weakness, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Flammability, Frostbite, Vulnerability

Duration

Certain skills have an effect over time. In some cases, such as curses, reusing the skill will reset the timer.

• Strength: Decoy Totem, Devouring Totem, Flame Totem, Immortal Call, Molten Shell, Punishment, Rejuvenation Totem, Warlord's Mark, Searing Bond, Shockwave Totem
• Dexterity: Animate Weapon, Bear Trap, Blood Rage, Explosive Arrow, Fire Trap, Freeze Mine, Ice Shot, Phase Run, Poison Arrow, Projectile Weakness, Puncture, Smoke Mine, Temporal Chains, Viper Strike
• Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Conductivity, Conversion Trap, Critical Weakness, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Firestorm, Flammability, Frostbite, Frost Wall, Lightning Trap, Spark, Summon Skeletons, Vulnerability

Fire

See Fire Damage.

• Strength: Anger, Flame Totem, Infernal Blow, Molten Shell, Searing Bond
• Dexterity: Burning Arrow, Detonate Dead, Elemental Hit, Explosive Arrow, Fire Trap
• Intelligence: Discharge, Fireball, Flameblast, Firestorm, Flammability, Incinerate, Righteous Fire

Lightning

See Lightning Damage.

• Strength: Lightning Strike
• Dexterity: Elemental Hit, Lightning Arrow
• Intelligence: Arc, Conductivity, Discharge, Lightning Warp, Lightning Trap, Shock Nova, Spark, Tempest Shield, Wrath

Melee

Some melee skills require certain weapons; see Melee Skills.

• Strength: Cleave, Dominating Blow, Glacial Hammer, Ground Slam, Heavy Strike, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Lightning Strike, Shield Charge, Sweep
• Dexterity: Cyclone, Double Strike, Dual Strike, Elemental Hit, Flicker Strike, Frenzy, Puncture, Reave, Viper Strike, Whirling Blades

Mine

Mines are skills which are laid at the characters location and detonated by a separate command.

• Dexterity: Freeze Mine, Smoke Mine

Minion

These skills let characters raise monsters to fight enemies.

• Strength: Animate Guardian, Dominating Blow
• Dexterity: Animate Weapon
• Intelligence: Raise Spectre, Raise Zombie, Summon Skeletons

Movement

Skills that move the character.

• Strength: Leap Slam, Shield Charge
• Dexterity: Cyclone, Flicker Strike, Smoke Mine, Whirling Blades
• Intelligence: Lightning Warp

Projectile

Note that Bow skills also create projectiles.

• Strength: Flame Totem, Lightning Strike
• Dexterity: Ethereal Knives, Spectral Throw
• Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Fireball, Freezing Pulse, Ice Spear, Incinerate, Lightning Trap, Power Siphon, Spark

Spell

Spells are skills which do not draw their damage from any flat damage modifiers on your gear in any way. They are affected by cast speed, spell damage, and critical strikes. They always hit (unless the attack is spell blocked or dodged using Phase Acrobatics - two quite rare and niche mechanics) and are unaffected by Accuracy. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to base or final spell damage. Spells which do fire, cold, or lightning damage will be modified by passives and gear which increases the damage of that specific type.

• Strength: Anger, Decoy Totem, Determination, Devouring Totem, Enduring Cry, Flame Totem, Immortal Call, Molten Shell, Punishment, Rejuvenation Totem, Searing Bond, Shockwave Totem, Vitality, Warlord's Mark
• Dexterity: Animate Weapon, Blood Rage, Detonate Dead, Ethereal Knives, Fire Trap, Freeze Mine, Grace, Haste, Hatred, Phase Run, Projectile Weakness, Smoke Mine
• Intelligence: Arc, Arctic Breath, Clarity, Cold Snap, Conductivity, Conversion Trap, Critical Weakness, Discharge, Discipline, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Fireball, Firestorm, Flammability, Freezing Pulse, Frostbite, Frost Wall, Ice Nova, Ice Spear, Incinerate, Lightning Warp, Lightning Trap, Purity of Elements, Raise Spectre, Raise Zombie, Righteous Fire, Shock Nova, Spark, Summon Skeletons, Tempest Shield, Vulnerability, Wrath

Totem

Totems are stationary summons that assist in battle. Note that many other skills can be turned into a totem with the Spell Totem or Ranged Attack Totem support gems.

• Strength: Decoy Totem, Devouring Totem, Flame Totem, Rejuvenation Totem, Shockwave Totem

Trap

Traps are AoE skills that trigger when an enemy walks over it.

• Dexterity: Bear Trap, Fire Trap
• Intelligence: Conversion Trap, Lightning Trap