Spark

"Lightning is a fickle servant. However, skilled casters have learned to harness this frenetic element to devastating effect. With a single incantation, three pulsing strands of electric energy appear, and begin to move erratically around the battlefield. Whenever one contacts an enemy, it discharges, dealing tremendous damage and frequently causing paralysis."

— Description on the official Path of Exile website

Spark is a lightning spell that launches unpredictable sparks that move randomly until they hit an enemy.

Skill Functions and Interactions

Duration: Spark duration determines how long spark projectiles will persist, and is increased by both skill duration passives and support.

Ricochets: Spark projectiles will bounce off of terrain obstructions and edges for as long as they persist. If a spark projectile strikes a mob, it will be absorbed unless it has a chance to pierce.

Spark Duration and Cast Speed

Given the current cast speed of 0.65 seconds, and the lifetime of the Spark is 1.5 seconds, you can get about 6 sparks into play before the initial sparks expire. 1.5 seconds / 0.65 seconds = 2.3 casts or 6 sparks.

To figure out the required cast speed to get more sparks into play, divide 1.5 by the number of casts.

3 casts ( 9 sparks ): 1.5 / 3 = 0.5 seconds per cast.
4 casts ( 12 sparks ): 1.5 / 4 = 0.375 seconds per cast.

Note, you may have to decrease these cast times, as this the minimum time; the initial sparks will expire just as the new ones are leaving your position.

To calculate the new desired increase in casting speed, consider that if you increase your speed by 100%, you'll cut the time in half.

NewCastSpeed = OldCastSpeed / ( 1 + IncreasedSpeed )
IncreasedSpeed = OldCastSpeed / NewCastSpeed - 1

As an example, if we wanted to get to 0.5 seconds, this is an % increase of (0.65/.5 - 1)*100% = 30%

Gem level progression

Template:GemLevelTable |- ! 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1–20 | 4 | 0 | 0 |- ! 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1–22 | 4 | 70 | 70 |- ! 3 | 4 | 16 | 7 | 1–27 | 4 | 308 | 378 |- ! 4 | 7 | 22 | 8 | 2–36 | 4 | 1,554 | 1,932 |- ! 5 | 11 | 31 | 9 | 3–49 | 4 | 6,667 | 8,599 |- ! 6 | 16 | 41 | 10 | 4–69 | 4 | 26,047 | 34,646 |- ! 7 | 20 | 50 | 11 | 5–88 | 4 | 49,725 | 84,371 |- ! 8 | 24 | 58 | 12 | 6–110 | 4 | 95,714 | 180,085 |- ! 9 | 28 | 67 | 14 | 7–136 | 5 | 169,595 | 349,680 |- ! 10 | 32 | 75 | 16 | 9–167 | 5 | 283,759 | 633,439 |- ! 11 | 36 | 83 | 17 | 11–202 | 5 | 453,996 | 1,087,435 |- ! 12 | 40 | 92 | 18 | 13–243 | 5 | 703,128 | 1,790,563 |- ! 13 | 44 | 100 | 19 | 15–291 | 5 | 1,061,223 | 2,851,786 |- ! 14 | 48 | 109 | 20 | 18–345 | 5 | 2,065,870 | 4,917,656 |- ! 15 | 52 | 117 | 21 | 22–409 | 5 | 2,507,110 | 7,424,766 |- ! 16 | 56 | 125 | 22 | 25–481 | 5 | 5,798,936 | 13,223,702 |- ! 17 | 60 | 134 | 22 | 30–565 | 6 | 15,083,919 | 28,307,621 |- ! 18 | 64 | 142 | 22 | 35–661 | 6 | 27,792,735 | 56,100,356 |- ! 19 | 67 | 148 | 22 | 39–742 | 6 | 43,869,739 | 99,970,095 |- ! 20 | 70 | 155 | 23 | 44–832 | 6 | 242,081,556 | 342,051,651 |- ! 21 | 72 | 159 | 23 | 47–897 | 6 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 22 | 74 | | 24 | 51–967 | 6 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 23 | 76 | | 24 | 55–1041 | 6 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 24 | 78 | | 25 | 59–1120 | 6 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 25 | 80 | | 25 | 63–1205 | 7 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 26 | 82 | | 26 | 68–1296 | 7 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 27 | 84 | | 26 | 73–1393 | 7 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 28 | 86 | | 26 | 79–1496 | 7 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 29 | 88 | | 26 | 85–1607 | 7 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 30 | 90 | | 27 | 91–1725 | 7 | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |}

Alternate skill effects

Name	Cost	Description
Spark Spiders EffectSpark Spiders EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Sparks become skittering spiders of raw electrical energy	95	Replaces the standard lightning effects on a gem with skittering, electrical spiders. Preview

Version history

Version	Changes
2.0.0	Damage increased by 76%. Now grants 2% increased projectile speed per 1% quality (was 3% per 1% quality). Critical Strike Chance has been increased from 5% to 6%.
1.2.0	Spark does 20% more damage at all levels. It now bounces off Frost Walls, regardless of whether they are cast by players or monsters. The critical strike chance has been increased from 4% to 5% (this change was not listed in the official patch notes).
1.1.0	Increased the damage of the following skills at low levels: , , and to a lesser extent, and .
1.0.0	Damage is increased at lower levels. Spark duration has been heavily reduced.
0.11.1	Spells with Damage Effectiveness no longer have their own damage affected by Damage Effectiveness. Damage values on these skills have been updated to reflect this.
0.11.0b	Fixed a bug where Projectile Speed bonuses did not apply to when used with a .
0.11.0	The base critical strike chance has been reduced from 6% to 4%.
0.10.0	Once a Spark has bounced, it'll only be able to pierce the same target again if it has been more than one second since the last time.
0.9.11i	Fixed the randomness when used with Traps.
0.9.7	Improved the effects. Spark now fires three sparks by default.
0.9.6	Changed Spark to cast four sparks by default, but it is affected less by additional damage from support gems.
0.9.5g	Fixed Spark not being affected by Increased Duration.
0.9.4c	Set the default critical strike chance of Spark (5.5%),
0.9.3e	Reduced damage by 10%.
0.9.3	Spark now defaults to casting two sparks (with reduced damage). This makes it have less variance in outdoors areas.
0.9.1	Increased damage.