Spark

For the Vaal-themed counterpart, see Vaal 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.
• A single cast of Spark can hit an enemy once every second (after patch 2.3). Keep in mind this is per cast, not per projectile. So without any increase in duration, a single cast can hit an enemy twice with the base duration of 1.5 seconds. That is why projectile speed and increased duration can result in significant increases in real DPS.
• When an enemy is hit with a Spark projectile, projectiles from the same cast will go through that enemy without damaging it, as if it wasn't there (until the enemy can be hit again with the same cast which happens after 1 second).
• There is no guaranteed distance or time the projectiles will go straight, but they are guaranteed to go forward if there are no obstacles.
• After patch 2.3 Spark projectiles now destroy themselves after travelling 150 units from the character. It should be noted that it's entirely possible for infinite-duration sparks to bounce/circle around within that radius, and never leave it. In general, sparks will be more likely to stay within the radius in an enclosed space with walls to bounce off, and more likely to leave it in open areas.

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

Level			Mana Cost	Lightning Damage	# Projectiles	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	1	0	5	N/A	N/A	0	0
2	2	0	5	N/A	N/A	70	70
3	4	16	6	N/A	N/A	308	378
4	7	22	7	N/A	N/A	1554	1932
5	11	31	7	N/A	N/A	6667	8599
6	16	41	9	N/A	N/A	26047	34646
7	20	50	10	N/A	N/A	49725	84371
8	24	58	11	N/A	N/A	95714	180085
9	28	67	11	N/A	N/A	169595	349680
10	32	75	12	N/A	N/A	283759	633439
11	36	83	13	N/A	N/A	453996	1087435
12	40	92	14	N/A	N/A	703128	1790563
13	44	100	15	N/A	N/A	1061223	2851786
14	48	109	16	N/A	N/A	2065870	4917656
15	52	117	17	N/A	N/A	2507110	7424766
16	56	125	18	N/A	N/A	5798936	13223702
17	60	134	19	N/A	N/A	15083919	28307621
18	64	142	20	N/A	N/A	27792735	56100356
19	67	148	21	N/A	N/A	43869739	99970095
20	70	155	21	N/A	N/A	242081556	342051651
21	72	159	22	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	22	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	23	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	23	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	24	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	24	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	25	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	26	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	27	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	27	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	27	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	27	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	27	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	28	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	28	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	28	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	28	N/A	N/A	N/A	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
2.3.0	and Vaal Spark projectiles (including those from monster Sparks) are now 20% slower. Quality on Spark and Vaal Spark is now worth 1% projectile speed per point of quality (rather than 2%). The time that Sparks must travel before they re-arm has been increased from 500ms to 1000ms. Spark projectiles now destroy themselves after travelling 150 units, which is in-line with other projectiles.
2.2.2	Lowered Spark's damage in PvP by 1% per gem level up to level 10, then 2% per gem level (damage reduced by 10% at level 10, and by 30% at level 20). Spark's tendency to completely coat the battlefield in unavoidable damage was making PvP matches extremely unfun, especially at high levels. While this doesn't solve the core issue of spark's unavoidable damage, it should give players a chance to close the gap.
2.1.0	Damage has been increased in damage by 10%, and starts at 4 projectiles, increasing by an additional one at levels 9, 17 and 25.
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.