Elemental Hit

Cold steel tends to solve most problems, but sometimes it's not quite enough. With Elemental Hit, a player infuses their weapon with the heat of a furnace, the electricity of a Summer tempest, or the icy chill of the Winter night. The specific element is randomly chosen, but the result is the same: tons of extra damage dealt, often killing the target with a single blow.

Description on the official Path of Exile website

Elemental Hit is an attack skill, executing a basic attack with added damage of a random element. An Elemental Hit may be performed with any weapon, or with no weapon equipped.

Skill Functions and Interactions

Dual Wielding: Using Elemental Hit while dual wielding will alternate the weapon used for attacking.

Damage Display: The DPS display can't currently account for the random choice of element.

Elemental Damage: Each of the three damage types is increased by "weapon elemental damage" and "elemental damage" passives and item mods. Additionally, fire, cold or lightning damage passives and mods will boost the damage of only that respective type.

Random Damage Type: One and only one of the listed elemental damage types will be applied per attack. There is no way to influence which type is chosen.

Gem level progression

Level			Mana Cost	Fire Damage	Cold Damage	Lightning Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	12	33	7	N/A	N/A	N/A	0	0
2	15	39	7	N/A	N/A	N/A	15249	15249
3	19	48	7	N/A	N/A	N/A	41517	56766
4	23	56	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	81983	138749
5	27	64	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	147968	286717
6	31	73	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	250557	537274
7	35	81	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	405086	942360
8	38	88	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	447718	1390078
9	41	94	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	615318	2005396
10	44	100	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	834639	2840035
11	47	106	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	1570760	4410795
12	50	113	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	1633987	6044782
13	53	119	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	2151030	8195812
14	56	125	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	2812189	11008001
15	59	132	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	5099360	16107361
16	62	138	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	9400731	25508092
17	64	142	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	15273366	40781458
18	66	146	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	26286582	67068040
19	68	151	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	62890590	129958630
20	70	155	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	212046017	342004647
21	72	159	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	11	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	12	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	12	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	12	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	12	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	12	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	13	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	13	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	13	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	13	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	13	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	14	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	14	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	14	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	14	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	14	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Elemental Hit.

Note that helmet enchantments are no longer obtainable since version 3.23.0 and can only be obtained in permanent leagues as already enchanted items from before this patch.

Name		Labyrinth	Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Elemental Hit Attack Speed 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	10% increased Elemental Hit Attack Speed	helmet 100
Enchantment Elemental Hit Attack Speed 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	15% increased Elemental Hit Attack Speed	helmet 100
Enchantment Elemental Hit Chance To Freeze Shock Ignite 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Elemental Hit has +20% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite	helmet 100
Enchantment Elemental Hit Chance To Freeze Shock Ignite 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Elemental Hit has +30% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite	helmet 100
Enchantment Elemental Hit Damage 1	66	Merciless Labyrinth	Elemental Hit deals 25% increased Damage	helmet 100
Enchantment Elemental Hit Damage 2	75	Eternal Labyrinth	Elemental Hit deals 40% increased Damage	helmet 100

Version history

Version	Changes
2.0.2	damage increased by 10%.
2.0.0	Now has a base chance to inflict elemental status ailments.
1.3.0	The mana costs of Elemental HitElemental HitAttack, Projectile, Melee, Strike, Fire, Cold, Lightning, AoE, Prismatic, Bow Level: (1-20) Cost: (7-11) Mana AoE Radius: 10Requires Level 12Each attack with this skill will choose an element at random, and will only be able to deal damage of that element. If the attack hits an enemy, it will deal damage in an area around them, with the radius being larger if that enemy is suffering from an ailment of the chosen element. It will avoid choosing the same element twice in a row.(18-391) to (33-726) Added Cold Damage (22-480) to (40-891) Added Fire Damage (3-75) to (67-1467) Added Lightning Damage Only Deals Damage of the chosen Element Deals no Damage of other Damage Types (30-49)% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite Base radius is 1 metre 80% more Area Radius against Enemies affected by an Ailment of the chosen Element 10% more Damage per Elemental Ailment on the Enemy Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: +(0.25-5)% more Damage per Elemental Ailment on the EnemyPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket., Glacial HammerGlacial HammerAttack, Melee, Strike, Cold Level: (1-20) Cost: 5 Mana Attack Damage: (165-269)% of base Effectiveness of Added Damage: (165-269)%Hits enemies, converting some of your physical damage to cold damage. If a non-unique enemy is frozen and is on less than one third life, they will shatter when hit by Glacial Hammer. If striking three times in a row, the third strike will freeze enemies more easily. Requires a Mace, Sceptre or Staff.25% chance to Freeze enemies 100% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage Every third successive strike Freezes enemies as though dealing (200-390)% more Damage +0.2 metres to Melee Strike Range 35% increased Duration of Cold Ailments (10-29)% increased Effect of Cold Ailments Adds (2-75) to (3-113) Cold Damage against Chilled Enemies Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: Every third successive strike Freezes enemies as though dealing (5-100)% more DamagePlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket., Infernal BlowInfernal BlowAttack, AoE, Melee, Strike, Fire, Duration Level: (1-20) Cost: 6 Mana Attack Damage: (104-166)% of base Effectiveness of Added Damage: (104-166)% AoE Radius: 15Requires Level 12Attacks with your weapon, applying a charged debuff to enemies hit by your strike, and an uncharged debuff to any other enemies hit. Upon reaching 6 charges, expiring, or the enemy's death, the charged debuff is removed to damage that and other surrounding enemies. Enemies with either debuff explode when they die, damaging other surrounding enemies. Damage from this explosion cannot be reflected. Requires a Sword, Axe, Mace, Sceptre, Staff or Unarmed.Base duration is 0.80 seconds (5-75) to (8-113) Added Fire Damage Explosion deals base Fire Damage equal to 6% of the corpse's Maximum Life 60% of Physical Damage Converted to Fire Damage Base radius is 2.4 metres Base explosion radius is 1.8 metres Debuff deals 66% of Damage per Charge Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: Debuff deals +(0.5-10)% of Damage per ChargePlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. and Lightning StrikeLightning StrikeAttack, Projectile, Melee, Strike, Lightning Level: (1-20) Cost: 6 Mana Attack Damage: (135-225)% of base Effectiveness of Added Damage: (135-225)%Requires Level 12Infuses your melee weapon with electrical energies as you swing. In addition to converting some of your physical damage to lightning damage, the stored energy is released from the weapon as projectiles as you strike, flying out to hit farther-away enemies. The projectiles cannot miss if the melee attack hit a target.50% of Physical Damage Converted to Lightning Damage (1-9) to (13-179) Added Lightning Damage Fires 3 Projectiles Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: Fires +(0.05-1) ProjectilesPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. have been reduced.
1.2.0	The mana cost of all skills has been revised.
1.0.0	Increased the mana cost. Damage progression past level 1 has been reduced.
0.10.0	Is now player level 19 (was 2) and has had its damage reduced, especially at high levels.
0.9.2	Reduced the mana cost.
0.9.1	Increased damage at higher levels.
0.7.2	Increased damage of Elemental Hit skill
0.6.9	Elemental hit skill now has correct gem hover
0.6.0	Added new skills: Ground Slam, Elemental Hit and Cleave