Herald of Thunder
Herald of Thunder is a self-cast effect that reserves mana to increase damage output. See also 
Herald of Ash and 
Herald of Ice.
Mechanics
Similar to the Herald of Ash and Herald of Ice skill gems, Herald of Thunder has two separate effects.
The first is an additive global X-X lightning damage modifier, which applies to both spells and attacks.
The Second component is the on-kill effect, which is triggered upon killing an enemy with the shocked status. The skill then casts Lightning bolts which deal lightning damage to enemies in an AoE similar to the Nemesis buff Storm Herald. It is worth noting that this AoE is based on the position of the player and will follow the player as they move, though the effect will only cast if there are enemies in range. The damage caused from this effect 'cannot' shock enemies and is not AoE damage.
The on-kill effect will strike an enemy every 250ms, but will not strike the same enemy again for 400ms.[1]
Unlike Herald of Ash, the on kill effect from Herald of Thunder applies to enemies killed by attacks as well as spells.
Interactions
Elemental Damage
Elemental/Lightning Modifiers affect both the additive on-hit damage and the On-kill effect damage of Herald of Thunder. (This is only true if the modifiers have no further restrictions, unlike e.g. Elemental_Dominion which only affects spells.)
Note: Additive X-X damage obtained from Support gems such as Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Added Cold Damage" or Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Added Chaos Damage" only apply to the on-Kill effect and DO NOT boost the additive on-hit damage of Herald of Thunder
Casting and Spell interactions
Because Herald of Thunder is a Cast and not a Spell it does not receive any direct Spell bonuses from Gear, Skill-Gems or from the Skill-tree. This also applies to support gems which specifically modify Spells (Eg. Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Spell Echo" and Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Iron Will"). However when using a Spell the additive on-hit damage will receive indirect bonuses from Spell modifiers.
Being a Cast, Herald of Thunder does benefit from Gear, Support gems and Passive nodes which modify Cast(Eg. Faster casting). Faster casting has the effect of increasing the cast speed of the buff, but does not increase the number of casts per-second within the On-Kill AoE.[2]
AoE and Duration
Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Increased Area of Effect" andModule Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Concentrated Effect" affect the radius at which Herald of Thunder can strike targets. Can be modified via Skill gems, Gear and Passive nodes.Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Concentrated Effect" Does not appear to increase the average tool tip damage of the on-kill effect Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Increased Duration" and Module Error: No skills found with q_where = skill.active_skill_name="Reduced Duration" affect the Duration of the on-kill effect. Can be modified via Skill gems, Gear and Passive nodes.
Auras, Buffs and Mana Reservation
Like Herald of Ash and Herald of Ice, Herald of Thunder is not an Aura and does not receive bonuses from Aura nodes, Item or Skill gems. It does reserve mana however, and it therefore benefits from Reduced Mana Reservation modifiers from Gems, Items and Passives.
Buff nodes such as Inner Force affect all effects from the herald including the quality bonus although not shown in the tooltip.
Quality
The quality of the skill gem is global. This means that the Increased Lightning Damage will affect all types of lightning skills, not just Herald of Thunder.
Gem level progression
Template:GemLevelTable |- ! 1 | 24 || 58 || 1-57 || 1-18 || 118,383 |- ! 2 | 27 || 64 || 2-73 || 1-22 || 175,816 |- ! 3 | 30 || 71 || 2-92 || 2-26 || 254,061 |- ! 4 | 33 || 77 || 2-115 || 2-30 || 225,766 |- ! 5 | 35 || 81 || 3-136 || 2-34 || 447,718 |- ! 6 | 38 || 88 || 3-167 || 3-40 || 388,734 |- ! 7 | 40 || 92 || 4-195 || 3-44 || 755,049 |- ! 8 | 43 || 98 || 5-238 || 3-52 || 1,016,533 |- ! 9 | 46 || 104 || 6-289 ||4-60 || 860,401 |- ! 10 | 48 || 109 || 7-332 || 4-66 || 1,038,201 |- ! 11 | 50 || 113 || 8-381 || 5-73 || 1,248,678 |- ! 12 | 52 || 117 || 9-436 || 5-81 || 1,498,138 |- ! 13 | 54 || 121 || 10-498 || 6-89 || 1,790,934 |- ! 14 | 56 || 125 || 12-567 || 7-98 || 3,351,223 |- ! 15 | 58 || 130 || 13-645 || 7-107 || 9,900,250 |- ! 16 | 60 || 134 || 15-732 || 8-118 || 21,274,363 |- ! 17 | 62 || 138 || 17-828 || 9-129 || 50,550,118 |- ! 18 | 64 || 142 || 20-937 || 9-142 || 89,834,713 |- ! 19 | 66 || 146 || 22-1057 || 10-155 || 146,782,704 |- ! 20 | 68 || 151 || 25-1191 || 11-170 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 21 | 70 || 155 || 28-1328 || 12-186 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 22 | || || 31-1478 || 14-203 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 23 | || || 35-1645 || 15-222 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 24 | || || 39-1828 || 16-243 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 25 | || || 44-2031 || 18-265 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 26 | || || 49-2254 || 19-289 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |-
|}
Quest Reward
Please visit the Quest Rewards page for information on how to acquire this gem.
Version history
| Version | Changes |
|---|---|
| 1.3.0 |
|
| 1.2.4 |
|
References
- ↑ Jibblies (October 27, 2014). "Herald of Thunder". Official Path of Exile Forums. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
- ↑ Daniel_GGG (January 19, 2015). "Herald of Thunder and Faster Casting". Official Path of Exile Forums. Retrieved January 19, 2015.