Frost Blades

Template:Gem Infobox Frost Blades is a cold melee attack skill that strikes with increased range, then has the secondary effect of releasing projectiles from the struck enemies.

Skill Functions and Interactions

An attack with Frost Blades consists of two parts:

• An initial melee hit with the keywords Cold, Attack, Melee
• A projectile attack with the keywords Cold, Attack, Projectile

When an enemy is hit by this skill, multiple homing projectiles fly out from behind the enemy and target nearby enemies. This skill increases the melee range by an appreciable degree. Unlike Lightning Strike, if the initial attack does not hit an enemy, then no projectiles are released.

The projectiles do the same damage as the initial attack, with the same cold damage conversion. However the initial melee attack scales with melee damage modifiers (such as Melee Physical Damage), whereas the projectiles scale with projectile damage modifiers. Both components scale equally with (unspecified) attack, physical, and cold damage modifiers.

Multistrike uses the increased attack range of this skill when selecting targets to attack. Melee Splash does not release additional projectiles from secondary targets struck by the initial melee splash, nor does it splash the projectiles' damage. Faster Projectiles will increase the speed and effective range of the secondary projectiles. Physical Projectile Attack Damage scales all the damage of the projectiles, but not the initial melee attack: attack speed is NOT reduced since the attack animation itself is melee, rather than projectile.

Note: the tooltip DPS shows only the melee attack component damage and DPS. It does not show damage values for the projectile component. To calculate the projectile component, use the formula at the bottom of this page.

Gem level progression

Template:GemLevelTable |- ! 1 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 4 | 18 | 0% | 0 | 0 |- ! 2 | 2 | 0 | 101.2% | 4 | 18 | 1% | 70 | 70 |- ! 3 | 4 | 16 | 102.4% | 4 | 18 | 2% | 308 | 378 |- ! 4 | 7 | 22 | 103.6% | 4 | 18 | 3% | 1,554 | 1,932 |- ! 5 | 11 | 31 | 104.8% | 4 | 18 | 4% | 6,667 | 8,599 |- ! 6 | 16 | 41 | 106% | 5 | 19 | 5% | 26,047 | 34,646 |- ! 7 | 20 | 50 | 107.2% | 5 | 19 | 6% | 49,725 | 84,371 |- ! 8 | 24 | 58 | 108.4% | 5 | 19 | 7% | 95,714 | 180,085 |- ! 9 | 28 | 67 | 109.6% | 5 | 19 | 8% | 169,595 | 349,680 |- ! 10 | 32 | 75 | 110.8% | 5 | 19 | 9% | 283,759 | 633,439 |- ! 11 | 36 | 83 | 112% | 6 | 20 | 10% | 453,996 | 1,087,435 |- ! 12 | 40 | 92 | 113.2% | 6 | 20 | 11% | 703,128 | 1,790,563 |- ! 13 | 44 | 100 | 114.4% | 6 | 20 | 12% | 1,061,223 | 2,851,786 |- ! 14 | 48 | 109 | 115.6% | 6 | 20 | 13% | 2,065,870 | 4,917,656 |- ! 15 | 52 | 117 | 116.8% | 6 | 20 | 14% | 2,507,110 | 7,424,766 |- ! 16 | 56 | 125 | 118% | 7 | 21 | 15% | 5,798,936 | 13,223,702 |- ! 17 | 60 | 134 | 119.2% | 7 | 21 | 16% | 15,083,919 | 28,307,621 |- ! 18 | 64 | 142 | 120.4% | 7 | 21 | 17% | 27,792,735 | 56,100,356 |- ! 19 | 67 | 148 | 121.6% | 7 | 21 | 18% | 43,869,739 | 99,970,095 |- ! 20 | 70 | 155 | 122.8% | 7 | 21 | 19% | 242,081,556 | 342,051,651 |- ! 21 | 72 | 159 | 124% | 8 | 22 | 20% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 22 | 74 | | 125.2% | 8 | 22 | 21% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 23 | 76 | | 126.4% | 8 | 22 | 22% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 24 | 78 | | 127.6% | 8 | 22 | 23% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 25 | 80 | | 128.8% | 8 | 22 | 24% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 26 | 82 | | 130% | 9 | 23 | 25% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 27 | 84 | | 131.2% | 9 | 23 | 26% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 28 | 86 | | 132.4% | 9 | 23 | 27% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 29 | 88 | | 133.6% | 9 | 23 | 28% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 30 | 90 | | 134.8% | 9 | 23 | 29% | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A | class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |}

Projectile Damage Calculation

To calculate the projectile damage (or DPS) given the melee tooltip damage (or DPS) use the following formula:

where:

• %ID = Total % increased attack damage (including both melee and projectile increased attack damage)
• %IMD = % increased melee damage
• %IPD = % increased projectile damage
• %MMD = % more melee damage
• %MPD = % more projectile damage

(all % values expressed as decimal, e.g. 20% = 0.20)

projectile damage = tooltip_damage * (1.0 + %ID - %IMD) / (1.0 + %ID - %IPD) * (1.0 + %MPD) / (1.0 + %MMD)

In order to be accurate, %ID, %IMD, and %IPD must be calculated accurately, including any effects from Strength and Iron Grip if applicable. If using multiple melee or projectile more damage modifiers, then repeat the multiplicative terms (1.0 + %MMD) and/or (1.0 + %MPD) individually for each source. If using any less modifiers, then they apply in the same manner.

For example:

 Tooltip damage = 10-20
 % increased physical damage from passives = 20%
 % increased melee physical damage from passives = 60%
 % increased melee physical damage from 90 Strength = 18% (Iron Grip is not taken)
 % increased projectile damage from passives = 40%
 30% more melee damage (from level 1 Melee Physical Damage)
 30% more melee damage (from level 1 Melee Damage on Full Life)
 35% more projectile damage (from level 6 Physical Projectile Attack Damage)
 25% less projectile damage (from level 1 Lesser Multiple Projectiles)

 %ID = 0.2 + 0.6 + 0.18 + 0.4 = 1.38
 %IMD = 0.6 + 0.18 = 0.78
 %IPD = 0.4
 %MPD #1 = 1.35 (35% more)
 %MPD #2 = 0.75 (25% less)
 %MMD #1 = 1.3 (30% more)
 %MMD #2 = 1.3 (30% more)

projectile damage = [10 - 20] * (1.0 + 1.38 - 0.78) / (1.0 + 1.38 - 0.4)  * (1.35 * 0.75)/(1.3 * 1.3) = [10 - 20] * (0.4841)
projectile damage = [10 - 20] * (1.6)/(1.98)*(1.0125)/(1.69)
projectile damage = [10 - 20] * (0.4841) = [4.8 - 9.6]

Version history

Version	Changes
2.1.0	Attack skills that have their damage based on the wielded weapon have their mana costs fixed in place from level 1 onwards. Frost Blades has been improved from 2 additional projectiles at all levels to 4 additional projectiles at level 1 and 7 additional projectiles at level 20. It has also been increased from +14 weapon range at all levels to +18 weapon range at level 1 and +21 weapon range at level 20. It now gains 1% projectile speed per level after the first (19% at Level 20) and its base projectile speed has been increased by 25%.
2.0.0	Introduced to the game.