Herald of Ash

Not to be confused with Herald of Ashes.

Herald of Ash is a self cast buff that reserves mana to increase damage output. See also Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder.

Like Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder Herald of Ash has two distinct components.

The first is additive damage increase, adding X% increased physical damage as fire damage to attacks.

The second is the on-kill effect. Upon killing an enemy other nearby enemies are ignited for the value of "overkill" damage. The on-kill effect of Herald of Ash only applies to enemies killed by attacks.

"Overkill" damage refers to the damage of the killing hit which exceeds the remaining life of the monster.

(Example:If the player deals 1000 points of damage to an enemy with 400 points of remaining life the "overkill" damage would be 600 points)

The overkill damage value used for the on-kill effect is based on the total excess damage of the killing hit, not just its fire damage.

Skill Functions and Interactions

Quality

The 0.75% increased Fire Damage per Quality apply globally. Both the On-Kill and the Passive Buff will be increased by it, as well as any other Fire damage e.g. from or Avatar of Fire or simply because the spell deals Fire Damage (such as ).

Support gems

Any support gems (with the exception of ) linked to the Herald of Ash will only work on its secondary effect - burn damage caused by ignition from overkill damage, but won't work on the initial attack. For example, linking IIR gem will only apply rarity bonus to the enemies who die from the burn damage caused by Herald of Ash ignition, but won't apply it to enemies killed by your attack skill.

Spells and Casts

Herald of Ash is a cast and Not a Spell and accordingly receives no bonuses from spell modifiers be-they from Passives, Items or spell only gems such as or . While Herald of Ash is classified as a cast it does not utilise any mechanics which take advantage of cast speed. With the minor exception of the initial casting of Herald of Ash on the player.

Area of Effect

AoE modifiers from Passives, Items and Gems affect the radius of the on-kill effect. It is currently unknown if the damage multiplier from affects the ignite.

Proliferation

The damage caused by the on-kill effect is classified as an ignite and can be proliferated. Upon killing multiple enemies, via or "Area of Efect" skills, the proliferation appears to operate in a similar fashion to burning damage from other sources. In that proliferation of burning damage from multiple sources does not stack, the largest burn is proliferated to all targets in range _{(Im willing to be corrected on this if anyone can show different)}

Fire

Both the X% additive damage and the on-kill effect receive bonuses from Fire and Elemental modifiers. Its worth noting that since the on-kill effect is classified as Burning damage it is also affected by "increased Burning damage" and "Damage over time" modifiers from Passive, Items and Gems

Reflect

As mentioned previously, the on-kill effect causes Burning damage which is a Fire "Degeneration" and cannot be reflected.

Culling

When using an attack with Culling Strike, the overkill effect will only apply if the killing blow takes the monster to less than 0% life. Between 0% and 10% the overkill graphic does not appear when the monster dies.

Skill Video

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Path of Exile: HERALD OF ASH Skill Gem Mechanics Guide & Analysis

Gem level progression

Template:GemLevelTable |- ! 1 | 24 || 37 || 25 || 100 || 118,383 |- ! 2 | 27 || 41 || 28 || 103 || 175,816 |- ! 3 | 30 || 45 || 31 || 106 || 254,061 |- ! 4 | 33 || 49 || 34 || 109 || 225,766 |- ! 5 | 35 || 51 || 36 || 112 || 447,718 |- ! 6 | 38 || 55 || 38 || 115 || 388,734 |- ! 7 | 40 || 58 || 40 || 118 || 755,049 |- ! 8 | 43 || 62 || 43 || 121 || 1,016,533 |- ! 9 | 46 || 66 || 46 || 124 || 860,401 |- ! 10 | 48 || 69 || 48 || 127 || 1,038,201 |- ! 11 | 50 || 71 || 49 || 130 || 1,248,678 |- ! 12 | 52 || 74 || 51 || 133 || 1,498,138 |- ! 13 | 54 || 76 || 53 || 136 || 1,790,934 |- ! 14 | 56 || 79 || 55 || 139 || 3,351,223 |- ! 15 | 58 || 82 || 57 || 142 || 9,900,250 |- ! 16 | 60 || 84 || 59 || 145 || 21,274,363 |- ! 17 | 62 || 87 || 60 || 148 || 50,550,118 |- ! 18 | 64 || 90 || 62 || 151 || 89,834,713 |- ! 19 | 66 || 92 || 64 || 154 || 146,782,704 |- ! 20 | 68 || 95 || 66 || 157 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 21 | 70 || 98 || 68 || 160 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 22 | || || || 163 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 23 | || || || 166 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 24 | || || || 169 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 25 | || || || 172 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 26 | || || || 175 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 27 | || || || 178 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 28 | || || || 181 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 29 | || || || 184 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 30 | || || || 187 || 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.

Strategy

In the case where enemy death occurs uniformly at random with respect to damage dealt, the chance of an enemy dying from a particular hit is proportional to the damage the hit deals. The mean overkill damage for that hit is half the damage of the hit. This makes the mean overkill damage overall equal to

 0.5 * mean (damage2) / mean damage

Version history

Version	Changes
1.2.0	Herald of Ash has been added to the game.