Vaal Molten Shell

Vaal Molten ShellVaal, Spell, AoE, Duration, Fire
Level: (1-20)
Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec
Can Store 1 Use(s)
Souls Per Use: 50
Can Store 1 Use(s)
Soul Gain Prevention: 7 sec
Cast Time: Instant
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Effectiveness of Added Damage: 200%Requires Level 4Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. Whenever you prevent any amount of physical damage from a hit, the shields cause a burst of flame, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.Deals (9-696) to (14-1043) Fire Damage
(17-943) additional Armour
Base duration is 5 seconds
Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain PreventionPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.

Acquisition
Drop level: 4Vendor Offer
1x Scroll FragmentMetadata
Item class: Skill Gem
Metadata ID: Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemVaalMoltenShell

For the non-Vaal counterpart, see Molten Shell.

Vaal Molten Shell is a vaal spell that temporarily grants the player extra armour and causes them to deal a burst of fire damage for each physical hit they take.

Skill functions and interactions

• Duration: Skill duration modifiers will increase the duration of Vaal Molten Shell.

• Critical Strike Chance: Vaal Molten Shell's chance to crit is decided when the user initially casts the spell. It uses the user's crit chance to determine if all Vaal Molten Shell procs will crit or not crit. This means that the spell will either crit for every proc of the duration or none of them, making a Diamond FlaskDiamond FlaskLasts 6.00 Seconds
  Consumes 20 of 40 Charges on use
  100% increased Global Critical Strike ChanceRequires Level 27Right click to drink. Can only hold charges while in belt. Refills as you kill monsters. the most effective flask to consume before casting the spell.

• Damage reflection: Vaal Molten Shell doesn't trigger on reflected damage.

• Molten Shell: Casting Molten ShellMolten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Guard
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost: (8-12) Mana
  Cooldown Time: 4.00 sec
  Can Store 1 Use(s)
  Cast Time: Instant
  AoE Radius: 15Requires Level 4Applies a buff that adds to your armour, and can take some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. When the buff expires or is depleted, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken from the buff. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.Base duration is 3.00 seconds
  This Skill's Cooldown does not recover during its effect
  Buff grants +(50-858) to Armour
  75% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield
  Buff can take Damage equal to 10% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 5000
  Reflects (100-3000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage when Buff expires or is depleted
  
  Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
  (1-20)% increased Skill Effect DurationPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. while Vaal Molten Shell is active will terminate the Vaal Molten Shell buff and replace it for the casted Molten Shell. This will happen both ways (when Vaal Molten Shell is casted while Molten Shell is active). This makes it unfavorable to use both skills in conjunction with one another.

Strategy

Unlike its non-Vaal counterpart, Vaal Molten Shell will persist for the full duration, regardless of how many times an explosion is triggered. This unique property offers potentially vastly more utility than Molten Shell at the cost of less availability. Because of this, it is recommended that Vaal Molten Shell be saved for an occasion in which it will offer the greatest benefit, such as during an encounter with a unique monster or even a troublesome rare.

Due to the nature of Vaal Molten Shell, it has synergy with support gems that utilize the potentially frequent explosions, such as stun or life leech; however, the rather steep soul cost of Vaal Molten Shell gates the strength of the gem. In addition, while the armour offered during Vaal Molten Shell's duration is first-rate, it may cause conflicts with Cast when Damage Taken SupportCast when Damage Taken SupportSupport, Spell, Trigger
Icon: !
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 250%
Cooldown Time: 0.25 sec
Can Store 1 Use(s)Requires Level 38Each supported spell skill will track damage you take, and be triggered when the total damage taken reaches a threshold. Cannot support skills used by totems, traps, or mines. Vaal skills, channelling skills, and skills with a reservation cannot be triggered.This Gem can only Support Skill Gems requiring Level (38-70) or lower
Supported Skills deal (65-27)% less Damage
Trigger Supported Spells when you take (528-3272) total Damage from Hits

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Supported Skills require (0.5-10)% reduced amount of Damage taken to TriggerThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket..

Items which deal damage to you will also trigger the explosion:

• Scold's BridleScold's Bridle
  Mind CageEnergy Shield: (73-84)Requires Level 65, 138 Int(80-100)% increased Spell Damage
  15% reduced Cast Speed
  +(30-60) to maximum Mana
  Your Skills deal you 400% of Mana Spent on Upfront Skill Mana Costs as Physical Damage"The sharper the pain, the sharper the mind.
  A curious paradox."
  - Shavronne of Umbra when using any skill

Gem level progression

Level			Fire Damage	Armour	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	4	16	N/A	N/A	0	0
2	6	20	N/A	N/A	841	841
3	9	27	N/A	N/A	3099	3940
4	12	33	N/A	N/A	7433	11373
5	16	41	N/A	N/A	22895	34268
6	20	50	N/A	N/A	49725	83993
7	24	58	N/A	N/A	95714	179707
8	28	67	N/A	N/A	169595	349302
9	32	75	N/A	N/A	283759	633061
10	36	83	N/A	N/A	453996	1087057
11	40	92	N/A	N/A	703128	1790185
12	44	100	N/A	N/A	1061223	2851408
13	48	109	N/A	N/A	2065870	4917278
14	52	117	N/A	N/A	2507110	7424388
15	55	123	N/A	N/A	2573731	9998119
16	58	130	N/A	N/A	7611351	17609470
17	61	136	N/A	N/A	13437908	31047378
18	64	142	N/A	N/A	25052147	56099525
19	67	148	N/A	N/A	43869436	99968961
20	70	155	N/A	N/A	242081178	342050139
21	72	159	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Video demonstration

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Version history

Version	Changes
3.4.0	Now has a Soul Gain Prevention duration of 7 seconds (up from 5).
2.6.0	Changed the explosion effect. The new one has better performance.
2.4.0	Vaal Molten Shell now causes an explosion when it prevents any physical damage, rather than when it takes any hit.
2.3.2	When switching between regular and Vaal Molten Shell, the shield will now visually destroy and recreate itself. Fixed a bug where Molten Shell buff effect bonuses did not apply to Vaal Molten Shell.
2.3.0	Vaal Molten ShellVaal Molten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Vaal, Guard Level: (1-20) Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Souls Per Use: 50 Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 14 sec Cast Time: InstantRequires Level 4Applies a buff that raises your armour, and takes some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. Each second, the skill deals reflected damage to surrounding enemies based on the damage taken by the buff in that second. When the buff is removed, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken by the buff. You cannot have the buff at the same time as any other Guard skill.Base duration is 9.00 seconds Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention Buff grants +(50-858) to Armour (35-39)% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield Buff can take Damage equal to 20% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 10000 Reflects (300-9000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage each second, or when Buff expires or is depleted Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: (1-20)% increased Skill Effect DurationCorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.'s duration has been reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds at all gem levels. Its damage has been reduced at high levels. It does the same damage at gem level 1, up to half the damage it previously did at gem level 20.
2.2.0	Cast time reduced from 1 sec to 500 ms.
2.1.0	Fixed a bug where Molten ShellMolten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Guard Level: (1-20) Cost: (8-12) Mana Cooldown Time: 4.00 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Cast Time: Instant AoE Radius: 15Requires Level 4Applies a buff that adds to your armour, and can take some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. When the buff expires or is depleted, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken from the buff. Shares a cooldown with other Guard skills.Base duration is 3.00 seconds This Skill's Cooldown does not recover during its effect Buff grants +(50-858) to Armour 75% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield Buff can take Damage equal to 10% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 5000 Reflects (100-3000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage when Buff expires or is depleted Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: (1-20)% increased Skill Effect DurationPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. could be applied multiple times via Spell Echo.
1.1.0d	Vaal Skill soul counts were initially balanced for Merciless difficulty, where there are more monsters. We want them to be easier to use in Normal and Cruel difficulty. We have halved the number of souls required for each skill. In Cruel difficulty, skills require 50% more souls to uses. In Merciless difficulty, they require 100% more (which is the same as before the patch).
1.1.0b	Fixed a bug with damage feedback on Vaal Molten ShellVaal Molten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire, Physical, Vaal, Guard Level: (1-20) Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec Can Store 1 Use(s) Souls Per Use: 50 Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 14 sec Cast Time: InstantRequires Level 4Applies a buff that raises your armour, and takes some of the damage from hits for you before being depleted. Each second, the skill deals reflected damage to surrounding enemies based on the damage taken by the buff in that second. When the buff is removed, the skill deals reflected damage to enemies around you based on the total damage that was taken by the buff. You cannot have the buff at the same time as any other Guard skill.Base duration is 9.00 seconds Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention Buff grants +(50-858) to Armour (35-39)% of Damage from Hits is taken from the Buff before your Life or Energy Shield Buff can take Damage equal to 20% of your Armour, up to a maximum of 10000 Reflects (300-9000)% of Damage taken from Buff as Fire Damage each second, or when Buff expires or is depleted Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality: (1-20)% increased Skill Effect DurationCorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket..
1.1.0	Introduced to the game.