Vaal Molten Shell

Vaal Molten Shell is a vaal skill that temporarily grants you extra armour and causes you deal a burst of fire damage for each hit you take, for a short duration.

Skill Functions and Interactions

Absorbed Damage: Once cast, any damage that is negated by armor (including armor gained via Granite Flask), blocking, or by the skill Immortal Call will count towards triggering explosions. The only damage mitigation provided by the skill is the bonus to armour while the buff is active. The Detonation Threshold stat only indicates the threshold at which the buff will end and an explosion will take place.

Duration: Skill duration and buff/debuff duration will both increase the duration of Vaal Molten Shell. When the duration of Vaal Molten Shell expires, the buff and any accumulated damage toward an explosion is lost. An explosion will not occur if Vaal Molten Shell's buff timer times out.

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 mob 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 mana cost of Vaal Molten Shell gates the strength of the gem. In addition, while the armor offered during Vaal Molten Shell's duration is first-rate, it may cause conflicts with Cast When Damage Taken.

Gem level progression

Template:GemLevelTable |- ! 1 | 10 || 29 || 22 || 26–39 || 88 || 9,569 |- ! 2 | 13 || 35 || 24 || 35–52 || 116 || 18,908 |- ! 3 | 16 || 41 || 28 || 45–68 || 148 || 33,871 |- ! 4 | 19 || 48 || 30 || 59–88 || 181 || 56,446 |- ! 5 | 22 || 54 || 34 || 75–113 || 216 || 89,302 |- ! 6 | 25 || 60 || 36 || 95–143 || 253 || 135,415 |- ! 7 | 28 || 67 || 38 || 120–180 || 294 || 283,759 |- ! 8 | 32 || 75 || 42 || 161–241 || 347 || 453,996 |- ! 9 | 36 || 83 || 46 || 214–321 || 403 || 703,128 |- ! 10 | 40 || 92 || 50 || 283–425 || 462 || 1,061,223 |- ! 11 | 44 || 100 || 54 || 372–558 || 526 || 1,570,760 |- ! 12 | 47 || 106 || 58 || 455–682 || 580 || 2,286,879 |- ! 13 | 50 || 113 || 60 || 554–831 || 636 || 3,289,072 |- ! 14 | 53 || 119 || 62 || 674–1010 || 695 || 3,351,223 |- ! 15 | 56 || 125 || 64 || 817–1226 || 757 || 9,935,033 |- ! 16 | 59 || 132 || 66 || 989–1483 || 822 || 21,343,930 |- ! 17 | 62 || 138 || 66 || 1195–1792 || 888 || 50,689,250 |- ! 18 | 64 || 142 || 68 || 1354–2031 || 943 || 90,043,412 |- ! 19 | 66 || 146 || 69 || 1533–2300 || 1000 || 147,026,187 |- ! 20 | 68 || 151 || 70 || 1735–2602 || 1058 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 21 | 68 || 151 || 71 || 1962–2943 || 1117 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 22 | 68 || 151 || 72 || 2217–3326 || 1180 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 23 | 68 || 151 || 73 || 2504–3756 || 1243 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 24 | 68 || 151 || 74 || 2827–4240 || 1308 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 25 | 68 || 151 || 75 || 3189–4784 || 1374 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 26 | 68 || 151 || 76 || 3596–5394 || 1443 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 27 | 68 || 151 || 77 || 4053–6080 || 1512 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 28 | 68 || 151 || 78 || 4566–6849 || 1584 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 29 | 68 || 151 || 79 || 5141–7712 || 1657 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |- ! 30 | 68 || 151 || 80 || 5787–8680 || 1732 || class="table-na" style="text-align: center; " | N/A |}

Video Demonstration

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Version History

Version	Changes
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 .
1.1.0	Introduced to the game.