What are Ailments in Path of Exile 2 and what are their effects

Unlike some aRPGs, buffs and debuffs are a two-way street in Path of Exile 2. Most notably, debuffs, or Ailments as they’re called, can be a source of some nasty combos. You can use them to get rid of screens of enemies in a single swoop, but you can just as easily fall prey to them. We’ll explain what Ailments are in PoE2 and their effects.

What are Ailments in PoE2?

Ailments are a debuff type that affects a creature – both players and enemies. They can be physical or elemental, meaning that Resistance to their type will diminish its effect. Each Ailment has a unique effect tied to it, with many of them having a build-up mechanic that needs to meet a certain threshold. 

All Ailments and their effects in Path of Exile 2

Let’s go over all the ailments you can inflict (or suffer from) in the game. First, we’ll briefly list them below, then go into more detail about each one of them.

Ailment	Damage type	Effect
Stun	Physical	Stuns and staggers the target, making them inactive
Bleed	Physical	Deals damage over time, increased if the target is moving
Poison	Chaos	Deals damage over time
Ignite	Fire	Deals damage over time
Shock	Lightning	Increases target damage taken
Electrocute	Lightning	Immobilizes the target
Freeze	Cold	Slows and immobilizes the target

Stun

Stun relies on your Physical damage output to build up. While hitting the target, you’ll see a stun build-up under its life bar. Hitting the stun threshold will stagger the target, leaving it open for an attack. Some skills have interactions against stunned targets, for example. Once the target is stunned, you won’t stack any more build-up until the effect is over. There is also a secondary Heavy Stun that builds up alongside it, which lasts longer once it’s triggered.

Bleed

Bleed is a Physical damage-over-time effect that ticks for 70% of initially applied damage over 5 seconds. This increases to 210% if the target is moving. Note that you won’t trigger bleed if you hit an enemy’s Energy Shield – you have to deal damage to their Life bar directly. In contrast, Energy Shield can’t absorb any Bleed damage that’s already ticking. Additionally, you can’t apply multiple instances of Bleed – only the highest active instance will deal damage. Bleed also has an Aggravated Bleed version, which counts the target as “moving” at all times, thus dealing more damage.

Poison

Poison deals a mix of physical and Chaos damage-over-time ticking for 2 seconds. By default, you can only apply one stack of poison, but some skills and passives can increase this number, thus allowing you to deal more Poison damage in total. In addition, Poison damage bypasses Energy Shield mitigation, damaging the Life bar directly. If your character gets poisoned, your Life globe will turn green to indicate it.

Ignite

Ignite is another DoT effect, dealing around a quarter of the initially applied Fire damage over 4 seconds. This does not stack by default, instead, only the highest damage effect takes precedence. Targets have a fire threshold based on their Fire resistance, which affects the chance for Ignite to be applied. So each successive hit with Fire damage lowers the threshold and thus increases the chance for Ignite to take effect.

Shock

Shock is a debuff that increases the damage a target takes from successive hits. Those hits don’t have to come from Lightning damage either, making Shock a great combo tool. Shock effects don’t stack, however, only the strongest Shock effect applies to the target (in case you have multiple sources of Shock). Targets have a threshold based on their Lightning resistance, affecting the chance that Shock will be applied. The more you whittle down their Shock threshold, the higher the chance that Shock takes effect.

✓ Combo potential

Shock is the perfect Ailment to combo with others. It is worth investing into a source of Shock to pair up with any other damage source you use. Once combined, you should see damage numbers skyrocket due to Shock’s debuff effect.

Electrocute

Electrocute is an Ailment that immobilizes the target, effectively reducing their speed to zero. Unlike Shock, there is no build-up to Electrocute, despite belonging to the Lightning damage type. Instead, Electrocute’s effect is triggered by specific skills and gems. Also, note that Electrocute and Shock are two different Ailments, and can thus be stacked together.

Freeze

Freeze is an effect that happens once your Cold damage beats the target’s threshold, based on its Cold resistance. In essence, dealing Cold damage will slow down the target until the threshold is reached – then, the target will Freeze. This completely stops it in its tracks. There are abilities and skills that interact with frozen enemies, often making them shatter. In addition, after unfreezing, the target will become cumulatively more resistant to future freezes.

✓ pro tip

Due to its diminishing returns, don’t rely on just Freeze to kill off enemies. It will usually work well enough on smaller mobs, but against anything tougher, you’ll find yourself in a difficult spot once their freeze immunity builds up from exposure. Instead, look to diversify your damage palette and use Freeze as a setup for other damage sources.

Read our beginner’s tips and tricks for Path of Exile 2 to pair up with Ailments. Also, check out how to use Support Gems and Skill Gems.