Physical | PoE2 Mechanic · WikiHere PoE2

What Physical does

Current rules

Physical Damage is one of the five damage types. It is not the same classification as Attack, Spell, Melee, Projectile, or Hit. Physical damage from Hits is normally mitigated by Armour and Physical Damage Reduction, while Physical damage over time is not mitigated by Armour.

Damage type, not skill type: An Attack or Spell can deal Physical Damage. Converting that damage to another type does not change whether the Skill is an Attack or Spell, and a Physical tag does not by itself make a Skill Melee or Projectile.
Local weapon Physical Damage: On a normal Martial Weapon, local added Physical Damage, local increased Physical Damage, and weapon Quality change the weapon's displayed Physical Damage. An Attack that uses that weapon starts from the resulting weapon value before its own damage multiplier and normal Skill conversion.
Global Physical Damage: Global increased and more Physical Damage modifiers apply only to damage that is Physical at the stage when those modifiers are applied. After Physical Damage is converted, the converted portion scales with its new damage type instead of Physical Damage.
Conversion order: Conversion inherent to a Skill occurs first. Conversion from other sources occurs second. The resulting damage is scaled by its final damage type, and damage over time cannot be converted.
Armour and reduction: Armour normally mitigates Physical Damage from Hits and is more effective against smaller Hits than larger Hits. Other sources of Physical Damage Reduction can also apply, and total Physical Damage Reduction is capped at 90%.
Overwhelm: Overwhelm ignores the stated amount of the target's Physical Damage Reduction, but it cannot ignore more reduction than the target has and therefore cannot make Physical Damage Reduction negative.
Armour Break: Armour Break lowers the target's Armour. At zero Armour, non-player targets are Fully Broken for 12 seconds, lose the benefit of Armour, and take 20% increased Physical Damage from Hits. Fully Broken Armour on players lasts 4 seconds and does not give that increased damage taken effect.
Armour below zero: An effect that permits Armour Break below zero can give an enemy negative Armour, increasing Physical Damage from Hits. The amount broken below zero is capped by that enemy's base Armour.
Bleeding: Physical Damage from a Hit contributes to Bleeding Magnitude by default, but Physical Damage does not provide Bleeding chance. A separate chance or guaranteed application is required. Base Bleeding deals 15% of the Hit's pre-mitigation Physical Damage per second for 5 seconds.

Worked examples and interactions

7 cases

01

Local weapon calculation

A weapon with 50 to 100 base Physical Damage, 25 to 50 local added Physical Damage, and 100% local increased Physical Damage displays 150 to 300 Physical Damage. That displayed weapon damage is the base used by ordinary weapon Attacks.

Related: Attack, Item Modifiers, Quality

02

Partial conversion

A Skill converting 60% of 100 Physical Damage to Lightning starts with 40 Physical and 60 Lightning Damage after conversion. With 100% global increased Physical Damage and no other modifiers, only the Physical portion becomes 80; the Lightning portion remains 60.

03

Generic modifiers after conversion

A generic modifier such as increased Attack Damage can scale both portions of a converted Attack when both still satisfy the Attack predicate. A modifier such as increased Physical Damage scales only the final Physical portion.

04

Bleeding magnitude

A Hit with 1,000 pre-mitigation Physical Damage creates a base Bleeding Magnitude of 150 Physical Damage per second for 5 seconds when it has a valid source of Bleeding chance and no other magnitude changes.

Related: Bleeding, Hit

05

Bleeding and movement

Bleeding inflicted on a monster deals 100% extra damage while that target is moving or while that Bleeding is Aggravated. Since 0.5.0, Bleeding on a player no longer gains extra damage because the player is moving.

Related: Bleeding

06

Fully Broken Armour and Bleeding

The 20% increased Physical Damage taken from Fully Broken Armour on a non-player target applies to Hits. It increases the Physical Hit but does not directly multiply Bleeding because Bleeding is damage over time and the modifier is restricted to Hits.

Related: Armour, Bleeding, Hit

07

Overwhelm versus negative Armour

Overwhelm can reduce effective Physical Damage Reduction only to zero. Armour Break below zero is a different mechanic and can make Physical Hits deal more damage through negative Armour when an effect explicitly permits it.

Related: Armour

Rare monster modifiers

1 linked

01

Extra Physical Damage Aura

You and nearby allies gain increased Global Physical Damage. The documented normal and enhanced values are 20% and 40%.

Limits and exceptions

7 rules

Physical is a damage type, not a guarantee that the Skill is an Attack, Melee, Projectile, or Hit.
Local increased Physical Damage on a Martial Weapon changes the weapon's own displayed base damage. Global increased Physical Damage is a later modifier and does not scale a portion converted to another type.
Some weapon base types have inherent hidden conversion that occurs before other local modifiers. Check the displayed Physical and Elemental damage lines instead of assuming every hybrid weapon uses the ordinary local calculation.
Armour does not mitigate Physical damage over time. A modifier restricted to Physical Damage from Hits also does not affect Bleeding or Corrupted Blood.
Physical Damage alone cannot inflict Bleeding. The Skill, item, passive, or another effect must supply a chance or guaranteed application.
Overwhelm cannot make Physical Damage Reduction negative. It is not the same operation as an effect that explicitly allows Armour Break below zero.
Bleeding Magnitude uses pre-mitigation Physical Hit damage, so lowering the target's Armour does not make the Bleeding calculation start from a larger Hit. General damage-taken effects can still change the damage the target ultimately takes.

Related pages

12 connections

mechanicDamage

Damage is classified on three independent axes: source, delivery, and type. A component can come from an Attack, Spell, Thorns, or another source; deal a Hit or damage over time; and deal Physical, Fire, Cold, Lightning, or Chaos damage.

mechanicAttack

An Attack is a skill with the Attack tag. It normally takes its base damage, attack speed, and base Critical Hit Chance from an equipped Martial Weapon, unless the skill states a different rule.

mechanicSpell

A Spell is a skill with the Spell tag. Any base damage, Cast Time, and base Critical Hit Chance it lists come from the skill rather than the inherent damage, Attack Speed, or base Critical Hit Chance on a weapon.

mechanicHit

A Hit is an instantaneous damage event. Any damage that is not damage over time is Hit damage, whether it comes from an Attack, a Spell, Thorns, or another effect.

mechanicArmour

Armour reduces applicable damage from Hits. By default it applies only to Physical Hit damage, and its reduction depends on the raw damage of each Hit rather than providing one fixed percentage.

mechanicBleeding

Bleeding is a damaging Ailment that deals Physical damage over time and bypasses Energy Shield. It lasts five seconds by default and requires an explicit chance or effect that can inflict Bleeding.

mechanicPoison

Poison is a damaging Ailment that deals Chaos damage over time and bypasses Energy Shield. It lasts two seconds by default and requires an explicit chance or effect that can inflict Poison.

mechanicCorrupted Blood

Corrupted Blood is a stacking Debuff that deals Physical damage over time. A target can normally have up to ten Corrupted Blood Debuffs, and applying a new stack refreshes the duration of the existing stacks.

mechanicDamage Conversion

Damage Conversion changes part or all of one Hit damage type into another. In Path of Exile 2, the converted portion uses only its new damage type for scaling, mitigation, and default ailment contribution. It no longer keeps the old damage type.

mechanicQuality

Quality is a local item or skill stat that improves a characteristic tied to the item type. Most items that support Quality have a default maximum of 20%.

mechanicItem Modifiers

Item modifiers are stat lines or rules attached to an item. They include implicit modifiers, explicit prefixes and suffixes, enchantments, corruption enchantments, crafted and Desecrated modifiers, fractured modifiers, and the fixed effects on Unique items.

mechanicStun

Stun interrupts the target's current action and briefly prevents it from acting. Path of Exile 2 has two related systems: Light Stun is rolled from the damage of one Hit, while Heavy Stun is caused by filling a separate buildup bar.

Items and gems using this mechanic

24 connections

Direct relationAbyssal Pact

Sacrifice some of a damageable Minion's life to deal Physical damage in an area around it.

Direct relationArmour Breaker

Strike with a forceful blow, knocking enemies back and weakening their Armour.

Direct relationBlistering Bond

+(40-60) to maximum Life

Blistering BondUnique | Ruby Ring

RequiresLevel 8+(20-30)% to Fire Resistance+(40-60) to maximum Life(-15--10)% to Cold ResistanceYou take Fire Damage instead of Physical Damage from BleedingFire Damage also Contributes to Bleeding MagnitudeBleeding you inflict deals Fire Damage instead of Physical Damage"The Brotherhood of Silence does not set out to torture our targets.Excruciating pain is simply a byproduct of certain... necessary methods."

Direct relationBlood Hunt

Lunge at a target and skewers them. Hitting an enemy that has suffered Blood Loss will cause a blood explosion and also Consume Bleeding. This skill cannot be Ancestrally Boosted.

Direct relationBloodhound's Mark

Mark a target, making them suffer Heavy Stun build up from Blood Loss. The Mark will Activate, Consuming itself to Trigger Blood Explosion, when they are Heavy Stunned, or when they are killed if they suffered enough Blood Loss. The Mark's duration does not expire while the Marked target is suffering Blood Loss.

Direct relationBone Offering

Impale a Skeleton on a bone spike to shield your Minions while the spike remains, reducing the amount of damage taken from Hits. Taking a Hit that deals damage above a certain threshold will cause that Minion's shield to absorb all damage from that Hit, then explode. The bone spike is itself a Minion, and shields itself. If it dies, shields on your other Minions disappear.

Direct relationDetonate Dead

Cause a Corpse to violently explode, damaging surrounding enemies.

Direct relationFortifying Cry

Perform a Warcry that grants Guard and Triggers Shield Wave when subsequent Shield Attacks deal damage. This Skill's cooldown can be bypassed by expending an Endurance Charge.

Direct relationGoregirdle

+(20-30) to Strength

Direct relationIron Ward

While active, stores a percentage of the Physical damage that is prevented by your Armour or other sources of damage reduction. Using this Skill releases the stored damage as a nova of spikes.

Direct relationPlague Bearer

While active, stores a portion of the Poison Damage you deal. Using this Skill unleashes the stored Poison to damage and Poison enemies around you.

Direct relationPower Siphon

Attempt to rip the lifeforce from an enemy. Enemies within Culling range will be highlighted and instantly killed on Hit, granting a Power Charge. Can only target Enemies in Culling range.

Direct relationRaise Zombie

Consume a Corpse or Power Charge to create a short-lived Zombie. Zombies created from Power Charges are Empowered and also create two additional non-empowered Zombies.

Direct relationRake

Dash towards an enemy and perform a lacerating slash, inflicting Bleeding on all enemies struck.

Direct relationRapid Assault

Perform a series of six rapid stabs. The final stab inflicts Bleeding and leaves a spearhead stuck in the target, Maiming them for a duration. Detonator Skills will cause the stuck spearheads to explode, dealing further damage to the target and other nearby enemies.

Direct relationResonating Shield

Repeatedly hammer your Shield with your weapon causing damaging shockwaves in an area around you. Enemies hit by the shockwave lose Armour for a duration. While Channelling Resonating Shield, your Shield is raised and you will Block all incoming Blockable hits.

Direct relationScavenged Plating

While active, uses fragments of armour scavenged from enemies to bolster your own. Fully Breaking an enemy's Armour grants you stacks of Scavenged Plating for a duration based on the enemy's Rarity, and you gain Armour and Thorns per stack. Normal enemies grant 1 stack, Magic enemies grant 2 stacks, Rare enemies grant 5 stacks and Unique enemies grant 10 stacks.

Direct relationSeismic Cry

Perform a damaging Warcry, Knocking Back nearby enemies and Heavy Stunning enemies that are Primed for Stun. If an enemy is Heavy Stunned or a currently Heavy Stunned enemy is Hit, this Skill Empowers subsequent Slams to perform an additional Aftershock. This Skill's cooldown can be bypassed by expending an Endurance Charge.

Direct relationShield Charge

Channel to charge in the target direction. You will crash into enemies on your path, stopping your charge and dealing damage to enemies in an area, and extra damage to the enemies you collided with. While charging, your Shield is raised and you will Block all incoming Blockable hits.

Direct relationShield Wall

Ram your Shield into the ground, throwing up a wall of earth. Enemies can attack your wall segments, and your Slams, Warcries, and Shield Charge will instantly shatter them all. The segments explode when shattered, damaging enemies in front of and around them.

Direct relationSkeletal Brute

Activate to summon hard-hitting, Reviving Skeletal Brutes that can Stun Primed enemies and Warcry on Command. This Warcry Intimidates nearby enemies and Consumes Freeze on enemies and allies to deal damage in an Area around them.

Direct relationSkeletal Reaver

Activate to summon aggressive, Reviving Skeletal Reavers that can enrage on Command. Skeletal Reavers do more Attack Damage and gain increased Attack speed based on their Rage

Direct relationSkeletal Warrior

Activate to summon Reviving Skeletal Warriors.

Direct relationTornado Shot

Fire a skyward shot that whips up a Tornado where it lands, dealing Physical damage over time and Hindering enemies standing in it. Arrows, thrown Spears and Crossbow bolts fired at the Tornado are sucked into it, causing the Tornado to spit out a ring of copied Projectiles. Copied Projectiles cannot be copied again, even by further Tornados.