Titan Quest 2 Ailments Guide – Status Effects & Resistances
Ailments in Titan Quest 2 add extra layers of damage and control effects to your build. They deal true damage over time or debilitate enemies, ignoring most resistances and applying unique debuffs. Understanding how ailments work is very important to making effective offensive or defensive builds.
Damaging Ailments
Bleeding: Damage over time from pierce-based attacks. Often applied by melee weapons and certain projectile skills.
Burning: Fire damage over time that bypasses most resistances. Scales with fire damage modifiers.
Chilled: Applies cold damage over time and slows enemy movement and attack speed.
Shocked: Deals lightning damage over time and can interrupt enemy actions.
Plagued: Poison damage over time, common on thrown weapons and poison-based skills.
Shadow: Damage over time based on vitality scaling, often paired with life drain.
Holy: Spirit-based damage over time, primarily linked to light or support-based attacks.
These effects stack up to the ailment limit, allowing sustained true damage against high-health targets.
Non-Damaging Ailments
Staggered: Reduces enemy movement and attack speed, making them easier to kite or burst down.
Weakened: Lowers enemy damage output for a set duration.
Disrupted: Short mini-stun that interrupts actions and cancels enemy channeling skills.
These effects improve survivability by slowing or disabling enemy attacks rather than dealing raw damage.
Ailment Mechanics
Stacking
Ailments have a default maximum stack count of 10, with a hard cap of 20. Each stack increases total damage or extends the debuff’s strength.
Application Chance
Ailments have an application chance tied to the skill or weapon used. Over 100% application chance can add additional stacks (for example, 150% chance may apply two stacks at once). Enemy resistances reduce this chance, and high resistance may prevent application entirely.
Scaling
Ailments scale with ailment power, duration, and stacks. They cannot critically strike by default. Damage from ailments is true damage, meaning resistances don’t reduce their damage per tick, only the chance for the ailment to apply.
Defensive Interaction
Resistances reduce both hit damage and the chance of an ailment applying, up to a cap of 60%. Some resistances are combined:
Thermic Resistance reduces both fire and cold damage and their ailments (Burning and Chilled).
Lightning Resistance also reduces the chance to be Shocked.
Poison Resistance reduces the chance to be Plagued.
Other ailments like Bleeding, Staggered, and Weakened have stand-alone resistances. Reducing enemy application chance is often more effective than trying to out-heal true damage over time.
How to Use Ailments Offensively
Builds focused on ailments should stack:
Application chance from gear and passives
Duration increases for longer effects
Ailment power for stronger damage per tick
These builds excel against high-defense enemies because ailments bypass most direct damage mitigation.
How to Counter Ailments
Defensively, aim for high resistances tied to the damage type causing the ailment. Gear with specific ailment resistance, cleanse skills, or temporary barrier shields can reduce or negate their impact.
Final Blurb
Ailments in Titan Quest 2 offer strong offensive power and reliable crowd control options. They stack, scale independently of critical hits, and deal true damage, making them dangerous to both apply and ignore.
Understanding how to apply and counter ailments is vital for any build aiming to survive or dominate in combat.
FAQ
Do ailments ignore armor?
Yes. Armor only affects direct physical damage like Strike or Pierce, not damage over time from ailments.
Can ailments critically strike?
No. Ailments scale through power, duration, and stacks, not critical strike chance.
How do I increase ailment stacks faster?
Increase application chance beyond 100% and use skills with built-in ailment tags to stack effects more quickly.
Can resistances completely prevent ailments?
Yes, high resistance reduces application chance, and enough resistance can fully prevent some ailments from applying.
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