Spell Damage and RF

It is so counter intuitive that this skill - which has the "Spell" tag - is not affected by "increase Spell Damage".

Why is this? Is there a good reason? Or is it just a n00b trap? Would it be catastrophic to change it and *stop* trapping n00bs with weapons that aren't actually improving their damage, even though by all reason and logic it should?

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. Spell damage modifiers do not scale Righteous Fire's damage despite being a spell gem as spell damage and damage over time are two distinct and mutually exclusive damage sources.

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Jaikai#2905 wrote:

spell damage and damage over time are two distinct and mutually exclusive damage sources.

Why mutually exclusive? That's stupid and inconsistent.

That’s how it’s defined. I can’t give you information about the why since I’m not part of the GGG team. I can simply give you the facts

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PhotriusPyrelus#6133 wrote:

It is so counter intuitive that this skill - which has the "Spell" tag - is not affected by "increase Spell Damage".

Why is this? Is there a good reason? Or is it just a n00b trap? Would it be catastrophic to change it and *stop* trapping n00bs with weapons that aren't actually improving their damage, even though by all reason and logic it should?

its GGG's way of making the game unnecessarily more complex for no reason whatsoever.

the game just needs a major QOL patch so that (new players) like myself dont fall for this trap (cuz i have many times)....... not just for RF

its an absolute nightmare this has to be even mentioned to be honest.. to ggg

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TechnicallBrains#4648 wrote:

its GGG's way of making the game unnecessarily more complex for no reason whatsoever.

the game just needs a major QOL patch so that (new players) like myself dont fall for this trap (cuz i have many times)....... not just for RF

its an absolute nightmare this has to be even mentioned to be honest.. to ggg

It's so annoying. I don't mind a game being complex, or difficult. But when the complexity and difficulty come from the mechanics being opaque, that's stupid and *probably* the product of sheer laziness.

I've been playing off and on since Act 3 was as far as the game went. *TODAY* I learned that flask charges are allocated round-robin style. For whatever reason, I thought if you earned a flask charge, *ALL* your flasks gained a charge.

its not even designed to be a damaging skill.


RF gives you spell damage, you dont give RF spell damage.

"Righteous Fire is a spell that applies a permanent buff on the player, which grants more spell damage to the user while active and applies a potent burning effect on the player and surrounding enemies that scales with the user's maximum life and energy shield pool."


the design of the skill is that it gives you this...

"Grants (20-39)% more Spell Damage"


with the downside that it makes you vulnerable by burning away your life, the ring of fire is there as a further form of protection.


the idea that you would use this skill as your primary source of damage, and would in fact build in a way where you do not take any damage from it is a creative use of the skill. that is not its primary intended function.



many spells can be used in a way that result in an enemy burning and a lot of those burns are not scaled with spell damage. skills that are designed primarily as damage dealing skills that always deal burning damage have a mod that makes spell damage apply to their damage over time, and it specifically states this unusual behaviour on those gems so that they are not noob traps.

that is not the reason RF was designed. RF is a buff that gives you spell damage, it is like an aura, it is a spell that you cast on yourself.

herald of ice/thunder are also a spells that you cast on yourself that give you a buff, they also deals damage that is not scaled with spell damage. herald of ash causes burning damage from overkills, that is scaled through burning like RF, but not through spell damage.


its not really inconsistent. personally i think if you are perverting rf to be your primary damage skill and dealing with all the mechanics of sustaining rf through resistance and regen etc then you are so deep in the mechanics of poe that you are not a noob who the game should presume is unaware of the skills mechanics?

back in the day you did see a lot of casters using RF as intended, for buffing their spell damage. but its been primarily used as a damaging skill itself for so long now its left it in an odd place where i guess yeah, its often touted as a league starter, a beginner thing etc. thats very much a community generated meta tho if that makes sense? the devs didnt design or promote that.