PoE 2 Cold Penetration
It is a Support Gem.
Support
Cold
Tier: 2
Cost Multiplier: 120%
Requires: Level 1
Support Reqirements: +5 Int
Supports any skill that Hits enemies, making those Hits Penetrate enemy Cold resistance.
- Supported Skills Penetrate 30% Cold Resistance
Place into a Skill’s Support Gem socket in the Skills menu to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple copies of the same Support Gem socketed at the same time.
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The Cold Penetration Support Gem is an essential addition for any cold damage build in Path of Exile 2, allowing your cold-based skills to bypass a significant portion of an enemy’s Cold Resistance. As a Tier 2 Support Gem, Cold Penetration offers a substantial boost to your cold damage output by ensuring that your hits can penetrate 30% of an enemy’s Cold Resistance. This gem is perfect for players who want to maximize their damage against enemies that have high resistance to cold.
Skill Gem Details
- Category: Support
- Type: Cold
- Tier: 2
- Required Level: 1
- Cost Multiplier: 120%
- Support Requirements: +5 Intelligence
- Effect: Penetrates 30% of enemy Cold Resistance for supported skills.
Skill Mechanics
The Cold Penetration Support Gem works by applying Cold Penetration to any supported cold skill, allowing it to bypass up to 30% of an enemy’s Cold Resistance. This is particularly effective against highly resistant enemies or bosses with significant cold resistance modifiers, as it ensures that your cold damage is dealt with maximum efficiency.
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Cold Resistance Penetration: Supported skills will deal 30% more cold damage to enemies because they effectively ignore 30% of the enemy’s Cold Resistance. This bonus penetration ensures that even against enemies with high Cold Resistance (such as bosses or certain map modifiers), your cold skills can still deal substantial damage.
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Damage Boost: By penetrating Cold Resistance, you increase your cold skill damage output, making it easier to deal more damage even when enemies have defensive layers such as resistances or shields.
Strategic Uses
The Cold Penetration Support Gem is ideal for builds that rely on cold damage and have to deal with high resistance enemies. Its 30% Cold Resistance penetration makes it a highly effective gem for boss fights, elite maps, or any situation where enemies have resistance stacking.
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Cold Damage Builds:
- Cold Penetration is a must-have for cold-focused builds, especially those that rely on damage over time, freeze effects, or area-of-effect (AoE) cold skills like Frostbolt, Ice Nova, Vortex, or Frostbite. These builds benefit from the increased damage output when attacking enemies with Cold Resistance.
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Scaling Boss Damage:
- In boss fights where enemies often have high resistances or immune shields, Cold Penetration ensures your cold skills remain effective by allowing you to deal more damage, even when the enemy has cold resistance modifiers. Whether you’re fighting Shaper, Elder, or the Searing Exarch, this gem can make a significant difference.
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High-Resistance Enemies:
- In higher-level maps or areas with cold-immune monsters or bosses that have increased resistance stats, Cold Penetration ensures your cold damage isn’t mitigated, providing a straightforward way to maintain consistent damage output against tough foes.
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Elemental Resistance Layers:
- In a game where elemental resistances are often stacked on enemies, Cold Penetration directly counters this resistance, allowing your cold damage to shine. It works well with Elemental Penetration or other damage boosts, ensuring you’re not hitting resistance walls in the late game.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Bypasses Cold Resistance: A 30% Cold Resistance penetration ensures your cold skills deal more damage against enemies with high resistance.
- Boosts Cold Builds: Perfect for cold-damage builds as it significantly increases damage output, especially against tough bosses or high-resistance mobs.
- Scalable: Works well with cold-damage skills that need to scale as you move into harder content, ensuring your skills remain viable.
- Easy Integration: Can be paired easily with damage scaling mods or crit-based cold builds to ensure high damage per second (DPS).
Cons
- Limited to Cold Skills: Cold Penetration only works with cold-based skills. It does not help if you are focusing on fire, lightning, or chaos builds.
- Reduced Damage: The 120% cost multiplier means your supported skills will have to account for increased mana cost, though the damage penetration boost generally compensates for this.
Gameplay Tips
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Maximize Damage Output:
- Cold Penetration works best when paired with damage-over-time skills or freezing abilities. To get the most out of the gem, increase your base cold damage through passives or equipment that enhances your cold skill potency. Combining Cold Penetration with Elemental Damage, Cold Mastery, or Critical Strike multipliers can create a devastating cold damage setup.
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Use in Boss Fights:
- Against high-resistance bosses, Cold Penetration allows your cold skills to bypass a significant portion of their resistances, ensuring that you can continue to deal significant damage during prolonged fights. This gem is especially useful for cold-based boss-killing builds in higher tiers of maps and endgame bosses.
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Combine with Elemental Penetration:
- Pairing Cold Penetration with other penetration gems like Elemental Penetration or Fire Penetration is effective for multi-elemental builds that want to focus on multiple elemental types of damage. For pure cold builds, it ensures that you break through the enemy’s resistances.
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Elemental Buffs:
- Cold Penetration works particularly well in builds that enhance elemental effects, including cold damage scaling or cold duration buffs. Pair it with Chill, Freeze, and Elemental Focus for enhanced control and damage over time effects.
Conclusion
The Cold Penetration Support Gem is an excellent choice for any cold damage build in Path of Exile 2. By allowing your cold-based skills to penetrate 30% of enemy Cold Resistance, this gem ensures that your cold damage is always effective, even against enemies with high resistance to cold. Whether you’re engaging with high-resistance bosses, tough mobs in higher-level maps, or looking to maximize your cold damage scaling, Cold Penetration is a vital tool in your cold skill arsenal.
For cold-focused builds, this gem is a must-have, as it directly enhances damage output and ensures that resistance-laden enemies don’t hinder your effectiveness. Make sure to integrate Cold Penetration into your cold builds and feel the difference in your damage performance.