It is a Support Gem.
Support
Tier: 2
Requires: Level 1
Support Reqirements: +5 Str
Supports any skill that Hits enemies, causing them to apply Brokwn Armour to enemies when causing a Heavy Stun to enemies.
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.
The Devastate Support Gem is a Tier 2 support gem in Path of Exile 2 that enhances your skills by granting them the ability to break enemies’ armor when causing a Heavy Stun. If you’re using an Attack-based build that focuses on delivering powerful hits and applying stuns, the Devastate Support Gem is a great addition. It allows you to completely shatter an enemy’s armor, making them more vulnerable to subsequent attacks and allowing you to maximize your damage output.
The Devastate Support Gem provides a significant benefit to skills that cause a Heavy Stun by allowing them to fully break an enemy’s armor. Normally, armor reduces the physical damage an enemy takes, but when you use a skill that stuns the enemy heavily, this gem ensures that their armor is completely shattered, leaving them highly vulnerable to your physical attacks.
Fully Breaks Armor:
When using a supported skill that inflicts a Heavy Stun, the enemy’s armor will be fully broken. This means the enemy will no longer be able to reduce incoming damage as effectively, allowing you to hit them for full physical damage.
Heavy Stun Requirement:
To activate the Devastate gem, the skill must inflict a Heavy Stun. This means you need to use powerful attacks that are capable of stunning enemies for a longer duration, allowing the gem to trigger and break the armor.
Stun-Based Attack Builds:
If you’re building a character around stunning enemies with Heavy Stuns using physical attacks, Devastate is an excellent gem to enhance your damage. Skills like Heavy Strike, Slam, or other Physical-based attacks that can cause a Heavy Stun will benefit from this gem by ensuring that once you stun an enemy, their armor is completely destroyed, making them vulnerable to your follow-up attacks.
Physical Damage Builds:
Devastate is particularly valuable for Physical Damage builds. If you focus on dealing large amounts of physical damage, being able to break an enemy’s armor with a Heavy Stun opens up new possibilities to maximize the damage you deal. With armor broken, you will be able to deal more physical damage and hit enemies harder.
Tanky Builds with Stun and Damage Reduction:
For tanky builds that focus on survival while dealing damage through stuns, the Devastate Support Gem can turn your stunning attacks into devastating blows. This gem allows you to break armor and lower the defenses of tougher enemies, making it easier to cut through high-health targets.
Boss Killing Builds:
Against bosses or high-health enemies, Devastate can be invaluable. Many bosses rely on armor to mitigate incoming damage. With the armor breaking ability of the Devastate gem, you can dramatically increase the damage you deal to these bosses, making the battle easier and faster.
Armor Shred on Heavy Stun:
The core benefit of the Devastate Support Gem is its ability to fully break the armor of enemies when you inflict a Heavy Stun. This is extremely useful in both group content and boss fights, as breaking an enemy’s armor makes them much more vulnerable to all forms of physical damage.
Increased Damage Output:
Once an enemy’s armor is broken, your attacks will deal their full physical damage without any armor mitigation. This can greatly increase your damage output, especially against high-health enemies and bosses that rely on armor to mitigate damage.
Synergy with Stun Builds:
If you’re already using a stun-based build, Devastate enhances the effectiveness of your stunning abilities by ensuring that when you land a Heavy Stun, the enemy’s armor is rendered useless. This creates a seamless synergy between your stun mechanics and your damage, making it easier to handle tough enemies.
Great for Group Content:
In group content, Devastate can be a game-changer. If you can stun enemies and break their armor, you not only increase your personal damage but also help your party deal more damage to enemies. This can be particularly useful in party play where maximizing damage is crucial to defeating tough mobs or bosses.
Heavy Stun Requirement:
The biggest limitation of Devastate is that it requires a Heavy Stun to trigger. This means your build must be focused on inflicting stuns, and if you’re using skills that don’t naturally cause Heavy Stuns, this gem won’t provide any benefit. As such, it may not fit into builds that don’t have reliable stun mechanics.
Reduced Flexibility:
Since Devastate requires a Heavy Stun to be effective, it’s not as universally applicable as other support gems. If you don’t have a build that reliably inflicts Heavy Stuns, you’ll have to rely on skills that do, limiting your options for customization and gameplay style.
Physical Damage Only:
Devastate is a gem focused on Physical damage, so it won’t benefit elemental builds or any non-physical attack skills. If you’re not using Physical-based attacks, you should look for other support gems that better fit your build’s damage type.
Pair with Stun Skills:
The key to unlocking the full potential of Devastate is to use it with skills that can reliably stun enemies, such as Heavy Strike, Slam, or Earthquake. Make sure your skill choices are centered around inflicting Heavy Stuns to fully benefit from the gem.
Maximize Physical Damage:
To make the most of Devastate, build around increasing your Physical Damage output. This will ensure that once you break the enemy’s armor, you can hit them with full force and deal significant damage. Consider adding Physical Damage modifiers, Armor Penetration, or Flat Physical Damage to boost your overall effectiveness.
Use with Stun Threshold Modifiers:
To maximize the Heavy Stun potential, consider using Stun Threshold modifiers or Stun Chance increasing items and passives. The more likely you are to land a Heavy Stun, the more often you can break enemy armor, leading to a significant increase in your overall damage output.
Consider Hybrid Builds:
If you want to balance damage and survivability, consider a hybrid build that incorporates both stunning and tankiness. This will allow you to reliably apply Heavy Stuns and break enemy armor, making you more durable while you deal devastating damage.
The Devastate Support Gem is an excellent choice for any Physical attack-based build that revolves around Heavy Stuns. By allowing your skills to fully break armor when inflicting a Heavy Stun, Devastate enhances your damage output, making enemies far more vulnerable to subsequent attacks. Whether you’re focusing on boss fights, group content, or stun-based builds, this gem can significantly improve your ability to deal massive Physical damage. However, it requires careful attention to Heavy Stun mechanics, and may not be as useful for builds that don’t utilize stuns or Physical attacks.