It is a Support Gem.
Support
Melee, Attack
Requires: Level 1
Support Reqirements: +5 Str
Supports melee attack skills
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 Enduring Stuns Support Gem is a powerful support option for melee attack builds that rely on stunning enemies with their attacks. This gem grants a unique benefit: when you stun an enemy with a melee hit from the supported skill, you gain an Endurance Charge, enhancing your character’s defensive capabilities. By providing a steady source of Endurance Charges, the gem allows for greater damage mitigation and survivability, especially in high-damage or boss fights.
This article will break down how the Enduring Stuns gem works, its ideal uses, and how it fits into your overall melee combat strategy.
The Enduring Stuns Support Gem adds a unique benefit to any melee attack skill by allowing you to gain an Endurance Charge whenever you stun an enemy. Here’s a deeper look at how the gem functions:
Endurance Charge Generation:
The core benefit of Enduring Stuns is that it grants you an Endurance Charge every time you successfully stun an enemy with the supported melee attack skill. Endurance Charges provide a flat physical damage reduction and increase your maximum resistance to Elemental Damage (Fire, Cold, Lightning). This significantly boosts your tankiness, helping you survive against more difficult enemies, especially in boss fights and high-density maps.
Stunning with Melee Attacks:
To trigger the effect, the melee attack used in conjunction with Enduring Stuns must stun the target. The effectiveness of this gem is closely tied to your ability to generate stuns with your attacks. Stunning enemies usually depends on factors like damage output and enemy size, as larger enemies or bosses generally require higher damage to be stunned. Therefore, this gem is most effective when you are dealing enough damage to reliably stun your targets.
Synergy with Endurance Charge Mechanics:
The Endurance Charge gained from this gem directly contributes to your overall defensive sustainability. Endurance Charges improve your physical damage mitigation, and provide a boost to elemental resistances when you invest in specific passives or items. This synergy is especially useful for builds that focus on stacking Endurance Charges for greater tankiness, as you can continue to generate Endurance Charges while dealing damage in melee combat.
No Additional Requirements:
Enduring Stuns doesn’t impose any complex restrictions, like requiring specific conditions or setups. It works with any melee attack skill that can stun enemies, making it highly flexible for a wide variety of builds. Whether you’re using a two-handed weapon, one-handed sword, axe, dagger, or unarmed attacks, the gem can be used to generate Endurance Charges through stuns.
Stun-Based Melee Builds:
Any build that focuses on stunning enemies will benefit from Enduring Stuns. These builds typically prioritize high hit damage and stun effectiveness to disable enemies and gain control of the battlefield. Popular examples include stun-immune builds like Juggernaut or Gladiator, which rely on Endurance Charges to reduce damage taken and enhance survivability.
Champion and Juggernaut Builds:
Both the Champion and Juggernaut ascendancy classes are excellent choices for Enduring Stuns, as they focus on defensive stacking, Endurance Charges, and stunning enemies. These builds generally benefit from increased stun duration or stun threshold reduction, making it easier to gain Endurance Charges and gain enhanced physical damage reduction from those Endurance Charges.
Melee Attack Builds with High Damage Output:
Since Enduring Stuns relies on stunning enemies through melee hits, builds that focus on high physical damage or AoE melee attacks are ideal. If you’re using skills like Cyclone, Sweep, Earthquake, or Sunder, you can trigger Enduring Stuns consistently, ensuring a continuous supply of Endurance Charges to improve your defense and reduce incoming damage.
Unflinching Warrior Builds:
If your build focuses on melee combat and stunning enemies while maintaining a constant supply of Endurance Charges (to mitigate incoming damage), then Enduring Stuns is a great gem choice. This will allow you to reliably trigger Endurance Charges, especially when paired with stun-related passives and items.
Bossing Builds:
Since many boss fights can deal massive amounts of physical and elemental damage, having Endurance Charges can significantly reduce incoming damage and boost your defenses. The ability to gain Endurance Charges from stuns while fighting bosses means you can stack damage mitigation and survive longer in tougher encounters.
Increased Defensive Power:
The key benefit of Enduring Stuns is that it grants Endurance Charges every time you stun an enemy. These charges reduce physical damage taken and increase elemental resistances, making you far more resistant to both physical and elemental damage.
Sustained Tankiness:
By generating Endurance Charges from stunning enemies, this gem allows you to maintain a steady defense throughout combat. This is especially helpful for melee builds that often find themselves in the thick of the battle, surrounded by enemies.
Increased Stun Effectiveness:
The more stuns you can land, the more Endurance Charges you generate. This increases your ability to tank damage and mitigate incoming threats. Stuns also provide additional crowd control, limiting the actions of enemies while you continue to deal damage.
Synergy with Endurance Charge Scaling:
If your build already invests in Endurance Charge scaling (such as through the Juggernaut ascendancy or endurance charge gain on stun passive), Enduring Stuns synergizes incredibly well with those mechanics, increasing your damage mitigation and elemental resistances even further.
Relies on Stun Mechanics:
The gem’s effect only triggers when you stun an enemy, so it’s crucial that your damage output is sufficient to reliably stun enemies. This may not be as effective on bosses or large enemies, who generally require a lot more damage to be stunned.
Limited to Melee Attacks:
This gem can only be used with melee attack skills, limiting its use in ranged or spell-based builds. Players who favor ranged combat or magic spells will find this gem irrelevant for their playstyle.
Less Effective Against Stun-Immune Enemies:
Certain enemies in Path of Exile may have stun immunity or reduced stun threshold, making it harder to generate Endurance Charges. This gem’s effectiveness is reduced against stun-immune or boss enemies who are harder to stun.
Focus on Stun Duration or Stun Threshold:
To get the most out of Enduring Stuns, you may want to consider increasing your stun duration or reducing enemy stun threshold. These mechanics will help you land stuns more reliably, ensuring that you gain Endurance Charges more consistently.
Use with AoE Melee Skills:
Skills that hit multiple enemies at once, like Cyclone, Sweep, or Earthquake, are ideal for Enduring Stuns because they allow you to stun multiple targets at once, quickly generating Endurance Charges and increasing your damage mitigation.
Maximize Your Endurance Charge Pool:
Combine Enduring Stuns with other Endurance Charge generation and scaling effects, such as the Juggernaut ascendancy or endurance charge-related passive skills. This will ensure you get the most out of Endurance Charges for both defense and offense.