It is a Support Gem.
Support
Tier: 1
Requires: Level 1
Support Reqirements: +5 Int
Supports any damaging skill that you use yourself, causing it to deal significantly more damage but gain a long cooldown.
Place into a skill’s support gem socket in the skills panel to apply its effect to that skill. You cannot have multiple copies of the same support gem socketed at the same time.
The Hourglass Support Gem in Path of Exile 2 is designed for players who want to amplify the damage output of their damaging skills at the cost of increasing the cooldown time. This gem offers a high-risk, high-reward gameplay style, making it ideal for players who prefer burst damage in single hits or large, impactful attacks but are willing to deal with longer recovery times between uses. It provides a significant damage boost, perfect for boss fights or large burst windows where the cooldown penalty can be managed effectively.
The Hourglass Support Gem is a powerful tool for those looking to significantly enhance the damage potential of their damaging skills, especially for skills with high single-target damage or burst windows. Here’s how it affects your character’s skills:
Increased Damage Output:
The most notable effect of Hourglass is the 50% increased damage for the supported skill. This provides a substantial boost to the overall damage of your abilities, making it especially potent for high-impact, low-frequency attacks such as boss killers, ultimate abilities, or burst damage skills. For example, Channeling skills, Casts, or even Slam attacks can deal massive damage when used with Hourglass.
Cooldown Penalty:
In exchange for the damage boost, Hourglass introduces a significant penalty to the cooldown of the supported skill, adding an extra 8 seconds to the cooldown timer. This means that after using the skill, you’ll have to wait longer before you can use it again. While this may seem like a drawback, it can be useful for high-damage skills that are intended to be used less frequently, such as during boss encounters where you want to make every hit count.
Strategic Use:
The increased cooldown effect makes this gem best suited for players who can plan around longer pauses between skill usage. This could be ideal for builds where you have multiple damaging skills, but you want to focus on using one burst damage skill during critical moments, such as boss fights or high-damage phases. In other cases, players may have skills that deal overwhelming burst damage, but their frequency is less important than maximizing the damage output during windows where the enemy is vulnerable.
The Hourglass Support Gem works best with damaging skills that benefit from burst damage or single-target focus. Here are some examples of skills and builds that would benefit from this gem:
Single-Target Skills:
Skills that focus on dealing massive damage to a single target are the prime candidates for Hourglass. This includes skills like Heavy Strike, Molten Strike, or Cleave, where hitting once every few seconds for massive damage is preferred over frequent small hits. The 50% more damage makes these abilities incredibly dangerous, particularly in boss fights or other scenarios where large bursts of damage are needed.
Channeling Skills:
Channeling skills such as Volcanic Fissure or Lightning Tendrils can benefit from the damage boost provided by Hourglass, turning them into damage-dealing monsters. Since channeling skills are typically designed for sustained damage over a longer period, the additional cooldown can be mitigated by the fact that channeling skills are often used for longer durations and can be part of a larger rotation of abilities.
Ultimate and Burst Skills:
Burst skills, such as Skill Gems that have powerful single casts, can also benefit greatly from Hourglass. These are skills that hit hard but have long cooldowns to prevent them from being spammed too frequently. With Hourglass, these skills will deal even more damage while keeping their cooldown penalty intact. Examples include Fireball or Ice Nova, where you want to maximize the impact of a single large hit, such as when dealing with high-health bosses or difficult enemies.
High-Cost, Low-Frequency Builds:
High-cost, low-frequency builds, such as energy shield users or mana-hungry characters, will often only have enough resources to use their big damage skills once every few seconds. Hourglass is a perfect match for these builds since it allows you to deal significantly more damage in low-frequency bursts, while the cooldown penalty is manageable when you can only afford to use your strongest skills sparingly.
Here are some of the key benefits of using the Hourglass Support Gem:
Huge Damage Boost:
The 50% increased damage for supported skills is a massive benefit that can drastically improve your single-target damage output. This makes Hourglass particularly powerful in boss fights or against high-health enemies.
Strategic Skill Timing:
The longer cooldown means that the supported skill becomes more of a strategic tool. You can use the boosted damage skill when it’s most needed, and then focus on other abilities during the downtime.
Synergy with Burst and Channeling Skills:
Hourglass works best with burst skills, channeling skills, and single-target abilities that benefit from higher damage but less frequent use. This allows you to use the gem to maximize your impact when dealing with high-health enemies or in boss fights.
Fits High-Cost Builds:
For high-cost, low-frequency builds, Hourglass can be a perfect fit. If your build is designed to use powerful skills only occasionally, the increased cooldown becomes much less of a concern, and the damage boost becomes incredibly valuable.
While Hourglass is a powerful gem, it does come with a few trade-offs:
Cooldown Penalty:
The +8 seconds to cooldown can be a significant drawback, especially in fast-paced fights where you rely on frequent skill use. It’s important to manage your skill rotation effectively to avoid being caught in a situation where you can’t use your most powerful skills when needed.
Not Suitable for Fast or Frequent Attacks:
This gem is not ideal for builds that focus on fast or frequent attacks, such as attack speed builds or dot builds. The cooldown penalty means that using low-cooldown skills that you need to spam will not benefit from the gem.
Increased Resource Cost:
Hourglass often synergizes with high-cost skills, and the cooldown penalty can mean you have to manage mana or energy shield resources more effectively, ensuring that you have enough resources available for your high-damage attacks when the cooldown finishes.
The Hourglass Support Gem is a potent tool for those looking to enhance the damage output of their high-impact, low-frequency skills. Whether you’re a melee fighter, spellcaster, or channeling build, this gem allows you to increase the damage of your skills significantly while introducing a longer cooldown for strategic skill timing.
While the cooldown penalty can be a challenge, Hourglass is incredibly rewarding when used in the right contexts, making it an excellent choice for burst damage builds, boss fights, or any situation where you want to maximize your damage potential at critical moments. Just remember to manage your skill usage carefully, as the cooldown penalty is substantial, but when used effectively, Hourglass can turn your abilities into devastating powerhouses.