All skill gems have keywords listed in the first line of the mouseover description. In addition to dividing the skills into groups, keywords partly determine which support gems can modify a certain skill.
Support Skill Keywords
While you can technically link any support gem to any skill gem, some combinations will have no effect. If a support gem contains one of the following keywords, the skill must have the keyword as well to be affected. Note that any skill with the Bow keyword counts as having Projectile.
- AoE: Concentrated Effect, Increased Area of Effect
- Attack: Additional Accuracy, Cast on Melee Kill, Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Faster Attacks, Life Gain on Hit, Point Blank
- Curse: Curse on Hit
- Duration: Increased Duration
- Melee: Endurance Charge on Melee Stun, Melee Damage on Full Life, Melee Physical Damage,
- Minion: Minion Damage, Minion Life, Minion Speed, Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance
- Movement: Minion Speed
- Projectile: Chain, Faster Projectiles, Fork, Greater Multiple Projectiles, Iron Grip, Lesser Multiple Projectiles, Pierce, Point Blank, Ranged Attack Totem, Slower Projectiles
- Spell: Cast on Crit, Cast on Death, Cast on Melee Kill, Cast when Damage Taken, Cast when Stunned, Faster Casting, Iron Will
For example, Freezing Pulse and Ethereal Knives get no benefit from being linked to Point Blank: although they are Projectiles, they are not Attacks.
Active Skill Keywords
AoE
Certain skills have an Area of Effect (AoE for short) and can affect multiple enemies or allies at once.
- Strength: Anger, Cleave, Decoy Totem, Determination, Enduring Cry, Ground Slam, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Molten Shell, Punishment, Rejuvenation Totem, Shockwave Totem, Sweep, Vitality, Warlord's Mark
- Dexterity: Cyclone, Detonate Dead, Explosive Arrow, Fire Trap, Freeze Mine, Grace, Haste, Hatred, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Poison Arrow, Projectile Weakness, Rain of Arrows, Reave, Smoke Mine, Temporal Chains
- Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Clarity, Cold Snap, Conductivity, Critical Weakness, Discharge, Discipline, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Fireball, Firestorm, Flameblast, Flammability, Frostbite, Ice Nova, Lightning Warp, Purity of Elements, Righteous Fire, Shock Nova, Vulnerability, Wrath
Attack
An attack is an offensive ability which uses a weapon, unlike Spells, Traps, Mines, and Totems (with one exception). "Attack" is NOT a generic term for any offensive ability.
- Strength: Cleave, Dominating Blow, Glacial Hammer, Ground Slam, Heavy Strike, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Lightning Strike, Shield Charge, Sweep
- Dexterity: Barrage, Burning Arrow, Cyclone, Double Strike, Dual Strike, Elemental Hit, Explosive Arrow, Flicker Strike, Frenzy, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Poison Arrow, Puncture, Rain of Arrows, Reave, Spectral Throw, Split Arrow, Viper Strike, Whirling Blades
- Intelligence: Power Siphon
Aura
An aura is a permanent effect focused on your character that also affects nearby party members and minions. Auras reserve a portion of your mana pool. Most of them reserve a percentage of your Mana, only Clarity reserves a flat amount. See Aura.
- Strength: Anger, Determination, Purity of Fire, Vitality
- Dexterity: Grace, Haste, Hatred, Purity of Ice
- Intelligence: Clarity, Discipline, Purity of Elements, Purity of Lightning, Wrath
Bow
These skills require an equipped bow and are considered projectiles.
- Dexterity: Barrage, Burning Arrow, Elemental Hit, Explosive Arrow, Frenzy, Ice Shot, Lightning Arrow, Poison Arrow, Puncture, Rain of Arrows, Split Arrow
Cast
These skills use cast speed, but are not affected by spell damage, although modifiers which do not mention the "spell" keyword affect them just as they would a regular spell.
- Dexterity: Bear Trap, Detonate Dead
Chaining
Arc effectively has the Chain support built in, but can be linked to Chain for additional chains.
- Intelligence: Arc
Chaos
See Chaos Damage.
- Dexterity: Blood Rage, Poison Arrow, Viper Strike
Cold
See Cold Damage
- Strength: Glacial Hammer
- Dexterity: Elemental Hit, Freeze Mine, Hatred, Ice Shot
- Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Cold Snap, Discharge, Freezing Pulse, Frostbite, Frost Wall, Ice Nova, Ice Spear
Curse
These skills weaken enemies to make them less dangerous or easier to kill. See Curse.
- Strength: Punishment, Warlord's Mark
- Dexterity: Projectile Weakness, Temporal Chains
- Intelligence: Conductivity, Critical Weakness, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Flammability, Frostbite, Vulnerability
Duration
Certain skills have an effect over time. In some cases, such as curses, reusing the skill will reset the timer.
- Strength: Decoy Totem, Devouring Totem, Flame Totem, Immortal Call, Molten Shell, Punishment, Rejuvenation Totem, Warlord's Mark, Searing Bond, Shockwave Totem
- Dexterity: Animate Weapon, Bear Trap, Blood Rage, Explosive Arrow, Fire Trap, Freeze Mine, Ice Shot, Phase Run, Poison Arrow, Projectile Weakness, Puncture, Smoke Mine, Temporal Chains, Viper Strike
- Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Conductivity, Conversion Trap, Critical Weakness, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Firestorm, Flammability, Frostbite, Frost Wall, Lightning Trap, Spark, Summon Skeletons, Vulnerability
Fire
See Fire Damage.
- Strength: Anger, Flame Totem, Infernal Blow, Molten Shell, Searing Bond
- Dexterity: Burning Arrow, Detonate Dead, Elemental Hit, Explosive Arrow, Fire Trap
- Intelligence: Discharge, Fireball, Flameblast, Firestorm, Flammability, Incinerate, Righteous Fire
Lightning
See Lightning Damage.
- Strength: Lightning Strike
- Dexterity: Elemental Hit, Lightning Arrow
- Intelligence: Arc, Conductivity, Discharge, Lightning Warp, Lightning Trap, Shock Nova, Spark, Tempest Shield, Wrath
Melee
Some melee skills require certain weapons; see Melee Skills.
- Strength: Cleave, Dominating Blow, Glacial Hammer, Ground Slam, Heavy Strike, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Lightning Strike, Shield Charge, Sweep
- Dexterity: Cyclone, Double Strike, Dual Strike, Elemental Hit, Flicker Strike, Frenzy, Puncture, Reave, Viper Strike, Whirling Blades
Mine
Mines are skills which are laid at the characters location and detonated by a separate command.
- Dexterity: Freeze Mine, Smoke Mine
Minion
These skills let characters raise monsters to fight enemies.
- Strength: Animate Guardian, Dominating Blow
- Dexterity: Animate Weapon
- Intelligence: Raise Spectre, Raise Zombie, Summon Skeletons
Movement
Skills that move the character.
- Strength: Leap Slam, Shield Charge
- Dexterity: Cyclone, Flicker Strike, Smoke Mine, Whirling Blades
- Intelligence: Lightning Warp
Projectile
Note that Bow skills also create projectiles.
- Strength: Flame Totem, Lightning Strike
- Dexterity: Ethereal Knives, Spectral Throw
- Intelligence: Arctic Breath, Fireball, Freezing Pulse, Ice Spear, Incinerate, Lightning Trap, Power Siphon, Spark
Spell
Spells are skills which do not draw their damage from any flat damage modifiers on your gear in any way. They are affected by cast speed, spell damage, and critical strikes. Spells that hit, which includes all spells that read "Deals X-Y ____ Damage", always hit (unless the attack is spell blocked or dodged using Phase Acrobatics - two quite rare and niche mechanics) and are unaffected by Accuracy. Integer damage bonuses on gear are not added to base or final spell damage. Spells which do fire, cold, or lightning damage will be modified by passives and gear which increases the damage of that specific type.
- Strength: Anger, Animate Guardian, Decoy Totem, Determination, Devouring Totem, Enduring Cry, Flame Totem, Immortal Call, Molten Shell, Punishment, Purity of Fire, Rejuvenation Totem, Searing Bond, Shockwave Totem, Vitality, Warlord's Mark
- Dexterity: Animate Weapon, Blood Rage, Detonate Dead, Ethereal Knives, Fire Trap, Freeze Mine, Grace, Haste, Hatred, Phase Run, Projectile Weakness, Purity of Ice, Smoke Mine
- Intelligence: Arc, Arctic Breath, Bone Offering, Clarity, Cold Snap, Conductivity, Conversion Trap, Critical Weakness, Desecrate, Discharge, Discipline, Elemental Weakness, Enfeeble, Fireball, Firestorm, Flammability, Flesh Offering, Freezing Pulse, Frostbite, Frost Wall, Ice Nova, Ice Spear, Incinerate, Lightning Warp, Lightning Trap, Purity of Elements, Purity of Lightning, Raise Spectre, Raise Zombie, Righteous Fire, Shock Nova, Spark, Summon Raging Spirit, Summon Skeletons, Tempest Shield, Vulnerability, Wrath
Totem
Totems are stationary summons that assist in battle. Note that many other skills can be turned into a totem with the Spell Totem or Ranged Attack Totem support gems.
- Strength: Decoy Totem, Devouring Totem, Flame Totem, Rejuvenation Totem, Shockwave Totem
Trap
Traps are AoE skills that trigger when an enemy walks over it.
- Dexterity: Bear Trap, Fire Trap
- Intelligence: Conversion Trap, Lightning Trap
Vaal
Vaal Skills are special, more powerful versions of existing skills. They can be obtained from Vaal Vessels in Corrupted Areas or by using a Vaal Orb on a normal skill gem. Vaal Skills can only be used if they are fuelled with the souls of killed enemies.
- Strength: Vaal Glacial Hammer, Vaal Ground Slam, Vaal Immortal Call, Vaal Lightning Strike, Vaal Molten Shell,
- Dexterity: Vaal Burning Arrow, Vaal Cyclone, Vaal Detonate Dead, Vaal Double Strike, Vaal Rain of Arrows, Vaal Spectral Throw
- Intelligence: Vaal Arc, Vaal Cold Snap, Vaal Fireball, Vaal Ice Nova, Vaal Lightning Warp, Vaal Power Siphon, Vaal Spark, Vaal Summon Skeletons