Vaal Molten Shell

Vaal Molten ShellVaal, Spell, AoE, Duration, Fire
Souls Per Use: 50 (N) /
Can Store 1 Use(s)
Can Store 1 Use(s)
Soul Gain Prevention: 7.000 sec
Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Damage Effectiveness: 200%Requires Level 4Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. Whenever you prevent any amount of physical damage from a hit, the shields cause a burst of flame, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.Per 1% Quality:
1% chance to Ignite enemiesDeals (9-696) to (14-1043) Fire Damage
(17-943) additional Armour
Base duration is 5 seconds
Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention
CorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.Acquisition
Level: 4Sell Price
1x Scroll FragmentMiscellaneous
Item class: Active Skill Gems
Metadata ID: Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemVaalMoltenShell

For the non-Vaal counterpart, see Molten Shell.

Vaal Molten Shell is a vaal spell that temporarily grants the player extra armour and causes them to deal a burst of fire damage for each physical hit they take.

Skill functions and interactions

• Duration: Skill duration modifiers will increase the duration of Vaal Molten Shell.

• Critical Strike Chance: Vaal Molten Shell's chance to crit is decided when the user initially casts the spell. It uses the user's crit chance to determine if all Vaal Molten Shell procs will crit or not crit. This means that the spell will either crit for every proc of the duration or none of them, making a Diamond FlaskDiamond FlaskLasts 4.00 Seconds
  Consumes 20 of 40 Charges on use
  Your Critical Strike Chance is LuckyRequires Level 27Right click to drink. Can only hold charges while in belt. Refills as you kill monsters. the most effective flask to consume before casting the spell.

• Damage reflection: Vaal Molten Shell doesn't trigger on reflected damage.

• Molten Shell: Casting Molten ShellMolten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire
  Radius: 15
  Mana Cost: (12-28)
  Can Store 1 Use(s)
  Cooldown Time: 1.00 sec
  Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
  Damage Effectiveness: 200%Requires Level 4Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. If cumulative physical damage prevented by your blocking or armour reaches a threshold, the shields explode outwards, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.Per 1% Quality:
  1% chance to Ignite enemiesDeals (14-1962) to (20-2943) Fire Damage
  Shields break after (26-1508) total Damage is prevented
  (17-943) additional Armour
  Base duration is 10 secondsPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. while Vaal Molten Shell is active will terminate the Vaal Molten Shell buff and replace it for the casted Molten Shell. This will happen both ways (when Vaal Molten Shell is casted while Molten Shell is active). This makes it unfavorable to use both skills in conjunction with one another.

Strategy

Unlike its non-Vaal counterpart, Vaal Molten Shell will persist for the full duration, regardless of how many times an explosion is triggered. This unique property offers potentially vastly more utility than Molten Shell at the cost of less availability. Because of this, it is recommended that Vaal Molten Shell be saved for an occasion in which it will offer the greatest benefit, such as during an encounter with a unique monster or even a troublesome rare.

Due to the nature of Vaal Molten Shell, it has synergy with support gems that utilize the potentially frequent explosions, such as stun or life leech; however, the rather steep soul cost of Vaal Molten Shell gates the strength of the gem. In addition, while the armour offered during Vaal Molten Shell's duration is first-rate, it may cause conflicts with Cast when Damage Taken SupportCast when Damage Taken SupportSupport, Spell, Trigger
Icon: !
Can Store 1 Use(s)
Cooldown Time: 0.25 secRequires Level 38Each supported spell skill will track damage you take, and be triggered when the total damage taken reaches a threshold. Cannot support skills used by totems, traps, or mines. Vaal skills, channelling skills, and skills that reserve mana cannot be triggered.Per 1% Quality:
Supported Skills deal 0.5% increased DamageTrigger Supported Spells when you take a total of (528-3272) Damage
Supported Skills deal (-70-6)% more Damage
This Gem can only Support Skill Gems requiring Level (38-70) or lower
You cannot Cast Supported Triggerable Spells directlyThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket..

Items which deal damage to you will also trigger the explosion:

• Scold's BridleScold's Bridle
  Mind CageQuality: +20%
  Energy Shield: 82Requires Level 65, 138 Int(80-100)% increased Spell Damage
  15% reduced Cast Speed
  +(30-60) to maximum Mana
  Your Skills deal you 400% of Mana Spent on Skill Mana Costs as Physical Damage"The sharper the pain, the sharper the mind.
  A curious paradox."
  - Shavronne of Umbra when using any skill

Gem level progression

Level			Fire Damage	Armour	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	4	16	9 to 14	17	0	0
2	6	20	11 to 17	20	841	841
3	9	27	15 to 23	26	3,099	3,940
4	12	33	20 to 30	33	7,433	11,373
5	16	41	27 to 41	44	22,895	34,268
6	20	50	37 to 56	58	49,725	83,993
7	24	58	49 to 74	75	95,714	179,707
8	28	67	64 to 96	97	169,595	349,302
9	32	75	83 to 124	123	283,759	633,061
10	36	83	106 to 159	156	453,996	1,087,057
11	40	92	135 to 202	196	703,128	1,790,185
12	44	100	170 to 256	245	1,061,223	2,851,408
13	48	109	214 to 321	304	2,065,870	4,917,278
14	52	117	267 to 401	376	2,507,110	7,424,388
15	55	123	315 to 472	440	2,573,731	9,998,119
16	58	130	370 to 556	515	7,611,351	17,609,470
17	61	136	435 to 652	600	13,437,908	31,047,378
18	64	142	509 to 764	698	25,052,147	56,099,525
19	67	148	596 to 893	812	43,869,436	99,968,961
20	70	155	696 to 1043	943	242,081,178	342,050,139
21	72	159	771 to 1156	1040	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	854 to 1280	1148	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	945 to 1417	1265	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	1045 to 1568	1394	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	1155 to 1733	1536	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	1277 to 1915	1691	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	1410 to 2115	1861	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	1557 to 2335	2047	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	1718 to 2577	2251	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	1895 to 2843	2474	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	1990 to 2985	2596	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	2090 to 3135	2717	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	2194 to 3291	2849	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	2303 to 3455	2981	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	2418 to 3627	3124	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	2538 to 3807	3267	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	2664 to 3995	3422	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	2795 to 4193	3576	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	2933 to 4400	3742	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	3078 to 4617	3909	N/A	N/A

Version history

Version	Changes
3.4.0	Now has a Soul Gain Prevention duration of 7 seconds (up from 5).
2.6.0	Changed the explosion effect. The new one has better performance.
2.4.0	Vaal Molten Shell now causes an explosion when it prevents any physical damage, rather than when it takes any hit.
2.3.2	When switching between regular and Vaal Molten Shell, the shield will now visually destroy and recreate itself. Fixed a bug where Molten Shell buff effect bonuses did not apply to Vaal Molten Shell.
2.3.0	Vaal Molten ShellVaal Molten ShellVaal, Spell, AoE, Duration, Fire Souls Per Use: 50 (N) / Can Store 1 Use(s) Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 7.000 sec Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec Critical Strike Chance: 5.00% Damage Effectiveness: 200%Requires Level 4Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. Whenever you prevent any amount of physical damage from a hit, the shields cause a burst of flame, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.Per 1% Quality: 1% chance to Ignite enemiesDeals (9-696) to (14-1043) Fire Damage (17-943) additional Armour Base duration is 5 seconds Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention CorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.'s duration has been reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds at all gem levels. Its damage has been reduced at high levels. It does the same damage at gem level 1, up to half the damage it previously did at gem level 20.
2.2.0	Cast time reduced from 1 sec to 500 ms.
2.1.0	Fixed a bug where Molten ShellMolten ShellSpell, AoE, Duration, Fire Radius: 15 Mana Cost: (12-28) Can Store 1 Use(s) Cooldown Time: 1.00 sec Critical Strike Chance: 5.00% Damage Effectiveness: 200%Requires Level 4Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. If cumulative physical damage prevented by your blocking or armour reaches a threshold, the shields explode outwards, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.Per 1% Quality: 1% chance to Ignite enemiesDeals (14-1962) to (20-2943) Fire Damage Shields break after (26-1508) total Damage is prevented (17-943) additional Armour Base duration is 10 secondsPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. could be applied multiple times via Spell Echo.
1.1.0d	Vaal Skill soul counts were initially balanced for Merciless difficulty, where there are more monsters. We want them to be easier to use in Normal and Cruel difficulty. We have halved the number of souls required for each skill. In Cruel difficulty, skills require 50% more souls to uses. In Merciless difficulty, they require 100% more (which is the same as before the patch).
1.1.0b	Fixed a bug with damage feedback on Vaal Molten ShellVaal Molten ShellVaal, Spell, AoE, Duration, Fire Souls Per Use: 50 (N) / Can Store 1 Use(s) Can Store 1 Use(s) Soul Gain Prevention: 7.000 sec Cooldown Time: 0.50 sec Critical Strike Chance: 5.00% Damage Effectiveness: 200%Requires Level 4Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. Whenever you prevent any amount of physical damage from a hit, the shields cause a burst of flame, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.Per 1% Quality: 1% chance to Ignite enemiesDeals (9-696) to (14-1043) Fire Damage (17-943) additional Armour Base duration is 5 seconds Modifiers to Skill Effect Duration also apply to this Skill's Soul Gain Prevention CorruptedPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket..
1.1.0	Introduced to the game.