Frost Blades

Frost Blades is a cold melee attack skill that strikes with increased range, then has the secondary effect of releasing projectiles from the struck enemies.

Skill functions and interactions

• Dual Wielding: Since Frost Blades has no weapon restrictions, attacks will alternate between both hands while dual wielding.

An attack with Frost Blades consists of two parts:

• An initial melee hit with the keywords Cold, Attack, Melee
• A projectile attack with the keywords Cold, Attack, Projectile

When an enemy is hit by this skill, multiple homing projectiles fly out from behind the enemy and target nearby enemies. This skill increases the melee range by an appreciable degree. Unlike Lightning Strike, if the initial attack does not hit an enemy, then no projectiles are released.

The projectiles have the same damage multiplier as the initial melee hit, with the same cold damage conversion. However the initial melee attack scales with melee damage modifiers (such as Melee Physical Damage), whereas the projectiles scale with projectile damage modifiers. Both components scale equally with (unspecified) attack, physical, and cold damage modifiers.

Multistrike uses the increased attack range of this skill when selecting targets to attack. Melee Splash does not release additional projectiles from secondary targets struck by the initial melee splash, nor does it splash the projectiles' damage. Faster Projectiles will increase the speed and effective range of the secondary projectiles. Physical Projectile Attack Damage scales all the damage of the projectiles, but not the initial melee attack: attack speed is NOT reduced since the attack animation itself is melee, rather than projectile.

Note: the tooltip DPS shows only the melee attack component damage and DPS. It does not show damage values for the projectile component. To calculate the projectile component, use the formula at the bottom of this page.

Gem level progression

Level			Damage Effectiveness	Attack Damage	# Projectiles	Range	increased Projectile Speed	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	1	0	100%	100%	4	N/A	N/A	0	0
2	2	0	104%	103.9%	4	N/A	1%	70	70
3	4	16	108%	107.9%	4	N/A	2%	308	378
4	7	22	112%	111.8%	4	N/A	3%	1554	1932
5	11	31	116%	115.8%	4	N/A	4%	6667	8599
6	16	41	120%	119.7%	5	N/A	5%	26047	34646
7	20	50	124%	123.7%	5	N/A	6%	49725	84371
8	24	58	128%	127.6%	5	N/A	7%	95714	180085
9	28	67	132%	131.6%	5	N/A	8%	169595	349680
10	32	75	136%	135.5%	5	N/A	9%	283759	633439
11	36	83	139%	139.5%	6	N/A	10%	453996	1087435
12	40	92	143%	143.4%	6	N/A	11%	703128	1790563
13	44	100	147%	147.4%	6	N/A	12%	1061223	2851786
14	48	109	151%	151.3%	6	N/A	13%	2065870	4917656
15	52	117	155%	155.3%	6	N/A	14%	2507110	7424766
16	56	125	159%	159.2%	7	N/A	15%	5798936	13223702
17	60	134	163%	163.2%	7	N/A	16%	15083919	28307621
18	64	142	167%	167.1%	7	N/A	17%	27792735	56100356
19	67	148	171%	171.1%	7	N/A	18%	43869739	99970095
20	70	155	175%	175%	7	N/A	19%	242081556	342051651
21	72	159	179%	178.9%	8	N/A	20%	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	183%	182.9%	8	N/A	21%	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	187%	186.8%	8	N/A	22%	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	191%	190.8%	8	N/A	23%	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	195%	194.7%	8	N/A	24%	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	199%	198.7%	9	N/A	25%	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	203%	202.6%	9	N/A	26%	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	207%	206.6%	9	N/A	27%	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	211%	210.5%	9	N/A	28%	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	214%	214.5%	9	N/A	29%	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	216%	216.4%	9	N/A	29%	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	218%	218.4%	10	N/A	30%	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	220%	220.4%	10	N/A	30%	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	222%	222.4%	10	N/A	31%	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	224%	224.3%	10	N/A	31%	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	226%	226.3%	10	N/A	32%	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	228%	228.3%	10	N/A	32%	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	230%	230.3%	10	N/A	33%	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	232%	232.2%	10	N/A	33%	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	234%	234.2%	10	N/A	34%	N/A	N/A

Projectile Damage Calculation

To calculate the projectile damage (or DPS) given the melee tooltip damage (or DPS) use the following formula:

where:

• IAD = Sum of all % increased attack damage (not including either melee or projectile specific increased damage nor effects from Strength)
• IMD = Sum of all % increased melee damage (including effects from Strength)
• IPD = Sum of all % increased projectile damage (including effects from Strength if Iron Grip is applicable)
• MMD = individual % more/less melee damage modifiers
• MPD = individual % more/less projectile damage modifiers

All % values are expressed as decimal, e.g. 20% = 0.20. Reduced and less damage modifiers are expressed as negative values.

projectile_damage = tooltip_damage * (1.0 + IAD + IPD) / (1.0 + IAD + IMD) * (1.0 + MPD) / (1.0 + MMD)

If there are multiple more/less damage modifiers, then repeat the multiplicative terms (1.0 + MMD) and/or (1.0 + MPD) individually for each source.

Derivation

tooltip_damage_melee = base_damage * (1.0 + IAD + IMD) * (1.0 + MMD) (1) tooltip_damage_projectile = base_damage * (1.0 + IAD + IPD) * (1.0 + MPD) (2) Divide (2) with (1) to eliminate base_damage tooltip_damage_projectile / tooltip_damage_melee = (1.0 + IAD + IPD)/(1.0 + IAD + IMD) * (1.0 + MPD) / (1.0 + MMD) (3) In order to be accurate, IAD, IMD, and IPD must be calculated correctly, including any effects from Strength and Iron Grip if applicable. Note also that (3) is valid only individually for the physical or cold portions of the damage. In the presence of cold or elemental damage modifiers such as Fangs of Frost, Hatred or , then the physical and cold components must be calculated separately and then added together to determine the total damage amount, and multiplied by attack speed for total DPS.

Example

Tooltip_damage = [10, 20]  % increased physical damage from passives = 20%  % increased melee physical damage from passives = 60%  % increased melee physical damage from 90 Strength = 18% (Iron Grip is not taken)  % increased projectile damage from passives = 40% 30% more melee damage (from level 1 Melee Physical Damage) 30% more melee damage (from level 1 Melee Damage on Full Life) 35% more projectile damage (from level 6 Physical Projectile Attack Damage) 25% less projectile damage (from level 1 Lesser Multiple Projectiles) IAD = 0.2 IMD = 0.6 + 0.18 = 0.78 IPD = 0.4 MPD_1 = 1.35 (35% more) MPD_2 = 0.75 (25% less) MMD_1 = 1.3 (30% more) MMD_2 = 1.3 (30% more) projectile_damage = tooltip_damage * (1.0 + IAD + IPD) / (1.0 + IAD + IMD) * (MPD_1 * MPD_2) / (MMD_1 * MMD_2) = [10, 20] * (1.0 + 0.2 + 0.4) / (1.0 + 0.2 + 0.78) * (1.35 * 0.75)/(1.3 * 1.3) = [10, 20] * (1.6) / (1.98) * (1.0125) / (1.69) = [10, 20] * (0.4841) = [4.8, 9.6]

Threshold Jewel

The following threshold jewels augment the skill gem:

Item	Radius	Stats
Fight for SurvivalFight for Survival Viridian JewelLimited to: 2 Radius: Medium(10-15)% increased Cold Damage With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Melee Damage dealt by Frost Blades Penetrates 15% Cold Resistance With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Frost Blades has 25% increased Projectile SpeedThe winter that followed the Cataclysm was especially harsh. Wraeclast's few survivors fought to the death for the last scraps of bread.Place into an allocated jewel socket on the Passive Skill Tree. Right click to remove from the Socket.	Medium	(10-15)% increased Cold Damage With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Melee Damage dealt by Frost Blades Penetrates 15% Cold Resistance With at least 40 Dexterity in Radius, Frost Blades has 25% increased Projectile Speed

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Frost Blades.

Name		Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Frost Blades Damage 1	66	25% increased Frost Blades Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Frost Blades Damage 2	75	40% increased Frost Blades Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Frost Blades Projectile Speed 1	66	20% increased Frost Blades Projectile Speed	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Frost Blades Projectile Speed 2	75	30% increased Frost Blades Projectile Speed	helmet 100 default 0

Version history

Version	Changes
2.6.0	Physical to Cold conversion increase to 60% (up from 40%).
2.4.0	15% more damage at gem level 20.
2.1.0	Attack skills that have their damage based on the wielded weapon have their mana costs fixed in place from level 1 onwards. Frost Blades has been improved from 2 additional projectiles at all levels to 4 additional projectiles at level 1 and 7 additional projectiles at level 20. It has also been increased from +14 weapon range at all levels to +18 weapon range at level 1 and +21 weapon range at level 20. It now gains 1% projectile speed per level after the first (19% at Level 20) and its base projectile speed has been increased by 25%.
2.0.0	Introduced to the game.