In the ever-evolving world of Path of Exile 2, players must carefully plan their passive trees and item choices to optimize damage output. Among the many powerful passives, Storm Charge stands out as a top-tier node for characters focused on elemental damage and critical hits. Whether you're a POE2 Currency seasoned player planning a high-end crit build or a newer exile experimenting with elemental spells, understanding how Storm Charge works — and how to best use it — can be a game-changer.
Storm Charge is a notable passive skill found in PoE 2’s passive tree and also available via amulet anointment. It offers two primary effects:
40% increased elemental damage if you've dealt a critical hit recently
20% increased critical chance
While it sounds simple on the surface, these two bonuses create powerful synergy that can significantly increase your damage output when used correctly.
The Mechanics: Critical Hits and Timing
“40% increased elemental damage if you've dealt a critical hit recently.”
In PoE 2, “recently” refers to the last 4 seconds. If you land a critical hit, you gain the bonus to elemental damage for the next 4 seconds. This means your character doesn't need to continually crit — one successful crit will activate the buff, and you'll keep the bonus for a short time even if you miss subsequent criticals.
Importantly, this elemental damage boost applies to all elements — fire, cold, and lightning — and scales multiplicatively with other damage increases. If you're using elemental skills or spells (like Lightning Arrow, Flame Surge, or Ice Nova), this 40% bonus is massive.
“20% increased critical chance”
This is a flat multiplier to your global critical strike chance. It’s not limited to attacks or spells, nor is it conditional — it’s always active. It helps ensure that you trigger the elemental bonus more often and makes the rest of your crit-scaling investment more reliable.
Storm Charge is not just powerful — it's also extremely efficient. Let’s break down why so many players include it in elemental builds:
1. Consistent Damage Boost
Unlike some passives that depend on stacking charges or temporary conditions, Storm Charge only requires a single crit every few seconds to stay active. In most builds with moderate crit investment, this condition is easily fulfilled, meaning near-constant uptime on the elemental bonus.
2. Synergy with Ailments and Crit Effects
If your build applies Ignite, Chill, Freeze, or Shock, Storm Charge amplifies the base elemental damage behind those ailments. For example, more fire damage leads to stronger Ignites, while higher lightning damage increases Shock effectiveness — which in turn increases enemy damage taken.
Storm Charge boosts the frontline damage that powers these effects, indirectly making your debuffs and ailments more impactful.
3. Universal Application Across Skills
Storm Charge is not limited to any one class archetype or weapon type. Whether you're using spells like Arc or Fireball, attacks like Frost Blades or Elemental Hit, or even hybrid builds, the passive supports them all. It's not weapon-specific, nor is it limited to a particular playstyle, making it highly adaptable.
How to Get Storm Charge on Your Amulet
If you want to use Storm Charge without investing passive points, you can anoint it on your amulet using the Infusion crafting system in PoE 2.
Required Ingredients:
To apply the Storm Charge passive to your amulet, you’ll need the following Distilled Emotions:
Distilled Fear
Distilled Terror
Distilled Envy
These are special oils dropped from Delirium encounters, especially in Ultimate Delirium maps. Once you’ve collected these, go to your crafting bench or use the Infusion system:
Open the Infusion crafting interface.
Insert your amulet in the slot.
Add the three Distilled Emotions in the correct order.
Confirm that the result is Storm Charge, then apply the infusion.
Now, your character benefits from Storm Charge without using passive tree points — a great choice if you’re min-maxing your build or need extra damage in a tight passive tree.
To maximize the benefits of Storm Charge, consider the following tips:
1. Increase Critical Strike Chance
The more often you crit, the more consistently Storm Charge stays active. Invest in:
Increased critical strike chance on weapons, spells, or gear
Crit support gems like Increased Critical Strikes
Power charges or crit flasks (e.g., Diamond Flask)
Aiming for at least 30–40% base crit chance helps ensure consistent activation.
2. Scale Elemental Damage
Storm Charge’s elemental boost stacks well with:
% increased elemental damage modifiers
Added elemental damage to attacks or spells
Elemental penetration
Ailment scaling
If you're not scaling element
al damage in other parts of your build, Storm Charge’s impact will be limited. It's best paired with gear, flasks, and support gems that enhance elemental output.
3. Synergize with Elemental Ailments
Because the increased elemental damage improves your base hit damage, it also enhances the damage and effectiveness of ailments:
Shock: Causes enemies to take increased damage.
Ignite: Deals fire damage over time based on the initial hit.
Freeze: Longer freeze durations with higher cold damage.
Storm Charge, especially in crit builds, enhances all of these effects.
Example Builds That Use Storm Charge
Here are a few popular build archetypes that benefit greatly from Storm Charge:
Elemental Bow Builds: Like Lightning Arrow or Ice Shot with high crit.
Spellcasters: Arc, Fireball, or Ice Nova crit builds.
Inquisitor or Deadeye Ascendancies: Which naturally lean into crit/elemental synergy.
Elemental Blade Vortex or Storm Brand builds.
Storm Charge is one of the most efficient and impactful passives in Path of Exile 2 for any build that incorporates elemental damage and critical hits. Its low requirement for activation, high damage scaling, and wide compatibility with various build types make it a favorite among theorycrafters and high-end players alike.
Whether you choose to allocate it through the passive tree or anoint it onto an amulet, incorporating Storm Charge into your build can significantly enhance your performance — especially in endgame content where every percent of POE2 Currency for sale damage matters.