Last Epoch Damned status ailment, explained

If you’re using an Acolyte character in Last Epoch, especially the Necromancer or Warlock masteries, it’s important to know about the Damned status ailment. This is a debuff you can keep stacking on enemies to damage them and reduce their health regeneration. Here’s how it works.

How the Damned status ailment works in Last Epoch

The Damned status ailment in Last Epoch causes 35 necrotic damage over 2.5 seconds for each stack, and it lowers the health regeneration of the enemy by 20 percent. It’s similar to Poison and Bleed because it damages over time, but it deals necrotic damage, while Poison and Bleed deal poison and physical damage, respectively.

Any Acolyte Mastery can use Damned by:

• Using specific skills that cause Damned, like the Eye of Damnation passive or the Drain Life skill with the Condemnation upgrade from the Lich tree.
• Equipping items that inflict Damned on hit enemies, such as Chronicle of the Damned and Pyre of Affliction.
• Modifying gear in the forge to add “apply Damned on Hit” using Baneful and Acolyte’s prefixes.

Acolytes use Damned not just to cause damage over time but also to activate bonuses from their skill specializations. For instance, with the No Rest for the Wicked node in the Soul Feast tree, Warlocks can give Frenzy to their minions when killing damned enemies. Or you can make the Acolyte skill Wandering Spirits deal more damage to Damned enemies with the Reap of the Damned node.

Unique items offer a powerful, though very late-game, way to use Damned. For example, Marina’s Lost Soul increases your spell damage by 100 to 160 percent, but it applies Damned to your character each time you cast a spell. The Pyre of Affliction, usable only by Liches, lets you stack Damned on yourself to greatly boost your Necrotic damage penetration against enemies.

If you plan to harness Damned in Last Epoch, start gradually. All Acolyte Masteries can apply it, whether to increase damage directly with the ailment or to enhance other skills when it’s active. In any case, crafting a strong damage-over-time build is essential for success.