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The original was posted on /r/pathofexile by /u/Zenith_X1 on 2025-01-05 01:44:20+00:00.
Kripparian just dropped a video on how Charms work and for the most part he is correct, however I disagree that Charm Charge generation and increased charges are the ideal modifiers. "#% Reduces Charm Charges Used" is the way to go, and the below information should help illustrate why. Enjoy the post, and I hope it helps you in some way!
TLDR
- Charms are cheap to invest in. You only need a Belt and the Charm itself. Ornate Belt is best.
- Charms are most optimal when both the Belt and Charm (and passive tree) have as much "#% reduced Charm Charges used" as possible.
- You can reduce #% Charm Charges used by as much as ~67%, and you get Charm Charges back more quickly with the 30% x2 campaign buffs (Act 2 idols & Act 2 cruel idols)
- Anti-Stun, Anti-Slow, and Anti-Freeze Charms are my preferred Charms in maps.
- Golden Charm is currently bugged? It applies AFTER the rare/unique monster is killed, and not to the activating rare/unique monster.
How Charms Work
- When a Charm's listed condition is met, the Charm will activate and last for a duration specified on the Charm.
- Effects of a Charm's modifiers are applied LOCALLY and will be shown on the Charm.
- Effects of Charm modifiers on other pieces of gear are applied GLOBALLY, which is a separate calculation not shown on the Charm.
- "Increased Effect of Charms" on the passive tree only applies to the effects of the Charm itself, not to its Prefix & Suffix modifiers.
- Some Charm effects apply to the activating condition (Slow and Freeze are instantly cleared by Charm activation).
- Some Charm effects only apply after the activating condition (Stun Charms do not clear the first stun, but do prevent stun-locking).
- Guard is a Charm-specific defensive barrier that can be activated on Charm activation. It does not persist after the Charm effect ends.
- If two Charms with Guard are both active simultaneously, the most recently activated Charm will overwrite the Guard of the previous Charm (Guard does not stack).
- Example: Standing on Chilled Ground. My Slow-Removal Charm activates, reducing Chill effect to 0% and providing me 197 Guard. The 20% chance for a 2nd Charm activation (passive tree) is triggered and my Thawing Charm is activated at no charge cost. My Thawing Charm overwrites the 197 Guard from my Slowing Charm, and gives me the 128 Guard from my Thawing Charm.
Now that we've gotten Charm functions out of the way, let's take a look at how to make Charms more reliable!
1) Sources of reduced Charm Charges used
The following are global modifiers:
- Ornate Belt = (10-15)% reduced Charm Charges used
- Belt Suffix = (8-25)% reduced Charm Charges used
- Passive Tree = 12% reduced Charm Charges used
The following are local modifiers:
Global and Local modifiers are calculated separately. To calculate Charges used by Charms, we use the following equation:
(# Charges per use) x (1 - local %) x (1 - sum(global %))
For a 40 Charge per use Charm, a perfect Charm setup is 40 x (1 - 0.32) x (1 - (0.15 + 0.25 + 0.12)) = 13.056 Charges per use!
This is up to ~67% reduced with the passive tree, or ~60% reduced Charm Charges used without the passive tree.
2) Charms Overview
Note: this can be increased up to 136 if you choose #% increased Charges as your Charm suffix
- Charms have a base cost of 40, 50, 60, or 80 charges
- Resistance Charms last 4 seconds
- Non-Stun Ailment Charms last 3 seconds
- Stun Charm last 2.5 seconds
- Rarity Charm lasts 1 second
- "# Charm Slots" rolls on Belts and is a suffix modifier
- You can get +1 Charm Slot from the passive tree, so you do not need a +2 Charm Slots belt modifier in order to use 3 Charms
- +1 Charm Slot is relatively cheap to Anoint on your amulet. It costs 3x Distilled Paranoia.
3) Charges Per Use
| Base Cost | 0% reduced | 32% local reduced | perfect w/out passive tree | perfect w/ passive tree |
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| 40 | 40 | 27.2 | 16.3 | 13.1 |
| 50 | 50 | 34 | 20.4 | 16.3 |
| 60 | 60 | 40.8 | 24.5 | 19.6 |
| 80 | 80 | 54 | 32.6 | 26.1 |
4) Uses Until Charges are Depleted
| Base Cost | 0% reduced | 32% local reduced | perfect w/out passive tree | perfect w/ passive tree |
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| 40 | 2 | 2.94 | 4.90 | 6.13 |
| 50 | 1.6 | 2.35 | 3.92 | 4.90 |
| 60 | 1.33 | 1.96 | 3.27 | 4.08 |
| 80 | 1 | 1.47 | 2.45 | 3.06 |
5) Discussion
Players who stack a LOT of #% reduced Charm Charges used will be able to solve huge defensive holes with ease!
For example, players using Chaos Inoculation (CI) need to invest a bunch of passive points to use a % of Energy Shield as their Stun threshold. The Stone Charm gives 2.5 seconds of stun immunity and consumes 40 charges by default. However, maxing out reduced Charm Charges used reduces consumption to 13.1 charges. This means that you can get 2.5 x 6 = 15 seconds of stun immunity at perfect Charge reduction. 15 seconds is plenty of time to continue generating charges to push this duration even further. You can pair this stun immunity with the passive node "Lucky Rabbit Foot" which gives 30% increased damage and 6% increased movement speed while a charm is active. Additionally, each activation of a Charm can give Life, Mana, or Guard (see #6 below), with Guard being particularly useful as a source of overshield.
Without "#% of ES as Stun Threshold", all hits against you will stun, meaning your charm will get actived all of the time. The net result in this example is that as long as you maintain your Stun Charm charges, you get:
- Never Stunlocked (though you still get stunned once)
- +6% Movement speed
- +30% Damage
- Guard (HP/ES overshield)
- No need for stun threshold bonuses on the passive tree (saves passive points)
6) Additional Charm Bonuses (Prefixes)
- (16-40)% increased Charm Duration
- Recover (4-82) Life when Used
- Recover (3-47) Mana when Used
- Gain (15-209) Guard when Used
Note: Guard is a Buff that absorbs damage from Hits, taking the damage before your Life or Energy Shield until depleted. Guard does not linger after the Charm effect ends!
7) Refilling Charm Charges
Sustaining your Charms comes down to a) slaying lots of monsters or b) charge regeneration. You could use the Charm suffix "#% Chance to gain a Charge when you Kill an Enemy" or "#% increased Charges gained", however these compete with the reducing Charm Charges used suffix. Here are options which do not compete with this suffix:
- Belt Suffix = (5-40)% increased Charm Charges gained
- Double Belt Implicit = (20-30)% increased Charm Charges gained
- Normal Act 2 Valley of the Titans Idol = 30% increased Charm Charges gained
- Cruel Act 2 Valley of the Titans Idol = 30% increased Charm Charges gained
- Total on the passive tree = 76% increased Charm Charges gained
There is also a Charm suffix which passively regenerates 0.15-0.25 Charm charges per second, a passive point (Vale Shelter) that gives 0.15 charges per second, and Elevore gives 0.5 charges per second. If you had at least 100% increased Charm charges gained (not too high investment) and all sources of Charm charge regeneration, you would receive 2 * (0.5 + 0.15 + 0.25) = 1.8 charges per second, or 0.9 charges per second without Elevore.
Permanent Charm uptime would require far more than 1.8 Charm Charges per second, so I currently do not see a method for maintaining permanent passive Charm uptime.
8) Charms can have Quality
- Quality on Charms increases their duration by the % Quality listed
(20% increased quality = 20% increased duration)
- Charms can drop with % Quality.
- Vaal Orbs can add % Quality.
- On a perfect quality Charm with a perfect "increased Charm Duration" prefix (40%), you can achieve 60% increased Charm duration, or even more if your Vaal Orb raises quality further.
9) Charm Effect
Some Charms benefit from increased Charm effect. A total of 45% increased effect of Charms is available on the passive tree. As mentioned earlier, increased Charm effect does not apply to your Charm's prefixes or suffixes. At maximum effect, you receive:
- +36% Fire, Cold, or Lightning Resistance
- +26% Chaos Resistance
- +29% increased Rarity of Items found when Killing a Rare or Unique Enemy.
Hope this helps everyone!
-Zenith_X1
