Heart mechanics
Combat & Casting
Active Skill Hearts combine archetype geometry, Power scaling, one damage identity, compatible modifiers, equipment stats, and Class Tree effects.
Power scaling5 damage identities75% critical cap
Base Heart power12
Base per effective Heart level0.8
Per Power rank2.6
Minimum cast time0.1s
Power and final damage
Base active-Heart power
12 + effective Heart level × 0.8 + effective Power × 2.6 + item level × rarity modifier. Matching active-archetype Heart Mastery, Heart Affinity, and every applicable Heart Technique equipment affix add to the Heart's item level before the base effective-level term. Mastery and Affinity grant +1 level at T1–T2, +2 at T3–T4, +3 at T5–T6, +4 at T7–T9, and +5 at T10. Matching Heart Amplification, active-archetype Heart Specialization, and every applicable Heart Discipline equipment percentage add to the Heart's own Damage modifier. Passive and Aura Hearts have neither Mastery nor Technique level affixes and neither Specialization nor Discipline damage affixes. Archetype, damage-type, eligible-tag, and equipped-item bonuses stack. The archetype multiplier, target-health modifier, critical hit, defense, and Class Tree effects apply afterward.
- Rarity modifier
- Additional Heart power per item level: Ok 0, Neat 0.1, Good 0.3, Cool 0.5, Rad 0.85, DopeAF 1.2.
- Eligible equipment
- Equipped attributes, critical chance and damage, matching flat Penetration Rating, Bloodbound, Aetherbound, stun, Bleed, and compatible general combat stats may apply.
- Weapon-only stats
- Wand Damage, Wand attack speed, Wand bolt speed, and Wand explosion size do not automatically increase Skill Heart output.
- Heart Dynamics
- Matching equipment affixes add projectile speed to Projectile Hearts, size to Explosion or Area Hearts, duration to Deployable Hearts, and range to Movement Hearts. Explosion and Area bonuses stack on Hearts with both tags.
- Target health
- Healthy-target damage applies at or above 80% health. Injured-target damage applies at or below 30% health.
- Critical hits
- Heart-specific critical modifiers add to eligible equipped values. Total critical chance remains capped at 75%.
Values are read from the same gameplay catalogs used by Worlds Worth Looting.
Damage types and defenses
| Damage type | Animation | Defense | Defense shred | Compatible ailment | Universal option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | Impact shards | Armor Rating | Armor Shred | Bleed / Rupture | Root |
| Fire | Flames and embers | Magic Resistance Rating | Magic Shred | Burn / Detonation | Root |
| Ice | Orbiting crystals | Magic Resistance Rating | Magic Shred | Cold / Freeze | Root |
| Lightning | Forking lightning | Magic Resistance Rating | Magic Shred | Electrified / Discharge | Root |
| Force | Orbiting force rings | Armor Rating | Armor Shred | Blind / Kinetic Crash | Root |
Shred, recovery, and ailments
- Defense penetration
- Earth and Force Hearts reduce Armor Rating; Fire, Ice, and Lightning Hearts reduce Magic Resistance Rating. The modifier affects only that Heart.
- Armor and Magic Shred
- A surviving target is Shredded for 4s after the hit. The applying hit is unaffected, while later matching-defense hits from any source benefit.
- Bloodbound
- Positive recovery restores life over 3s and is interrupted by incoming damage. Harmful low-tier rolls drain life and stop at 1 HP.
- Aetherbound
- Positive recovery restores mana over 1.5s and is interrupted by spending mana. Harmful low-tier rolls drain mana.
- Earth Rupture
- Each successful Earth Skill Heart Bleed proc adds one stack while Bleed is active. The fifth consumes Bleed and deals fixed physical damage equal to 10% of the target's current missing health after the triggering hit (rounded, minimum 1). Gear and Wand Bleed can refresh the window but cannot add stacks.
- Fire Detonation
- Each successful Fire Skill Heart Burn proc adds one stack and refreshes all active Burn durations without resetting their tick cadence. The fifth consumes every stack for its exact scheduled remaining damage, then deals 20% of that payload within 150 pixels. Surviving hostile monsters gain one splash-scaled Burn stack and can continue a bounded chain.
- Force Kinetic Crash
- Blind is persistent and enables every displacement build. Wand hits and Hearts with positive Knockback or Vacuum deal 25% more direct damage if the target was already Blind. A collision with terrain, another hostile monster, or the attacker's active Wall deals fixed Force damage up to 50% of the triggering hit over 80 pixels of blocked displacement; a struck monster takes half. Knockback and Vacuum from one hit share that cap.
- Repeated attackers
- Swarm, Turret, and Summon use reduced ailment and Root proc chances on their repeated attacks.
Casting
- Windup
- Active Heart windups normally hold the hero in place. Fully active Windborne retains movement while casting.
- Quickness
- Each effective Quickness rank above 1 adds 1% cast speed, combining additively with the Heart's Cast Speed modifier.
- Cast Time modifier
- A negative Cast Time roll shortens the windup; a positive roll lengthens it. It can coexist with Cast Speed.
- Interruptions
- Dodging interrupts an ordinary cast unless a Class technique suspends it. Interrupted casts spend no mana and start no cooldown.
- Caps
- Cooldown reduction and mana-cost reduction cap at 50%. Final cast time cannot fall below 0.1s.