Path of Exile Molten Shell Self-Chain-Casting Mechanics
Hey guys, I think I've come across something unique.
I've been playing with a self-cast Molten Shell build, maxing armor and endu charges to make it proc quickly. I've noticed that if I just spam-cast Molten Shell without waiting for a detonation, one still occurs even though I keep resetting it with casts.
I took my lvl 30 build back to act 1 normal cost, and chain-casted it against zombies. Even vs 1 zombie, the molten shell would eventually detonate, taking around ~26 hits on average to blow up.
I'm thinking that if you re-cast molten shell while you still have the molten shell buff, that the damage mitigated with it is stored, persisting to the next cast.
There's no other reasoning I can think of that a lvl 2 solo zombie could ever proc a molten shell detonation vs a lvl 30 marauder.
Thoughts?
EDIT: For perspective, a brand new lvl 1 Templar has 66 hp. The level of Molten Shell I was using needed 155 damage prevented to trigger. I got a lvl 2 zombie to trigger it, and I kept recasting molten shell every ~.8 seconds. There is absolutely no way ever that zombie could have done 155 dmg between casts.. that's over twice the HP a lvl 1 char has! Have you ever been one shot by a single, white zombie in normal coast?
That must be how it works. I think I could make a better build now that I know this. It should be in the wiki, I have no clue how to add this info to it.
After more testing, I'm 100% sure this is how molten shell works. The damage threshold is saved for the next cast as long as you re-cast a new molten shell before the old one ends, from time or being detonated. It could make for interesting builds. I can go between enemies and just spam cast it, and get a lot of explosions. Just need more Radius.Now instead of waiting for it to detonate, I just chain cast it in a pack of mobs, and it procs multiple times very quickly. I assume when packs get denser and start to do more dmg, I'll basically be trigger it as often as Vaal Molten Shell (not quite, but comparable enough to be useful)

Sep
PoE 3.12 Heist Starter Builds
PoE 3.12 Heist has started, have you decided which build to play? Poe4orbs recommends several builds that are very suitable for starter. These builds can work pretty good with low budget and are very friendly to the starter.

Aug
poe4orbs:PoE 3.19 Top League Starter Builds Guide
Here is latest and best PoE 3.19 Lake Of Kalandra League Starter Builds for beginner, each video guide is attached with a pob link for players' reference.

Oct
Path of Exile Patch 2.4.0h Updated
Enabled the microtransactions from the Darkness Path of Exile Mystery Box: The Gloom Armour Set, the Obsidian Seraph Armour Set, the Gloom Wings and Gloom Herald Skill Effect can now be purchased

Jan
Best PoE 3.13 Ritual Duelist Starter Builds
Many of the builds in this PoE 3.13 Ritual Duelist Builds guide are good for starter that are popular with many players. For the three ascendancy classes of Champion, Gladiator and Slayer, the focus of each build is also different. Hope it helps you.

Nov
New Path of Exile league starts Friday
New league starts Friday. Hope you have a great time playing Path of Exile, but beware, you might get addicted.

Mar
Making a build of my own for the new legacy league
Plan on going into hardcore legacy and trying to learn quickly- I expect a lot of rage on my behalf. Looking forward to making a build of my own for the new legacy league.