No, Venom Gyre is not a spell. It is an attack skill.
Understanding Venom Gyre
Venom Gyre is a distinctive skill in Path of Exile that is classified as an attack skill. It specifically requires a claw or dagger to be equipped to be used effectively. The skill revolves around throwing projectiles and offers a dynamic combat style.
Key attributes of Venom Gyre include:
- It functions by throwing multiple projectiles at enemies.
- These projectiles deal chaos damage and have an inherent chance to poison foes.
- A unique characteristic of Venom Gyre's projectiles is their ability to return to the player.
- Once these projectiles return and are "caught," they can be unleashed again by using the Whirling Blades movement skill, allowing for rapid follow-up attacks and strategic repositioning.
Attack Skills vs. Spell Skills in Path of Exile
In Path of Exile, skills are fundamentally divided into two main categories: attack skills and spell skills. Understanding this distinction is crucial for character building, as each type scales with different stats and interacts with various game mechanics and support gems.
Attack Skills
Attack skills, such as Venom Gyre, are inherently linked to the player's equipped weapon. Their damage output is primarily based on the weapon's base damage. They scale with modifiers like "increased attack speed," "physical damage," "projectile attack damage," and specific weapon-type damage increases. Attack skills typically represent physical strikes or projectile launches that utilize the weapon directly. Since Venom Gyre leverages the damage from your equipped claw or dagger and is explicitly an "attack skill," it benefits from these types of modifiers.
Spell Skills
In contrast, spell skills generate their own base damage and do not rely on the equipped weapon's physical damage (though some unique weapon properties or global modifiers like "spell damage" can influence them). Spells scale with modifiers such as "increased spell damage," "cast speed," and various elemental or chaos spell damage increases. Examples include casting fireballs, summoning minions, or creating ice nova explosions. Spells can often be used unarmed or with any weapon type, as their effectiveness is not tied to the weapon's inherent attack damage.
Given that Venom Gyre is described as a "claw/dagger attack skill" and its damage scales with your weapon, it firmly falls into the category of an attack skill, designed to be integrated into attack-based character builds focused on weapon damage and speed.
