PoE 2 Dawn of the Hunt: Poison and Gas Cloud Mechanics Explained

Gas Cloud is one of the most unique and potent mechanics introduced in Path of Exile 2. Tied to Gas Grenade and Gas Arrow, this system allows players to apply poison without directly hitting enemies. This guide will break down how Gas Cloud works in PoE 2 Dawn of the Hunt 0.2, what it scales with, and which mechanics interact with it.

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What Is Gas Cloud in PoE 2 0.2?

Gas Cloud is a unique ground effect mechanic in Path of Exile 2 that applies Poison Ailment to enemies standing within its area.

It originates from two primary sources: Gas Grenade and Gas Arrow.

While it mimics the behavior of a hit for the purpose of poisoning, it is not an actual hit, and this distinction has major implications for how the mechanic scales, interacts with passives, and behaves in combat.

When a Gas Cloud is deployed, it continuously applies poison to enemies inside the area, “as though hitting”, bypassing the need for accuracy or direct contact.

However, because it doesn't register as a real hit, the following interactions are affected:

• Cannot Critically Strike: Since there’s no hit, critical strike mechanics are irrelevant. Any bonuses to critical strike chance or multiplier do not apply to the poison inflicted by gas clouds.

• Always Applies Poison: The poison effect cannot miss. Enemies standing in the cloud are poisoned regardless of their evasion or the player's accuracy rating.

• No On-Hit Effects: Mechanics that rely on landing hits, such as life gain on hit, leech, or on-hit ailments like bleed, ignite, or shock, do not trigger from the gas cloud's poison.

• No Hit-Based Scaling: Any modifiers that require a hit to take effect (e.g., Critical Ailment Scaling, On-Hit Triggers) are bypassed entirely.

This creates a unique damage delivery method where poison becomes decoupled from the standard hit-check system, allowing players to build around consistency and uptime rather than precision or chance.

Because of this, the Gas Cloud is especially valuable in builds that:

• Want to reliably poison without investing in accuracy.

• Prefer damage-over-time (DoT) setups.

• Benefit from ground effect scaling supports and duration manipulation.

Understanding that the Gas Cloud is not a hit, yet still inflicts poison as if it were, is the foundation for optimizing any build that leverages this powerful mechanic.

Check out our Poison Cloud Build for PoE 2.

Key Mechanics Breakdown of Poison and Gas Cloud

1. No Crits, No Problem

Gas Cloud effects cannot critically strike.

This means that:

• Critical strike chance and multiplier have zero impact on poison applied by Gas Cloud.

• Any form of ailment scaling based on crits, such as increased poison damage from crit-based builds, does not function.

• Builds that rely on critical synergy for DoT won’t benefit when applying poison through Gas Clouds.

The takeaway? Crit investment is wasted here—focus your scaling elsewhere.

2. Guaranteed Poison Application

Gas Clouds always poison enemies within their area of effect:

• Accuracy is completely irrelevant.

• Enemy evasion rating is ignored.

• Poison application is guaranteed as long as the target is inside the cloud.

However, it’s important to note:

• The initial hit from the Gas Grenade (explosion) and the Gas Arrow (projectile) can miss, as these are standard hit-based effects.

• Only the cloud itself has guaranteed application mechanics.

This makes Gas Cloud a strong choice for reliable poison uptime, even against high-evasion enemies.

3. Damage as Extra Works

Although “damage as extra” is typically a hit-based modifier, it does apply to Gas Cloud:

• The poison is applied “as though hitting”, which enables these modifiers to function.

• All damage types apply—physical, chaos, fire, cold, lightning—but:

  • By default, only physical and chaos contribute to poison.

  • Elemental types won’t poison unless specifically enabled.

Plague Finger Gauze changes that dynamic:

• They allow elemental damage to poison, opening up a much broader range of scaling potential.

• With them, all extra damage types can effectively scale your poison via the Gas Cloud mechanic.

4. Malady Support Incompatible

The Malady Support gem converts poison chance to bleed and vice versa, depending on the setup.

• Gas Cloud does not use chance-based poison—it applies poison through a fixed effect (“poisons as though hitting”).

• This absolute phrasing means the Malady conversion does nothing.

• You can’t use Malady to switch to a bleed-based version of Gas Cloud.

Bottom line: Skip Malady for this build.

5. Heft Support Works

Heft Support increases maximum physical damage, which matters in poison-based setups.

• Since poison damage is calculated from the base physical hit, increasing that maximum physical roll directly buffs the poison.

• This makes Heft a solid support gem for scaling poison if you’re focused on physical damage sources.

Ideal when paired with Gas Grenade or Arrow builds that are built around physical stacking and DoT amplification.

Gas Cloud Poison - Ground Effect Synergies

6. Gas Cloud Is a Ground Effect

Gas Cloud is fully categorized as a ground effect, which opens up powerful synergies with certain support gems designed to enhance or modify this type of area-based effect.

This means it benefits from the following:

• Despoiler Support – Enhances ground effects by increasing area coverage or duration, giving your Gas Clouds more presence on the battlefield.

• Suffuse Support – Alters ground effect behavior, often with interactions related to lingering effects or area triggers. It can add utility for more advanced setups where control of zone persistence or detonation matters.

• Domain Support – This one is crucial for consistency. The domain prevents ground effects from being destroyed prematurely. Specifically:

  • It stops Gas Clouds from being detonated by environmental effects like ignite or active detonator skills.

  • Ensures your Gas Clouds last their full intended duration, maintaining poison uptime even in chaotic fights.

By leveraging these supports, especially Domain, you drastically improve the stability and duration of your poison application zones, critical for builds that rely on stacking or maintaining poison over time.

Passive Tree and Duration Interactions for Gas Cloud Setup

7. Low Tolerance Doesn’t Synergize Well

The Low Tolerance notable provides a bonus to poison damage when the target is not already poisoned.

On paper, it looks like a strong multiplier for poison builds, but it doesn’t function optimally with Gas Cloud mechanics.

• Why? Gas Clouds reapply poison repeatedly as long as an enemy remains inside. These are treated as new poison instances.

• The result? Only the very first application benefits from Low Tolerance.

• Subsequent poisons lose the “target not already poisoned” condition and don’t gain the bonus.

In essence, Low Tolerance isn’t reliable for Gas Cloud-based setups, especially since your poison uptime is near-constant.

8. Skill Effect Duration vs. Poison Duration

Understanding the difference between these two is vital for optimizing a Gas Cloud build:

• Skill Effect Duration: Extends how long the Gas Cloud itself stays on the ground.

  • Ideal for stationary fights or prolonged poison uptime zones.

  • Boosted by passive tree nodes and gear with skill duration modifiers.

• Poison Duration: Extends how long each poison stack lasts on the target after it's inflicted.

  • Crucial for mobile enemies that walk or dash out of the gas.

  • Ensures damage continues to tick even if they escape the cloud’s area.

Balancing both gives your build flexibility. Too much duration on only one side leads to gaps in damage:

• Long-lived clouds with short poisons = wasted uptime if enemies move.

• Long poisons with short cloud duration = fewer applications overall.

For endgame viability—especially in dynamic boss fights—invest in both stats to maintain pressure regardless of positioning.

On-Hit Mechanics and Their Limitations

9. Gas Cloud Doesn’t Hit

One of the core limitations of Gas Cloud is that, while it poisons as though hitting, it does not actually perform a hit.

This distinction has major implications for how the mechanic interacts with on-hit systems:

• No Ailments from On-Hit Effects:

  • Since Gas Cloud isn’t registering a hit, it cannot apply ailments like Maim, Blind, or Chill that normally require a hit to trigger.

  • Even though it inflicts poison, it bypasses the “on-hit” requirement by directly simulating the result of a hit for that specific ailment.

• No On-Hit Recovery or Utility:

  • Effects like Life Gain on Hit, Mana Gain on Hit, or leech are not triggered by the cloud.

  • Builds relying on these mechanics will find no benefit during the gas cloud's active time unless the initial skill also hits.

But Wait—Initial Hits Do Count

Both Gas Grenade and Gas Arrow have an initial component that does hit:

• The explosion from the Gas Grenade.

• The arrow impact from the Gas Arrow.

These can trigger on-hit mechanics:

• Apply ailments like Maim, Blind, or Ignite.

• Activate recovery effects like leech or Life Gain on Hit.

While these hits are relatively weak compared to the ongoing poison damage from the cloud, they can be leveraged to apply important debuffs or maintain sustain.

Consider supporting them with effects like low-cost on-hit support gems or utility-infused gear if you need those extra layers of functionality.

PoE 2 Gas and Poison Cloud Testing Advice

For reliable testing, use the boss just outside Clearfell Encampment in Act 4.

It’s stationary and low-risk, perfect for consistent poison testing and checking support interactions.

Conclusion

Gas Cloud introduces a creative way to apply poison with total consistency. It bypasses crit and accuracy mechanics while offering deep support gem synergy and duration-based scaling. For players building around poison DoT, Gas Cloud is a strong and tactical tool in the arsenal.