Distortion
Distortion is a special damage effect in Windrose that creates a brief area-of-effect burst around the targeted enemy. The clearest launch-build source is the Swamp Creature's Tooth weapon, whose higher tier procs a distortion burst at the target's position on hit. The effect reads as a visual shimmer followed by a short damage pulse that affects nearby hostile entities.
Summary
Property | Value |
|---|---|
Type | Procced area-of-effect damage |
Category | Special (distortion) |
Primary source | |
Target | Enemy on hit; damage radiates to nearby hostiles |
Stack behavior | Rolls per hit; does not stack on a single target |
Visible indicator | Distortion shimmer and expanding pulse VFX at the target's position |
How It Is Applied
Distortion procs from the Swamp Creature's Tooth weapon effect, which triggers a distortion burst around the hit target. The weapon has a proc chance rather than a guaranteed trigger; repeated hits increase the odds of triggering at least one Distortion pulse per engagement. The burst damages nearby enemies within a short radius, so grouped opponents take more combined damage than single-target fights would suggest.
Practical Use
Distortion shines on crowded pulls. Plague camps in the Cursed Swamps cluster enemies tightly, and a Distortion proc from Swamp Creature's Tooth can clear a second-row target the player would otherwise need to peel separately.
The burst does not cleave through LOS breakers cleanly. Enemies behind terrain or LOS walls may be excluded from the AoE even if they are inside the displayed radius.
Pairing Distortion with Dominating Presence compounds its swarm-clear value. Dominating Presence grants post-kill melee bonuses, and Distortion's ability to convert single-target hits into multi-kill bursts feeds the kill chain.
Counterplay
Distortion damage is not a sustained DoT. Once the burst resolves, there is no lingering debuff; the damage is upfront. The counterplay is spacing: spreading out enemies prevents the AoE from hitting additional targets. In co-op, positioning teammates outside the burst radius is a non-issue because Distortion targets hostile entities only.
See Also
Swamp Creature's Tooth the primary source weapon
Status Effects the full status roster
Fire Damage sister elemental proc
Bleeding single-target physical DoT
Plague Marks Plague-family stacking debuff