Path of Exile 2: Is Heatproofing worth it?

Heatproofing is a big node found on the lower-left quadrant of Path of Exile 2's Passive Tree. Taken as a token buff towards safeguarding from Fire spells, this node is often cited as one of the few good things about Armour as a defense option. But is it good enough to be an example of Armour's useability? While Warrior loyalists may swear by it, recent findings prove that it gives you far less than advertised on the tin.

As originally researched by Reddit user EntityBlack1, here's what the Heatproofing node in Path of Exile 2 does under the hood, and why it's not good enough.

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Here's why Heatproofing will give you little practical benefit in Path of Exile 2

Heatproofing requires a four-point investment (Image via GGG)

The game advertises that Heatproofing makes it so that 25% of your Armour will go towards Fire damage mitigation from hits. This applies to anything from falling meteors around a Shrine to fireball spells that hit you. Essentially, 25% of your Armour value will be applied to mitigate these instances of Fire damage as if it were Physical damage.

Here's what Path of Exile 2 doesn't tell you: this mitigation kicks in before Fire resistance is applied to the hit, and it retains the same high-damage downscaling properties of Armour.

One of the big reasons Armour in Path of Exile 2 doesn't work like in other ARPGs is its quirk of diminishing return on big hits. Simply put, the bigger the hit damage instance, the lower the amount of mitigation armor will apply to it.

Since Heatproofing will apply its mitigation value before Elemental Resistance is secured, it will take the full brunt of the incoming damage from Fire-based hits. Furthermore, it only takes 25% of the Armour value. Even if you're a fully decked-out Armour-maxxed Warrior in Path of Exile 2, Heatproofing will only mitigate 7,000-8,000 points of damage.

Against a 3000 damage hit of Fire, which is not all that uncommon in pinnacle-tier mapping, Heatproofing will only reduce the damage by 16%. Against pinnacle bosses, this effective reduction will scarcely cross 5% even with the best Armour gear.

The other side of the coin is the restriction to hit damage. Heaproofing does nothing against the biggest Fire-related threat in Path of Exile 2: patches of burning ground.

Patch 0.1.1 is going to address the Armour problem with a dinky 15% band-aid buff. This does practically nothing to bring this mechanic even remotely close to Energy Shield or even Evasion, while the best-case bastions of Armour practicability such as Heatproofing also hold questionable utility.

The opportunity cost to Heatproofing for STR-stacking Gemlings or Warriors is a four-point detour into its node-cluster. In effect, it gives you so little that those 4 Passive points are far better spent elsewhere.

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Check out our other guides on the game:

• Path of Exile 2 Skill Gems and Gemcutting guide
• Path of Exile 2 Endgame systems guide
• Path of Exile 2 Item Crafting guide
• Path of Exile 2 Runes and Sockets guide