Withered in Path of Exile 2: Complete Guide to the Chaos Damage Debuff

In Path of Exile 2, debuffs play a central role in Path of Exile 2 Currency increasing damage output and shaping advanced build strategies. Among these, Withered stands out as one of the most impactful debuffs for builds that deal Chaos Damage. Whether you're playing a Toxic Arrow Ranger, Essence Drain Occultist, or any chaos-based caster, understanding how Withered works is crucial for optimizing your DPS potential and surviving encounters where enemies can apply it back to you.

In this guide, we'll break down exactly what Withered does, how it stacks, how its duration and magnitude work, and how to defend against or amplify its effects in Path of Exile 2.

What is Withered in Path of Exile 2?

Withered is a temporary stacking debuff that causes an entity - whether an enemy or player - to take increased Chaos Damage from all sources. This includes both hits and damage over time effects, such as poison or degeneration effects.

Each stack of Withered increases Chaos Damage taken by 5%, stacking up to a maximum of 10 times by default. At full stacks, an affected target takes 50% increased Chaos Damage from all sources.
Unlike many other debuffs, applying a new stack of Withered does not refresh the duration of existing stacks. Instead, each stack operates independently - meaning that once a stack expires, it's gone unless reapplied by your skills or passives.

Because Withered affects the "damage taken" multiplier, its impact scales multiplicatively with your Chaos Damage - making it one of the most efficient ways to scale endgame DPS in Path of Exile 2, especially for builds that depend on rare Path of Exile 2 Items or specialized crafting using Path of Exile 2 Currency.

Duration of Withered

The duration of each Withered stack depends entirely on how it was applied. Different sources of the debuff can have different durations:

Withering Presence - A passive aura-like effect that applies the Withered debuff every few intervals to nearby enemies. Each stack applied through Withering Presence lasts a base of 6 seconds, or 7.2 seconds with 20% Quality.
Withering Touch Support - This Support Gem applies Withered stacks via attacks or skills. Because it has the Duration tag, it benefits from any modifiers that increase Skill Effect Duration, making it ideal for builds that want longer-lasting stacks.

Importantly, each Withered stack has its own independent timer. You can apply a new stack while old ones are still active, but you can't reset their timers - so if your application rate is too slow, stacks will drop off before reaching the maximum of ten.

To maintain maximum uptime, fast-hitting or buy Path of Exile 2 Currency persistent sources like Wither Totems, Withering Step, or Auras like Withering Presence are essential in Path of Exile 2.