Stun, Daze, Pin, Electrocute and Armour Break in Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 has several crowd-control effects that each limit the enemy in a different way. Knowing which one limits what is the foundation of every control build.

Immobilise is the umbrella state: a target is considered Immobilised when it cannot move, which happens while Heavily Stunned, Pinned, Frozen or Electrocuted.

• Stun: interrupts the current action and prevents new actions while it lasts.
• Daze: not a hard control; it increases Stun Buildup so the enemy is easier to Heavy Stun.
• Pin: stops movement and ignores the target's Evasion against incoming hits.
• Freeze: stops the target's actions.
• Electrocute: the lightning control effect; it stops both movement and action.
• Immobilise: the set of effects that prevent movement or action, not a separate effect by itself.
• Armour Break: not control at all; it raises damage taken rather than limiting the target.

Any hit can contribute Stun Buildup. The chance to inflict a (light) Stun scales with the hit's damage relative to the target's Stun Threshold. Player physical and melee hits are especially effective at building stun.

When enough Stun Buildup is dealt, a separate Heavy Stun Meter fills. Once that meter is full the target enters a long Heavy Stun and is treated as Immobilised. The Heavy Stun Meter does not build while the target is already Heavily Stunned.

Buildup requirements differ by enemy type: normal monsters fill quickly, Rares need more, and bosses need much more buildup to be controlled. Exact values are version-dependent and should be confirmed in-game.

• Physical damage is the primary contributor to Stun Buildup.
• Stronger monsters have their Stun Threshold adjusted so they can be stunned, but bosses still resist light stun heavily.
• Modifiers that grant increased Stun Buildup scale the buildup directly rather than granting a base stun chance.

Any Stun that is not a Heavy Stun is a Light Stun: a brief interruption of the current action. Light Stuns are easy to apply to weak monsters but bosses largely shrug them off.

Heavy Stun is the payoff state. It uses its own meter fed by Stun Buildup and produces a much longer, fully immobile state. Building toward Heavy Stun is the real goal of a stun build.

• Light Stun: short, interrupts the current action only.
• Heavy Stun: long, enemy is Immobilised and vulnerable to follow-up damage.
• Bosses resist regular stun, so the Heavy Stun Meter is the lever that matters against them.

Daze is a physical status effect that helps you Stun enemies faster rather than controlling them directly. Per the referenced community guides, Dazed enemies take about 50% more Stun Buildup and Daze lasts around 8 seconds.

Daze is applied by chance on Hit from specific passives, skills, supports or gear; it is not inherent to every attack. Because it makes the enemy easier to Heavy Stun, it is the natural setup for stun combos.

• Effect: a Dazed enemy takes increased Stun Buildup, making Heavy Stun easier to reach.
• Duration: described as roughly 8 seconds in current community guides.
• Source: invest in plus-chance-to-Daze modifiers, Dazing supports, or weapons that Daze on Hit.
• Some skills and supports interact specially with Dazed enemies; check each one individually.

Pin, Freeze and Electrocute are distinct effects that limit different things. They are not the same and should not be merged with each other or with generic ailment rules.

Pin stops movement and removes the target's Evasion against hits. Freeze stops the target's actions. Electrocute is the lightning version of control and stops both movement and action.

• Pin: prevents movement; the target cannot Evade incoming hits while Pinned.
• Freeze: prevents actions.
• Electrocute: lightning control effect that prevents both movement and action.
• Electrocute shares its underlying facts with the ailments guide; treat it as the same lightning control effect there.

Immobilise is the set concept covering any effect that stops movement or action: Heavily Stunned, Pinned, Frozen or Electrocuted targets are all considered Immobilised. Immobilise itself adds no effect on its own; it is a trigger condition for other modifiers.

Primed states are setup states. A monster becomes Primed for Stun, Pin, Electrocute or Freeze once its buildup reaches a fraction of the total. A primed target can then be triggered immediately by the matching effect, enabling clean combos.

• Immobilise: triggered by Heavy Stun, Pin, Freeze or Electrocute.
• Primed for X: reached at a percentage of buildup that scales with monster rarity (normal, magic, rare, unique boss need progressively more).
• A Primed target can be finished by a single matching hit, which is the core of control combos.

Armour Break reduces the target's Armour, which increases the damage it takes from hits. Fully Broken is the saturated state where armour is reduced as far as the effect allows.

Armour Break is explicitly NOT a control effect and is NOT Immobilise. It is best understood as a damage amplifier that pairs well with control windows: break the armour, then lock the target down and burst it.

• Armour Break: lowers Armour, raising damage taken; not control.
• Fully Broken: maximum armour reduction state.
• Synergy: combine Armour Break with Daze and Heavy Stun so the target takes extra damage while immobilised.
• Armour Break is not Immobilise and should never be counted as a control effect.

Some support gems change how control behaves instead of just scaling it. A common pattern is a support that removes one effect and substitutes another, for example a support that makes a skill unable to Stun and applies Pin instead.

The exact behaviour depends on the specific support or skill, so always read the gem's description. Do not assume a fixed list of conversions; check the support you are using.

• Supports can redirect Stun Buildup to Pin Buildup and disable Stun on the supported skill.
• Some skills and items have special interactions with Dazed or Immobilised enemies.
• Always verify the specific support's text; conversions are not universal.