Open Wounds

September 1, 2026

Open Wounds is a chance to apply a bleed to the target. It deals damage over time for 8 seconds and, for as long as it lasts, the target cannot regenerate life. The damage comes from the level of whoever applied it rather than from the weapon, so a fast low-damage weapon carries it just as well as a slow one.

What the bleed does

A triggering hit starts two things at once, both lasting 8 seconds (200 frames). The target takes damage for that whole period, and its natural life regeneration is switched off for the same period. The second half is the one that decides fights. Monster regeneration in Nightmare and Hell is fast enough that a character who cannot kill a target inside a few seconds never gets ahead of it, and a single Open Wounds proc removes that problem for the full duration.

Reapplying it on a later hit resets the duration rather than adding a second wound, and it does so without recalculating the damage. A wound applied at level 60 that is refreshed at level 80 keeps ticking for level 60 damage, and the reverse is equally true.

Chance from multiple items is added together and anything above 100% is wasted. When two weapons are equipped only the chance on the weapon making the attack counts; the one on the other hand is ignored for that swing.

How much life it removes

The drain is a fixed number of life per frame, set by the level of the player, mercenary or Iron Golem that applied it. It is stored in 1/256ths of a point of life and calculated in five brackets.

life drain per frame, in 1/256ths of a point
Character level	Life drain per frame
1 - 15	(9 × level) + 31
16 - 30	(18 × level) − 104
31 - 45	(27 × level) − 374
46 - 60	(36 × level) − 779
61 and above	(45 × level) − 1319

There are 25 frames in a second, so that figure divided by 256 and multiplied by 25 is the life lost per second. No damage is dealt on the first frame, so the wound runs for 199 frames rather than 200 and the total is the figure multiplied by 199/256. A level 99 character lands on (45 × 99) − 1319 = 3136, which is roughly 306 life per second and about 2438 life in total.

Those numbers hold against regular monsters, minions, mercenaries and pets. Tougher targets take a fraction of them, and the split is the same one that Crushing Blow uses, except that here a ranged attack is only penalised against other players.

multiplier applied to the drain
Target	Melee	Missile
Regular monsters, minions, mercenaries, pets	100%	100%
Champions, Uniques, Super Uniques, Bosses	50%	50%
Other players	25%	12.5%

A level 99 character therefore bleeds a boss for roughly 1219 life over the 8 seconds, and another player for roughly 609 in melee or 305 at range.

What does and does not stop it

The drain is unusually hard to shut off. It is not reduced by any form of damage reduction, physical or magical, flat or percentage, and the duration cannot be shortened by

Cleansing or

Fade. It is also applied independently of poison, so a target can bleed and be poisoned at the same time without the two interfering.

Healing is the counter. Potions,

Prayer,

Holy Bolt, Replenish Life and + Life After Each Kill all keep working while a wound is active. Replenish Life cancels it outright if the rating is high enough: a level 30 melee attack on another player drains 109/256 life per frame, which Replenish Life +109 offsets exactly, and the same attack at range drains 54/256, offset by Replenish Life +54.

Limitations

It only fires on a weapon attack that lands, so it is rolled after the chance to hit check and never comes from a spell.
Any melee or ranged attack can carry it except
Blade Sentinel,
Blade Shield and the extra arrows of
Multiple Shot, where only the original two arrows apply it.
Against a monster, mercenary or pet it is only applied if the target's life value actually changes on that hit, through damage or regeneration. A hit that deals no damage to a target whose regeneration is already stopped by Prevent Monster Heal will not apply it. Against another player it is always applied.
It does not stack with itself. Two sources give a higher chance to apply the wound, not a larger wound, and a second application only resets the timer.

Sources

Chance from multiple items is added together. A socketed Um Rune adds 25% on any weapon and a crafted Blood Belt always carries some, but magic and rare items can never roll Open Wounds, so every other source is a unique item, a set item, a set bonus or a runeword. Malice has the largest single roll in the game at 100%, followed by Ripsaw at 80%. The earliest access is at required level 5, shared by The Gnasher and the 20% granted by the full Infernal Tools set.