Splinter of Anguish
Splinter of Anguish is for builds that convert speed and Critical Strikes into more than raw damage. This is best used when faster attacks trigger passives, Crits restore resources or your build already produces more resource than it spends. Avoid it when your rotation frequently stalls. If the extra Crit activates your resource engine, the Splinter of Anguish can partly help pay for its own penalty. If not , this Splinter will just simply make every cast harder to afford.
Splinter of Sin
Splinter of Sin exchanges maximum primary resource for multiplicative Maximum Life. Use this Splinter when survival is the limiting factor, and your build relies on Resource Regeneration rather than a large stored resource pool. It is especially attractive when important Barriers, Healing, Fortify or defensive scaling benefit from Maximum Life. Avoid this Splinter when damage, skill duration, or any other mechanic scales directly from maximum resource. It is not universally defensive if shrinking the resource pool breaks the rotation that keeps you alive.
Splinter of Lies
Splinter of Lies is great for farming, increasing gold and crafting material drops, while also adding bonus experience. But, this leaves you permanently Weakened and Vulnerable. This is best equipped when you are clearing content comfortably enough that enemies cannot threaten you. This may mean lowering the Torment level, or only using it during routine farming. Remove this Splinter when pushing the Pit, fighting a dangerous boss, or entering content where one incoming hit already consumes most of your health. This Splinter trades combat safety for account progression.
Splinter of the Black Soulstone
Splinter of the Black Soulstone rewards continuous killing. Each kill absorbs an enemy soul, and every soul raises both your damage, and the damage you take. These stacks do not refresh, so this Splinter is strongest in dense content where new enemies constantly replace expiring souls. Use it for Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, speed farming, or any activity with uninterrupted packs. It becomes much weaker against an isolated boss, since there are no fresh kills to maintain the engine. It is important to treat the defensive penalty seriously when the stack count climbs high.
Splinter of Pain
Splinter of Pain is the most straightforward survival option; substantial Damage Reduction in exchange for reduced Movement Speed. This is best used when incoming damage is stopping progression, and your class can replace walking with dashes, charges, teleports or strong Movement Speed rolls. Avoid this Splinter when movement is your primary defense, or when slow repositioning causes you to fail boss mechanics. This is also a great one to pair with Leoric's Crown, as it will amplify the Damage Reduction, as long as your build has enough mobility.
Splinter of the Mother
Splinter of the Mother makes you Unhindered, and applies Vulnerable by physically touching enemies. This makes this particular Splinter interesting for melee characters, and highly mobile builds that naturally pass through packs. The danger is the self-Stun after enough contacts. Use this Splinter when you can cleanse, become Unstoppable, time the threshold, or survive the forced pause. This can also pair really well with Splinter of Pain because Unhindered helps answer the mobility problem. Avoid this Splinter when a four second Stun in high-level content would immediately kill you.
Splinter of Hellfire
Splinter of Hellfire offers a large multiplicative damage bonus, while completely removing Critical Strike Chance. This is best for damage-over-time setups and other builds whose damage, cooldowns, resource regeneration, passive and item effects do not require Critical Strikes. It is important to look over the entire build, and not just the main attack, as a skill may not care about Critical Strikes but a secondary resource engine may. If nothing important depends on Crit, this Splinter converts an entire irrelevant stat into a major damage multiplier.
Splinter of Damnation
Splinter of Damnation is the challenge modifier. Killing an Elite pack temporarily raises Monster Power, and increases experience gained. This Splinter is best used when your current content is already easy, and you wish to turn fast Elite kills into a more demanding, and more rewarding run. It fits enemy dense activities where Elite packs appear often enough to keep the effect relevant. Do not equip this Splinter merely because it has no conventional stat penalty. The drawback to this is the stronger content you create for yourself. If the build is already at its survival limit, this Splinter will push it in the wrong direction.
