Molten Strike with Chance to Bleed Support

I'm trying to understand the terminology of Path of Exile, and I could use some help.

If I use Chance to Bleed Support with Molten Strike, does the chance to bleed apply to the AOE attacks as well, or only to the weapon strike that triggers the projectiles? Or using the support gem's terms, are the projectiles and the weapon strike from Molten Strike both seen as "supported attacks"?

Mousing over Chance to Bleed in my inventory, it shows a green check mark next to my equipped Molten Strike, but in my mind this doesn't automatically mean it applies to the entire skill gem effect, the check mark is just as valid if the support gem only applies bleeding to the weapon strike. The fact that the game seems to use terminology very precisely makes me doubt easy assumptions.

My question feels like a very basic question, yet I haven't been able to find an answer on either Google or through a dozen pages of forum search results. I may be using the wrong keywords for my searches.

To add to the confusion, if Chance to Bleed Support does apply to Molten Strike projectiles, how does this combine with Melee Physical Damage Support? It says that it adds damage to bleeding "caused by melee hits", do the projectiles count as melee hits? Molten Strike has the "melee" tag, but I'm currently guessing this is because the skill is triggered by a melee weapon, not because the actual skill effect is seen as a melee attack.

My confusion extends to how support gems in general interact with physical AOE skills, hopefully help with this question will indirectly bring some clarity to my broader confusion.

So, Chance to Bleed will work on both melee and projectile (aoe) attack from Molten strike.

[Melee physical support] will only work with the melee component, boosting hit and bleed damage from that PORTION of the attack.

Note that bleed only occurs from physical damage, so molten strike converts half to fire. This fire damage will not boost bleed damage.

If you want to boost bleed damage from both melee and projectile, you could use something like [Daily Ailments Support] or maybe [Brutality].

If you wanted to focus on damage from the projectiles, you could use [Vicious Projectiles Support]

Note that bleed can only have ONE active stack, so even if you attack and hit with many projectiles, you will only get the largest bleed doing damage. You can use Crimson dance notable on the passive tree to stack up to 8 however, at half damage.

Generally, bleed is used with physical only skills like Lacerate, or Earthquake, or Sunder, or bladestorm, etc. Or Puncture. It doesnt work great with super fast hitting skills or elemental conversion skills.

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Broadly, note that skills can have different components. Imagine you use a 1h sword to use molten strike.

Molten Strike has the melee strike which will be increased by

Melee
Physical
Fire (fire will only apply to 60% of the damage)
ELemental damage/Elemental damage with attacks (only applied to the fire)
1h Sword
Attack damage

The projectile will be increased by

Physical
Projectile
Aoe damage
Fire (fire will only apply to 60% of the damage)
ELemental damage/Elemental damage with attacks (only applied to the fire)
1h Sword
Attack damage

Thank you for the help trixxar. You have confirmed my fears, this game has a hidden complexity that is not immediately apparent to someone learning the game. I'll look into your suggestions to see what is a better match for my play style.

Regarding the stack, I figured that's the case. My thinking was whether I could add bleed damage to the AOE attack in order to apply bleed to all enemies in range of the AOE. And this would be on top of the ignite ailment chance from the AOE fire damage of Molten Strike.

I currently had Chance to Bleed linked to Heavy Strike, which seemed to work decently enough for single target focused attacks.

As a double check, if Molten Strike is linked with Maim Support, does the maim chance apply to the AOE targets? Asking just in case there's a compatibility technicality I'm missing.

You are not wrong at all about the complexity. A lot of this can be avoided by following build guides, however many find this less fun than making your own build. There is not right/wrong way here.

I recommend checking in this forum for help, you can post which character it is, and people will give you help on everything from gear to tree (I have done plenty of times myself). You have to go to Account, Privacy Settings, and uncheck "Set Profile as Private"

"As a double check, if Molten Strike is linked with Maim Support, does the maim chance apply to the AOE targets?"

Yes, however maim will increase their PHYSICAL damage taken only, so only a portion of molten strike overall.

I understand the use of guides once you become interested in the endgame, but while I'm experiencing the campaign I feel that the game is lenient enough to allow you to experiment on your own. I do find it more enjoyable to discover the skills and mechanics of the game on my own. I looked up basic guidance on how to approach the game just so I don't have to restart a character because of basic mistakes, and now I'm more than happy groping my way around the passive tree and deciphering active skills or gear stats.

If I reach the endgame and discover that I want to invest more time in the game, at that point I'll use guides to deepen my detailed understanding of the game. But for now, I'm just enjoying the craftmanship of the game. It's a good thing you're here on the forum though for a helping hand.

I was skeptical about the game for the longest time, because all I'd seen of it were engdame clips where people wiped entire floors in seconds, and that didn't look like fun. Then I recently saw a campaign trailer for PoE 2, and that looked like actual fun, so I figured I'd look into the PoE 1 campaign as well. It's actually the writing and incredible voice acting that hooked me initially, and then the mechanics grew on me.