The way Storm Charge works is simple yet highly effective in optimizing your damage output. If you manage to deal a critical hit, you instantly trigger the 40% increased elemental damage for the next 4 seconds. This bonus applies to all elemental damage you deal during that time, not just the damage from the critical hit itself. So even if you have a POE2 Currency steady way to deal critical hits, but your primary source of damage is elemental (and doesn't necessarily deal critical hits), you can still benefit from this boost.

This feature is what makes Storm Charge so valuable in optimized end-game builds, where maximizing elemental damage is key to defeating the toughest enemies.

While you can gain Storm Charge by investing skill points in the passive skill tree, there’s an alternative method for obtaining it: Anointing it onto an amulet. In Path of Exile 2 Currency, anointing allows players to apply passive skills to their gear, making it easier to acquire certain bonuses without needing to allocate additional skill points. To apply Storm Charge to an amulet, you need to use a special crafting item called Distilled Emotions, which are part of the game’s new crafting system introduced in the Delirium Expansion.