The current implementation of Bleeding, Torment, and Confusion limits the viability of condition damage builds in groups because of the 25 stack limit. The stated reason for this limit is that it is in place for performance reasons. In order to expand the viability of condition damage builds, while also improving performance, I propose a stackless method for handling Bleeding, Torment, and Confusion. With Bleeding and Torment, this can be done while keeping the damage properties essentially the same. Confusion will require some re-design in order to achieve the same goal.
Bleeding and Torment -
Presently, attacks that inflict Bleeding and Torment contain the following properties:
Damage Per Tick – The amount of damage applied to the target on 1 second intervals.
Duration – How long the condition stays in effect.
Stack – Each stack independently maintains its own Damage Per Tick, and Duration, allowing for damage to increase as more stacks are applied.
The above means that an attack consisting of 5 stacks of Bleeding, doing 100 points of damage per tick, for an 8 second duration will deal 500 damage per second, and will deal a total of 4000 damage (baring cleanses or the target dying). Damage is of course limited by the cap at 25 stacks.
In order to move to a Stackless method, Bleeding and Torment should be tracked on the target as follows:
A new Bleeding attack occurs, consisting of 5 stacks, for 100 damage per tick, with an 8 second duration.
The Bleed Condition begins on the target, and begins ticking for damage once per second until it is dispelled.
A Damage Pool is stored, it’s starting value is equal to stacks times damage per tick times duration of the attack, in this case, 4000.
The duration is noted.
Every second, Damage Pool / Duration is done to the target, that amount of damage is removed from the pool, and the Duration is reduced by 1.
Should another Bleeding attack occur, the damage pool is increased by an amount equal to stacks times damage per tick times duration of the attack.
If the new attack has a duration greater than the remaining duration of the condition on the target, that duration is used as the new remaining duration, otherwise, the remaining duration is used.
Damage tracking for loot rewards is done when the attack occurs and adds damage to the pool.
Damage display on the client is handled client side only once it receives acknowledgment from the server that the attack was successful, the server sends a message to stop if the target dies or the condition is cleansed.
This results in the server only needing to track one condition application, rather than many, and also saves it from having to report back to the client multiple times. The overall damage remains the same (except the cap no longer exists), though the application time may vary somewhat from how it behaves currently.
Confusion -
Because it does not apply damage over time, Confusion requires a different implementation. This will result in a different amount of damage being applied then present, so the Confusion formula may need to be adjusted if the results are outside of the desired range.
In order to move to a stackless confusion, a Damage pool will be created as well. We will also track the duration of the stack, and we will track % change in the duration per second. When a new stack is applied, it will add to the damage pool, and will set the duration in the same manner as described for Bleeding and Torment. At the end of each full second (or sub-second if desired), the Damage Pool will be reduced by the same % that the remaining duration was reduced. So, for example, if a stack of Confusion is applied to a target with a Damage pool of 400, and a duration of 4 seconds, for the first second, any skill use by the target will deal 400 damage, 300 in the second second, 200 in the third, and 100 in the fourth. If in the third second, another application of 400 and 4 seconds occurs, then in second 4, we would see 500 damage, 375 in second 5, 250 in second 6, and so on. This changes Confusion to an effect that decays over time, but it would also give traits that increase duration more value, as not only would it make it last longer, it would make it decay slower.
One drawback to moving to a stackless system is that there would be no cue as to how potent a stack of Bleeding, Torment, or Confusion is. To remedy this, I would still keep the stack counter, even though the stacks are gone. For Bleeding and Torment I would display Damage Pool/Duration/the base amount per second that one stack deals given the current formulas. For Confusion I would just show Damage Pool/the base amount per swing.