Guild Wars 2

Something I just learned about condition damage, and then a question:

So condition damage is applied at ticks that are one second apart. When these ticks begin depends on the first condition you’ve applied…

So apparently, something like this:

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simple scenario:

I begin attacking an enemy with a 1.5 second burn. At:
0.0 seconds, the condition damage clock starts when the burn is applied;
1.0 seconds, the enemy receives one hit of burn;
1.5 seconds, the burn expires;
2.0 seconds, the enemy has no burning on him so takes no burn damage.

in total, the enemy gets 1 hit of burn from a 1.5 second burn.

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more complicated scenario (let’s only calculate burn damage):

I begin attacking an enemy with a bleed. At:
0.00 seconds, the clock starts when the bleed is applied;
0.75 seconds, I apply a 1.5 second burn to the enemy;
1.00 seconds, enemy receives one hit of burn, the burn still has 1.25 seconds left.
2.00 seconds, enemy receives one hit of burn, the burn has 0.25 seconds left.
2.25 seconds, burn expires, no further damage from the burn.

In total the enemy gets 2 hits of burn from a 1.5 second burn.

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(Personally, I think the way Anet chose to calculate condition damage is a bit lame because of the inconsistency)

anyway, here’s the question:

If you have multiple opponents, does each opponent have his own clock to calculate ticks from your damage or are the ticks calculated from a single clock (your clock)?

In other words, if I’m fighting two guys and apply bleed to one opponent, then burning to both, do the ticks begin for opponent 1 when I apply the bleed and for opponent 2 when I apply the burn… or do the ticks for both opponents begin when I apply the bleed?

anyone tested this?

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you have multiple opponents, does each opponent have his own clock to calculate ticks from your damage or are the ticks calculated from a single clock (your clock)?

As far as my personal testing has revealed, each opponent has their own internal clock for condition ticks. Those clocks also don’t start the first time you apply a condition that ticks onto them, they start when anyone applies a condition that ticks onto them.

Purhaps this is what they did to it when they nerfed it in November prior to releasing FotM because people were complaining about it being OP in PVP WVW when really they were the problem not the damage because they were failing to realize that Condi was on par at the time with Zerker and like Zerker burst dps they needed to keep themselves resistant as well.

Anyway since they nerfed it it’s never been the same and in classes where that’s literally the only option (because burst damage doesn’t work properly since they are still having trait issues specifically the ones that give extra damage like the engineers scope) it’s been mighty problematic. Your analysis explains alot, I think too that they don’t crit, if they added crit like other games have had to with DoT damage it would vastly improve it I’m sure.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you have multiple opponents, does each opponent have his own clock to calculate ticks from your damage or are the ticks calculated from a single clock (your clock)?

As far as my personal testing has revealed, each opponent has their own internal clock for condition ticks. Those clocks also don’t start the first time you apply a condition that ticks onto them, they start when anyone applies a condition that ticks onto them.

That’s interesting.. so we can’t control the ticks as attackers.

Now I wonder whether the clock is running all the time, or whether only once you enter combat with it resetting when out of combat. (I expect the latter, since I’ve never noticed extra ticks from my initial attack.)

If it is the latter, then I guess it’s always advantageous to reset combat as much as possible so that conditions put on you have less chance to get an extra tick?
Though one extra tick isn’t going to make much difference — except maybe for necros with fear and terror.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Rising Dusk.2408:

Lord Kuru.3685:

If you have multiple opponents, does each opponent have his own clock to calculate ticks from your damage or are the ticks calculated from a single clock (your clock)?

As far as my personal testing has revealed, each opponent has their own internal clock for condition ticks. Those clocks also don’t start the first time you apply a condition that ticks onto them, they start when anyone applies a condition that ticks onto them.

That’s interesting.. so we can’t control the ticks as attackers.

Now I wonder whether the clock is running all the time, or whether only once you enter combat with it resetting when out of combat. (I expect the latter, since I’ve never noticed extra ticks from my initial attack.)

If it is the latter, then I guess it’s always advantageous to reset combat as much as possible so that conditions put on you have less chance to get an extra tick?
Though one extra tick isn’t going to make much difference — except maybe when fighting necros who are using fear and terror.

That is interesting. I guess that kind of says that you need to use your most effective condition in between two others to get the most out of it, and keep the clock ticking as long as possible?

So if the damage is applied in one-second ticks, what are all the little numbers I see flying off my opponent’s head while they are bleeding? They tend to fly off faster the more stacks of bleeding I apply. Perhaps these numbers are stored, then applied at each tick?

The interesting part for me is seeing how ineffective conditions actually are i’d be better to ignore them almost totally..

Dante.1508:

The interesting part for me is seeing how ineffective conditions actually are i’d be better to ignore them almost totally..

Depends on what you mean by conditions being ineffective.

Pve ineffectiveness versus pvp ineffectiveness involves far more variables.

Some classes in pvp have very easy condition removal and can trait to have at least some removal done automatically. When I am in a zerg/group with my Necro I take many of those conditions off of players with some utilities.

On the other side of the coin I put them on the enemies that I think are the most troublesome and push hard to stack them rather than focus on direct damage as the DPS guys can do that way better for the most part. I have watched some very good players get through some heavy damage just to melt that final 25% health to my constant stacks of bleeds and a nicely placed well.

I do agree however that compared to many other games condition damage in this game is far less of a threat. I sometimes think that many players do not quite understand how to support a condition build in GW2. Some classes can manage it well enough but they would never turn away the help from the DPS guys.

Good pvp groups and teams know very well how to use the conditions to their advantage, but tweaks and nerfs mess with people too. Just when you get something solid rolling along, Anet decides to make an adjustment and we get to learn stuff all over again.