Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’m puzzled about how condition damage stacking works because I’ve heard various explanations (which contradict each other) on how it works and while I’d preferably like a confirmed answer from a dev, I’d still take an answer that’s supported by many.

I’ve searched the forum/ wiki for this and found no satisfactory explanation, so here’s my question:

How does condition damage stacking work? For example, I understand that fire and poison stack in duration, not intensity. So that means that conditions such as these have a fixed DPS and there would only be one ticking off any mob at one time.

For example, if we have 2 players applying poison to a boss mob, who’s poison is it going to tick off? One version I’ve heard is that the player who applies it first will have his poison stack ticking, while the second player who stacks it would only prolong the damage ticking from the first player, regardless of who has the highest CD (condition damage). Another version I’ve heard is that the player who stacks it latest will have his stack ticking.

And yet another version I’ve heard is that it would tick off the person with the highest condition damage. That is, if more than one player applies fire/ poison, the damage that ticks would be based off of the player who has the most CD.

I am really confused about this.

This thread should help you out.

What i’ve understood is that it stacks time,and based on the time you applied it will use your condition damage for that time…example:
A has 200 condition damage and applies poison for 5 seconds
B has 300 condition damage and applies poison for 10 seconds

the enemy,will receive 5 seconds of A’s poison,with A’s condition damage,and then,it will receive 10 seconds of B’s poison with B’s condition damage.

IF(it’s not like that,but let’s say that it is) poison has a base damage of 10,and scales 1:1 with condition damage (each second),A should deal 210X5 damage,while B should deal 310X10 damage,with a total of 4150 damage,that is distributed this way: 1050 damage in 5 seconds and 3100 damage in 10 seconds.

Think at it like a queue…

Thanks for the link, Pinder. If I understand the following quote correctly:

Pinder.5261:

A little clarification on Gummi’s post:
For burn and poison, however: presume player A and player B both use burn on a mob. Player A’s burn does 100 damage over 1 second. Player B’s burn does 50 damage over 1 second. The highest damage modifier takes control, and the burns add together, so that the mob takes 200 damage over 2 seconds. This means that if player A uses a burn for 100 damage over 1 second, and player B uses a burn for 200 damage over 4 seconds (50 damage/second), the mob will take 500 damage over 5 seconds (100 damage/second).

Am I right to say that conditions such as fire/ poison do damage based off the person with the highest condition damage who applied it? E.g. I do 400 damage/ second fire for 2 secs while my group member does 50 damage/ second fire for 6 secs, the resultant is 400 damage/ second for 8 seconds for a total of 2.4k condition damage?

Hence, it would be optimal for JUST ONE person to spec into condition damage in a group while the rest focus on power builds so that the person with the highest cond damage doesn’t get his damage screwed over by someone else?

Mart.2710:

Am I right to say that conditions such as fire/ poison do damage based off the person with the highest condition damage who applied it? E.g. I do 400 damage/ second fire for 2 secs while my group member does 50 damage/ second fire for 6 secs, the resultant is 400 damage/ second for 8 seconds for a total of 2.4k condition damage?

Well, your math is a bit off. You’ll end up with an 8 second burn which deals 400 damage per second. That totals to 3.2k damage.

As for the general idea: every source of information on the topic that I’ve come across supports this theory. So, as far as I know, yes.

Mart.2710:

Hence, it would be optimal for JUST ONE person to spec into condition damage in a group while the rest focus on power builds so that the person with the highest cond damage doesn’t get his damage screwed over by someone else?

Well, that’s a trickier notion. Technically, condition damage output isn’t diminished until it hits a ceiling. So long as bleed stacks stay below 25, and burning/poison don’t outgrow the timer ceiling, all players involved deal their full amount of damage. And like that link suggested, you can actually put out greater amounts of dps with duration stacking conditions, given the proper environment.

But are you better off bringing only one condition heavy player? It really depends on the situation, and how the group handles itself. Two players who both stack a 7 second burn on a mob, for a 14 second total burn duration, are both going to lose damage if the mob dies in 6 seconds. In that scenario, more direct damage is better. You can circumvent this problem by having each player attack a different mob, but that takes some careful strategy (or hapless folly) to pull off appropriately. On the other hand if two players can keep up a high damage burn without fail for a long duration fight, while the direct damage players are forced to stop dps for survival reasons, then that second condition player probably increases damage.

It’s difficult to say for sure. I’m not a huge theorycrafter, I don’t spend time calculating these things. My quick opinion is that you’d probably see an overall dps loss with three or more condition heavy players in a party of five. But I have no maths to back up the presumption. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, unless you’re looking to formalize a static group for dungeon runs.

edits: bloody maths

Oh yeah sorry about that, brain wasn’t functioning properly late at night, was counting 400 dps for 6 seconds instead of 8 HAHA.

And yeah I’m mainly doing this for fractals because I’ve a steady group that I fotm with. Practically everyone on my team attacks with power based gear and I thought that I might be of better use if I specced into condition damage instead. This would be because if everyone is able to stack conditions (for their duration) while I stack the condition (for the damage) we would be maximising both duration AND damage. This is most noticeable on boss fights where bosses tend to have tons of hp. Rather than having stacks of conditions with low condition damage eh?

Does this make sense?

Yep, makes total sense. If you really want to maximize that effect, try to carry abilities that Field the damage type you’re applying. Some Power classes very rarely apply conditions, so combo’s are a great way for them to bolster your own timers.

Great! Thanks for the help ;D