Guild Wars 2

How do the ticks of poison (or any duration stacking condition) work when the same condition is applied from multiple sources? For example: as a Ranger, if I use my Shortbow’s Poison Volley, I get 12 ticks of poison damage, and with my pet’s Insect Swarm skill, I get 15 ticks. When I use both skills sequentially, I get a full 27 ticks. But when I use both skills simultaneously, I only get 24 ticks, losing 3 ticks. Why am I losing the 3 ticks?

Also, I tested more using Viper’s Nest, which, with 3 pulses, gives me 21 seconds and thus 21 ticks of poison. If I add Poison Volley (12s) to this, I get 33 seconds and 33 ticks of poison. But then, if I add Insect Swarm (15s) on top of this, I only get 40 seconds and 40 ticks of poison, instead of the calculated 48. Somebody please explain to me how this is supposed to work.

Bottom right of the condition icon there should be a number. This indicates the amount of “stacks” that skill provides.
It doesn’t stack in damage, rather it stacks in duration, but this duration has a cap.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Poison_Volley
Poison volley has a 5, thus gives 5 stacks of poison.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Insect_Swarm
Insect swarm also has kitten 5 stacks as well.

These add up to 10, but the cap is 9.
Since insect swarm casts the slowest, you lose out on one of these stacks (3 second duration)

That is probably due to condition cap. When you apply them simultaneously you end up hitting the cap and wasting a few from hitting the limit. When applied sequentially some of the old stacks have already expired so you are just topping it off. For example Poison Volley applies 5 stacks of 2s(assuming all kitten the target of course).

If I am able to get 40 seconds/ticks of poison, then what cap am I hitting when I lose the 3 ticks between Poison Volley and Insect Swarm? Also, I’ve seen enemies with more than 40 seconds of poison on them before, so I know if there is a cap, it’s not 40.

There is probably some cap on the stacks of poison a target can have.

Speculation Duration stacking works like a queue. Conditions “line up” in the queue until it hits max capacity, which then ignores all other applications until a spot opens up.

After testing with poison grenade on engineer and looking at your data, there might be a cap of 9 stacks of poison.

Poison volley applies 5 stacks instantly
Insect swarm applies 5 stacks over ~1.5 seconds

Because none of the poison volley stacks have expired yet, the last insect swarm cast provides no poison duration, accounting for the missing 3 ticks.

Data with poison grenade: Explodes into a poison field lasts 5 seconds, each second in the poison field gives 5 seconds of poison.

+30% condition duration gives each poison application 6.5 seconds (5 × 1.3)

With 6.5 seconds, we can ignore how long the poison field lasts if this theory of condition duration stacks is true. (Because none of the stacks of poison applied at the start of the poison field expire when the poison field disappears)

If there was no cap, then total poison duration would be (6.5s poison X 3 grenade fields X 5s duration per grenade field) = 97.5s of poison —-- with 15 stacks of poison (3 grenade fields X 5s duration per grenade field)

Tests on the sPvP golems show that the poison duration goes up to 58 seconds.
(6.5s X 3 X 3s) = 58.5s of poison —-- 9 stacks of poison (3 grenade fields X 3s duration per grenade field)

Amateur and quick tests, do not take these too seriously

—TL;DR: There is a cap of 9 stacks of poison, but don’t quote me on this!—

Hmmm… That’s some good testing and some good data. Now, since poison doesn’t stack, can you please explain what you mean by cap of 9 stacks of poison?

Oh wow! That’s quite insightful. I’ll do some more testing with this in mind.

Thanks, Sobat. With further testing among my 3 poison-inflicting skills, I have been able to verify exactly what you have suggested. There is indeed a cap at 9 stacks of poison, regardless of what the duration is for each respective stack. So all remaining poison duration added above the 9-stack cap will be ignored.

Here is my data that confirms this:
Poison Volley: 5 stacks * 2.75s per stack = 13.75s total duration = 13 ticks
Insect Swarm: 5 stacks * 3s per stack = 15s total duration = 15 ticks
Viper’s Nest: 3 stacks * 8s per stack = 24s total duration = 24 ticks

Since Insect Swarm comes from my pet, which has a different condition damage value than my ranger, I was able to count how many ticks came from that skill specifically, as opposed to the other 2 skills.

Test 1: Poison Volley > Viper’s Nest > Insect Swarm
Got a total of 35 ticks; 6 ticks (2 stacks) from IS – since PV was cast first, all 5 stacks, thus 13 ticks were from PV, leaving the last 16 ticks being from VN. 16 ticks from VN = 2 stacks, totaling 9 stacks.

Test 2: VN > PV > IS
Total of 41 ticks; 6 ticks (2 stacks) from IS – since I waited for all 3 stacks from VN to be applied before using other skills, the first 24 ticks came from VN. Last 11 ticks came from PV. 11 ticks PV = 4 stacks, giving us 9 stacks again.

Test 3: VN > IS > PV
Total = 42 ticks; 15 ticks (5 stacks) from IS. Once again, all 3 stacks (24 ticks) from VN were applied, leaving us with 3 ticks from PV. This was an anomaly, yet I got this result all 3 times I tried this test. 1 stack of PV should give 2 ticks, while 2 stacks would give 5 ticks. Since 1 stack of PV gives 2.75s of poison, I’m guessing there’s an unaccounted for .25s additional duration somewhere. Assuming this is the case, 5 stacks IS + 3 stacks VN + 1 stack PV = 9 stacks total.

Test 4: IS > VN + PV (VN followed immediately with PV)
Total of 31 ticks; 15 ticks (5 stacks) from IS. This leaves us with 16 ticks. Account for the 1st stack of VN being applied for 8 seconds and we have 8 ticks from PV. 8 ticks = 3 stacks PV, totaling 9 stacks, once again.

So, now, the question is: does this same cap apply to all duration-stacking conditions?

Good to hear.
It might be harder to test with the other conditions though.

I was able to test with burning and got the same result. It caps at 9 stacks.

With Ranger
Throw Torch: 1 stack * 11.7s per stack = 11.7s total duration
Bonfire: 9 stacks * 1.95s per stack = 17.55s total duration
Flame Trap: 3 stacks * 3.9s per stack = 11.7s total duration
All together, I should get 40.95s (40/41 ticks), but when I cast all 3 skills as quickly as possible, I get 33 ticks (1 stack TT, 3 stacks FT, 5 stacks BF = 33.15s). I also tested it by casting FT much later, to give more stacks from BF and less from FT. One time interval gave me 31 ticks (1 stack TT, 6 stacks BF, 2 stacks FT = 31.2s) and another time interval gave me 29 ticks (1 stack TT, 7 stacks BF, 1 stack FT = 29.25s).

With Elementalist
Traits I used: Burning Fire (Fire Magic II) and Elemental Surge (Arcana XII)
Conjure Fiery Greatsword: 1 stack * 11.7s per stack = 11.7s total duration
Fiery Eruption (Greatsword): 6 stacks * 5.85s = 35.1s total duration
Cleansing Fire: 1 stack at 11.7s total duration
Signet of Fire: 1 stack at 23.4s total duration
Arcane Blast: 1 stack at 9.75s total duration
This totals to 91.65s (91 ticks). However, when I cast CFG > FE > SoF > CF > AB in quick succession, I got 85 ticks (1 CFG + 1 SoF + 1 CF + 1 AB + 5 FE = 85.8s).
If I wait for all 6 stacks of FE to be applied and then cast CF followed by AB, I get 82 ticks (1 CFG + 6 FE + 1 SoF + 1 CF = 81.9s). Then, if I do the same thing but cast AB then CF, I get 80 ticks (1 CFG + 6 FE + 1 SoF + 1 AB = 79.95s). Note that there is an anomaly here where I’m getting 1 extra tick than I should be on the last 2 trials.