Guild Wars 2

How does this work?

Does a 2 second fear proc terror twice?
Does a 1 and 3/4 second fear proc terror once?
Does a 2 and 3/4 second fear proc terror twice?
Does a 3 second fear proc terror three times?

Or does it work differently to other conditions?

it works like every other condition:
once per second the game checks how many stacks of each condition are on the target and inflicts damage accordingly.

if you apply fear right before one of these ticks it will deal damage immediately and a second time after a second, when the game checks again. so it is possible to get 2 ticks of terror out of a <2sec.-fear.

to answer your question:
exactly 2 second fear will proc twice.
1 and 3/4 second fear can proc once or twice (twice is more likely)
2 and 3/4 second fear can proc twice or thrice (thrice is more likely)
3 second fear will proc three times.

that is, if theres no -cond.duration on the target.

(at least thats how i remember it. havent played much recently)

The timer for all condition ticks starts with the first condition applied to a target by any player. The game doesn’t have a universal clock for all ticks.

For example: you start with bleeding at T(zero) and apply a 1.1 sec fear at T(zero)+0.9sec then you’ll get two Terror ticks.

flow.6043:

The timer for all condition ticks starts with the first condition applied to a target by any player. The game doesn’t have a universal clock for all ticks.

For example: you start with bleeding at T(zero) and apply a 1.1 sec fear at T(zero)+0.9sec then you’ll get two Terror ticks.

what about regeneration and other heal-over-time-effects btw? does it use/apply the same timer?

flow.6043:

The timer for all condition ticks starts with the first condition applied to a target by any player. The game doesn’t have a universal clock for all ticks.

For example: you start with bleeding at T(zero) and apply a 1.1 sec fear at T(zero)+0.9sec then you’ll get two Terror ticks.

Interesting.

So why do people want 50% condi duration (in pvp). That puts dumbfire to 3 seconds. But if what you say is right then the difference between 40% and 50% condition duration is analogue and not digital. I mean by this that 40% will still get 3 ticks of burning most the time anyway.

RashanDale.3609:

what about regeneration and other heal-over-time-effects btw? does it use/apply the same timer?

Boons and skills have seperate timers.

Lordrosicky.5813:

So why do people want 50% condi duration (in pvp). That puts dumbfire to 3 seconds. But if what you say is right then the difference between 40% and 50% condition duration is analogue and not digital. I mean by this that 40% will still get 3 ticks of burning most the time anyway.

I suppose that’s because 50% is the most you can get in sPvP, 30 from traits and 20 from runes. But those people are certainly not doing it just for an extra 0.2 sec burning.
And yes, you are likely to get the 3rd tick anyway if burning isn’t applied on the first hit.

You do get 3 ticks of burning with 30% aswell. You do not even need runes that give you condition duration.

It was always more my understanding that people wanted 50% condition duration because with traiting that meant 100% fear duration.

Bhawb.7408:

It was always more my understanding that people wanted 50% condition duration because with traiting that meant 100% fear duration.

But why does that matter if condition damage ticks like people are saying. Sure you get the 2 ticks of terror all the time but you also mostly get 2 ticks of terror with 90% extra fear duration. So to give up 100 condition damage (from 6 nightmare) for extra 10% duration from lyssa doesnt really make much sense does it?

The main benefit though is a 1v1 when you engage with someone and proc burning straight away, it will own proc twice without 50% extra condi duration.

I remember condi duration used to be seen as a waste because they get cleansed anyway, and shorter but harder hitting conditions were better.

If you want to max just your fear duration then runes of the necro are probably the best choice.
Mixing Lyssa and whatever is obviously a stat compromise, but it extends non damaging conditions as well. And an extra 20% chilled, weakness, blind, cripple and immobilized can make a big difference.

In case you didn’t watch the balance preview last friday, the devs are planning to rework all runes for exactly that reason. They don’t want people to choose 3×2 runes over a full set.