What are the limits on condition spreading?
Same as any other AoE. 5 target limitation. It spreads copies using the necro’s stats.
Conditions that are spread to other targets maintain their current duration, and do not reset to full duration. Multiple necros can amplify their condition coverage by refreshing their bleeds and spreading to nearby targets.
Other restrictions:
- Epidemic has the maximum 5 target AOE limit (does not count your primary target of the spell as it is the catalyst)
- Bleeds are stack capped at 25
- Any transferred bleed stacks that exceed 25 are lost (Ex. one add already has 10 stacks, and you transfer 25 stack bleed, 15 of which will not be applied)
- Conditions that are spread by a necro use that specific necro’s condition stats on all conditions transferred, even conditions not originally placed by that necro (Ex. you transfer burning, it will use your +Condition modifier, not the Ele’s)
Oh, and another limit to think about is that it takes a full second to cast epi, so you always lose a full second off the ticks. Very important if you start thinking of spreading a short-duration condition like fear or chill.
5 targets is understandable.
total stack max and duration are pretty important.
I want to make sure that i understand this.
Assuming two mobs, if 1 necro casts epidemic on mob 1 with a 10 sec bleed and 24 more necros cast epidemic on mob 2 then mob 1 will have cap bleeding for roughly 8 secs?
If so 5 could cast a 10 sec bleed on mob1 for 5 stacks then 5 could cast epidemic on mob 1. 1 could cast epidemic on mob 2 for to apply 25 stacks of bleeding for some duration under about 8 to up to 5 nearby mobs.
I can see that this could be pretty powerful in pve as even medium duration conditions could get multiplied.
is there a way to do it through keep doors?
what hinderes it use in wvw keep defense?
after 25 are they really not applied or just not counted until the stack reduces? ie if its at a 25 stack bleed for 1 sec and i cast a new 10 sec bleed in that 1 sec window then my 10 sec bleed is ignored or just loses 1 sec of effect?
Epidemic currently ignores LOS, meaning you can cast it on someone behind a keep wall. I expect this will get fixed soon, as every other spell that can cast without LOS gets fixed. Of course it doesn’t DO anything if you cast it on someone behind a wall, unless they were stupid enough to stick there head out and get 20 bleed stacks on them. Not to mention you can(t) finish anyone behind the wall.
Yes to your first scenario.
Yes to your second scenario
It isn’t nearly as powerful as you might think (in a 5 man) on a boss, because most fights have only one hard to kill mob, and it will normally be close to the bleed cap, burning, and poisoned. You will almost always epidemic THAT mob to kill any and all adds around it, which works quite well. No adds mean that its a waste of a skill.
Nice for trash mobs though, stack up 12 or so bleeds and poison, epi, now everything has at least 12 bleeds, most having 20 or so because the majority of your bleeds are aoe. Great skill, just not really as useful in the “multiple” necro scenarios you are talking about.
Where it really shines in WvWvW is when you have a heavy duration confusion mesmer in coordination with a necro. A 15 stack confusion bomb AOE is very very strong. Our condition damage makes that hit for about 5-6k per skill usage. And if they used cry of frustration, some of the people out there may be rocking over 20 stacks of confusion, for over 8k damage a skill usage.
Edit: Typo
Excellent covering of scenarios here.
Thanks folks. I was not even aware that it had no LOS restriction!
Yes i can see that it that the overhead of stacking up conditions with epidemic could be fairly limiting factor. preserving an add to use as a multiplier and the timing of at least two necros.
I have seen its effects on adds and that was… a rewarding experience. Mainly in overland events. I have been running the centaur gambit at the bridge and it works to kill adds and on the present pops.
Anybody care to describe how they use it pve?
Well, yes. You could use several necros to get conditions up to the caps.
Or you just just use several elementalists to just kill them all in 1/10 the time.
I run epidemic all the time…. in wvw and pve. Mainly you just use it on the target mob to spread conditions to the other nearby mobs. Pretty much that is about the extent of the tactics with it. It can do some fancy things to guild claimers with the fire buff on, because the spread conditions do not have their durations cut like they would be if applied directly to the claimer.
Just remember to swap something else in that slot on a boss with no adds.
Im not class comparing. Just figuring out how to use the skill.
I have a pretty good understanding of how the ele works and i also understand that the learning curve in the game makes things seem like junk when i think i know, but dont know, how to use them.
I run epidemic all the time…. in wvw and pve. Mainly you just use it on the target mob to spread conditions to the other nearby mobs. Pretty much that is about the extent of the tactics with it. It can do some fancy things to guild claimers with the fire buff on, because the spread conditions do not have their durations cut like they would be if applied directly to the claimer.
Just remember to swap something else in that slot on a boss with no adds.
Not having any useful effect on single targets is a pretty big deal. i can see why people would ignore this skill a lot.