I thought I understood condition damage, but now I don't anymore.

[Eram the Liar.5720]

So when I'd look at a tooltip that has condition damage on it, for example:

Bleed 860 damage, 6 1/2 seconds

... my initial assumption was that the damage was applied every second, so in the example above, 860 points of damage every second, and I had no idea what they did with the fractions but I assumed it got worked out somehow.

But then I got a power that applied condition damage to myself every time I used it, and it was something like 1800 points of bleed damage every 10 seconds or something to that effect. I cast it just to try to get a feel for how viciously my health would drop, and it didn't drop 1800 points every second.

So... does that mean that the actual damage per second is spread out over the duration? I mean, I can see that, except that all the condi builds I see put a lot of emphasis on increasing the duration of your condi damage, and when you do that, assuming nothing else changes, your DPS would go DOWN because you'd be doing the same amount of condi damage over a longer period of time.

So... what the title says. I thought I understood condition damage, but now I don't any more. 🙂

Edited August 12, 2022 by Eram the Liar.5720
formatting

[PhantomKitty.6520]

It was my understanding that when condition damage says something like Bleed 860 damage, 6 1/2 seconds that 860 is the cap on the damage done, over 6 1/2 seconds time.  Meaning, that, if the bleed is left to last the full duration then bleed damage will achieve it's full 860 damage.  At least, that was how I took to understand it when I read any kind of condition damage text.

If I'm wrong, please, someone correct me...I'd like to understand this as well, because this is interesting to say the least.

[KrHome.1920]

860, 6 1/2 seconds means 860 / 6.5 = 132 damage per second

The tooltip shows the overall damage.

[Eram the Liar.5720]

OK, but that does mean that when you increase the duration of a condition attack your dps goes down. So why do so many builds try to do that?

[KrHome.1920]

Why should that mean that the dps goes down?

If you add duration then the tooltip won't show 860 anymore but a higher number as the overall damage is simply dps multiplied with duration.

Edited August 12, 2022 by KrHome.1920

[Linken.6345]

7 hours ago, Eram the Liar.5720 said:

OK, but that does mean that when you increase the duration of a condition attack your dps goes down. So why do so many builds try to do that?

It will still do 132 each extra second you add in duration.

[Eram the Liar.5720]

Ah, I see. Because condi damage is based on one stat and duration is based on another I assumed duration and damage weren't related. Thank you for the clarification!

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

28 minutes ago, Eram the Liar.5720 said:

Ah, I see. Because condi damage is based on one stat and duration is based on another I assumed duration and damage weren't related. Thank you for the clarification!

 

When conditions last longer, they stack higher. All damaging conditions stack in intensity, so over time you build up more and more stacks (this is called ramp-up), so the damage per second keeps increasing. until the stacks eventually start to fall off from their max duration, which is known as the "ceiling."

 

The duration (Expertise) has nothing to do with damage, only how many stacks you can keep up, but because of that is essentially an exponential damage gain in longer fights like in boss battles.

 

You can make a combat log tab to see how it works yourself, its called outgoing buff damage.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508