Guides/Starting out
Boons and conditions: all 12 boons and 14 conditions in two tables
What every boon and condition does, which ones stack in intensity and which in duration, and why Might is chased in 25 stacks while Quickness only needs to be present.
On this page
The icons above your health bar are boons and conditions. There are many, they flicker, and a newcomer usually ignores them completely.
That is a mistake: half the depth of combat here lives in those icons.
Two ways of stacking
Duration means a second application adds time rather than strength. Two sources of Swiftness give you longer Swiftness, not faster movement.
Intensity means a second application adds a stack, so more strength. Might at 25 stacks is worth many times Might at one.
That is why groups chase Might specifically: it behaves as a multiplier.
Boons
| Boon | Effect | Stacking |
|---|---|---|
| Might | more outgoing damage | intensity, to 25 |
| Fury | higher critical chance | duration, to 30s |
| Quickness | skills and actions are faster | duration, to 60s |
| Alacrity | skills recharge faster | duration, to 30s |
| Protection | incoming damage down 33% | duration, to 30s |
| Resolution | incoming condition damage down 33% | duration, to 30s |
| Aegis | blocks the next attack | duration, no cap |
| Regeneration | health every second | duration, no cap |
| Swiftness | movement speed up 33% | duration, to 60s |
| Vigor | endurance regenerates 50% faster | duration, to 30s |
| Stability | cannot be knocked down, pushed, stunned or feared | intensity, to 25 |
| Resistance | non-damaging conditions on you stop working | duration, to 30s |
🔴 Quickness and Alacrity are two different boons and get confused constantly. Quickness speeds up the action itself; Alacrity shortens the recharge. Group content looks for whoever supplies both.
Stability stacks by intensity, and every control effect removes one stack. So one stack of Stability saves you once.
Damaging conditions
These deal numbers and stack in intensity.
| Condition | Effect |
|---|---|
| Bleeding | damage every second |
| Burning | damage every second, the strongest of the set |
| Poisoned | damage every second plus 33% weaker healing |
| Torment | damage every second, doubled against a target standing still |
| Confusion | damage when the target activates a skill |
Torment and Confusion are conditional: one punishes standing, the other punishes acting. Against a boss that stands and swings, both work well.
Control conditions
These deal no damage and get in the way instead. They stack in duration.
| Condition | Effect |
|---|---|
| Vulnerability | target takes more of any damage (intensity, to 25) |
| Chilled | movement down 66%, cooldowns up 66% |
| Crippled | movement down 50% |
| Immobilized | cannot move |
| Blinded | the next attack misses |
| Weakness | endurance down 50%, half of hits land at half damage |
| Slow | skills and actions are slower |
| Fear | the target flees and cannot act |
| Taunt | the target attacks against its will |
Vulnerability stands apart: it raises every kind of damage you deal, so even pure Power builds keep it applied.
Conversion
A mechanic of its own: some classes, the necromancer above all, convert conditions into boons and back.
Burning becomes Aegis, Chilled becomes Alacrity, Fear becomes Stability. Against an enemy that leans on its buffs, a necromancer turns that strength around.
What a newcomer should do with this
Three things, and nothing else for now:
- Condition removal. Find which of your skills cleanses conditions and slot it. A stack of Burning kills you faster than the enemy swinging at you.
- Might. If your build has any way to generate Might, take it. It is the cheapest damage in the game.
- Vigor and Swiftness. Endurance means dodges, and dodging is the main survival tool here (why that is).
The rest you learn as you go. Watching the icons above the bar is worth doing from your first hour.