Boons and conditions: all 12 and all 14, in two tables

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.

The numbers on the icons

Most of these effects hide a percentage that nobody prints, and the percentages are large enough to change how you play.

Might is the odd one out and the one worth memorising: each stack gives +30 power and +30 condition damage, and at the cap of 25 stacks that is +750 to both. One boon, both damage schools, which is why every support build in the game is trying to keep it up.

Protection cuts incoming damage by 33%. Swiftness raises movement by 33%. Vigor raises endurance regeneration by 50%.

Might and Stability stack in intensity to 25. Everything else stacks in duration, most of it capped at 30 seconds, with Swiftness allowed 60 and Aegis and Regeneration running without a duration limit.

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.

The conditions that are secretly control

Damaging conditions stack in intensity to an absurd 1,500, which is a number you will only approach in a large squad and which explains why condition damage scales so strangely between solo play and a zerg.

The interesting half is the other one.

• Chilled is -66% movement and +66% skill recharge. Two effects in one icon, and the second is the one that wins fights.
• Weakness cuts endurance regeneration by 50% and turns half of the enemy’s hits into glancing blows for half damage. It is a defensive cooldown disguised as a minor condition.
• Crippled is -50% movement.
• Poisoned deals damage and cuts healing effectiveness by 33%.
• Vulnerability stacks to 25 and raises all damage the target takes.
• Blinded makes the next attack miss outright.

Look at that list again with a fight in mind. Chill on a boss reduces how often its dangerous skill comes back. Weakness halves the damage of half of what it throws at you. Neither shows up on a damage meter and both of them are the reason an experienced player takes less damage than you on the same character.

That is the part the tooltips never say out loud: in this game, defence is mostly something you do to the enemy.

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:

1. 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.
2. Might. If your build has any way to generate Might, take it. It is the cheapest damage in the game.
3. 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.