Conditions

Buffs, debuffs and status effects - how they are applied, how long they last, and what they stop you doing.

Almost every temporary effect in the game is a condition: a named state sitting on your character with a type, a duration and usually a magnitude. Blessings, poisons, stuns, elemental wards, songs and damage-over-time effects all use the same underlying system, which is why they all appear in the same place and behave consistently.

There are well over two hundred defined conditions. You will never see most of them, but the rules below apply to all of them equally.

Seeing what is on you#

buffs lists everything currently affecting you, split into a buffs section and a debuffs section, each row giving the name, a short description of what it does, and the time remaining as minutes and seconds. Permanent effects show as ~~~ rather than a countdown.

buffs all additionally shows hidden permanent entries and synthesises rows for worn gear that grants health, spell point or endurance bonuses without registering a condition of its own.

The display can be reconfigured with settings buffs, which offers a normal bordered table, a plain accessible style, and custom colours. settings buffs messages off suppresses the routine "you feel the blessing leave you" lines when a buff runs out. Debuff expiry messages are always shown.

Types#

Only the type of the effect changes how it is displayed and how its expiry is announced. The mechanical work is done by the individual condition.

Duration and expiry#

Durations are set by whatever applied the condition, not by the condition itself, so the same debuff can be brief from a low-level source and lengthy from a high-level one. Some conditions are permanent, which normally means they are tied to something else, such as a worn item or a stance that refreshes itself.

Expiry is checked when your condition list is read. During a fight that happens once every combat round, so an effect will never linger more than about two seconds past its time. Outside combat the check is lazy, and an expired effect is simply treated as absent until something reads the list properly.

Applying a condition that is already on you replaces it outright rather than adding to it. That includes the duration. A long buff re-applied by a shorter version of the same effect is shortened, not extended, and a damage-over-time effect re-applied does not tick twice as hard. Nothing in the system stacks.

Damage and healing over time#

Effects that tick do so once per combat round, which is every two seconds. A few of the slower afflictions - infection, plague, and the necromancer's Grasp of the Dead - tick every third round instead, so roughly every six seconds. Burning is capped at 15 damage per tick regardless of the source.

Several caster-bound effects end early if the caster leaves the room. Resonance, Bladebind, Bloodboil, Wither and Soulburn all break when whoever cast them walks away, so retreating from a caster is a legitimate answer to them.

Healing over time works the same way in reverse, and warns you shortly before it fades so you know to reapply it.

Ticking only happens during combat rounds. A poison applied to you out of combat will not tick until a fight starts in your room.

What conditions stop you doing#

These are the effects worth knowing by name, because they take control away from you rather than adjusting a number.

Movement. Rooted, stunned and knocked down all prevent you leaving the room. Hobbled is different: it does not stop you moving, it waits until you try, then throws you to the ground and knocks you down for eight seconds. If you are following a group leader, being stunned or knocked down will not stop you being dragged along, but being rooted will.

Attacking. Stunned and knocked down both prevent you attacking, and the combat round skips a stunned character's swing entirely. Knocked-down and stunned characters still hand their opponent a free counter-swing, so being disabled in melee is expensive twice over. Petrified prevents you acting at all, but a petrified target also takes no damage from anything and cannot be attacked at all, which makes it as much a reprieve as a punishment.

Speaking. Mute stops say, whisper and shout working.

Casting. Mute also blocks any skill or spell with a cast time. Instant physical abilities still work, so a muted warrior loses very little and a muted mage loses almost everything. Petrified blocks every skill without exception.

Fleeing. No Flee prevents flight outright, and a leg wound does the same. Fear inverts the problem: it forces you to flee every round whether you want to or not, unless one of those two is stopping you.

Common effects#

Immunities#

A small number of buffs hard-counter a specific debuff. While you carry the relevant immunity, the debuff is refused outright and you are told you resisted it. There are four such pairings, covering knockdown, stun, mute and sickness, and applying the immunity also cleanses the debuff if you already have it.

Aura of Stability blocks knockdown for as long as it lasts. The cleric passive Unshakable Faith blocks both knockdown and stun, but only while the cleric is below a quarter of their maximum health.

There is no general resistance or diminishing return on crowd control. An effect either lands in full or is refused by a specific immunity.

Getting rid of them#

Healers and clerics carry the reliable answers. A healer can dismiss a listed set of afflictions directly, and several paladin abilities cleanse blindness and charm effects. Beyond that, the practical options are waiting the duration out, breaking a caster-bound effect by leaving the room, or triggering the break condition where one exists - damage breaks seduction and charm, for instance.

Related pages#

• Combat covers how conditions interact with hit chance, damage and the defensive cascade.
• Vitals covers what damage-over-time effects are eating into.
• Death covers what happens if they get the better of you.