How do “% chance on critical strike to apply condition” effects stack in Guild Wars 2

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I am currently playing an Engineer and one of its traits in firearm is called Sharpshooter. It's description is "30% chance to cause bleeding for 3 seconds on critical hit."

Suppose I also got a Superior Sigil of Earth. It's description is "+60% chance on critical: Inflict bleeding (5 seconds)."

How will this stack. Will it give:

90% chance to cause a stack of bleeding for 5 seconds(larger of the two durations)
90% chance to cause a stack of bleeding for 8 seconds(added the two durations)
30% chance to cause a stack of bleeding for 3 seconds AND 60% chance of a stack of bleeding for 5 seconds. (So potentially up to two stacks of bleed on a single critical.)

Additionally suppose I am dual wielding pistols each with Superior Sigil of Earth, how will that work?

Best Answer

Bleeds

Bleed effects stack with intensity, meaning the more stacks you have the more damage it does every time it 'ticks'. The duration of each bleed is individually tracked; You can apply a 20 second bleed and then three 5 second bleeds all running at once, and you'll have 4 stacks for that 5 second period, and it will fall back to 1 stack after that until the long stack runs out.

Superior Sigil of Earth

The Superior Sigil of Earth has a 60% chance on critical to 'proc' and apply a bleed stack for 5 seconds. It has a 2 second internal cooldown, which means it can only proc once every 2 seconds. It has a chance to proc on every attack or ability you use.

Ignoring other bleed producing sources, assuming you crit 100% of the time, and you get lucky and proc every crit, you'll have a maximum of 5 stacks of bleeding on your target from auto attacks with this Sigil. Factoring in your ability use will push the number up, but in practice you'll need a very high crit rate to consistently see around 5 stacks.

Dual Wielding

Dual Wielding rules for sigil stacking are complex. For sigils that proc effects, they stack multiplicatively, they share the same internal cooldown, and they can trigger the effect with the same chance no matter what hand is attacking.

If you're dual wielding pistols with a superior sigil of earth, with a 60% proc rate, you have a 1-(1-.6)*(1-.6) = .84 = 84% chance to proc the sigil on each critical strike.

Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter has a 30% chance on critical to proc and apply a bleed stack for 3 seconds. Like all traits of this nature, it can proc independently of your sigils.

If you have a Superior Sigil of Earth and Sharpshooter, its possible to proc two stacks of bleed (one 3 second stack and one 5 second stack) on a critical strike, if you get lucky.

With a high crit rate, you can expect to see around 8-10 stacks with both sharpshooter and two Sigils of Earth.

Related Solutions

How to create a guild in Guild Wars 2

You do not need a charter or to go to a special area, though you can create a guild by speaking to a Guild Registrar in a city.

You will need to have 1 silver in order to create a guild. Then all you need to do is open the Guild window (G by default), choose a name (31 character limit) and guild tag (an abbreviation that will show up next to your character name, up to 4 characters), and that's it.

Note that guild members don't even have to have be on the same Home World (server) as you, though you do need to be on the same Home World if you wish to play World vs. World together.

The default maximize size for a guild is 50 members. In order to increase this size, you will need to speak to a Guild Registrar. The following table from the official wiki lists the costs and upgrades as follows:

Tier   Membership Cap    Cost
 1          50         1 Silver 
 2          100        1 Silver
 3          200       10 Silver
 4          300        1 Gold
 5          400        1 Gold
 6          500        2 Gold

Guild Wars 2 – How Combat Functions in Guild Wars 2

Preface
I've not played TERA, so I can't do a comparison. I've also only played BWE1 of GW2 recently and I tried Guardian and Elementalist.

Aim and Dodge
Guild Wars 2 has been specifically designed with active combat in mind. As such you must keep moving at all times when in combat, either by circling your enemy, backing up, or using Endurance to dodge.

If you stand toe-to-toe with enemies you'll get put down quickly.

If you can circle enemies and stay mobile it's possible to put down +3's without even taking a hit! I played a Guardian in the BWE1 and using a Scepter & Shield combo it was possible to take on large groups without taking much damage just by making sure to run around lots.

The main thing to remember is the 5 D's of Guild Wars 2, dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge! Just remember that your Endurance is limited and you'll only be able to dodge about 3 times in a row before it'll run out. I would strongly suggest strafing around enemies, even in melee and only using dodge to avoid large attacks.

As the developers have said, the combat is designed to be very active and you'll need to watch your enemies animations to spot when attacks are coming in order to evade them. The best example is Ettins using their big smash attack, where the animation starts with a gathering flash around them before they launch the attack. It's visual cues like this which are your keys to using dodge effectively. Check out the Ranger's Serpent Strike skill video.

Also be sure to understand the ground markers. White are positive effects and will usually grant a boon (positive buffs) to you. Red markers are enemy AoE markers and will usually damage you of give you conditions (negative debuff), so you will need to run out of these areas or use dodge to roll out of them.

Targeting and Hitting
As for aiming, your attacks are always targeted at your currently selected target. So as long as you have an active target you will not need to target your attacks. There are a few types of attacks which do need targeting, usually Targeted AoE attacks. When these skills are activated they will change your cursor into an image of the area, which will allow you to place the skills effect. Do be aware that there is a fast-cast option in the game options which will activate these skills at your current cursor position, thus avoiding the need to hit the skill and then place the effect. These types of skills also apply to walls, which in some cases are automatic, like the Guardian's Line of Warding and some are placed like the Elementalist's Flamewall.

Do be aware that if you do not have a selected target you will still be able to activate skills and they can damage enemies but you'll struggle to deal proper damage and in most cases will die. This happened to me a few times in the BWE1.

Ranged and Melee
This is a hotly contented issue and spawned a huge thread on the forums. Mainly as most people felt that Ranged was far more useful than Melee in the BWE1. The developers agreed with this and said that the dynamics of ranged vs melee will be tweaked as the game progresses.

The function of the two modes of damage dealing are the same. They both have a range, which you can see by looking at the skill bar, if the number is white, you can use the skill, and if it's red you are out of range.

There are a few points to note with some things such as scepters shoot a projectile which tracks the ground, thus you are unable to fire it up or down. Rangers have a huge range and pretty much everyone just stuck with Long Bow in BWE1. I ended up using Scepter on my beta Guardian simply because it was easier than using a melee weapon. I tried Greatsword, Mace, Hammer and Sword, but none of these were as easy. Don't get me wrong, they were all effective, but you'll take more hits from melee enemies as you can strafe/kite them around.

Thanks
If you read all this and got here, reward yourself with a brew and a bikkit.