What is the trigger for item bonuses?

[hal9000]

There are a lot of items in the game with an effect such as "5 seconds of 50% slow". But it does not say what triggers this effect. For example, I got the above as a completion bonus on an artifact. Does the slow happen when I get hit, or when I hit a monster? Is there a cooldown for it? Etc. This game doesn't show you a lot of mechanics in the UI like, for example, Grim Dawn.

[Somebody]

If it activates when you get hit, it says "retaliation".
Other flat damage/status effects apply to your weapon attack.

There is no cooldown for this kind of effect. When you hit an enemy, he gets slowed by 50% for 5 seconds. When you hit him again, the timer simply gets reset back to 5 seconds. It does not stack with consecutive attacks.

[hal9000]

Originally posted by Somebody:

If it activates when you get hit, it says "retaliation".
Other flat damage/status effects apply to your weapon attack.

There is no cooldown for this kind of effect. When you hit an enemy, he gets slowed by 50% for 5 seconds. When you hit him again, the timer simply gets reset back to 5 seconds. It does not stack with consecutive attacks.

So are you saying that if it doesn't state "retaliation", then it's when you connect a hit? Seems OP if so. That would mean every enemy in the game is 50% slowed at all times. BTW, the description I mentioned above is verbatim. That is all it says.

[Somebody]

Originally posted by hal9000:

So are you saying that if it doesn't state "retaliation", then it's when you connect a hit? Seems OP if so. That would mean every enemy in the game is 50% slowed at all times. BTW, the description I mentioned above is verbatim. That is all it says.

Yes. It is not that OP. Just like you, enemies also have resistances.

[pleasant_person]

Enemies also wield those weapons against you. Really sucks when a strong boss is using a disabling weapon.

Slow is underappreciated, though. Given that a lot of slow effects stack with each other, you can reduce opponents to a crawl. But I mean, you need it, combat is brutal in this game when you're undergeared.

[Tigerheart]

Can you examplify some stacking slow effects? Not sure what you mean by that

[pleasant_person]

Sure. A Corsair using envenom weapon: nightshade (39% Slow) uses rank 12 batter (50% slower attack) - batter hits 3 targets, slowing their movement, attack, and cast speed by 39% and slowing their attack speed only by an additional 50%. My *belief* is that the two slows multiply against each other and you slow their attack speed to 19% of it's original value. I'm not sure if there's a cap as to how far you can slow something, but it is incredibly noticeable when you have both effects on a monster. Their attack animations take ages to complete. You can kill something before it completes a single attack.

A runemaster with a charge of rune weapon: energy drain 22% up and a 56% weapon of Disabling would use lightning strike to hit 7 satyrs and slow them to 34% attack speed and 78% movement/cast speed.

An oracle with deathchill aura slows everything that comes near them by 25% (it's written as -25% total speed), and when something attacks them, they have their attack speed and movement slowed by 39% when Heart of Frost's attack speed retaliation kicks in, slowing their movement and attacks to 46% of the original speed making it super easy to run away, or stand there and tank the hits.

You can make an accomplished hero to test out whether certain abilities stack with each other. If I remember correctly there were a few that didn't, but I can't recall off the top of my head.

[DedZedNub]

Ok, just to fully understand this I'm going to follow up with some questions to make sure I get this.

First, let's give a different example since 50% works in either type of meaning as the same thing, which doesn't test my question well.

So, let's say that Rank 12 Batter had a 60% slower attack speed effect on the enemy. Would that mean that the enemy now swings at 40% of total speed?

In other words does it mean that a swing that normally takes 1 second to complete now takes 1.66 seconds to complete or does it mean that it takes 2.5 seconds to complete? In the first case that means his swing speed is 60% of normal, in the second it means his swing speed is 40% of normal?

What I'm trying to get at here is what the phrasing on the Items themselves or the Spell Skills in the Class actually mean?

See, the very short descriptions are not clearly saying whether the number given is simply subtractive of speed , like -40 of attack speed, or stating the resulting value of attack speed which is 40% of initial or normal attack speed? In the first case the enemy you effect with this is swinging at 60% of normal speed and so a swing that normally takes 1 second now takes 1.66 seconds to complete. But in the second case, the value states the result and is then 40% of normal initial speed and so takes 2.5 seconds to complete the same swing normally done in one second?

I have this problem also when looking at Set Armor. They'll talk about a percentage effect, that's all fine and good. But they won't say if those numbers change as you level your character. Set Armor however doesn't usually give, from my memory, + 20 damage for example, but it gives +2 % damage. So that will grow as damage on weapons grows and other skills grow if it acts upon those, but also Sets may, I dunno, change as they level. Otherwise, most Early Set Armors might really suckola.

Sorry to ask here. But this is one thing that annoys me a great deal about Titan Quest and some of its followers.

There usually is a very good description somewhere in the GUI, and I have not played it in a very long while, would like to during the Holidays. But, I'm wondering if the new shortened vernacular is following the same rules, as a lot of the rules were changes during the Anniversay Edition update and calculations may have changed. Also I believe they heavily changed some of the poison mechanics, which probably were in major need of an overhaul, but I don't recall now how it works..

Like you example, I've always been especially interested in the slowing effects mechanics, as it is a nice set of effects to depend on for dodging and defense.

I'm also thinking I'm just going to sell off all my old gear for money, since most are only level 14 or lower, and then start over with the new mechanics in play and new gear as I find it. But I can never judge if a Set of Armor is any good because I have nothing to compare it to other than the current normal gear.

Thanks for any info on this or a good place you can mention to find out a great deal more about it.

[Absolute Madman]

Depends on what the artifact is for, from what it sounds there are two outcomes:
- If it enhances only armor pieces -> Everytime you get hit
- If it enhances weapons/amulets/rings -> Everytime you hit