Penetration or critical mechanics, I need help to understand!

[Outzide]

Hi!

Just wanted to check if I understand affliction correctly, Over-pen affects how much damage a spell or weapon attack does but does critical hit or over-pen affect the duration of a affliction ? Exampel, I crit with Mental binding or I over-pen with mental binding, it stats that they are paralyzed for 7 seconds. 

 

1. Does crit or Over-pen affect the duration of said affliction in any way?

2. If the spell has no damage on it can it Crit/over-pen? 

3. If it has a damage component, e.g., Cripling strike, does over-pen or crit affect the duration then?

[Boeroer]

Hi,

1.  Critical hits with timed hostile effects (including afflictions but also DoT effects etc.) will cause +25% duration.
   Overpenetration does nothing for duration.
2. If the spell has an attack roll (accuracy vs. defense) it can critically hit (there are some minor exceptions, e.g. Carnage which can never crit, only hit).
   CC spells with no damage still do an attack roll - so they can critically hit (+25% duration).
   If the spell has a PEN-value it can overpenetrate. Should be only spells that deal non-raw damage. Raw damage spells have no PEN value and thus cannot under- or overpenetrate.
   Many spells that have multiple effects and will have more than one attack roll: one for the damage, one for the affliction. In case of Venombloom (Druid spell) for example:
   AoE:
   8-12 Raw | Accuracy vs. Deflection per 3.0 sec (first attack roll for damage - can crit, but no PEN bc. raw dmg)
   If successful: Weakened for 8.0 sec | Accuracy vs. Fortitude per 3.0 sec (second attack roll for weaken - can crit, but no PEN bc. no damage)
   Target:
   Frightened for 8.0 sec | Accuracy vs. Will (third attack roll for frighten - can crit, but no PEN bc. no damage)
3. Overpenetration: no effect on duration. Crits: +25% duration - usually those abilities like Crippling Strike also do two separate attack rolls: one for the damage and if that at least grazes, a second one for the affliction component. You can see that in the description of the ability. It will say something like
   Target: Full Attack (that's the normal weapon attack you do, your weapon accuracy vs. enemies' deflection)
   If successful: Hobbled for 15.0 sec | Accuracy vs. Fortitude
   If the ability has PEN value it's for the damage part. Crippling Strike uses the PEN of your weapons and has an additional +2 PEN. THis value doesn't matter for the hobbling roll.
   Sometimes the affliction component does no attack roll but is an auto-hit (no graze, no crit). That is the case with Shadow Step's paralyze effect (Rogue's upgrade for Escape). But this is very rare. Usually it's two separate rolls: one for the damage and one for the affliction (or whatever additional effect a weapon ability might provide)

Edited September 28 by Boeroer

[Outzide]

I see! Thank you for clarifying this, I think I understand now.

[Chaospread]

This should stay in a FAQ section.