Do Afflictions Stack on enemies?

[vsanders]

Do afflictions stack? I've seen that breakdown for how buffs stack on our characters, but I'm curious what system applies for afflictions we place on enemies.

 

From the BB, I know that a second Blinded affliction will just change the duration for the single instance of the affliction, but what about one Blinded and one Dazed? Both reduce Melee Accuracy (MA) by different amounts. If Blinded reduces MA by 25 and Dazed reduces MA by 10, will that result in a total reduction of 35 MA? Or will it only recognize the stronger debuff?

 

I ask because I'm very interested in running a Cipher debuffer as my first PC. Obviously, it won't work as well if the debuffs can't stack.

 

Thanks for any insight.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

This was a really good question so I asked it over on SA and got an answer from Josh Sawyer.

 

1) No, nothing increases Engagement Range anymore because it was causing a bunch of problems.

 

2) The stacking rules should apply in all cases, so if you have two active effects, one granting +1 and one granting +2, the latter will apply and the former will be suppressed. In the case of negatives, it takes the lowest rather than the highest.  So if you have the following modifiers to, let's say Might:

 

* Active/Modal: +1, +2, -1, -1, -3

* Weapon: +1

* Equipment: +1, +2, -1

* Passive: +1

 

You would have: +2, -3, +1, +2,  -1, +1 = +2

 

 

 

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3593502&pagenumber=363#post442335259

 

So in your example (presuming the debuff #'s on the wiki are still accurate, which is unlikely) it would just take the stronger debuff. But remember that debuffs also have AoE's, durations, etc., so sometimes it might be worth it to double up.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[vsanders]

Wow. Thank you for passing on the question. Much obliged.

 

That's the answer that makes sense to me. Just means I'll have to mix a little crowd control/damage into my ability selections.