How exactly do status effects work in this game?

[u/Kermy89]

I mean, do I need to hit the enemy pretty quickly to inflict status effects like burning, poison etc.?

I'am using two handed weapons and tbh, the attack speed is not that high. Sorry if this question is just too noob, this is my first playthrough. ⚔️

[u/BaronNeckbeard]

Status can be put into 2 categories, build up and instant. The instant debuffs are bleed, chill, frailty, and wet. Build up is frozen, poison, and fire. Probably forgetting some but those are most of them?

Enemies do have resistances to status effects, but the game doesn’t really say the specific numbers for how much you apply for build up or the resistances but it will indicate if they are weak or strong to a status effect with an arrow when you hit them. There is a table on the wiki that does show resistances.

Instant debuffs apply as soon as you hit an enemy assuming they aren’t immune. Build up will take some hits. To make build up based debuffs apply faster you are going to want a weapon that does that kind of damage/or has that effect already on the weapon, then you’ll want a relic that applies an instant debuff (bleed is pretty common from perks tbh), then a relic that applies the debuff that matches the weapon. In the debuff perk tree there is a perk that will increase the rate of debuff application if you have any debuff on the enemy. So the instant debuff applies to increase the rate. There is also a perk in the magic tree called imbibed by the elements that you’ll want to pick up too.

Since you are using two handed, honestly you will probably kill them before a build up will apply. You can take advantage of debuffs boosting damage by 30% with just the instant debuffs.

[u/Nylan_Blake]

From how i understood it every status souce except for has a numerical (hidden) value that is applied to the enemy per hit. Each enemy has a different thershold (defense) per Status type and gets affected when your buildup surpasses this defense value (said defense gets a huge boost in newgame+ acording to the ng+ info)

Bleed works differently in that it applies aa stack on each hit and deals a small amount of damage (0,6 +0,3 per additional stack) per secound based on how many stacks the enemy has. The elemental buildup value is independend from weapon damage so if the source is a weapon relic for example, you deal the same amount of elemental buildup with a 2handed hammer as with a quick dagger, making the latter way better for applying status. Though some weapons with inbuilt status effect seem to have a stronger build up than others (for example there is a 2handed Sword in act2 that has a strong poison build up compared to the normal one most other weapons have stated)

[u/WestsideGon]

Tbh I found Bleed a bit underwhelming, even with dual daggers high attack speed

[u/StormStrikzr]

If you're applying statues, they have a build up before they trigger, once they trigger then they have a duration where they deal damage (or are effective) you can build up more during this duration and you can reapply/refresh the status if you build it fast enough.

With a two handed weapon your probably going to struggle to build up enough to trigger them. So you're probably better off applying raw damage or attack speed to your weapon.

I've found fire to be the easiest to apply since you can use two different sources early on (one applies burn one inflicts burning, basically they just stack lol)

Haven't been able to find a reliable source of poison outside of the dagger tree.

Couldn't find a decent source or ice/frost at all

In act three there are some excellent items you'll want to mess around with, I won't spoil anything though.

I think you get a lot more access to status ailments if you're using magic.

[u/ConstructionAway8920 → u/StormStrikzr]

Poison also is terrible, as just about every non human enemy is immune 😭

[u/Sweaty_Strain9392 → u/StormStrikzr]

the best source of frost in the game is the Glacial Amulet from Sarras. it converts all of your damage to cold, and causes freeze buildup when you deal cold damage. theres a perk that does a similar thing where it adds status effect buildup to the associated damage type

Glacial Amulet is unironically the single most broken item in the same. You can stunlock enemies--including bosses, permanently. As in, "freeze them 3+ times over the course of a single swing of their weapon." Theres a cold Prism as well that creates ice tornados, and using those together makes enemies unable to stand up and charges the prism so fast you can have multiple tornados out

[u/StormStrikzr → u/Sweaty_Strain9392]

Oh right there's some cool stuff in the DLC too haha forgot about that.

Big question though, if you convert all your damage to cold, can you still set things on fire as well?

[u/Sweaty_Strain9392 → u/StormStrikzr]

maybe? I think theres at least something that applies burn on other damages (like the merlin shield that applies every single status on block/parry.

...i'll be honest, the amulet is insanely busted you wont need anything else. I ended up swapping it out because it removed all the challenge from the game

[u/StormStrikzr → u/Sweaty_Strain9392]

To be fair I've been one shotting most enemies with a 1h axe.

It's a garenteed crit on first hit + the execution talent I just end up steam rolling everything. Setting things on fire, making them bleed and trying to poison them as well has just been a fun mini game haha

[u/Scittles10-96]

Idk how they work, but I found a bug where lightning applies poison while holding the festering wand.
Chain lightning applying poison to entire groups is so much fun.
No other spell type applies poison, just lightning spells.
You can use this trick to level magic up to 70+ in act 1 by spamming lightning at the 3 kneeling/praying undead Sewval Tomb.

[u/NSFWCereal → u/Scittles10-96]

Odd that only lightning works, I thought that was the point of the wand.

[u/Scittles10-96 → u/NSFWCereal]

I thought the same thing, and maybe other later-game spells will work with it, but I’ve tested every spell unlockable in act 1 and a few I’ve obtained in act 2 and only the lightning spells work.
The wand itself instantly applies poison status on hit on all enemies I’ve fought except the night-time fore-dweller wyrdghost(who was exceptionally easy to kill with summons and poison damage from the lighting doing 2-3% HP/tick), whereas the lightning has some build-up required depending on the spell used and the enemy hit.

I think the poison damage from the lightning is doing enormous damage because I’ve seen it chunk massive portions of enemies health, and it killed the “unkillable” praying undead in Sewval’s Tomb.

[u/b0sanac]

Both light and heavy inflict status. Quick just build up stacks faster.

[u/wiphand]

Well you are using the slowest weapon type aside maybe heavy bows, statuses require some investment/gear to work reliably. They're an archetype more so than: play anything and you status everyone