State
In combat, targets can be put into states that make them more vulnerable to certain skills. States are temporary effects that are directly associated with Status Effect, and last as long as their associated Status Effect does. States are abstraction of a generalized impairment. States tend to be associated with a large amount of different Status Effect. Note that states themselves do not cause penalties or bonuses; their only function is to be exploited by attacks. Along with Status Effect, some weapon abilites have an attack type called an Ability-Category
Note that different states stack, but multiple applications of the same state do not. You either have a state, or you do not have it.
Contents
Exploitation
Certain abilities work in concert with states to perform secondary effects. For example, if an ability performs a secondary effect on a target that has been Hindered, that ability is said to 'exploit Hindered state'. The most common secondary effect for abilities is additional damage; for example, the Shotgun ability Powder Burn exploits Hindered enemies to deal additional damage.
Other abilities may have very specific effects that trigger upon exploiting a state, including: costing less Weapon Focus, generating new or additional Weapon Focus, adding additional states to the enemy, or even purging beneficial states (buffs) from them.
Weapon Affinities
Some weapons tend to have an affinity with one or more states; either by applying them, exploiting them, or both. Note that this isn't a hard and fast list, as in general, you can use any weapon to apply any state with the right passives.
- Fists - Afflicted, Impaired
- Hammer - Impaired, Weakened
- Blade - Afflicted, Impaired
- Assault Rifle - Hindered, Afflicted
- Pistols - Hindered, Weakened
- Shotgun - Hindered, Weakened
- Elemental Focus - Hindered, Afflicted
- Blood Focus - Afflicted, Impaired
- Chaos Focus - Impaired, Weakened, Hindered
Possible states
Hindered
- Main article: Hindered
Hindered represents inflicted leg injuries, difficult terrain, or else some other means of slowing down the enemy. While Hindered, enemies are slowed or even Rooted, based on the strength of the ability, the Attack Rating of the player, and the Defensive stats of the enemy or enemies being targeted. Hindering abilities are best used at a distance, and are preferred by characters focusing on ranged Damage-per-Second (DPS) and Crowd Control ability builds.
Associated With: Reductions to Movement Speed, Immobility, Inability to act.
Afflicted
- Main article: Afflicted
Afflicted state represents poison, bleeding injuries, being on fire or electrocuted, or any number of other effects that might cause continuing damage to an enemy. While Afflicted, enemies will continue to take small hits of damage every second (Damage-over-Time, or DoT) until the state has worn off. Afflicted is incorporated into both Melee and Ranged DPS builds, as a way of supplementing existing damage effects.
Impaired
- Main article: Impaired
Impaired state represents concussions, blinding or deafening, and other effects that would diminish an enemy's ability to react to the world around them. This lowers their defenses, allowing attacks to Penetrate more often, and deal better damage. Stuns, knockbacks and silences are typically used in conjunction with the Impaired state. Impaired state is incorporated into Ability Builds that focus on Crowd Control, as well as Melee DPS builds.
Weakened
- Main article: Weakened
Weakened state represents lowering an enemy's strength and ability to fight, which causes them to deal less damage, and inflict Glancing blows more often. Weakened state, in other words, represents the classical MMO 'debuff' effect. While all builds can potentially benefit from Weakened state, Healer/Support builds in particular like to use it, especially in combination with Leech attacks.
Associated With: exposed, debilitated, corrupted.
