Boon

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Effects currently present on the character are indicated by their status icons:

A boon is a type of effect that provides a positive buff to the recipient, playing a major role in combat. Each boon provides a different positive effect, from increasing the character's movement speed and damage to reducing the recharge time of their skills. Player characters primarily apply boons by using skills and traits as well as some equipment, such as relics and sigils. Certain boons may be more common to some professions than others, characterizing their playstyles and thematic roles.

The attribute Boon Duration is derived from Concentration, and both of these attributes can be increased by skills, traits, equipment through its attribute combinations, and bonuses from upgrade components. Boons can be stacked by re-applying them: might and stability stack in intensity and the rest stack their duration.

NPC enemies may also gain boons, which can be removed or stolen from them. Conditions are the primary negative counterpart to boons' positive effects. Some abilities convert boons on enemies into conditions, and vice versa – on allies.

In the user interface, boons are displayed via orange-colored icons that appear to the right of the health orb, on the top row of active effects. The white outline surrounding the icon indicates the time left before the boon expires. Hovering the mouse cursor on the boon's icon will also show a tooltip with the remaining time. A flashing icon indicates that the boon will expire within 5 seconds.

List of boons[edit]

Some skills and traits directly convert boons to specific conditions on enemies, and vice versa – on allies. Below is the list of boons as well as conditions each of them is converted into.

Icon Name Description Converted into
Aegis.png Aegis Block the next incoming attack; stacks duration. Burning.png Burning (1 stack, 3 s)
Alacrity.png Alacrity Skills recharge faster. Chilled.png Chilled (3 s)
Fury.png Fury Critical Chance increased; stacks duration. Blinded.png Blinded (5 s)
Might.png Might Increased outgoing damage; stacks intensity. Weakness.png Weakness (5 s)
Protection.png Protection Incoming damage decreased by 33%; stacks duration. Vulnerability.png Vulnerability (3 stacks, 8 s)
Quickness.png Quickness Skills and actions are faster. Slow.png Slow (3 s)
Regeneration.png Regeneration Gain health every second; stacks duration. Poisoned.png Poisoned (6 s)
Resistance.png Resistance Nondamaging conditions currently on you are ineffective; stacks duration. Chilled.png Chilled (3 s)
Resolution.png Resolution Incoming condition damage decreased by 33%; stacks duration. Confusion.png Confusion (3 stacks, 5 s)
Stability.png Stability Cannot be knocked down, pushed back, pulled, launched, stunned, dazed, floated, sunk, feared, or taunted. Fear.png Fear (1 s)
Swiftness.png Swiftness Movement speed increased by 33%; stacks duration. Crippled.png Crippled (10 s)
Vigor.png Vigor Endurance regeneration increased by 50%; stacks duration. Bleeding.png Bleeding (2 stacks, 8 s)

Mechanics[edit]

Stacking boons[edit]

Primary article: Effect stacking

Gaining a boon while it is already applied will increase its effectiveness, either increasing its intensity or prolonging its duration.

Two boons, Might.png Might and Stability.png Stability, stack in intensity up to the maximum 25 times, with each stack multiplying the original effect. For example, a stack of Might grants +30 to both Power and Condition Damage. 5 stacks of Might increase its strength 5 times to the total of +150 Power and Condition Damage.

All other boons stack in duration, and most of them to the limit of 30 seconds, except for Swiftness.png Swiftness and Aegis.png Aegis.[1] Reapplying the boon while already affected by it will add to the current duration of the boon. For instance, having 15 seconds of Protection.png Protection and reapplying with one that lasts 10 seconds will increase the duration to 25 seconds. If you then reapply with another one that lasts 10 seconds, the resulting duration will be 30 seconds, since the maximum duration of the boon is reached.

Boons that stack in duration will start using the strongest application before using the others regardless of when it was applied.

Boon distribution priority[edit]

Boons that are given to other allied characters are distributed in the following order based on proximity[2]. This also applies to both healing and overflow healing.

Priority Ally Group
1 Players Party/subgroup
2 Squad
3 Allied players
4 NPCs Your kennel (pets, minions, illusions)
5 Allied players’ kennels
6 All other allies

Boon distribution in more complicated scenarios occur in the following order:

  1. Number of Allied Targets — This property determines how many allies, including the player, can be affected by a skill.
  2. Group — The ally's group relative to the boon provider determines who may receive boons. This is assessed in the order listed in the above table, with allies within the same party/subgroup having the highest priority. This continues until the skill target cap has been reached. For example, if the boon provider uses a skill that targets five players and their subgroup contains only four players total, one squad member (next priority) will be pulled in as the fifth target.
  3. Proximity — The distance between the ally and the boon source determines who will receive boons. For example, allies closest to the center of a circular skill area of effect (AoE) are prioritized. Similarly, allies closest to the start of a conal skill AoE are prioritized. For point blank AoEs, allies closest to the boon provider are prioritized.

This distribution process can influence how squads are organized. If support skills have a maximum target cap of five players, it may be beneficial to organize players into subgroups of five players to maximize boon coverage and uptime. Squads with low boon coverage may instead opt to form larger subgroups to spread out boons to a wider group instead of only to a few. In some unique setups for smaller squads, boon providers can be placed in their own subgroup. In the previous two cases, proximity to the boon source has a more noticeable effect. Sub-group prioritization is locked in (snapshotted) when a player enters combat, with a warning provided in the chat box when a change occurs to the player's subgroup. [3]

Special cases[edit]

When Regeneration.png Regeneration or Vigor.png Vigor have a non-integer duration (e.g., 3.5 seconds), the full seconds of their effects apply as normal, and the fraction of a second will apply the same fraction of their effect. For example, if Regeneration is applied for 3.5 seconds at 130 heal per second, it will apply 3 ticks of 130 heal over the first 3 seconds, followed by 1 tick of 65 heal as the boon ends.

Related skills[edit]

To see the skills which relate to a specific boon, refer to the page on that boon. The following is a list of skills that relate to boons in general.

Skills that remove boons[edit]

Weapon skills that remove boons
Healing skills that remove boons
Utility skills that remove boons
Elite skills that remove boons
  • Spellbreaker icon small.pngWinds of Disenchantment.png Winds of DisenchantmentMeditation. Create an area of calm in which foes have reduced incoming boon duration and lose boons every interval. Enemy missiles entering this area are blocked.
Profession mechanic skills that remove boons

Skills that lengthen boons[edit]

Weapon skills that lengthen boons
  • Tempest icon small.pngSand Squall.png Sand Squall — Apply protection to you and your allies, then increase the duration of all boons currently existing on you and your allies. Gain magnetic aura.
Utility skills that lengthen boons
Profession mechanics that lengthen boons

Skills that transfer boons[edit]

Weapon skills that transfer boons
Utility skills that transfer boons

Skills that convert conditions into boons[edit]

Bundle skills that convert conditions into boons
Utility skills that convert conditions into boons
Elite skills that convert conditions into boons
Profession mechanic skills that convert conditions into boons
Common skills that convert conditions into boons
  • Hunker Down.png Hunker Down — Empower your turtle with a shell of energy, converting incoming damage to ammo and incoming conditons to boons

Skills that convert boons into conditions[edit]

Primary article: Condition#Skills that convert boons into conditions

Related traits[edit]

To see the traits which relate to a specific boon, refer to the page on that boon. The following is a list of traits related to non-specific boons.

Traits that remove or steal boons

Trait skills that remove or steal boons

Traits that add benefit to boon removal or corruption

Traits that benefit from boons

Traits that lengthen boons[edit]

Not to be confused with Boon Duration

Traits that convert conditions into boons

Trait skills that convert conditions into boons

Traits that improve Conditions Converted to Boons

Traits that convert boons into conditions[edit]

Primary article: Condition#Traits that convert boons into conditions

Related equipment[edit]

This is a list of equipment related to non-specific boons. To find equipment which affects a specific boon, refer to the article about that boon.

Relics that convert conditions into boons[edit]

Relics that benefit from boons[edit]

Upgrade components that grant boons[edit]

Sigils[edit]

Upgrade components that remove or steal boons[edit]

Sigils[edit]

Upgrade components that increase boon duration[edit]

Primary article: Boon Duration

Trivia[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ May 11, 2021 game update
  2. ^ Boon/Healing Priority?, Jon Olson, Guild Wars 2 Forum
  3. ^ [1],2016-01-26 Patch Notes
  4. ^ Interview, Eric Flannum, Guild Wars 2 Italia