"While attacking"

For mods with the condition "while attacking", is this whenever you're in attack mode, or only while your character is actually swinging their weapon?

It means while Swinging their weapon/shooting their bow/wanding, etc

Not sure what you mean by "attack mode" though (but I'm definately right about this whatever you meant).

The attack mode that you are talking about is actually Combat mode.
If your the one getting attacked your in Combat mode however you are not attacking.So i would say it is when you are actually attacking.

What I think the OP means is, if you click on a target and are running toward it to attack, does that count as attacking? I think that's a pretty good question... sorry I don't know the answer.

I'm pretty sure that it doesn't, I think you have to be within your weapon's range and actually swinging/firing/wanding for it to be considered "while attacking."

It used to, some months ago, but it was changed in an update. You can test it yourself for kicks and giggles by running at a Charr Shaman to attack it (but not actually attacking it yet) as they use Bane Signet on you.

I meant attack mode as in whenever you've clicked on an enemy to begin attacking them, versus only while you're graphically swinging your weapon.

So the faster you attack, the more you get out of "while attacking" mods? I.E an assassin who's constantly stabbing will benefit more than a dervish who stands around for 3 seconds between each attack.

Actually, no, if you are, like I said, within range and your character is in "attack mode" as you discribe it, he/she gets the bonus.

I could never figure it out myself, so I dont bother with that mod, it goes to the merchant.

i think casting spells that deals damage to foes should be considered as "attacking"

But that isn't attacking. That's casting. There's a big and important difference there. It's being offensive, yes, but not attacking in the GW definition of the word.

This is something I've been wondering about too.. But I think everyone misunderstood the OP's question.

OK, for example, say a sword warrior is next to, and attacking a target.

A sword hits every 1.33 seconds.

Is that WHOLE 1.33 second time considered "attacking" (So that the warrior is continuously attacking), or is there some sort of cooldown on an attack.. Like maybe 1 second is considered attacking, and .33 seconds is like a cooldown.. kind of like after casting.. There is (I think .75 sec) an amount of time after you cast a spell, where you are no longer considered casting a spell, but cant do anything.

Any, I might try testing it a bit later, I guess this could be done by using signet of rejuvenation on a warrior, etc, who is continuously attacking.

from my experience as a hammer was using counter blow thus far simply having youre character attack by clicking on or using space bar while in range to properly use there weapons is considered attacking

But Bane Signet should be armor-ignoring damage? Does that work for a test then?

bane sig knocks down attacking foes

From my understanding, a certain condition must be met first before the "while.." goes into affect. It is like that in most computer languages. I'm not sure how hard it would be to make some sort of IF - THEN/ELSE/WHILE statement (in whatever language ANet is using) to trigger as the "animation" of the character goes into effect, but It may present a challenge. Graphically seeing your character swing a weapon or whatever is just a bunch of animated 3D polygons. It seems that everything is based on some type of algorithm, so I don't see this as being any different. On a easier note, it would be a lot easier to do the same thing that would trigger it as the character gets into "weapon" range and engages the enemy (by clicking or using a skill). That is just my observation.