Does Health degeneration stack?

Does Health degeneration stack?

I have been looking at some skills in the Mesmer and Necromancer. I was wondering if the Health Degeneration skills stack. Using Conjure Phantasm with Phantom Pain, or even Faintheartedness. There are lots of skill that have this effect, i was not sure if it will take the strongest effect or the longest effect. I was not sure if the are considered the same effect or different effect because they come from two different spells.

Unfortunetly I did not get the chance to test out this theory, so I was wondering if anyone could give me and answer.

Different HP degeneration spells do stack, but only to a maximum of -10 (same goes for HP regeneration).

Yes, degeneration, and regeneration, stacks up to a maximum of ten pips. So, you can't have more than +20hps or -20hps at any given time. Pips in addition to taht are still counted, though. So, if you were set On Fire (7 degen) and had Life Transfer (7 regen) and Life Siphon (3 regen) up, you'd still have 3 regen because the On Fire and Transfer would cancel each other out. Your Monk friend could cast Mending on you (3 regen) and you'd have 6 regeneration until On Fire ended and Transfer came back in full force. You'd have 13 regeneration, then but only get the effect of 10 regeneration. Now, your target will be suffering the degeneration of Siphon and Transfer or 10 degeneration and you could cast something like Faintheartedness (1 degen) on them. Those skills stack and take effect, you still get the regeneration from your life taps and the attack speed decrease from Faintheartedness but they only suffer the effects of 10 degeneration not 11.

WOW, now that was a fast reply.

Could you stack two Conjure Phantasm? Either two castings from one person or two different casters?

Thanks you for the quick reply and information. A -10 health degeneration is pretty harsh. I guess that means i can try my idea when the game get released. Those Charr better watch out.

10 degeneration is only 20DPS. It's not that fantastic (Although it's killer in early missions where no one has all that much health to begin with, you do a greater percentage's worth of damage then.) considering a good Warrior or Ranger will be cracking 40DPS easily. However, in addition to other sources of damage it can be quite effective. It's just not something you want to rely on.

As for stacking, it's complicated. A character can only be affected by one version of a skill - hex, enchantment, stance, preparation, ward, whatever - at a time. The one that affects them is either the most recently casted or the one with the greater effect, depending on the skill. So, if you were to cast Life Siphon on the same target twice all you'd do would be to replace your first Life Siphon with your second, increasing the overall duration of things, not doubling the health regen/degen. If you and a friend were to cast Life Siphon on a target that target will suffer from just one Life Siphon, too.

But, here's where it gets messy because while a character can only be affected by one version of a skill they can have multiple versions of a skill which affects *other* players. To go back to the Life Siphon example, both of you will still gain the benefit of Life Siphon. You'll both have 3 regen but your target will have 3 degen not 6. Weird, but true.

The max effect of degen is 10.. however, if you have say... actually 13 degen and you put on 7 regen... you will still have 6 left.