Ailments, Buildup, Threshold, and Magnitude

Bleeding and Poison need an explicit chance or guaranteed application. Shock normally rolls a chance derived from the qualifying Lightning Hit. Cold Hits can Chill without a separate chance roll, while Freeze also has a Buildup path. Wording that lets damage contribute to an ailment does not by itself provide Bleeding or Poison chance.

• The skill or effect explicitly supplies Bleeding or Poison chance when either ailment is intended.
• A guaranteed application is not being treated as a numerical chance roll.
• Damage contribution wording is not being mistaken for application permission.

Freeze Buildup accumulates toward 100%. Reaching 100% applies a fixed-duration Freeze and resets the counter to 0%. Partial Freeze Buildup is not a partial Freeze and does not slow the target. Chill is a separate ailment with its own Magnitude calculation.

• The displayed Buildup is being read as progress toward its trigger, not as application chance.
• A partial Freeze counter is not being counted as Chill or as a weaker Freeze.
• The source of increased Buildup is distinguished from any change to the target's threshold.

A player's base Elemental Ailment Threshold is half maximum Life before threshold modifiers. Monsters instead use level-based Ailment and Poise Threshold values independent of monster Life. Threshold is a defensive comparison value, not immunity, avoidance, chance, Buildup, Magnitude, or duration. The ailment still decides which stage of Hit damage is compared.

• Player threshold is not being set equal to maximum Life.
• Monster maximum Life is not being substituted for its level-based threshold.
• A specifically named Freeze, Electrocute, Stun, Ailment, or Elemental Ailment Threshold modifier is applied only to its stated scope.

Magnitude describes the strength of an applied ailment, not whether it applied. Chill Magnitude controls its action-speed Slow. Shock Magnitude controls increased damage taken. Ignite, Poison, and Bleeding Magnitude determines their damage per second from the qualifying Hit damage. Use the exact ailment page because the contributing damage and pre-mitigation or post-mitigation stage differ.

• The calculation uses the damage types allowed to contribute to that exact ailment.
• Pre-mitigation and post-mitigation Hit damage are not interchanged.
• A higher application chance is not being counted as higher Magnitude.

Duration answers how long an ailment instance remains. Effect answers what it does while active. A longer Chill does not make its Slow stronger, a longer Shock does not increase its damage-taken Magnitude, and a longer Ignite, Poison, or Bleed does not change its damage per second. Freeze prevents actions while active, but direct Freeze and the 100% Buildup route do not determine duration in the same way.

• Duration and Magnitude modifiers are applied to their own values.
• Generic Skill Effect Duration is not assumed to modify ailment duration without applicable wording.
• A damage-over-time total is not confused with its damage-per-second Magnitude.

Ignite uses qualifying Fire Hit damage to add Flammability, then rolls Ignite chance from the resulting total. Chill compares post-mitigation Chilling Hit damage for Slow Magnitude and discards a result below its minimum. Shock uses post-mitigation qualifying Hit damage for its chance roll, then applies its own Magnitude. Freeze can apply directly from a strong qualifying Hit or accumulate Buildup. These are related threshold systems, not interchangeable formulas.

• Ignite's Flammability and chance sequence is kept separate from Ignite damage Magnitude.
• Chill's minimum Magnitude is not applied as a universal ailment minimum.
• Shock chance and Freeze Buildup are not treated as the same percentage.

Poison and Bleeding both require explicit application, but their active damage rules differ. Poison has a current Poison limit: only the strongest Poison instances up to that limit deal damage, while other active instances can wait. Several Bleeds can exist with independent durations, but only the strongest Bleed normally deals damage at a time. Do not add every visible instance together.

• The character's current Poison limit is known before counting damaging Poison instances.
• Only the strongest active Bleed is counted unless an explicit effect changes the rule.
• Independent durations are not mistaken for simultaneous stacking damage.

Work in order. Confirm application permission and contributing damage, then identify chance or Buildup, the correct threshold and damage stage, target avoidance, minimum Magnitude, duration, and the active-instance rule. If the ailment applied but seems weak, check Magnitude and mitigation. If it never appears, check permission, chance, Buildup, threshold, avoidance, and any minimum before changing duration.

• Application permission and contributing damage are confirmed first.
• Chance, Buildup, threshold, avoidance, Magnitude, and duration have each been checked as separate values.
• The ailment's strongest-instance or stack-limit rule explains which active instances have an effect.