Confusion

Damage received on skill activation; stacks intensity. — In-game description

Confusion

Effect type

Condition

Stacking

Intensity

Game link

“

Damage received on skill activation; stacks intensity.

— In-game description

Confusion is a condition that deals damage each second and additional damage each time the affected target begins to activate a skill. The damage on skill activation is greater against NPCs than against players. Confusion stacks intensity. Like all damaging conditions, it will stack up to a maximum of 1500 times.

Characters suffering from confusion can be identified by twirling, purple tinted spiral over their heads. Additionally, the same effect will appear alongside damage dealt by confusion when using a skill.

The formulae for confusion's damage are:

Damage over time in PvE:

(0.05 * Condition Damage) + (0.213 * Level) + 1.45 damage per stack per second.

(0.05 * Condition Damage) + 18.25 damage per stack per second at level 80.

Damage over time in WvW and PvP:

(0.1 * Level) + 2 damage per stack per second.

10 damage per stack per second at level 80.

Damage on skill activation in PvE:

(0.0325 * Condition Damage) + (0.17 * Level) + 2.74 damage per stack.

(0.0325 * Condition Damage) + 16.34 damage per stack at level 80.

Damage on skill activation in WvW and PvP:

(0.0975 * Condition Damage) + (0.575 * Level) + 3.5 damage per stack.

(0.0975 * Condition Damage) + 49.5 damage per stack at level 80.

Confusion damage is applied on every skill activation, whether activated manually or automatically. For example, necromancers will take confusion damage when they create a Mark of Blood after dodging while equipped with the Mark of Evasion trait.

Related skills

See also: Condition#Related skills

Skills that apply confusion

Weapon skills that apply confusion

•   Static Shot — Pistol
•   Energizing Slam — Mace
•   Mace Blast — Mace
•   Mace Smash — Mace
•   Mace Strike — Mace
•   Magic Bullet — Pistol
•   Confusing Images — Scepter
•   Counterspell — Scepter
•   Phantasmal Mage — Torch
•   Chaos Armor — Staff
•   Winds of Chaos — Staff
•   Phantasmal Whaler — Trident
•   Axes of Symmetry — Axe
•   Ether Barrage — Scepter
•   Chaos Vortex — Staff
•   Wave of Panic — Trident
•   Axes of Symmetry — Axe

Bundle skills that apply confusion

•   Concussion Bomb — Bomb Kit
•   Pry Bar — Tool Kit

Utility skills that apply confusion

•   Superconducting Signet — Signet
•   Crystal Sands — Deception

Elite skills that apply confusion

•   Jaunt — Deception
•   Elixir of Ambition — Elixir

Profession mechanic skills that apply confusion

•   Skull Grinder — Primal Burst, Mace
•   Confusing Speech — Tool belt, Technobabble
•   Discharge Array — Tool belt, Mech Command
•   Crippling Anguish
•   Narcotic Spores
•   Throw Cursed Artifact — Stolen skill
•   Cry of Frustration — Shatter
•   Rewinder — Shatter
•   Bladesong Sorrow — Bladesong

Pet skills that apply confusion

•   Crippling Anguish — Fanged Iboga
•   Narcotic Spores — Fanged Iboga
•   Sonic Shriek — Juvenile Reef Drake

Downed skills that apply confusion

•   Mind Blast

Drowning skills that apply confusion

•   Mind Blast

Skills that convert resolution into confusion

Primary article: Condition#Skills that convert boons into conditions

Combos that apply confusion

•  Combo Field: Ethereal ×  Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
•  Combo Field: Ethereal ×  Combo Finisher: Whirl

Racial skills that apply confusion

•   Confusing Speech — Tool belt, Technobabble
•   Pain Inverter

Common skills that apply confusion

•   Anchor Bash — Dimensional Anchor
•   Anchor Smash — Dimensional Anchor
•   Anchor Swing — Dimensional Anchor
•   Create Distraction — Order of Whispers Spy Kit, Spy Kit
•   Drink — Dropped Items
•   Jack-o'-Lantern Smash — Jack-O'-Lantern
•   Pumpkin Smash — Pumpkin (bundle)
•   Rally Missile 2.0 — Rocket Jump\Parachute 2.0
•   Rally Missile — Rocket Jump\Parachute
•   Shoot — Overminer's Boomstick
•   Shoot — Sonic Rifle
•   Smash — Furniture
•   Smash — Special Jug
•   Smash — Special Pot
•   Spirit Nova
•   Spirit Nova
•   Spit
•   Staggering Kick — Drysdan Transformation (Moa), Moa Battle Form
•   Throw — Cow Pie
•   Throw Attractor Concoction
•   Throw Sticky Concoction
•   Throw Unstable Bloodstone Fragment — Unstable Bloodstone Fragment
•   Unstable Magic Volley — Gliding

Skills that remove confusion

Healing skills that remove confusion

•   A.E.D. — Gadget
•   Hide in Shadows — Deception

Related traits

See also: Condition#Related traits

Traits that apply confusion

• Ineptitude (Dueling) — Interrupting a foe inflicts blind, and blinding a foe inflicts confusion. This trait can only activate on enemies with defiance bars once per interval.
• Malicious Sorcery (Illusions) — Confusion you inflict has increased duration. When you dodge an attack, inflict confusion on your attacker.
• Riddle of Sand (Mirage) — When entering combat, your first Ambush attack applies confusion. This ability refreshes when you use a Shatter skill.

Traits that improve confusion

• Yearning Empowerment (Corruption) — Damaging conditions you apply last longer.
• Malicious Sorcery (Illusions) — Confusion you inflict has increased duration. When you dodge an attack, inflict confusion on your attacker.
• Parasitic Contagion (Curses) — A percentage of your condition damage heals you. Healing will not occur while life force replaces health.

Traits that remove confusion

• Shadow's Embrace (Shadow Arts) — Remove conditions when you enter or exit stealth. This effect also applies to stealth you grant to allies.

Traits that convert resolution into confusion

Primary article: Condition#Traits that convert boons into conditions

Related effects

Effects that confuse

•   Chaos Aura (randomly when struck)

Related equipment

See also: Condition#Related equipment

Relics that apply confusion

• Relic of Akeem — When you disable an enemy that is afflicted by 5 or more stacks of confusion or torment, inflict confusion and torment on enemies around the target.

Upgrade components that affect confusion

Runes

• Superior Rune of Perplexity (rank 2, 4, & 6 – increase duration)

Related consumables

See also: Food#Confusion

• Meaty Rice Bowl (increase duration by 15%)

Player chatter

When confusion is applied to a character they will occasionally shout out one of the following lines, depending on their race and gender.

Race	Gender
	Male	Female
Asura	My mind is scrambled!	Where am I?
Charr	I can't remember my orders!	Can't remember my orders!
Human	Where am I?	What's going on?
Norn	Is this... a dream?	How many ales have I had?
Sylvari	Everything's so blurry.	Oh, what's happening?

Version history

Patch	Changes
June 27, 2023	Confusion damage has been adjusted as follows in PvE only: Damage over time: Increased the base damage from 11 to 18.25. Increased condition damage scaling from 0.03 to 0.05. Damage on skill activation: Reduced base damage from 49.5 to 16.34. Reduced condition damage scaling from 0.0975 to 0.0325.
August 17, 2021	In PvE only, the damage over time caused by each stack of confusion has been increased from a flat 10 (at level 80) to 11+0.03 per point of condition damage. Damage dealt to all targets when they activate a skill has been reduced by 50%, matching the current damage in PvP and WvW game modes.
March 05, 2019	No longer deals damage when a skill is prevented from activating due to an invalid position of the target relative to the caster.
May 08, 2018	This condition has been reworked and will now inflict more damage to nonplayer enemies than players instead of being split between game modes.
February 06, 2018	Heavily reweighted damage from this condition's base damage-over-time component to the damage-on-skill-use component. The condition-damage contribution has been removed from the damage-over-time component and redistributed into the damage-on-skill-use component. This condition remains split between PvE and PvP/WvW
August 09, 2017	Base damage has been increased to match bleed's base damage; skill-activation damage has been reduced to compensate for this. This change only applies to PvE.
February 22, 2017	Fixed a bug in which the player could take a massive amount of damage if holding a ranged autoattack down while their target is behind them.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: All damage conditions will now stack up to 1500 times. This condition now has two damage components - damage over time, and the damage dealt when an ability completes. The damage has also been normalized between all game modes. The formula for this condition has been rescaled to account for the new behavior of damaging conditions and to put more focus on the condition damage stat. The skill-use damage will also now trigger when the affected target is interrupted during skill activation. New damage over time: 2 + (0.1 * Level) + (0.035 * Condition Damage) New trigger damage: 3.5 + (0.575 * Level) + (0.0625 * Condition Damage) Boon to Condition Conversion: Retaliation converts to 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds (+2 stacks).
January 27, 2015	The effect of condition damage on confusion has been increased by 33% in PvE.
June 25, 2013	Fixed confusion to no longer fire extra times on skills due to hidden script actions.
April 30, 2013	WvW: Updated confusion and retaliation effects to do the same damage as they do in sPvP.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Confusion has been added to the game.

Trivia

• This condition was changed to also deal damage each second in the June 23, 2015 game update.

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Effects (stacking)