Cooldowns, buff ticks and fatigue

A fight is not a single damage-per-second total. Items have individual activation rules and cooldowns, while shared combat events process other effects on their own schedule. A useful backpack needs those events to work together.

Item activation

Speed changes the wait between activations. Stuns and item-specific conditions can change when an effect occurs, and cooldown variation means identical-looking timers need not stay synchronized. Items such as Gloves of Haste are valuable because they alter the timing of compatible neighbors, not simply the number on one weapon.

Alternating ticks

The shared one-second tick processes Regeneration on even seconds and Poison on odd seconds. Healing and poison damage therefore occur on different beats. Compare when protection or recovery arrives with the attacks it must survive.

Fatigue changes the finish

The fatigue timer arms at second 14; its first damage tick arrives at second 17 and repeats each second. The damage grows over time. Fatigue prevents an indefinitely stalled fight, so a defensive setup still needs a way to finish or outscale its opponent.

Read interactions before comparing totals

Hit checks, critical hits, reductions, Block, Spikes and Vampirism do different jobs. A star connection shows which items an effect can reach; it is not a predicted win rate. Use the build editor to inspect those connections, then compare the relevant item descriptions and conditions.