Defiance Bars and CC
Defiance Bar, commonly referred to as "Breakbar" or "CC bar", is a Crowd Control (CC) oriented mechanic for various special enemies spread around the world of Tyria.
Enemies with an active Defiance Bar are not affected by CC skills and non-damaging Conditions as one would expect them to - instead of applying the effects such as Stun or Knockdown, these enemies carry on fighting like nothing happened.
This is because these so-called defiant enemies are immune to Crowd Control of any kind, be it from Conditions or CC effects. Instead, their Defiance Bar takes a certain amount of damage, based on the effect applied, and once it runs out the enemy suffers a CC effect of varying sorts.
States of Defiance Bars
Defiance Bars have 3 distinct appearances, indicating their states - Vulnerable, Recharging and Locked. They are located under the enemy's Health Bar, next to a distinct Defiance icon - or
A blue Defiance Bar is vulnerable to Crowd Control (CC) and non-damaging Condition effects. If damaged but not broken, most Defiance Bars start to regenerate, but remain vulnerable still.
A Defiance Bar that is orange () and gradually increases is currently recharging. In this state, the bar will suffer no further damage, and its speed of recovery is also not affected by any additional conditions.
A gray, metal-looking Defiance Bar is currently immune to Crowd Control. Its presence usually indicates that the enemy you're fighting will eventually introduce an opportunity for you to break it, temporarily turning it blue.
Reasons to Break the Bar
The effect of breaking a Defiance Bar differs from enemy to enemy. Generally speaking, most enemies put up a Defiance Bar when they are about to perform a highly threatening attack, or simply have it active by default. Upon breaking, most enemies would suffer Stunned and/or Exposed effects for a set amount of time, get Knockdown or simply get interrupted in whatever it is they were doing.
In general, you would want to deal with Defiance Bars as soon as they'll become vulnerable, however some specific enemies may require a different approach. Refer to the individual guides for instanced content before tackling these encounters in order to be properly informed on the tactics.
How to Break the Bar
Defiance Bars act much the same as Health Bars do, representing the amount of CC required in order to break it. Unlike Health Bars however, they are only vulnerable to Crowd Control and non-damaging Conditions.
Typically, there are two types of Crowd Control players refer to: "Soft CC" and "Hard CC".
"Soft CC" refers to various non-damaging Conditions, whereas "Hard CC" refers to skills that apply direct Crowd Control effects.
Non-damaging Conditions (Soft CC) drain a set amount of Defiance at a fixed rate, acting much like it's damage-over-time oriented cousins in the category without applying their effects directly, while Crowd Control (Hard CC) skills deal the Defiance damage immediately, and the amount of damage dealt also with the duration of the effect.
Below is a table listing most of the common sources of Defiance Break you will have access to:
Stability still works on Defiant enemies, and it prevents application of 1 Control Effect per stack, however it does not prevent Defiance Damage from Conditions.
Best use of Crowd Control
As you fight bosses and other menaces in Open World, Raids, Fractals and Strikes, you would be poised with a choice of using Crowd Control skills or keep your damage rotation going. The best option is to try and weave your Crowd Control arsenal into the rotation you are performing - if you are aware of the Defiance Bar mechanic approaching, try to hold onto your Crowd Control skills in order to unleash them onto the enemy as soon as possible. For instanced content such as Raids, Encounter Guides would be extremely helpful to get informed about these mechanics beforehand. Additionally, Build Guides would mention your Crowd Control options, as well as their Defiance Break - keep an eye out for this important information.