Combat

Combat in Guild Wars affects many things.

"In Combat"
The game tracks whether or not you are "in combat". You enter combat when you attack an enemy, an enemy attacks you, you use a skill t an enemy, or an enemy uses a skill on you. You stop being in combat about fifteen seconds after any of these things happen and you are not suffering from any negative status modifiers such as hexes or conditions. There is no consistent visual indicator within the game showing whether or not you are in combat, however, when "in combat" your avatar assumes a hunched up alert pose with more labored breathing. Any other animation will override this pose, however. For example, you can be dancing while under attack and the game will treat it as being "in combat."

In particular, you cannot do the following things while in combat:
 * Identify items.
 * Salvage items.

Natural health regeneration ends when you lose health (such as from using a sacrifice skill), but this does not necessarily put you in combat. The exact relationship between natural health regeneration and being in combat is not clear. Tests indicate that as long as you do not attack or use any skills that target a foe, you will eventually start regenerating health if you haven't lost any health for some time (around 15 seconds). Note that you can continue damaging the foe with untargeted AoE skills without preventing the onset of natural regeneration.

Related Concepts

 * Attack
 * Experience
 * Target