Confused about essence drain

I'm confused as to when buffs or debuffs stack with themselves in general.
IIUC, wither has stacks or layers that each apply over themselves. Right?
IIUC, poison application works similarly. Right?
At least most of the time (exceptions?)
But what about other debuffs, such as essence drain? I'm trying to figure out just by looking at bosses' health bars and my own Regen how effective it is to attack targets repeatedly with essence drain. Of course they are damaged by the spell's on hit damage function, which I guess I can see. But I cannot see how well the DOT debuff is applied or reapplied. Can anyone link decent sources or explain? The wiki leaves so many questions open.
(I suppose essence drain is my concrete example, but the question is broader and applies to other (which?) comparable (which?) debuffs.
Thanks in advance

skills like essence drain, soulrend, bane won't stack unless explicitly stated

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auspexa wrote:

skills like essence drain

Thanks.

Is there a way to tell which skills are "like" these ? The tags don't really change

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onomastikon wrote:

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auspexa wrote:

skills like essence drain

Thanks.

Is there a way to tell which skills are "like" these ? The tags don't really change

Blight and toxic rain stack, but these skills' description explicitly state that they can stack. Poison is an ailment and can always stack, regardless of its source. If your essence drain can apply poison on hit, then you can stack poison with essence drain, but the essence drain debuff itself won't stack. Wither doesn't deal damage and can always stack up to 15 times.

If I recall correctly, blight and toxic rain are the only damaging skills that can stack this way. That is also why their base damage is low compared to their counterparts like essence drain and caustic arrow

Thank you

oh and, blight's damage can stack up to 20 times, but there's no upper limit for toxic rain.

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auspexa wrote:

oh and, blight's damage can stack up to 20 times, but there's no upper limit for toxic rain.

Thanks!
So with essence drain, if I hit again, will it just reset the timer on the debuff?