I’ve tried several time from several distances. The 17+ is not proc’ing the second bleed. It looks like it’s refreshing the first one at times. Then there are times when the hit doesn’t apply at all.
I did tell them to have the description write [3-8 or 18+:...] to be less confusing but they won't listen to this catty birch so eh. To clarify, the backup bleed: procs at 18 hits or above, the 17th hit only does 200% or 300% with bleed; literally the same as the bleed from 3-8 hits, thus it will only refresh any existing DoT instead of adding a new one. I have not seen the hit not applying so far but if you have further evidence do share.
Agree about the confusion; I've already put this artifact in "storage" so I can work on another one that is more straightforward in description and function.