Devastation: Chance for Hold proc - glitch or intentional

[RikOz]

My level 50 fire blaster has the Devastation: Chance for Hold IO slotted into her Blaze power, and for some time now I've observed a consistent, odd behavior.

 

In most situations, I start combat with Fire Ball, followed immediately by Blaze. This 1-2 punch consistently kills same-level Minions (and usually +1 minions as well). However, if Blaze triggers the Chance to Hold proc, the Minion is held ... but doesn't die. I have to hit it with a third attack to kill it.

 

This behavior has remained consistent even as I have unlocked my incarnate slots and slotted incarnate abilities that increase my damage. This suggests that somehow or other, triggering the proc also decreases the attack's damage, or imposes some sort of limit such that the Held target takes only enough damage to reduce it to, say, 1 hit point above "defeated". I say "1" because once the target is Held, its health bar appears to be completely depleted, but the target still requires one more hit to actually defeat it. The description of this IO doesn't say anything about a damage modification, so I'm baffled by this behavior.

 

Is it supposed to be doing this?

 

This won't actually be an issue for this character for much longer, as I'm 4/6 toward replacing the Devastation set with Apocalypse, but I suspect I'll eventually be slotting Devastation on another blaster or sentinel in the future.

 

EDIT: It also occurred to me that Fire Ball has a DoT component which, for me, currently does around 21 points of damage per tick, so I would think that even if Fire Ball + Blaze didn't instantly kill the target, the first DoT tick would finish the job. So that almost makes it appear that the Hold proc is canceling the DoT. That will require closer observation, though, since it's possible I'm just firing off the third attack before the DoT has a chance to tick.

Edited January 10, 2020 by RikOz

[Grouchybeast]

On 1/10/2020 at 12:18 AM, RikOz said:

My level 50 fire blaster has the Devastation: Chance for Hold IO slotted into her Blaze power, and for some time now I've observed a consistent, odd behavior.

 

In most situations, I start combat with Fire Ball, followed immediately by Blaze. This 1-2 punch consistently kills same-level Minions (and usually +1 minions as well). However, if Blaze triggers the Chance to Hold proc, the Minion is held ... but doesn't die. I have to hit it with a third attack to kill it.

 

This behavior has remained consistent even as I have unlocked my incarnate slots and slotted incarnate abilities that increase my damage. This suggests that somehow or other, triggering the proc also decreases the attack's damage, or imposes some sort of limit such that the Held target takes only enough damage to reduce it to, say, 1 hit point above "defeated". I say "1" because once the target is Held, its health bar appears to be completely depleted, but the target still requires one more hit to actually defeat it. The description of this IO doesn't say anything about a damage modification, so I'm baffled by this behavior.

 

Is it supposed to be doing this?

 

This won't actually be an issue for this character for much longer, as I'm 4/6 toward replacing the Devastation set with Apocalypse, but I suspect I'll eventually be slotting Devastation on another blaster or sentinel in the future.

 

EDIT: It also occurred to me that Fire Ball has a DoT component which, for me, currently does around 21 points of damage per tick, so I would think that even if Fire Ball + Blaze didn't instantly kill the target, the first DoT tick would finish the job. So that almost makes it appear that the Hold proc is canceling the DoT. That will require closer observation, though, since it's possible I'm just firing off the third attack before the DoT has a chance to tick.

If you look in the combat log, you'll be able to see things like the Fireball DoT ticking, exactly which attacks hit when, etc, and so you should be able to figure out if the DoT is getting prematurely cancelled.  DoT looks like this:

 

2020-01-10 22:59:16 Readying Fire Ball.
2020-01-10 22:59:16 HIT Bad Penny! Your Fire Ball power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 26.25.
2020-01-10 22:59:16 Your Fire Ball explodes on Bad Penny for 13.42 points of smashing damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:16 Your Fire Ball explodes on Bad Penny for 46.99 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:16 Your Reactive Interface continues to burn for 4.27 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:17 Blaze is recharged.
2020-01-10 22:59:17 Your Fire Ball continues to burn for 10.06 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:17 You activated the Blazing Bolt power.
2020-01-10 22:59:17 Your Blazing Bolt helps you focus your abilities on your target, increasing your range for a short time!
2020-01-10 22:59:17 Readying Blazing Bolt.
2020-01-10 22:59:18 Your Fire Ball continues to burn for 10.06 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:18 HIT Bad Penny! Your Blazing Bolt power had a 95.00% chance to hit, you rolled a 15.62.
2020-01-10 22:59:18 Your Blazing Bolt snipes Bad Penny for 186.52 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:18 Your Reactive Interface continues to burn for 4.27 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:19 Your Blazing Bolt continues to burn Bad Penny for 15.5 points of fire damage!
2020-01-10 22:59:19 Your Fire Ball continues to burn for 10.26 points of fire damage!

 

Procs firing show up with the name of the power and the type of damage, like this:

 

2020-01-10 21:41:13 Distortion Field:  Your target takes 42.12 points of bonus smashing damage!
2020-01-10 21:41:13 Distortion Field:  Nightwolf Champion takes 42.12 points of bonus psionic damage!