issue 26 Patch Notes for April 7th, 2020

[The Curator]

General

• Improved the loading time and stability of Architect missions with a large number of custom critters.

 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with missing color palettes for Spines and Thorn sets in the Power Customization screen
• Fixed the damage percentage display in the description of the Going Rogue pre-order enhancements (the enhancements available from the P2W vendor)

 

Powers

• Electrical Affinity
  • Players should now be able to cancel the following Electrical Affinity Buffs:
    • Energizing Circuit
    • Empowering Circuit
    • Insulating Circuit
  • Faraday Cage no longer shows a buff icon on the caster while the sphere is active.
• Savage Melee
  • Savage Melee's power set description has been updated to no longer state that Shred is empowered by consuming Blood Frenzy, and instead that it builds Blood Frenzy.
  • Set description no longer states that Blood Frenzy adds a damage buff, it now accurately states Blood Frenzy adds a recharge buff and endurance discount.
  • Blood Thirst description updated to highlight the power increases Bleed DOT to 100%
• Other
  • Fixed a bug where the highest tier Incarnate Hybrid Support was not granting Endurance Discount.
  • Stalker > Weapon Mastery > Shuriken: This version of the power was missing the recharge change from Page 5
  • Radiation Melee > Fusion: This power should no longer play the Build Up sound twice.
  • Atomic Manipulation > Ionize: This power should no longer play the Build Up sound twice.

[SuperPlyx]

On 4/7/2020 at 12:01 PM, The Curator said:

Players should now be able to cancel the following Electrical Affinity Buffs

Just out of curiosity, why would you not want a buff? 

 

So Savage Melee Blood Frenzy never gave a damage buff?

 

On 4/7/2020 at 12:01 PM, The Curator said:

Fixed a bug where the highest tier Incarnate Hybrid Support was not granting Endurance Discount.

Nice

[jaguargamma]

1 hour ago, SuperPlyx said:

Just out of curiosity, why would you not want a buff? 

Because not every buff is actually helpful to everyone, every time it's cast.

[ArchVileTerror]

Also, hugely important; not everyone who gets a buff is actually engaged in combat.  They might be roleplaying or performing another activity where the buff is distracting, disruptive, or causes undue performance issues on their current rig.

Options are good.

[Replacement]

It also happens to be fantastic for testing.

[Joshex]

several players including myself have noticed differences in game mechanics since a few patches ago.

 

enemies will not taunt just by a tank being present. Enemies will forget the tank and attack others even when the tank does not exit the group.

enemies forget the tank and walk back to spawn points if the tank attempts to merge certain groups. (I verify it even happens with 2 enemies total one from each group.) the only solution is to use an actual taunt power to attract the other (they seem to lose sight of me after just a couple meters. this is ridiculous as I only have one stealth power and did not enhance it for stealth., edit, it even happened without stealth on)

 

The agro cap seems to be random. sometimes I can only pull a hand full and they immediately go back to the spawn point if I go anywhere near other groups. other times I can merge 2 and 3 groups of enemies on x8... what is going on here?

 

we have also noticed debuffs are much stronger than before. another note: carnies were never that hard back on live. it's like some powers that were formerly never/rarely cast by CPU enemies on live are now cast at a MAXIMUM rate. I suspect it may have to do with the AI modifications a few patches back.

 

For example on live it was rare to see any carnie master illusionists cast summon:dark servant. Now they summon it as soon as it recharges without fail, whereas dark ring mistress seems to be using a lot of debuffs and saps end worse than a malta sapper! I never remember her having that kinda effect. It could be I just never played them solo on live so I was used to teams, but even teams are struggling with carnies now even have people ditching missions if they see it's 54 carnies, instant quit team.. I suspect it's the AI changes that are causing them to not default to a fighting style. this means they cast anything and everything which makes them tougher.

 

these are my observations. I could just be complaining about nothing, maybe I misremembered when it comes to debuffs, but something is definitely wrong with the agro system. if a tank jumps in the middle of a group of enemies; they gang up on the tank, and the tank runs to a group next door, they should at least try to follow? not go attack the next nonpresence teammate that's approaching! if I had to guess I'd say the agro cap is cycling targets; lets say you hit the cap and enter another group, the next group immediately agros and the amount of that group that agro is subtracted from the first group sending that many of the first group casually strolling back to their spawn points (or attacking teamates). But then again this is random sometimes it works as normal where the next group triggers but does not agro.

 

the question is why is it only acting this way sometimes? but yeah when you can't merge 1 enemy with another single enemy group something is busted... I don't know, maybe they had an argument?

[siolfir]

23 hours ago, Joshex said:

For example on live it was rare to see any carnie master illusionists cast summon:dark servant. Now they summon it as soon as it recharges without fail, whereas dark ring mistress seems to be using a lot of debuffs and saps end worse than a malta sapper! I never remember her having that kinda effect. It could be I just never played them solo on live so I was used to teams, but even teams are struggling with carnies now even have people ditching missions if they see it's 54 carnies, instant quit team.. I suspect it's the AI changes that are causing them to not default to a fighting style. this means they cast anything and everything which makes them tougher.

Ignoring the bits about aggro, since I'm not sure if you're talking about attempting to herd multiple groups (ie, above the aggro cap) or not, your experience with Master Illusionists and Ring Mistresses/Dark Ring Mistresses is nothing new. The "sapper endurance drain" on the Ring Mistresses has been there (and has been used) as far back as I can remember running into them, which is well before IOs made it far easier to deal with. Here's the power information:

 

 

Note the -recovery for 30 seconds, which is really what's killing your endurance because you aren't gaining any back while still running toggles and attacking, and that it recharges before it wears off if you let them use it again to stack the debuff. Master Illusionists have been summoning Dark Servants forever. But beyond the highly-annoying phasing, they're easy to deal with if you have a way to mez bosses, if you have good defense, if you have endurance drain resistance, or if you have high burst damage.

 

I haven't run any Tankers (because I haven't made one yet - I was waiting to see what powerset changes were coming in page 6) but my experience with aggro has been different than yours with my Brute(s) and Scrapper as well: I run in and hit them with a damage aura, and if I'm not over the aggro cap the mobs stick to me and follow me. If you aggro 10 things from one spawn and 10 in the next, then some of that first 10 are going to go elsewhere, though - that's the whole point of having a cap. Since the patches to get the taunt proc working on damage auras, my experience has been that things have generally been about the same as they were before it was changed to a proc and I can get mobs to come to me fairly easily when I want to, and tagging the occasional runner will usually get them back to me (as long as nothing else is taunting them).

[Joshex]

22 hours ago, siolfir said:

Ignoring the bits about aggro, since I'm not sure if you're talking about attempting to herd multiple groups (ie, above the aggro cap) or not, your experience with Master Illusionists and Ring Mistresses/Dark Ring Mistresses is nothing new. The "sapper endurance drain" on the Ring Mistresses has been there (and has been used) as far back as I can remember running into them, which is well before IOs made it far easier to deal with. Here's the power information:

 

 

Note the -recovery for 30 seconds, which is really what's killing your endurance because you aren't gaining any back while still running toggles and attacking, and that it recharges before it wears off if you let them use it again to stack the debuff. Master Illusionists have been summoning Dark Servants forever. But beyond the highly-annoying phasing, they're easy to deal with if you have a way to mez bosses, if you have good defense, if you have endurance drain resistance, or if you have high burst damage.

 

I haven't run any Tankers (because I haven't made one yet - I was waiting to see what powerset changes were coming in page 6) but my experience with aggro has been different than yours with my Brute(s) and Scrapper as well: I run in and hit them with a damage aura, and if I'm not over the aggro cap the mobs stick to me and follow me. If you aggro 10 things from one spawn and 10 in the next, then some of that first 10 are going to go elsewhere, though - that's the whole point of having a cap. Since the patches to get the taunt proc working on damage auras, my experience has been that things have generally been about the same as they were before it was changed to a proc and I can get mobs to come to me fairly easily when I want to, and tagging the occasional runner will usually get them back to me (as long as nothing else is taunting them).

as I said they seem to be casting these abilities more than I remember. as I said likely it has to do with enemies not defaulting to either ranged or melee etc. they are switching and using either as available. Whereas on live most foes would default to melee after their ranged powers are on recharge, then forget they had ranged powers or summons. Now however the AI just pops whatever power is recharged regardless of it being ranged or melee, in effect making the game harder.

Agro; 2 enemies total, one each from a different spawn point, tag #1, #2 walks away, tag #2, #1 walks away. -broken + random, only happens on certain groups certain times with no forseeable reason.

other times I'll step in a group and apply taunt and a blaster comes and hits them and they all ignore me and kill the blaster. even going so far as to run away from me to murder the blaster. whats worse is they seem to come back as if walking back to their spawn point as if they forgot I was there.

 

sometimes they wont follow because they'd rather stand and fight someone who does not have taunt or holds..

 

I'm gonna take some videos of it and show. it's ridiculous. it happens often enough to record just gotta tag a group to see how they'll react. sometimes I can achieve like 20 agro cap, sometimes more like 15 or 10. othertimes I'm lucky to keep 1 on me (even without team members to distract them). that's why I brought this up, there's definitely an inconsistency (probably a bug) in the agro cap.