Patch and "Rooting" Mechanics - Confused?

[Quindorrian]

So, I was in some Trials and iTrials last night and a significant number of people complained incessantly about how they felt "Slow" and "weak" and how they feel the patch made their toon unplayable.  When I asked how so, one person said, "Well, I died in the 1st 30 secs of an ITF."  I asked how that is that patches fault and they explained that they could normally nuke and move before the enemies could hit them.  

 

It seemed through further conversations with said people that these players are power players that have found "exploits" in the previous mechanics of the game and those allowed them to be more powerful than they should be.  These are great players, mind you, and I am not intending to badmouth them, but I have not noticed the issues with the patch they claim exist.  It was something about "rooting" or animation mechanics.

 

Can someone explain this to me?  Is this in their heads or legit?  Did my play-style just not get affected by this?  I personally feel that my toons are stronger, so far, with this patch.  Appreciate any insight.

[America's Angel]

It's legit. Animation cancelling was removed. And changes to rooting were made.

 

From the patch notes:
 

Power Animation & Rooting Update

• Power animation time and rooting time have been decoupled - meaning that powers now decide how long they should root the character for, not the animation
  • This greatly increases our flexibility in making adjustments to power timing, animations, and rooting, and also fixes various issues surrounding animation cancelling
• The following powers will now never root during their activation:
  • Ally-targeting abilities that do not hit enemies (eg: Healing Aura, but not Twilight Grasp)
  • Self-only abilities that do not hit enemies (eg: Build Up, but not Soul Drain)
  • Scaling auras which do not damage enemies (eg: Invincibility, Beta Decay)
• The following powers will still root during their activation (and will do so more reliably):
  • Any power that applies any kind of effect to enemies (this includes attacks as well as damage auras), apart from those mentioned above
  • All powers that summon other entities
  • All interruptible powers (snipes/assassinations/etc) will now root for their uninterruptible window
• Weapon redraw should no longer cancel attack animations
• In addition, many powers with excessively long cast times have been sped up (listed below)

 

Here's the rest of the patch notes if you're curious about any other changes:
 

[Taboo]

1 hour ago, Quindorrian said:

Did my play-style just not get affected by this?

Correct

[Hew]

Breaking root and animation was actually really easy if you knew what you were doing and could be abused to benefit the player. My classic example of that was my root-free huntswoman that played quite literally like a fps game.  Nothing I did rooted, despite several of the powers actually having a root portion.

[Taboo]

14 minutes ago, Hew said:

Breaking root and animation was actually really easy if you knew what you were doing and could be abused to benefit the player. My classic example of that was my root-free huntswoman that played quite literally like a fps game.  Nothing I did rooted, despite several of the powers actually having a root portion.

 

..and the reason for removing this ability? Seems to go from epic experienced player functionality to not as fun.

[Apparition]

2 minutes ago, Taboo said:

 

..and the reason for removing this ability? Seems to go from epic experienced player functionality to not as fun.

 

Because part of the game's balance depends on your character being rooted.  No root = game out of balance.

[Taboo]

2 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Because part of the game's balance depends on your character being rooted.  No root = game out of balance.

 

Thanks but I was asking @Hew hoping for their understanding as they were impacted. Were you impacted?

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Taboo

[Hew]

10 hours ago, Taboo said:

 

Thanks but I was asking @Hew hoping for their understanding as they were impacted. Were you impacted?

 

Yes and no. I can no longer do what I did. That was expected, since it was totally broken anyway. The char itself works exactly as it had before, once cheese is removed. 

[Hew]

10 hours ago, Apparition said:

 

Because part of the game's balance depends on your character being rooted.  No root = game out of balance.

This is the entire point Taboo. Just because you have been able to do something, that clearly was NOT WAI, doesnt mean you should expect it to stay so indefinitely.

[Ironblade]

16 hours ago, Taboo said:

..and the reason for removing this ability? Seems to go from epic experienced player functionality to not as fun.

The reason is clear if we change the phrasing slightly.
"..and the reason for removing this exploit?"
Because that's what it was - an exploit.  Not a major one, to be sure.  But absolutely avoiding an intended game mechanic.

[Quindorrian]

1 hour ago, Ironblade said:

The reason is clear if we change the phrasing slightly.
"..and the reason for removing this exploit?"
Because that's what it was - an exploit.  Not a major one, to be sure.  But absolutely avoiding an intended game mechanic.

 

Yep, that is what is becoming clear to me.  So, certain players figured out how to cancel their animations to basically activate more powers than they should have been able to.  Strange that I never noticed this personally (or not in a way that affected my play style, at least), but it makes sense why: 1. They fixed it in a patch and 2. Some who actively exploited it are now complaining about it.  

 

With my play style, I tend to go for def/res caps rather than trying to out speed the game.  So, this may be why I am not noticing this "nerf", or fix, as I would call it.  As a matter of fact, I feel buffed.  I am able to move, now, while activating many powers that I previously could not.  

 

Thanks for the info and specifics, guys.  This is very interesting, but fortunately has not affected me negatively in any way.