Arctic Air - confuse AND scare?

[Starsong]

Has Arctic Air always caused foes to be scared?  I thought it was only confuse, but in the combat log it says "You Scare Slasher with your Arctic Air" and foes are trying to run away.  It doesn't take Fear enhancements, so I found that puzzling.

[Snarky]

It is a different type of "Fear" or "Scare"  There is the type of Fear used by Dark Armor/Melee powers on my Brute.  Takes Fear enhancements.  Mobs are "mezzed" and cower in place with a ghost icon over their face.  Then there is the "Scare" used by thing like Artic Air and some location powers.  The mobs are scared because they sense damage / effect and just start running wildly.  Teams hate this due to mob scatter and you might, erm will, be shamed for using these powers.  They take no Fear enhancement, the mobs are not mezzed.  They just are triggered into a mechanic to get the heck away.

[UltraAlt]

Doesn't appear so originally.

Arctic Air is different based on the archetype.

 

Controller - Confuse, Slow (slots confuse and slow)

Dominator - Confuse, Fear (slots confuse and fear enhances. I have a fear set IO in mine)

not sure about the others archetypes

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by UltraAlt

[Uun]

3 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Doesn't appear so originally.

Arctic Air is different based on the archetype.

 

Controller - Confuse, Slow (slots confuse and slow)

Dominator - Confuse, Fear (slots confuse and fear enhances. I have a fear set IO in mine)

not sure about the others archetypes

 

Both have Afraid and Slow, with the differences in strength due to AT modifiers. I don't think this is new, as remember it from the Ice controller I had on live. Not sure why doms can enhance for fear, as the "run away" mechanic isn't normally affected by fear enhancements. Seems like it might be a bug.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=controller_control.ice_control.artic_air&at=controller

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=dominator_control.ice_control.arctic_air&at=dominator

[Carnifax]

Afraid=I need to run away / out of this (depending on the duration, things like Hotfeet and Arctic have tiny duration afraids which go off often)

 

Terrorised=I'm going to stand here shaking with Fear.

 

Both are "fear" but they work differently to each other. Terrorised is the one people usually want and fear enhancements work with. Afraid is often used to encourage mobs not to stand in something and melt.

 

Weirdly, Spectral Terror in illusion does both.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Carnifax

[UltraAlt]

11 hours ago, Uun said:

Both have Afraid and Slow, with the differences in strength due to AT modifiers. I don't think this is new, as remember it from the Ice controller I had on live. Not sure why doms can enhance for fear, as the "run away" mechanic isn't normally affected by fear enhancements. Seems like it might be a bug.

 

Controller - Confuse, Slow (slots confuse and slow - double-checked) - I checked my build here. I had the same build on live and it was also slow and confuse there.

 

Dominator is actual - Confuse, Fear, Slow. I don't think the fear part actually kicks in until it's slotted. I have a fear Set IO with a proc in it at this point. Will put a fear in it when I level up and see what happens.

[oedipus_tex]

There's a detail here buried in the history of the game.

 

Originally, the effect we now know as "Terrify" was known as "Afraid." It sent enemies running, like Arctic Air still does. It is also the effect that was originally tied to Fear enhancements. 

 

Afraid was a pretty un-useful effect in most powers. So a few issues into the game, Terrify was created. It generally uses the same tables as Afraid. It also uses the same enhancers. Terrify causes enemies to cower in place. When they take damage they have a chance to attack or else run away (like the old Afraid.) Some powers were then updated to use Terrify, and some other powers kept Afraid. Afraid was also added to some powers to push the AI to run for out of certain debilitating effects.

 

A few powers (like the Illusion Control power Spectral Terror) have both Terrify and Afraid. AA just has the old Afraid.

 

In Arctic Air's case the Afraid effect is Mag 3 and, technically, benefits from Power Boost like powers. The same Afraid effect exists in powers like Hot Feet, Burn, and Volcanic Gasses and is generally used to push the AI to try to escape a pulsing effect.

 

The version of Arctic Air Controllers and Dominator's share is actually identical. The Confusion is Scale 2 on both archetypes. That's actually a problem for Dominators. Dominators have a lower mezz scale than Controllers, so outside Domination mode they have lower mezz times than a Controller. In Arctic Air this translates to about 25% lower effectiveness, or in other words significant gaps in coverage. The Afraid effect draws from Fear tables so is also shorter on Dominators than Controllers, as is the -Recharge effect. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by oedipus_tex

[UltraAlt]

Dominator - Confuse, Fear, Slow

 

Well, slotted two fear non-set IO's in it. They don't get the normal "fear head" on them.

No way to really tell if they are running away more.

[Starsong]

Thanks everyone!  Some of the guys confused by my Arctic Air were attacking me and running away in addition to attacking each other, and it just surprised me because I didn't remember that behavior.  Awesome of you all to clear up the confusion for me.  (pun not intended)