Power boost not affecting def powers with res component to it.

[Nexros]

As the title says: Power boost cast before ice shields does not boost the def. Works great on ff though. Is this intentional?

[Bopper]

It is intentional

[Nexros]

I see, sorry for the post then. Any reason why the def component is not boosted in this case?

[Luminara]

22 minutes ago, Nexros said:

I see, sorry for the post then. Any reason why the def component is not boosted in this case?

 

Because the power is flagged "Ignore external strength boosts", not the Resistance.  It's a package deal, the whole power is affected by that flag, and the only comparable flag which could be applied exclusively to the Resistance is "Ignore enhancements and other boosts"... which would obviate the purpose of Resistance being enhanceable in the power.

[Nexros]

6 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

Because the power is flagged "Ignore external strength boosts", not the Resistance.  It's a package deal, the whole power is affected by that flag, and the only comparable flag which could be applied exclusively to the Resistance is "Ignore enhancements and other boosts"... which would obviate the purpose of Resistance being enhanceable in the power.

Alrighty. If that is the case, then I submit a new bug report:
Ice shield and glacial shield descriptions and detail breakdown are incorrect as no mention of this is anywhere in the game.

 

cheers!

[Nexros]

@Bopper does this also affect other cast-and-forget skills like deflection shield or farsight? Is there a rule to what power boost-like powers affect and do not affect?

[Bopper]

30 minutes ago, Nexros said:

@Bopper does this also affect other cast-and-forget skills like deflection shield or farsight? Is there a rule to what power boost-like powers affect and do not affect?

It only applies to powers that are flagged to ignore outside boosts or effects within powers that are flagged to ignore strength and enhancements.

 

Typically, we see powers flagged to "ignore outside boosts" when that power has enhanceable resistance. So in the case of Deflection Shield, it has resistance but it's not enhanceable. So instead the resistance effect (toxic) is flagged to ignore enhancements/strength, but that allows the rest of the power to still be buffable by outside boosts. As for Farsight, it has no resistance effects and it is not flagged to "ignore outside boosts". So both Farsight and Deflection Shield can be buffed by power boost.

 

So, again, mostly look for what powers can slot resistance enhancements. For example, Earth's Embrace is a Heal/+Max HP power; but it also resists toxic damage which can be enhanced. Because of this, Earth's Embrace is flagged to ignore outside buffs and is not affected by power boost type powers (like Adrenal Booster or Amp Up).

 

You might be wondering, why is this a rule? It has to do with the interaction of damage and damage resistance. If a damage resistance effect is not flagged to ignore enhancements/strength, or if the power with the enhanceable damage resistance effect is not flagged to ignore outside buffs, then damage buffs would be able to buff the damage resistance.

 

The most egregious example of this was Darkness Affinity's Fade which used to be bugged (it was fixed on HC a couple years ago). Fade is similar to Farsight in that it is a long duration Defense buff, but it also has enhanceable resistance effects. However, the power was not flagged to "ignore outside boosts". So for awhile, you were able to use Power Boost on Fade, but you were also able to use Damage inspirations or Soul Drain to give yourself crazy high Damage strength prior to casting Fade, and that would allow you to reach insanely high resistance values for Fade. So ultimately, that is why we see powers that have enhanceable resistance be flagged with "ignore outside boosts". Otherwise, you could abuse those resistance powers easily.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Bopper

[srmalloy]

So, as a longer-term suggestion, changing the way powers are managed internally to separate individual effects, so that things like Power Boost can be configured to not affect certain types of effect (damage resistance, in the above example), or configure powers so that individual aspects of the power, rather than the entire power, ignore outside boosts, would be worth presenting?  It would have to be a long-term goal, because it involves a more fundamental change to the powers data structure and associated code, beyond what the HC staff have the capacity for now.

[Bopper]

16 hours ago, srmalloy said:

So, as a longer-term suggestion, changing the way powers are managed internally to separate individual effects, so that things like Power Boost can be configured to not affect certain types of effect (damage resistance, in the above example), or configure powers so that individual aspects of the power, rather than the entire power, ignore outside boosts, would be worth presenting?  It would have to be a long-term goal, because it involves a more fundamental change to the powers data structure and associated code, beyond what the HC staff have the capacity for now.

Keep in mind, Power Boost does not affect damage resistance. The two have nothing to do with each other except for the fact Power Boost is an "outside buff" and enhanceable damage resistance powers are all flagged to "ignore outside buffs". So folks hoping to buff the defense of an Ice Shield get surprised that Ice Shield is unaffected by Power Boost.

 

If it were possible to isolate it though, it would be a long-term project as you have to factor in the balance implications of allowing powers to be buffed by things like Power Boost. Farsight has already caught the dev's attention for its abuse of the combination, and Cold Domination is already a strong set that would only get crazy stronger if allowed to pair Power Boost with its long duration shield powers. So I doubt we'll ever see a blanket sweep of such a change. I think you'd have to go through one-by-one to see what should be boostable and what shouldn't.