Adding an actual confusion game mechanic and renaming the currently mislabeled confusion mechanic

[EnjoyTheJourney]

A core characteristic of how mobs labeled as "confused" act in-game is that they only attack allies and never attack their real enemies. That does not align with any common understanding of how confuse is defined. A careful examination of how confused creatures behave in the real world suggests that there is in fact no confusion power in the game. There are instead mind control or possession powers which are usually mislabeled as confuse or confusion.

 

To minimize misunderstandings, in what follows below the phrase "mind control powers" refers to powers that replace default target AI with a compulsion to only attack, control, and debuff real allies and to only buff and heal real enemies. If somebody finds the phrase "mind control powers" unsatisfying because it overlaps with the name of a specific control set, then they can substitute the phrases "command powers" or "recruitment powers" when considering what follows. 

 

Beyond semantics, mind control powers now in the game create game balance problems, especially at the upper end of the difficulty scale. Mind control powers require careful and singular attention from designers to avoid having them trivialize content intended to be challenging. This is especially true for AOE mind control powers. 

 

One way to address this is to create real confusion powers. Real confusion powers would have probabilistic outcomes, which may include having targets attack their enemies, their allies, or everybody, having them stand around and do nothing or move randomly, or having them cast random buffs or debuffs that would have a probability of affecting allies, enemies, or everybody. 

 

The probabilities associated with events would need to be carefully considered. For example, a lot of random movement may fit thematically, but could be a frustrating mechanic if it was a frequent occurrence. 

 

Adding in an actual confusion mechanic would fill a current void in the set of controls usable in-game. It would make the game more interesting, when balanced well. It would help for rounding out and rebalancing control sets.

 

Adding in real confusion powers would also create room for including mind control powers in a more carefully balanced way (ie: with shorter durations and smaller target caps, given their tremendous potential for altering how encounters go). 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by EnjoyTheJourney

[laudwic]

Are you suggesting changing the confusion types of power to something more akin to the current DnD 5e version?  Basically the target will either, 1)move in a random direction, 2) stand and do nothing 3)attack a random target in range or 4) act normally.

 

Perhaps for CoH it could be: 1) run in a random direction but not be aggroed 2) dazed 3) become hostile to everything and follow the aggro rules.  It may attack one of it's allies, but it would also attack a party member if close.  One benefit is that it takes away the joy of making a Tsoo Sorcerer your incompetent heal bot or stealing Force Field Generators from Sky Raiders as I'm suggesting they agrooed to everything.  ( I didn't convert the act normally because I've always hated that because you cast the spell, the subject fails its save, and there is a 20% chance then your spell does nothing?  Nope, bad design.)

 

If hostile to everything then enemies would attack each other so it could be a little bit better than the current version, but that is only a percentage of the results.  Running in a random direction is decent, some groups will hate it, but for someone soloing it lowers the amount of enemies at the moment.  Daze is a decent result but not as good as a hold. 

 

Currently, Confuse is a great single target hold for enemies that are alone.  This would really remove that useful, all be it cheesy use.  It would also remove the ability to Confuse enemies to have them buff you.

 

If this change is made, the xp penalty is mitigated a bit because they aren't doing as much damage nor are they as reliable damage dealers to their former allies.  Due to the unpredictability added in and the loss of utility, I would remove the xp decrease for damage they do.

Edited July 15, 2022 by laudwic
I thought of more stuff.

[EnjoyTheJourney]

1 hour ago, laudwic said:

Are you suggesting changing the confusion types of power to something more akin to the current DnD 5e version?  Basically the target will either, 1)move in a random direction, 2) stand and do nothing 3)attack a random target in range or 4) act normally.

 

Perhaps for CoH it could be: 1) run in a random direction but not be aggroed 2) dazed 3) become hostile to everything and follow the aggro rules.  It may attack one of it's allies, but it would also attack a party member if close.  One benefit is that it takes away the joy of making a Tsoo Sorcerer your incompetent heal bot or stealing Force Field Generators from Sky Raiders as I'm suggesting they agrooed to everything.  ( I didn't convert the act normally because I've always hated that because you cast the spell, the subject fails its save, and there is a 20% chance then your spell does nothing?  Nope, bad design.)

 

If hostile to everything then enemies would attack each other so it could be a little bit better than the current version, but that is only a percentage of the results.  Running in a random direction is decent, some groups will hate it, but for someone soloing it lowers the amount of enemies at the moment.  Daze is a decent result but not as good as a hold. 

 

Currently, Confuse is a great single target hold for enemies that are alone.  This would really remove that useful, all be it cheesy use.  It would also remove the ability to Confuse enemies to have them buff you.

 

If this change is made, the xp penalty is mitigated a bit because they aren't doing as much damage nor are they as reliable damage dealers to their former allies.  Due to the unpredictability added in and the loss of utility, I would remove the xp decrease for damage they do.

The DnD 5e version sounds like a reasonable beginning point. Still, there's plenty to work through if the game has both confusion powers with probabilistic effects and mind control powers with predetermined effects. It would likely take a fair amount of testing to find a workable set of effects and probabilities, as well as a workable balance for the availability of confusion and mind control powers in powersets.

 

The key in-game benefits of this kind of rework would be a game that scales more easily and better to various difficulties (especially at the high end) and a richer set of controls available for the game. 

Edited July 15, 2022 by EnjoyTheJourney

[Andreah]

I think of the affected mob to have a list of possible targets in the area around them. Normally, they go down the list and pick one (e.g., we base this on aggro). I'd assign an aggro based chance to pick one based on relative aggro scores instead of always taking the very top one off the list. When confused, and confused to some degree, I would expect them to reduce the chance of picking a hostile, and instead pick a friendly. If there were no other friendly mobs around, they would of course pick a player to attack, and vice versa. But in a both-kinds-of-targets rich environment, being unable to establish who is a friend and who is a foe ought to produce mixed results.  And a means to do this in proportion to the degree of confusion instead of as an all or nothing "I only ever attack my enemies" vs. "I always attack my friends".

 

I mentioned this in the Advanced ITF thread, and I'll repeat it here. All other things being equal, I think the chance of attacking a friend instead of an enemy ought to be something like:

 

 chance = Clamp(0%, (Magnitude of Confusion - Confusion Protection)/ (Confusion Protection + 100%), 100%)

 

In a case where all we did was redirect off the normal target that would have been selected against aggro, then just roll against this and pick the nearest alternative if it fails.

[AgentForest]

My suggestion on another thread:

This may be a bit controversial, but I hate the implementation of Confuse in CoH.  I was one of the bug reporters responsible for a major fix in the original game's implementation (confusing a support enemy used to not make them cast support moves on your allies, like Tsoo Sorcerers who would keep healing other Tsoo when confused).  Luckily, they did address that issue.  I like the idea that it makes area moves hit both friend and foe alike.

However, it costs players experience points for doing their job.  That's just not an ideal feedback gameplay should provide players.  The problem is that if you just made all damage dealt by confused enemies count as player damage, the moves would be overpowered.  Mass Confusion could clear entire rooms by itself with no player input or skill required.  You could script a bot to just cast confusion moves from max range while farming AE missions and nobody wants that kind of automated grinding.

I feel like the best solution would be to reduce a Confused target's damage and healing by about half, then cause every power they activate to immediately be duplicated on a nearby target of the opposite faction.  Heal an ally, and an equivalent heal happens to an enemy.  Damage an enemy, and equivalent damage happens to an ally (counting as the confuse caster's damage).  It might be challenging to implement, but it would honestly help Confusion remain useful while eliminating many players' aversion to using it.  As it stands now, you trade experience for safety.  Some players will deliberately target confused enemies just to limit the amount of lost XP, and some only use confuse powers as panic moves to avoid a team wipe.  Both are problems for the current implementation.

People have made the point before that it's not a huge loss, as this chart shows, and while that's true, it still causes tensions in the community that don't really need to be there.

[AgentForest]

As for moves that control enemies completely, the best solution for that, as shown by a lot of balanced TTRPGs, is just... template summoning.  If I use a move to dominate an enemy, I should summon an AI pet of that faction.  Attempt a T9 Mind Control power on a Circle of Thorns enemy, and I should summon a Death Mage under my control that functions like any other Controller T9 pet.

Other effects of mind control could be more specific.  Halt as a single-target immobilize with psychic damage over time, replacing the useless Levitate power in Mind Control would be a great start.

Also, most control sets have some sort of niche passive effect, with Ice Control slowing enemies, Electric Control draining endurance, etc.  So you could just give Mind Control moves a chance to placate the enemy for a brief time.  Hypnosis and Mass Hypnosis having the ability to deflect enemy attention from the caster would be cool.

There could be a move called "Command Silence" that stops enemies in a large radius around you from communicating with each other, lowering their range, and the power of buffs, debuffs, heals, and control effects.

Being able to summon a stationary pet that deliberately tries to taunt enemies, sort of like how the Spectral Terror acts like a fear turret.

There's a lot that could be explored outside of the current implementations of Mind Control powers.

[Rudra]

47 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

As for moves that control enemies completely, the best solution for that, as shown by a lot of balanced TTRPGs, is just... template summoning.  If I use a move to dominate an enemy, I should summon an AI pet of that faction.  Attempt a T9 Mind Control power on a Circle of Thorns enemy, and I should summon a Death Mage under my control that functions like any other Controller T9 pet.

Seeing how that does not work in the instances that already do something similar, like Captain Castillo and Belladonna Vetrano, I would rather not.

 

47 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

Other effects of mind control could be more specific.  Halt as a single-target immobilize with psychic damage over time, replacing the useless Levitate power in Mind Control would be a great start.

Levitate isn't useless. First, unlike an immobilize, it can bring a flying target to the ground. Second, also unlike an immobilize, the target is knocked up and then then knocked down, forcing the target to have to wait until after the power finishes its full animation and then stand up before taking any further actions. (Edit: It is a Mag 12.463 Knock Up before any enhancements after all.)

 

47 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

There could be a move called "Command Silence" that stops enemies in a large radius around you from communicating with each other, lowering their range, and the power of buffs, debuffs, heals, and control effects.

Even if your character forced the enemy to be silent, they can still see you, their weapons are not suddenly sawed offs or other shortened versions, their blasts are not suddenly limited range versions, their buffs don't suddenly stop being effective and neither do their debuffs or heals or other control effects. So a "Command Silence" ability would be a truly useless power.

 

Please stop trying to change power sets to fit your preference instead of the theme the set already possesses. If you want a different mind control set? Propose a new power set with a different name.

Edited January 21 by Rudra

[Azari]

I wouldnt like to see mind control changed too much, especially since I spent about 2 billion inf building one.

[AgentForest]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Levitate isn't useless. First, unlike an immobilize, it can bring a flying target to the ground. Second, also unlike an immobilize, the target is knocked up and then then knocked down, forcing the target to have to wait until after the power finishes its full animation and then stand up before taking any further actions. (Edit: It is a Mag 12.463 Knock Up before any enhancements after all.)

Many immobilize moves can deactivate flight.  Web Grenade, Earth Control's Stone Prison, etc.  There's no reason a -Fly couldn't be applied to Halt, as it's specifically a mental command that someone stop their movement.  Deactivation of movement effects like Fly wouldn't be unreasonable.

As for the time spent not attacking, there are other aspects of the power set that could compensate for that.  I'm asking to improve many of the powers, not just replace Levitate in a bubble all by itself.  I'm talking about giving the entire power set a once-over like many of the defensive sets got when moved to Sentinels.  Or how Electric Blast got a redesign to give it better identity among blast sets.

[AgentForest]

1 hour ago, Azari said:

I wouldnt like to see mind control changed too much, especially since I spent about 2 billion inf building one.

By that logic, Homecoming should never update or fix anything ever.  That's unreasonable, and a tad selfish.  The game doesn't exist just for one player to pull sunken cost fallacies that stagnate the game's design philosophy two decades in the past.

Besides, even after a power set redesign, your character isn't deleted.  A respec is usually needed even if it didn't impact your build much.  That lets you collect any of the enhancements and sets you had that aren't really necessary anymore, and sell them for ones that would work in the redesign.  You haven't "lost" that money.  You just have to reinvest it.  This is a normal part of dealing with game updates.  I main Masterminds these days, and the changes to how their attack abilities impact the pets (granting Ninjas crit, etc.) made me have to respec half a dozen characters.  I didn't complain, or demand the changes get reverted.  I just adapted to the new changes, and my characters were far better for it in the long-run.

[AgentForest]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Even if your character forced the enemy to be silent, they can still see you, their weapons are not suddenly sawed offs or other shortened versions, their blasts are not suddenly limited range versions, their buffs don't suddenly stop being effective and neither do their debuffs or heals or other control effects. So a "Command Silence" ability would be a truly useless power.

 

So you suggest Taunt and Confront have their -Range effect retracted too?  There are so few powers with -Range effects, and I saw a good opportunity to expand that list.  Even if you leave it out, reduction to cooldowns, buffs, debuffs, heals, and control effects is huge.  If you don't think it is, I'm not really sure how experienced you are with this game's mechanics.  Power Build Up is massive when used before activating your party buffs or large scale enemy debuffs.  Weaken from the Poisons set is used to debuff these stats on enemies, not just damage reduction.  It ruins the effectiveness of literally anyone you shoot with it.  To the point where any shields a Ruin Mage is applying to allies are at 93% reduced effectiveness.  Most other buff effects are halved.  It's just objectively false to say that's negligible or useless.

So much of what enemies do is so much more than damage.  Often the hardest enemy groups to fight aren't hard because they have high damage, but because of the secondary effects of their abilities.  Tsoo Sorcerers are a great example of this.  Most of what they do is -ToHit, healing, and control effects.  They have almost no damage, but are the primary threat in most fights against a bunch of Tsoo mobs, to the point where players make a point of specifically taking them down first.  CoT Ruin Mages have tons of buffs and debuffs that make fights a nightmare too, and require players focusing them down.  Having a player in the party who can nullify a large portion of these issues while the threat is eliminated is impressive.

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

Many immobilize moves can deactivate flight.  Web Grenade, Earth Control's Stone Prison, etc.  There's no reason a -Fly couldn't be applied to Halt, as it's specifically a mental command that someone stop their movement.  Deactivation of movement effects like Fly wouldn't be unreasonable.

As for the time spent not attacking, there are other aspects of the power set that could compensate for that.

There are other aspects of the power set that can compensate? But the power itself is useless despite not needing other powers to compensate for it as is? Your argument is broken. Yes, there are immob's that have -Fly. None of them do anything to stop your enemies from attacking you though. Levitate knocks fliers to the ground and it prevents them from attacking until they get back on their feet. With a base 6 second recharge, it doesn't take much for that Mag 12.463 knock up effect to keep almost any target in the game unable to do anything but take damage while you keep slamming them into the ground.

 

17 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

I'm asking to improve many of the powers, not just replace Levitate in a bubble all by itself.  I'm talking about giving the entire power set a once-over like many of the defensive sets got when moved to Sentinels.  Or how Electric Blast got a redesign to give it better identity among blast sets.

 

2 hours ago, AgentForest said:

Other effects of mind control could be more specific.  Halt as a single-target immobilize with psychic damage over time, replacing the useless Levitate power in Mind Control would be a great start.

Levitate was the power you specifically called out as useless. And it obviously isn't. That is my point. That is my argument on that specific topic. Because a power does not fit your conception of what a set is supposed to be does not make the power useless. Especially one as useful as Levitate.

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Even if your character forced the enemy to be silent, they can still see you, their weapons are not suddenly sawed offs or other shortened versions, their blasts are not suddenly limited range versions, their buffs don't suddenly stop being effective and neither do their debuffs or heals or other control effects. So a "Command Silence" ability would be a truly useless power.

 

So you suggest Taunt and Confront have their -Range effect retracted too?  There are so few powers with -Range effects, and I saw a good opportunity to expand that list.  Even if you leave it out, reduction to cooldowns, buffs, debuffs, heals, and control effects is huge.  If you don't think it is, I'm not really sure how experienced you are with this game's mechanics.  Power Build Up is massive when used before activating your party buffs or large scale enemy debuffs.  Weaken from the Poisons set is used to debuff these stats on enemies, not just damage reduction.  It ruins the effectiveness of literally anyone you shoot with it.  To the point where any shields a Ruin Mage is applying to allies are at 93% reduced effectiveness.  Most other buff effects are halved.  It's just objectively false to say that's negligible or useless.

So much of what enemies do is so much more than damage.  Often the hardest enemy groups to fight aren't hard because they have high damage, but because of the secondary effects of their abilities.  Tsoo Sorcerers are a great example of this.  Most of what they do is -ToHit, healing, and control effects.  They have almost no damage, but are the primary threat in most fights against a bunch of Tsoo mobs, to the point where players make a point of specifically taking them down first.  CoT Ruin Mages have tons of buffs and debuffs that make fights a nightmare too, and require players focusing them down.  Having a player in the party who can nullify a large portion of these issues while the threat is eliminated is impressive.

No. My argument is that Command Silence, in commanding enemies to be silent, has zero mechanical effects. It would affect nothing at all. Like how the post you are quoting says, it "would be a truly useless power".

 

Edit: -Range makes targets move to you, it does not reduce their powers' ranges.

 

Edit again: And who is to say the Circle mages are even using incantations? They are multi-millennia old mages. Ancient mages and true masters, in both comics and fantasy, tend to no longer use incantations for their magic. It is second nature to them, an automatic channeling that can only really be prevented by preventing them from using motions to focus their magic. As for the Tsoo? They are more chi masters than mages. They even have Chi Masters as a mob type. So silencing them will do absolutely nothing to disrupt their abilities because they are manipulating their own chi, their allies' chi, and the flowing energy around them. No incantations required. Not affected by being silenced.

Edited January 21 by Rudra

[AgentForest]

17 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Levitate was the power you specifically called out as useless. And it obviously isn't. That is my point. That is my argument on that specific topic. Because a power does not fit your conception of what a set is supposed to be does not make the power useless. Especially one as useful as Levitate.

Funny how you keep bringing this up, but refuse to acknowledge how Gravity Control has literally the same move but better.  This was the crux of my argument, and you refuse to address it.  If you want to buff Levitate like Lift was, I'd argue it isn't just an inherently weaker power, but as it stands, it's largely useless.  Especially on a power set that has so few hard control moves to activate Containment reliably.  Levitate is Lift but worse, in a set with less ability to take advantage of what little it actually does offer.

[AgentForest]

19 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Edit: -Range makes targets move to you, it does not reduce their powers' ranges

No, range actually does reduce the range of powers.  Did you never notice this when inside an enemy's Hurricane???  Like, I thought everyone knew that.

[Rudra]

Just now, AgentForest said:

Funny how you keep bringing this up, but refuse to acknowledge how Gravity Control has literally the same move but better.  This was the crux of my argument, and you refuse to address it.  If you want to buff Levitate like Lift was, I'd argue it isn't just an inherently weaker power, but as it stands, it's largely useless.  Especially on a power set that has so few hard control moves to activate Containment reliably.  Levitate is Lift but worse, in a set with less ability to take advantage of what little it actually does offer.

I am neither refusing to acknowledge that nor am I arguing against it. My point is that Levitate is not a useless power. We would not even be having this discussion except for the fact you specifically called Levitate a useless power. (And then you comment how Lift is a good power despite being the exact same power, just a little more powerful.)

[Riverdusk]

2 hours ago, AgentForest said:

People have made the point before that it's not a huge loss, as this chart shows, and while that's true, it still causes tensions in the community that don't really need to be there.

 

 

Sounds like a lot of work for little payoff to me.   

 

I also take issue with your premise as it has been shown by several people testing it that it is not only not a huge loss, usually it is a net GAIN of xp over time as it stands now. 

 

I also have not noticed any "tensions" in the community about it.  I think in all my years of playing this game people have brought it up in teams maybe a handful of times, and without fail several other members of the team always chime in (and this is in pick up groups) that exact fact, that is a scaling xp loss and that over time it actually usually improves xp gain.   It is pretty well known how it works in this community I think and it is extremely rare people have an issue with it.

 

So, basically this seems like a 'solution' in search of a problem.

[Rudra]

7 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

No, range actually does reduce the range of powers.  Did you never notice this when inside an enemy's Hurricane???  Like, I thought everyone knew that.

Taunt has a -100% range strength effect. At -100% range, if it reduced the power's actual range, then melee characters would not be able to attack the Tanker at all. (Edit again: Neither would most ranged enemies.) Because they have no enhancements that can improve their range and a range of 0 cannot hit past the character itself. And yet? Mobs will still blast you or shoot you or debuff you as they move closer to you. Hurricane does not stop melee mobs from hitting you with melee attacks either. (Edit: What I notice inside the enemies' Hurricane? Is that -37.5% ToHit keeps me from landing my attacks until I get built up enough to counter it.)

 

Edited January 21 by Rudra
Edited to correct "Storm Defender" to "Tanker".

[AgentForest]

20 minutes ago, Rudra said:

No. My argument is that Command Silence, in commanding enemies to be silent, has zero mechanical effects. It would affect nothing at all. Like how the post you are quoting says, it "would be a truly useless power".

Now you're just nitpicking.  There are a lot of powers that in order to meet a particular goal, do things that don't mechanically sound like what you'd expect but create the same effect.

Slowed Response causes enemies to suffer defense and resistance debuffs.  How is it making their skin less hard just because they've been slowed down?  Because they wanted it to imply that you're making it harder for them to properly block moves, making it easier to hit weak points.  The best solution to that was a resistance debuff.  Even if it has nothing to do with slowing down time.

Likewise, if enemies weren't allowed to talk, it would limit their ability to coordinate their efforts, hence a weakening of their buffs, heals, debuffs, and control.  If I can't talk, leadership buffs, casting spells, shouting commands to inspire allies, knowing whose wounds need treated and applying my efforts in a timely fashion to those who need it would all suffer.  And it at least gives Mind Control something few other sets have.

[Rudra]

5 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

Slowed Response causes enemies to suffer defense and resistance debuffs.  How is it making their skin less hard just because they've been slowed down?  Because they wanted it to imply that you're making it harder for them to properly block moves, making it easier to hit weak points.  The best solution to that was a resistance debuff.  Even if it has nothing to do with slowing down time.

Precisely. The slowed character isn't less invulnerable, the slowed character can't protect their vital points as well any more or get out of the way as well. So they are easier to hit and hurt.

 

5 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

Likewise, if enemies weren't allowed to talk, it would limit their ability to coordinate their efforts, hence a weakening of their buffs, heals, debuffs, and control.  If I can't talk, leadership buffs, casting spells, shouting commands to inspire allies, knowing whose wounds need treated and applying my efforts in a timely fashion to those who need it would all suffer.  And it at least gives Mind Control something few other sets have.

The only thing I can see "Command Silence" doing is turning off any Leadership powers until it wore off. That's it. Simply because leading does require active coordinating and silencing the leader will prevent that. (Unless they have non-verbal communications available such as hand signs.) (Edit: Or if they were a team/unit that drilled and fougth together enough to no longer need verbal direction, which would also render silence useless against their teamwork and coordination. Like with Malta. Or the Tsoo.)

 

Edit again: Also, can we consolidate this discussion on 1 thread? This two separate thread discussion is frustrating.

Edited January 21 by Rudra

[AgentForest]

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Taunt has a -100% range strength effect. At -100% range, if it reduced the power's actual range, then melee characters would not be able to attack the Storm Defender at all. Because they have no enhancements that can improve their range and a range of 0 cannot hit past the character itself. And yet? Mobs will still blast you or shoot you or debuff you as they move closer to you. Hurricane does not stop melee mobs from hitting you with melee attacks either. (Edit: What I notice inside the enemies' Hurricane? Is that -37.5% ToHit keeps me from landing my attacks until I get built up enough to counter it.)

Taunt has a 75% range decrease.  This will cause them to move in far closer before firing, but since it doesn't hit ALL targets (it has a cap) some will shoot before running closer as is their normal AI.


Hurricane is 60%.  This will affect your ability to heal allies, cast taunt on the handful of enemies near your backline, ability to shoot ranged moves, etc.  The accuracy debuff may be a large portion of it, but it does impact your range, and that's actually a problem if range is something your character relies on.  Being unable to cast Cauterize Wounds because the Tsoo Sorcerer teleported up next to you and the tank is outside of your range is a thing that comes up at times.

[Rudra]

3 minutes ago, AgentForest said:

Taunt has a 75% range decrease.  This will cause them to move in far closer before firing, but since it doesn't hit ALL targets (it has a cap) some will shoot before running closer as is their normal AI.


Hurricane is 60%.  This will affect your ability to heal allies, cast taunt on the handful of enemies near your backline, ability to shoot ranged moves, etc.  The accuracy debuff may be a large portion of it, but it does impact your range, and that's actually a problem if range is something your character relies on.  Being unable to cast Cauterize Wounds because the Tsoo Sorcerer teleported up next to you and the tank is outside of your range is a thing that comes up at times.

Taunt is -100% range. Confront is -75% range. The mechanic for both is called taunt. Have a Tanker or Brute taunt any target. Watch that target still shoot them after taunting.

 

Edit: As for Hurricane? Mobs that enter or or otherwise in the Hurricane will cluster around your character. There is your -range component.

Edited January 21 by Rudra

[AgentForest]

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

The only thing I can see "Command Silence" doing is turning off any Leadership powers until it wore off. That's it. Simply because leading does require active coordinating and silencing the leader will prevent that. (Unless they have non-verbal communications available such as hand signs.) (Edit: Or if they were a team/unit that drilled and fougth together enough to no longer need verbal direction, which would also render silence useless against their teamwork and coordination. Like with Malta. Or the Tsoo.)

Even a trained unit needs communication.  That's just plain wrong, lol.  A combat medic can't know where to be to heal others if nobody is communicating a need for assistance.  Singling out a target enemy that you locked down doesn't happen if you can't communicate.  These are basic things most military folks understand well.  Your bullets may still hurt just as much as always, but your coordination (anything affecting your teammates) would suffer.  Hence the effect Foe(-Special).

[AgentForest]

2 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Taunt is -100% range. Confront is -75% range. The mechanic for both is called taunt. Have a Tanker or Brute taunt any target. Watch that target still shoot them after taunting.

That screenshot is from the up-to-date stats on the Tanker Taunt ability on Homecoming.

[Rudra]

Just now, AgentForest said:

Even a trained unit needs communication.  That's just plain wrong, lol.  A combat medic can't know where to be to heal others if nobody is communicating a need for assistance.  Singling out a target enemy that you locked down doesn't happen if you can't communicate.  These are basic things most military folks understand well.  Your bullets may still hurt just as much as always, but your coordination (anything affecting your teammates) would suffer.  Hence the effect Foe(-Special).

From personal experience, when something needs done and a team or unit has done it together often enough? Not a single word needs to be spoken. I have many times found myself accidentally coordinating my efforts with others on my team because we were all used to falling in and fulfilling specific objectives.