issue 27 Patch Notes for February 20th, 2024 - Issue 27, Page 7

[Luminara]

18 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

That also suggests the patch might technically be a buff to Bonfire's KB rate if  you're not slotting it with a KB>KD IO... (140% KB chance every 2s vs 120% KB chance every 1s?)

 

The only thing the number above 100% does is create the KD chance when the ReduceIfKD flag is active.  The game ignores it if a KB->KD IO isn't slotted.

[Captain Powerhouse]

6 hours ago, Uun said:

BTW, it appears that they attached this tag to other powers not mentioned in the patch notes, including Force Field/Repulsion Field, Kinetics/Repel, Storm/Tornado, Storm Blast/Jet Stream and Singularity/Repel

 

This is how KB2KD have worked since live. Every power that could repeatedly apply Knockback (to create area of denial fields) that accepted KB2KD were set to 110% chance and the KB2KD enhancements would lower this to 10%.

[Maelwys]

12 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

The only thing the number above 100% does is create the KD chance when the ReduceIfKD flag is active.  The game ignores it if a KB->KD IO isn't slotted.

Aye I suspected 100% or more is treated as "guaranteed"... but we've seen cases in the past where anything over a 'cap' acts as a buffer vs reductions/debuffs/etc.
(Which I suppose is exactly what's happening here; since the ReduceIfKD flag is coded as a reduction. Hopefully that's the only negative value that ever gets applied against PowerChanceMod!)

So now that we've pinned down more of the mechanics... checking the various boost effects; I'm still unsure why I wasn't observing any noticable difference in slotting Bonfire with an Overwhelming Force proc versus a Sudden Acceleration proc. Both should trigger the same ReduceIfKD behaviour resulting in the same base KD effect in Bonfire/Repel/Whirlwind/etc... but there should also have been an *additional* "2.5PPM chance for KD" occurring with the OF Proc.
My PPM calculator suggests that with the new 15ft Radius of Epic Pool Bonfire's Pseudopet; the OF Proc ought to have resulted in my MM gaining an extra 15.5% chance for a KD to actually kick in upon casting of Bonfire + every 10s thereafter; and then throwing in a Ragnarok 'Chance for KD' Proc (3.5PPM) should have likewise resulted in an extra 21.71% chance for additional floppery. But in reality I wasn't seeing any noteworthy increase in KDs occurring at all. (OK, so at the time of testing there'd only have been 3 opportunities for any additional KDs to occur during Bonfire's then-30-second duration... but I'd at least have expect to have consistently observed a few more foes getting immediately knocked on their posteriors upon casting! Weird.)
Annihilation "Chance for -res" procs are definitely kicking in however; so I'm guessing this behaviour is a side effect of the way all that ReduceIfKD fudgery combines with regular "KD PPM" activations.
 
 

Edited February 26 by Maelwys

[TygerDarkstorm]

On 2/25/2024 at 5:54 AM, DrunkFlux said:

Finally got around to fighting the new council, I liked the galaxy ones but I hated the dark eclipse archons, they res and the holds from my ice powers weren't working half the time, and it seemed like they had an auto-hit attack, died twice in one mission on 8x+3 solo (though the game put +4's and those were the ones that defeated me.) on effectively the same mob.  On a toon with every IO with as much defense as I could stack in every category, barrier, Inner will ect and still said blaster couldn't keep alive effectively.  I ended up putting in an extra kb protection IO before continuing.  Maybe I should have tested this all on beta or something.

 

An auto hit attack.....that hits hard as heck.  RIP defense users I guess.

 

The other things I liked, I also fought the CoT 8x+2 solo, they seemed a lot more fun as I simply had to react and watch that I was attacking the right mobs.  Though it wa sa cave and the mobs were rather scattered, though I don't try to fight in tar patches/quakes ect either.  Honestly they seem to be likely easier simply due to not having auto-hit abilities.  I like they got equivilants of Ruin, Madness and Agony mages(and nice touch with the huge explode power on near defeat, make me keep a distance).

 

CoT = fun to fight again(so far anyways), mobs debuff/cc patches is a nice touch so far as it can be moved out of(or teleport out of if immobed/slowed ect), I can react to them and they react to me, its fun.
Council = Why do they have to have an auto-hit attack?  Wasn't it bad enough Ralaruu had auto-hit mobs in abundance?  I mean do we really want them to be ludicrously hard now I dunno, I wasn't having fun fighting council once I moved from +2 to +3(and the game tossed +4's at me).  Simply the fact that the vampire archons are always going to turn into super warwolves(all of them in the entire map did this to me by the way), and seem to have extra high resistance to holds and can auto-hit occasionally before they turn, not very soloable anymore unless your stacked with dark resists.  At least, thats how I'm left feeling about it anyways.  I felt like it was all luck in the end and keeping a distance from the enemies so they don't auto-hit on me.

I'm just going to mention that you will see +4's even on a +3 setting; that's how the game works, even when you play at +0. At +0 some enemies will con even to you, and some will con one level over you. That doesn't change just because you upped the difficulty settings.

[Display Name]

On 2/21/2024 at 6:01 PM, Display Name said:

I have an Illusion/Kinetic Controller and changed her Tough (Fighting) power effect to "Flex" because...  Boobies.  Anyway, her body has a glow while flexing which disappears soon after the power is activated.  My other toons don't seem to do this.  It seemed to start happening after the patch.

 

Is this a setting?  Or something unique to my power combo/AT?

 

Or maybe it's...  (dun, dun DUN!!!) ...a glitch?  🙂

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: I reloaded the toon and it doesn't do it anymore.

 

EDIT, EDIT: It does it when I switch the Sybil costume.

I think I figured this out.  For some reason, the costume slot for my Sybil costume had a Glow aura enabled.  I think it's because my initial costume for my recent toons were designed with the random feature.

[RainbowBryte]

dear Devs... THANK YOU!

I'm only able to pop on here and there (real life is real right now)... but it's just so wonderful knowing that the game isn't just a copy of what was, but a growing, evolving experience.   Your tireless effort does not go unnoticed.    

❤️


thank you

[c0]

Trying to understand Arsenal Control on Dominator.. it seems Sleep Grenade, Tear Gar, and Smoke Cannister only have a 25% chance of proccing double mag during domination.  Is that intended?  I've only played fire dom before, and all the crowd control there is 100% double mag during domination.  What does Arsenal get "in return" for reduced crowd control?

[Wavicle]

36 minutes ago, c0 said:

Trying to understand Arsenal Control on Dominator.. it seems Sleep Grenade, Tear Gar, and Smoke Cannister only have a 25% chance of proccing double mag during domination.  Is that intended?  I've only played fire dom before, and all the crowd control there is 100% double mag during domination.  What does Arsenal get "in return" for reduced crowd control?

Those are all patches that get multiple chances per cast. The fire control abilities all have only 1 chance each.

[BlackSpectre]

• Quote

  Team member selection bindings moved to Shift+F1 - Shift+F8.

• However, when the keybinds are reset (with with the options window button or the /unbind_all slash command) the team member selection bindings are set to Shift+1-Shift+8

 

P.S. Oh! This is due to the Keybind Profile setting being set to Classic. Got it. 

Edited February 28 by BlackSpectre
typo

[WindDemon21]

Popping in more on the mind control changes. Telekinesis still definitely needs a recharge reduction so it can be used every mob, especially since the recharge doesn't start until the power toggles off. I don't suppose the range of the repel could be separate from the range of activating the power so the repel doesn't happen until maybe like 20 feet not 50? This way it's not pushing them away from you when you're just trying to get closer to the mob or position around them unless you actually want them moved then you just go closer.

 

On updates to mind control too you still need to move Dominate to tier 2 and same with the gravity distortion in grav. Lift having the same animation also needs the 1.03s cast not 1.87s.

 

Edit: Just saw the patch notes for today, 90s is still too long on telekinesis since the timer doesn't start counting down until after the power is toggled off. I'd say 60s would the bare minimum needed for the power to function properly each mob, but 45s would be more appropriate.

Edited February 27 by WindDemon21

[Techwright]

On 2/21/2024 at 2:49 PM, Acrizer said:

"Silent Sentinel - Moved from Atlas Park to Echo: Atlas Park (-608, 70, -1890)"

 

 As the Gargoyle (beta and about half the live servers) referred to in this badge, it's sad to see it shifted off to an echo but I'm thankful it's still "archived" in this way. :salute:

 

Not to pick a fight, but why were Silent Sentinel and Rookie badges switched?

[GM Impervium]

5 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

Not to pick a fight, but why were Silent Sentinel and Rookie badges switched?

 

As part of our "New Player Experience" initiative, we wanted Hero players to pop an Exploration badge just after leaving the tutorial, which happens on redside and goldside. And "Rookie" seemed like a fine thematic choice to bring into mainline Atlas.

 

As for Silent Sentinel, it was returned to its original location in the Echo version of AP, correcting the long-standing misplacement.

[Number Six]

4 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Not to pick a fight, but why were Silent Sentinel and Rookie badges switched?

 

Rookie is for parity with Villain and Praetorian starting areas, which have an exploration badge out in the open and likely to be accidentally stumbled into by new players, cluing them in that exploration badges are a thing that exists.

 

I believe Silent Sentinel was chosen as the one to swap so that it could be moved back to its original location, before the Atlas Park changes from Issue 21. Undefeated is the other badge that was moved to a different building then, but Silent Sentinel's new location was a completely different style of building that didn't fit as well with Gargoyle.

[Number Six]

Aaaand Impervium beat me by about 2 seconds!

[WindDemon21]

3 minutes ago, Number Six said:

Aaaand Impervium beat me about about 2 seconds!

slowpoke XD

[Bionic_Flea]

24 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

Not to pick a fight, but why were Silent Sentinel and Rookie badges switched?

 

14 minutes ago, Number Six said:

Aaaand Impervium beat me by about 2 seconds!

 

[Wavicle]

2 hours ago, Number Six said:

 

Rookie is for parity with Villain and Praetorian starting areas, which have an exploration badge out in the open and likely to be accidentally stumbled into by new players, cluing them in that exploration badges are a thing that exists.

 

I believe Silent Sentinel was chosen as the one to swap so that it could be moved back to its original location, before the Atlas Park changes from Issue 21. Undefeated is the other badge that was moved to a different building then, but Silent Sentinel's new location was a completely different style of building that didn't fit as well with Gargoyle.

I think maybe you put Rookie in the wrong spot though. It should probably be at the top of the steps, so you get it WHILE walking towards Ms. Liberty.

Edited February 27 by Wavicle

[DrunkFlux]

On 2/26/2024 at 5:28 AM, TygerDarkstorm said:

I'm just going to mention that you will see +4's even on a +3 setting; that's how the game works, even when you play at +0. At +0 some enemies will con even to you, and some will con one level over you. That doesn't change just because you upped the difficulty settings.

I know I'll see +4's on the game when you set at +3.  Didn't need to reply to that on this, I only mentioned +4's spawning to also include that I also got a taste of what they'd be like on +4 so people wouldn't assume that I couldn't handle them at +3, it was +4 that gave me trouble on the blaster.

 

My stalker handled the new council relatively easy compared to my ice blaster, in fact she managed to clear the map faster than the ice blaster simply due to having far superior single-target DPS, as thats what you need to deal with the dark warwolfs, they are so tanky that the AoE power advantage blasters have is completely negated, and the blasters having lower ST than scrappers and stalkers ultimately causes them to fall behind the stalker I had (who to be fair had decent AoE as a Dual blades stalker).  This was including the +4's that are in the map.

[DrunkFlux]

On 2/25/2024 at 1:43 PM, Maelwys said:

Which would imply very little has actually changed in terms of the average number of times a foe will find itself knocked on its back over the duration of a bonfire patch... which is in line with my testing! 🍻
It also helps explain some of the disgruntled Fire Controller/Dominator comments we've been seeing here since there'd now be a halved chance for Bonfire to immediately KD a group of Foes upon casting (albeit a much better chance for it to snag a foe that enters the patch for less than 2 seconds!). However 1 second after that initial spike it immediately evens out; and if anything the Knockdown rate over time has become a bit less streaky.

Factoring in the Activation Rate definitely looks like what I was missing above; since Whirlwind and Repel both have an activation rate of 0.5s to Bonfire's 1s.
That also suggests the patch might technically be a buff to Bonfire's KB rate if  you're not slotting it with a KB>KD IO... (140% KB chance every 2s vs 120% KB chance every 1s?)

...I'm still annoyed about the reduced radius in the Epic Pool version of Bonfire, but at least they're reverting the duration nerf (hurrah!) and testing has proven that I can get largely the same effect as before by simply casting Fireball (albeit slotted with Ragnarok and Superior Frozen Blast Procs...) more often! 🤣 
 

 

.2 * 2 isn't actually 40%, thats a gamblers falacy.  Its more like 36%.  (you calculate the chance of it NOT happening first, so .8 * .8 = .64, you take that and subtract it from 1 and thats your actual percentage, even then it'll be significantly more unreliable).  Even so, odds are it'll probably still be useful for zoning them a little on my water blaster when I get around to her.

[Number Six]

On 2/25/2024 at 3:56 PM, Luminara said:

ReduceIfKB was created in the SCoRE era.

 

Sort of, the original version of it was called SummerIO and it nerfed the Bonfire and Tornado tick rates when the Overwhelming Force: KB to KD unique enhancement was slotted, using the same globalchacemod method. That was before the Sudden Acceleration set existed, of course.

[Riverdusk]

• Patron > Leviathan Mastery > Water Spout (Scrapper/Stalker) - Now accepts Pet sets, no longer accepts Ranged AoE Sets

 

Noticed on my current scrapper this actually doesn't seem to be the case?  Or does it only take affect on an old character if I try to respec?  When I hover over it the tooltip also still says ranged AoE as the set allowed, not pet.

 

Not that I'm complaining, have the 5 piece Ragnarok set in it right now, so making it a pet set would be a downgrade honestly.  Just curious.

 

Edit:  Just auto leveled a brand new scrapper on Brainstorm to test and it also is still only allowing Ranged AoE in Water spout.  Slotted an air burst IO to test.

 

Edited February 28 by Riverdusk

[Maelwys]

12 hours ago, DrunkFlux said:

 

.2 * 2 isn't actually 40%, thats a gamblers falacy.  Its more like 36%.  (you calculate the chance of it NOT happening first, so .8 * .8 = .64, you take that and subtract it from 1 and thats your actual percentage, even then it'll be significantly more unreliable).  

True, but in this case it's not a binary 1/0 thing - the get-knocked-on-my-ass-and-stand-back-up-again animation refreshes every time a knockdown occurs; and you'll inevitibly encounter situations where no extra procs kick in during that animation time and a foe manages to fully stand back up again... but the next chance to perform a knockdown isn't due to occur for another X seconds. So "less frequent but more likely" actually ends up being more spikey/unreliable versus "more frequent but less likely".

[WindDemon21]

17 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

• Patron > Leviathan Mastery > Water Spout (Scrapper/Stalker) - Now accepts Pet sets, no longer accepts Ranged AoE Sets

 

Noticed on my current scrapper this actually doesn't seem to be the case?  Or does it only take affect on an old character if I try to respec?  When I hover over it the tooltip also still says ranged AoE as the set allowed, not pet.

 

Not that I'm complaining, have the 5 piece Ragnarok set in it right now, so making it a pet set would be a downgrade honestly.  Just curious.

 

Edit:  Just auto leveled a brand new scrapper on Brainstorm to test and it also is still only allowing Ranged AoE in Water spout.  Slotted an air burst IO to test.

 

SHHHHH! FYI i assume they kept the ranged aoe cause it having pet sets would just suck.

[Shae3per]

I was so use to where the exploration badges were, now some have been moved and from what I am being told but not in anything I have read that there are ten in each zone now? How to locate them without uncovering every inch of the map?

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, Shae3per said:

I was so use to where the exploration badges were, now some have been moved and from what I am being told but not in anything I have read that there are ten in each zone now? How to locate them without uncovering every inch of the map?

As far as I know, only one badge has moved from Atlas to Echo Atlas, and one badge has moved from Echo Atlas to Atlas.

 

There are still only eight in each zone.

 

you now need to get 10 total in order to unlock the long range teleporter, but there are not 10 in each zone. You will have to go to at least one more zone to get the long range teleporter.

Edited February 28 by Wavicle