Does anyone know if Dark Mastery: Possess is supposed to massively debuff yourself?

[ViciousCabaret]

See topic. Because according to the detailed power info (and Combat Attributes), it does. In addition to the confuse and -tohit on the target, the player gets slapped with a -30% Power Boost-type effect, and -30% to all damage.

It goes on like that for a while, rendering the power more harmful than helpful.

Edited March 10 by ViciousCabaret

[Uun]

That's supposed to be applied to the target, not to you. It was introduced in the 3/5 patch.

• Epic > Dark Mastery > Posses: Power can now stack with itself, now also apply a -special effect to confused targets

If it's being applied to you, it's a bug.

[ViciousCabaret]

All right, thank you. I'll test it further to make sure it's not just a display error and report once that's complete.

Edited March 10 by ViciousCabaret

[Major_Decoy]

Is it possible that it grants a power to the target causing them to debuff themselves and that's why it says "on self"?

[ViciousCabaret]

It's possible that was the intent, but I tested and it does in fact reduce the player's damage. Combat Attributes also reflected the negative Power Boost effect, though I didn't test those specifically.

[bAss_ackwards]

Maybe we're all confused at how its supposed to work.

[Ukase]

I never have grasped why these descriptions are worded so strangely; it's almost like their own version of legalese. 

It should say something like "reduces target's damage resistance" or "reduces casting player's damage resistance"...something along those lines where there's no mystery. 

I mean "-30% strength to smashing damage for 30s on self" is vague, and nebulous. Of course, we've come to expect this from the dark, right? 
Does it mean the damage from the critter's attack on the casting player is reduced by 30%? Or does it mean the player's smashing damage output is reduced? 

I can't imagine how this translates into other languages for our players. Maybe we're seeing the translated version from another language? I dunno. Or maybe I just need to work on reading comprehension. 

[Snarky]

It is supposed to be a ranged power that does a  Confuse and applies a tohit debuff.  Where is all this other stuff even coming from???

[Uun]

The power was changed in the 3/5 patch: "Power can now stack with itself, now also apply a -special effect to confused targets." Clearly the intent was to debuff the target, not the caster.

[schrodingercat]

this explains why i was having so much trouble soloing all of the sudden!!!! It was the last power I took and I couldn't figure out why one minute I am rocking along and the next I am eating floor sandwiches

Edited March 13 by schrodingercat