Change to how "Slow Resistance" works?

[RikOz]

I've no idea how doable this is, but ...

 

I've been looking at the Slow Resistance granted by a couple of the Winter IO sets (and possibly some other sets that I can't think of right now), and have noticed that this "resistance" takes the form of "reduced duration". IMO, reduced duration is not especially helpful in this case.

 

Reduced duration makes perfect sense for resistance to status effects like Hold, Immobilize, Sleep, etc. Effects that completely stop you from moving or, in every case except Immobilize, attacking or performing other actions.

 

Slow, however, does not seem to be classed as a status effect. At least my characters who have a secondary PS toggle that protects against status effects don't seem to resist Slows any better than my characters without such protection.

 

The reason I say Reduced Duration is unhelpful/useless against Slows is the fact that, when in a mission that has enemies with Slow attacks, those enemies appear one after another after another after another. In other words, having the Slow wear off faster is not at all helpful when the effect is almost immediately applied again by one of the mobs in the very next spawn you encounter. The best example of this is the Tsoo Blue Ink Men. Those guys are usually the majority of enemy mobs, often 2-3 per spawn. Not to mention that, in non-cave missions, spawns are typically so close together that the Slow effect, even when reduced in duration, does not have time to actually wear off before you encounter the next spawn.

 

I would suggest that Slow Resistance would be much more useful if, rather than reducing duration, it would reduce the percentage by which the player is Slowed. The same way Damage Resistance reduces the amount of damage you take from an attack. And, particularly at level 50, where one encounters most of these Blue Ink Men, Slowing me still doesn't stop me from defeating every mob with two or three punches. Making the mission as a whole take twice as long is literally the only practical effect these Slows have. You can't even head-canon the idea that slowing the player down gives the bad guy more time to complete his dastardly deed, or at least make an escape, because (nearly) every every mission has you arriving "in the nick of time" anyway, regardless of how long it takes you to get there.

 

Reducing duration is also useless against Slow effects like Caltrops, since the effect immediately ends when you move out of the caltrops' AoE anyway.

 

I'll end by saying I do greatly appreciate the change from a few patches back that made it so the Blue Ink Men's Slow attack no longer stacks when hit with it multiple times.

[Luminara]

49 minutes ago, RikOz said:

I've been looking at the Slow Resistance granted by a couple of the Winter IO sets (and possibly some other sets that I can't think of right now), and have noticed that this "resistance" takes the form of "reduced duration". IMO, reduced duration is not especially helpful in this case.

 

No.  Slow Resistance reduces the strength of the Slow used against you, not the duration.  Slow durations aren't variable on any power in the game.

[RikOz]

40 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

No.  Slow Resistance reduces the strength of the Slow used against you, not the duration.  Slow durations aren't variable on any power in the game.

Huh. Logged in a couple characters to re-read these set bonuses, as well as the "proc" IO in the Winter travel set, and am now completely baffled as to how I came to the conclusion I did. I was absolutely positive that at least one of those descriptions said it reduced the duration.

 

That's it. My brain has officially stopped working.