Controller Retaliation

[JCServant]

Salutations. I’ve been running my Dominator again after being away from the game for a little over a year and I’ve noticed a consistent behavior change that I don’t remember from before. When I use a control power on an enemy, the effect does not seem to take hold immediately. There is a noticeable delay of a second or two where the target is still able to act, often long enough to retaliate and land an attack before the control actually applies. This happens often enough that it feels systemic rather than situational. I’m trying to determine whether this was introduced in a patch sometime over the last year and a half, and if so, what the design reason was behind it, because it significantly changes how Dominator control feels in close-range or reactive situations.

[Techwright]

Do you have this delay on any other character you play (not necessarily a dominator)?  I'm only asking to eliminate the possibility of ISP and transmittal speeds.  I had an issue not unlike that in years past, and it was related to some sort mess-up by my cable company that another technician discovered.  Probably not it, but figured I'd at least point it out for consideration.

[JCServant]

So, I had it happen quite a bit on my Psychic Stalker using Boggle.  However, to your point, I tried a controller and it doesn't happen. Also, my psychic dominator doesn't seem to have an issue either. It may be a sparadic type of bug.

[JCServant]

In some more tests, I see it happen to various degrees on some characters, not others, lending me to believe it might be a bug.  I'll post the info there 🙂

[srmalloy]

3 hours ago, JCServant said:

When I use a control power on an enemy, the effect does not seem to take hold immediately. There is a noticeable delay of a second or two where the target is still able to act, often long enough to retaliate and land an attack before the control actually applies.

This can be an artifact of interruptible powers being rare in the game, with many powers that are interruptible for players not being interruptible for NPCs. Remember that aggro happens entirely on the server, so if your target notices you and has even .00001 second to respond, they can start an attack with a two-second animation, and it will still go off regardless of what your attack does to them. I've been running missions in DA where an Elder of Sorrow started their Mournful Blast (the one with the snipe-like animation) with my attack already on its way, hit and defeated them, and had their attack fire from the corpse. Similarly, I've been in stealth, fired an attack that defeated my target, and became the stealth drops when I attack, they have the fraction of a second to aggro and shoot back, even if they are defeated before their animation finishes. 

[Coyote]

It's also possible that it's a lag issue.

It's also possible that it's a set issue... Symphony Control, for example, seems to have a lag in its effects, while Blind from Illusion takes effect immediately.