Update 9 - Combat Revisions
Update 9 - Combat Revisions
By: Jared "Kelsan" Pruett
Interrupt Revision
Goals
- Unify functionality of interruption across all facets of the game.
- Convert interrupts into a mechanic that forces players to react/adjust to the event.
- Encourage more strategic/coordinated use of interrupts in both PvE and PvMP.
What is an interrupt?
An interrupt is specifically a skill that says “Interrupts Inductions” in its tooltip. Other ways of canceling an induction (ex Crowd Control, movement) are not impacted by this change.
How are interrupts changing?
In regards to PvE encounters, nothing has changed functionally. When an AI induction ends (intentionally or forcibly) the skill goes on its full cooldown (ignoring the 4s disable).
In regards to PvMP and Sparring, instead of simply cancelling the targeted induction, but allowing the skill to immediately be recast, interrupts will now cancel the induction and disable the interrupted skill for 4s. This forces the defender to make immediate adjustments and opens a window of opportunity for the attacker to alter the pace of combat.
To encourage more coordinated use of interrupts in PvE encounters and to prevent a single class from chain interrupting in PvMP and sparring, interrupt skills with cooldowns shorter than 10s have been increased. We’ve heard concerns that increased cooldowns may cause problems in PvE encounters when skills fail to connect, but with the adjustments made to Miss Chance and Deflections, we feel interrupts are going to be significantly more reliable than before.
Why are you changing this?
We wanted more parity between how interrupts work when used against NPC Monsters and Players. This allows both devs and players to force their targets to alter their strategies and creates a more interesting combat experience.
Additionally, we want interrupts to be something used at key moments, not just another rotation filler that must be used at all times when fighting an induction based target.
How does this impact me?
NPC Monsters
Landscape and Instance combat may be a little more complex as interrupts will cause more immediate panic. To ensure this is not overwhelming or abused we have adjusted many monsters so that they will generally not hit a player with an interrupt more than once every 15-20s.
As we go forward we will make alterations to monster AI should we find situations where chain-interrupts are frequently occurring.
Interrupt Skills
- Several alterations have been made to Player and Monster Player interrupt skills (note, skills not listed have not been modified):
Burglar
- Addled cooldown has been increased from 15s to 20s.
Champion
- Clobber cooldown has been increased from 5s to 10s
Hunter
- Blindside cooldown has been reduced from 20s to 12s.
Warden
- Boot, Onslaught, and Wall of Steel no longer interrupt inductions.
- A new skill has been added to the Warden's rotation to provide them with a non-gambit based interrupt: "Shield-slam". This skill unlocks at level 15 and has a 15s cooldown.
Reaver
- Gut Punch cooldown reduced from 15s to 10s.
Warleader
- Fracture cooldown increased from 10s to 15s.
- Brawler Stance now reduces Fracture cooldown by 5s.
Stalker
- Pounce and Sudden Pounce cooldowns increased from 10s to 15s.
- Raking Claw Brute effect has been replaced with a 50% Induction Duration debuff.
Critical Defence Revision
Goals
Maintain the purpose and value of Critical Defence (protection against spike damage) while making Critical Hits and mechanics associated with them more reliable.
What changed?
Instead of reducing Critical Hit chance, Critical Defence will now reduce the magnitude of incoming critical damage.
How does it work?
Once a hit has been determined to be a Critical or Devastating Critical Hit a multiplier is applied to the attack giving it the bonus damage. Critical Defence directly reduces this multiplier, causing a Critical or Devastating Hit to do less damage. The multiplier can never be reduced below 1, ensuring that a Critical or Devastating Hit will never do less than the base attack damage.
It’s important to note that between the base critical multiplier value and additional critical damage mods acquired via advancement and itemization it is unlikely that a player who builds for Critical Hits will see their critical damage completely negated.
Why make the change?
Critical Defence was performing its role too well. While providing protection against Critical Hits, it was also functionally disabling a fun mechanic and limiting the potential for designing reliable mechanics that utilize Critical Hits and Effects.
By making this change, we can maintain protections against spike damage, while increasing the reliability of Critical mechanics.
Miss Chance Revision
Goals
Reduce binary combat checks to make skill plays more reliable/rewarding
What changed?
Base Miss Chance has been reduced to 0.
What does this mean?
Simply stated, your Ranged and Melee (tactical never miss already) skills will not miss, unless your Miss Chance has been increased by an external source (debuff). As such, Agility will no longer reduce Miss Chance and classes that previously itemized it specifically for that reason will no longer need to do so.
What about those odd Misses I get when fighting a higher level mob?
Funny story… those “Misses” that seemed to happen more frequently as you fought mobs that were higher level than you were never actually “Misses”. They are in-fact a unique check made by mobs of greater level to see if they can negate incoming attacks. They were erroneously labeled as “Misses,” which lead to confusion as no amount of Agility or Reduced Miss Chance would alter the probability of these of events.
While looking into the naming of this event, we also took some time to analyze its purpose and impact on encounters. We discovered that the check was adding an undesired level of frustration to encounters by reducing the reliability of vital skill plays (ex. Interrupts & corruption removal).
To rectify these situations we have made the following changes:
- These events are now called “Deflections”.
- “Deflection” checks are only made when fighting a mob that is 4+ levels higher.
These changes should provide players with more accurate feedback and allow for more reliable combat interactions within encounters.
Due to this change, the following have been altered:
Champion
- Deadly Storm 2-set bonus no longer reduces AoE Miss Chance.
Burglar
- Hidden Dagger trait no longer reduces Miss Chance.
Hunter
- Precision Stance no longer reduces Miss Chance.
- Swords now grant increased Parry Chance instead of reduced Miss Chance