Arctic Air and Fear
By
Fleeting Whisper,
Posted on: 2009-08-21 11:08 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
I think the "fear" effect in AA is different from the actual Fear that causes the mob to stop attacking (basically a Sleep effect).
I am not really sure if you can enhance that "fear, run away" effect. I think the duration is 3-4s and that's it.
The Fear set in AA just means you can slot more proc damage. In fact, I don't think Controller can slot fear set in AA? Controller can only put Slow and Confuse sets.
Some of the sets allowed in some powers make no sense at all. I've been pointing out for a long time that Oni can take knockback set but Oni has ZERO knockback! Give Oni Immb or Hold set!
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
It's terminological confusion, even among the game's text.
The Fear enhancements enhance an effect called "Terrorize" which causes the "cowering with a skull image over the face" effect.
Arctic Air's descriptions say "fear", but it's really an "avoid" effect like Caltrops.
That doesn't mean it's bad -- the foes trying to run out are not shooting you and they're waaaaaay slowed down. AA is good mitigation once slotted up. But it's not a "terrorize" effect.
The game text is similarly sloppy about stun/disorient and particularly immobilize/root (also used for power animations that prevent movement)/snare.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
There are three status effects which the game sometimes calls "fear":
- Avoid
- Afraid
- Terrorize
Powers like Rain of Fire and Sleet have Avoid effects, and NPCs will try to stay out of the area.
Burn, Caltrops, and Arctic Air (among others) have Afraid effects. NPCs under the influence of Afraid will try to run away. In practice, Avoid and Afraid are very similar, but they are different effects in the game. Neither Avoid nor Afraid do anything to players in PvP, and neither produces a visible effect on its own.
Terrorize is the status effect that players know of as Fear. It's what Fear enhancements act on, and it produces the familiar skull/cower effect. Players and NPCs under the effect of Terrorize can only act in response to damage, and are limited to a maximum of one action per 5 seconds.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
So, slotting up my dom today, I noticed that Arctic Air takes fear IOs/sets. I looked at the power info, and sure enough...
50.00% chance for 3.00 magnitude fear on target
30.00% chance for 3.00 magnitude confuse on target after 1.00s delay
But I've never seen an enemy in Arctic Air stop to cower, nor have I seen fear graphics on them. This isn't really conclusive, though, since I've never seen confuse graphics on enemies in it either, and I know that that works.
The information above doesn't list any durations, so out of curiosity, I dragged a confuse DO and a fear DO over the power.
confuse
Base Value: 2.48s
Value: 2.48s (+0.0%)
Replace: 2.89s (+16.7%)
Fear Duration
Base Value:
Value: +0.0%
Replace: +16.7%
So, Fear lists no duration. Between that and the fact that I've never seen an enemy cower inside AA, I'm guessing that the fear effect on it is just referring to the general 'oh no, it's cold! Run away!' effect, since fear is also listed on powers like Tornado and Water Spout... but those can't be enhanced for fear.
So, I guess what I'm curious is, does anybody have any idea what a fear enhancement placed in here does? Is it a bug that they're allowed? If not, do enemies actually cower and I just haven't noticed it, or does it enhance how long they spend running away?
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.