Combat Awareness confusion

I think that one thing that needs some work is combat awareness... the mechanic is confusing as to what will process and what will not, and why.

Any chance for straightening it out?

 

Gattling Gun.

 

It should damage the CA champion, is this the case?

 

it shouldn't, but it does.

 

You can think that misfire randomly selects a target and then damages that champion it previously selected.

 

its one of those abilities i feel like i have to keep reminding myself of everything it counters

 

I've had pleeeenty of times where Combat Awareness has not worked as described. I've lost count of the number and nature of bugs with this stupid ability.

 

Certainly an option, and it might be better than trying to fix it.

 

And reminding myself of everything that it doesn't counter. That's my issue: it counters things it shouldn't and doesn't counter things it should based on the vagueness of the flavor text.

UD fonts cause damage? Ambush causes damage? Acidic/Static/Sonic greeting don't cause damage but they DO cause the effect (cursed, confused), and if there's a DoT then the DoT processes even if the initiating damage does not... Fire/Stone/Frost traps trigger but cause no damage... poison trap triggers and DOES cause damage and DoT. No AOE's work, except poison cloud. Some AOE cause no damage, but DO impart an effect. Some AOE cause no damage and DO NOT impart an effect.

Srsly, wtf???

 

Gatling Gun chooses a target, it is (should be) countered by Impen. The weird thing is that it can choose stealthed targets, which I do not know how it does that (well, yes, I get how it does it coding wise, but I am not convinced that it SHOULD do that).

UD font damage, poison fumes, fire wall (caused by trail: Fire wall, firey ambush and the other spell that makes a diamond) are all terrain modifications, not AOE damage and therefore are not stopped by CA.

 

UD fonts, lava fall, lava storm, fiery ambush as terrain effects I can justify.

Acidic/Sonic/Spark greeting? Or the bloodied/rend greeting from a couple of the UD champs? Imparting conditions even when no damage processes? It's not that I think it should NOT be so -- that is a subject for the game designers and decision makers about balance. The issue is explaining why/how certain effects and certain parts of effects are chosen to process as opposed to others...

 

The only thing that can be said is that those things are hard to understand. Combat awareness protects you from damage that is not targeted, that's it. It does not protect you from the application of conditions. The reason many conditions are not applied, charred from firebomb for example, is because those conditions require the damage to activate.

Greetings do not target champions, but CA is not protecting you from condition application. In Sonic greeting, you get the distract but not the 5 damage. The condition (distract) is not dependent on the damage.

IIRC, bloodied is coded as a Loss of Life effect, and therefore goes through CA since CA doesn't protect against LOL. The successful application of bloodied is the prerequisite of the rend condition, so when the application of bloodied is successful, rend is applied (unless physical immunity is present).


So, Combat Awareness is (a little more) simple when you consider two things:
1) Non-targeted damage is prevented.
2) The only conditions that can be applied to a CA unit must either be targeted, or from area/global effects that are not immediately damaging or when the application of the condition does not have a damage prerequisite.

A related issue would be the openents ability to target stealthed units via relic and deployment processes and whether or not this is a good interaction.

 

Thanks, Baskit... Again, I want to stress that I am not objecting to these things processing (otherwise, CA champs should be MUCH more expensive!!), I am objecting to the confusing wording/explanation/description of the condition application vs damage application, global targeted vs global not targets, AOE damage vs AOE terrain vs AOE condition... perhaps spells should have a class modifier that clearly delineates those characteristics?

I.E. Thorn Collection is straight up AOE-Damage, with damage determining nora benefit; whereas Nature's Wrath is AOE-Damage, with 0-Def condition applied if damage is done... vs Soften: AOE-condition (ability), or Fiery Ambush: AOE-terrain... or something

 

I hear ya. I was responding in general to the idea of a confusing mechanic with an attempt at clarity.

The descriptions in this game are in great need of review and revision.

 

+1

 

I know that hive goes through it.

And I think the distract from Sonic Greeting applies but not the dmg, and I think the scoured from Acid Greeting applies, but I'm 100% certain of the acid greeting as I haven't run something with that in a while.

 

• If it is an effect that targets a single unit, it will hit CA (example: Attack:X, Flamestrike.)
• If it is an effect that damages units in an area, it will not hit CA. (AOE spells, Ping).
• If it is a condition (applies an icon or ability to champion) that is part of an area of effect or global interaction and requires damage to apply it will not hit CA (example: char from firebomb, scoured from scouring jasper).
• If it is a condition (applies an icon or ability to champion) that is part of a targeted ability, area of effect or global interaction ant does not require damage it will hit CA (example: Sonic greeting distracts but does not damage, Earthshaker does not damage but applies lumbering, sickened effect from hive but no physical damage).
• If the damage is from terrain or a terrain effect it will hit CA.

I noted one inconsistency I the jasper and hive. Originally the Jasper's deploy damage was bypassing CA, was noted and after fixing, neither dmg or condition were applied so I believe that in this case jasper is the non-WAI.

If there are other inconsistencies, they should be noted as well so we can explain how they are WAI or pass them up to the devs for decision/adjustment.

 

You have several incorrect statements in that post. I'd delete it if I were you.

 

Just adds to the confusion if anyone who is looking for answers reads your post.

UD bonus is terrain dmg, TLC causes dmg which is different from damage resulting from an attack, hive and scour gem both interact with CA differently so one must be non-WAI since both have the same language (...and becomes poisoned/scoured iirc), and your gatling comments become even more off base since you are deriving them from "logic" from a tainted source and mentioning relics as evidence who both have different interactions.

I'm not trying to be rude, and this mechanic is certainly deserving of confusion, just trying to keep it clear.

 

If I had to pick an ability that's the most confusing, I would pick combat awareness. Dispel and Soulstrike are close, but not quite as confusing. (For conditions, I would pick Pacified.)

 

aura's do not hit a CA champ (If it is an effect that damages units in an area, it will not hit CA. (AOE spells, Ping). I forget this often.