Hello Kingsisle and fellow wizards. I've noticed that several AOE damage spells are very inconsistent. The damage dealt on each enemy can be different even though there's no boost/resist or wards/traps. I believe this bug came into the game simultaneously with the sped up AOE animations.
I suspect this could be due to the enemy blocking critical. In which case please bring back the critical block animation as we cannot tell the difference anymore.
You're sort of right that it's that the enemies are secretly blocking your criticals, but technically it's because you didn't crit on those specific enemies. When the Crit system was last changed, AoE spells now attempt to crit once on each enemy. Enemies who appear to have secretly blocked your crit actually weren't crit on at all.
This is despite the animation of the spell telling you that you got a crit. This has confused a multitude of people, so much that this is one of the most reported issues on these forums. And while it is technically not broken, it would be great if KI went back over the visuals of criticals to explicitly tell you that certain enemies weren't crit on.
Hello Kingsisle and fellow wizards. I've noticed that several AOE damage spells are very inconsistent. The damage dealt on each enemy can be different even though there's no boost/resist or wards/traps. I believe this bug came into the game simultaneously with the sped up AOE animations.
I suspect this could be due to the enemy blocking critical. In which case please bring back the critical block animation as we cannot tell the difference anymore.
I hope this will be looked into, Sincerely Lail.
This is not a bug. Most enemies starting in the second arc have different amounts of critical block rating, which, alongside with the chance to completely nullify a critical hit, also reduces the damage of a critical hit if not entirely blocked.
If you hover over an attack card, you can see how much damage a critical hit will do by looking under the enemies' combat display.
This is not a bug. Most enemies starting in the second arc have different amounts of critical block rating, which, alongside with the chance to completely nullify a critical hit, also reduces the damage of a critical hit if not entirely blocked.
If you hover over an attack card, you can see how much damage a critical hit will do by looking under the enemies' combat display.
It's a design flaw. This issue was brought up before the change went to live realm and periodically and consistently is brought up on the forums and social media. Your explanation is technically correct, but the issue is that there is no visual indicator to show this is what's happening. To the player it just looks like you randomly are not doing the appropriate damage that you should be when you critical. There was talk of including some sort of visual indicator, but I haven't heard anything about it in a while. A related bug (and actual bug) is that the spells Vengeance and Shadow Trickster now do nothing-nothing. This was also noted before Critical changes went to live realm and hopefully it too will be addressed one day (and hopefully soon.)
There needs to be a visual indicator to distinguish a "crit fail" and a "crit block" when there is a critical hit taking place. It would be less confusing for players to have this metric otherwise it just looks like you are randomly not criting on an enemy.
I don't even need an indicator that my crit failed, but I would like to have one to know when my spell was blocked by the enemy. It's frustrating in some cases to do the math and think you're going to hit for a certain amount of damage with your AOE, and then realize that your spell was blocked by the guy you're facing, without any explanation whatsoever. I mean, obviously it didn't do full damage, so it was blocked - but I guess I don't understand why it was taken out of the game in the first place. So, I agree with those that have said that we need some sort of indicator that our crit was blocked. That would be really helpful in battles, and it would help us re-strategize our decks in some cases if we had to fight the same guy again.
It's a design flaw. This issue was brought up before the change went to live realm and periodically and consistently is brought up on the forums and social media. Your explanation is technically correct, but the issue is that there is no visual indicator to show this is what's happening. To the player it just looks like you randomly are not doing the appropriate damage that you should be when you critical. There was talk of including some sort of visual indicator, but I haven't heard anything about it in a while. A related bug (and actual bug) is that the spells Vengeance and Shadow Trickster now do nothing-nothing. This was also noted before Critical changes went to live realm and hopefully it too will be addressed one day (and hopefully soon.)
There needs to be a visual indicator to distinguish a "crit fail" and a "crit block" when there is a critical hit taking place. It would be less confusing for players to have this metric otherwise it just looks like you are randomly not criting on an enemy.
Having a "Critical Hit", "Critical Miss", and "Critical Block" indicator would be lovely. It can be done similarly to how the Pierce-Resist indicator works.
I wouldn't say Vengence and Shadow Trickster do nothing, its just that for a hit with 95% critical rate another 20-60% is literally 5%. Vengence is fine the way it is as if your critical rate is around that range, you will be securing the 1.4-1.5x damage (unless blocked) compared to having a chance to lose 33% of your maximum damage. The problem for both of them is not the spell itself, but situation in which you would need to use it.
For Vengence, it is better to use a damage aura as you can deal 1.2-1.4x damage along with the chance of critical damage. Even if you don't critical you are now only losing 0-20% of your maximum damage with about a 60-80% critical rate. So really there is no case you would need to use the current Vengence over another aura.
For Shadow Trickster, the situation is even worse. If your critical rate is so low that you need an additional 60% critical rate, then that means your critical damage is VERY low. To waste a Shadow Pip and 10%+ of your MaxHP just to not lose a 17-25% of you maximum damage is horrendous compared to a single blade/trap which will have the same effect.
Easy Solution Players Will Love-Hate
Extend the Critical Rate scaling so that we will have a lesser Critical Rate for the same Critical Rating.
Shrink the Block Rate scaling so that we will have a better Block Rate for the same Block Rating.
Raise the minimum Critical Damage so that landing a 10% chance gives more than ~1.08x damage. Depending on balance, you could even raise the maximum to above x2 damage.
In essence, you want to have a low Critical Rate vs a high Block Rate in order to deal a high Critical Multiplier. Vengence and Trickster would be used to deal that sweet extra damage while Conviction and Sentinel would be used to reduce/negate that extra damage.
I think a (potentially) simple solution to this would be to add a "Critical!" message above enemies' heads when the spell hits, as you would see with a " Boost," etc.
Having a "Critical Hit", "Critical Miss", and "Critical Block" indicator would be lovely. It can be done similarly to how the Pierce-Resist indicator works.
I wouldn't say Vengence and Shadow Trickster do nothing, its just that for a hit with 95% critical rate another 20-60% is literally 5%. Vengence is fine the way it is as if your critical rate is around that range, you will be securing the 1.4-1.5x damage (unless blocked) compared to having a chance to lose 33% of your maximum damage. The problem for both of them is not the spell itself, but situation in which you would need to use it.
For Vengence, it is better to use a damage aura as you can deal 1.2-1.4x damage along with the chance of critical damage. Even if you don't critical you are now only losing 0-20% of your maximum damage with about a 60-80% critical rate. So really there is no case you would need to use the current Vengence over another aura.
For Shadow Trickster, the situation is even worse. If your critical rate is so low that you need an additional 60% critical rate, then that means your critical damage is VERY low. To waste a Shadow Pip and 10%+ of your MaxHP just to not lose a 17-25% of you maximum damage is horrendous compared to a single blade/trap which will have the same effect.
Easy Solution Players Will Love-Hate
Extend the Critical Rate scaling so that we will have a lesser Critical Rate for the same Critical Rating.
Shrink the Block Rate scaling so that we will have a better Block Rate for the same Block Rating.
Raise the minimum Critical Damage so that landing a 10% chance gives more than ~1.08x damage. Depending on balance, you could even raise the maximum to above x2 damage.
In essence, you want to have a low Critical Rate vs a high Block Rate in order to deal a high Critical Multiplier. Vengence and Trickster would be used to deal that sweet extra damage while Conviction and Sentinel would be used to reduce/negate that extra damage.
Hi John,
Vengeance and Shadow Trickster do nothing. Casting Vengeance has no affect on your critical multiplier nor the critical chance according to the UI. I just verified this now.
I agree that it would be nice if they boosted your multiplier as well as it would make those spells more viable.
Vengeance and Shadow Trickster do nothing. Casting Vengeance has no affect on your critical multiplier nor the critical chance according to the UI. I just verified this now.
I agree that it would be nice if they boosted your multiplier as well as it would make those spells more viable.
Hello Exp,
Vengeance and Shadow Trickster do affect critical chance, however you are correct that they do not affect the UI. This is because the UI only shows the base stats which is derived strictly from your Critical Rating and the target's Block Rating capping at 95% Critical Rate. Thus Vengeance, Conviction, the Mirage Auras, Ion Wind, and Shadow Trickster will not affect the UI but can push the total over 95%.
A test you can do is have 0 Critical Rating (UI won't show tho), use the Critical/Pierce global (+20 rate), use Vengence (+20 Rate), and use Shadow Trickster (+60 rate). You will now have 105% critical rate and will critical a hit, however since you have 0 Critical Rating you will deal x1 damage if the opponent has any Block Rating, otherwise you will deal x2 damage.
Vengeance and Shadow Trickster do affect critical chance, however you are correct that they do not affect the UI. This is because the UI only shows the base stats which is derived strictly from your Critical Rating and the target's Block Rating capping at 95% Critical Rate. Thus Vengeance, Conviction, the Mirage Auras, Ion Wind, and Shadow Trickster will not affect the UI but can push the total over 95%.
A test you can do is have 0 Critical Rating (UI won't show tho), use the Critical/Pierce global (+20 rate), use Vengence (+20 Rate), and use Shadow Trickster (+60 rate). You will now have 105% critical rate and will critical a hit, however since you have 0 Critical Rating you will deal x1 damage if the opponent has any Block Rating, otherwise you will deal x2 damage.
Hi John,
That is gross and a shame that the UI isn't working in the way it should. I still agree with your first post that there needs to be some improvements. It sounds like there needs to be improvements to the UI as well.
Have you done that experiment you described then? I also wonder if you had an item like a pet with universal crit so you only get 1 critical point if the UI would show. If memory serves the new system is kind of broken at the lower levels (though perhaps in a good way) in that you only need a solitary critical point and then your critical chance is automatically equal to your level. So at level 48, with a single critical you have a 48% chance.
That is gross and a shame that the UI isn't working in the way it should. I still agree with your first post that there needs to be some improvements. It sounds like there needs to be improvements to the UI as well.
Have you done that experiment you described then? I also wonder if you had an item like a pet with universal crit so you only get 1 critical point if the UI would show. If memory serves the new system is kind of broken at the lower levels (though perhaps in a good way) in that you only need a solitary critical point and then your critical chance is automatically equal to your level. So at level 48, with a single critical you have a 48% chance.
Idk.
Yes, I have done the experiment before and did it again before posting to verify it was still possible.
Also yes, having just 1 Critical Rating will bring up the UI. I imagine they did this so that new players, aka 0 Critical Rating, don't have a UI constantly saying "YOU'RE CRITICAL DAMAGE IS TRASH!" for 50 or so levels XD.
Though I have to say critical balance for low levels (PvE) is done well and fair. My first pet happened to get all 4 critical rating talents (100+ rating), but I only had a decent chance to critical throughout the worlds which I did not mind.
Boost," etc.
pet happened to get all 4 critical rating talents (100+ rating), but I only had a decent chance to critical throughout the worlds which I did not mind.