Tooltips and skill descriptions misrepresenting and lacking information

Dear developers,

I would like to point out a few things as a fairly new player to shroud of the avatar.
I really like this game and the immersive character building options it offers.
However I am finding more and more that the skill tooltips in the several skill trees do not correctly describe the skill and the stats it benefits from....
It makes this really hard for me to build a consistent character and I have had to contact many players to describe their experience with any skill before actually deciding to invest in it myself.

To clarify I will give you a few examples which you can test ingame yourself.

1) Air shield: No where in the tooltip does it say that air shield benefits from dexterity.... however with higher dexterity comes a lower transfer ratio on focus.... If you wish you can test this yourselves and you will see that the higher your dex the lower the transfer ratio on shield of air gets.

2)Stone arrow: The tooltip says that with specialization the cast time of stone arrow should go down.... however there is no such effect even with 110 specialization the skill stays on a 1 second cast time from an initial 1 second cooldown.

A very impacting bug that has not been fixed as far as I can see is the fact that the eagle eye skill in the bow tree still affects all other weapon trees.... As a result anyone running a polearm has fairly low normal damage but crits for insane amounts because the polearm crit increase and the bow crit increase stack.

Developers please allow for a greater sense of immersion by giving us the neccesarry information and giving us a clearer view on our character build------ for instance what is my crit-my rit amplifier-my resistance- this can all be included in the paperdoll and would be immensily helpful, make the tooltips and skill description more clear and accurate.

Ty in advance, a loyal fan and player

 

I strongly, Strongly, STRONGLY, S T R O N G L Y AGREE with this. This has been an issue from the beginning and not much has been done about it, where is the XP progress bar and the Skill progress bar ...

 

I don't think I have seen this issues on the bugforums @SerraVicta , maybe post your findings (bugs) there so the dev get to see them

 

This has been a pernicious issue from the beginning. I understand that maybe some of the executives want to "shroud" some of this information from the players because they think it helps maintain "immersion" but it has the inverse effect on me. When I can't see how a skill is benefitting me as I level it or if it is poorly worded and doesn't actually do what it says it breaks my immersion. Like how Purify Burst is supposed to "remove negative status" but negative statuses like evaporate aren't removed upon application of purify burst.

 

@Rentier is right, bug them please. Bugs in the bug forum (including typos) get fixed a lot faster than talking about bugs out here get fixed.

 

in the mouseover for that skill, there is a line at the bottom that says "required equipment: ranged". (this HAS happened in the past, with hard headed, but in that case the popover did not list the equipment and sure enough, it was not required.) ...so the fact that it is boosting melee AND ranged crit damage is irrelvant, because you have to be holding a bow for it to work.

 

Can anyone give an example of what an appropriate bug report would look like for this?

I have been attempting this myself but have not been able to come up with a solution

My first thought would be something like

Title: Making a build and successfully engaging in combat
Reproduction Rate: 100%
Blocker? Sometimes if I'm using a shield
Details: Does not appear to be working
Steps to Reproduce: Make a build, equip a weapon and hit attack
User Specs: a computer

But then I realize they probably need something a little more specific.

I could attempt to individually file a bug report for each skill, so on top of what the OP already mentioned, they would have a few 1000 pages to read through like

Chain Lightning Bug report threads 1-27

Stun doesn't work on mob A-Z
Damage doesn't work on mob A-Z
Hidden cooldown when dealt from deck
Tooltip does not display increased focus costs for leveling
How many mobs it chains to / Number of chains increased per level
Incorrect info on mob's stun debuff tooltip
Applying incorrect spell damage / crit / stats from X equipment
Execution time incorrectly increased / reduced by X skills
Incorrect increases to damage, stun chance, stun length from various stats / attunement
Imbalanced charge time
Casting interrupted while jumping
Fizzle rate reduced by level
etc etc

Aside from my DoS attack, not actually having any time left to play the game, etc,

I am sure this would help make some of the skills a little clearer,

But there would still appear to be some difficulty creating a build due to a bunch of other important hidden info like diminishing returns, caps, formulas relating to stats, increases from attunement and just a few dozen other examples that do not seem to fit in a bug report.

As well as some combat mechanics.


I am sure this can be easily fixed and the effort required will be well spent.

I greatly enjoy our combat system design and am glad we continually try to improve it rather than say just redesign it.

 

Casting interrupted while jumping I don't think is a bug, that way you can interrupt things on purpose. I think you're going to find several others you listed aren't bugs as well. Which ones does stun not work on? They may be immune. Others may be immune to damage from electricity as well. Yes, fizzle rate reduces by level. They aren't going to put that in every tooltip I'm sure, it would be redundant for an overarching rule.

If it's a tooltip suggestion (such as your Air Shield one for the first message) it should not go in a bug report, make a bullet point list (I'd suggest in a new thread) that is just your suggestions, here in the same subforum. Invite others to add their list, see if you can get one going that helps the Devs have a place to look to when they do a tooltip pass.

• Air Shield should indicate Dex boosts it
• Tooltip should display increased focus costs for leveling
• Etc

But for straight out bugs, here's one from your first post. This one is a bug for sure if you have tested that its tooltip doesn't match the result. Each report should be separate unless it's for the same tooltip. You could probably group several together if they are for the same skill, in one report. Make a bullet point list again.

First step is type /bug in your chat window so it makes the template for you. Then paste it in a new thread in the Combat section.

11/25/2018 22:58
Title: Stone Specialization doesn't decrease Stone Arrow cast time as tooltip says it should
Reproduction Rate: 100%
Blocker? No
Details: Stone arrow: The tooltip says that with specialization the cast time of stone arrow should go down.... however there is no such effect even with 110 specialization the skill stays on a 1 second cast time from an initial 1 second cooldown.
Steps to Reproduce: Raise your Stone Specialization, check that cast time hasn't decreased.
User Specs:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz (12) System RAM: 24411
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU RAM: 8079
SotA.Win.64.877.Date.11.20.18
Area: POT_mountain_metropolis_01_template/S Mart Factorium
Area Display Name: S Mart Factorium
Loc: (40.3, 78.3, -22.3)
Debug: UE9UX21vdW50YWluX21ldHJvcG9saXNfMDFfdGVtcGxhdGV8UyBNYXJ0IEZhY3Rvcml1bXwoNDAuMjY0LCA3OC4yOTQsIC0yMi4yNjcpfCgwLCAwLjY4MiwgMCwgLTAuNzMxKXw5OTMuNDAxOXw0My4yMzQxM3wyLjA5NjI5OQ==

At least one thing to watch out for when chasing bugs in combat is that your Strength and Dex fluctuate with the day/night. Watch out for that, I've reported bugs about suddenly becoming encumbered only to have it revealed that it was turning into night time, and thus I was getting weaker.

Thanks for helping out! It's satisfying to have your stuff fixed, but don't think it will all happen at once. Patience and keep submitting.

 

instrument artifacts have no description at all

 

I wonder if we should just use this as a model for all skills.

You would still get

New players that can't make a build
Experienced players requiring more info so they can make builds properly
And more than half the playerbase running around clueless

Could spend all that extra time and effort making nunchucks or something

 

I got feedback on a post of mine I would be the Master of sarcasm, honestly I tried to be ironic
However, the title of Master of sarcasm is given to you