[Fixed 69142] Ranged Combat Skill Modifiers Have No Effect

05/23/2021 00:30
Title: Ranged Combat Skill Modifers Have No Effect
Reproduction Rate: 100%
Blocker? No
Details: This was discovered while testing the new Imbued Ranged Combat gems on QA, though the problem is deeper than that, and is currently on the live server. The combat gems and Seared Marlin Steak food (+10 Ranged Combat) were tested and do not add to damage dealt. The testing methodology was as follows:

Two Long Bows were purchased from a Weapons Merchant NPC and one was socketed with 2x Ranged Combat Gems, the other left unmodified. Autoattacks under similar buff conditions were carried out on a practice dummy until the average damage per hit (as reported by OCX Tools lua plugin, written by Feldon Grimshaw) settled to a consistent number. The results were as follows:



Confirmation on live was in the form of attacking a dummy with and without the Seared Marlin Steak food on, as it's the only Ranged Combat modifier I'm aware of. It should be noted that the "RangedAttackBonus" entry in /stats does change appropriately with the buffs, and reports "20" when 2x Ranged Combat Gems are equipped. A similar test was conducted with a pair of NPC maces and the Imbued Bludgeon Combat gems, and they appear to be working as expected. I've yet to test any Bladed Combat or Polearms Combat modifiers, and have not tested the Bludgeon Combat food.

Steps to Reproduce:
User Specs:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2643 v3 @ 3.40GHz (12) System RAM: 32670
GPU: Radeon RX 580 Series GPU RAM: 8171
SotA.QA.Win.64.1198.Date.05.21.21
Area: POT_grassland_metropolis_01a_template/Arlia
Area Display Name: Arlia
Loc: (242.8, 44.5, -156.2)
Debug: UE9UX2dyYXNzbGFuZF9tZXRyb3BvbGlzXzAxYV90ZW1wbGF0ZXxBcmxpYXwoMjQyLjc3OSwgNDQuNTQsIC0xNTYuMjE3KXwoMCwgLTAuNzExLCAwLCAwLjcwNCl8LTg3LjMzMjd8MzQuOTQ4MDJ8MS4yNQ==

 

@Chris verified this

 

@Chris
There was a similar bug report on Live for Polearm combat skill -- I originally had it marked 'as designed', but changed it to match the Patch Pending in this thread after discussing with Alley oop. Just want to confirm this fix will apply to other combat glyphs for the skill besides auto-attack and I <assume?> charged attack?

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...crease-polearm-skills-damage-tooltips.168514/

 

@Chris @Ravalox

Thank you for looking into this! I've not done exhaustive testing, but I've not been able to find a situation where the Ranged/Polearms/Bludgeon/Bladed Combat skill affects glyph attack damage. Recently I've tested Thrust and Crushing Blow specifically, and anecdotally I've found the Polearms Combat skill to make no real difference to DPS in poles builds that do not charge/autoattack.

My assumption was that this is by design, but if base combat skills affecting glyph attacks is re-introduced it seems likely to have a very dramatic effect on DPS of physical classes. How big of a factor is this skill intended to be in glyph damage? This seems likely to undo a lot of the balance work that was recently accomplished, especially as it pertains to archers who on Thursday will already see a large DPS increase in some builds, not least from the very powerful rapid fire jewels.

 

Tested this patch on QA Build 1199 and it seems that both the Imbued Ranged Combat gems and the Seared Marlin Steak food are now working as intended!

 

Do they affect charged shots as well, or just auto attack?

 

Both