Ion Gas Cylinder - Showing the Brokenness [Video]

[exphryl]

EDIT: As Of 1.2 This Still is Not Fixed and NOT Addressed

 

Ion Gas Cylinder Potentially NOT Working As Intended?

 

So I wanted to actually test this out since a lot of the consensus I read in regards to this skill is is "Well armor mitigates Energy damage so that's probably why".

 

Video link:

 

I recently received a Relic from HM.KP, Energy Surge Device, that causes 224 Energy Damage per hit. I figured this would be an easy way to test Ion's Energy damage as I hear a lot of people say it is so low due to armor mitigation. Tooltip at the time on my Ion was 609 Damage.

 

http://www.torhead.com/item/6zN0SeL/energy-surge-device

Equip: Damaging attacks have a 30% chance to deal 224 additional energy damage to the target. This effect can only occur once every 4.5 seconds, and shares this limit with similar damage-dealing effects.

 

Energy Surge Device: (224 - Energy Damage Tooltip Before Mitigation)

- 168 Damage a Hit, 294 Damage a Crit

Ion Gas Cylinder (609 - Energy Damage Tooltip Before Mitigation)

- 152 Damage a Hit, 267 Damage a Crit

 

As you can see either A) Ion values are not matching the tooltip due to a coding error or B) Tooltip is wrong. Either way something isn't right with this ability and it being our core base tanking ability I feel it should be addressed.

 

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No Gear Values:

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With 0 Gear, minus the unmodded Legendary Blaster (Which I am keeping for coolness factor), the tooltip for Ion Gas Cylinder is at 171 Damage (This is without talents from Shield Tech tree)

 

Normal hits: 46

Critical Hits: 68.

 

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Vanguard Equivalent (Ion cell) Suffers Same issue.

 

Some clarification, I humbly request from the community managers that browse the forums, would be greatly appreciated since it's *the* core tanking skill for our specs.

 

Note: I'll gather Data at the lower levels also to make sure it's not just a 50 thing. None of our lowbie PTs have been on today. Will Update when they do.

Edited May 5, 2012 by exphryl

[JobuNabidabi]

There is a single hit proc, and DoT as well. Maybe you are confusing the two.

[exphryl]

There is a single hit proc, and DoT as well. Maybe you are confusing the two.

 

No. I'm not. As I was not spec'd in to the DoT talent. The damage shown was the direct hit amount as supposidly listed on the tooltip.

[Gnugthreeonefive]

Good work.

[Mapex]

We have to figure out whether the ability is at fault or the tool tip is misleading.

 

We need to run the same tests at different ranks and on the Vanguard before we can conclude that the entire ability is broken.

[exphryl]

As far as I'm aware, least from what was said before, the Vanguard's equivalent is working properly. However, would be nice if one chimed in to give some clarification.

 

Just to add (I'll update original post as well), to make sure it wasn't a tooltip error in the sense my gear was inflating a value on it.

 

With 0 Gear, minus the unmodded Legendary Blaster (Which I am keeping for coolness factor), the tooltip for Ion Gas Cylinder is at 171 Damage (This is without talents from Shield Tech tree)

 

Normal hits: 46

Critical Hits: 68.

 

I threw up a post on the Vanguard forums to see if they hve the same issue

Edited February 21, 2012 by exphryl

[Picpoc]

Just confirming the Vanguard version Ion Cell also does not work correctly. The actual damage does not match the tooltip and is as far off as you have stated for Powerguard.

[glenbruton]

Solid work OP. Kudos.

[AetherMcLoud]

Well "at least" the trooper version is also broken... http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=318592

[Hadlis]

Cool story....good use of color in post...nice find...I"m having a hard time imagining a dev thinking the damage output of a powertech is low though

 

I'm sure they are aware of it and just havn't gotten around to fixing the tooltip to match their intentions.

 

Either way nice work!

[Stonewall_Jack]

 

I am also quite sure that the shock duration is not 9 sec (if you got the entire tree) if you got the shield tech spec it seems more like 3 sec in pvp and vs pve.

 

Besides this the DOT never seems to proc. If you use rocket punch you see the ion cell damage, but never the DOT.

 

This is what ion cell should do:

base damage + crit chance

bonus damage (15% chance)

 

Boosted with skill tree;

50% slow for 2 sec (as IGC does damage!)

100% chance to shock target for additional energy damage in form of a DOT for 6 sec. 100% chance to proc when the ion cell procs (15%).

25% boost do base damage and +3 sec to shock duration

 

I can tell you that I have never seen the DOT work like how other DOTS seem to work in this game (every few sec you get damage).

 

It should be ion cell damage (+ % crit) + (% bonus) + (% 9 sec DOT) so in total 3 numbers should pop up and 1 number should pop up multiple times over time. The slow for 50% and 2 sec does seem to work, but only during the initial proc. From experience right after the slow is gone (2 sec) the shock animation drops too (hence suspect only 3 sec and no dot).

 

If the description of neural overload is to believed Ion Cell Damage gives a 50% slow. This also is an indication the Dot does not work correctly as there is no slow when the ion cell still does damage… maybe because there is no DOT or another tooltip is wrong? I do not know if you have the DOT in your tree in this video, but I get similar results.

 

Rocket punch only gives me 2 numbers max, who else is experiencing these issues? Having very “short” slows and no DOT popping up? Is it just me that has this broken? Maybe I should fraps some rocket punches, but 1st to get a YouTube account and fraps….. –meh-

 

Not that I think our class is bad, but boosting rail loaders and adding no escape seems to actually do something and I feel 3/4 points are wasted in my tree as they do not deliver what they say they do.

 

 

Edit: ignore my old in spoiler tag post, I did some testing.

 

Ok the shock is applied for the full 9 sec and only will go of 1 more time (or numbers pop up) the slow does not reapply only during the initial proc it is applied. I think this is somewhat against the description.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Stonewall_Jack

[exphryl]

 

Ok the shock is applied for the full 9 sec and only will go of 1 more time (or numbers pop up) the slow does not reapply only during the initial proc it is applied. I think this is somewhat against the description.

 

Yeah, the Text is a bit misleading (similar to Vent Heat issue with Kolto in AP). Although it would be awesome to have that talent due a perma snare from the Ion dot damage

[Mazdryk]

I have reported this atleast 25 times in Beta. The developers are being lazy and not fixing this.

[Sandzibar]

It probably likely that the tooltips havent been adjusted after a beta nerf?.. after the biochem rakata nerf, those items are still displaying the much higher old values.

 

nice work on the video btw.

Edited February 23, 2012 by Sandzibar

[DannyAndersen]

Nice find!

 

Let's hope they notice this post.

[ModExtir]

Was testing this out on my own before I hit google, and I can indeed confirm that it hits for around 1/3ish of its advertised dmg. Also when i was experimenting with the dot it activated 3 times (once every 3 seconds) and activated it's animation for 2 seconds along with it. The tool tip stated 497 dmg so with an established 20% reduction I assumed It should hit for 398 dmg. Surprisingly the proc hit for a pitiful 140 but I noticed that the dot was hitting way harder than it should.

 

For me vs random mob with approx 20% resist

Proc: 398(advert-20%) 140(actual)

Dots: 142(advert-20%) 252(actual)

------------

total: 540(advert-20%) 392(actual)

 

 

If I were to point fingers I might guess that the skills [tier 2:Ion overload] and [tier 4:"supercharged Ion Blaster] might not add additional damage at all, but rather the skills convert a portion of the abilities damage into a dot or the tooltip calculates the dot and the proc together. If you consider the dot as part of the main ability it it comes out to 398(advert-20%) and 392(actual) which is well with in the margin of error for my methods.

 

 

TLDR

 

The tooltip for Ion gas cylinder counts the dot and proc dmg together.

Would need further testing to confirm.

Edited February 26, 2012 by ModExtir

[ModExtir]

In order to test it I should respec out of the tier 4 upgrade and record the dmg value in the tooltip and for the dot. Then respec again removing the tier 2 upgrades and if the tooltip for ion changes by the amount the dot adds then it should settle rule out or confirm the possibility that it counts the dot? right?

[exphryl]

In order to test it I should respec out of the tier 4 upgrade and record the dmg value in the tooltip and for the dot. Then respec again removing the tier 2 upgrades and if the tooltip for ion changes by the amount the dot adds then it should settle rule out or confirm the possibility that it counts the dot? right?

 

My test was in Pyro Spec, so there were 0 Talents affecting the Cylinder. No Dot, No Increase, No Nothing.

[MotorCityMan]

Shield works for melee and ranged attacks. Shield has no effect on force or tech attacks.

[MotorCityMan]

Should have added, criticals cannot be shielded either.

[MotorCityMan]

Misread the orginal post. I see he was talking about Ion shield dmg. That needs looking into obviously.

[MaxDeeps]

I did some testing on this today. I dueled a guildie who was naked so he had 0% damage reduction against the energy damage IGC does. I did not have the Supercharged Ion Gas or Prototype Cylinders talents (+25% and 8% IGC damage respectively). I did have Ion Overload, but that talent does not seem to affect the initial damage done by IGC (as far as I could tell from testing). That talent adds a DoT to IGC, it does not convert IGC into a DoT.

 

Keep in mind IGC is not like most abilities in that it does not have a damage range but rather a set damage number for when it procs. With my current gear the tooltip for IGC says it should've done 534 damage on proc. In my test it only did 176.

 

I also did another test where my target had his gear on. In this test he had 19.77% energy damage reduction. On this test my IGC did 146 each time. That's not a perfect 19.77% drop in damage but I noticed after the fact that in between the duels he (a Sorc) had buffed us so I had slightly more Aim on the second test. That fudged the symmetry of the numbers a tad, but the point is still there.

 

IGC should've done 534 damage but only did 176. That's a pretty substantial difference, only about one-third of the damage it was supposed to be doing.

 

IGC is either seriously broken or it was intentionally heavily nerfed at some point by BW and the tooltip was never updated. The latter is definitely a possibility but I think the former is more likely.

Edited March 8, 2012 by MaxDeeps

[frmorrison]

Here is the text from Torhead:

 

Loads your blaster with ion-charged gas, giving ranged attacks a 15% chance to deal 253 additional energy damage.

 

That is based on a level 50 with green gear, so if the OP's tooltip says 500ish damage then the tooltip is broken.

 

Anyway, spam Taunt if you are having threat issues.

[verfallen]

Here is the text from Torhead:

 

Loads your blaster with ion-charged gas, giving ranged attacks a 15% chance to deal 253 additional energy damage.

 

That is based on a level 50 with green gear, so if the OP's tooltip says 500ish damage then the tooltip is broken.

 

Anyway, spam Taunt if you are having threat issues.

 

Always felt like the damage was correct on rocket punch, but I'll check more closely.

 

However, I do hope a level 50 in green gear beats a level 29 in moddable blue/purple.

 

Tooltip is at 269 for me.

[Moosimoo]

Anyway, spam Taunt if you are having threat issues.

 

I know you know this, but its not ideal, as Taunt is there in case some dumb-*** DPS pull aggro BH's often have threat issues especially with AOE, so maybe these findings could be the cause.