Saber Storm talent is bugged (cause and fix identified within)

[LagunaD]

I was testing and parsing on the training dummy, and comparing with a combat simulation I wrote.

 

My Combat Sentinel has a critical multiplier of 77.2%. I also have the Combat talent which is supposed to increase Ataru Form critical damage by 30%. So my critical multiplier for Ataru Form should be 107.2% (i.e. an Ataru critical hit should do 207.2% of normal damage).

 

This does not appear to be working properly.

 

On the training dummy, in hundreds of Ataru attacks, my non-critical damage ranges from 302-341, or 321.5 average. My average tooltip damage for Ataru is 494.5. This is perfectly consistent with the 35% damage mitigation of the dummy:

 

321.5/494.5 = 0.650

 

(Note: I did NOT use Precision Slash at all during these tests).

 

My critical Ataru attacks during this same set of parses ranged from 535-605, or 570 average.

 

Obviously 570 is not 207% of 321.5. In fact, it is 177.3% of 321.5, which is EXACTLY my critical multiplier, WITHOUT the 30% bonus which is supposed to come from Saber Storm.

 

It seems clear that Saber Storm is NOT increasing the critical multiplier of Ataru Form.

 

Looking at the client files shows that this is a legacy of the change in update 1.2 which made Ataru attacks melee-based instead of force-based: the Saber Storm talent is still increasing the FORCE critical multiplier ("metastat 134") of Ataru attacks by 10/20/30% (as it does for Blade Storm), rather than the MELEE critical multiplier ("metastat 117", as it does for Blade Rush).

 

Since Ataru is not a force attack anymore, increasing the FORCE critical multiplier doesn't buff the MELEE critical damage.

 

Dear devs, please change the 134 to a 117...this is a non-trivial hit to Combat/Carnage DPS.

Edited July 9, 2012 by LagunaD

[Stealios]

/signed

 

This together with opportune attack are not working properly. Would be nice if it was fixed somewhere in the near future

[Crawelc]

I would just like to chime in as a combat sent and thank you for doing work on this, our theoretical burst seems to be higher than actual damage. Check out the metrics BioWare.

[LagunaD]

Just received this reply to my in-game bug report. Unbelievable.

 

Greetings Martina,

 

I am Protocol Droid W5-C3, Human-Cyborg Relations.

 

Thank you for contacting us to report this issue.

 

We have investigated the error you reported, and have confirmed with our specialist team that in fact this is not a bug, and is working as designed.

 

We appreciate the time you took to send us your impressions and ideas, and we can assure you that our Development team is always interested in receiving constructive feedback from our players and they are actively monitor our forums, and are constantly looking for feedback from our players.

 

The thoughts and opinions of our community play a key role in helping them to improve the Star Wars: The Old Republic experience and to shape new features and content.

 

Thank you again for contacting us to bring this issue to our attention, we apologize for any confusion or inconvenience it may have caused.

 

Galactic support is our specialty

 

Sincerely,

 

Protocol Droid W5-C3 (aka Mirani)

Star Wars ™: The Old Republic™ Customer Service

 

So it is "working as designed" that a talent which says it increases Ataru Form critical damage by 10/20/30% does not increase Ataru Form critical damage at all? Thanks.

Edited July 10, 2012 by LagunaD

[DarthBama]

Everyone needs to bug this. I can't believe how bugged this tree is. Also makes me wonder how many other coding mistakes are out there across the specs.

[Stealios]

Everyone needs to bug this. I can't believe how bugged this tree is. Also makes me wonder how many other coding mistakes are out there across the specs.

 

Done.

 

It makes me sad that they just tell you to report bugs & then don't even acknowledge them

[AidanLightwalker]

I was testing and parsing on the training dummy, and comparing with a combat simulation I wrote.

 

My Combat Sentinel has a critical multiplier of 77.2%. I also have the Combat talent which is supposed to increase Ataru Form critical damage by 30%. So my critical multiplier for Ataru Form should be 107.2% (i.e. an Ataru critical hit should do 207.2% of normal damage).

 

This does not appear to be working properly.

 

On the training dummy, in hundreds of Ataru attacks, my non-critical damage ranges from 302-341, or 321.5 average. My average tooltip damage for Ataru is 494.5. This is perfectly consistent with the 35% damage mitigation of the dummy:

 

321.5/494.5 = 0.650

 

(Note: I did NOT use Precision Slash at all during these tests).

 

My critical Ataru attacks during this same set of parses ranged from 535-605, or 570 average.

 

Obviously 570 is not 207% of 321.5. In fact, it is 177.3% of 321.5, which is EXACTLY my critical multiplier, WITHOUT the 30% bonus which is supposed to come from Saber Storm.

 

It seems clear that Saber Storm is NOT increasing the critical multiplier of Ataru Form.

 

Looking at the client files shows that this is a legacy of the change in update 1.2 which made Ataru attacks melee-based instead of force-based: the Saber Storm talent is still increasing the FORCE critical multiplier ("metastat 134") of Ataru attacks by 10/20/30% (as it does for Blade Storm), rather than the MELEE critical multiplier ("metastat 117", as it does for Blade Rush).

 

Since Ataru is not a force attack anymore, increasing the FORCE critical multiplier doesn't buff the MELEE critical damage.

 

Dear devs, please change the 134 to a 117...this is a non-trivial hit to Combat/Carnage DPS.

 

I have tons of combat logs and if see the same thing, I will be filing and posting logs on here as well. thanks for pointing this out.

 

C'mon bioware, look a little deeper into this please.

[lpsmash]

Everyone needs to bug this. I can't believe how bugged this tree is. Also makes me wonder how many other coding mistakes are out there across the specs.

 

Honest question and out of curiosity, what other bug is there in this tree?

[LagunaD]

It is claimed that Opportune Attack doesn't actually give the +10% bonus it should. I haven't tested this myself.

[LagunaD]

I have confirmed by testing that the Opportune Attack buff is indeed also not working, and it has been listed as a known bug.

 

We need THIS bug fixed as well.

[Venjirai]

It is sad how many skills/abilities are not working as they should.

I am a programmer myself and writing/rewriting code without actually testing it, is beyond good and evil.

I will test this bug myself and then also create a ticket about this matter.

[AidanLightwalker]

It is sad how many skills/abilities are not working as they should.

I am a programmer myself and writing/rewriting code without actually testing it, is beyond good and evil.

I will test this bug myself and then also create a ticket about this matter.

 

The OP is correct. It is not buffing the damage of atura crits.

 

Please Bioware, fix this. I'd like to get the full benifit from atura procs for my spent talent points.

[LagunaD]

One week later, and still no acknowledgement of this bug that has been confirmed by multiple players, which any dev could verify simply by inspecting the client files OR any combat log, as described in the original post.

 

The only "official" response so far was the dismissive and ill-informed CS response quote above, saying it is intended that a talent which says it buffs Ataru critical damage doesn't buff Ataru critical damage.

 

If you are Combat spec, this bug is gimping your DPS by a couple percent, so be sure to bug it if you haven't already.

[bookofveteran]

Maybe post this over at the Marauder forum for more support?

 

I'll submit a bug report, but the support response given earlier in this topic has dissuaded me from ever submitting another. Because, seriously, what's the point? Ignoring the report would be better than hearing this is working as intended.

[LagunaD]

So, I was in-game today and out of the blue got a chat request from a CS droid.

 

He/she said they had confirmed that my original report was, in fact, correct, and that the Saber Storm problem had been added to the list of bugs to be fixed. They also apologized for the original response (which I quoted above).

 

The CS droid (not surprisingly) couldn't say when it would be fixed, but said it would appear in the patch notes when it was.

 

So, this is great news, and it was very nice of them to acknowledge their mistake and let me know the problem would be worked on.

[Crawelc]

So, I was in-game today and out of the blue got a chat request from a CS droid.

 

He/she said they had confirmed that my original report was, in fact, correct, and that the Saber Storm problem had been added to the list of bugs to be fixed. They also apologized for the original response (which I quoted above).

 

The CS droid (not surprisingly) couldn't say when it would be fixed, but said it would appear in the patch notes when it was.

 

So, this is great news, and it was very nice of them to acknowledge their mistake and let me know the problem would be worked on.

 

You are my hero!!

[Saltwaterdiode]

That's great news!

[AidanLightwalker]

So, I was in-game today and out of the blue got a chat request from a CS droid.

 

He/she said they had confirmed that my original report was, in fact, correct, and that the Saber Storm problem had been added to the list of bugs to be fixed. They also apologized for the original response (which I quoted above).

 

The CS droid (not surprisingly) couldn't say when it would be fixed, but said it would appear in the patch notes when it was.

 

So, this is great news, and it was very nice of them to acknowledge their mistake and let me know the problem would be worked on.

 

You sir are an asset to the sentinel community. Thanks for all your work.

[DelphinHunter]

Awesome! thanks too.

[Crawelc]

Not today I guess.

[LagunaD]

Not ever, apparently:

 

•Saber Storm: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, as Combat Sentinels are performing within expectations. This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill.

 

What a slap in the face.

[vGaff]

Not ever, apparently:

 

 

 

What a slap in the face.

 

For me it was like. "Go fu.. yourself it works fine anyway."

I guess for Bioware the best solution for bugfixing is to fix everything without doing anything.

[LarryRow]

/waves hand

 

This is not the nerf we were looking for.

[LagunaD]

For me it was like. "Go fu.. yourself it works fine anyway."

I guess for Bioware the best solution for bugfixing is to fix everything without doing anything.

 

A little preview of the support we can expect with Free-to-Play, I suppose...

[terencechan]

•Saber Storm: The critical damage bonus this skill applied to Ataru Form was not functioning correctly, and we have opted to remove it, "as Combat Sentinels are performing within expectations". This change does not affect the current combat effectiveness of this skill.

 

Combat has always been the poor dps cousin as an option to Watchman. BW tried to address this with coding that was in today's announcement broken..""Combat Sentitnels are performing within expectations (so fu and don't bother us) "??? what kind of lame excue is that?? *** is happening with this game?