Unholy Aura, Sould Shield and other "0 percent" things

[possom]

I see a lot of spells and focus items that say up to or by "0 percent". I figured this was just a UI error.. but I think I see at least some specific examples where they don't do anything.

For example my SK Unholy Aura Discipline (a spell gem, not in the discs keys) says increase damage of my lifetap spells by 0 percent. Without any other buffs active, My Touch of Devourer does 1860 with or without this disc active.

Similarly, my Soul Shield, lvl 69 disc, says absorbing 0 percent of incoming melee damage and fades after absorbing 0 damage.. but when I activate it, trash mods still hit me.

There are many other items and spells I see that say "0 percent" but I haven't tested or noticed whether or not they actually do anything, but these seem not to.

[Lillu]

I tested Unholy Aura Discipline, it's spell damage increase.

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/webtools ... hp?id=4520

Worked perfectly fine during testing.

[possom]

I tested Unholy Aura Discipline, it's spell damage increase.

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/webtools ... hp?id=4520

Worked perfectly fine during testing.

Tested again on zone frogs in Seb. Tested "finger" and "wand" line health taps from high 40s to lvl 70 Touch of Devourer. None increased damage from before to after casting the Unholy disc spell gem.

Which spells did you test? Maybe it is it limited to a specific one? The spell text in Magelo and MQ2says limited to lvl 1 spells. There isn't a level one life tap. Project1999 has this as modifying harm touch, not lifetaps.

[Lillu]

Again, this is a spell damage increase, not a lifetap increase. Your best bet is to always check the web tools and see the spell effects there. A spell damage modifier won't affect lifetap. I only tested Unholy Aura Discipline thou but it worked perfectly fine.

[Elysium]

Again, this is a spell damage increase, not a lifetap increase. Your best bet is to always check the web tools and see the spell effects there. A spell damage modifier won't affect lifetap. I only tested Unholy Aura Discipline thou but it worked perfectly fine.

Except spell damage does increase lifetap damage. As life taps use spell damage to determine the amount of damage they do. There are exceptions where some buffs only increase a specific type of damage, but in the case of Unholy Aura; it should be spell damage excluding combat abilities. This can be proven in game by equipping any piece of gear with an effect similar to this: http://www.thehiddenforest.org/webtools ... hp?id=3524 and using any life tap spell. In addition; all of the research I've done has no indication of spell damage not increasing life taps, but actually quite the opposite.

Now, here is the very important reason why possom believes Unholy Aura is not increasing his spell damage on his life taps; Unholy Aura only effects spells with a level of 1, and decreases by 10% spell damage for every level over 1. This can be confirmed by using Spike of Disease (a level 1 SK nuke) on any target and seeing its full benefit from Unholy Aura. You try this with any SK nuke over level 5 and you will see no difference what-so-ever.

That is for direct damage nukes, but the same example can be done with life taps as well. The level 5 SK lifetap "Lifetap" would receive a theoretical increase in 10% from Unholy Aura (50% - 10% per level over 1). Since lifetaps always do a consistent amount of damage, this is then very easily tested by using Plate Gauntlets of the Helpless (http://www.thehiddenforest.org/webtools ... hp?id=2443) and Unholy Aura. Without Unholy Aura, Lifetap will do 8 (6 base * 1.35 = 8.1) or (Lifetap * Wrath of Druzzil) damage consistently. With Unholy Aura, Lifetap will now do 8.7 (rounded up to 9) damage every time (6 base * (1.35 + 0.1) = 8.7) or (Lifetap * (Wrath of Druzzil + Unholy Aura)). You do this same test on any other SK lifetap spell and you will see -only- Wrath of Druzzil is taking effect.

[Lillu]

Honestly, I'm a bit lost now and I feel like I walked into a trap. Are we talking about a non-custom, not THF related legacy spell (Unholy Aura) and how it's not fully functional on spells over lvl 1?

Looking at the 50% spell damage increase I'm not even sure it's supposed to be ingame on THF.

[Elysium]

Honestly I can't tell you what is and isn't supposed to be on THF. I just know what is in game and gave you results based off that. I'm only aware of one Unholy Aura in relation to SK, and I assumed we were all talking about that. You even linked to the spell on the web tools yourself.

It would appear that it is a legacy spell though, it can be found on the way back machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040426055 ... spell=4520
With the same level 1 spell limit in place. It was later changed in 2009 to be a +100% life tap only spell buff with a level limit of 100. I thought THF was from around the same era as 2009 so I'm surprised this was not spotted until now.

This is what the spell currently does: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/spell.html?id=4520

Perhaps if this was not intentional; As this was and still is a core part of the SK kit, maybe consider updating this spell to be lifetap only and give it some amount of spell damage increase if 50% feels like too much due to custom life tap spells.

[Lillu]

Yep, indeed this is not a custom THF spell but as always we are open to suggestions how to implement them or fix them. That being said shadowknights are already pretty powerful among tank classes so no promises. Maybe GM Ydiss can get a new spell idea from this discussion for Tier 10.

[possom]

Thanks Elysium.. I was seeing all the same.. that it definitely should benefit taps.

Not a trap at all Lillu, I am learning SK for the first time in many years and just trying to figure out what spells work and don't work. This was a staple of SK tanking big hitters "back in the day" and I just don't know what is supposed to and not supposed to work on THF.

It is not in line with how it should work, but I can understand if a surprise like this challenges class balance that has been worked on already.

I'll just un-mem it I guess and watch for future updates.