Update 5.5 Restructured Entrance Skills

[AlexDiaz]

There was an item listed in the “Bug fix” section in the 5.5 Update - Restructured Entrance Skills “Fixed” so their abilities trigger first before receiving modifiers from other skills.

@Samm, can we get a some clarification on this please?

1. Can we get an official list of heroes with E.S.? I ask because I wonder if heroes like Zeus are being counted here. I assume heroes that can use their white skill as soon, or almost as soon as battle begins, aren’t affected by this. but things don’t always go as the write-ups seem to say they should so I’m asking directly. (There are also grey area heroes like Jafar and Namaari. They have attacks that seem to be E.S. But also they aren’t exactly like Baymax and the like)
2. Do stat boosts from other heroes friend disks (the ones that say “to this hero and allies”) count as “Modifiers from other skills”? Those have always seemed to apply before the start of a wave and They don’t display a Combat Status Icon so they feel distinctly different than “Modifiers from other skills”.
3. Does this apply to Mods and Patch Talents since it only mentions skills.
4. Does receiving “modifiers from other skills” get delayed until the E.S. Is complete or the hero just never receiving modifiers from other skills or do they receiving modifiers from other skills as soon as the E.S. triggers and the damage and/or effects of said E.S. just missed out on getting affected?
5. Will all heroes that have an E.S. Be completely untargetable from enemies until their E.S. Triggers? Would seem unfair if heroes can’t help heroes but can be effected by enemies.

[Samm]

Hi! This fix ensures that shield mods always apply after entrance animations and before skills at the start of a round for all Heroes. The change targeted an edge case where a skill would have an initial cooldown of 0 seconds, meaning it would trigger right after entrances and not giving time for the mod to actually apply.

It’s mainly to just future proof later Heroes so we don’t run into the same issue again.

[Pipsqueak]

@samm can you confirm what happens in these situations?

1. EVE has a shield mod and Power Benevolence patch. Ion Shock, with EVE’s red skill unlocked, triggers at the start of the wave. Because it’s not actually an entrance skill, it will receive the patch power boost and the damage is increased.

2. Chip & Dale have a shield mod and Power Benevolence patch. Ranger Plane is an entrance skill, thus the damage of it will now not be affected by Power Benevolence because the shield is applied after it has completed, nullifying the patch talent for this skill.

3. Gonzo has Control Aggressive patch. No shield mod is involved. Because My Next Act is an entrance skill, it will now deal the same damage to Control enemies as to each other enemy, nullifying the patch talent for this skill.

4. Aladdin has Control Aggressive patch and Armor Blight patch. Because Magic Carpet Ride is an entrance skill, the damage it deals will now be the same to all hero roles and will not remove Armor from enemies, nullifying the patch talent.

5. Namaari’s Pet Pursuit grants her invincibility at the start of the wave. This will now be granted after entrance skills have completed, meaning she will in fact be damaged by them - but not by regular skills with an initial cooldown of 0.

6. Timon & Pumbaa’s Hakuna Matata is slightly unclear whether it’s an entrance skill or not. Let’s assume it is. He has many Benevolence patches. All of these will no longer be applied on the activation of Hakuna Matata, nullifying the patch talents for this skill. If he also has a shield mod, the benevolence will not apply to himself until after this skill has completed.

7. Pegasus’ Take Flight is not an entrance skill but a regular skill with initial cooldown of 0. (This is the aspect of him that needs nerfing, but anyway…). Because of this, this skill will still be affected by any Basic Damage buffs he receives, and he will still be immune to slows from Nimble patch talent before performing this skill.

8. Mulan has a shield mod, therefore her A Little Luck skill grants her bonus normal crit while this shield is active. However because Cannon Attack is an entrance skill, it will now be performed before the shield mod is applied, meaning it will have regular crit chance, nullifying the patch talent for this skill.

9. Moana has a shield mod. Her Powerful Wave skill basic damage and healing will no longer apply to damage dealt while this shield is active, and only to shields from her skills and disks, nullifying the effect of the shield mod.

10. Judy’s Deputy Junior disk grants bonus basic damage to her Inspire buff. It’s unclear whether Deputize is an entrance skill, but I don’t think it is, therefore it will still be affected by her Deputy Junior disk buff.

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These are just a few different examples I could find which sound like they might be affected - can you confirm the new behaviour in each case?

[Samm]

I myself cannot, but I can pass it along to the team and they can review the behaviors if there is time. This is a pretty long list.

[Prince_Phillip_LXV]

@Samm not to be rude or anything
But this is the type of things that the dev team should be considering before making changes

The players shouldn’t be the first to point these out…

Or am I misunderstanding things?

[AlexDiaz]

@Samm Thanks for the response. Your answer was very helpful and illuminating.
I very much hope the change is aimed very specifically at just the mod shield issue like you were saying and in fact doesn’t effect anything else.
I personally believe all mod effects should be in affect as soon as battle starts and not be interrupted by anything. The stat and skill mods are that way so the shields should be that way too.
Also the shield mod should trigger any associated patch talents before anything happens.

I would say that the description of this in the 5.5 update notes was very over arching and could include many different instances, which I’m sure is why that extensive example list was provided.
I have to imagine it’s a difficult job writing those notes and the confusion was unintended.

Thanks again.

[Pipsqueak]

Well quite, the examples I provided weren’t intended to be an exhaustive list of potential changes, they are examples of the kind of change in behaviour that the description sounds like it would cause.

Of course the community manager might not immediately have the answers, though I’d assume that the dev team know exactly what they have changed and thus each of these should be trivial for them to confirm or otherwise

At the moment we’re basically blindly guessing on what may or may not be impacted, which in a game so dependent on strategy and speciffics of hero interaction, isn’t ideal