The underlying issue being ignored with Azureblight/Tarnished/Pyrebrand etc nerfs

moderatelyfatman · October 26

Why do proc-sets do so much damage in this game?
Suppose you move away from single target dummy parses (where they do proportionately less damage) and look at the damage in actual content? In that case, whether it's trial logs or PvP damage sources, the overwhelming source of damage in this game comes from proc sets such as Azureblight and Pyrebrand in PvE (Relequen is single target making it less of an issue) or Tarnished Nightmare in PvP.
This is not a new problem, a couple of years ago players were getting carried by Plaguebreak and Caluurions or being unkillable via Mara's Balm.

The underlying problem with ESO is that skills (preferably class skills) should be the main source of damage in the game. If a top set was only buffing your damage by 10%, nobody would feel that their build or playstyle was suddenly ruined if that buff was reduced to 8%.

Class skills have been nerfed over the years (particularly since patch 35), leading to an ever greater reliance on item sets that do the damage for the player. I believe this is by design as it lowers the skill ceiling for new players as well as making the classes easier to balance on the parsing dummy. However, neither is particularly good for the game and it has created a constant problem plaguing players that will never go away.

the1andonlyskwex · October 26

Why should skills be the main source of damage in the game? You assert it as fact, but I don't understand why it should be the case.

Why is it better to have damage come directly from clicking a button instead of having it come from an effect that is indirectly triggered by clicking a button? What if you just think of procs as additional skills that are triggered indirectly?

Equipping a proc set is just a choice to sacrifice making your existing skills more powerful in exchange for the proc instead.

moderatelyfatman · October 26

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Why should skills be the main source of damage in the game? You assert it as fact, but I don't understand why it should be the case.

Why is it better to have damage come directly from clicking a button instead of having it come from an effect that is indirectly triggered by clicking a button? What if you just think of procs as additional skills that are triggered indirectly?

Equipping a proc set is just a choice to sacrifice making your existing skills more powerful in exchange for the proc instead.

Good question. The issue is skill (pun intended).
When damage comes mostly off skills, then errors such as missed or double skill casts during rotations in PvE or mistimed combos in PvP become a significant factor is your damage output. This naturally favours players who can keep up their rotations or combos under in game conditions such as monster mechs or managed being attacked by other players. It also encourages players to continue to improve to a much higher standard.

If damage procs off sets and the conditions are fairly easy to get (e.g. DoT effects) then it becomes less of an issue of skill as pretty much everyone can do the same amount of damage. A classic example of this happened in PvP with Caluurions where a massive burst of damage from the crit allowed low skill nightblades to one shot people without having to do the skill combos that higher skill players could do with other sets to get the same result. At one stage, the PvP game became a gankfest because the reward to effort ratio was so high that there wasn't much point in playing anything else if you just wanted rewards. There was a massive backlash when Caluurions got nerfed much like the one we are seeing right now.

My argument isn't against proc sets in general, I'm against it when they are so overpowered that even endgame players feel obliged to use them in order to keep up with everyone else. I'm not pushing an elitist line (I'm barely endgame in PvE and only middling at best in PvP) but I feel that player ability should be the most important factor in damage output.

ChaoticWings3 · October 26

I agree with you on this. The skills should do more dmg in general. Not only would it help newer players get into tougher content but when they fail to do something, they won't be so focused on that one set in a build they saw that would be nerfed several months later and feel disheartened to continue playing after grinding the sets for weeks. Instead they would realize that they approached said tough content badly and try a different approach which makes them better at the game. Its either this or buffing 3 sets out of the 750+ sets in the game for every nerf set. Increase the choices instead of creating a single cookie butter build for everyone that changes every 3 months.

Taril · October 26

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Why is it better to have damage come directly from clicking a button instead of having it come from an effect that is indirectly triggered by clicking a button? What if you just think of procs as additional skills that are triggered indirectly?

Mostly, it's a matter of opportunity cost.

A proc, can occur from a variety of sources. Notably, DoT effects. You apply a 20 second DoT and that can proc multiple sets multiple times. All from a single use of a single ability.

Procs don't use your GCD, so you can still be using OTHER attacks while they happen. Procs don't cost resources either.

This undermines the basic premise of combat. ESO doesn't use skills that are off the global cooldown (Unlike some other games) and it doesn't give infinite resources for free (Unlike some other games) meaning that all skill usage (And regular attack usage, outside of LA weaving - Which itself feels somewhat out of place) was designed around opportunity cost.

You perform one action at a time and that action costs resources (With exception of HA's which gain resources - But with increased opportunity cost of the time it takes to perform and the susceptibility to being blocked and stunned as a result). This allows for balancing effects vs opportunity costs. Skills that are harder to perform (Things with cast times or high resource costs) do more than easy skills (Like instant cast DoTs).

Thus there would be a direct correlation between your gameplay, and the results you get. If you can leverage high opportunity cost skills, you can do more.

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Equipping a proc set is just a choice to sacrifice making your existing skills more powerful in exchange for the proc instead.

This would be true if skills were the primary sources of damage and procs were merely bonuses. So the choice was, directly boost your skill via raw stats or use a proc that indirectly boosts your skill via allowing it to deal bonus damage occasionally.

While when the main source of damage is from procs, then it's simply not a choice. Your skills become largely just vehicles for your procs and that's about it (I mean, that's pretty much what weapon swapping is for in PvE as well... Rather than accessing different skills to provide more options it's more about just throwing out a DoT so it can proc your 2 handed enchant)

AngryPenguin · October 26

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Why should skills be the main source of damage in the game? You assert it as fact, but I don't understand why it should be the case.

Why is it better to have damage come directly from clicking a button instead of having it come from an effect that is indirectly triggered by clicking a button? What if you just think of procs as additional skills that are triggered indirectly?

Equipping a proc set is just a choice to sacrifice making your existing skills more powerful in exchange for the proc instead.

Because using skills is playing the game. Using proc sets is having the game played for you by the set.

YandereGirlfriend · October 26

ChaoticWings3 wrote: »

I agree with you on this. The skills should do more dmg in general. Not only would it help newer players get into tougher content but when they fail to do something, they won't be so focused on that one set in a build they saw that would be nerfed several months later and feel disheartened to continue playing after grinding the sets for weeks. Instead they would realize that they approached said tough content badly and try a different approach which makes them better at the game. Its either this or buffing 3 sets out of the 750+ sets in the game for every nerf set. Increase the choices instead of creating a single cookie butter build for everyone that changes every 3 months.

Indeed.

The emphasis on the "One Weird Trick!" sets is super unhealthy for both players, who fall into the trap of always "needing" that particular set to succeed, and for game balance itself, where power is being continually extracted from skills and funneled into sets instead.

alpha_synuclein · October 27

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

My argument isn't against proc sets in general, I'm against it when they are so overpowered that even endgame players feel obliged to use them in order to keep up with everyone else. I'm not pushing an elitist line (I'm barely endgame in PvE and only middling at best in PvP) but I feel that player ability should be the most important factor in damage output.

It was. And then they decided to make the game easier through passive damage increase.

James-Wayne · October 27

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Why should skills be the main source of damage in the game? You assert it as fact, but I don't understand why it should be the case.

Why is it better to have damage come directly from clicking a button instead of having it come from an effect that is indirectly triggered by clicking a button? What if you just think of procs as additional skills that are triggered indirectly?

Equipping a proc set is just a choice to sacrifice making your existing skills more powerful in exchange for the proc instead.

Good question. The issue is skill (pun intended).
When damage comes mostly off skills, then errors such as missed or double skill casts during rotations in PvE or mistimed combos in PvP become a significant factor is your damage output. This naturally favours players who can keep up their rotations or combos under in game conditions such as monster mechs or managed being attacked by other players. It also encourages players to continue to improve to a much higher standard.

If damage procs off sets and the conditions are fairly easy to get (e.g. DoT effects) then it becomes less of an issue of skill as pretty much everyone can do the same amount of damage. A classic example of this happened in PvP with Caluurions where a massive burst of damage from the crit allowed low skill nightblades to one shot people without having to do the skill combos that higher skill players could do with other sets to get the same result. At one stage, the PvP game became a gankfest because the reward to effort ratio was so high that there wasn't much point in playing anything else if you just wanted rewards. There was a massive backlash when Caluurions got nerfed much like the one we are seeing right now.

My argument isn't against proc sets in general, I'm against it when they are so overpowered that even endgame players feel obliged to use them in order to keep up with everyone else. I'm not pushing an elitist line (I'm barely endgame in PvE and only middling at best in PvP) but I feel that player ability should be the most important factor in damage output.

Not just skill issue. Proc sets are great for high ping players further from the server because with proc it's the server activating damage vs a mouse click 20k KMs away having to relay back to server before it activates. Server is always faster.

I do agree something needs to be fixed but I would prefer the performance be fixed first because lag degrades lots of content not just combat.

EDIT: I will add if high ping players relied on damage from class skills in PvP we would have no chance in being competitive. We're dead before being able to react.

Morvan · October 28

I partially agree with that, sets can be overpowered, but at least on PvE, a skilled player will still outperform the majority because they will get the most out of it.

Gear is important, yes, but without skill to properly rotate you're still going to be way under a skilled player using the same gear setup.

I believe most of the backlash for Azureblight on PvE, is that ever since arcanist showed up it was the only tool that would allow other classes to have some respectable cleave potential, with that tool nerfed to death, people will be inclined to stack more arcanists and the class diversity will go down the drain.

PvP can definitely work as you described though, anyone non skilled can still make an immortal tanky build that does no damage but still takes 10+ people to kill, or a nightblade proc build that has absurd burst potential by just pressing 2 skills.

Taril · October 28

James-Wayne wrote: »

Not just skill issue. Proc sets are great for high ping players further from the server because with proc it's the server activating damage vs a mouse click 20k KMs away having to relay back to server before it activates. Server is always faster.

I do agree something needs to be fixed but I would prefer the performance be fixed first because lag degrades lots of content not just combat.

EDIT: I will add if high ping players relied on damage from class skills in PvP we would have no chance in being competitive. We're dead before being able to react.

In regards to high ping (Or low skill) players, whom cannot compete using regular combat mechanics...

It feels like it would be most appropriate to provide mythics similar to Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet that can help bridge the gap by bypassing some skill related performance (The Velothi amulet bypassing LA weaving for example). Whereby the item can be balanced so that it provides these players with the ability to be competitive, without necessarily being optimal.

Vulkunne · October 28

Time will tell the tale. They're hell bent on doing nerfs right now so maybe later on they'll see the light. Personally, I think if blight is getting cut down then they should buff PB.

Something still doesn't feel right here, regardless of the current line of thinking between these two sets and it's a thing that is probably going to take time to work itself out. One fact remains is that neither of these sets, as of right now, are going to be effective against ball groups and that is an inherent failing with PB not working as advertised and blight ... not working at all.

sarahthes · October 28

So interesting thing - so far in logs azure post nerf is outperforming azure pre nerf.

moderatelyfatman · October 29

sarahthes wrote: »

So interesting thing - so far in logs azure post nerf is outperforming azure pre nerf.

Yeah, this is a bug as the patch did not take. Here is the comment from Charles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJwQxOiGrY

Finedaible · October 29

This is what has always bothered me about ESO, it is not so much about your character and what class they play but what sets you equip. Especially in PvP these days where they started adding op sets and then other sets designed to counter the op set, creating more problems and less practical solutions (for the player). It's cumbersome and unwieldly to design combat around what sets you happen to have farmed and be carrying at the time. But they chose to center every single update since beta around new sets, and now that they are on this crusade to standardize everything on a spreadsheet it is starting to show its problems.

This is why I was initially excited for Scribing since I thought it may give us some proper expansion to skill play, but so far scribing's implementation is so standardized and riddled with drawbacks that very little feels different.

sarahthes · October 29

moderatelyfatman wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

So interesting thing - so far in logs azure post nerf is outperforming azure pre nerf.

Yeah, this is a bug as the patch did not take. Here is the comment from Charles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJwQxOiGrY

Your summary isn't exactly what's happened (I've been present for a lot of testing since my initial post). But yeah it's doing something weird with the cooldowns and explosions.

Messi · October 29

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

sarahthes · October 29

Messi wrote: »

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

After further testing it doesn't appear to be broken. There appears to be an undocumented bug fix. That changes the damage multiplier a bit.

The explosions appear to be behaving exactly as they did before the patch if you dig into logs. The cooldown for the explosion is per caster, not per target, and this holds true before and after.

Scaling based on number of targets is also correct.

Having done 5 clears of Rockgrove HM last night it doesn't feel bad either. First part of Bahsei is faster, end part when there's fewer targets feels slower. Kill times for a pug were slightly faster than pre patch but I'd say that's more due to banner being weird atm.

Messi · October 29

sarahthes wrote: »

Messi wrote: »

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

After further testing it doesn't appear to be broken. There appears to be an undocumented bug fix. That changes the damage multiplier a bit.

The explosions appear to be behaving exactly as they did before the patch if you dig into logs. The cooldown for the explosion is per caster, not per target, and this holds true before and after.

Scaling based on number of targets is also correct.

Having done 5 clears of Rockgrove HM last night it doesn't feel bad either. First part of Bahsei is faster, end part when there's fewer targets feels slower. Kill times for a pug were slightly faster than pre patch but I'd say that's more due to banner being weird atm.

So according to your testing are you confirming that there IS an undocumented bug that has to do with damage scaling/multiplier? Or are you saying there was a fix that was already applied? Sorry your first sentence was a bit confusing.

sarahthes · October 29

Messi wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Messi wrote: »

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

After further testing it doesn't appear to be broken. There appears to be an undocumented bug fix. That changes the damage multiplier a bit.

The explosions appear to be behaving exactly as they did before the patch if you dig into logs. The cooldown for the explosion is per caster, not per target, and this holds true before and after.

Scaling based on number of targets is also correct.

Having done 5 clears of Rockgrove HM last night it doesn't feel bad either. First part of Bahsei is faster, end part when there's fewer targets feels slower. Kill times for a pug were slightly faster than pre patch but I'd say that's more due to banner being weird atm.

So according to your testing are you confirming that there IS an undocumented bug that has to do with damage scaling/multiplier? Or are you saying there was a fix that was already applied? Sorry your first sentence was a bit confusing.

I wasn't the one who did the testing (just an interested observer and generator of logs), but the math for the set had something changed to be more in line with how damage from other sets works.

virtus753 · October 29

sarahthes wrote: »

Messi wrote: »

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

After further testing it doesn't appear to be broken. There appears to be an undocumented bug fix. That changes the damage multiplier a bit.

The explosions appear to be behaving exactly as they did before the patch if you dig into logs. The cooldown for the explosion is per caster, not per target, and this holds true before and after.

Scaling based on number of targets is also correct.

Having done 5 clears of Rockgrove HM last night it doesn't feel bad either. First part of Bahsei is faster, end part when there's fewer targets feels slower. Kill times for a pug were slightly faster than pre patch but I'd say that's more due to banner being weird atm.

The fact that Azure is still allowing for multiple simultaneous explosions after several patches (ever since U41) does not mean it isn't bugged. It just means that behavior has persisted. Some bugs in this game have lasted over 9 years. That doesn't mean they're not bugs.

Null Arca also exhibits this behavior with multiple simultaneous explosions both in single-target and in AoE situations. The cooldown doesn't get respected when the triggering crit is accompanied by another crit in the same millisecond.

endorphinsplox · October 29

Its kind of a weird mix. You can put the strongest proc sets on an unskilled player and watch them get heavily outperformed by a skilled player in just standard damage buff sets. There's a group I run with that takes several Oakensoul users on runs, and the highest performing one only deals 13-14k at best. The ultimate lazy crutch build and people are still unable to use it.

Buuuuuut the focus on sets is definitely a glaring issue when you consider how things are done now. A particularly potent example of this is how in PvP, most players tend to maximize their performance by running 2 5 piece sets, 1pc Trainee, a Monster set, and a Mythic, so if you don't match that you'll have a seriously difficult time competing.

I don't mind this game being a lot more casual than others in its genre, but why have veteran difficulty, and hardmode toggles, if they're just gonna be nerfed into nothingness while they also remove most of the cosmetic rewards from the really difficult achievements? Why not make those cosmetics dropped items that are tradeable so that casual players can still get them and not have to pay for a carry, while the higher skilled players have more incentive to keep endgame alive? Offer more moneymaking opportunities for casual players so they can make the money necessary to buy those things.

But no, they just punish skilled players for being skilled, with things like GCD with no action queuing, and capping LA/HA damage and Crit, so they can give casuals better tools to complete endgame content, that they won't actually use to complete endgame content because they are casual gamers by definition. They don't wanna deal with the toxic elitism of veteran raiding communities, and ZOS thinks they can force these players into wanting to prog SS or GS or whatever when instead they should be offering those players more cool things to keep their interest within the more casual spaces of the game.

sarahthes · October 29

virtus753 wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Messi wrote: »

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

After further testing it doesn't appear to be broken. There appears to be an undocumented bug fix. That changes the damage multiplier a bit.

The explosions appear to be behaving exactly as they did before the patch if you dig into logs. The cooldown for the explosion is per caster, not per target, and this holds true before and after.

Scaling based on number of targets is also correct.

Having done 5 clears of Rockgrove HM last night it doesn't feel bad either. First part of Bahsei is faster, end part when there's fewer targets feels slower. Kill times for a pug were slightly faster than pre patch but I'd say that's more due to banner being weird atm.

The fact that Azure is still allowing for multiple simultaneous explosions after several patches (ever since U41) does not mean it isn't bugged. It just means that behavior has persisted. Some bugs in this game have lasted over 9 years. That doesn't mean they're not bugs.

Null Arca also exhibits this behavior with multiple simultaneous explosions both in single-target and in AoE situations. The cooldown doesn't get respected when the triggering crit is accompanied by another crit in the same millisecond.

It's not bugged though.

Cooldowns per player respect the 1s cooldown. Pre update 44 they respected the 0.5s cooldown. If you look at logs by player, you will see that no player has an explosion credited to them faster than every 1s.

This is an example from yesterday, on a very good DPS so it isn't a matter of skill.

https://www.esologs.com/reports/72KHYMfFR8WbQwL6#fight=31&type=damage-done&target=65&source=10&sourcebuffs=-185842&ability=126633&view=events

I found another log for the same player from U43:

https://www.esologs.com/reports/f3VgR6WTrxHYdJyj#fight=44&type=damage-done&target=76&ability=126633&source=8&view=events

You can see that while the explosion times vary, they are never closer together than 0.5s, though sometimes they are longer.

I think the main issue is the patch notes themselves weren't very clear. I also think that the set is likely working as intended.

Edit: the one from yesterday was a 2 portal Bahsei and the one from U43 is a 1 portal Bahsei so there are some differences in general. Just pulled from same player to rule out any skill differences. The 2 portal group yesterday was skilled enough to clear a 1 portal, but was a pug and not optimized for that.

StihlReign · October 29

Azureblight Reaper:

Reduced the base damage of this set's explosion by ~58%.

Increased the damage scaling per target to 150%, up from 30%.

The damage increase now only applies after the first target hit, rather than on the first target hit.

The damage increase now works against monsters, rather than any target.

Increased the damage scaling maximum to 600%, up from 180%.

Increased the cooldown to 1 second, up from .5s, to reduce the strain this set has on the server in high density fights.

This set now grants Weapon and Spell Damage for its 2, 3, and 4 piece bonuses - rather than Critical Chance, Max Stamina, and Stamina Recovery.

Developer Comment

Azureblight has been standing ahead of the pack of many item sets since its rework in 2023, dominating areas where there are only a handful of targets stacked up and became increasingly stronger against larger groups. In addition to this, the rework significantly increased its efficiency in larger group counts, where multiple wearers could benefit each other by expediting the stack generation process - creating a lot of problematic cases in PvP particularly, where large groups can roam around and bombard both other groups and the servers with little to no recourse.

As such, we've made some larger adjustments to take the set's oppressive nature out of PvP, since Plaguebreak already fits a similar function for those situations with a much healthier amount of counterplay.

Additionally, we've imposed some number adjustments that will shift Azureblight's power closer to where it was always intended to be - shining against bigger packs of enemies. Previously Azure become the defacto set to run when only hitting 3 targets and increasingly became more powerful up to 6, and had little drop off even against 2 enemies.

The newer values ensure Azure is less powerful against 1 to 2 enemies, slightly weaker against 3, but really starts to shine at 4 or more enemies – so it remains the best set for huge packs, while other sets start to compare better in cleave scenarios.

In addition to this, we're also increasing the cooldown on the explosions in hopes to reduce its effectiveness with multiple wearers, so that other sets can be ran more frequently in organized group play, and less booms shake the servers to their core.

Lastly, we're adjusting the 2-4 piece bonuses to grant stats that actually impact the outcome of the set as well, as the previous stat lines had no impact on helping activate or enhance the set's outcome.

Increasing the damage scaling per target to 150% and the damage scaling maximum to 600%, and tuning the timing seems to be having the desired effect...

virtus753 · October 29

sarahthes wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Messi wrote: »

Has there been any response to Azureblight being completely broken at the moment? The damage it is doing currently quite game breaking.

After further testing it doesn't appear to be broken. There appears to be an undocumented bug fix. That changes the damage multiplier a bit.

The explosions appear to be behaving exactly as they did before the patch if you dig into logs. The cooldown for the explosion is per caster, not per target, and this holds true before and after.

Scaling based on number of targets is also correct.

Having done 5 clears of Rockgrove HM last night it doesn't feel bad either. First part of Bahsei is faster, end part when there's fewer targets feels slower. Kill times for a pug were slightly faster than pre patch but I'd say that's more due to banner being weird atm.

The fact that Azure is still allowing for multiple simultaneous explosions after several patches (ever since U41) does not mean it isn't bugged. It just means that behavior has persisted. Some bugs in this game have lasted over 9 years. That doesn't mean they're not bugs.

Null Arca also exhibits this behavior with multiple simultaneous explosions both in single-target and in AoE situations. The cooldown doesn't get respected when the triggering crit is accompanied by another crit in the same millisecond.

It's not bugged though.

Cooldowns per player respect the 1s cooldown. Pre update 44 they respected the 0.5s cooldown. If you look at logs by player, you will see that no player has an explosion credited to them faster than every 1s.

This is an example from yesterday, on a very good DPS so it isn't a matter of skill.

https://www.esologs.com/reports/72KHYMfFR8WbQwL6#fight=31&type=damage-done&target=65&source=10&sourcebuffs=-185842&ability=126633&view=events

I found another log for the same player from U43:

https://www.esologs.com/reports/f3VgR6WTrxHYdJyj#fight=44&type=damage-done&target=76&ability=126633&source=8&view=events

You can see that while the explosion times vary, they are never closer together than 0.5s, though sometimes they are longer.

I think the main issue is the patch notes themselves weren't very clear. I also think that the set is likely working as intended.

Edit: the one from yesterday was a 2 portal Bahsei and the one from U43 is a 1 portal Bahsei so there are some differences in general. Just pulled from same player to rule out any skill differences. The 2 portal group yesterday was skilled enough to clear a 1 portal, but was a pug and not optimized for that.

That's not what I'm talking about, so let me clarify:

I'm not saying that a single player can set off multiple explosions sooner than their cooldown for Azure. I'm saying that one instance of Blight Seed can explode multiple times simultaneously if more than one Azure user is damaging that target with DoTs. Since U41, a single instance of Blight Seed can explode multiple times in the same millisecond. This behavior was verified on a single target with no adds around. I saw multiple occasions of 3 explosions in the same millisecond on that target, so definitively from one single instance of Blight Seed. It also was introduced without comment, which (as you noted) is incredibly problematic.

Here's the last sentence in Azure's tooltip: "Enemies can only have one Blight Seed active at a time."

It is this (singular) Blight Seed that explodes at 20 stacks. The only point in saying that there is a limitation of one instance per target (confirmed in logs) is to imply that there will be only one explosion when that one Blight Seed reaches 20 stacks. Otherwise there's no point whatsoever in setting this limitation, and including it is misleading at best.

What makes more sense to me is that Azure is behaving similarly to Null Arca. Null Arca does not check whether it is being procced multiple times in the same millisecond. Likewise, Azure doesn't check whether a single instance of Blight Seed is exploding once or three+ times.