Tooltip for Sharp-as-Night's Sleetmail skill has misleading wording

PrinceShroob · June 2023

The description of Sharp-as-Night's Sleetmail skill shows the following:

1802 appears to be a value that scales with the player's level.

This implies that the skill grants a weaker version of Major Resolve to Sharp's allies, but actually, the player receives the normal version of Major Resolve granting 5948 Physical and Spell Resistance.

Resistances without Sleetmail active:

Resistances with Sleetmail active:

The character page also properly shows that the player received Major Resolve, increasing 5948 Physical and Spell Resistance.

This bug may be because, on PTS, Sleetmail's description stated "Sharp-as-Night conjures ice armor for themselves and their grouped allies which grants Major Resolve, increasing Physical and Spell Resistance by X for 5 seconds." That is, instead of the usual "companion receives 20% less damage," Sharp gained a scaling amount of Armor. Based on the way the skill functions on live, I assume that Sharp gained a variable amount of Armor while his grouped allies received Major Resolve, but the tooltip erroneously displayed the amount of Armor Sharp received in place of the normal values for Major Resolve.

Since the skill no longer grants Sharp Armor directly, the tooltip should be updated to display the proper 5948 value for Major Resolve.

phaneub17_ESO · June 2023

Wow good catch, but it may not be a bug. Companions count as a level 50 character, while the player max is level 66(160cp). Companion max armor cap is 25,000 while players is around the ballpark of 32,500. The amount Sharp-as-Night receives is probably accurate based on his level as an NPC, as the ability is smart scaling with its target. After One Tamriel we're always at level 66 and gear scales down the further apart our current level is from the gear level. NPCs are not scaled the same way as us so he really is leveling and the amount displayed from 85 to 1802 is correct for himself.

PrinceShroob · June 2023

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Wow good catch, but it may not be a bug. Companions count as a level 50 character, while the player max is level 66(160cp). Companion max armor cap is 25,000 while players is around the ballpark of 32,500. The amount Sharp-as-Night receives is probably accurate based on his level as an NPC, as the ability is smart scaling with its target. After One Tamriel we're always at level 66 and gear scales down the further apart our current level is from the gear level. NPCs are not scaled the same way as us so he really is leveling and the amount displayed from 85 to 1802 is correct for himself.

From what I understand, unless the "reduce damage taken by 20%" effect is coded as an increase in Armor, the skill doesn't actually give Sharp any additional Armor anymore, it just reduces his damage taken by 20%. My understanding of the effect is that Sharp receives the usual companion 20% reduced damage taken while his (human? I don't know if Sleetmail affects the companions of grouped players) groupmates receive Major Resolve with the usual values.

The tooltip seems to imply that grouped allies receive a weaker version of Major Resolve, but they actually just receive the normal value. Like I said, I suspect that the tooltip displaying the wrong Armor values for Major Resolve is a remnant of how the skill functioned on PTS. I wonder if the incorrect display value is because, technically, all Major and Minor Armor buffs scale, all players are just the same level? So the tooltip is passing the information through Sharp's level and showing what he'd receive if he got Major Resolve, but players receive 5948.

Is there any way to test if Major and Minor Resolve apply smaller amounts of Armor to companions through skills like Frost Cloak and Blessing of Protection?

phaneub17_ESO · June 2023

Okay I get the problem. Sleetmail has two separate effects and you're confused that they are one in the same, that the 1802 armor equates to 20% damage reduction, when they are actually different bonuses. The first effect is applying a 20% damage reduction party cloak like Ritual of Salvation, a separate secondary effect is the 1802 armor. It's granting two bonuses, double the mitigation.

As for the armor the Major Resolve is applying, it would be based on the receiving target's level so that's a good catch. The tooltip is displaying what it would apply to Sharp-as-Night not the player where player skills so what it applies to you. There are no player version of Major Resolve that can target companions and only Blessing of Protection from Restoration Staff can target companions with Minor Resolve.

PrinceShroob · June 2023

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Okay I get the problem. Sleetmail has two separate effects and you're confused that they are one in the same, that the 1802 armor equates to 20% damage reduction, when they are actually different bonuses. The first effect is applying a 20% damage reduction party cloak like Ritual of Salvation, a separate secondary effect is the 1802 armor. It's granting two bonuses, double the mitigation.

Based on my reading of the tooltip, Sharp gains a 20% damage reduction and no additional Armor, while allies gain Major Resolve instead.

Admittedly sometimes the tooltips are ambiguous as to whether "allies" includes the caster. I'm not sure if there's any way to check whether Sharp is actually gaining the 1802 Armor. If he is, then the tooltip should probably say "Sharp-as-Night gains 1802 Physical and Spell Resistance and allies gain Major Resolve, increasing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948, for 6 seconds" so that it's clear that the casting companion and players gain different Armor values.

phaneub17_ESO · June 2023

Okay now I'm questioning how this ability functions. You're right, I'm wrong.

The original text on this ability for 9.0.0 is as follows

Companion conjures ice armor for themselves and their grouped allies which grants Major Resolve, increasing Physical and Spell Resistance by 1802 for 5 seconds.

The armor buff was true that it worked on himself and party members when it was first released.

After some feedback, it was changed in 9.0.3

Sleetmail:
When Sharp casts Sleetmail, he now applies a 20% Reduce Damage Taken Buff. It will still apply Major Resolve to up to five other allies.
The Reduced Damage Taken buff and Major Resolve now have a duration of 6 seconds.

S'rendarr addon shows only the Major Resolve affecting me, it shows on him just "Sleetmail" but there's no way to tell what the effect actually is without a companion stat sheet.

So actually he gets the 20% damage reduction to himself exclusively, while players in the party are only getting Major Resolve portion of the ability. Whether or not he's receiving any Major Resolve himself is a mystery.