Tri Focus Exploit in Imperial City.

FoJul · November 2023

This bug was brought to the attention earlier this year, and some said that it was fixed.

I can assure you this bug is not fixed, as i got 1 shotted the other day by lightning tri-focus. This should not exist, there is no excuse of why it should exist.

There is almost zero counter to this attack, as blocking can only do so much.

(Gopher's PoV)

(FoJul's PoV)

This was during hours where their wasn't many ppl in IC, but I assure you if there was 4 or 5 of us there this guy would've killed us all with tri focus.

If this is not an exploit, can we please see a nerf to lightning tri-focus.

LunaFlora · November 2023

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

FoJul · November 2023

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

thats the thing, im a dk with 36k resistances and Daedrick trickery. If anyone should not die, it is me. This SHOULD NOT exist in any form of PvP.

Gopher · November 2023

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

Incorrect. It is an exploit due to the fact that if a group of players are together and someone attacks with a lightning staff it will only do around max 5k dmg to the main person, and also putting that 5k dmg to those around.

Due to the fact that this person is attacking a PVE mob, the damage is changed to match PVE numbers, and due to the tri-focus passive, it is then putting PVE dmg into a PVP situation, which allows for near one shots.

gariondavey · November 2023

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

I took 60k damage in 1 tick from a heavy attacker.
I had 51k hp as a mag warden with 30k resists.

Oblivion_Protocol · November 2023

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

I actually agree with part of your statement. It isn’t an exploit because that implies that something isn’t working correctly, the company doesn’t know about it, and players are taking advantage of it (e.g., a proc set firing regardless of its conditions being met).

Tri-Focus is functioning exactly as intended…and that’s the problem. Lightning staff splash damage is bypassing checks put into place to limit damage while in PvP areas. When you can apply that 105k parse to human players as is, something has gone wrong.

And ZoS knows it’s a problem because they implemented a fix. The splash damage used to occur with every tick instead of only the last one. They thought that limiting it to the last tick would give people time to block or dodge or respond. The lightning staff is the latest victim of a PvE nerf as a result of an attempt to nerf PvP (yes, I’m still salty about the Plaguebreak change).

Anyone with eyes can tell you that there are dozens of particle effects filling up the screen at any given time during big combats. No one is going to see one line of lightning and immediately determine whether it’s from a teammate or an enemy in two seconds. Nor are they going to run from every lightning bolt they see.

You’re left with situations where anybody with a finger to hold down left click can kill individuals like FoJul, whose DK should be surviving nukes, let alone heavy attacks.

FoJul · November 2023

Oblivion_Protocol wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

I actually agree with part of your statement. It isn’t an exploit because that implies that something isn’t working correctly, the company doesn’t know about it, and players are taking advantage of it (e.g., a proc set firing regardless of its conditions being met).

Tri-Focus is functioning exactly as intended…and that’s the problem. Lightning staff splash damage is bypassing checks put into place to limit damage while in PvP areas. When you can apply that 105k parse to human players as is, something has gone wrong.

And ZoS knows it’s a problem because they implemented a fix. The splash damage used to occur with every tick instead of only the last one. They thought that limiting it to the last tick would give people time to block or dodge or respond. The lightning staff is the latest victim of a PvE nerf as a result of an attempt to nerf PvP (yes, I’m still salty about the Plaguebreak change).

Anyone with eyes can tell you that there are dozens of particle effects filling up the screen at any given time during big combats. No one is going to see one line of lightning and immediately determine whether it’s from a teammate or an enemy in two seconds. Nor are they going to run from every lightning bolt they see.

You’re left with situations where anybody with a finger to hold down left click can kill individuals like FoJul, whose DK should be surviving nukes, let alone heavy attacks.

Regardless, if it wasn't intended or not intended. People are coming into IC and abusing the mechanic.

Necrotech_Master · November 2023

they never actually fixed this, they just made it so that the 2 channeled ticks from the lightning staff dont benefit from the tri-focus passive

sure it reduced their aoe dmg by about 50%, but the 3rd tick is also the strongest

Dekrypted wrote: »

Add a condition onto Tri Focus where its effect only effects monsters.
Exploit/Unintended outcome: Fixed

Add a secondary effect onto Tri Focus passive to resolve the removal of the current from all areas of combat so the heavy attack lads/lasses don't have a heart attack on the forums: Fixed

if they did that, then it would be a huge massive nerf to pvp for a lightning staff user

tri-focus is an odd case because if you applied battle spirit to the passive

in the case of attacking a player and another player receiving splash dmg, the splash would be getting hit by battle spirit twice (once since its applied on the dmg from the initial attack, and again from the trifocus passive, which would be a 75% reduction in dmg before the splash targets mitigation came into play)

the case that is "bypassing" battle spirit is when the initial target is a monster, and the splash target is a player, in this case there is effectively no battle spirit being applied, and the base dmg is significantly more boosted due to attacking a monster (in this case the heavy attack is receiving buffs that only apply to monsters such as empower and HA sets), which is then passed 100% onto players because its effectively bypassing battle spirit

the change that was done before was they just removed tri-focus from applying to the 2 channeled ticks, which reduced lightning staff splash dmg, but didnt actually resolve this issue of the passive being able to bypass battle spirit entirely

CameraBeardThePirate · November 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

they never actually fixed this, they just made it so that the 2 channeled ticks from the lightning staff dont benefit from the tri-focus passive

sure it reduced their aoe dmg by about 50%, but the 3rd tick is also the strongest

Dekrypted wrote: »

Add a condition onto Tri Focus where its effect only effects monsters.
Exploit/Unintended outcome: Fixed

Add a secondary effect onto Tri Focus passive to resolve the removal of the current from all areas of combat so the heavy attack lads/lasses don't have a heart attack on the forums: Fixed

if they did that, then it would be a huge massive nerf to pvp for a lightning staff user

tri-focus is an odd case because if you applied battle spirit to the passive

in the case of attacking a player and another player receiving splash dmg, the splash would be getting hit by battle spirit twice (once since its applied on the dmg from the initial attack, and again from the trifocus passive, which would be a 75% reduction in dmg before the splash targets mitigation came into play)

the case that is "bypassing" battle spirit is when the initial target is a monster, and the splash target is a player, in this case there is effectively no battle spirit being applied, and the base dmg is significantly more boosted due to attacking a monster (in this case the heavy attack is receiving buffs that only apply to monsters such as empower and HA sets), which is then passed 100% onto players because its effectively bypassing battle spirit

the change that was done before was they just removed tri-focus from applying to the 2 channeled ticks, which reduced lightning staff splash dmg, but didnt actually resolve this issue of the passive being able to bypass battle spirit entirely

I don't think removing Tri-Focus from affecting other players would be a very big nerf to be honest. You wont be getting much damage from Tri-Focus (outside of this exploit) because 1) heavy attacks take time and make you a sitting duck, and 2) against players, the final tick is often dodged, negating Tri-Focus completely.

Necrotech_Master · November 2023

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

they never actually fixed this, they just made it so that the 2 channeled ticks from the lightning staff dont benefit from the tri-focus passive

sure it reduced their aoe dmg by about 50%, but the 3rd tick is also the strongest

Dekrypted wrote: »

Add a condition onto Tri Focus where its effect only effects monsters.
Exploit/Unintended outcome: Fixed

Add a secondary effect onto Tri Focus passive to resolve the removal of the current from all areas of combat so the heavy attack lads/lasses don't have a heart attack on the forums: Fixed

if they did that, then it would be a huge massive nerf to pvp for a lightning staff user

tri-focus is an odd case because if you applied battle spirit to the passive

in the case of attacking a player and another player receiving splash dmg, the splash would be getting hit by battle spirit twice (once since its applied on the dmg from the initial attack, and again from the trifocus passive, which would be a 75% reduction in dmg before the splash targets mitigation came into play)

the case that is "bypassing" battle spirit is when the initial target is a monster, and the splash target is a player, in this case there is effectively no battle spirit being applied, and the base dmg is significantly more boosted due to attacking a monster (in this case the heavy attack is receiving buffs that only apply to monsters such as empower and HA sets), which is then passed 100% onto players because its effectively bypassing battle spirit

the change that was done before was they just removed tri-focus from applying to the 2 channeled ticks, which reduced lightning staff splash dmg, but didnt actually resolve this issue of the passive being able to bypass battle spirit entirely

I don't think removing Tri-Focus from affecting other players would be a very big nerf to be honest. You wont be getting much damage from Tri-Focus (outside of this exploit) because 1) heavy attacks take time and make you a sitting duck, and 2) against players, the final tick is often dodged, negating Tri-Focus completely.

possibly, depends on the situation likely, such as if your just blind firing into a zerg, someone may not see it coming to dodge it or are stunned from some other effect

in like a 1v1? no it probably wont do much, the only time that it would probably benefit in a 1v1 would be against a sorc with pets or a warden with a bear

CameraBeardThePirate · November 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

they never actually fixed this, they just made it so that the 2 channeled ticks from the lightning staff dont benefit from the tri-focus passive

sure it reduced their aoe dmg by about 50%, but the 3rd tick is also the strongest

Dekrypted wrote: »

Add a condition onto Tri Focus where its effect only effects monsters.
Exploit/Unintended outcome: Fixed

Add a secondary effect onto Tri Focus passive to resolve the removal of the current from all areas of combat so the heavy attack lads/lasses don't have a heart attack on the forums: Fixed

if they did that, then it would be a huge massive nerf to pvp for a lightning staff user

tri-focus is an odd case because if you applied battle spirit to the passive

in the case of attacking a player and another player receiving splash dmg, the splash would be getting hit by battle spirit twice (once since its applied on the dmg from the initial attack, and again from the trifocus passive, which would be a 75% reduction in dmg before the splash targets mitigation came into play)

the case that is "bypassing" battle spirit is when the initial target is a monster, and the splash target is a player, in this case there is effectively no battle spirit being applied, and the base dmg is significantly more boosted due to attacking a monster (in this case the heavy attack is receiving buffs that only apply to monsters such as empower and HA sets), which is then passed 100% onto players because its effectively bypassing battle spirit

the change that was done before was they just removed tri-focus from applying to the 2 channeled ticks, which reduced lightning staff splash dmg, but didnt actually resolve this issue of the passive being able to bypass battle spirit entirely

I don't think removing Tri-Focus from affecting other players would be a very big nerf to be honest. You wont be getting much damage from Tri-Focus (outside of this exploit) because 1) heavy attacks take time and make you a sitting duck, and 2) against players, the final tick is often dodged, negating Tri-Focus completely.

possibly, depends on the situation likely, such as if your just blind firing into a zerg, someone may not see it coming to dodge it or are stunned from some other effect

in like a 1v1? no it probably wont do much, the only time that it would probably benefit in a 1v1 would be against a sorc with pets or a warden with a bear

Even into a zerg, my point was moreso that lightning heavies simply don't do too much damage these days (again, outside of the battle spirit bypass) with many of the HA buffs being removed from PvP.

Necrotech_Master · November 2023

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

CameraBeardThePirate wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

they never actually fixed this, they just made it so that the 2 channeled ticks from the lightning staff dont benefit from the tri-focus passive

sure it reduced their aoe dmg by about 50%, but the 3rd tick is also the strongest

Dekrypted wrote: »

Add a condition onto Tri Focus where its effect only effects monsters.
Exploit/Unintended outcome: Fixed

Add a secondary effect onto Tri Focus passive to resolve the removal of the current from all areas of combat so the heavy attack lads/lasses don't have a heart attack on the forums: Fixed

if they did that, then it would be a huge massive nerf to pvp for a lightning staff user

tri-focus is an odd case because if you applied battle spirit to the passive

in the case of attacking a player and another player receiving splash dmg, the splash would be getting hit by battle spirit twice (once since its applied on the dmg from the initial attack, and again from the trifocus passive, which would be a 75% reduction in dmg before the splash targets mitigation came into play)

the case that is "bypassing" battle spirit is when the initial target is a monster, and the splash target is a player, in this case there is effectively no battle spirit being applied, and the base dmg is significantly more boosted due to attacking a monster (in this case the heavy attack is receiving buffs that only apply to monsters such as empower and HA sets), which is then passed 100% onto players because its effectively bypassing battle spirit

the change that was done before was they just removed tri-focus from applying to the 2 channeled ticks, which reduced lightning staff splash dmg, but didnt actually resolve this issue of the passive being able to bypass battle spirit entirely

I don't think removing Tri-Focus from affecting other players would be a very big nerf to be honest. You wont be getting much damage from Tri-Focus (outside of this exploit) because 1) heavy attacks take time and make you a sitting duck, and 2) against players, the final tick is often dodged, negating Tri-Focus completely.

possibly, depends on the situation likely, such as if your just blind firing into a zerg, someone may not see it coming to dodge it or are stunned from some other effect

in like a 1v1? no it probably wont do much, the only time that it would probably benefit in a 1v1 would be against a sorc with pets or a warden with a bear

Even into a zerg, my point was moreso that lightning heavies simply don't do too much damage these days (again, outside of the battle spirit bypass) with many of the HA buffs being removed from PvP.

true with mostly everyone building tanky these days, it wont be a lot

stuff like 2h still has a splash passive, but its also a lot harder to use that in a heavy attack build due to being melee, but its also way less telegraphed than a lightning heavy

Sleep724 · November 2023

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

You're probably using this exploit with an answer like that.

SandandStars · December 2023

It’s one of the things that really sours this game. There are always significant bugs that people exploit. Sigh.

LunaFlora · December 2023

Sleep724 wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

not an exploit.
they're just using a lightning staff.

more health and resistance would probably help you.

You're probably using this exploit with an answer like that.

i just use lightning staves, because it's the most accessible weapon for me.

when i made my comment i didn't know the damage was due to someone attacking monsters with players nearby.
which a few people did explain, but you only accused me of exploiting something i wasn't aware of possibly being an exploit.

if that's not supposed to be possibile then i agree it should be changed.