Thanks, as always, to everyone for your questions! You can submit any questions relating to current development plans, to request clarification on basic game mechanic questions, or questions on community issues through the Grab Bag Submission form. For any other feedback or suggestions please use our feedback form.

Continue reading for the questions :)

Why isn’t the shift key available as modifier in /keyboard?

The Shift key is enabled as a modifier by default. It’s not on the /keyboard menu because disabling it would cause some issues with other client functions and keyboard shortcuts.

How big is the falloff/reduction in duration from AoE crowd control spells, like mezz? For example, if someone is at the "far edge" of an AoE mezz, is the mezz potentially only a single second?

The falloff rate from the center point of an AoE is different for the duration of spells versus their damage.

Durations are reduced to half of what the center of the area of effect would be. In other words, a player that is the center of an AoE mesmerize might see a 60s duration mez but if that same character was at the max radius away to still get mesmerized by the same spell they would see a 30s duration mesmerize.

Conversely, for damage-base spells, the effectiveness is reduced all the way down to 0. So a PBAoE that hits for 800 at its center will hit for 0 at max radius away from center.

Falloff for damage over times is unique in that AoE DoTs do not have a reduced damage or duration no matter how far from the center-point of the AoE the target is.

I noticed some gear has an enchantment bonus. Is this considered separate from a buff bonus or do they stack for an enchantment chanter and the other realms mirrors.

The +Enchantment skill bonus generally improves abilities in the Enchantment specialization of Enchanters only. However, this skill is a bit less common these days as most equipment uses the +All Magic skills instead (which would affect all 3 of the Enchanter’s magic skill lines instead of just the Enchantments line).

There is also a “stat enhancement spell effectiveness”  bonus which is a buff% bonus that pertains to any stat-based buffs (strength, constitution, acuity, etc). Meaning if you have 25% of this bonus in your character’s gear, a strength buff that delves on the spell for +40 will grant an additional 25% strength. This stat bonus doesn’t really have much to do with Enchantment Enchanters directly, but it would help Enchanters when casting their self-Armor Factor buff and any Champion Level based stat-buffs they might have.

Before I had my cyclop shield as small so I turned it in for medium and now I want it back to small again since I can use more fun skin for small, can I turn it in and change it? I have done the quest long time ago, and I’m pretty sure when you change and have done the encounter you get it insta lvl10.

If you did the original encounter you can turn it in to change it and receive a level 10 version instantly. If you instead bought the artifact, then leveled it to 10, and then change it for a new small shield version, you’ll need to level it again.

How does the game add multipliers (like duration and range) to spells?  For example, is a 9 second stun with 23% duration 10 or 11 seconds? Is there any rounding or is the decimal always ignored/truncated.

The short answer is that the decimal is always truncated/ignored.

The long answer is that ability duration is mainly determined by these factors: the base duration of the spell, the duration% bonus of the caster, and any magical resists or +crowd control reduction bonuses (realm ability or item-based) on the target. Spell piercing can also play a role indirectly by affecting a target’s magical resists, but that can be extrapolated from the following scenarios:

Scenario 1:
Spell: 9 second duration stun that uses heat magic damage
Caster: 25% spell duration
Target: 50% heat magic resist, 0% cc reduction

Actual stun duration will be 9s * 1.25 for spell duration = 11s (decimal is truncated here), then multiply that by 0.5 due to the magic resist = 5.5s with the decimal truncated again, leaving a 5s duration in-game.

When viewing this exact scenario in-game the tooltip will display “4s” remaining since the tooltip duration counts down to 0 and not to 1. So even though it shows 4s remaining, it’s actually a 5s duration in total.


Scenario 2:
Spell: 9 second duration stun that uses heat magic damage
Caster: 25% spell duration
Target: 50% heat magic resist and 55% cc reduction from determination realm ability.

Actual stun duration will be ((9s * 1.25) * .5) * 0.45 = 2s (again, the decimals are truncated at each step)


Scenario 3:
Spell: 9 second duration stun that uses heat magic damage
Caster: 25% spell duration
Target: 50% heat magic resist and 80% cc reduction from determination realm ability + stoicism.

Actual stun duration will be ((9s * 1.25) * .5) * 0.2 = 1s

Stay safe and sane everyone! :)