Directional Area of Effect Vectors and Templates

[En1gma]

There has been much discussion as of late as to the effects of Directional Area of Effect (AoE) Abilities. I have made several charts outlining the behaviors I have observed and I offer them to you for your scrutiny.

    The Abilities that make use of Directional AoE vectors are: 

      

Lightning Spear- Vincent's starting ability begins as a 4 square effect, then upgrades to a 6 square wedge at level 5, then upgrades again to a 10 square wedge at level 10. 

Torrent of Steel- What once was Tamilin's lone empowered melee attack recently received a major overhaul: It begins as a single target attack, at level 3 it gains AoE, where it will target opponents in adjacent squares. Its 5th level expands its AoE template to a 4 square effect.

Ranged Onslaught- Tamilin's final ability begins as a 4 square effect, expands to a 6 square wedge at level 4, then expands again to a 10 square wedge at level 9

Pinning Shot- Selen's ability begins as a three-square effect, at level 5 it upgrades to a 4 space square effect, then upgrades to a 6 square wedge effect at level 8

The Rules of Directional Area of Effect Templates: 

- You will NEVER hit a target that is between the user of the ability and of the Target Enemy. EVER. These abilities hit their mark, then travel downrange, with one exception, stated below.

- The Templates will ALWAYS attempt to fill in the SIDES of the angles FIRST. If the ability is unable to target more than those occupying the sides, then NO enemies WITHIN the templates will be targeted. To increase the effectiveness of directional AoE, Sorcery must be increased. Ranged Onslaught and Pinning Shot do NOT have a limit to the number of targets here, as they have nothing to limit their target count.

- If you are exactly perpendicular (EXACT SAME row or column OR if you are EXACTLY diagonal) to the enemy, the template used will be 180 Degrees, and will run EXACTLY perpendicular relative to your position. If you are on a DIAGONAL, the template will follow on the perpendicular angles. If you're on a ROW, it will follow the Column, and vice versa.

- The Templates used if you are NOT on EXACT rows/columns/diagonals will ALWAYS become 135 Degrees. This means that ONE ROW AND ONE DIAGONAL (Past the 90 Degree mark) will ALWAYS be included. Which of each is dependent on the attack vector used, and there are examples below.

- Higher levels of this ability have the capability of skipping over empty spaces and affecting targets that are within the template but not adjacent to the Target Enemy.

- In order for the Directional Vector Template to take effect, you must HIT THE INTENDED TARGET. If the attack misses, the attack stops there, without rolling to hit further targets. MISSING and SOAK are completely different- if the Target Enemy SOAKS the damage, the game will roll to hit further opponents, possibly doing damage in the process. MISSING the enemy will not allow the AoE to take effect whatsoever. Pay attention to enemy reactions to determine if the attack was successful- if the enemy twitches violently to the LEFT, the attack was successful (SOAK follows this animation, but may not deal damage). If the enemy moves forward, draws weapons/body parts/etc inward or in any direction other than LEFT, the attack missed, and no further rolls will be made for that attack.

Understand that while these charts I have made are the best approximation of how these abilities work, YOU must try them out and develop your own feel for how they work!! I cannot guarantee you will hit EVERYTHING within the vectors, but this will give you an idea as to how they work.

These three abilities are a game of angles and take one of two angles for their templates.  

1. The first vector takes the shape of ~135 degree angle and is an obtuse shape. This template flattens slightly and there is some randomization (I think) as to how the targets are selected past those touching the vector angle itself, but this template seems to be the most effective out of the two, as Selen hits as many as 5 targets on a 4 target template. This template occurs when you are at ANY ANGLE OTHER THAN EXACTLY 90 DEGREES. 

2. The second template ONLY occurs when: 1. Your TE and intended targets are EXACTLY PERPENDICULAR to you, or 2. When you are EXACTLY ON a true diagonal attack vector. When this template activates, the effect hits targets at a 90 degree angle to your TE, resulting in a 180 degree flat template that flattens out completely, hitting much wider, but it is a shallow template, not hitting too far from the front line. 

-------------------------------------

KEY:

PC= Player Character using Directional AoE Ability

TE= Target Enemy

E= Enemies also affected by AoE ability used

?= NEED CONFORMATION from someone who has used the largest templates

!= This is used to indicate the 6+ square wedge template used by higher level abilities.

This is an example of the ~135 degree template, note the position and the angle of the PC to the TE.

							E?
						E	E?
PC					E	E	E?
				TE	E	E!
				E	E	E!
				E	E!
				E!

This is the example of the 180 degree template. Note that the TE MUST be in the SAME ROW OR COLUMN! if it is one square away, refer to the ~135 degree template

			E!
			E	E!
			E	E	E?
PC			TE	E	E!?
			E	E	E?
			E	E!
			E!

Diagonal attack vector. 180 degree template. PC EXACTLY diagonal to TE.

PC
					E!
				E	E!
			TE	E	E!
		E	E	E	E?
	E!	E!	E!	E?	E?

135 degree template, note that if PC was one square east, the template would switch to the 180 degree template.

PC							E?
						E	E?
					E	E	E?
				TE	E	E	E?
				E	E	E!
				E	E!
				E!

Remember that your results may vary depending on your angle of attack.

As I encounter more examples I will add charts... I hope that this is enough to give most people an idea of how the Directional AoE templates work in this deep and infinitely complex beast of a game. If there is anything I got wrong or need to fix, PLEASE let me know- this is meant to clear up any confusion about how the Directional Vectors are implemented, so feel free to ask questions!! Happy slaying!

Allow me to reiterate: Directional Vectors WILL NOT hit any targets between the PC and the Target Enemy- so clever positioning will be needed to include as many enemies as possible.

<<<Likely Bug Alert>>> Until further notice, when firing from true EAST TO WEST, NO targets to the SOUTH of the attack vector will be targeted. If anyone is able to confirm that hits are connecting on this attack vector, PLEASE be sure to let me know, as I want this thread to be as accurate as possible!!! 

[hobiecat]

Exalt +1!

[tenbsmith]

Well done sir.

[contributor]

From what I can see, it looks pretty good. I'm actually more of a play by feel guy than figure everything out ahead of time. I'm pretty sure that he will go a full 3 behind the front guy, in the 180 diagram but maybe not. I also know that at higher levels it can really skip a lot. Meaning that people do have to be exactly adjacent. There can be gaps between them and it will still chain. Really just go get LS 10 and have a blast. Combine it with as much Eye of The Storm as you can and just watch it melt whole armies in gobs of charred flesh. My LS 10 group did the Gates of Gholla Outlook on Nightmare with no deaths. It was just epic. Vince had a few single attacks with probably 700 damage and easily went over 1000 on a lot of full turns. The more the merrier!

[En1gma]

If not contributor, than can anyone confirm the 10 square effects? It's the only glaring issue I have with my OP and I would really like to get rid of the question marks.

[slayernz]

I haven't gotten RO up past level 4 yet - the problem was that I started using it at level 19. I'll be investing significantly into RO as I level up, but the drawback I have with RO is the high amounts of SP used. I'm not saying that the SP cost is excessive - but it means that when I finally get to a high level of RO, I might only be able to use it a few times before I need to imbibe on lots of SP potions

[fallen]

En1gma - great explanation, +1 for you!

[algesan]

+1, nicely done.

[mataeus]

Good job, plus one

[contributor]

My big problem is that the White Lights have pretty much killed everything off in the game so far. I just did a little more testing in the Braeys side of Bone Pass, which is about the only thing that was left. I don't think was able to confirm a whole lot. It did hit both targets in this configuration

VXXTXXE where V is Vincent, T is the targeted bad guy and E other bad guys hit by the spell. The X's are empty squares. There were no other mobs around. So it looks like this would be a 180 degree configuration and it does in fact hit the third mob directly behind the target. In this case it even skipped two empty squares to do it.

I can also confirm that in the 90 degree diagram it hits the character marked with ! that is the second from the bottom.

I also did one like this. M is a mob that isn't hit. It seems like this confirm your 135 degree diagram, but not the back row.

VXXXXX
XXXXXX
XXXXXM
XXTEEX
XXXXXX
XEXXXX

I don't know if that helps.

[crimsonking]

I personally agree with the developers that experience is needed to acquire the skill needed for optimal use of these talents. However, as other people's experience is also experience this thread has good chances to greatly help players in getting accustomed to the vector calculated attack talents.

I'd like to add that there is no such thing as a 90 degree pattern. When attacking from a 45 degree angle you also receive a 180 degree target area like:

V X X X
X X X E
X X T X
X E X X

same notation that lurker used.

[En1gma]

crimsonking I noticed that this morning and I'll be adjusting my table accordingly- thanks everyone for the confirmations and corrections!

[En1gma]

Updated description and corrected charts. Removed a redundant template and corrected to no longer display any 90 degree angle templates. I also started a new game and I'm going to find out for myself how the highest level Lightning Spear operates so I can confirm my own work Seeing the link to this on Facebook I decided that the revisions couldn't wait =)

[tenbsmith]

I'll be coming back to this thread when I get Ranged Onslaught. This'll flatten out the learning curve a bit.

[En1gma]

I'll be updating and confirming/revising this thread today, I've become well acquainted with LS 10, so I'll adjust the charts accordingly.