Return of Reckoning

Hey.
I cant verify what should be the correct behaviour for this particular skill, so before i submit a bug ticket i would like to gather some knowledge.
I'm copying a message i put on discord some time ago:
'Engineer's ability Bugman's Best says that every 3 seconds for 15 seconds it will heal in an AoE. Normally what i would expect from this type of ability is that it should proc 6 times during this time period -> once upon cast and then 5 times during that 15 second time window. That's how for example Focused fire ability works, 'attack every second for up to 3 seconds' means it will attack 4 times during 3sec window. The same applies for other classes, for example i tested on my archmage that dissipating energies actually hits targets 6 times during that 5 second window. Now when it comes to engineers' keg there is no heal proc when the ability ends, the last heal happens when there is 3 seconds of abilitiy duration left, so 5 heal procs in total.'
Would that be a case of ability working incorrectly, or just these types of abilities are not unified and some work different from the others?

There are some inconsistencies here. Some things will tick at t=0 while others won't.
But there are some general rules:

• AOE damage dots from melee classes/specs and damage channels from any class will tick at t=0.
  AOE Dot example:
  

• AOE damage dots from ranged classes/specs will not tick at t=0.
  AOE Ranged Dot example:
  

• ST damage dots will usually not tick at t=0:
  
  but there are some that will:
  

• Heal over time (hots) will not tick at t=0:
  

• But there are also ground targeted abilities
  - Disolving Mist from Magus only hits 14 times over 30 s (no start or end tick)
  - I assume the same thing goes for Napalm but haven't checked
  - Tzeentch's Firestorm and Pit of Shades have both start and end ticks
  - I assume the same for Engi's Phosphorous Shells and BW's Rain of Fire
  - Zealot/RP heal ritual/rune has both a start and end tick
  - and apparently Bugman's Best has no start tick but has an end tick

I assume that ground targeted abilities work differently in a case by case manner due to balancing decisions, but if they were to adhere to the rest of the cases then I'd imagine that:
- Disolving Mist + Napalm should work like AOE damage dots from ranged classes --> no start tick but end tick
- Firestorm + Pit of Shades + Phosporous Shells + RoF all work properly like damage channels (both start and end tick)
- The Zeal/RP Heal ritual/mark + Bugman's Best should work like AOE hots --> no tick at 0 (Bugmans works this way but the ritual/mark don't)
There is of course the issue of them counting as direct heals which is a pretty important difference compared to Hots in the case of Zealot and RP. I suspect this is an intentional exception so it really is up to the balance team for how Bugmans Best should also work.

leftayparxoun wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2025 5:12 pm - The Zeal/RP Heal ritual/mark + Bugman's Best should work like AOE hots --> no tick at 0 (Bugmans works this way but the ritual/mark don't)
There is of course the issue of them counting as direct heals which is a pretty important difference compared to Hots in the case of Zealot and RP. I suspect this is an intentional exception so it really is up to the balance team for how Bugmans Best should also work.

It is confusing as from my testing it turns out Bugmans has an inital tick, but doesnt have an end one. Thanks for the answer nontheless, i guess i will leave it as it.

PROsiak wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2025 5:45 pm

leftayparxoun wrote: Wed Feb 19, 2025 5:12 pm - The Zeal/RP Heal ritual/mark + Bugman's Best should work like AOE hots --> no tick at 0 (Bugmans works this way but the ritual/mark don't)
There is of course the issue of them counting as direct heals which is a pretty important difference compared to Hots in the case of Zealot and RP. I suspect this is an intentional exception so it really is up to the balance team for how Bugmans Best should also work.

It is confusing as from my testing it turns out Bugmans has an inital tick, but doesnt have an end one. Thanks for the answer nontheless, i guess i will leave it as it.

That's even weirder

It is perplexing because, according to my testing, Bugmans has an initial tick but no end one. I appreciate your response, but I suppose I'll leave it at that.