Arans Combo Barrier bugs other Arans in Party

[4thJobHokage]

In-game Name: 4thJobSeries
Class: Aran
Level: 191
Game Resolution (800, 1200, 1600, 1900): 1200 I think, whatever the default is.

Description of Bug: If 2 Arans are in the same party & one of them uses Combo Barrier, the other Arans combo will stop increasing & the number will fade away as if they aren't doing any hits at all. After the 10 seconds of the combo being "kept" the number will fully fade away & their combo will be at 0. They cannot build back up combo & forever have 0 combo, 0 Combo Ability skill & 0 Combo Critical Skill. After relogging it is fine.
How to Replicate Bug: Get 2 Arans in the same party (I believe separate parties, same map doesn't produce the bug, not sure though, would need to test) & have 1 Aran use Combo Barrier while the other Aran is building up Combo.
Additional Notes (optional): The bug happened to both myself & IGN Whisky. When he Barrier'd I had to relog & when I Barrier'd he had to relog.

 

[yuna]

Does this only happen when you're close to each other by any chance? Or does it occur 100% while in party, regardless of proximity?

Also it appears the combo starts counting again after attacking a few times, is this the case as well for you?

 

[4thJobHokage]

Does this only happen when you're close to each other by any chance? Or does it occur 100% while in party, regardless of proximity?

Also it appears the combo starts counting again after attacking a few times, is this the case as well for you?

I haven't tested it out very much, this was all on one Chaos Zakum run. For me though the combo never starts counting again. I'll attack during the whole 10 second window where combo can be kept, but it will fade away. Even after that I just won't see any combo counter on screen, so it's like it's perpetually 0. I assume if I were in the same party as someone & they used it far enough away that I didn't get Barrier'd that nothing would happen, but I haven't really tested it.

 

[yuna]

Got it thank you, before I continue please let me know if you find any additional clues regarding this. Combo counts should not be impacting other arans, but its possible its due to this being a party buff. A naive solution would be to make Combo Barrier a solo buff - should we consider that?

 

[4thJobHokage]

Got it thank you, before I continue please let me know if you find any additional clues regarding this. Combo counts should not be impacting other arans, but its possible its due to this being a party buff. A naive solution would be to make Combo Barrier a solo buff - should we consider that?

Sounds good, I'll try to do more tests with it. It's quite rare 2 Arans are in the same party from my experience, so it may be awhile before I test it (but it also may be a long time before it impacts me again, so not a huge deal if this change takes awhile imo, the skill only doesn't work in a niche-ish scenario). I don't think it being a solo buff would be a good change, tbh I think it should be buffed for party play.

The nice thing about this party skill is that it actually makes Arans useful vs a single target boss. In general Arans accel at bosses where Cleave is important & if SE is present (without SE other Cleave classes > Aran), but are "meh" vs single target bosses (Castellan Toad for example), & Arans like Dawn Warriors don't have Crash, so they're seen as DPS to add after a party gets a Crasher, but the priority is to get a Crasher, get SE, get HS, then get an Aran as they don't have a useful party skill that helps everyone. At Von Leon for example it's better to bring an HBer even if you already have a Crasher, because if HB gets dispelled it can just be used again, while Aran can only Barrier at 200 Combo. Initially my strategy on VL for example in theory was to just hold combo as high as I could so that I had extra combo & could Barrier whenever I needed, but with Combo Attack/Combo Critical only working if combo dips below 100, this isn't a viable strategy, so in the end the Barrier isn't very useful. Luckily at Castellan Toad, body 1 does less damage, I can build combo & keep Barrier up forever as Castellan doesn't dispel, so anyone that can tank body 1, but can't tank body 2 can come without HB if an Aran is there. Most high level bosses dispel though (CHT, CZAK, VL, I have never PB'd or Empressed so idk those) which makes barrier kinda meh, even when it's a party skill. Both The Boss & Castellan Toad I can bring people along who normally get 1-hit & Barrier is a large part of what makes an Aran useful at these two single target bosses.

To be honest, my suggestion would be to make Combo Barrier un-dispel-able since it cannot be cast right away after a dispel, & to keep it as a party skill (even if it went down from 30% to say 25% damage reduction). Using Barrier is still a choice where an Aran loses DPS as they could have done 2 rounds of building combo to 190 then using Combo Fenrir to for example hit 6 targets (CHT Head A, B, C, Wings, Right Hand, Left Hand), or they could go up to 290 Combo once & use a Barrier to help party members, maybe someone died & is no longer in Mega Buff, so a Barrier as they are Res'd is good, or maybe there is only one HBer, so one party gets an HBer & one party gets an Aran if that's what's available).

Maybe other Arans will chime in, but personally I would take 20~25% Combo Barrier Party skill (can't be dispelled) > 30% Barrier (Party, can be dispelled) > even 40% Barrier Solo.

Sorry, sometimes I'm bad at being concise, lol.

 

[4thJobHokage]

Does this only happen when you're close to each other by any chance? Or does it occur 100% while in party, regardless of proximity?

Also it appears the combo starts counting again after attacking a few times, is this the case as well for you?

Got a bit more information on this, although something has changed... This time both Whisky & I's combo did start counting again after Barrier was used. We still lost 200 combo if the other person used, but after that everything worked as normal. Not sure what is different between the first instance of this & now.

 

[4thJobHokage]

Bump.

Have had more experience with this, just to confirm, if 2 Arans in the same map, but not in the same party the bug does not happen. If 2 Arans in the same party, but far enough apart the bug does not happen (as in too far away to Barrier each other). If 2 Arans are in the same party & within Barriers range, if 1 Aran uses Barrier the other Aran will at minimum lose 200 combo, & at maximum they will lose all of their combo and be unable to regain combo again until they relog. Normally it's somewhere in between those two, where the other Aran loses all combo, & can't gain combo again for 10~30 seconds, but sometimes it's infinite. I am unsure what is different between each of these cases.

 

[yuna]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a good solution apart from making Combo Barrier a solo buff. For the time being, I'll make it a solo buff so that these issues don't prevent multiple arans from partying-up.

 

[4thJobHokage]

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a good solution apart from making Combo Barrier a solo buff. For the time being, I'll make it a solo buff so that these issues don't prevent multiple arans from partying-up.

Oof, if that's what you think is best, sure. Currently Combo Barrier is used so that a whole party can survive in Von Leon, Toad, The Boss or Chaos Horntail, so that is a fairly big nerf, but people will just have to find a way to manage, haha.

 

[yuna]

Oof, if that's what you think is best, sure. Currently Combo Barrier is used so that a whole party can survive in Von Leon, Toad, The Boss or Chaos Horntail, so that is a fairly big nerf, but people will just have to find a way to manage, haha.

Agreed, the main driver for this change was the autopot issues; If you have any ideas for alternatives, please let me know, I'll keep this thread unlocked

 

[4thJobHokage]

Agreed, the main driver for this change was the autopot issues; If you have any ideas for alternatives, please let me know, I'll keep this thread unlocked

Oh right, yeah the auto-pot is weird, it seems specifically at Stronghold it doesn't work. I Barrier people at Von Leon, CZAK, etc & it's helpful & let's people with under 15K HP actually fight Von Leon for example, & I haven't heard of any auto-pot issues in those bosses, neither at CHT, but at Stronghold everyone I've went with feels like they're going to die or they do die because auto-pot doesn't work.

 

[Stax]

Is there a way to somehow only make combo barrier a solo buff while in SH? Or disable the ability to use CB in SH all together? The whole point of CB is to be used as a party buff. An aran tanks any boss out there, so they aren’t using it to benefit themselves, it’s for the squishier classes that can barely survive one hit even with the nx medal.

I understand you haven’t been able to find a way to fix CB, and that’s not the end of the world. But to make it a solo buff practically eliminates the skill in its entirety.

 

[yuna]

This is super late but wanted to mention that this bug will be resolved for next patch and will be reverting CB back to being a party skill.