Viral Proc; Bug Or Working As Intended? (Image Heavy)

[Acos]

I was testing out proc effects today, and noticed strange behavior with the Viral Proc specifically. To my knowledge, the way the Viral Proc is meant to work is that it reduces the maximum amount of health an enemy has by 50% HP. The common example being that an enemy with 2000/2000 HP affected by the Viral Proc would be reduced to 1000/1000 HP, and then after six seconds when the Viral Proc wears off he would have a health value of 1000/2000 HP as the lost health is not restored when the Viral Proc wears off, but the maximum amount of health he CAN have is. 

However, my observations today instead have the viral proc wearing off and the lost health being restored. So instead of the above behavior we have the 2000/2000 Hp being reduced to 1000/1000 HP, and then being restored back up to 2000/2000 HP after the Viral Proc wears off. Below are some screenshots I took to help visually demonstrate what I'm talking about: 



Here is a fine example of an Eximus Unit going about his Eximus Unit day; terrified for his life and conveniently locking the doors so no other Corpus can interfere with my experiments. You'll notice that he is currently quite healthy. 



You'll notice now he is afflicted with the viral proc after being injected with a round form my Tysis. Note that my Tysis is only equipped with Pistol Pestilence and Frostbite to ensure 100% proc chance with as little damage as possible. As we expect the total amount of health he has is about 50% of what it was in the previous picture. Note also that he has the majority of his shielding still intact, so the damage afflicted to him cannot be due to some other source as it would have depleted his shields first. 



Several seconds later, however, the viral proc has worn off and his health has returned to the previous display, as though our interaction had never occurred. Again, we are the only two people in this room, so it is not possible that he had received some outside source of healing at the exact moment the viral proc wore off. 

Once more to make sure this was not a fluke


Repeated applications of the Viral Proc result in the same observed effect; his health is reduced to 50%, and then restored again once the proc effect wears off. 

So the question I ask to the developers or anyone with better knowledge of the effects of this proc than I: Is this a bug, or the intended behavior of this proc effect? Considering the frequency that the Viral Proc has its' mechanics changed, I'm hesitant to declare it either way.  



 

[Feallike]

That's how Viral works, its a limited debuff. It didn't take away their HP, just reduced their max for a bit.

[Rompido]

That's how Viral works, its a limited debuff. It didn't take away their HP, just reduced their max for a bit.

[(PSN)Lord_Azden]

IIRC, the viral proc is based on the percent of health and not the actual numbers

[Issun135]

That's how Viral works, its a limited debuff. It didn't take away their HP, just reduced their max for a bit.

yep and if it did some thing like that and say cut 1000/2000 hp to 500/2000 hp then well then the only element we would have to mod for was viral.

[Acos]

That seems a very simple statement to make when several forum posts in the past describe Viral procs to work in the way described in my first paragraph. The wikia gives a similar example as well. I'm really looking for any sort of evidence that this is how the proc is supposed to work rather than affirmation of my observations. Clearly I am aware of how it is currently functioning or I wouldn't have made a forum post describing it. I'd like to know whether or not it was or is intended to function in the way described on the wikia and various other forum posts from other players. 

EDIT: To my knowledge, it has always affected the maximum health, not the current health. For example, a viral proc going off at 1000/2000 health would reduce the current health to 1000/1000, not 500/2000. 

I'm planning on making an edit to the wikia based on this topic, so I'd like confirmation that this isn't simply a bug and that the wikia and the observation of other players is simply wrong. 

Edited November 1, 2014 by Acos

[taiiat]

that's how Viral is supposed to work, far as i recall. temporarily lowers their Health, but returns to it's previous state once it wears off - minus any Health Damage it took from other sources.

 

 

it's how it works on Tenno atleast, i don't really think i'd have it any other way tbh. if Tenno getting a Viral Effect would always deal 50% of our Health in Damage, it wouldn't be a temporary debuff - it would be a giant DPS source.

 

 

i've always thought that Viral Effects reduced current and maximum Health, and then reset it to where it started once it runs out, minus any other Damage taken.

 

 

Edit:

i don't know if that's intended, but this functionality makes sense to me.

Edited November 1, 2014 by taiiat

[Lunamaniac]

Why do people comment when they have no idea what they're talking about?  For a long time viral has operated in the way OP describes.  This change is a recent development which likely came in with U15 and the status duration mods.

[Dromeos-Prime]

Why do people comment when they have no idea what they're talking about?  For a long time viral has operated in the way OP describes.  This change is a recent development which likely came in with U15 and the status duration mods.

The change was on update 12: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_2.0/Viral_Damage

[Acos]

The change was on update 12: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_2.0/Viral_Damage

 

You realize the thing you linked too describes exactly what I described in my first paragraph, yes? This is, in fact, the wikia I was referring too as having incorrect information based on my current observations. Which is precisely why I am looking for confirmation that this is the intended function of the viral proc. 

Edited November 1, 2014 by Acos