Saryn, Venom And Problems Poping Spores.

[ekental]

I only use a Rank 2 Venom beefed up with Continuity and Focus.

Because, call me crazy if you want, but through my experience with Saryn... spores are ginormous at Rank 2 while in Rank 3, lelz...

 

This. For some reason the rank 3 Spores are just as big as the rank 1 spores. That's clearly a bug. When will it be fixed? who knows.

As for hit detection, it looks like the bigger the mob, the easier it is for spores to get stuck inside the model and not pop. The problem is the big mobs are usually the ones that will give you the opportunity to proc Venom.

Personally I still use rank 3 and just spam cast the right mob. With some practice you can figure out which mobs work better to proc the ability.

 

As for DPS, Venom is hands down the best first tier ability, especially in high tier defense missions. The dmg you can pump out outstrips Miasma provided the mobs have enough hp for it to be worth it, and most importantly it will spread to pretty much 1 side of the map before everything runs out of HP.

[un.bosque]

So here's a list for fixes that keep the mechanic nearly identical to what it is and adress the hitbox overlap issue:

1. Increase spore hitbox size

        A simple fix that would allow players to hit spores that were initially deep within enemy hitboxes.

        Players will still aim at the visual cue of the spore, so the mechanic is nearly identical.

    Potential Problems include:

        Potentially stopping hits from other weapons. Normally not an issue, but imagine getting denied a sniper headshot from this.

        It might also "break the fourth wall to hit enemies with bullets that should have been stray (unless you wanted the spore to look goofy large too).

 

2. Change hitbox to match that of the affected segment (e.g. arm, head) and pop spore on hit of affected segment as well as dealing damage.

        Another simple (at least in comparison to 3 and 4) fix that transforms the ability into a near match of the Banshee's Sonar.

        This would avoid producing unexpected spore colisions off of the target's model.

        Players will still aim at the visual cue of the spore, so the mechanic is nearly identical.

    Potential Problems include:

        Removing the uniqueness of this ability with respect to sonar.

        Another wall breaking problem of hitting spores with bullets that you clearly missed (e.g. Hitting a kneecap spore with a shin shot).

 

3. Change the hit registration mechanic as to allow both spore and segment collision.

        This would allow the spores to remain where they are and keep the mechanic as it was intended completely.

    Potential Problems include:

        This is potentially the most difficult and overreaching solution and would possibly involve giving projectiles some hidden amount of puncure.

 

4. Move spores in a random direction with respect to their initial orgin and keep them locked at this position with respect to their orgin.

        This would displace some spores out of the hitbox of the limbs and allow them to be shot as intended.

    Potential Problems include:

        Clipping issues galore.

        Potentially not fixing the problem for every spore location. 

        May cause spores to float without new art.

        Might involve some fun math for coordinate transformations.

        The same unintended colisions as 1.

 

I don't know for sure how AOE's would affect each of these, but because AOE's aren't affected by sonar, I think 2 would exclude them from popping spores.

 

I really like 2 it sounds like a cheap way to fix the problem without making things appear goofy. If OP likes this post you shoud probably edit your first post to include it or a list like it.