Question about afflictions and resistances

[paaka]

I'm a new player coming from PoE1 and doing a PotD run, and the story began when i met the Messenger in Beast of Winter (Neriscyrlas 1st phase?).

Having a tough fight with him, I tried to debuff him in some ways and realized he has Immunity to Intellect afflictions and Resistance to Resolve afflictions. But I heard that resistance to a certain affliction will only downgrade the affliction for 1 grade, e.g. from t3 to t2. So I casted Ryngrim's Enervating Terror on him. The skill hit, and the combat log did show he "resisted terrified" because of the resistance. But neither the combat log or the top-left character status showed he was Frightened, not even Shakened, and the boss continued to cast the hostile spell that he was casting (if he is frigthened he cannot be casting hostile spells?), as if nothing happened.

I was so confused and wondered if its some privilege of this awesome boss that helps him resist some kinds of debuffs, so I tried the same trick on the little mob next to him (i.e., the Luminous Revenant). That mob has Resistance to Intellect afflictions, so I tried using ringleader from Cipher on him. The spell crit and as expected the mob resisted the Dominated effect from the spell. However, it was not Charmed or Confused, at least not shown on the combat log or the character status, and the mob still fighting my party member as if its not charmed.

Am I missing something here? It seems to me nothing has been downgraded but instead the afflictions are getting blocked completely.
 

I couldn't wrap my mind around this for hours and would like to get some help from you guys, thanks in advance!

[Boeroer]

That shouldn't be the case. A resistance to affliction should only downgrade an affliction by one tier - as you said. 

Not sure what's going on in your fight.

Neriscyrlas is a Rogue and will have things like Slippery Mind which can explain certain things.

Also stuff like Spell Resistance could be at work here. This is a different kind of resistance. Instead of downgrading an affliction 1 tier like the "normal" Resistances, Spell Resistance gives X% chance to completely resist (like in ignore) a spell. Some classes (casters) have an ability for that, too. Mageslayers have it naturally.

This also exists with damage resistance (see certain items such as Miscreant's Leather's enchantment "Lucky" or the ability Uncanny Luck). 

This fits the combat log, because the message "resisted x" is usually connected to such "chance"-resistances.

I don't remember exactly which abilities Neriscyrlas holds, but I think some spell resistance etc. is likely.  

Edited October 31 by Boeroer

[paaka]

Sorry for the ambiguity - the exact combat log phrasing is "(Resistance: Intellect Afflictions) resisted Dominated.)", thats why I assumed its about the interaction between affliction and resistance in the first place.

and yeah, its difficult for me to identify which is the exact cause of the issue. I looked through a lot of posts and videos about the boss fight and people usually recommend going for other routes (e.g., constitution afflictions) since it does not have related resistance/immunity. Unfortunately I could not find any videos/screenshots showing people successfully charming/frightening this boss, so I wondered if there is something going wrong with me failing to apply "downgraded afflictions". One question: will the combat log shows the downgraded affliction being successfully applied?

I also made sure the enemy (either Neriscyrlas or the little ad Luminous Revenant) didnt have any buff/spell on paper - it's just Zealous Focus and the resistances and immunities (tho I dunno if there are any hidden passives as you mentioned). Not a single incident - I was trying for quite a number of times making sure its not some weird "chance" passives blocking my afflictions. 

In fact as I played through the game I cannot recall a single incident where I successfully applied a "downgraded affliction". For example, Im playing your build ceaseless siren as mc and was using mental binding a lot - I dont recall successfully immobilizing the foe target. Either its a 100 (paralyze) or 0 (nothing).

Im starting to wonder if I broke the game somehow or had some weird versions of the game lmao. Btw I was only using the community patch and enhanced user interface mods and turned them off to try again and its still the same.

[Chaospread]

There are times when an enemy as some ability that negate ("counter") the effect and than vanish, I find many of these with ice/fire/frost attacks, maybe could be the case, but I'd bet on slippery mind or something like that.

Or it is a bug, try to fight the Oracle with Shimmer Scale upgrade to Warped Scales and you can be hit with Eye of Concelhaut which has keyword "gaze" ... (happened to me last session).

[paaka]

Ok now I'm pretty sure its not something wrong about the boss in particular. I have just loaded my previous saves and tried to experiment on different enemies with different afflictions. Here's what I observed:

In Pahowane, the lizard ad "Xaurip Wildgard" has resistance to intellect affliction, and my whispher of treason cannot Confuse him despite hit.

In Guild ruins, the dragon boss "Scyorielaphas" has resistance to perception affliction, and my chill frog cannot Disorient him despite hit.

In Arkemyr's Manor, the ad "Storm blight" has resistance to dexterity affliction, and my mental binding cannot Immobilize him despite hit.

Have I been playing a different game? It seems that its not my illusion that I have not successfully landed a single downgraded affliction yet.

[thelee]

6 hours ago, paaka said:

Ok now I'm pretty sure its not something wrong about the boss in particular. I have just loaded my previous saves and tried to experiment on different enemies with different afflictions. Here's what I observed:

In Pahowane, the lizard ad "Xaurip Wildgard" has resistance to intellect affliction, and my whispher of treason cannot Confuse him despite hit.

In Guild ruins, the dragon boss "Scyorielaphas" has resistance to perception affliction, and my chill frog cannot Disorient him despite hit.

In Arkemyr's Manor, the ad "Storm blight" has resistance to dexterity affliction, and my mental binding cannot Immobilize him despite hit.

Have I been playing a different game? It seems that its not my illusion that I have not successfully landed a single downgraded affliction yet.

do you have any mods?

[Chaospread]

Don't turn off the mod, DELETE them entirely then start a NEW GAME and retry.
Following step should be REINSTALL whole game (if you feel like it).
Imho something broke your game data, wasting all current run.

[Boeroer]

I know @paaka's post are still under mod supervision - so it may take some time to get an answer to the mod question. But one can use the emoji-function without moderation iirc.

Little suggestion for faster feedback: if you are using mods, @paaka: leave  a .

If not, leave a .

 

[paaka]

I was using community patch and enhanced user interface, along with deadly fire for exp gain reduction. Yeah I might reinstall the whole thing and see if they work.

[paaka]

Unfortunately deleting the mod files and reinstalling the game don't work.

[paaka]

Example video (New save, no mods, reinstalled):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiO9AsHzWUs&ab_channel=PakyamAu

 

[Boeroer]

Cool. Then I guess this problem is related to a mod (or by mods getting loaded in a wrong order). Because it is not proper behavior.

First thing to try woul be to deactivate a mod and test again. If it behaves differently (hopefully properly) it's that mod. 

[Chaospread]

This is normal behavior:

https://youtu.be/wxMcXe9PE-E

(now I'm writing for him, he could post only private messages without moderation).

@paaka is on the XBox gamepass version of the game on windows PC, he has already remove the mod and reinstalled the game --> same issue.

I think it is related to some bugs/problems of xBox version of the game.

So I'd report the issue to obsidian support, do you know how? Through the respective section of this forum? Or are there other ways?

Thanks.

[Boeroer]

I use Community Patch and Enhanced UI myself (not Deadly Deadfire though).
I did a quick test with my Steam version of the game and for me it works like it should:

And since disabling/removing all mods doesn't help I'd say it's a probem with the game version. Somebody should check that properly I think.

---

@Aarik D & @SChin: Cheers and hello my friends, this topic seems to be important for the Gamepass Version of Deadfire. I thought you might want to know. Thanks! 

[paaka]

Thank you for all of your attention!  You guys are really kind and helpful.

Yeah I invited a friend of mine to try out the Gamepass version of the game (he does not have prior experience to the series so very clean/newly-installed game files I guess), and confirmed that there the bug still exist and it might be an unintended bug associated with the gamepass version.

ironically figuring out what was happening with the affliction/resistance thing has made me learnt a lot about the game mechanics lol, despite the bug I still continue enjoying the game.

[Boeroer]

This bug is an advantage for the player. You know that resistances work like immunities now and you can plan accordingly (like not casting Whispers of Treason on a sporeling anymore) - but the enemies will never know. They will try to attack you with afflictions you are virtually immune to and waste precious time and resources.

Time to pick up resistance items and -abilities!