Why do actives sometimes not trigger?

[NoxNoctum]

This has been kind of annoying me lately - I can't seem to find the reason that's causing it. Sometimes after I pause, and then select an active for each party member and left  click on a target, it won't trigger. For example, when I want to cast blind with my rogue, usually I have to go it 2 attempts, because it almost never actually does it the first time.

 

The end result is that I end up fighting for a second or two against a non-defuffed enemy. Can be fatal in some circumstances.

 

What's going on here? Obviously I'm missing something games-mechanics wise.

[Khalid the bear]

perhaps they are interupted, or recovering from previous action (especialy if they have low dex/heavy armor/shields*(it is mentioned somewhere but not in the description on shields) heawy armor slows down your 'attack rate' which actualy means slows down anything your charachter does (casting a spell, atacking, activating an ability) and the time between actions (which is indicated by the bar ontop of the character, under the health dots, which gradualy shrinks after an action, and prolongs if you get interupted)

 

best way to observe interupt/speed mechanics is fights against a single ogre, usuayl my party interupt locks it so it gets of one or none attacks before dying (because they are slow to begin with, and probably dont have high resolve which would give them concentration to resist interupt) should be observable with other tough and slow enemies that have low enough defences (and concentration)compared to your party accuracy/interupt rating to be realy wisible on the bar (usualy it happens to fast to realy observe interupt except in combat log)

[dorkboy]

Hm, I'm having similar issues with actives seemingly not triggering (Knockdown on Calisca (sp?), and some blue flamey sword ability I've forgotten the name of on my paladin..).

 

Do you have to already stand next to the enemy you want to use the active on in order for it to properly trigger? 

[Khalid the bear]

not triggering at all, or just not triggering when expected (which would be because of speed reduction of armor and interupts)

i dont think distance should be a factor, expected behaviour would be for character to close in and execute the action

[dorkboy]

not triggering at all, or just not triggering when expected (which would be because of speed reduction of armor and interupts)

 

i dont think distance should be a factor, expected behaviour would be for character to close in and execute the action

Not triggering at all, as far as I can tell. At least not on the first attempt - even though I get the red/blue sword cursor and make sure I click on the enemy and not misclick on the ground or something. I'll pay more attention to interrupts and speeds and stuff to see if that could be the reason.

[Khalid the bear]

if the character is sttempting/waiting to use an ability  abilitys icon wil have a moving green (i think green) border around it
if the border disapears and the character hasnt used the ability then ist probably a bug, maybe something with ai

[Varana]

In most cases when this happens to me, it's because of the general attack cooldown - the yellow bar above the character that shows when they'll be able to do anything again. That doesn't only affect attacks but also other abilities and quickslot items. So if you just attacked, it will take a while until you can gulp a potion. If the action requires time, it can be interrupted, as well.

Targeted abilities (like special attacks) sometimes suffer from the often atrocious pathfinding - if the enemy is moving, or another character nearby, or because of other "obstacles", the pathfinding can easily become quite wonky.

Maybe the AI / auto attack can sometimes get in the way, as well, esp. if the ability doesn't fire for some time because of above reasons.

[dorkboy]

Yeah, it could be the cooldown, I guess. Doesn't happen all the time, though. Sometimes the circular attack icon (next to the cooldown timer) changes to an ability icon even when the character seems to be in the middle of an attack/recovery, sometimes it doesn't. 

 

Stupid question, perhaps, but do interrupts cancel ability uses? I was under the impression that interrupts merely delay actions. And what about enemy abilities like "Screaming stun" (or whatever it is called)?

[gkathellar]

It sometimes happens because of the auto-attack AI's incredible stupidity causing your toons to forget their orders.

[archangel979]

I also noticed this happen but I don't really have a clue what is causing it. I hope Obsidian manages to find it and fix it.