Problem - CWTN and blocked buffs

[Taoden]

I have noticed that when I block rank 1 of a buff spell that all higher ranks of that buff are also blocked. However, it seems that the CWTN plugins are only checking blocked buffs for the exact rank when determining whether or not to cast a buff.

For example, I have Spiritual Vim blocked on my cleric. My beastlord now has Spiritual Vim Rk. III. My beastlord will target the cleric and spam cast Spiritual Vim Rk. III until OOM unless I change my blocked buff spell on the cleric to be Spiritual Vim Rk. III exactly and not just Spiritual Vim.

This behavior is consistent across all buffs for all CWTN plugins that I have used so far.

 

[burdsjm]

I have noticed that when I block rank 1 of a buff spell that all higher ranks of that buff are also blocked. However, it seems that the CWTN plugins are only checking blocked buffs for the exact rank when determining whether or not to cast a buff.

For example, I have Spiritual Vim blocked on my cleric. My beastlord now has Spiritual Vim Rk. III. My beastlord will target the cleric and spam cast Spiritual Vim Rk. III until OOM unless I change my blocked buff spell on the cleric to be Spiritual Vim Rk. III exactly and not just Spiritual Vim.

This behavior is consistent across all buffs for all CWTN plugins that I have used so far.

I bet it’s because EQ devs messed up by using something weird like a lowercase L for the I.

 

[Sic]

I have noticed that when I block rank 1 of a buff spell that all higher ranks of that buff are also blocked. However, it seems that the CWTN plugins are only checking blocked buffs for the exact rank when determining whether or not to cast a buff.

For example, I have Spiritual Vim blocked on my cleric. My beastlord now has Spiritual Vim Rk. III. My beastlord will target the cleric and spam cast Spiritual Vim Rk. III until OOM unless I change my blocked buff spell on the cleric to be Spiritual Vim Rk. III exactly and not just Spiritual Vim.

This behavior is consistent across all buffs for all CWTN plugins that I have used so far.

We very intentionally and specifically check the specific rank we don't check all of the blocked buffs by ranks not blocked.

There are several reasons for this due to the way that stacking and overriding works in the game itself.

So if there's a buff that you don't want you will want to block it specifically by rank.

There are other potential cases where you only want the spell by rank and not all of them for purpose of the CWTN plugins and buffing, so changing the behavior would have additional impacts that are unintended from the usage

This is and can be a little annoying due to everquests just blocking all ranks of a particular spell. But we are utilizing blocked buffs in a different manner than EverQuest is.

EverQuest as utilizing blocked buffs as in a don't let this buff land on this person.

We are using blocked buffs as in this very specific spell we don't wantWe are using Blockbusters in this very specific spell we don't want.

For example EverQuest allows you to block spells like gate or shrink, but we don't check your blocked buffs to see if you have blocked something like shrink before trying to use it because we think that's silly.

 

[Taoden]

I guess I don't understand your explanation for why it works this way. If EQ blocks all ranks of a buff regardless of which rank you have in your block list, then the buffs cannot land on that target no matter what. Can you provide an example of when it would be beneficial to cast a buff on a target that cannot receive it because it is blocked?

 

[RobRenfro]

I personally like the system I think it allows for more flexibility that just the Everquest blanket block.

 

[Sic]

I guess I don't understand your explanation for why it works this way. If EQ blocks all ranks of a buff regardless of which rank you have in your block list, then the buffs cannot land on that target no matter what. Can you provide an example of when it would be beneficial to cast a buff on a target that cannot receive it because it is blocked?

Don't really need to, no.

But there are some spells that the ranks of them are broken with stack checking from eq

Just know that it is intentional

 

[Taoden]

I personally like the system I think it allows for more flexibility that just the Everquest blanket block.

What system? Is there some MQ thing I should be using to block buffs instead of the EQ system?

 

[Sic]

What system? Is there some MQ thing I should be using to block buffs instead of the EQ system?

No. The cwtn plugins check for specific spells and rank to be blocked.

It certainly isn't perfect. And while what you are talking about makes good sense it's just not the way we decided to go with it.

It was intentionally implemented this way because of weird edge cases with some spells (particularly from mercenaries who weren't casting the spells they said they were, which you can't turn off buffing from).

It is one of those design choices that is a "well let's try and pick the one that can cover the most with specificity"