I was the friend who helped him test.
When K says "busted" he means that any kind of attack which produces a status effect icon allows the placatee to target and attack you during the period where placate should prevent it.
This is, naturally, quite problematic, even if the attack doesn't take effect.
E.G. if you produce a stun icon on a scrapper with mez protection, the placate bug still affects the scrapper and allows him to attack you during the placate period.
Since many of the stalker primaries produce status effects, this essentially renders placate useless.
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Heartbroken
I lurked a lot but I'll miss you allAlpha Team sg, Pinnacle server
Black Citadel vg
I've been saying this for awhile, confirmed with spines also ofcourse, and no DoT explanation in sight.
I've also read some posts about how breakfrees are supposed to nullify placate, but then a blaster posted here about how that didnt work for him. Then i thought about how people who post about breakfrees breaking placate usually play a set with disorients.
The case is probably the enemy is disoriented but can target. In order to attack the enemy must eat a breakfree, causing the stalker to think that it was actually the breakfree making placate useless.
Also, this bug did not exist before the placate change which took hide from 100% down to 75%. Now that people are down denying this maybe it can be fixed.
We PMed Castle, but he seems to have misunderstood the problem. Hopefully follow-ups will get the idea across.
I think you're likely right about the breakfrees, as EM/stun is probably the most conspicuous example of this issue.
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Heartbroken
I lurked a lot but I'll miss you allAlpha Team sg, Pinnacle server
Black Citadel vg
I honestly hadn't noticed this, but if it's true, that's a pretty crummy bug. Some of the minor secondary effects last a decent amount of time.
I've PMed Castle about this and he's said that Placate was working as intended. Now I PMed him about Spines so I'm not sure about the others, but he did say that Spines is a very powerful set and that Placate is working as intended.
I'm guessing that the change to Placate was to keep it from becoming too powerful, but to me Placate is SUPPOSED to be powerful. In a stalker set we automatically have to take 3 I REPEAT 3 attacks in order to be effective. Then we automatically take hide. THAT'S 4 POWERS THAT ARE ALREADY CHOSEN FOR US!!! Making one of them less powerful isn't fair.
Now I think that this issue DEMANDS a redname post.
On a sidenote I say that Hide becomes an inherent as well as Assassination as it really is only fair.
Just my 2 infl though.
Something strange about Placate that I found in PVE is that even if you take damage after placating, you have around 3 seconds to attack an enemy and still crit. Placate used to put you in Hide and your opponent couldn't target you until it wore off. Now it puts you in Hide and you can often still be targeted (bad). But you can get a crit even if targeted and hit as the Placate Hide status always seems to last at least 3 seconds no matter what (good?)
This was NOT how Placate used to work. It used to be broken immediately after you take damage in PVE.
I have confirmed this in PVE, but I'm not sure it works this way in PVP.
PRTECTR4EVR
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I've PMed Castle about this and he's said that Placate was working as intended. Now I PMed him about Spines so I'm not sure about the others, but he did say that Spines is a very powerful set and that Placate is working as intended.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's insane. A must have power for an AT is now competely useless for those of us who DON'T gank and run, and this is working as intended? Placate working properly isn't too powerful, on either side of the fence.
This is an interesting idea to bring up. I have noticed similar things with my claws/regen (im assuming it was the -def from slash that screwed me over), but I have come to find that when i use placate I don't even notice teh effects (pvp). My opponent will attack me as if i had done nothing, and that is very frustrating since placate is one of our main tools.
Maybe you should try posting this in the forums section about bugs, it would help them to find the issue described there. So that maybe the fix this.
Happened to me at least a dozen times tonight. I'd Placate someone after an attack (EM) & they'd just keep blasting me as if nothing happened.
It happens with my stalker too. It's frustrating.
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"A coward dies many times before their death, the valiant taste death but once." - William Shakespeare
Learn it... OWN IT!
I've created a thread in the bug section about this. If everyone goes and supports the thread there it has a better chance of being realized and hopefully fixed
Well I'm glad you've been able to pinpoint what's causing Placate to fail instantly.
In PvP it is a noticeable bug but I could never quite put my thumb on what did it. It seems like a bug especially since Placate is meant to be used in mid-fight, which means that more than likely you've tagged your enemy with a status effect from your weapon recently. The fact that some of these effects are trivial and ubiquitous, Katana being a prime example with it's minor -Def theme, only makes this bug more annoying.
Kudos to you for noticing that! 
I'd previously posted about the DoT, but status effects would be more consistent. Props on finding this.
Keep the other thread ontop, might be a better chance of having a redname post or address it if it's in plain sight.
Don't want to keep reposting myself
it's bugged for me another way...
I run into a group, as boss(lets say he survives- after BU even) placate a random minion, then smack boss again for another crit...
It doesnt work the way it used to every time anymore (the UB, -AS #1, placate #2, scrap #3, then AS #2) -- Sometimes it works, but usualy nothing happens(#2 ignores me, but when I AS him, nothing happens -- no crit)
let me get this straight...you run in, BU + AS the Lieut (so target 1 dies), supposing he's with 2 minions, placate the 2nd minion, scrap it out with the 3rd minion, then return to the 2nd minion instantly, attempting an AS and expecting a crit?
if that's the case, i don't recall it ever working this way. you bust your chance to AS for a crit on the 2nd one after you begin scrapping the 3rd, or in your example, if it's a boss, you'll get the crit on him. if i'm reading this correctly (which i may have misunderstood you, i've been on the road for 650+ miles this weekend, deliriously tired 
), you are expecting 2 crits after placate without taking time to rehide by taking advantage of the fact that minion 2 ignores you while you kill his buddy next to him. if you want to get that 2nd AS on him, but you've already attacked after the placate, youre going to have to re-hide again.
again, if i misunderstood you, sorry, but on a more related note:
great job on finding this problem. Angry, if you wanna do some testing with either spines or MA, PM me, i can get both on test ASAP.
I tested this with MA. The affects on both Crippling Axe Kick and Cobra Strike caused the no-target portion of placate to fizzle. I didn't notice anything with Crane Kick, but I didn't test that one too heavily (as I was on a tight schedule). It's bad enough that most of the attacks (Storm Kick, Crippling Axe Kick, Cobra Strike, and Eagle's Claw) in the MA set negate Placate's No Target effect. =P
Besides darkwolf's tangent, are we talking about an entirely PvP bug?
-Sam
i believe we are...the only instance with this in a combined total of ~128 lvls of stalking with MA/EM/Spines that i've seen with this is with the DoT spines does. status effects don't have any bearing on placate in PvE it seems (i've used stun on bosses several times by accident and then quickly placated and they've not been able to target me, though if they had a bar with icons, the stun icon would be present). i think this bug is soley present in PvP, but i might be mistaken.
This bug does not affect PvE, probably because aggro works differently there. I would guess the bug is present, but it just has no effect because of the way the AI/aggro controls are designed.
After numerous PMs, I figure I should address this.
First, we know about this. It was noted as happening during Beta. At that time, we decided to watch the PvP data and see if it proved a problem. Stalkers are not doing poorly in PvP at any level range.
Second, I discussed this with our QA and programmer and have filed it as a bug. It is low priority, however, since Stalkers are still the best in PvP according to our data. As such, there is no ETA for a fix.
Third, there is a workaround for this issue. I'm certain you all can figure out what it is, if you don't already know.
Just to reiterate on Placates mechanics:
Placate, the power has two portions: Placate (the effect) and a Hide equivalent.
Any attack or effect on the original target will break the Placate, but not the hide -- only a new attack on any target breaks that.
In PvE, we've made the AI ignore Effects when placated, so the AI still ignores you (most of the time.)
Placate is a tool. It is a powerful tool, but it has limitations. Learning those limitations and how to work around them is a large part of gameplay for Stalkers.
It's curious that removing the interrupt from auto-hit auras was a critical, high-priority fix for stalkers in PvP and PvE(it made good sense for PvE), but a very clear Placate bug is being shoehorned into a PvP-specific nerf to stalkers.
It seems very kludgey.
[ QUOTE ]
After numerous PMs, I figure I should address this.
First, we know about this. It was noted as happening during Beta. At that time, we decided to watch the PvP data and see if it proved a problem. Stalkers are not doing poorly in PvP at any level range.
Second, I discussed this with our QA and programmer and have filed it as a bug. It is low priority, however, since Stalkers are still the best in PvP according to our data. As such, there is no ETA for a fix.
[/ QUOTE ]
So this was observed in beta- that would have covered Bloody Bay, a little in Siren's, and a probably a small few in Warburg. But have you guys looked at PVP and Stalkers in Recluse's Victory where the tables are certainly more different than Siren's or Warburg? I mean, PVP in RV didn't exist in beta, and it also wasn't on the test server for very long.
Maybe this is more of a Stalkers being better at PVP in general at lower levels, issue rather than this placate thing.
But more than anything, I'm curious to know what data you guys are looking at when you say you are watching PVP data.
Placate is officially busted. I've tested this using Katana as a primary, and had a friend test EM.
It seems that if there's an icon showing an effect in the icon window of your enemy, Placate becomes busted every single time. This means -def from Katana attacks (tested and confirmed), slows from Spines (untested, I don't have a Spines character), -def from Slash (untested, I don't have Claws), EM stuns (tested and confirmed), DM -acc (untested, my DM isn't high enough), and the great deal of effects that MA has (untested, my MA died about 4 months ago).
AS itself is unbusted (confirmed), as it creates no icon in the enemy's window. If you've seen Placate acting strangely, find someone you can trust to test it with, and you will find that -def, stuns, and probably -acc too (haven't tested -acc) will cause Placate to fail every single time.
Do note that status effects from your secondary (Energy Drain, Blinding Powder) and the Patron holds also create icons in your enemy's window, and will cause Placate to bust.
Please note also that this is an entirely PvP issue. Please test this with someone you know so we can narrow this issue down and make it easier for it to be fixed.
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.