Ion Judgment

Each target hit also has a mode set on them called "Chain_Induction" for 4 seconds. Targets in Chain_Induction mode can't be targeted by another "chain". So the first use of Ion will set Chain_Induction mode on any targets that were hit and are still standing for 4s. Anyone that uses another Ion within those 4 seconds will only be able to damage enemies that weren't previously hit by the last Ion.

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

This effect has been recently fixed. Dead Targets no longer stop powers like Ion or Transfusion from spawning.

Yeah, I've noticed this exactly. I've been able to chain it to mobs that weren't hit.

This wasn't always the case though. I understand it's powerful, but nerfing everyone else's Ion just seems silly.

Yeh I knew this was fixed recently. Some guy the other day made me think I was the crazy one.

Me: Hey Transfusion just fired off against a dying target.

That other dude: Psh. It has ALWAYS done that!

Me: Funny because I've been playing this game a while and have heard many other people complaining about the dark set heal goin off of a dying target but kin gets jacked. Not to mention I have 2 kins who are dirt old and I always complained about this.

That other dude: they fixed that in i14.

Me: Um ok sure...

After that I kinda diagnosed the guy with "I just talk to make me think I am cool to the rest of the team that does not know what I am talking about but I hold the star so no one will argue with me" syndrome.

You sure he wasn't bending over when he was talking to you, a la Ace Ventura?

Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe ::looks at RaikenX's signature:: Something funny.

HAHAHA Kinda hard to tell over teh intarwebz

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem fixed for all powers. Haunt will fail to spawn the Shades if the target dies. It also fails if a target is intangible or untouchable, i.e. Carnie Master Illusionists.

Also, not quite the same, but still quite annoying is Warshades' Dark Extraction failing due to bodies fading out.

That's not exactly how it works, but pretty close.

Ion Judgement, Chain Induction, that nasty End drain from Rider: Famine, and all other chaining powers work the same way, so this applies to all of them.

Ion Judgement doesn't actually do any damage at all. What it does is grants a temp power to the target. The temp power makes the target damage itself and grant a copy of the power it just received to another target within range. Then the temp power persists for a few seconds (I'll assume Trickshooter's 4 seconds is correct), but does nothing for the rest of the duration. The power is flagged "Doesn't stack from the same caster", and the caster is the target, not you, since it's the autopower you gave them that's applying the effect.

The intention is to stop two targets from passing the effect back and forth until one or both dies, however, because two people using the same power on the same target grant it the same non-stackable autopower, only the first will apply.

Each power grants a different autopower though, so if you have one Ion Judgement, one Chain Induction, and one Jolting Chain all being fired at once, they can all affect the same target. There's actually a few different powers for Ion Judgement, too: One for each different level of damage, so you should be able to hit one target with a Final Core, a Final Radial, and a Tier 1 Ion - but not with 3 Final Core.

And it should theoretically be able to stack Ion Judgements. In practice, it would be near impossible to do with any reliability. If two Ion Judgements are fired at the same target on the same server tick, then both will apply, because both will check for validity at the same time, and since neither is on the target yet, both are permitted by the system. If both jump to the same target, they'll both be permitted again, because they'll happen simultaneously again. However, there's 8 server ticks per second, so the odds of actually timing it right without either teleport tricks or a macro keyboard are slim to none, and since the targeting of the jumps are semi-random, even if you did time it right, they'd eventually diverge and mess things up.

It's not a nerf, and it has nothing to do with Ion. It's just a side effect of how chaining powers are programmed.

You're remembering things backwards.

Chain Induction, the original chaining power in the game (unless you count the Mitochondria Electrolytes' Paralytic Blast power which has chained an End Drain and Fear since Issue 9), used to use the "Grant power" mechanic. This was changed between issues 12 and 13 to use the current mechanic of using psuedopets and setting modes (the Mitochondria Electrolytes' Paralytic Blast still uses the Grant power method, though, which is why when Hamidon spawns, if you check people's info, you will see that they have a new powerset listed of "Chain:", that is because the Contagion power granted by Paralytic Blast is stored in the game files under the "DevouringEarth.Chain" powerset).

Chain powers added to the game since, like Jolting Chain and the Ion Judgement powers, also use the psuedopet/mode method for dealing damage and jumping.

You can see the different in mechanics on City of Data here:

Ion Judgement
Chain Induction
Jolting Chain

Notice that they all do their initial effect to your current target, then summon a pet and set a mode.

Now compare this to the old method, still visible in the Mitochondria Electrolytes' power:

Paralytic Blast

Which is also the exact same power used by the Rikti Horseman:

Paralytic Blast

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

More like I20, or maybe even 21. It was very recent, and there was much rejoicing from people who play kin a lot.

Like Trickshooter said, it's all pseudopet-based now. Chain Induction used to be grant-power based, which caused all sorts of havoc with things like procs, confuse effects, and damage buffs. It was changed to a pseudopet IIRC around the time Going Rogue came out, to fix most of those issues (maybe slightly before, since Electric Control came out with GR).

AFAIK Ion has always used pseudopets. The original implementation didn't set the mode to prevent multiple hits (it tried a different method I can't quite remember, but didn't work consistently). It was unintentionally more powerful than it should be, because a single Ion judgement could chain back to the same target multiple times.

Some of the enemy powers like the Mito's chain, and Praetorian Clockwork may still be grant-power based, but none of the player ones are.

I've been on a lot of trials with the T4. Never had to carefully time my Ions like I do now.

While Ion was not always like this, it has been like this for a long time now. I wan to say at least nine months, but I am not positive of the exact time frame when the ability to double jump was removed. However, I am pretty sure nothing has changed in the last month or even 4 months.

As Strato said, this was not a recent change. And it was changed to keep people's own Ions from leaping back and forth to targets they had already hit, which was laughably overpowered compared to the other Judgment powers. Folks floated trying to justify that with the fact that it would fail when the initial target died, but then that was fixed.

I use Ion on a couple of characters and am not nuts about the chance for its chain to "fail", but I get why it is like that.