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Since I could quite possibly be just missing something this isn't in Bugs.

Madness in PvE
For starters, I've been told Madness works as what's commonly known as magic reflect shield (MRS). Traditionally MRS is a beneficial spell; meaning caster puts it on a friendly player and then damage done to that player is reflected to whomever attacks that player. In some RPGs it even can't be self-casted.
In Ryzom it is an offensive spell, cast on an enemy target. But for all intense and purposes, it acts as MRS. Which means that unless caster is attacked, it does nothing.

But then, does it do anything even if caster is attacked?


It could be, as stated, that I'm just missing something. It could be that something actually happens but doesn't make it into Sysinfo.

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Granularity of Taunt
25 levels is just a bit too far apart. Taunt is group action, one does not use it when soloing, right? So as an example, Taunt 4 is obtained at any Fight level 100. At that level, a group (and to be on minimal side, let's say group of two) fights 125ish mobs. By Fight level 115, they are at mobs lvl140+. By then T4 fails way too much and there are 10 more levels before T5.

Additional problem is herds are rarely homogeneous. So in order to insure respawning, one must often kill one tier higher mobs too. And at those, taunt obviously fails even more.

Two ways around it. One is to just increase number of Taunt levels and lessen gaps between them. 15 levels comes to mind. The other, which I would prefer, is to expand Taunt into proper, buildable action. With something like Concentration is for spells as an option, at a cost of course.

Cherry on top would be Bomb-like additional option so in effect we get AoE taunt which is frankly bread and butter of any tanking.

Madness in PvE
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I think your statement: "Madness doing nothing" if caster is not attacked, it's a bit too generic.

First you have to consider that system.info doesn't show much about the combat, in general (it doesn't tells you if you get slashed, pierced or smashed, in example). Maybe too simple info for a mmorpg.

I think you should give more tests about madness. It's possible it can be bugged with some animals, but in general it works even if you are not directly attacked by the target.

One example: go to Prime Roots and use a madness against a vorax, that is not attacking you but someone else. Often it can go feared by it's fear.

It's possible you are right, but actually for the many times i used it, even when not targeted, i think it's a bit too early to assume that.

For sure, a more detailed combat messages in system.info would help a lot.

Last thing: linked afflictions cycles while in progression and it's possible a single cycle miss the hit, but if success rate is high, don't miss every hits.

Nothing to say about taunt.