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- Hierophant - Bugs and Suggestions
Hierophant - Bugs and Suggestions
Warhammer 40K Bug ReportHi, I've been playing with the new Hierophant character since release and found it quite fun, with some caveats.
I wanted to report some bugs and add some suggestions related to the class (or the game as a whole).
Bugs/quirks:
- A level up unlocks an empty/unusable Hierophant spell with blue icon (see Drill Abbot Level 33).
- Wrong tutorial for Hierophant "Spell Setup" screen (shows pop-ups for "Retinue Management" screen).
- "Field Drug Distiller" Perk doesn't calculate duration bonus for yellow inoculator effects correctly when effect duration is also increased by other components. It works correctly for unmodified duration. Tested with: "Psychon + Holdfast + Hodfast", resulting in 11 seconds duration (instead of 10*1.75 or 5*1.75 + 5).
- Missing Hierophant voiceover for Data Station activation ("I wonder what this machine does", "I would rather have my Tech-Priest dealing with this", etc.).
- Retinue companions inactive when main char is manning a turret.
- Companions disappear from scene if there's dialogue after teleport (general bug, but more evident with Hierophant).
- "Improved Bulwark of the Order" passive skill: retinue members don't seem to stick to the barrier (as in the description, "Your Retinue Members seek shelter in your Bulwark"). This may be due conflicting AI priorities instead of a true bug, but it should be looked at since currently the passive effect is not apparent.
- Retinue Members seem to be unaffected by environmental damage and traps (mines, exploding tanks, etc.). They also don't trigger laser traps, mines, etc. (EDIT: they DO trigger mines, great!) Maybe this was intentional to avoid player annoyance, but I'd much rather have the retinue interact with the game elements as real entities.
- Martyr Chapter 3 Investigation - Revelations: fourth and final clue link and text missing (text shows missing string message, clue doesn't open).
- Martyr Chapter 3 Investigation - The Secret Weapon: seventh and final clue shows wrong video (Alpha Pariah being removed from stasis, should be Alpha Pariah meditating).
- Cover stops working frequently and randomly. When using cover, often the Hierophant can't fire or use skills at all (and sometimes even gets stuck after exiting cover). This was tested with Single Press cover mode OFF. Going to the Options screen and enabling/disabling this option fixes the problem temporarily, but it can quickly reoccur afterwards. Retinue members seem to be affected too (i.e., they don't fire / use skills when taking cover).
- Cover animations (when cover works correctly - see above) seem wrong: the character turns his back to the target and bullets travel backwards!
- The cutscene after the final mission of the "Craftworld Aeldari" investigation (which shows an important discussion with Inquisitor Mercer) gets stuck with both character facing each other but not talking. You're forced to skip it, losing the context of what you're doing.
- "Finding the Harlequin" mission has a broken dialogue text string.
- After an Imperial Guard mission mini-event (the ones with the ("Imperial reconnaissance squad has been located..." message) the dialogue screen remains on the screen with empty dialog.
- On "Datahunt" missions, dialogue from Metrodora Thelema upon Data Terminal activation cuts off before it's ended.
- "Grenadier" passive skill in the "Area Effects" Tree is useless for Hierophant since he doesn't have access to grenades. Note that for Psyker, this skill is replaced by an appropriate one for the class, "Implosion". A similar measure is needed here (an alternative would be to simply give access to grenades to the Hierophant).
- An old bug: all Priority Assignment missions are now of the Purge type, even though their descriptions are clearly meant to introduce various mission types (Hunt, Rescue, Data Hunt, etc.). Also, completed Priority Assignment rewards (which are abismal, by the way) don't include a results assessment granting Glory now, making Collateral Damage pointless. They have become totally worthless as an activity.
- The Attack Anchor perk (Crusader, etc.) doesn't grant the related status/buff icon on missions when standing still (I believe it used to do it before). The effect probably isn't working.
- The only unique seasonal items that are dropping on non-seasonal characters are those from Season 6 ("Season of Escalation"). I'm having A LOT of repeated uniques from this limited pool. Not even the unlocked enchants from season 1, 2, and 3 are showing up on the loot pool.
Suggestions:
- This may be controversial, but Retinue companions move and act too fast, which doesn't result in a very satisfying experience as you can't even tell what they're doing most of the time. I recommend giving them slightly slower base walking and animation speeds, which is Ok since they are currently quite powerful. This could also be achieved selectively via a Perk (e.g., 25% slower movement/attack speed, X% higher Resistance, Damage and/or Critical Power) or a Passive Skill.
- Allow players to name their retinue characters, so that their tag shows e.g., [PLAYER_CRUSADER_NAME] instead of "Crusader".
- Currently the only way to lock characters to cover is to take cover yourself, which is Ok. However, ranged characters seem quite passive when taking cover (they rarely shoot). Please check their attack pattern. Also, see some suggestions for more reliable ways to lock them to cover below.
- In general, "Orders" don't feel as satisfying as they should because the retinue override them quite quickly. In general, players would wish for Orders to be overridden with another Order and not via expiration time. Please, either tweak the times/cooldowns with this in mind, or just have permanent duration orders (overridden only by very large distance from Hierophant or another Order). Could also be achieved selectively via a "Sticky Orders" toggle in the Options menu.
- Another important problem with Orders is that it's rather awkward to switch to them with the "Tab" key. Often I find I wish to give an Order and end up using a skill, or viceversa. I'd suggest the following which fixes this and opens up the gameplay:
- Have the Orders bar show up with a combination key (e.g., with Ctrl key: Ctrl+LClick, Ctrl +RClick, Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 and Ctrl+4). I've seen this control pattern work great in other ARPGs.
- Give the Hierophant his second Weapon Set with "Tab" (this normalizes the behavior among Classes and helps with variety).
- (Optional) Open up a second weapon set for the Retinue Members and have them switch when you do (after they finish current action). This would be extremely fun and open up a lot of crazy builds (e.g., you could switch from a fully ranged to a fully melee party, have a specialized skill set for Champion/Villain enemies, etc.).
- Adding voiceovers for Orders ("Attack!", "To me!", etc.) would go a long way to make them feel distinctive, as true commands instead of spells or abstract "effects". I know it's tricky to get new voice lines (though some you already have e.g., for emotes) but this would greatly improve the experience.
- For the same reason, adding animations for Orders is essential. You don't need new ones, as you can use time-adjusted emote animations, e.g., "Charge" emote for "Move to Position"/"Focused Charge", "Imperial Bow" emote for "Salvation", etc.
- Some additional suggestions related to orders:
- You may consider having Orders not share cooldowns, to favor adaptability.
- "Move To Position" Order: effects should last longer than 5 seconds. When pointed to cover granting object, ranged-equipped characters should take said cover.
- "Defend" Order: should be able to be applied to interactive defensible object / character (e.g., those on defense missions, and escort missions).
- "Salvation" Order: retinue seems to ignore this one (probably because the duration is so short that they have other priorities before you notice its effects).
- "Sacrifice" Order: its behavior suggests that this should be reclassified as a Spell, so that a more tactically-relevant Order can take its slot. For example:
- "Take Cover": Targeted Retinue Member seeks cover nearest to Hierophant. Buff: Targeted Retinue Member character gains +N weapon range (if using ranged weapon) or Supreme Damage Resist (if using melee weapon).
- "Covering Fire": all Retinue Members surround the Hierophant and restore his Suppression at a rate of X%/s. Retinue Members suffer Suppression damage at a rate of X%/s but deal +N% Suppression Damage.
- Passive Trees: the class seems to need an additional tree or passives to have more compelling choices in build construction. The Hierophant-specific trees feel almost mandatory in that they confer a clearly higher benefit than the rest, and don't take that many points to fill-up. Contrast with e.g., the Tech Adept, who has four trees and the Support tree (I guess this was omitted from the Hierophant to have a tighter control on resource generation), so that you are encouraged to experiment with partial assignment of class-specific trees and forking into various weapon/defense/support skills.
- Passive Trees, cont.: another thing missing from the Hierophant is passive skills tailored to the class peppered throughout the passive trees shared with other classes (e.g., the Psyker has many unique skills related to Psych Powers and Warp State in common passive trees).
- Hierophant voiceovers are still (after hotfix) quieter than the rest. They should be normalized, if possible.
- EDIT: already done in a previous update! Thanks! Remove shield graphic effects when on the bridge, and add Menu Option to remove them on missions. General comment, but specially relevant to Hierophant.
- Add a way to modify the appearance of Retinue Armor and Weapons on the Appearance tab of the Crafting menu (Omicron Arkh).
- Add a few additional belt items types to Retinue Members, as the current selection is entirely defense-oriented. Examples: "Fabricator Scatter Field" (great fun for ranged characters!), "Flash Grenade" and "Stun Grenade" (those may be Crusader-exclusive).
- "Echoes of Purgatory" aura graphical effects are too distracting / bright for a permanent skill. Please make them subtler.
- Hierophant has clearly much less care put into it appearance-wise than other classes (see below). I believe this warrants a second pass to give that extra care and polish.
- He misses details such as showing the specific Belt Items and Purity Seals.
- He has very few armor base appearances/variations.
- He shows rather limited customization in the Appearance tab (most Hierophant items have one color point instead of two, robe main color is not customizable).
- As above, Hierophant animations seem rather limited/perfunctory (rather grating compared with the smooth, excellent animations of, say, the Crusader). At the very least, a new animation for Orders and another for Resurrections should be added (see above for suggestion of repurposing emote animations for this purpose).
- Display Curio reserved Devotion percentage in-game (in the item box itself).
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Made some edits and added this new bug (hope someone is reading):
- The only unique seasonal items that are dropping on non-seasonal characters are those from Season 6 ("Season of Escalation"). I'm having A LOT of repeated uniques from this limited pool. Not even the unlocked enchants from season 1, 2, and 3 are showing up on the loot pool.
Edited OP with more bugs and stuff:
- On "Datahunt" missions, dialogue from Metrodora Thelema upon Data Terminal activation cuts off before it's ended.
- "Grenadier" passive skill in the "Area Effects" Tree is useless for Hierophant since he doesn't have access to grenades. Note that for Psyker, this skill is replaced by an appropriate one for the class, "Implosion". A similar measure is needed here (an alternative would be to simply give access to grenades to the Hierophant).
- Passive Trees, cont.: another thing missing from the Hierophant is passive skills tailored to the class peppered throughout the passive trees shared with other classes (e.g., the Psyker has many unique skills related to Psych Powers and Warp State in common passive trees).
Added details for the Cover bug:
- Cover stops working frequently and randomly. When using cover, often the Hierophant can't fire or use skills at all (and sometimes even gets stuck after exiting cover). This was tested with Single Press cover mode OFF. Going to the Options screen and enabling/disabling this option fixes the problem temporarily, but it can quickly reoccur afterwards. Retinue members seem to be affected too (i.e., they don't fire / use skills when taking cover).
- Cover animations (when cover works correctly - see above) seem wrong: the character turns his back to the target and bullets travel backwards!
Please take a look at this if you can, it's really annoying. I usually use cover with my ranged characters and Hierophant is a natural fit.
That said, I've been having a lot of fun keeping my party alive with the tools given (inoculator passive, orders, blessings, etc.). For the time being I'm enjoying the balance a lot. I wouldn't want devs to overcorrect (if indeed there is an issue) and make the retinue too tough, in which case you'd lose the fun of the class entirely.
Otherwise it'd be the Tech Adept all over gain (some balance complaints motivated the Tech Fragment system, which soured me on an otherwise enjoyable class).
Agreed, on higher levels retinue survivability may need a second look. I refrained from commenting on that because I haven't played that much time on those levels. Maybe later I'll update the OP.
I'd prefer if the solution, if any, retained the uniqueness of the class - that is, keeping your retinue healthy and effective should require a degree of interaction (otherwise you'd play Tech Adept). For example, I like having to heal my retinue some way instead of having a huge HP regen always on, reigning them in with Orders so that they don't get in harms way, etc. Also, I wouldn't want them to become essentially immortal, nor offer instant resurrection (which is functionally the same).
It seems the devs could start by tweaking the base stats / defensive skills to scale better on high levels to have a good base-point. Then, they can look at how Order / Spells functionality can be tweaked (e.g., I'd like for Salvation actually recall the retinue to your side and make them stick to you a while more reliably), as well as the actual retinue behavior (use of cover for ranged/snipers, etc.). Finally, they can implement item-related measures (e.g., allow Archeotech Shards on retinue equipment, create new Psalm Doctrines tailored for retinue defense, make some existing defensive Psalm Doctrines work also apply to retinue members, etc.), which in addition would be fun to play with.
Done and done, thanks!
As well as the picture for the "Revelations" issue, I attached one for a similar issue on mission "Finding the Harlequin" (missing text string for story voiceover).
- "Give slower base walking and animation speeds for retinue, cause they are already powerful"
This is indeed controversial. Retinue is actually weak in high difficulties. They have acceptable damage but they lack good survival mechanisms. (Defensive orders can help to reduce cd of rosarius but giving orders and spells together requires too much manual control from player which often makes playing tiresome and tedious)
Because retinue can easily get killed yet they cannot get resummoned, I find in end game it's better to play as a non-summon class: investing on hierophant himself is cheaper and more effective than investing on his retinue.
In end game, the hierophant moves fastest (he has Aether blade and Ethereal form blessing), he deals biggest damage, and is the best tank. I'm not saying this is a bad thing but the retinue indeed becomes just kind of accessories, you can remove them and find your efficiency is not affected at all (maybe even better cause you no longer need to save their ass)
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My suggestions on retinue & order system:
1. Give better survival mechanisms that doesn't require manual control.
The retinue needs HP buff and fast autoheal, like the TA has on construct modules (xx% HP reneration each sec)
Or, gives us an order to instantly resurrect the retinues.
No matter the means, they need a survival ability close to the Kataphron Vanguard of TA, or an order to resurrect them, else they will stay abandoned in end game.
2. Allow the players to put orders and spells together.
Many people only use 1 or 2 of the orders. Currently we have to shift back and forth to use spells and orders.
Alllowing orders in spell panels can be more user friendly.
My pleasure; I've prepared one. But I'm pretty dumb - how can I link it here? I've tried a couple of image hosts (ImgBB and Postimage) and always get the message:
"Our system has detected a link embedded in your comment that leads to a disallowed site. Please remove or alter the link before submitting your post".
Any tips?
P.S.: Retinue Members do trigger mines, cool! Will fix the OP accordingly.
- Martyr Chapter 3 Investigation - Revelations: fourth and final clue link and text missing (text shows missing string message, clue doesn't open).
would you be able to provide a screenshot with this by any chance?
I'm pretty sure this is a monologue - no one is reading this, specially not anyone from the development team. But anyway...
The Hierophant DLC has made even clearer to me that the changes made to the game to make it more "responsive" (truncated, shorter animations for most actions, much lower cooldowns for many skills, faster movement speed, less resilient enemies, etc.) invalidated much of the game's systems and hampered it from reaching its full potential.
I would have loved this class to have deliberate gameplay where you gave tactically-relevant orders at the right time ("take cover here", "attack this specific enemy", "suppress this enemy"), but it doesn't work like that at all - partly from the limited way Orders work, but mostly from the game speed.
With the current pace I'm barely able to tell what my Retinue is doing, there's just a constant barrage of attacks and focus on the quick "clearing" of screens' worth of enemies.
To illustrate this, I'm refraining from using my favorite Psyker spells for the Retinue Member because their super low coodlowns mean they are running all the time and the screen gets painfully bright. And I'm struggling to find weapons that don't look funny (e.g., having my Crusaders' Grenade Launcher spitting shots at multiples per second looks quite strange).
I expressed this in my old posts Before 2.0... and beyond (some thoughts on gameplay) and Suggestions - from small tweaks to large features (see "Tactiucal Mode"), but with the Hierophant there are such missed opportunities related to this issue that I have to go back to it.
Takeaway: again, I would gladly pay good money for a "tactics mode" DLC (more of a "Director's Cut") optionally restoring game flow parameters from the original release (animation speeds, movement speeds, player and enemy relative health/suppression/damage, etc.).
(Edited with more information).
Bugs:
- The cutscene after the final mission of the "Craftworld Aeldari" investigation (which shows an important discussion with Inquisitor Mercer) gets stuck with both character facing each other but not talking. You're forced to skip it, losing the context of what you're doing.
- "Finding the Harlequin" mission has a broken dialogue text string.
- After an Imperial Guard mission mini-.event (the ones with the "(Imperial reconnaissance squad has been located..." message) the dialogue screen remains on the screen with empty dialog.
Suggestions:
- Hierophant has clearly much less care put into it appearance-wise than other classes (see below). I believe this warrants a second pass to give that extra care and polish.
- He misses details such as showing the specific Belt Items and Purity Seals.
- He has very few armor base appearances/variations.
- He shows rather limited customization in the Appearance tab (most Hierophant items have one color point instead of two, robe main color is not customizable).
- You may consider having Orders not sharing cooldowns, to favor adaptability.
(Edited OP to add some suggestions RE: passive tree upgrade, retinue belt items, environmental trap interaction, etc.).
In general, though the tone above may be considered critical, I'm enjoying this DLC a lot. The concept of the Hierophant is probably among the coolest, and playing with it is quite fun. Though a few tweaks as described above would go a long way to make it truly outstanding, there are many I love about the class as is:
- As mentioned, the concept is simply great. I proposed having an inquisitorial retinue for all characters some time ago (see this post), but this is the next best thing.
- The variety in each retinue member is outstanding. While ideally they could have been fully-featured characters of the class (even the player's own characters), I understand you decided to use simplified version of each class for balance reasons. Still, the customizability in each retinue member (specially their weapon and belt types) is still great and really rewarding.
- Having such varied Orders is really cool (though their potential is still unrealized as described in the above post).
- The fact that the class uses the regular (one handed) weapons and belt utility items with few limitations is great. I prefer having common items among classes, with a few class-specifics here and there, than having isolated item pools for each.
- The class seems to have a huge variety of enjoyable play styles, though it's a bit early to tell. I'm intrigued by the possibility to use a limited retinue, for example.
Set this current order state as My default.