Squirt's Necklace' buff disappears during Serenity

Bug Report
1

In the following videos there are five demonstrations of Squirt’s Necklace’ buff disappearing during serenity:
https://imgur.com/a/0U8EZG2
It’s expected that since no damage is taken during serenity, the buff will be preserved.
In the first and fifth videos you can see the buff being removed during serenity. In the others, you can see it not being gained, despite the fact that serenity’s duration with the Ascension rune (used in this setup) guarantees two stacks of the buff.
I believe this is an interaction with the ghosts in this mobset, but did not get any “proof” on video.

2

I think the reason for this is that serenity is not really a shield, it’s just a skill that prevents you from losing life points while taking damage.

3

According to the description of the skill it is a shield.
https://us.diablo3.com/en-us/class/monk/active/serenity

You are enveloped in a protective shield that absorbs all incoming damage for 3 seconds and grants immunity to all control impairing effects.

4

Sorry, but this comment is not related to the fact that it’s an obvious bug. Try focusing on the fact that the buff is lost despite not taking damage.

5

I could be wrong of course, but i don’t really thing it’s a bug. Some descriptions can be very misleading in arpgs, especially in D3 and PoE. Serenity may be referred as a shield, that absorbs all incoming damage, but this doesn’t necessarily mean it works the same way as the shield of gizzard or fortress ballista does. Serenity doesn’t prevent you from being “touched” by incoming damage, it just prevents you from losing life points, in other words, you have to take damage in order to procc the effect of Serenity, at least this is what i think how it works.

6

Squirts:
While not taking damage, damage dealt is increased by up to 100% and damage taken is increased by up to 50%

Compare the description of Serenity with some of the other skills/iems in the game, then think about why Serenity should be different from the others that DO work with Squirts.

Goldwrap: Does not work with Squirts because even if you have infinite toughness, at least SOME amount of damage gets through even if it is a fraction of a hit point.
Gain armor for 5 seconds equal to the amount picked up

Homing Pads: Does not work with Squirts since it only absorbs a portion of the damage
While casting Town Portal you gain a protective bubble that reduces damage taken by 65%

St. Archew’s Gage: Works with Squirts after you get the shield, but you have to take damage first, so you lose your stacks, but then you will gain them back while you have the shield
The first time an elite pack damages you, gain an absorb shield equal to 145% of your maximum Life for 10 seconds

Fortress Ballista: Works with Squirts
Attacks grant you an absorb shield for 2.0% of your maximum Life.

Wildebeest: Works with Squirts
gain an absorb shield for 200% of your total Life per Second.

Spectral Blades/Barrier Blades: Works with Squirts
With each cast, gain a protective shield for 3 seconds that absorbs 4% of your Life in damage

Galvanizing Ward: Works with Squirts
Gain a protective shield that absorbs the next 60% of your Life in damage

Dominance: Works with Squirts
Killing an enemy grants a shield that absorbs 2% of your Life in damage

Serenity: Should work with Squirts but doesn’t, even though the description matches all the other items/skills above
You are enveloped in a protective shield that absorbs all incoming damage…

What leads you to that conclusion? Why are you making a distinction between “losing life” and “taking damage”? They are the same thing.

I think you must be thinking about St. Archew’s Gage because that is how they work. See above.

Just going by the descriptions on the items/skills, why should Serenity be any different?

The answer as to what is wrong with Squirts is that it has to do with the fact that the shield is infinite. For all the other items that provide a working shield for Squirts, you can hover your mouse over your health globe and see how many hit points you have remaining on your shield.

With Serenity, you do not get a number there since your shield is based on duration, and does not have a hit point value.

My guess is that that when you get get hit, Squirts checks to see how many hit points you have left on your shield, and if the damage you would take is less than that number, then you get to keep your squirts buff.

Since Serenity has no hit point value, it assumes that you do not have a shield at all, and you lose your buff.

Edit: Just to be clear: Serenity should work with Squirts, but does not. That means that it is bugged. The explanation above is my guess as to what is wrong in the game code that might be causing the bug.

2 Likes
7

I don’t know why you bother mentioning these facts, or trying to justify this behavior, when it’s obviously a bug. Serenity protects squirt’s necklace in 99% of instances, everyone who pushed monk the last two seasons knows it and relies on this mechanic. Several noteworthy monk players who have pushed this class to very high ranks on multiple builds have been surprised by my findings.

8

It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not about wording and it is a bug, it should work one way, doesn’t matter which way exactly. What I mean here is what if you cast Serenity and you get hit by a skeleton and you keep your stacks, you also should keep them when you’re fighting a ghost. There shouldn’t be two different results.

1 Like
9

This does not seem related at all, squirt’s buff is lost when losing HP, if you lose shield instead of HP (you can see your “shield amount” by placing the cursor over the health bar) then it’s not lost. Goldwrap gives armor (a form of damage reduction) rather then shield, so it won’t protect it. FYI, st. archew’s gage grants the shield before taking damage, which will keep squirt’s’ stacks, and many builds rely on this behavior.

Serenity is expected to act like demon hunter’s smoke screen, another skill commonly used to protect the buff, and they both do protect it against 99.9% of targeted attacks/aoe damage sources.

10

I agree.

I Agree. I stated the exact same thing in my post.

I am attempting to explain to mitsos that Serenity is bugged and I am not in any way justifying the behavior.

I have no idea what you two are talking about. I am not justifying the behavior at all. It does indeed appear to be bugged. I am trying to see if I can make it easier to the Q/A team to identify the problem with the amulet or skill so they can fix it.

The other player, mitsos does not think it is bugged, and I am attempting to show that it IS bugged.

Did you read my post at all? Where did I attempt to say that it was not bugged? I also clearly said that Goldwrap and Homing pads should not work with Squirts. I also said that the shield for Serenity SHOULD work with Squirts, but doesn’t.

Serenity SHOULD work with Squirts. I am attempting to give a reasonable explanation about what might be causing the issue in the game code so they can track it down easier and fix it. I am not saying that it is not bugged and trying to justify why Serenity should not work.

I am giving an explanation as to WHAT might be causing the issue, not justifying the behavior.

So again, I have no idea what you are talking about.

Reread my post. mitsos does not think it is bugged, and I gave a lengthy explanation about why it IS bugged.

Then you both tell me that I am wrong when I just said that it is bugged, and gave a reasonable explanation as to what they might need to look at in order to fix it…

Everything in my post shows that Serenity SHOULD work with Squirts because all the wording in the descriptions is the same for all the other items that DO work with Squirts. The one difference in the mechanics is that Serenity had a duration, but no Hit point value.

I am saying that this is probably the CAUSE of the bug, and this is probably what they need to fix. They need to put an extra check on Squirts amulet to see if Serenity is active, and not just look to see how many hit points are on the shield. Just because I have pointed out WHY it might be bugged, does not mean I think it is working properly.

1 Like
11

Let me put it this way:
Serenity has the task to ignore all incoming damage, but in order to do so, the damage has to be applied on your character. Otherwise, how can the effect of Serenity be procced, when no damage is being registered on your character in the first place? I think the keyword here is the word “incoming”. Somehow the game must know, when you character is taking damage from the enemy, so that the game can ignore that damage while using Serenity.
Therefore i came to the conclusion that Serenity might not work the same way as other shields do. But like i said, it’s just a theory. Maybe a blue post can help us here.

12

Simple. How do the other shields get procced? It happens when you cast the skill.

You do not need to take damage in order to have the shield working properly otherwise none of the other shields would work.

I reject that. Why should the damage get applied to your character? For all the other shields, the damage is applied to the shield. Why should serenity be different?

They do not post on the bug forums unless there is a widespread and gamebreaking bug that affects every player.

13

Like I said, Serenity has to register some damage on your character, in order to ignore it. Other shields like the shield from ballista fortress or gizzard don’t have any procc-mechanic, they are just preventing directly the damage being apllied on your character

14

Why?

You keep saying this over and over, and I keep asking why.

I do not think this is what is happening, but even if it is, why do you think this is acceptable? If you have to take damage in order for the shield to work, then the description of the skill does not match the behavior.

Again, why do you think should Serenity SHOULD work differently from all other shields in the game, and why do you think this is acceptable behavior for a skill to not match the description.

The skill says it will absorb all damage, but you think it does not, and you also seem to think this is ok. Why?

I think Serenity DOES absorb all damage just like it says, but I think that Squirts is checking to see how many hit points are left on the shield when determining if you should get to keep the buff when you get hit. And unlike all the other shields, Serenity does not use hit points, so squirts is ignoring serenity even though you are not actually taking any damage.

If we are talking about whether or not it is a bug, then let’s look at it very simply.

  1. Squirts says you get a buff if you are not taking damage.
  2. Serenity says it absorbs all damage.
  3. When you get hit while serenity is active, you lose your squirts buff.
  4. Contradiction.

You think this is ok, and that the descriptions on the items are accurate. Every other shield in the game does not behave this way.

Explain how the descriptions on the items are accurate, and reflect what is happening in the game.

15

It doesn’t explain why Serenity does work against some mobs and doesn’t against other. So it’s not even about if it should protect Squirts’ stacks but what it should work one way for all mobs without exception. So it is a bug because you’re dropping stacks against ghost or a bug when you don’t drop them when you’re fighting something else.

1 Like
16

Again, why should i not think of that? Is there any law that doesn’t allow me doing so? Is there a regulation, that all shields have to work the same way in D3, no matter what?
Maybe it really is a bug, but there is also a possibility that it isn’t. And i never said that this behaviour is acceptable. Who the hell am i to decide something like that? The President of the D3 community? I don’t even know if this behaviour is intended or not.

I have also explained clearly with simple words how i got to my conlusion. If you still don’t understand what i mean, then i don’t know how to help you mate.

If you have a solid evidence that Serenity is bugged, then i’ll immediately accept that. But you don’t show me any evidence, you are just making assumptions, just like me. Therefore they only ppl that can help us in this case are the blues.

I never said that either. On my second post i wrote that some item descriptions can be very misleading in arpgs. Please read my comments more carefully next time.

17

It is in my last post. I thought it was obvious without having to spell it out, but if a skill says it does something, and it does not do that thing, then either the description is wrong, or it is bugged.

Since the description for serenity is the same as all the other skills and items, and they all work with Squirts, then the only logical conclusion is that Serenity is bugged.

Maybe I misunderstood what you meant. If you think it is not bugged, then I take that to mean that you think it is intentionally designed to work this way and that the description on the item somehow matches the behavior in-game.

That is what I thought you were saying in all your posts. Explaining how that even though you are not taking damage, you should still lose the buff because you are getting hit.

I did read your posts carefully, and I think I understand what you are saying perfectly fine. I just can’t understand how you can read the description on the item and think this is somehow intended.

Skill says it does X.
Skill does not do X.
I say bug.
You say the wording could have another interpretation.
I think the wording in unambiguous, but you disagree.
I am simply asking how you can reach that conclusion when it seems obvious to me that 1+1 does not equal 3.

You are perfectly entitled to your own opinion, and I am not trying to take that away from you. I am trying to wrap my head around how you think the wording is somehow still correct even though it is in direct contradiction to what is happening in the game.

But, feel free to disagree.

18

Sorry, but what you wrote in your last post is also an assumption, not an evidence. You cleary wrote many times “i think”, which means you are assuming it happens this way, and you are totally entitled to do so, but you are not proving anything.
A solid evidence would be an information from a reliable and official source, like the D3 official site, a patch note or even a blue post. As long as none of this available, then everything is still open.

19

Are you trolling or what? It doesn’t work one way for all mobs, what are we talking about here? Since when normal ghost is a special type of enemy?

20

Excuse me, who are you now? And who said that ghosts are a scpecial type of enemy? lol?