There is an interaction at play when Probius uses Disruption pulse, which prevents Disruption Pulse from damaging the same target twice within 2.5 seconds. I call this is a bug, though in truth I believe it is a lazy ninja fix (which was never inside patch notes) to prevent Particle Accelerator from being abused. Elaborating on how I reached this conclusion is going to take some explaining, and I hope the developers will either fix the bug (if that’s what it truly is) or reconsider a different solution to the problem.
First, pre-patch v2.49.2 (Jan 22nd, 2020), and for a short time thereafter Disruption Pulse did not have this interaction. There was no way to test this pre-v2.49.2, except going into try mode and turning off Cooldowns to spam the ability; however, in patch v2.49.2 they revised Particle Accelerator. Here is the patch description:
Hero Updates
Talents
- Level 7
- Particle Accelerator [Q]
- Maximum bonus damage for enemies hit reduced from 50% to 40%.
- Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Disruption Pulse by .5 seconds, plus an additional .5 seconds whenever Warp Rift explodes.
- Tower Defense [E]
- New functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Photon Cannon by 4 seconds whenever Probius damages an enemy Hero with Disruption Pulse or Warp Rift.
- Particle Accelerator [Q]
- Level 16
- Repulsor [W]
- Removed.
- Interference [W]
- Additional functionality: Enemies that are hit by Warp Rift’s explosion are knocked away from its center.
- Repulsor [W]
Developer Comment: We haven’t done many functionality changes to Probius’s talents since his release, so we’re now taking a look at places that could use some design love. We’re targeting Tower Defense and Particle Accelerator as talents that should feel more prominent in their respective builds, as well as removing Repulsor and baking its functionality into Interference, as it wasn’t enough of a stand-alone talent to be worth picking the majority of the time.
Particle Accelerator now had a way of allowing Disruption Pulse to be cast more often by lower its cooldown. At the time I thought this change was absolutely amazing, and played many games with this new talent. I noticed immediately however that there was an unintended side effect to Disruption Pulse when when combined with Echo Pulse and Particle Accelerator: Because of the cooldown reduction, there was now a way to cast another Disruption Pulse before the original one returned to you with Echo Pulse. The potential result was that the bonus damage you gained from the original cast of Disruption Pulse could carry over into the next cast, allowing a max damage Disruption Pulse.
This interaction went unnoticed or unremarked for approximately ~2 months. At some point in this time, the developers did a ninja fix that wasn’t ever reported in patch notes, which is the aformentioned ‘bug’ that doesn’t allow Disruption Pulse to damage the same target within 2.5 seconds. (not including the Echo Pulse return, which will still always damage on the return)
I want this changed. My problem now is that I cannot completely utilize the cooldown reduction effect that Particle Accelerator provides. When you attempt to use Disruption Pulse as fast as you can while getting the cooldown reduction, you are rewarded with a complete whiff, where it passes right over your target for no damage. There has to be a different way to code and fix this problem, so it doesn’t create yet another. Thank you.