Benzo Balrog wrote:
Yes. My guess is that D broke 'ticks' into mini-ticks (such as rounds of battle), so that time-based effects are now less dependent on when in the tick you get hit.
Actually the updates are on the same time scale as bard lyrics, but that description is close enough. Also not every single spell uses the new system, only ones that needed it. In general, I applied it only to affects that had short constant durations, and especially affects that previously only lasted 0/1 ticks. The benefit is that the duration of the ability is the same regardless of when the next tick is.
Also the duration is now often able to be level-dependent. Instead of lasting 5 ticks, the understand spell will last a number of "combat rounds" based on a multiple of your level. It still averages the same amount of time, but it will grow as you gain more experience.
Before you ask, the gate spell is not eligible for this change, because it does not use the affect system.
This change also allows us to do more DoT (damage over time) type of spell affects in the future. As an example of that, magma spray has been updated. If the magma sticks to you, it will do damage every combat round instead of every tick, which is less damage per hit but far more often. As I mentioned in the update, the total amount of damage that magma spray does is still the same, although its broken up differently over time.