Pacification: Ineffective on NPCs?

Hey folks!

So I've been leveling Paladin on a count of getting my hands on the Zantetsuken and almost able to get the Immortal Flames Shield (both of which I want to show off), and I noticed that there is an ability that Paladins have called Shield Swipe. It costs 40 TP (which is really great, as it helps to slow the rate of TP decay on Paladins) and it deals decent enough damage for what it is, and it inflicts Pacification on the enemy you use it on, which is absolutely fantastic!

But there is a bit of a problem that I have noticed. While enemies are affected by Pacification, they can still use abilities. I have noticed this while leveling in Southern Thanalan around the Little Ala Mhigo area with enemies that have abilities with casting times and with instant-cast abilities.

Now I know that, when I have gotten the Pacification debuff on myself, I literally could not do anything. I couldn't use any of my abilities at all! So I'm just wondering what, exactly, I'm missing, or if the Pacification debuff just isn't functioning properly.

Pacification states that you are "unable to use Weapon Skills". This is a bit vague, but if you have ever used Berserk on WAR, you'll notice that even though you can't use anything on GCD, you can use Off-GCD abilities, like Brutal Swing. Therefore, I would guess that some abilities simply aren't considered "Weapon Skills" when being used by you or enemies. That almost definitely includes caster abilities, such as Fire or Blizzard.

Later on, a lot of enemies fully resist Pacification, so it is still kind of hard to tell the specifics.

I believe it works like this:
Pacification = unable to use Technique abilities (physical attacks)
Silence = unable to use spells (magic attacks)

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Originally Posted by Codek

I believe it works like this:
Pacification = unable to use Technique abilities (physical attacks)
Silence = unable to use spells (magic attacks)

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This would be close, but the issue is some physical attacks seem to ignore Pacification for some reason. Like I said, it seems to be related to GCD somehow, but the description is pretty vague haha.

Enemies will still show a cast bar while under pacification, but if the cast completes before the pacification debuff goes away, nothing happens. I base this off of countless dungeon runs and solo tanking ifrit hm. Any further insight is welcomed.

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Originally Posted by Codek

I believe it works like this:
Pacification = unable to use Technique abilities (physical attacks)
Silence = unable to use spells (magic attacks)

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Not all are included, for example as a smn if you get silenced from first boss in cutters cry, you can still use fester

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Originally Posted by Velthice

Enemies will still show a cast bar while under pacification, but if the cast completes before the pacification debuff goes away, nothing happens. I base this off of countless dungeon runs and solo tanking ifrit hm. Any further insight is welcomed.

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Yep, this is what I've noticed as well. Pacification makes it so a Weaponskill cannot be used. An enemy can't start a cast of one, and if they already have, it will continue to cast as normal, but will cancel omit the debuff is there when finished (ifrit hm's exploding plume skill with cracks, but not the one with circles)

As others have mentioned, it depends on whether or not the skill is defined as casted or charged up. I think a decent example is the manticore at the end of Halatali Hard. His frontal breathe and tail swipe attacks are considered charge up attacks and can't begin being executed under the effect of pacification and will be canceled if the charge up finishes with the effect pacification present. His ranged circle aoe called Fire something-or-other is considered a casting skill and can be immediately stopped by silencing it.

Pacification is handy in a few fights. I think it's pretty under utilized in general. If you time things right, you can stop nearly every skill by Diabolos with spirits, shield swipe, and shield bash.

Hardly matters. Seems like damn near everything in endgame is immune to it anyhow.

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Originally Posted by Doki

Hardly matters. Seems like damn near everything in endgame is immune to it anyhow.

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yep. plus it wears off in like 3 seconds.

On a side note - woah you went galka!?

Check all of the tooltips on your spells and skills. They are divided into 3 groups: Weaponskills , Spells, and Abilities.
Pacification will block weaponskills (things that cost TP to use)
Silence will block spells (things that cost MP )
Abilities cost neither TP nor MP, and will be unaffected by those debuffs. So things such as Fester, Lustrate, Brutal Swing, Bloodletter etc. will always be available barring all-encompassing debuffs such as Stone, Stun and Sleep.
Almost all abilities used by enemies are exactly that, abilities. Unless SE decides they want us to stop a specific ability as part of a combat mechanic, using Shield Swipe for the Pacification is primarily a PvP tool, while the TP savings are certainly worth noting in longer PvE encounters.

The above is incorrect. Pacification will prevent all enemy abilities from firing (excluding spells of course). They can still charge their abilities, but the ability will not actually fire if pacification is still in effect. If pacification does wear off before the ability finishes charging, the ability will still fire.

Basically, it can be used to interrupt any non-spell ability.

Depends on how the game classifies the abilities, sometimes they might seem like spells but are really abilities and viceversa. Just like how the lamb's summoning in AK can't be silenced because it's an ability instead of a spell, probably works the same in PvP for SMN/SCH Summon abilities but I don't really PvP. That's also another thing, a bunch of extra ability effects are really focused towards PvP instead of PvE, like the reduced healing from Disease or Storm's Eye when very few enemies self heal.

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Originally Posted by Billzey

The above is incorrect. Pacification will prevent all enemy abilities from firing (excluding spells of course). They can still charge their abilities, but the ability will not actually fire if pacification is still in effect. If pacification does wear off before the ability finishes charging, the ability will still fire.

Basically, it can be used to interrupt any non-spell ability.

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They can't start a charge up weapon skill under the effect of pacification, either. For instance, on the first boss in Brayflox Hardmode, if you use shield swipe a second before he starts charging up bomb toss, he will sit there doing nothing for 6 seconds and then charge bomb toss. I assume it's because he is hardwired to use it at a certain time.