I assume it was added to clean up edge cases such as a character within the Pulse Wave range that has had its defense replaced and/or modified by characters outside the Pulse Wave.

But isn't that kind of thing supposed to get through Pulse Wave? A character outside the PW range can still affect it with Probability Control or by Perplexing the attackers attack value (beforehand). PW is only supposed to shut down the characters within range.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that's "supposed" to get through Pulse Wave are powers and abilities that have "Protected: Pulse Wave" or "PROTECTED: Pulse Wave". Otherwise, Pulse Wave just does what it says it does and, right now, it says to use the targets' printed defense values.

"supposed" probably wasn't the best word for me to use, but I couldn't think of a better one.

As for getting through Pulse Wave, what about Combat Reflexes or Energy Shield/Deflection? Adding "Protected: Pulse Wave" to them does nothing.

I think more often than not, it's a nerf to Pulse Wave. Often if their defense is modified positively, the modifying character is in the Pulse Wave. However, you can't modify their defense down to get an easier hit.

You had corner cases like


If a character is target by PW but Cap is not range the character woudl still receive a +1 defense.
Now that only printed defense is used they don't.

Same with perplexing defense (when teh charcter using perplex is not with the PW range).

I think that kind of thing should get through Pulse Wave. Probability Control from outside the PW range does. And a Perplex'er outside the range can still affect the attacker's attack value.

It's not a big deal though, as it does only affect a few corner cases.

And the complexity of those corner cases is what was sought to be eliminated.

How prob functions is a different case that is unrelated (from a rules perspective).

Fair enough

So who is going to ask on WIN? They might give a clarification that'll end up in a rulebook or just a simple ruling making it what they meant because they didn't think about it...

It was already asked last week but didnt hear anything back yet so this thread was started. Someone else can ask to prompt them.

I asked as well, so hopefully they'll answer soon.

From the WIN:

So, no, "?" values are not replacements. They are considered to be printed values as defined by their associated effects.

Which is what I figured they would say.

Never really took time to notice it, but does this mean Living Hair wouldn’t get any of the modifiers from ESD and Combat Reflexes when they would be showing on Medusa’s current click?

PRINTED VALUES
Some effects refer to a character’s printed combat values. When an effect looks for a printed combat value, it’s referring to the combat value that is physically printed and currently visible on the character’s combat dial. When an effect instructs you to use a printed combat value,
you may not apply any replacements or modifiers to that value