I just read an interesting (and heated) thread about Pulse Wave vs Battle Fury. It got me thinking about another scenario.

Pulse Wave vs CAP Nightshade and her power.

WEREWOLF SERUM: At the beginning of your turn, you may choose an adjacent character. That character can use Blades/Claws/Fangs, and possesses Battle Fury but can't attack Nightshade. When rolling a D6 for Blades/Claws/Fangs, the chosen character subtracts 1 from the result, minimum 1. These effects last until your next turn even if this power is countered or lost.

At the beginning of my turn I choose an opposing character that has Pulse Wave. On my opponent's turn, can that character use Pulse Wave to attack Nightshade?


I would say the answer is No.

Not because the opposing figure has Battle Fury (which is addressed in the linked thread above). And not because the power states "These effects last until your next turn even if this power is countered or lost", because Pulse Wave ignores and the word ignore isn't in her power. Semantics I know, but from past rulings this would seem to be the answer. If I am incorrect on this Rules Deputies please let me know.

The reason I say No is due to the Incapacitate example. If I Incap an opposing figure with Pulse Wave on my turn, that action resolves and is done and the figure gets a token. On my opponents turn, if the opposing figure Pulse Wave's and my figure with Incap is within range, you don't get to remove the action token I assigned from Incap the turn before, just because Incap is being ignored now during the Pulse Wave action.

Similar situation with Nightshade's power. On my turn I resolve her Werewolf Serum power and assign a stipulation to an opposing character. That is resolved and done on my opponent's turn. That stipulation isn't taken off that character during his Pulse Wave action.


So, have I found that silver bullet to all those Gauntlet wielding Pulse Waviers or did I just spin my wheels for nothing?

If there is another opponent within Pulse Wave range, Nightshades Werewolf Serum will be ignored by Pulse Wave.
If there is no other opposing character to Pulse Wave, then I don't know. I'm still inclined to say that Pulse Wave would be legal, though. Since her power doesn't say "This cannot be ignored," it can be ignored, which is exactly what Pulse Wave does.

I will say yes due to the pw just draw lof to each person frist then it shut all of thier powers off(ignored) then you make your attack roll

It was ruled with the new Atrocitus that you could still use Pulsewave when Atrocitus gives you Battle Fury if Atrocitus is in range of the attack. So, I would guess that would apply here and once Pulsewave is declared, the remaining powers are ignored so Nightshade is hit.

For the record, I don't agree with either ruling.

I think im starting to understand this whole debate... Battle Fury doesn't allow ranged attacks, its not giving you 0 range, so u still have the half range from pulse wave to see what gets ignored and what doesn't, if the fig giving u battle fury is within half range, then the power would be ignored when using pulse wave... clear enough?
this is why u can perplex down range and stop it completely... if u have a range of 6 and your range gets perplexed down 3 times, ur pulse wave range is 0 (replace to 3, modify to 0).

Neither do I. That's surprising it got rules that way. In order for powers and such to be ignored they need to be hit with the pulsewave (which is why a a character can perplex themselves for te pulsewave and have it still be in effect, and why a character could use prob control to reroll the attack roll).

If you have battle fury, you have no way to give the character a ranged combat action to even activate pulse wave in the first place. Last I checked, characters with battle fury can't be given ranged combat attacks.

Yeah it just doesn't make sense to me.

The trick is : the character cannot perform ranged combat attacks, but that doesn't prevent him from being given ranged combat action. After that, since Pulse Wave's timing starts by drawing a LOF and then ignores everything in it, if you get Battle Fury from a source that is within the PW (and thu ignored), it disappear BEFORE the ranged combat attack is actually made, so at that point you can do it. It's not the first time a ruling like that appears in the game : Batman JL and his "Out of the Shadows" SP are very similar : you can give that Batman a close-combat action even if no opposing characters are adjacent at that time, as long as the other part of the SP (the placement) allows him to become adjacent to one. Same thing here : the attack is illegal at the moment the action is given, but it becomes legal during the resolution of the action, so you can give the action anyway.

Pulsewave ignores game effects used by characters with LOF drawn to them: they have to be targeted by the PW, not hit by it. The figure using PW can use Perplex and have it still be in effect because effects he's using aren't ignored. Only the figure using PW or a figure outside the range can use Prob, as it would be a game effect being ignored by any figure targeted.

Figures with battle Fury can't make ranged attacks, but BF doesn't prevent you from giving them a ranged combat action. That's the basis of the ruling, that and the sequence of events in PW: give a ranged combat action, ignore all game effects, now make a ranged attack.

The Incap example in the original post isn't quite the same. Instead, this is more akin to using Perplex or Outwit.

For example, if character adjacent to a PW character had used Perplex on the PWer to lower its attack value, when PWer uses PW it will ignore that other character's use of Perplex (and PWer's attack value will not be modified).

I see the same basic effect here. Nightshade isn't given an action, sure, but that's pretty much irrelevent (you don't give a character an action to use Toughness, but PW will still ignore that too). But she does does have a power that does something to the PWer. And nothing in that power says that the power can't be ignored.

The second one

And if you want to get around PW, please note that it no longer ignores most everything under the sun when it comes to drawing LOF.

Hindering terrain is ignored (Thanks to the IT [green] bit), so Stealth will still offer no protection, but ATAs like The Hand or League of Assassins will now block LOF. And if you are playing Golden Age, Submerged is an oldie but a goodie.

Or just bust out the Barrier characters. Those have always been Grade-A PW protection.

...it will also no longer ignore map features like the "grave" squares on the graveyard map...

I just don't understand how if you are unable to give a character a ranged combat attack, why you would be able to give them a ranged combat action. I know the difference between the two.... but don't all ranged combat actions result in ranged combat attacks.... so why wouldn't battle fury stop a ranged combat action from happening?

RCAs do pretty much always result in a ranged attack. However,
(a) Nothing prevents you from giving an action to do nothing: people do it all the time with move actions (to push to a preferable click), but you can do the same with any type action.
(b) There's a "sequence of events" issue here. You give the action, draw the LOF, and then (since PW is now ignoring all effects etc and you no longer have BF) you make the attack. Again, this is no different than giving OOS Batman a close combat action when he's not adjacent to any opposing figure and then using OOS to move him adjacent: he could not legally make a close combat attack when you gave him the action, but it becomes a legal attack subsequent to the move.

Ranged combat actions always lead to ranged combat attacks

1 -You do not need to be able to make the attack at the time the action is given.

2 - If it is impossible for the character to at some point make the attack, the action would be illegal and can't be given. (Shape change is an exception)

In this case, the second one doesn't happen because when it's time to attack the character is no longer being affected by Battle Fury.