For lack of a better way to phrase the question in the title, how do we know for certain, without asking, what combinations of powers and "When he/she/it does" effects work or don't work? See the following, all from the WizKids Rules Forums:

1:

GOD OF FEAR: Phobos can use Force Blast. When he does, on a result of 4-6, after actions resolve, the affected character becomes friendly and may be immediately given an action as a free action, and then becomes friendly to its previous controller's force.

Can this be cupled with the bulldozers power ?

This character can use Force Blast. When it does, it may target an opposing character within 4 squares and line of fire, and all characters adjacent to that opposing character.

WizKids' answer is NO, citing that the Force Blast on the dial overrides the Bulldozer.

2:

If I were to give larfleeze a wall construct which allows the character to use barricade as a free action, could he then use the free action quake through his speed special(greed: Barricading)?

Wall (Orange) This character can use Barrier as a free action, but only to place 2 squares of blocking terrain.

GREED: BARRICADING: Larfleeze can use Barrier and Plasticity. When Larfleeze uses Barrier, after actions resolve, he can use Quake as a free action as if he occupied all blocking terrain markers placed by friendly characters with the Orange Lantern Corps keyword.

WizKids' answer is NO, citing that the Barrier on the dial overrides the Wall.

3:

wkD-019 Sarah Rainmaker

PSIONICALLY CONTROLLED WATER: If Sarah Rainmaker is occupying Water Terrain, she can use Barrier as a free action. When she does she may place the blocking terrain markers in water terrain.

botmS100 Millennium Puzzle

Relic: 4-6.
This character can use Barrier and when it takes damage from an attack, deal the attacker 1 unavoidable damage. When this character uses Barrier, it may use it to place up to 8 squares of blocking terrain.

If the Millennium Puzzle relic is attached to Sarah Rainmaker, and if she is occupying Water Terrain; Can she use Barrier as a free action making 8 squares of blocking terrain?

WizKids' answer is YES, stating that "Yes. The effect applies to any use of Barrier and not just the Barrier gained from a specific source."

3B:

PSIONIC CONSTRUCTS: Terrain markers placed by Bunker are not removed until they are destroyed or until Bunker uses a power that places that type of terrain marker on the map.

Millennium Puzzle
Relic: 4-6.

This character can use Barrier and when it takes damage from an attack, deal the attacker 1 unavoidable damage. When this character uses Barrier, it may use it to place up to 8 squares of blocking terrain.

My Question is:

Bunker has barrier as a power listed on every click of his dial. If he were to have the Millennium Puzzle could he place 8 squares of blocking due to the second clause of the relic?

As with WizKids' answer with Sarah Rainmaker, their reply is YES, stating that "Yes. The effect applies to any use of Barrier and not just the Barrier gained from a specific source."

= = = = = = = = = = = =

OK. WHAT specifically makes Sarah Rainmaker or Bunker work with the Millennium Puzzle but the others NOT work with the constructs? What am I missing here? What makes for the different situations? Please point me to specific, exact, precise wording/rules on this if at all possible.

Thank you in advance.

I've cross-posted a much streamlined version of this to the WizKids forums; here's hoping for a response!

This part right here. The other part allows anyone using to it to use the power of Barrier. The quoted sentence isn't directly referring to the Barrier power granted by the item. That is just plain ol' Barrier. The effect of 8 squares applies to any use of Barrier, not just from that relic.

Basically, being granted the use of Barrier isn't a prerequisite for the secondary effect of the relic/resource/etc. It functions independently of whether or not the relic is granting you Barrier.

Look for the phrase "When he/she/it does". Those seem to be the ones that do not stack as they are referring to the special power that granted the power.

Yeah. They replied over night. The difference, as darkobiwan states, is the difference of "When ____ does" and "When ____ uses."

Right. :|

Common sense application of BA and MA in English says they should both do the same thing, but these are the rules, such as they are. Thanks, folks, for your replies without snarkiness or rudeness.

You are absolutely right but the truth is is that Heroclix is NOT written in English. It's written in Heroclix-ese-ish-en. ) Impervious doesn't mean the English definition. We understand that almost intuitively. Less obvious though is that "uses" and "has" and many such words also aren't the English word, but in fact the Heroclix word. They could probably simply use Bold or Italics to let us know whether we're looking at a Game Term or an English term (and greatly reduce the confusion)...but they don't.

I like this phrase. Can I use it?

Honestly, they would be much better served if they DID use basic, common, carefully worded, precise, real-life English rather than having minute, one word, "can means must" and "'When ___ does' doesn't equal 'When ____ uses'" hair-splitting concerns.

Now that I KNOW this is what to look for, great. I can apply that knowledge. But if I were a casual player without HCRealms or the WK Rules Forums to hunt this down on. . . wow. There's no way I'd ever get half of the rulings right because it's written in "Heroclix-ese-ish-en."

Then why did they rule that Mr. Freeze (BM048) and the Ice Blast Ring don't work?

Has something to do with an entry in the players guide at the time.
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=495295

Haha, be my guest.
Yes, they would. Honestly they slowly painted themselves into a corner. The example you use is a good one. Years and years ago every power was optional unless it said "Not optional". But it eventually led to a lot of strange interactions where you would RS a guy and then the opponent would say "I'm using Stealth" so you would have to take back your RS. So they decided that powers were no longer optional. But then they realized THAT created a ton of unintended consequences. So that led them to "can means must" and "may means may". And honestly the whole big thing is just a collection of similar stories.
Yup, and that's why there IS so much confusion in Heroclix and it's a real barrier to new players.

When I first came back to the game after leaving I played with a group that had "played as long as I had", except from a time after I had quit. I came onto this website trying to figure out how to make the game even with them, since they apparently didn't know how to play. This group was the reality of new players (who had played for years in this case) never learning how to play because of how the rules were written.

Now that I've used hcrealms as a "Herclix-ese-ish-en" (we needed this term) to "English" translator, the whole group does fine. Now the power of the newer figures over my older collection is starting to have an effect instead of it just being knowing how to play vs not knowing.

Yeah, that does help a lot. A common separation between a good judge and a player who's not ready to be a judge is the understanding of Clix-ish (my preferred term as Heroclix-ese-ish-en takes too long to write... and is new to me. LOL!) and how game logic isn't the same as "real world logic." Where the language is very specific and you have to suspend your own thought of logic in some cases (like what prompted me to write my signature). It's a line of logic that some players are never able to fully grasp and they will ask the judge more questions during a typical game than others.

If you've already learned that and are able to translate it for others, then kudos to you and it sounds like you're on your way to being able to make a good judge.

You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?

Yup. I'm the ex-primary-judge at my local venues, currently judge-on-rotation-with-other-judges at the one venue left. I try to keep up on things.

Answer: Sarah does not possess Barrier (A), and can only use it when she occupies water terrain (B).

(A) overrides (B) when checking to see if conditions are met.

If Sarah occupies non-water terrain, she can use Barrier from a separate source (Wall construct, Resource, etc.).

On a semi-related note, keep this in mind when using Green Arrow (tw208). Even though he has access to a slew of powers and abilities, an Arrow token must be removed first in order to access them.

Mr Freeze gets nothing from the ring because he can already use those powers. And the phrases "When he uses X" refer specifically to the powers granted by his special or the ring. Since he can't use the ring powers because he already can use Barrier/Incap, he gets nothing.

Why does the same not apply to Sarah Rainmaker/Millennium Puzzle then?

Looking at the official site, I see no ruling that says Freeze doesn't combine with the ring. You should post it there, because looking at the Rainmaker ruling I think the ring might work whenever someone uses Incap.