Nah, I think back when I wrote this I intended that to mean that I thought that the problem was the phrasing of comms attacks implicitly excluding Hacking Attacks, because the alternative led to a dumb conclusion. A kind of proof by contradiction, I guess.
I'm stressing the relevant parts. If you are going to take a Saving Roll because: you suffered a successful attack (because you lost the FtF or the enemy got his normal roll) you are affected by a weapon (there are weapons where you don't roll for success, like Direct Templates) you are affected by a rule (like Combat Jump (Explosion) that is probably the only non attack that forces a Saving roll) then you MUST use the Symbiomate. What is Spotlight? It is a Comms Attack, so it is an Attack. Does it require a Saving Roll? No, so you don't use your Symbiomate.
That's also an attack and follows all the restrictions on attacks, so camouflaged units are safe from it. See the underline emphasis in the rules quote below. After performing the PH Roll and determining the Trooper's final location, the Trooper makes a Direct Template Attack, placing the center of the Circular Template (Blast Focus) over the center of their base.
I was wandering for a while now. What about biotechvore area? Does it force to use symbiomate with their bonus BTS, can it even be used there?
So apparently @HellLois has updated this: Basically he's saying that the correct way to read the rule is not as written (attacks OR things-that-cause-aroll) but rather it's intended to be "attacks-that -cause-a-roll or weapons-that -cause-a-roll and special -that -cause-a-roll". What this means is that, in general, BS or Hacking Attacks will still trigger the "must use" requirement of SymnioMates but Spotlight and FO will not because they're not "attacks that cause a roll". @HellLois @ijw can you please confirm that this is correct? Tl;dr on Discord HellLois made a ruling that errata'd the Annex to mean that Spotlight and FO no longer strip Symbiomates [edit: for the purposes of CB's online tournament only].
First of all, that discord server is not an official way of rulling ;) Second, that was a rulling for the official TTS tournament, just for the tournament, for the official answer you have to wait to the next FAQ version. thx
This is the best possible version of this response. Thanks! So that means that: Right now, Spotlight and FO DO remove SymbioMates because they're both attacks and the rule says "attacks - or being affected by any weapon or rule that requires a Saving Roll." At some point in the future this may be errata'd by FAQ, but that hasn't happened yet. However, for a specific tournament the TO(ish) has ruled on the matter as to how its being played at that tournament. Makes sense to me. :) For context, I came across the screen cap in a discussion of how the rule works generally - not in relation to the tournament it was intended to be applied to. :)
Thats what i mean. Cant be valid a screen capture where you can read one staff member said x or y, because it depends on the context of that specific moment, maybe is answering just using the memory and not reading the rules and all the interactions, because a quickly answer is needed, like in a tournament. ^^ so it's time to wait.
@HellLois I love that you’ve taken this exact approach to it. Thank you for the clarification and response.