[2020] Dev Diary: The Power Bar

From a mechanics level our server has always had the concept of "in combat" and "out of combat", it was just being controlled by the player manually (like a stick shift) via the survival tray and any of the "combat" trays (melee/ranged/death/life). This is why we have always had ooc regen and ic regen.
1) Being on any NPC's hate list will keep you in combat. When it dies or leashes you are removed thus dropping ooc. If you are on a players hate list and damage them within 10 seconds you are in combat. Using any combat power (tray / left clicks) will briefly put you into combat for the anima

Yes, all the classes who benefit from have a mitigation in combat and a dodge in survival will have to pick.

I do believe the saying is "better the devil you know". Meaning we have all experienced this before in every game that uses this model, however the benefits of the model outweigh the potential of this known potential problem. We definitely want to hear if it happens to you when this goes to Test, and if it does, you will either need to use a Runegate or Recall.

This is a bug we have in our current build that I hope is fixed by the time we get to Test. Ideally DoT

The consumable slots (Alt 1 - Alt 3) do not accept powers at all, only Potions, Bandages, Food, Campfires. (Our slots are not combo slots that accept both powers/consumables, you get one or the other!)

Good question, the situation you provide isn't an apples to apples comparison though.
In order for the Assassin to be in a state of "DoT ticking + still in stealth";
a) they would first have to break stealth to apply the DoT and then wait the combat timer out (at which point the DoT may have already worn off) ,
b) or use a Vanish to get back into stealth while they have DoT