Issue 13 open beta notes
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Number=12425455
Open Beta Issue 13 Patch Notes
November 5th, 2008
For additional details about Issue 13 Open Beta, please see Positron's post: Issue 13 Open Beta
New Features
Midnight Squad Story Arcs (for Level 20-25 Heroes, Level 30-35 Villains)
The Midnight Squad has need of its members in recovering some stolen artifacts. Heroes and Villains should speak to Mercedes Sheldon who can be found inside the Midnighter Club in the side wing that leads to the Hero Zone Steel Canyon.
Cimerora Story Arcs (for Level 35-50 Heroes and Level 35-50 Villains)
Players can journey through time back to the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran peninsula where they can talk to Daedalus (for Heroes) or Sister Airlia (for Villains) to encounter new challenges.
The Merit Rewards System
A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Story Arcs, defeating Giant Monsters, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.
Day Jobs
For more information about Issue 13’s Day Jobs feature, please visit the web article: Dev Diary: Designing Issue 13's Day Jobs
New Powersets
Shields
Heft a Shield for Heroic or Villainous Ends! This new powerset brings a classic power to City of Heroes: Shields! Now, you can arm Tankers, Scrappers and Brutes with a powerful shield to protect themselves and their allies.
Pain Domination
Villains can now bend the power of pain to serve their own ends! Those playing a Corruptor or Mastermind have access to this new powerset. The antithesis of the Hero healing powerset “Empathy,” Pain Domination brings parity between Heroes and Villains with a distinctively evil flair.
Multiple Builds
Characters can create a second build with different power selections and enhancement slotting, and switch between builds by talking to any Trainer. Now you can have separate builds for soloing and grouping, or for PvP.
• The second build works like a respec, so you can change anything except your Primary and Secondary powersets.
• The second build is slotted with enhancements separately from your first build.
• You can swap builds once every 15 minutes.
• All powers fully recharge when switching builds
Villain Patron Powers Unlocked
Now any Villain that has unlocked a Patron Power Pool can freely select another when respeccing or making Multiple Builds, offering the same flexibility that heroes are afforded with Ancillary Powers.
PVP Revamp
PvP combat has been completely revamped in this issue, in an attempt to make it more fun for all ATs and builds. Please note that these changes only take effect in PvP situations; these changes have no effect on PvE. Here are a summary of the major changes:
• The damage of all attacks has been refigured. Basically, the longer the activation/animation time of an attack power, the more damage the power is going to do. There are adjustments for recharge time and End cost, but the actual time the power takes up in an attack chain is the primary consideration.
• In general, the base damage of all ATs has been increased. The Containment bonus for Controllers has been reduced because of their higher base damage.
• Being hit by an attack triggers movement suppression, just as making an attack does. Suppression for being hit by an attack is always the same duration.
• The greater the base range of an attack, the longer the suppression for the attacker.
• Resistance and defense powers have greater diminishing returns when stacked than in PvE, and lower caps.
• If more than one enemy is targeting a character in PvP, there will be a penalty to the accuracy of all attacks against them that increases with each additional enemy.
• Hit point regeneration is reduced when suppressed in PvP areas.
• Healing powers suffer from diminishing returns when several are used in a short period of time.
• All ATs except Tankers and Masterminds have some default resistances to all attacks in PVP.
• Unlike in PvE, defensive toggles do not suppress when you are held/stunned.
• Melee classes gain extra resistances to all debuffs and to movement slows. These bonuses are linked to the power in each set that gives status protection (Unyielding Stance, Wet Ice, Plasma Shield, etc.).
• “Buffing” ATs (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors, Dominators and Masterminds) have less ability to benefit from all buffing powers than other ATs (the powers have less effect on them, and their caps are lower).
• Melee ATs gain more benefit from buffing powers than other ATs (the powers have greater effect on them, and their caps are higher).
• Defeating enemies in PvP can award Influence/Infamy, Inspirations, and rarely Salvage, but no XP.
• There is no such thing as Status Protection in PvP, only Resistance. The base durations of status effects are greatly reduced in PvP (generally 4 seconds for Controllers and Dominators, 2 seconds for all other ATs).
COMBINED NOTES
Powers
Toggle Power Change
• All Player defensive Toggle Powers should now “suppress” when you are Held, Stunned or Slept instead of shutting off. The toggles have limited or no functionality when in this state. If you are held while flying, for instance, if the power which held you does not also have a -Fly function, you will remain in the air. Status protection powers still provide Hold, Sleep and Stun protection, even if suppressed.
• Offensive Toggles (Like Radiation Infection or Icicles or Rise to the Challenge) will still detoggle as before.
General
• Max status resistance cap for all ATs increased. This includes Holds, Stuns, Immobilizes, Sleeps, Terrorize, Fear, Confuse, Intangible, Untouchable
• The most any powers range can be debuffed has been altered. Minimum Range is now 25% of normal range of the power. In other words, if the power has an 80’ range base, it cannot be debuffed lower than 20’.
• Removed duplicate visual FX from Holiday Rocket Pack Temporary Power.
• The sound effect for Energy Manipulation - Power Thrust was inadvertently changed and has been reverted to its original sound
• The Warburg Nuke Chemical Burn power now correctly states that it reduces the target’s defense and not accuracy in its long help.
• Temporary Powers/Power Analyzer Mk I, II and III: These temporary powers should no longer aggro enemies.
• The “No Phase” state (the period of time after leaving a ‘phased’ state of invulnerability before you can enter it again) been changed to allow you to phase/hibernate for 30 seconds, then disallow such powers for 90 seconds.
• Invulnerability/Unyielding: This power’s activation text should no longer state it reduces the user’s defense.
• Powers granted by the 54 month veteran badge no longer gain a bonus to damage dependent upon the character's origin.
• The Goldbricker Rocket Pack will no longer function in areas or missions where temporary powers are disabled.
Tailor
• New Day Job themed costume items added, including Police Officer and a variety of civilian suits.
• Added the ability to save and load player-designed costume configurations to a file saved on the player's computer.
• The Cyborg Pack Combat Auras will now be available at all levels for all players that purchased them.
• Many costume auras have been optimized for performance. There are also a lot of new combinations for auras that didn’t previously exist.
• Major changes to the supergroup costume color system. Most notably, each costume now has its own set of supergroup colors. We can bid a fond farewell to the days when changing your costume required entry to the supergroup color picker to repair the damage. Additionally, the supergroup color picker has been merged with the tailor screen, solving the problems associated with applying supergroup colors to wings.
• In the Tailor shop, you can check out how your costume looks when in Supergroup mode. Please note, you cannot load or save a costume when the tailor screen is in SG color picker mode.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with the Cyborg ACCAHUD aura
Custom Shields
• The Talsorian Shield is unlocked by redeeming 100 Vanguard Merits at a Vanguard Merit station.
• Roman Shields should be unlockable by earning the Centurion badge.
• The Romulus shield is unlocked by defeating Romulus Nictus once.
• The Romulus Nictus shield is unlocked by defeating Romulus Nictus 5 times.
• The Rularuu Shield is unlocked by earning the Visionary badge or earning souvenirs from shadow shard task forces and story arcs.
Critter Changes
• Freedom Corps Sonic Grenades are no longer irresistible.
• Circle of Thorns Cold Thorn Mage Reflections should now use their offensive powers once again.
• Banished Pantheon Masks now range in level from 20-30.
• Infected level range now extends to level 10.
Tasks
• The Lost and Found story arc will now correctly award salvage for players that are significantly higher levels than the mission levels
• Players can no longer drop Mayhem and Safeguard missions
Bases
• All Supergroup Base room prices and Prestige costs have been rebalanced.
• Removed all base salvage from base item recipes. Base Salvage should only be needed in recipes that convert base salvage to invention salvage.
• Base raiding is currently being redesigned, and will be in that state for some time. For the duration, all base raiding, including instant raids, will be disabled.
• Added Teleporter Beacon for Pocket D.
• Added SG badge to access Pocket D beacon.
• Robo-Surgery can be attached to the Basic Reclaimator
• Sprit Signal can be attached to Resurrection Rings
• Base Salvage racks can now hold a limited amount of invention salvage.
Removed all raiding related restrictions on placing items in a base. Specifically, items may now intersect and or completely block door to door paths or door to item paths.
• This change will allow much greater freedom in placing objects in your base.
• When raids are enabled again, players will be able to choose whether their base will abide by the new raiding-related restrictions.
Supergroups
• Introduced a 3 second delay that prevents rapidly switching between costume mode and supergroup mode. This prevents an occasional crash caused by rapidly toggling back and forth.
User Interface
• Ctrl-C now copies whatever text is selected.
• Fixed the bug where pasting text into the system was being handled differently than typing that same text directly.
• Fixed the problem where re-ordering characters on one server would cause the character order data for other servers to be corrupted.
• Badge tracking UI window updated to allow sorting by category
• Contacts that are unlocked (through getting a badge or reaching a certain level, e.g.) automatically give you a pop-up box letting you know they’ve been unlocked and are added to your active contact list.
Badges
• Corrected the badge descriptions of taskforce/strikeforce challenge badges that referred to stature level 1 as being 1-15 to be 1-14.
• All badges, other than invention badges, have had their hint text filled in with a greater amount of detail. All badges will explain how many foes need to be defeated and Accolades will explain which badges are needed to obtain them. Meters have been added to all badges where appropriate and badges that track more than 1 kill, event, etc. should now have help text.
• Reduced the amount of healing required to obtain the Empath badge from 1,000,000,000 to 100,000,000
• The Artisan, Master Artisan, Craftsman, Master Craftsman and Fabricator badges should now correctly have their status meter update when the character crafts enhancements.
• Defeating Contaminated will now fill your progress bar for the Isolator badge, which appears after the 15th Contaminated defeated.
Invention
• ToHit Buffs/DeBuff Common IOs should not state they buff or debuff Accuracy any longer.
• Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge was not marked as irresistible, which meant your slow resistance powers decreased its benefit. This has been corrected and is now marked properly.
• Set bonuses that state they increase “Movement Speed” will now boost the base movement of the character instead of enhancing movement speed boosting powers.
• Knockback Sets now improve Knockdown and Knock Up powers, instead of only Knockdown.
• Universal Travel Power enhancement sets can no longer be slotted into Sprint powers.
• Invention Origin enhancement sets that decrease the recharge time on a power should now correctly state +rech instead of -rech
Added new IO Sets and new IO Set Categories:
PBAoE Damage
• Eradication, Level 10-30
• Obliteration, Level 30-50
Hold
• Basilisk's Gaze, Level 10-30
• Lockdown, Level 30-50
Universal Travel
• Blessing of the Zephyr, Level 10-50
Recharge Intensive Pets
• Call to Arms, Level 10-30
• Expedient Reinforcement, Level 30-50
Accurate Healing
• Theft of Essence, Level 10-30
• Touch of the Nictus, Level 30-50
Accurate Defense Debuff
• Shield Breaker, Level 10-30
• Analyze Weakness, Level 30-50
Accurate To-Hit Debuff
• Cloud Senses, Level 10-30
• Siphon Insight, Level 30-50
NPCs and Zones
• New villain Respec Contact --- Arbiter Sawyer in Port Oakes
• Linda Summers, Kings Row contact is no longer on the far side of Kings Row by Galaxy, now she is over by Blue Steel. Paula Dempsey also got moved to the plaza at the Yellow Line ramp.
• Two basic stores added in Striga Isle. Smuggler Jimmie is on the docks in Port Noble and Smuggler Freddie is near Ernesto Hess. Both will sell basic inspirations and buy back enhancements, recipes, and salvage.
• Added elevator markers to Grandville in similar fashion to Faultline
• There is a Reconnaissance Officer at the entrance to or just inside most hazard zones: Firebase Zulu; just inside the Hollows; at the Steel Canyon gate in Perez Park; in the Hive; Boomtown; in the Sewers; the RWZ base by the portal to the zone. The Recon Officers give you a rundown of the zone including history, known hostiles, and amenities (hospital, trainers, etc…)
• There's also a jetpack temp power vendor in all the Shard zones and in Grandville.
• Port Oakes got itself a Black Market.
• There is are new ‘Abandoned Labs’ (rows of Invention crafting stations) in Port Oakes and St. Martial.
• RWZ now has Invention crafting tables off to the side of Lady Grey (for villains and heroes).
• A base portal has been added to Pocket D. Trina the Seamstress (a tailor) is now in Pocket D's VIP Lounge.
CITY of HEROES
Powers
Blasters
• Blaster Psychic Blast/Psionic Dart: Changed short and long help description of this power from minor damage to moderate damage.
• Blaster Psychic Blast/Mental Blast Changed short and long help descriptions of this power from moderate to high damage.
• Blaster - Cold Mastery - Hoarfrost replacing Flash Freeze, reduced HP bonus
• Blaster - Electrical Mastery - Conserve Power replacing shocking bolt
• Blaster - Electrical Mastery - Power Surge replacing EM pulse, identical to force of nature
• Blaster - Munitions Mastery - Surveillance replacing Sleep grenade
• Surge of power - text description no longer claims to prevent status effects.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Controllers
• Controller - Stone Mastery - Seismic Smash replacing hurl boulder. Reduced damage.
• Controller - Ice Mastery - Frost Breath replacing ice storm
• Controller - Primal Forces Mastery - Energy Torrent Replacing power blast, knockdown version
• Plant Control/Entangle: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Plant Control/Roots: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Ice Mastery - Frost breath: Reduced Endurance Cost.
• Primal Forces - Energy Torrent: Reduced Endurance Cost.
Defenders
• Defender Archery/Aimed Shot: Changed attack speed from 1.67 to 1 second.
• Defender - Dark Mastery - Oppressive Gloom - Increased Radius
• Defender - Dark Mastery - Soul Drain - Increased buff off of first target. Minor decrease in overall buff.
• Defender - Psychic Mastery - World of Confusion replacing Telekinesis
• Defender - Electricity Mastery - Shocking bolt replacing Electric fence
• Defender Vigilance will no longer increase the Defenders endurance costs when grouped with team mates with greater than normal Health values.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Peacebringers
• Peacebringers can now Activate Dwarf Form shape shifting while Held, Stunned, Slept or Terrorized.
Peacebringers damage adjusted
• Increased Melee Damage to 0.85 from 0.75
• Increased Range Damage to 0.8 from 0.625
• Increased Melee SSDamage to 1.0 from 0.85
• Peacebringers Luminous Blast/Radiant Strike: This power’s long help stated it dealt high damage; this was corrected to state that it deals Superior damage.
• White Dwarf form Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Cosmic Balance now grants 10% Recharge Slow Resistance per Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Widow or Arachnos Soldier on their team.
• Cosmic Balance bonus now applies in shapeshifted forms.
Scrappers
• Scrapper - Body mastery - Focused Accuracy - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Scrapper - Weapon Mastery - Targeting Drone (Modified to work like focus accuracy)
• Scrapper - Martial Arts/Dragon's Tail: Corrected the critical hit portion of this power so that it is equal to the power’s normal damage.
• Scrapper Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Claws - Corrected the Damage and Endurance cost on Shockwave (damage went up from 1.04 to 1.05 scale, while endurance cost is fixed at 11.56.
• Claws -Reduced Animation time of Slash from 1.5 to 1.33 resulting in a damage scale reduction from 1.4 to 1.32
• Dark Melee -> Siphon Life recharge time reduced and damage increased
• All Taunt Powers primary powersets now include a -75% range debuff to the target.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
Tankers
• Tanker - Energy Mastery - Focused Accuracy - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Tanker - Pyre Mastery - Melt Armor replacing ring of fire. Reduced debuff effect
• Tanker - Arctic Mastery - Shiver replacing chilblain
• Tanker - Arctic Mastery - Freezing Rain replacing Ice storm, reduced debuff effect
• Tanker - Earth Mastery - Quicksand Replacing stone prison, reduced debuff effect
• Tanker - Earth Mastery - Conserve Power replacing Salt Crystals
• Dark Melee -> Siphon Life recharge time reduced and damage increased.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
• All Taunt Powers in secondary powersets now include a -75% range debuff to the target.
Warshades
• Warshades can now Activate Dwarf Form shape shifting while Held, Stunned, Slept or Terrorized.
• Warshades damage adjusted
• increased Melee Damage to 0.85 from 0.75
• Increased Range Damage to 0.8 from 0.625
• Increased Melee SSDamage to 1.0 from 0.85
• Black Dwarf form Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Dark Sustenance now grants 10% Recharge Slow Resistance per Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Widow or Arachnos Soldier on their team.
• Dark Sustenance bonus now applies in shapeshifted forms.
Badges
• Heroes should now be able to earn the Gladiator Accolade.
• Heroes owning the Fire Marshal, Bomb Squad, PPD Deputy, Security Expert, Interceptor and Villain Disruptor badges should now award the Force of Justice Accolade. The Force of Justice Accolade does not grant a power.
Emotes
• Kheldians in Dwarf form will now be able to use the emotes from the Wedding Pack and Cyborg Pack
CITY of VILLAINS
Powers
Arachnos Soldiers
• Tactical Training: Assault: Corrected long help for this power to state that it grants resistance to placate and taunt, not protection.
• Arachnos Soldier pets will now be usable when completing story arcs in Ouroboros where only the use of Archetype powers has been selected.
Brutes
• Brute - Soul Mastery - Dark Blast replacing Gloom
• Brute - Soul Mastery - Darkest Night replacing summon widow, reduced debuff effect
• Brute - Mace Mastery - Focused Accuracy - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Brute - Leviathan Mastery - Arctic Breath replacing Bile spray - cone power similar to Freezing rain.
• Brute Super Reflexes/Evasion: The brute version of this power will no longer have its defense affected by attacker’s level.
• Brute Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Modified Energy Aura’s Energy Drain heal aspect to have some healing ability. The heal is roughly 3% of your health per target hit.
• All Taunt Powers in primary powersets now include a -75% range debuff to the target.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
Corruptors
• Corruptor - Soul Mastery - Power Boost replacing Soul Drain
• Corruptor - Mace Mastery - Focused Accuracy replacing pet - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Corruptor - Mu Mastery - Conserve Power replacing electric shackles
Dominators
• Dominators - Soul Mastery - Oppressive Gloom replacing Dark Consumption.
• Dominators - Soul Mastery - Soul Drain Replacing dark Obliteration, adjusted buff effect
• Dominators - Mace Mastery - Personal Force Field replacing Disruptor Blast
• Dominators - Leviathan Mastery - Water Spout - Eliminated knockback and fear effect, reduced chance of knockup and stun.
• Dominators - Leviathan Mastery - Hibernate replacing Chum spray
• Dominators - Mu Mastery - Power Surge Replacing Ball Lightning - Identical to Force of Nature
• Plant Control/Entangle: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Plant Control/Roots: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Masterminds
• Mastermind Ninjas/Aimed Shot: Changed attack speed from 1.67 to 1 second.
• Mastermind - Soul Mastery - Oppressive Gloom replacing Night Fall. Increased radius
• Mastermind - Mace Mastery - Power Boost replacing Mace Beam Volley
• Mastermind - Leviathan Mastery - Knockout Blow replacing Chum spray
• Mastermind - Mu Mastery - Thunderstrike (AOE version) replacing static discharge
• Mastermind Robotics/Pulse Rifle Blast: This power can no longer be slotted with knockback enhancements as it doesn’t have a knockback component.
• Mastermind Necromancy Liches Torrent power should now only do Knockdown, unless slotted with Knockback Enhancements, or otherwise buffed.
• The Ouroboros Portal will now have a description in its info if selected by a mastermind.
• Mastermind Upgrade powers will now affect all henchmen within 30’ of the target henchman. Endurance cost for Upgrade Powers has been increased. It now takes approximately 45 endurance (reducible by enhancements) per upgrade power used.
Stalkers
• Stalker - Soul Mastery - Shadow Meld - New power replacing pet, +30% def, 20 second duration, 90 second recharge)
• Stalker - Mace Mastery - Disruptor Blast replacing pet
• Stalker - Leviathan Mastery - Water Spout - Eliminated knockback and fear effect, reduced chance of knockup and stun.
• Stalker - Leviathan Mastery - Hibernate replacing pet
• Stalker - Mu Mastery - Ball Lightning replacing Zapp
• Stalker - Mu Mastery - Conserve Power replacing pet
• Claws - Corrected the Damage and Endurance cost on Shockwave (damage went up from 1.04 to 1.05 scale, while endurance cost is fixed at 11.56.)
• Claws -Reduced Animation time of Slash from 1.5 to 1.33 resulting in a damage scale reduction from 1.4 to 1.32
• Claws - applied the 20% recharge and endurance discount to Build Up. (Someone was kind enough to point out to me that this should really always have been there.)
• Claws - Eviscerate is no longer a Cone attack. This means it has a 100% Crit from Hide chance and its damage scale increases from 1.99 to 2.23.
• Modified Energy Aura’s Energy Drain heal aspect to have some healing ability. The heal is roughly 3% of your health per target hit.
• Claws/Eviscerate: This power will now only accept single target melee IO enhancements.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
Widows
• Fortunata Training/Psychic Wail: This power will now affect 16 maximum targets.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Tasks
• Alan Desslock now gives a better explanation why you cannot get his final mission from him.
Badges
• The Bane of Danaan badge hint now displays correctly rather than showing up as ???
City Zones
• Breakout: Changed “Escaped Convicts” text to read “Zig Combatants” for the Breakout Tutorial
Open Beta Issue 13 Patch Notes
November 5th, 2008
For additional details about Issue 13 Open Beta, please see Positron's post: Issue 13 Open Beta
New Features
Midnight Squad Story Arcs (for Level 20-25 Heroes, Level 30-35 Villains)
The Midnight Squad has need of its members in recovering some stolen artifacts. Heroes and Villains should speak to Mercedes Sheldon who can be found inside the Midnighter Club in the side wing that leads to the Hero Zone Steel Canyon.
Cimerora Story Arcs (for Level 35-50 Heroes and Level 35-50 Villains)
Players can journey through time back to the ancient land of the Roman Cimeroran peninsula where they can talk to Daedalus (for Heroes) or Sister Airlia (for Villains) to encounter new challenges.
The Merit Rewards System
A new game system that allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Story Arcs, defeating Giant Monsters, etc. The most challenging and time consuming tasks grant the most reward tokens, which can be redeemed throughout Hero and Villain zones for recipes, enhancements, salvage, costume pieces, badges, inspirations and other game items.
Day Jobs
For more information about Issue 13’s Day Jobs feature, please visit the web article: Dev Diary: Designing Issue 13's Day Jobs
New Powersets
Shields
Heft a Shield for Heroic or Villainous Ends! This new powerset brings a classic power to City of Heroes: Shields! Now, you can arm Tankers, Scrappers and Brutes with a powerful shield to protect themselves and their allies.
Pain Domination
Villains can now bend the power of pain to serve their own ends! Those playing a Corruptor or Mastermind have access to this new powerset. The antithesis of the Hero healing powerset “Empathy,” Pain Domination brings parity between Heroes and Villains with a distinctively evil flair.
Multiple Builds
Characters can create a second build with different power selections and enhancement slotting, and switch between builds by talking to any Trainer. Now you can have separate builds for soloing and grouping, or for PvP.
• The second build works like a respec, so you can change anything except your Primary and Secondary powersets.
• The second build is slotted with enhancements separately from your first build.
• You can swap builds once every 15 minutes.
• All powers fully recharge when switching builds
Villain Patron Powers Unlocked
Now any Villain that has unlocked a Patron Power Pool can freely select another when respeccing or making Multiple Builds, offering the same flexibility that heroes are afforded with Ancillary Powers.
PVP Revamp
PvP combat has been completely revamped in this issue, in an attempt to make it more fun for all ATs and builds. Please note that these changes only take effect in PvP situations; these changes have no effect on PvE. Here are a summary of the major changes:
• The damage of all attacks has been refigured. Basically, the longer the activation/animation time of an attack power, the more damage the power is going to do. There are adjustments for recharge time and End cost, but the actual time the power takes up in an attack chain is the primary consideration.
• In general, the base damage of all ATs has been increased. The Containment bonus for Controllers has been reduced because of their higher base damage.
• Being hit by an attack triggers movement suppression, just as making an attack does. Suppression for being hit by an attack is always the same duration.
• The greater the base range of an attack, the longer the suppression for the attacker.
• Resistance and defense powers have greater diminishing returns when stacked than in PvE, and lower caps.
• If more than one enemy is targeting a character in PvP, there will be a penalty to the accuracy of all attacks against them that increases with each additional enemy.
• Hit point regeneration is reduced when suppressed in PvP areas.
• Healing powers suffer from diminishing returns when several are used in a short period of time.
• All ATs except Tankers and Masterminds have some default resistances to all attacks in PVP.
• Unlike in PvE, defensive toggles do not suppress when you are held/stunned.
• Melee classes gain extra resistances to all debuffs and to movement slows. These bonuses are linked to the power in each set that gives status protection (Unyielding Stance, Wet Ice, Plasma Shield, etc.).
• “Buffing” ATs (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors, Dominators and Masterminds) have less ability to benefit from all buffing powers than other ATs (the powers have less effect on them, and their caps are lower).
• Melee ATs gain more benefit from buffing powers than other ATs (the powers have greater effect on them, and their caps are higher).
• Defeating enemies in PvP can award Influence/Infamy, Inspirations, and rarely Salvage, but no XP.
• There is no such thing as Status Protection in PvP, only Resistance. The base durations of status effects are greatly reduced in PvP (generally 4 seconds for Controllers and Dominators, 2 seconds for all other ATs).
COMBINED NOTES
Powers
Toggle Power Change
• All Player defensive Toggle Powers should now “suppress” when you are Held, Stunned or Slept instead of shutting off. The toggles have limited or no functionality when in this state. If you are held while flying, for instance, if the power which held you does not also have a -Fly function, you will remain in the air. Status protection powers still provide Hold, Sleep and Stun protection, even if suppressed.
• Offensive Toggles (Like Radiation Infection or Icicles or Rise to the Challenge) will still detoggle as before.
General
• Max status resistance cap for all ATs increased. This includes Holds, Stuns, Immobilizes, Sleeps, Terrorize, Fear, Confuse, Intangible, Untouchable
• The most any powers range can be debuffed has been altered. Minimum Range is now 25% of normal range of the power. In other words, if the power has an 80’ range base, it cannot be debuffed lower than 20’.
• Removed duplicate visual FX from Holiday Rocket Pack Temporary Power.
• The sound effect for Energy Manipulation - Power Thrust was inadvertently changed and has been reverted to its original sound
• The Warburg Nuke Chemical Burn power now correctly states that it reduces the target’s defense and not accuracy in its long help.
• Temporary Powers/Power Analyzer Mk I, II and III: These temporary powers should no longer aggro enemies.
• The “No Phase” state (the period of time after leaving a ‘phased’ state of invulnerability before you can enter it again) been changed to allow you to phase/hibernate for 30 seconds, then disallow such powers for 90 seconds.
• Invulnerability/Unyielding: This power’s activation text should no longer state it reduces the user’s defense.
• Powers granted by the 54 month veteran badge no longer gain a bonus to damage dependent upon the character's origin.
• The Goldbricker Rocket Pack will no longer function in areas or missions where temporary powers are disabled.
Tailor
• New Day Job themed costume items added, including Police Officer and a variety of civilian suits.
• Added the ability to save and load player-designed costume configurations to a file saved on the player's computer.
• The Cyborg Pack Combat Auras will now be available at all levels for all players that purchased them.
• Many costume auras have been optimized for performance. There are also a lot of new combinations for auras that didn’t previously exist.
• Major changes to the supergroup costume color system. Most notably, each costume now has its own set of supergroup colors. We can bid a fond farewell to the days when changing your costume required entry to the supergroup color picker to repair the damage. Additionally, the supergroup color picker has been merged with the tailor screen, solving the problems associated with applying supergroup colors to wings.
• In the Tailor shop, you can check out how your costume looks when in Supergroup mode. Please note, you cannot load or save a costume when the tailor screen is in SG color picker mode.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue with the Cyborg ACCAHUD aura
Custom Shields
• The Talsorian Shield is unlocked by redeeming 100 Vanguard Merits at a Vanguard Merit station.
• Roman Shields should be unlockable by earning the Centurion badge.
• The Romulus shield is unlocked by defeating Romulus Nictus once.
• The Romulus Nictus shield is unlocked by defeating Romulus Nictus 5 times.
• The Rularuu Shield is unlocked by earning the Visionary badge or earning souvenirs from shadow shard task forces and story arcs.
Critter Changes
• Freedom Corps Sonic Grenades are no longer irresistible.
• Circle of Thorns Cold Thorn Mage Reflections should now use their offensive powers once again.
• Banished Pantheon Masks now range in level from 20-30.
• Infected level range now extends to level 10.
Tasks
• The Lost and Found story arc will now correctly award salvage for players that are significantly higher levels than the mission levels
• Players can no longer drop Mayhem and Safeguard missions
Bases
• All Supergroup Base room prices and Prestige costs have been rebalanced.
• Removed all base salvage from base item recipes. Base Salvage should only be needed in recipes that convert base salvage to invention salvage.
• Base raiding is currently being redesigned, and will be in that state for some time. For the duration, all base raiding, including instant raids, will be disabled.
• Added Teleporter Beacon for Pocket D.
• Added SG badge to access Pocket D beacon.
• Robo-Surgery can be attached to the Basic Reclaimator
• Sprit Signal can be attached to Resurrection Rings
• Base Salvage racks can now hold a limited amount of invention salvage.
Removed all raiding related restrictions on placing items in a base. Specifically, items may now intersect and or completely block door to door paths or door to item paths.
• This change will allow much greater freedom in placing objects in your base.
• When raids are enabled again, players will be able to choose whether their base will abide by the new raiding-related restrictions.
Supergroups
• Introduced a 3 second delay that prevents rapidly switching between costume mode and supergroup mode. This prevents an occasional crash caused by rapidly toggling back and forth.
User Interface
• Ctrl-C now copies whatever text is selected.
• Fixed the bug where pasting text into the system was being handled differently than typing that same text directly.
• Fixed the problem where re-ordering characters on one server would cause the character order data for other servers to be corrupted.
• Badge tracking UI window updated to allow sorting by category
• Contacts that are unlocked (through getting a badge or reaching a certain level, e.g.) automatically give you a pop-up box letting you know they’ve been unlocked and are added to your active contact list.
Badges
• Corrected the badge descriptions of taskforce/strikeforce challenge badges that referred to stature level 1 as being 1-15 to be 1-14.
• All badges, other than invention badges, have had their hint text filled in with a greater amount of detail. All badges will explain how many foes need to be defeated and Accolades will explain which badges are needed to obtain them. Meters have been added to all badges where appropriate and badges that track more than 1 kill, event, etc. should now have help text.
• Reduced the amount of healing required to obtain the Empath badge from 1,000,000,000 to 100,000,000
• The Artisan, Master Artisan, Craftsman, Master Craftsman and Fabricator badges should now correctly have their status meter update when the character crafts enhancements.
• Defeating Contaminated will now fill your progress bar for the Isolator badge, which appears after the 15th Contaminated defeated.
Invention
• ToHit Buffs/DeBuff Common IOs should not state they buff or debuff Accuracy any longer.
• Force Feedback: Chance for +Recharge was not marked as irresistible, which meant your slow resistance powers decreased its benefit. This has been corrected and is now marked properly.
• Set bonuses that state they increase “Movement Speed” will now boost the base movement of the character instead of enhancing movement speed boosting powers.
• Knockback Sets now improve Knockdown and Knock Up powers, instead of only Knockdown.
• Universal Travel Power enhancement sets can no longer be slotted into Sprint powers.
• Invention Origin enhancement sets that decrease the recharge time on a power should now correctly state +rech instead of -rech
Added new IO Sets and new IO Set Categories:
PBAoE Damage
• Eradication, Level 10-30
• Obliteration, Level 30-50
Hold
• Basilisk's Gaze, Level 10-30
• Lockdown, Level 30-50
Universal Travel
• Blessing of the Zephyr, Level 10-50
Recharge Intensive Pets
• Call to Arms, Level 10-30
• Expedient Reinforcement, Level 30-50
Accurate Healing
• Theft of Essence, Level 10-30
• Touch of the Nictus, Level 30-50
Accurate Defense Debuff
• Shield Breaker, Level 10-30
• Analyze Weakness, Level 30-50
Accurate To-Hit Debuff
• Cloud Senses, Level 10-30
• Siphon Insight, Level 30-50
NPCs and Zones
• New villain Respec Contact --- Arbiter Sawyer in Port Oakes
• Linda Summers, Kings Row contact is no longer on the far side of Kings Row by Galaxy, now she is over by Blue Steel. Paula Dempsey also got moved to the plaza at the Yellow Line ramp.
• Two basic stores added in Striga Isle. Smuggler Jimmie is on the docks in Port Noble and Smuggler Freddie is near Ernesto Hess. Both will sell basic inspirations and buy back enhancements, recipes, and salvage.
• Added elevator markers to Grandville in similar fashion to Faultline
• There is a Reconnaissance Officer at the entrance to or just inside most hazard zones: Firebase Zulu; just inside the Hollows; at the Steel Canyon gate in Perez Park; in the Hive; Boomtown; in the Sewers; the RWZ base by the portal to the zone. The Recon Officers give you a rundown of the zone including history, known hostiles, and amenities (hospital, trainers, etc…)
• There's also a jetpack temp power vendor in all the Shard zones and in Grandville.
• Port Oakes got itself a Black Market.
• There is are new ‘Abandoned Labs’ (rows of Invention crafting stations) in Port Oakes and St. Martial.
• RWZ now has Invention crafting tables off to the side of Lady Grey (for villains and heroes).
• A base portal has been added to Pocket D. Trina the Seamstress (a tailor) is now in Pocket D's VIP Lounge.
CITY of HEROES
Powers
Blasters
• Blaster Psychic Blast/Psionic Dart: Changed short and long help description of this power from minor damage to moderate damage.
• Blaster Psychic Blast/Mental Blast Changed short and long help descriptions of this power from moderate to high damage.
• Blaster - Cold Mastery - Hoarfrost replacing Flash Freeze, reduced HP bonus
• Blaster - Electrical Mastery - Conserve Power replacing shocking bolt
• Blaster - Electrical Mastery - Power Surge replacing EM pulse, identical to force of nature
• Blaster - Munitions Mastery - Surveillance replacing Sleep grenade
• Surge of power - text description no longer claims to prevent status effects.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Controllers
• Controller - Stone Mastery - Seismic Smash replacing hurl boulder. Reduced damage.
• Controller - Ice Mastery - Frost Breath replacing ice storm
• Controller - Primal Forces Mastery - Energy Torrent Replacing power blast, knockdown version
• Plant Control/Entangle: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Plant Control/Roots: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Ice Mastery - Frost breath: Reduced Endurance Cost.
• Primal Forces - Energy Torrent: Reduced Endurance Cost.
Defenders
• Defender Archery/Aimed Shot: Changed attack speed from 1.67 to 1 second.
• Defender - Dark Mastery - Oppressive Gloom - Increased Radius
• Defender - Dark Mastery - Soul Drain - Increased buff off of first target. Minor decrease in overall buff.
• Defender - Psychic Mastery - World of Confusion replacing Telekinesis
• Defender - Electricity Mastery - Shocking bolt replacing Electric fence
• Defender Vigilance will no longer increase the Defenders endurance costs when grouped with team mates with greater than normal Health values.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Peacebringers
• Peacebringers can now Activate Dwarf Form shape shifting while Held, Stunned, Slept or Terrorized.
Peacebringers damage adjusted
• Increased Melee Damage to 0.85 from 0.75
• Increased Range Damage to 0.8 from 0.625
• Increased Melee SSDamage to 1.0 from 0.85
• Peacebringers Luminous Blast/Radiant Strike: This power’s long help stated it dealt high damage; this was corrected to state that it deals Superior damage.
• White Dwarf form Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Cosmic Balance now grants 10% Recharge Slow Resistance per Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Widow or Arachnos Soldier on their team.
• Cosmic Balance bonus now applies in shapeshifted forms.
Scrappers
• Scrapper - Body mastery - Focused Accuracy - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Scrapper - Weapon Mastery - Targeting Drone (Modified to work like focus accuracy)
• Scrapper - Martial Arts/Dragon's Tail: Corrected the critical hit portion of this power so that it is equal to the power’s normal damage.
• Scrapper Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Claws - Corrected the Damage and Endurance cost on Shockwave (damage went up from 1.04 to 1.05 scale, while endurance cost is fixed at 11.56.
• Claws -Reduced Animation time of Slash from 1.5 to 1.33 resulting in a damage scale reduction from 1.4 to 1.32
• Dark Melee -> Siphon Life recharge time reduced and damage increased
• All Taunt Powers primary powersets now include a -75% range debuff to the target.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
Tankers
• Tanker - Energy Mastery - Focused Accuracy - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Tanker - Pyre Mastery - Melt Armor replacing ring of fire. Reduced debuff effect
• Tanker - Arctic Mastery - Shiver replacing chilblain
• Tanker - Arctic Mastery - Freezing Rain replacing Ice storm, reduced debuff effect
• Tanker - Earth Mastery - Quicksand Replacing stone prison, reduced debuff effect
• Tanker - Earth Mastery - Conserve Power replacing Salt Crystals
• Dark Melee -> Siphon Life recharge time reduced and damage increased.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
• All Taunt Powers in secondary powersets now include a -75% range debuff to the target.
Warshades
• Warshades can now Activate Dwarf Form shape shifting while Held, Stunned, Slept or Terrorized.
• Warshades damage adjusted
• increased Melee Damage to 0.85 from 0.75
• Increased Range Damage to 0.8 from 0.625
• Increased Melee SSDamage to 1.0 from 0.85
• Black Dwarf form Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Dark Sustenance now grants 10% Recharge Slow Resistance per Peacebringer, Warshade, Arachnos Widow or Arachnos Soldier on their team.
• Dark Sustenance bonus now applies in shapeshifted forms.
Badges
• Heroes should now be able to earn the Gladiator Accolade.
• Heroes owning the Fire Marshal, Bomb Squad, PPD Deputy, Security Expert, Interceptor and Villain Disruptor badges should now award the Force of Justice Accolade. The Force of Justice Accolade does not grant a power.
Emotes
• Kheldians in Dwarf form will now be able to use the emotes from the Wedding Pack and Cyborg Pack
CITY of VILLAINS
Powers
Arachnos Soldiers
• Tactical Training: Assault: Corrected long help for this power to state that it grants resistance to placate and taunt, not protection.
• Arachnos Soldier pets will now be usable when completing story arcs in Ouroboros where only the use of Archetype powers has been selected.
Brutes
• Brute - Soul Mastery - Dark Blast replacing Gloom
• Brute - Soul Mastery - Darkest Night replacing summon widow, reduced debuff effect
• Brute - Mace Mastery - Focused Accuracy - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Brute - Leviathan Mastery - Arctic Breath replacing Bile spray - cone power similar to Freezing rain.
• Brute Super Reflexes/Evasion: The brute version of this power will no longer have its defense affected by attacker’s level.
• Brute Taunt powers now have a Range Debuff component. This will have the effect of forcing ranged attackers to move closer to the Taunter.
• Modified Energy Aura’s Energy Drain heal aspect to have some healing ability. The heal is roughly 3% of your health per target hit.
• All Taunt Powers in primary powersets now include a -75% range debuff to the target.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
Corruptors
• Corruptor - Soul Mastery - Power Boost replacing Soul Drain
• Corruptor - Mace Mastery - Focused Accuracy replacing pet - Decreased to-hit buff, added accuracy buff. Provides same total bonus in PVE.
• Corruptor - Mu Mastery - Conserve Power replacing electric shackles
Dominators
• Dominators - Soul Mastery - Oppressive Gloom replacing Dark Consumption.
• Dominators - Soul Mastery - Soul Drain Replacing dark Obliteration, adjusted buff effect
• Dominators - Mace Mastery - Personal Force Field replacing Disruptor Blast
• Dominators - Leviathan Mastery - Water Spout - Eliminated knockback and fear effect, reduced chance of knockup and stun.
• Dominators - Leviathan Mastery - Hibernate replacing Chum spray
• Dominators - Mu Mastery - Power Surge Replacing Ball Lightning - Identical to Force of Nature
• Plant Control/Entangle: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Plant Control/Roots: This power will now correctly knock flying targets out of the air only if they are close to the ground.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Masterminds
• Mastermind Ninjas/Aimed Shot: Changed attack speed from 1.67 to 1 second.
• Mastermind - Soul Mastery - Oppressive Gloom replacing Night Fall. Increased radius
• Mastermind - Mace Mastery - Power Boost replacing Mace Beam Volley
• Mastermind - Leviathan Mastery - Knockout Blow replacing Chum spray
• Mastermind - Mu Mastery - Thunderstrike (AOE version) replacing static discharge
• Mastermind Robotics/Pulse Rifle Blast: This power can no longer be slotted with knockback enhancements as it doesn’t have a knockback component.
• Mastermind Necromancy Liches Torrent power should now only do Knockdown, unless slotted with Knockback Enhancements, or otherwise buffed.
• The Ouroboros Portal will now have a description in its info if selected by a mastermind.
• Mastermind Upgrade powers will now affect all henchmen within 30’ of the target henchman. Endurance cost for Upgrade Powers has been increased. It now takes approximately 45 endurance (reducible by enhancements) per upgrade power used.
Stalkers
• Stalker - Soul Mastery - Shadow Meld - New power replacing pet, +30% def, 20 second duration, 90 second recharge)
• Stalker - Mace Mastery - Disruptor Blast replacing pet
• Stalker - Leviathan Mastery - Water Spout - Eliminated knockback and fear effect, reduced chance of knockup and stun.
• Stalker - Leviathan Mastery - Hibernate replacing pet
• Stalker - Mu Mastery - Ball Lightning replacing Zapp
• Stalker - Mu Mastery - Conserve Power replacing pet
• Claws - Corrected the Damage and Endurance cost on Shockwave (damage went up from 1.04 to 1.05 scale, while endurance cost is fixed at 11.56.)
• Claws -Reduced Animation time of Slash from 1.5 to 1.33 resulting in a damage scale reduction from 1.4 to 1.32
• Claws - applied the 20% recharge and endurance discount to Build Up. (Someone was kind enough to point out to me that this should really always have been there.)
• Claws - Eviscerate is no longer a Cone attack. This means it has a 100% Crit from Hide chance and its damage scale increases from 1.99 to 2.23.
• Modified Energy Aura’s Energy Drain heal aspect to have some healing ability. The heal is roughly 3% of your health per target hit.
• Claws/Eviscerate: This power will now only accept single target melee IO enhancements.
• Dark Melee/Midnight Grasp initial damage increased and DoT duration shortened.
Widows
• Fortunata Training/Psychic Wail: This power will now affect 16 maximum targets.
• Normalized Projectile Speeds for Psionic/Psychic blast powers (generally faster).
Tasks
• Alan Desslock now gives a better explanation why you cannot get his final mission from him.
Badges
• The Bane of Danaan badge hint now displays correctly rather than showing up as ???
City Zones
• Breakout: Changed “Escaped Convicts” text to read “Zig Combatants” for the Breakout Tutorial