I7 stuff is now in Test, and among the changes:
Arch Villains/Heroes and Giant Monsters have been significantly boosted. They should now require more people in order for them to be defeated, especially at higher levels.
Given how quickly most AVs go down against a decent-sized team, that’s probably not too bad a thing — though it makes taking on some of the tougher ones (Infernal, Lusca) … daunting.
At least some testers say that the boost is in damage done (+10%)
Despite some initial notes on the subject, Elite Bosses (the “Two-person-team-capable” AVs) are not being changed.
Aside from that, the I7 Test Release notes are here. Specific items of note:
4. Issue 7 is not fully optimized yet. Players with low end systems may have serious performance issues.
One of my biggest worries is that bringing CoV graphics to CoH is going to cause major graphics issues. Glad they’re watching this.
7. Although characters now keep their Origin-based attack power past level 10, characters who have already lost the power by leveling up are not being given the power back. This is a bug and will be addressed in a later patch.
Shrug. This sounds nice, but the Origin powers are so trivial in damage (Brawl or below), and not enhanceable, it’s not something I would imagine keeping in my tray anyway.
BASE ITEMS
• Inspiration Receptacle: This item allows all members of the Supergroup to store Inspirations that they may not be using, but other members can use to greater benefit. A permission set in the SG Permissions allows a character to withdraw Inspirations from the Receptacle.
• Enhancement Container: This item allows all members of the Supergroup to store Enhancements in the Supergroup’s base. Members with the proper SG Permission will be able to withdraw Enhancements from the Container.
• Salvage Bin: This item allows all members of the Supergroup to store salvage in the Supergroup’s base. Members with the proper SG Permission will be able to withdraw Salvage (and just “see it” from the base’s worktables as well).
Yay. Oh, yay. Nice to be able to save stuff, both usable by others and salvage cluttering up one’s pockets.
• Modified PvE critter accuracy. Defense powers will now work equally well against critters, regardless if they have higher accuracy. For instance, your defense powers will work equally well against a Boss or any critter up to 5 levels higher than you, as it does for an equal level minion. Previously, a more accurate critter could circumvent much of your defense, but this will no longer happen. This change is designed to alleviate the disparity between Defense and Damage resistance powers (for instance, a player with super reflexes will now be more effective against a high level critter, boss or Arch villain). This change has no effect on a player who does not have any Defense. This change does not affect PvP.
Thus abruptly increasing the utility of both Super Reflexes and Force Fields. Huzzah. And, with that:
• Reduced the effectiveness of Super Reflexes defense to AoE attacks (stalker and scrapper). With I6, Super Reflexes was given a very high bonus to AoE attacks in order to make it more effective against bosses and Arch Villains, since they typically use AoE powers, but with the new To Hit calculations, this is no longer necessary.
• Super Reflexes Passive Defense abilities have been increased in effectiveness by 1/3rd.
Devs giveth, devs taketh away, devs shuffle the deck chairs …
• Reduced End costs on Claws high end powers.
• The Claws Power sets for both Scrappers and Stalkers have new animations for the powers Swipe and Strike. The animation for Slash has been replaced with the old Strike animation in order to better match the cast, recharge and damage values.
If I weren’t going to be busy with a new squid, I might roll up another claws character.
• All powers which have an Endurance Drain component will now drain a percentage of a PvE target’s Endurance, rather than a set number of Endurance Points. This fixes the issues created when enemies’ Endurance Pools were increased.
Interesting. This is mostly electrical, though I think there’s a Dark Melee power that does this, too.
• Defeat Badges now require that you or your team do 10% or more damage to the entity to receive credit for the badge. (The former system required that you deal 25% or more damage to get credit).
Balances the Giant Monster issue above, mostly.
• Troll Task Force badge is now given out for spending time in The Hollows.
Fun. And, I suspect, something most of my toons will auto-get.
City Zones
• Spawns updated and adjusted in several city zones. Street encounters in lower level zones have more variety.
Cool. I’ll be interested to see what that variety works out to be. In numbers? Levels? Mob types?
[Heroes] • For players with both City of Heroes and City of Villains access, Hero characters have access to all formerly Villain-only costume pieces.
[Villains] • Many new costume pieces are available.
YEAH, BABY! YEAH! There’s a reason I went through all that effort with costume tokens last weekend.
Though the question is, are the new pieces on the CoV side also available on the CoH side? (I presume so, or there will be hell to pay.)
Lots of other stuff. Lots of fixes to archery. Lots of bits on the new Patron powers, the new CoV powers, etc. RTWT.
Doyce notes this bit (among many others):
Nice. Not a lot, I hope, but it’s now worth going slightly out of your way to grab one.
He also notes that keeping the Origin powers, which are all ranged, now everyone has a ranged attack to pull with. Not a huge range, mind you, but …