I’ve been playing a lot more CoH the past few months — pounding through the Signature Story Arc for starters, and, in the last week or so, circling around to some alts we pieced together on Exalted when CoH Freedom came online.

The new Issue 22 stuff looks very, very cool …

Issue 22: Death Incarnate Overview

Starting with a cool new name — Death Incarnate …

A reenvisoned Dark Astoria beckons its bony claw! Issue 22: Death Incarnate,introduces new powers and costumes, exclusive VIP content, and expanded endgame features, and reintroduces Dark Astoria, a zone corrupted by evil magical forces.

Features

Dark Astoria Reincarnated

Mysterious forces have twisted parts of Dark Astoria into a bizarre, nightmarish land! The undead are now stronger here than ever and new menaces brood within the area.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about DA.  I’ve thought the perpetual fog was kind of cool (it was even more fun during the “Fog Bug” days, when you could see the whole city), and the undead/supernatural nature of it was pretty spiffy.

That said, it was waaaaaaay to hell and back, so, honestly, if it was a choice between going to DA and just doing something in Talos — well, it was mostly a no-brainer (for a one-off, the Mission Teleporter and then Wentworthing back to Talos was the easy way to handle things).  So it’s good to see that it’s becoming more central, and getting some even more enjoyable content.

Zone Level Increase: Dark Astoria transforms into a Level 50 Incarnate co-op zone, with missions that can unlock Incarnate abilities for both Heroes and Villains. Dark Astoria is also now accessible from both Peregrine Island and Grandville.

Improved accessibility is a great bonus.  I’m wondering how they’ll handle this geographically.

Turning it into a Level 50 zone is also cool.  We’ve done next to nothing with the Incarnate content, and that’s coming up pretty high on our list of things to do (now that we’ve gone back to those 50s in the last few months and gotten them all respecced and IOed up).

Repeatable Missions: Dark Astoria repeatable missions feature rewards befitting an Incarnate, including Incarnate Experience and Thread Components.

• Ephram Sha of the Midnight Squad has tasks befitting Incarnate-level Heroes in Dark Astoria. Help him push back the forces of Mot!
• The Circle of Thorns has an interest in the dark magics swirling around Dark Astoria. It has sent Maharaj, a powerful Soul Mage, to help Incarnate Villains sow chaos in the ranks of their foes.

Repeatable Missions Good. That they can be done solo (from what I understand elsewhere) is even better.

Content for All Levels

Dilemma Diabolique Incarnate Trial: Diabolique, the evil sorceress, plots to become an avatar of death by seizing the powers of the banished god, Mot. With them, she can bring the living world to its knees! She seeks nothing less than to dominate all life and hold the fate of the many dimensions in her grasping hands. Heroes and Villains must unite to protect our dimension from this terrible fate.

Co-op Hero/Villain stuff is fun (though less essential now that powers are basically available interchangeably).

Drowning in Blood New Low-Level Trial: The Shivans that decimated Galaxy City are now attacking Bloody Bay! Using the Team Up Teleporter, groups of up to eight players can fight off this alien invasion. Heroes and Villains each have a separate trial. Drowning in Blood is a PvE encounter available for all characters of level 15 and higher.

Another good thing: lower level trials.  And Level 15 love is useful.  What’s unclear in the above is how this trial works in conjunction with the PvP zone — the trial is PvE, but it’s in Bloody Bay …

New Mission Arcs: Steel Canyon and Cap au Diable feature new mission arcs. Heroes can encounter the latest conflict between the 5th Column and the Council. Villains face off against the Longbow and the Luddites.

New low-level mission stuff also good.  I’ve been finding myself skipping over most Steel and Cap Au missions of late, with the zone-independent stuff available.

New Adamastor Zone Event: Adamastor has broken free of Dark Astoria! Prevent this Giant Monster from going on a rampage in Talos Island and Sharkhead Isle by finding the Ritual of Summoning and using it to summon and defeat the creature.

Ooooh … a Giant Monster for Talos.  Excellent!

New Darkness Power Sets and Olympian Guard Costumes

Darkness Control (Free for VIPs): Command the shadows to terrorize your foes, devastating them with spectral minions. The Darkness Control power set is a primary power set for Controllers and Dominators. This new power set is free for VIPs. You will also be able to buy it in the Paragon Market™.

Darkness Affinity and Dark Assault (Free for VIPs): Two more power sets are now available to Controllers and Dominators. Controllers can access Darkness Affinity as a secondary power set, and Dominators can access Dark Assault as a secondary power set. Darkness Affinity and Dark Assault are free for VIP’s. You will also be able to buy them in the Paragon Market™.

Glad they are free.  Though it sound like (sigh) time for yet another set of alts …

So, is this Fear-based? Would make sense — it’s a secondary power for a lot of sets, but I’ve always thought it was very cool.  In fact, I might hold off on a Mind Controller concept I just rolled up to try this out.

Hmmmm … might be time to start building some of those inexpensive Fear IOs and then selling them once demand spikes.

Olympian Guard Costume Set (Free for VIPs): The technology-themed Olympian Guard costume set is free for VIPs. You will also be able to buy it in the Paragon Market™.

More Costumes always good.

(Are you getting  theme here?  Good stuff!)

Quality of Life Upgrades

Expansion of the Team Up Teleporter: In addition to granting access to the new Bloody Bay Trial, the Team Up Teleporter can now be used inside missions and to organize groups for existing task forces and strike forces. Characters on solo or group missions can queue up for trials from within those missions. You can also use the Team Up Teleporter to queue up for a task force or strike force.

Ah. That answers the question about the PvE Bloody Bay trial above.

I have to confess, I’ve not used this particular feature.  Some Friday afternoon or evening while Margie is out, I’ll have to use it to run some of my solo toons around with others.

New Teleporter Pad: The new Hacked Telepad and Magicked Telepads are available for bases. These new telepads cost more Prestige to build, but allow Super Group members to teleport to six zones per telepad instead of two.

Well, I guess that’s helpful. But, honestly, I think I’ve used the Telepads in any of our bases, oh, maybe twice in the last year.  There are so many other ways to get to locations quickly, between all-points trains/ferries, Wentworthing, the “O” …

Changes to Powers

Controllers

Gravity Control: Increased the damage of Singularity’s Lift by 63%.

Controllers/Dominators

Gravity Control: Added a bonus mechanic to player character versions of Lift and Propel. These powers now deal a small amount of additional damage (called “Impact!”) to targets that you have recently held with your Gravity Distortion power. In addition, Propel’s cast time has been reduced and its projectile speed has been increased.

Oooooh. One of my new low-levels (Unified Fieldsman, Gravitic/Chronotic Adventurer!) is a Grav Controller, so I look forward to these improvements.

Stalkers

Stalker Buffed Max HP modifier has been increased from 1 to 1.3. This results in Stalker’s potential Buffed Max HP increasing from 1,606 to 2,088 at level 50. This allows powers like Dull Pain and Frostworks, as well as +Max HP set bonuses, to have a greater potential effect.

Assassin Strike (All Versions): This power now functions differently while you are not Hidden. When attacking a foe when Hidden, it behaves normally, dealing tremendous damage with a chance to demoralize nearby foes, but it can be interrupted. However, when you use the power while you are not Hidden, it deals Superior damage and is uninterruptible. While you are not Hidden, Assassin Strike has a base 0% chance to crit.

Assassin’s Focus: All damaging powers found in the Stalker’s primary power set, other than Assassin Strike, have a chance to grant you a stack of the Assassin’s Focus buff. This buff increases Assassin’s Strike’s chance to critically hit (for +100% damage) while not Hidden by 33.3%. Assassin’s Focus stacks up to three times. Using Assassin’s Strike when you are not Hidden removes all stacks of Assassin’s Focus.

Aside from when CoV first came out, I have never run a Stalker.  They seemed very much a one-trick pony, and really only usable on a team.  This sounds like it changes things some.

Overall, an excellent update.  Now … when do we get it?