I13 Open Beta

I won’t be hopping on (though I see Margie playing with it, and she’s chortling with joy over bits and pieces thereof), but a few notes on what’s out.

First Posi weighs in:

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Patron and Epic Power Pools:
First off, we’ve made some changes to the Villain Patron and Hero Epic Power Pools. We know that these have been out of balance for a while, so in bringing Patron pools up to the same level as Hero pools, we’ve made a lot of changes to both side’s high level powers. We did extensive datamining on power choices, how they were being utilized, and damage outputs. In the end we tweaked several powers and removed some, replacing them with (what we think) are far more useful ones. We were very cautious in removing powers; it’s not something we ever do lightly. We only do it where there was a huge disparity in how often it is chosen over another power. That to us points to severe problems with that power even being in that pool to begin with.

I’ve rarely been impressed with the EPPs (I’ve never gotten a Villain to the PPPs). If they’ve tweaked things, I just hope they’ve made them more interesting. 

Merit System:
Next up, we have a new Merit System for playing through content in the game. Players will no longer need to “farm” particular missions or Task Forces for a specific IO. Now you can accumulate Merits and simply purchase that IO outright from the new Merit Vendors sprinkled throughout Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Practically everything you do in the game earns you Merits now and the amount you earn is based on our datamines on how long particular things take to accomplish in our game. This means that really fast Task Forces or Trials will earn you fewer Merits than ones that take longer to complete. Merits don’t have a level associated with them either, so you can earn Merits in your low-level career, and save them up to purchase IOs that will be most useful when you are level 50. The choice is now in your hands, and out of the random drop tables these missions had previously.

Ho-hum. One more “crafting” currency. 

Bases:
We’ve made some changes to the way players deal with bases. Overall things got a lot less expensive, Prestige-wise, in bases. This means that smaller SGs should be able to accomplish more with their bases now. If your SG wants to take advantage of the new, lower, prices, you’re going to have to do a little work in selling the older items, and buying the new, lower priced items. It’s an unfortunate artifact of the way the base system was designed that we can’t just refund your SG the difference straight away. We’ve also eliminated the need for Base Salvage. Now everything in bases can be built with Invention Salvage. You will even be able to convert all that extra Base Salvage into Invention Salvage to help get rid of the extraneous items your SG has probably accumulated. This change will help smaller SGs build cooler stuff faster, as well as give large SGs a benefit for all their hard work so far. Don’t worry, the storage containers in bases will now be able to hold a small amount of Invention Salvage as well now.

Okay, on the other hand, it sounds like this is simplifying things, though it makes Invention Salvage all the more valuable for base goodies. Probably an overall gain. 

Leveling Pact:
We’re adding in a brand new feature for new characters and new players to get acclimated to the game with Leveling Pacts. Characters that are level 5 and under can form a permanent bond that will evenly split all XP they ever earn, keeping them in perfect level sync their entire careers (unless they decide to break the Pact). It’s superior to Sidekicking because the split happens even if one half of the duo isn’t on-line! They will be able to log in later and be treated to the XP they would have earned had they been on-line and playing with their partner anyway. This is the perfect way for a couple of close knit buddies to make sure they always have characters “in sync” even if one plays more often, or at different times, than the others. This feature will initially launch with the low-level limit on initiating Pacts, as well as only being able to Pact two characters together. It’s a brand new way of dealing with our reward system, so once we are happy with how things are working out, we can look into raising the maximum entry level on Pacting as well as the number of characters that can be Pacted together.

Margie says the Open Beta is having some technical problems with the right now, but I think it’s an exciting feature — and I look forward to their expanding the maximum entry level (I see no reason to have any limit on when you can enter, if the upper person is pulled down to the lower person’s level). 

PvP Changes:
We’ve also overhauled our PvP system in such a way that the changes do not affect PvE. We’ve ignored PvP as “good enough” for long enough. The previous systems were “ok” and have a very vocal and devoted fan-base, but we plan on incorporating more and more PvP features into City of Heroes and City of Villains. In order for us to do that we really need a solid foundation of the core PvP gameplay. We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP’ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we’re putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn’t working out, we’ll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.

More focus on PvP? Bleah. Changing the code base so that tweaks to make PvP better don’t screw up PvE? Huzzah! 

Multi Builds:
Be sure to check out the new “Multi-build” feature. You can access this feature by visiting any level-up Trainer in the game. Here you can make an alternate build, or switch between the builds that you have. We are initially launching this feature with only two builds available to work with, but the feature has the capability of dealing with more, should we ever find a need for third, fourth, or more, builds.

I don’t see this as something I’m very likely to use, but I think it’s a keen idea. 

Day Jobs
Finally, I want to talk about Day Jobs. These are rewards your character earns for logging out for extended periods in certain in-game locations. These rewards are varied, depending on the job your character was working on. I hope that you all find these as fun and exciting as we had in designing them. I look forward to the role-playing that players will do incorporating their “Day Job” into their crime fighting (or crime committing) regime.

Some nice bennies here. Margie notes that hanging out and Wentworths gives you a teleport power back to Wentworths … worth its weight in gold, that is. 

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But to get to the nitty-gritty, let’s look at the Patch Notes for the Open Beta.

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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.

I’m glad that Story Arcs are included here, as that’s what I’m most likely to ever have a chance to do any time soon.

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.

While this certainly allows for Captain America clones, this remains a niche power in most comic book universes. That said — I’ll almost certainly try it some time. 🙂

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.

I’m not doing much, Villiain-wise, but it’s an interesting idea.

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

I find the separate enhancement slotting interesting. I’m not sure how they could have done it differently, but that means that you’re going to be spending twice as much for slotting powers on your multi as if you ddin’t have one.

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.

It makes less sense story-wise, but it’s probably a good thing.

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).

Wow. I have no idea how the PvPers will react, but it certainly sounds like they shook up all the puzzle pieces in the box to make a very new experience.

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.

This is actually very nice. I hate having to restart toggles after being Held. This reduces the lethality of mezzing enemies.

General

• Max status resistance cap for all ATs increased. This includes Holds, Stuns, Immobilizes, Sleeps, Terrorize, Fear, Confuse, Intangible, Untouchable  Yay!
• 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’. I didn’t know ranges could be debuffed.
• 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. Yay!
• Added the ability to save and load player-designed costume configurations to a file saved on the player’s computer. What?! That’s fabulous! If I read it correctly, it means you can save a particular costume configuration and use it for another character (or save it to revert to at a later time). Excellent!
• 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. Nice. Auras are spiffy.
• 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. This sounds like a positive thing, a very nice QoL feature. Though not many folks I know of get all tied to the SG costume modes.
• 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. Also a good thing.
• 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 That’s interesting. I’ve had some cases with solo characters where I’ve taken the Safeguard mission but eventually dropped it because I’d outleveled it in other PuG play. I wonder why they’ve done this?

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. Ho-hum.
• Added Teleporter Beacon for Pocket D. Nice!
• 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. Wow! We’ve reached Win3.1 level in the interface!
• 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. Okay, that’s a good thing. The character ordering code has been seriously whacky, which is highly irksome.
• Badge tracking UI window updated to allow sorting by category Badges now have a lot more categories (including a “Recent” category), per Margie. Very nice.
• 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. Great. I hate getting contacts who won’t actually give me anything yet. Nice to know that at least now they’ll let me know when they’ll talk to me.

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. Thank you.
• 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. Thank heavens. Jogging over to those folks was somewhat dangerous but always a drag.
• 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. Huzzah! Stores in Striga! Makes Striga work much more attractive.
• 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…) A very interesting idea.
• There’s also a jetpack temp power vendor in all the Shard zones and in Grandville. Oh, my a most excellent idea. No more “Oops, I took Superspeed, so I’m screwed in the Shard” or “Huh, let’s see if I can Superjump my way over there …”
• Port Oakes got itself a Black Market. Yay for more Black Markets!
• There is are new ‘Abandoned Labs’ (rows of Invention crafting stations) in Port Oakes and St. Martial.  Yay for more Invention areas in CoV!
• RWZ now has Invention crafting tables off to the side of Lady Grey (for villains and heroes). Also a fine add.
• A base portal has been added to Pocket D. Trina the Seamstress (a tailor) is now in Pocket D’s VIP Lounge. Wow, more reasons go to go Pocket D!

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). Yay!

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. Cool.
• 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. Nice.
• 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. I think the general change to Taunt powers to include a range debuff is an excellent idea.

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

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Overall? It’s nothing big and spectacular and game-changing — but a lot of nice Quality of Life changes that will make it a more pleasant game to play.