Issue 4: Colosseum

Arenas!


Construction of the Arenas is complete, and heroes of all Security Levels are encouraged to check them out.

We are looking for your feedback on PvP balance. Please check in the Training Room Forums for threads relating to PvP balance, and give us your feedback there.

o Arenas are located in Galaxy City, Talos Island, and Peregrine Island.
o All events are interlinked. This means players joining events in Galaxy City’s arena can play against players who joined in Talos Island or Peregrine Island.

o Joining events is as easy as entering the arena lobbies and clicking on any available Battle Terminal.
o Events are broken down into Weight Classes, ensuring a more even fight between the heroes involved.
o You can join events in weight classes lower than your current Security Level allows. Doing this will automatically Exemplar you down to the appropriate level for the Weight Class.

o Tournaments are constantly going on. Joining one costs Influence, but the top finishers end up with a share of the Influence cost as their prize. The winner of a Tournament will also receive a badge signifying their accomplishment.

o Stores inside the arenas sell small Inspirations as well as some useful Temporary Powers.
o Event Creators can set their own ground rules for events that they initiate. These include No Travel Powers, No Pool Powers, and Tactical Start (all players start the match with 0 Endurance).

o Duels are one on one battles.
o Team Duels are battles with 2 or more people per side.
o Battle Royals and Team Battle Royals are battles with three or more sides.
o Pentad Challenges are Team Duels that require one Blaster, one Controller, one Defender, one Scrapper, and one Tanker on each team (no more, no less).

o Instant Tournaments can have up to 32 players, and are done in Swiss Draw formats. This means that people with better records will be paired off against each other each round. You will play multiple rounds in a Tournament, so these can be a heavy investment of time. There can be up to 4 rounds in a 32 player tournament, and after those 4 rounds are completed the top 8 finishers will play each other in a single-elimination ladder. The winner earns the lion’s share of the entry fees, with other top finishers sharing a portion of the remainder.

o Supergroup Rumbles are set up between the leaders of two Supergroups, and limit combatants to belonging to one or the other Supergroup in order to participate. This means that the largest possible battle is 75 people versus 75 people.

o The default Arena matches are 10 minute Deathmatch. You have 10 minutes to defeat your opponent(s) as many times as possible. 20 and 30 minute matches are also available.

o Other Arena possibilities are Last Man Standing, which are single elimination matches or Domination Matches, where teams share a pool of “lives”, and when they are all used up, the entire team loses the match.

o When you are defeated in an Arena match, you can come back as a floating camera and watch the action. Cameras are invisible to other players, and intangible (so they can pass through you without incident). Outside observers can also watch matches in progress as cameras, as long as the Event Creator allows it. Cameras are not allowed to chat to any other player in the game.

o A Chess-style ranking system has been implemented to track your skill in PvP. All players begin with a 1500 Rating. Defeating someone of a higher rating than you will give you more points added on your Rating than defeating someone of a lower rating than yourself. Inversely, losing to someone of a lower rating than you will cost you more points off your rating than losing to someone of a higher rating than yourself. You can see any other player’s rating on the Battle Terminals or by right clicking on them.

Character Creation

o New body scaling feature increases your ability to customize your character’s appearance.
o Body scaling can be modified at Icon stores, along with your costume.
o New costume pieces have been added to give your character a wider range of choices.
§ New jacket and shirt options that can be color mixed and matched.
§ More variety in footwear for men and women.
§ Multiple anime influenced styles.

Powers

Numerous changes have been made to powers specifically for player-vs-player situations, as well as many changes that affect all parts of the game.

Changes that Affect both PvE and PvP:

o Improved Max Stealth capability (High stealthy powers like Superior Invisibility can now better protect against foes with high Perception, like Snipers).

o Villains can now knock you back, instead of just knocking you down.
o Removed the base -30% Damage Resistance debuff from Kheldians and decreased their base HP by 12.5% (this gives them an effective net increase in HP).

o Increased Kheldians Base Range Damage. This gives them 4% less base damage than Defenders when solo.
o Increased the Damage Bonus Kheldians get from the appropriate teammates to +20% each. This makes their damage equivalent to Blasters with 3 teammates of the appropriate archetype, and +50% greater damage than Blasters with 7 teammates of the appropriate archetype.

o Increased Damage resistance of Singularity.
o Increased Damage resistance of Animate Stone.
o Increased Jack Frost's resistance to Cold. Jack Frost now has a permanent Chilling Embrace. Jack Frost Power now accepts Slow Enhancements. Jack Frost is now highly resistant to Slow effects (recharge and movement).

o Added Fear visual f/x to Manipulation fear powers.
o Increased Gravity Control/Propel damage.
o Updated villain Propel damage.
o Significantly increased the Max HP of Kheldians while in Dwarf form.
o Radiation Emission/EM Pulse now also drains Endurance and accepts Endurance Drain Enhancements.
o Radiation Emission/EM Pulse now also debuffs targets’ Regeneration rate.
o Increased the Damage buff of Leadership/Assault and Vengeance by 50%.
o Doubled the effectiveness of the Recharge Boost of Empathy/Adrenaline boost.
o Kheldian Dwarf Form now resists Confuse and Fear.
o Modification to Perception attribute: Increased Perception will now allow you to see stealthy foes or resist powers that reduce your Perception (like Smoke Grenade).

o Accuracy Inspirations now increase Perception.
o Leadership/Tactics now offers increased Perception and resistance to Confuse.
o Leadership/Vengeance now offers resistance to Fear.
o Medicine/Stimulant now offers resistance to Fear and Confuse.
o Ice Armor/Glacial Armor now offers increased Perception.
o Stone Armor/Minerals now offers increased Perception and resistance to Confuse.
o Removed Resistance Enhancements from Crystal Armor, as they had no effect.
o Dark Armor/Obsidian Shield now offer resistance to Fear.
o Dark Armor/Cloak of Darkness now offers increased Perception.
o Super Reflexes/Focused Fighting now offers resistance to Confuse.
o Super Reflexes/Focused Senses now offers increased Perception.
o Dark Miasma/Shadow Fall now offer resistance to Fear.
o Empathy/Clear Mind now offer resistance to Fear and Confuse, and grants increased Perception.
o Storm Summoning/Steamy Mist now offers resistance to Confuse.
o Fixed a bug in Hasten that was allowing its attack rate boost to be resisted. The result was, powers like Wet Ice and Energy Absorbs ion was resisting the recharge boost of Hasten.

o Updated Short and system help of Hoarfrost (no power change).
o Increased based movement of pets.
o Modified Spectral Terror attack power so it tends to make foes run away less.
o Increased the recharge time of Nemesis Staff temp power.
o Added Confuse and Fear protection to Kheldian Cosmic Balance and Dark Sustenance.
o Fixed Super Strength/Rage animation.
o Fixed a bug that would cause a bad shield graphic f/x error to appear if you used Unyielding and Stone Mallet.
o Fixed Cryonic Armor missing ice armor f/x.
o Fixed Earthquake (hero and villain version) from continuing to affect foes even if they leave the affected area

o Gravity Control/Wormhole is now an AoE (Wormhole applied a Disorient, so now Gravity Control has another AoE Control power). Recharge Time was increased to compensate.

o Fixed bad Disorient Duration for Assault Rifle/Beanbag (duration was twice as long as normal at higher levels).

o Dark Miasma/Howling Twilight now restores Full Hit Points and Endurance to those you resurrect. This power no longer accepts Heal and Recovery Enhancements (it already restores the maximum HP and END, so there is nothing to Enhance).

o Slightly reduced the Fear Time of Invoke Panic.
o Spectral Terror now only targets one foe when it uses its Terrify attack.
o Fixed some bad Disorient durations on Warshade powers (Gravitic Emanation and Unchain Essence).
o Resolve, Strength of Will, and Sheer Willpower Inspiration are now removed from the game. Break Free, Emerge, and Escape Inspirations will now protect you from all effects including Sleep, Hold, Immobilization, Disorient, Fear, Knockback and Confuse, and can be activated even while under such effects.

o Defenders and Controllers will now drain more Endurance when using powers that drain endurance. More specifically, Defenders will drain more endurance when using Electricity Blast than a Blaster using the same power. Controller will now drain more endurance with powers such as Transfusion, but Defenders will still drain more than Controllers.

o Reduced the duration of Break Free, Emerge, and Escape Inspirations.
o Increased the invulnerable time after you cast Rise of the Phoenix (Tanker and Ancillary versions)
o Modified powers that protect you from controlling effects. They will all now generally improve over level.
o Reduced Ice Blast/Blizzard Duration and increased its Damage.
o Dark Miasma/Tar Patch now also debuffs affected targets’ damage resistance and prevents foes from jumping and flying.

o Dark Miasma/Twilight Grasp now debuff the targeted foes’ Regeneration Rate.
o Dark Miasma/Howling Twilight now debuff the targeted foes’ Regeneration Rate.
o Kinetics/Transfusion now debuff the targeted foes’ Regeneration Rate.
o Kinetics/Siphon Speed now also transfers attack rate (debuffs targets attack rate and buffs the casters).
o Radiation Emission/Lingering Radiation now also debuffs targets’ Regeneration rate.
o Increased the duration of the Freezing Rains debuffs.
o Increased Defender’s Freezing Rain Slow debuff.
o Earth Control/Quicksand now debuffs a target’s defense and prevents foes from flying or jumping.
o Tanker Hurl and Hurl Boulder and Scrapper/Spines/Impale can now knock flyers down.
o Changed rank of Devouring Earth beacons. They should be easier to destroy now.
o Improved/decreased the cast time of siphon speed.
o Reduced the END cost of Dark Nova Bolt and Dark Nova Blast.
o Reduced the amount of Regeneration Buff that can be enhanced in Instant Healing and Integration (base values were not changed).

o Put a cap on the max defense you can gain from Energy Absorption.
o Increase Time Bomb Accuracy.
o Dark Armor/Murky Cloud, Stone Armor/Rooted, Storm Summoning/O2 Boost, Radiation Emission/Accelerate Metabolism, and Force Field/Insulation Field now offer resistance to Endurance Drain effects.

o Increased Immobilization Protection in Combat Jumping. Also, Protection now increases over level.
o Increase Range and Decreased Interrupt times of Medicine/Aid Other and Stimulant.
o Increased Hit rate of Choking Cloud.
o Added some Immobilization protection to Cloak of Darkness.
o Warshade Shadow Cloak now somewhat protects you from Immobilization, and Stealth.
o Warshade/Stygian Circle: Added Endurance gain per defeated foe drained. Significantly reduced its Endurance activation cost.

o Fixed Rage defense debuff (was giving a defense buff after Rage wore off instead of a debuff).
o Reduced the effect Duration of Terrorize powers.
o Added Accuracy Enhancements to Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain, Ice Storm, and Blizzard.
o Increased recharge time (less often) for Yellow Ink Men Holds and Sleeps.
o Decreased Chance for DE Fungi men to put you to sleep with their Spores.
o Increased the recharge time (less often) for Malta Tasers and Web Grenades.
o Modified Knives of Artemis stealth.
o Increased the recharge time (less often) for Modified Knives of Artemis sleep dart.
o Decreased chance Dominatrix minion can sleep you.
o Increased chance Dominatrix Boss can hold you.
o Decreased chance Carnival Attendant Energy Rings can Disorient you.
o Decreased chance Rularuu Brute minions can knock you down.
o Decreased chance Rularuu Wisp minions can Immobilize you.
o Decreased amount Rularuu Sentry minions can slow you.
o Blizzard, Ice Slick, Ice Patch, Earthquake, and Freezing Rain will no longer knock lower level minions out of the affected area.

o Modified Hydra Head powers. Fixed bug that allowed attacks to get through without taking out the shield generators.

o Fixed Sewer Kraken collision/selection.
o You can now attack targets while Superior Invisibility is on. Superior Invisibility is the only self toggle invisibility power that allows you to attack while it is active.

o Fix to ensure you remain immobile while in Hibernate.
o Added missing attack types to Gravity powers (defense now applies to all gravity attacks). (Player and Villain versions).

o Increased Recharge time for Dimension Shift, Black hole and Detention Field.
o Reduced Endurance cost of Black Hole, Dimension Shift and Detention Field. .
o Increased the recharge time of Phase Shift.
o Super Reflexes/Quickness now also resists slow effects.
o Increased Ice Armor/Wet Ice resistance to slow effects.
o Fixed a bug that caused high level Portal mission Clockworks to summon other Clockworks at the wrong level.
o Empathy/Adrenaline Boost now also grants the target resistance to slow effects.
o Fixed a typo in Earth Controller Power Set description.
o Hibernate can now be used in the air. You will fall to the ground if you do so.
o Fixed a bug that caused Hibernate f/x to be left behind if you were moving while activating the power.
o Hibernate now accepts Heal Enhancements.
o Fixed bug that meant Dropping Dull Pain at the same time Unstoppable falls could cause character death
o Increased recharge time of Peacebringer/Quantum Flight and Warshade/Nebulous Form.

Changes that Affect PvP Only:

o Brawl has a chance to turn off a target’s Toggle powers.
o Suppression: You cannot chain control your opponent. If you are affected by a controlling effect (Sleep, Hold, Disorient, Immobilize, Fear, Confuse, Knockback), you will tend to have an immune to that effect for a fair amount of time (approx 15 seconds, but this time may vary). So if you are Held, you will tend to be immune to Hold for about 15 seconds, however, you will not be not immune to Sleep or other effects.

o Hurricane, Whirlwind, Repel, Repulsion Field and Tornado will not constantly knock down your opponent (see above).

o Modified Cloak of Fear, Oppressive Gloom and Inky Aspect with Suppression (you cannot perma-control your foe in PvP, see above).

o Added suppression to the Knockback of tanker super strength and energy blast attacks, and Air Superiority (separate PvP attrib Mods) - No chain Knock Back with these powers

o In PvP, your foes can see you sooner than villains can if you are stealthed.
o Most Controller powers now do triple damage in PvP if the target is already Held, Stunned, Slept or Immobilized.

o Most Defender debuffs are not resistible in PvP
o 30% of most Blaster damage cannot be resisted.
o Damage from Scrapper Critical hits in PvP cannot be resisted.
o Confused characters see all players with names of their team’s color. All of their AE powers affect friends and foes equally. While confused, all ranged powers have a chance of hitting a random target in range (friend or foe) rather than the intended target.

o Storm Summoning/Thunder Clap – has a chance to Knock out toggles
o Storm Summoning/Lightning Storm – has a chance to Knock out toggles
o Kinetics/Repel – has a chance to Knock out toggles
o Force Field/Repulsion Field– has a chance to Knock out toggles
o Force Field/Force Bolt – has a chance to Knock out toggles
o Kheldian White Dwarf Strike and Black Dwarf Strike have a chance to Knock out toggles
o Blaster/Devices: Trip Mine and Time Bomb have a chance to knock out toggles.
o Blaster/ Energy Manipulation: Energy Punch and Bone Smasher have a chance to knock out toggles.
o Blaster/Electrical Manipulation: Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch have a chance to knock out toggles.
o Blaster/Fire Manipulation: Fire Sword and Fire Sword Circle have a chance to knock out toggles.
o Blaster/Ice Manipulation: Frozen Fists and Ice Sword have a chance to knock out toggles.
o Reduced the effect of Endurance Drain in End Draining powers in PvP (1/4 PvE values) – Defenders still drain more than other Archetypes.

o Reduced duration of Dimension shift, Black hole and Detention Field in PvP
o In the Arena, the Ground Rule “Disable Travel” Ground Rule grays-out the following powers: Teleport, Team Teleport, Shadow Step, White Dwarf Step, Black Dwarf Step and Manifold Resonator (a temp power). It disallows flight, but does not disable Fly powers (you can still activate Hover for the defense bonus for example). Also, it sets a Max Jump Height, Jump Speed and Run Speed.

o In the Arena, the Ground Rule “Disable Stealth” Ground Rule allows you to turn on your Stealth Powers, so you can still gain the defense bonus, but your opponents can still see you.

o Reduced Knock down chance in PvP for Blizzard, Ice Slick, Ice Patch, Earthquake, and Freezing Rain (separate PvP attribmod).

o Set smoke and smoke grenade to cancel on damage.
o Telekinesis will not Suppress if the target is damaged. That is, if the PvP Target is damaged, the hold will Suppress, but you can keep pushing them back.

o Reduced duration of Dimension shift, Black hole and Detention Field.
o Fire Control/Smoke will not auto hit players.

Chat

Coalition Chat

o Coalition chat can be accessed by clicking on the Coalition button in your Supergroup menu, or via slash commands.

/coalition_invite

/ci

o Invites a player's Supergroup to form a coalition. You must be the leader of your Supergroup to do this.
o Also accessible by right clicking on the player.
o Sends the invite to the leader of 's Supergroup that has been online the longest.
o Your Supergroup can be in a coalition with a maximum of 10 other Supergroups.

/c

o Chats in the coalition channel.
o If Supergroup A and Supergroup B have a coalition, and Supergroup A and Supergroup C have a coalition, then anything members of A say will be heard by members of A, B, and C. Anything members of C say will be heard only by members of A and C. Anything members of B say will be heard only by members of A and B.

Game

Click to Move

o With this feature on, left click on a target point or object and your character will move to that point
o Double click on a target to move to it and interact with it (go to a door and walk through, move to an npc and begin talking, etc.).

o Click to Move is turned off by default. It can be turned on in the Options menu.
o On-Demand Use: hold down a key (default is V) to temporarily enable the feature for as long as the key is held. If the feature is set to run all the time, holding down the key will temporarily disable click to move.

o Autorun: hold down both left and right mouse buttons for 2 seconds to enable autorun. hold buttons down again to turn autorun off.

New Commands

o Added "Suppress Extra Player FX" to the Options Menu, which will disable rendering of "unimportant" player FX systems (any PBAoE or continuing FX not affecting the player or a teammate)

Tasks

o Atlas Park, Galaxy City: New Kheldian Story Arcs! Sunstorm and Shadow StarThese now continue to hand out story arcs every 5 levels all they way to level 50.

You also now have the ability to select what type of team you are looking for, and can add a comment to appear (Though i think the latter may be broken)

plus, the third tray of slots went live. I really think I like the "quality of life" changes that they made!

Oh, good. SR's Confuse/Perception powers are completely useless after 39. Wonderful.

Hey man, at least you get some. Us Fire and Inv tankers get no confuse/fear/perception powers at all. Regen and Inv scrappers don't either.

I think we're about to see a new crop of full-toggle, Elude-less SR scrappers.

That was my SR's plan all along... Well not completely without elude just not perma.

I might respec back to that, possibly. Or not, depending on whether I get interested in PvP at any point.

Dark armor for teh win!!!!

Yeah, you know what all us Tankers also don't have? Much of a chance in PvP, considering the number of powers available that knock out toggles. Gee, last time I checked, most Tankers are toggle-dependent to the point of the ridiculous. I know I won't be taking my Inv/SS Tank in there.

You've got the best game in town for anti-controller, though. I can't break your toggles down to drop that Blind-3xSpectral combo on you, because you're not *running* any toggles.

Although my PvP respec is going to be a *bitch* to figure out. They boosted a lot of powers that I had never taken before, so I'm going to have to really worry about running out, now.

Well, same here. The only powers I get to increase Perception and resist Confuse are toggles, which are bad in conjunction with perma-Elude; this will either mean I'm going back to full toggles and risking toggle-drops, or sticking with Elude, and hoping my opponent doesn't trick me into wiping the floor with my teammates.

Of course, if I stick to one-on-one, Confuse isn't that much of a risk.

Confuse isn't much risk anyways, for you. Just be careful about targeting, and don't hit Dragon Tail.

Melee attacks will always hit the intended target. AoE hits *everyone*, regardless of team. Ranged attacks have a %chance to hit the wrong target.

The only part of this that affects an MA scrapper is the change in naming, so that all players show the same color. Which probably also affects tab-targeting. Just target by name and click, and go nuts. Ignore all the friend/foe stuff going on around you, and kill your original target.

Interesting. I guess I'll have to see how it works myself.

See, now *this* is actually tempting me to re-activate. Tournaments, Battle Royale, some real improvements on the Kheldians, new Kheldian arcs.

Plus my controller will be teh pwn in PvP. Triple damage when Held? Where do I sign up? My Spectral already does nearly 200 damage in a type that almost no player has resistance to. And I get two powers in FF to help knock your toggles off to get that Hold to land. Meanwhile you can't even see me coming from a hundred yards, once I bring up Superior Invis and Group Invis simultaneously. *sneak*sneak*BOO!* Tactics, baby.

And Coalitions, finally!

It says "most" Controller powers. This most likely excludes summons and the like. ::shudders at the thought of 3x Attack Imps::

Yeah, triple'd monkeys would just be *wrong*. I can't imagine they boosted pet damage, though. Just the direct-attack spells.

But I already *have* the strongest hitting direct-attack in the controller realm. A triple'd Spectral will knock 50% off of your friendly neighborhood squishy, and put a real dent in your tanks. My biggest problem is going to be the scrappers. Dark has Psi resist, and Regen and SR are untyped. Although Regen is a pushover once I get his toggles busted. Brawl, Force Bolt, and Repulsion Field for teh win!

I love the usage of Brawl. That's just amazingly cool. And it really does make PvP a *lot* more tactical. Dance around with full toggle defenses, trying to get that Brawl going, conserve endurance, then slam home the major combo in that second or two before they can raise their shields again.

Except I think that Stealth powers still don't stack.

They always did before. If you get Group Invis, pool Invis, and Pool Grant Invis (from three different players, of course) on the same person, they can toe-to-toe with a sniper and not aggro.

And, even if not, Superior Invis now has stronger Stealth than any other power in the game, toggle, and I can attack past it. Yeah, I'll be slotting that one up and *never turning it off again*.

From three different sources, right, but not all from one.

If I really wanted to, I could get three different sources on one toon. Sup Invis, Group Invis, and pool Invis. Not to mention SS, pool Stealth and Steamy Mist from a Storm secondary, if I wanted to build for all-out Stealth.

And you can't tell me those don't stack. I've been doing that for ages, with SS+Stealth on my Blaster. Two partial Stealth effects = full Invis.

Yes, but States had mentioned how in the Arena, stealth effects will not stack.

Or, I should rephrase that. SECONDARY stealth effects won't stack with primary ones. IE - superspeed doesn't give it's stealth component.

I thought that that comment was just about "No Stealth" games. You can active SS in a stealth-free game, or Hover in a no-flight game, but you won't get the banned effect.

I admit that I haven't read the official forums in weeks, though.

Hmm. While I don't doubt it, I've also heard conflicting reports.

I want my long coats!

Did I read that Superior Invis lets you attack through it now? OMG that would ROCK!!!!!!

O_O WOO! I can respec into it again now :P

Here's the thing that kinda catches my eye. Note that a lot of the Confuse and Perception defenses/changes are under the "PvE and PvP" section. I'm wondering if we're going to start seeing Confuse and Perception-related attacks from the enemy now? Food for thought in any case.

Knives of Artemis already have stealth.

I'm all too aware of that, believe me. I was thinking more along the lines of bad guys using smoke and smoke grenades on us. Or even other 'blinding' type powers unique to villains. Also, villains getting some sort of confuse attack useable on us.

I think the only thing Perception does is alter the reticle range for stealth-using targets; so, smoke grenade and such wouldn't affect draw range in most instances, since only Knives get stealth powers (as villains).

I wold love to see some villains get confuse attacks. That would be perfect for Mother Mayhem.

This is the awesomest thing in the history of awesome.

*waits very impatiently for patch to download*

Who wants to be that the non-test servers will be ghost towns tonight and for the next couple weeks? And that test will get the stress-test of it's life? :)

One tiny thing I noticed:
Knockback, not just knockdown, for heroes.

I thought they said this was Very Difficult due to how heroes are coded. I guess they recoded it.

what, did I hear this correctly, did my ice/rad controller become even more uber than he was before!

Finally. Some love for my grav/kin controller.

Yup. Zoom might be back in action!!!

You called?

heh. I meant my poor SL 22 Controller on Triumph actually.