page 3 [OPEN BETA] Patch Notes for December 19th, 2025

[The Curator]

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Zones

The Labyrinth of Fog

Adjustments

• Swapped out existing Cimeroran flags for new Labyrinth themed flags.

 

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Badges

New Badges

•  Maze Surveyor - Spend 100 hours offline in the Labyrinth of Fog to earn this badge.  Logging out within the Labyrinth of Fog will earn you a bonus to the number of Nightmare Obols you receive, when you log back in, each time you complete a mission for a short time.

 

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Powers

Quote

 

• Bio Armor
  • Defensive Stance -dmg restored, this was not intentionally removed and was not part of the patch notes
  • DNA siphon: reverted the stance focused locks on defeated/active targets
  • Inexhaustible changes reverted
  • Evolving Armor:
    • Now grants -Defense Resistance while in Defensive Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable
    • Now grants -Regeneration Resistance while in Efficient Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable

  • Athletic Regulation (Sentinels)

    • Power now grants 10% -Defense Resistance while in Defensive Adaptation

    • Power now grants 30% -Regeneration Resistance while in Efficient Adaptation

  • Genetic Corruption (Stalkers)

    • Now grants -Defense Resistance while in Defensive Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable
    • Now grants -Regeneration Resistance while in Efficient Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable

  • Rebuild DNA (Sentinels)

    • Changes reverted

• Broad Sword > Boomerang Slice
  • (Scrapper) is now properly exclusive from Slice
  • Rending Slice no longer goes into cooldown per use of either Slice, but only when it procs
• Dark Armor > Obscure Sustenance
  • Reverted previous set of changes
  • Recharge increased from 60s to 180s
  • Weakest buff durations increased to from 60s to 120s
  • 20s regen buff lowered from 175% regen to 100%
• Electrical Melee > Lightning Clap (Stalkers Only)
  • This power is now available as a mutually exclusive option from Thunder Strike
• Fiery Melee
  • Tankers
    • Reverted Tanker's breath of fire changes. 
    • Tanker Cremate has been rolled back.
    • Tanker Breath of Fire and Combustion no longer mutually exclusive (back to how they work live)
    • Tanker Breath of Fire back to its ranged cone form (back to how it is live)
    • Tanker Breath of Fire renamed Fire Breath
  • Breath of Fire (Scrapper, Stalker, Brutes)
    • Target cap reverted to 10
    • Recharge and endurance cost increases reverted
  • Themes
    • Fixed a theme bug that would not auto-select color tintable options for non-sword attacks while selecting one of the no-sword set themes.
• Fiery Aura
  • Burn
    • Damage is now entirely applied via the damage patch 
      • Pet will apply the one time up-front damage in a larger radius as well as the damage over time in a 8ft radius
    • Fiery Embrace effects now last the full duration of the patch
  • Consume

    • Max HP changes have been reverted.

    • Adaptive recharge adjusted, Base recharge increased to 15s, +4.5s per foe, for a maximum 60s recharge.

  • Phoenix Rising

    • Health lockout has been removed

    • Damage delivery now applied via a pseudopet

• Storm Blast

  • Fixed various description text errors for clarity

  • Fixed visual issue with customized Storm Cell casting "empty" lightning strikes

  • Storm Brewing -

    • It is now easier to maintain high stacks of Storm Brewing

    • Storm Brewing increases the odds of Lightning Procs by 1% per stack

    • Storm Brewing should on average be more efficient at causing High Winds even without 5 stacks

  • Intensify - Now grants 5 Storm Brewing stacks when used
  • Storm Cell -
    • High Winds duration increased from 4s to 8s, doubling Automatic Lightning duration
    • Automatic Lightning can now hit anywhere between 1-3s pulses per target, to add more natural randomness to strikes and overall spreads across a crowd faster
    • Automatic Lightning can occasionally fire a Lightning Proc, and even rarer still a Multi Lightning Proc that hits 3 targets at once
    • Lightning Proc damage decreased from scale 1.14 to 1.0
  • Category Five -
    • Tick rates sped up by 33%
    • Power duration decreased from 30s to 20s (25s to 17s on the cyclone)
    • Sentinel changed from 20s to 15s (15s to 10s on the cyclone)
    • Cyclone delay decreased from 3s to 2s
• Super Strength
  • Changes to Super Strength are being pulled back at this time to go under further review. We have a few technical and design hurdles to work through not limited to Power Order, Hand Clap slotting and changes, as well as Rage of course, which will require some more time to figure out than we have with everything else in the current panel. We expect to bring this back in a coming update.
• Super Reflexes
  • All changes are being rolled back as they were too disruptive for sentinels and feedback pointed at the changes not achieving enough benefits to offset the risk of buffing or complicating an already powerful set.

• Willpower

  • Resurgence: description updated.

  • +dmg buffs and crashes returned to this power

• The crashing T9 changes have been reverted. This applies to:
  • Energy Aura > Overload
  • Invulnerability > Unstoppable
  • Ninjitsu > Kuji-In Retsu
  • Radiation Armor > Meltdown
  • Shield Defense > One With the Shield
  • Super Reflexes > Elude
  • Willpower > Strength of Will

• Mastermind

  • Supremacy

    • No longer grants -perception to henchmen out of its range

    • All henchmen within Supremacy range should now always have the same ToHit chance

    • Supremacy "Pet Aura" effects now scale by level, reaching full strength at level 50.

    • Supremacy "Pet Aura" effects wont stack on top of ATO pet auras (strongest effect will always override the weakest)

  • Reverted changes to Mark of Supremacy

  • Reverted changes to Command of the Mastermind
     

  • As Mastermind ATOs are being now treated as universal damage sets, the following Support set powers now also allow them to be slotted:

    • Cold Domination > Sleet

    • Dark Miasma > Howling Twilight

    • Force Field > Force Bolt

    • Force Field > Repulsion Bomb

    • Marine Affinity > Shifting Tides

    • Marine Affinity > Whitecap

    • Poison > Poison Trap

    • Radiation Emission > Fallout

    • Storm Summoning > Freezing Rain

    • Storm Summoning > Gale

    • Storm Summoning > Lightning Storm

    • Storm Summoning > Tornado

    • Traps > Acid Mortar

    • Traps > Caltrops

    • Traps > Seeker Drones

    • Traps > Trip Mine

    • Trick Arrow > Acid Arrow

• Sentinels

  • DoTs that have a chance lower than 100% no longer crit.

  • Mace Mastery and Weapon Mastery attacks for Sentinels should now be able to crit

  • Inherent power description has been updated

  • Fixed a bug that prevented pseudopets from properly leverage criticals past the initial second

  • Fixed a bug where Psionic Mastery > Psychic Shockwave had CRITICAL float messages on base damage components

 

 Powers

General Adjustments -

 

Set Bonuses

• Global bonuses now show up on their own section under the player powers list, instead of being grouped with other Set Bonuses.

 

Aura Radius Increases

• Quote

  Design Notes
  In an attempt to make melee play a bit less cramped, we are increasing the are of many caster-focused scaling and debuff auras that are considered essential when balancing armor set survivability. Tanker versions that were already expanded due to their inherent are not getting any changes, and any damage/debuff auras they possess will continue to apply damage to the full 12ft radius.

   

• Increased the radius of the following powers:
  • Bio Armor > Evolving Armor
  • Bio Armor > Genetic Corruption
  • Dark Armor > Cloak of Fear
  • Dark Armor > Oppressive Gloom
  • Earth Assault > Mud Pots (damage restricted to 8ft)
  • Earth Manipulation > Mud Bath
  • Energy Aura > Entropy Shield
  • Energy Aura > Repulse
  • Ice Armor > Chilling Embrace
  • Icy Assault > Chilling Embrace (damage restricted to 8ft)
  • Invulnerability > Invincibility
  • Mental Manipulation > World of Confusion (damage restricted to 8ft)
  • Psionic Armor > Impose Presence
  • Psionic Mastery > World of Confusion (damage restricted to 8ft)
  • Radiation Armor > Beta Decay
  • Regeneration > Integration (Brute/Tankers taunt aura)
  • Shield Defense > Against All Odds
  • Stone Armor > Mud Pots (damage restricted to 8ft)
  • Umbral Aura > Inky Aspect
  • Willpower > Rise to the Challenge
  • (Tanker versions of any above power that was already at 12ft had no alterations)

 

Endurance Cost Changes

• Reduced Mastermind primary (only personal attacks) and secondary power end costs to match other AT endurance modifiers.
• Reduced all Epic Pool endurance costs
• Reduced the endurance cost of the following Pool powers:
  • Fighting > Boxing
  • Fighting > Kick
  • Fighting > Cross Punch
  • Flight > Air Superiority
  • Leaping > Jump Kick
  • Super Speed > Flurry

 

 

Archetype Adjustments -

 

Brutes

• Resist and Defense modifiers increased from 75% to 85%
• PvP base resistances lowered from 10% to 0%
• Max HP increased from 1499.2554 to 1601.719

 

Sentinels

• Self Resist and Defense modifiers increased from 70% to 75%
• Sentinel Meter now only builds while in combat
• Vulnerability is now as chain that can affect up to 5 targets
  • Known issue: the target requirement expression that is used to prevent the power from being used on a target that is already vulnerable is currently not working properly with chains.
• Opportunity now grants a perception buff based on meter buildup, with a max of +40% at full meter.
• Opportunity now grants a critical chance on all primary attacks based on meter buildup, with a max chance of +40% at full meter, 5% with empty meter.
• Critical damage is 40% the strength of base power damage.
• Note: nukes are not intended to crit

 

Stalker

• Assassination:
  • Scale increased from scale 7 to scale 8.5 in PvE

 

Masterminds

• Henchmen Summoning
  • Henchmen are now summoned with a temporary high stealth and defense buff
  • These buffs last for up to 15s or until the henchmen engages in combat.
  • This effect is PvE only.
• Teleportation
  • The T1 power now can teleport henchmen to the designated ground location.
  • Henchmen will only be teleported if they are outside supremacy range and have not attacked in the last 5 seconds.
  • This will not replace living henchmen, only teleport them.
• Set Bonus Share
  • Has been increased from 40% to 50%
• Supremacy
  • Supremacy +AoE Def/+Res/+Regen effects lowered to 10%/10%/100% respectively.
  • Now grants a +10% Res(ALL) and AoE Defense to henchmen within range.
  • Now grants a +100% regen buff to henchmen within range.
  • While within Supremacy range, henchmen will have a generic ToHit buff vfx on them.
  • Henchmen that leave supremacy range (60ft) and are not engaged in combat will receive a high stealth buff and perception debuffs as well as movement speed buffs. These will all cancel if they attack, are attacked or enter Supremacy range. This effect is PvE only.
• Mastermind ATOs:
  • These powers are now treated as damage sets. As such, in addition to summon powers, they are now slottable on:
    • All primary personal attacks
    • Cold Domination > Sleet
    • Dark Miasma > Howling Twilight
    • Force Field > Force Bolt
    • Force Field > Repulsion Bomb
    • Marine Affinity > Shifting Tides
    • Marine Affinity > Whitecap
    • Poison > Poison Trap
    • Radiation Emission > Fallout
    • Storm Summoning > Freezing Rain
    • Storm Summoning > Gale
    • Storm Summoning > Lightning Storm
    • Storm Summoning > Tornado
    • Traps > Acid Mortar
    • Traps > Caltrops
    • Traps > Seeker Drones
    • Traps > Trip Mine
    • Trick Arrow > Acid Arrow
• Command of the Mastermind
  • +AoE defense lowered from +10%/+15% to +2.5%/+5% for Regular/Superior versions respectively.
• Mark of Supremacy
  • +Res/+Regen buffs lowered to +2.5%/+5% and +25%/+50% for Regular/Superior versions respectively.

 

Melee Powerset Adjustments -

Broad Sword

• Slash
  • Cast time lowered from 1.33s to 1.1s
• Slice
  • This power now applies a -15% res debuff on targets for 15 seconds
  • After 15s from last use, this power can inflict a Rending Slice on the main target hitting for an additional 0.7254 lethal damage
  • -Defense debuff lowered from -7.5% to -3.75%,
  • Cast time lowered from 2.00s to 1.83s
  • Mutually exclusive option to Boomerang Slice
  • Damage from 1.23 to 1.2346
  • Stalker Only
    • Target cap increased from 5 to 10 targets
• Boomerang Slice
  • A new mutually exclusive option to slice. It has a narrower area but longer reach than Slice. 
  • This power now applies a -15% res debuff on targets for 15 seconds
  • After 15s from last use, this power can inflict a Rending Slice on all targets hitting for an additional 3 ticks of scale 0.2 dot lethal damage [does not apply to Stalkers]
  • This power has similar stats with area, range and animation being the major differences. 
  • 1.83 cast time, 8s recharge, 30ft range, 30 degree arc with scale 0.877 damage.
• Whirling Sword
  • Recharge increased from 14s to 20s
  • Radius increased from 8ft to 10ft on Scrappers, 12ft to 15ft on Tankers
  • Endurance cost increased from 13.52 to 18.512
  • Damage scale increased from 1.18 to 1.4218
• Head Splitter:
  • This power now can hit up to 2 additional foes in a 90 degree arc for 33% damage.
  • Target cap adjusted to 3 on all ATs

 

Electrical Melee

• Quote

  Design Note

  In an attempt to smoothen out the single target damage of the set we are turning Lightning Clap into a single target attack with splash AoE stun/knockdown. This plays off the general vibe that large parts of the set simply inflict splash effects of some sort or another. With the changes to Chain Induction and Lightning Rod, players should be able to expect more reliable carryover of buffs and enhancements as well as AT inherent effects in some limited forms.

   

• Jacob's Ladder
  • Single target changes reverted
  • Recharge increased from 8s to 9s
  • Endurance cost increased from 8.528 to 9.36
  • Damage scale increased from scale 1.5 to 1.5233
  • (Previous recharge/endurance were too low for its damage
• Chain Induction
  • This power is now a true chain
  • Attack type changed from Melee_Attack to AoE_Attack
  • No longer accepts Melee Enhancement sets
  • Now accepts Melee AoE Enhancement sets
  • [Stalker] Stealth crit can only trigger on the main target, remains at 100% chance
• Lightning Clap
  • Power is now a foe targeted attack
  • Power now inflicts scale 2.76 energy damage against it's main target only
  • Power can now only proc on the primary target only
  • Recharge lowered from 30s to 15s
  • Accuracy increased from 0.8 to 1.0
  • Power now accepts Damage Enhancements and sets
  • Chance to stun and knockback lowered from 100% to 80%
  • (Stalkers Only) This power is now available as a mutually exclusive option from Thunder Strike
• Lightning Rod
  • The center of this power has been expanded to 5ft, but can only hit a maximum of one target
  • Scrappers and Stalkers can now crit for scale 3.2015 if they hit with the centermost portion of the power.
  • Is now a true pseudopet on all archetypes

 

Fiery Melee

• Quote

  Design Note

  The last pass to this set went well, perhaps too well in some cases, but at the same time we left Breath of Fire untouched to revisit later. We are revisiting it now and making it a more viable melee cone attack. We attempted broadening the enhancement options during last pass, in part to help the Tanker version as it lacked Cremate. We feel this change was an overcorrection, especially when it also was applied to non-tanker versions of the set. We are not removing the options entirely, but Greater Fire Sword is losing access to it's -Defense secondary effect and -def enhancement options. Fire Sword and Fire Sword Circle continue to have these options. And finally, the Tanker version of the set now has access to Cremate as a slot opened up by making Cremate and Breath of Fire mutually exclusive options.

• Breath of Fire (Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers)
  • Recharge increased from 10s to 15s
  • Endurance cost increased from 10.192 to 14.352
  • Arc increase from 30 degrees to 120 degrees
  • Cast time reduced from 2.67s to 2.4s
  • Max Target hit reduced from 10 to 5
  • FX has been adjusted to reflect new area
• Combustion
  • [Tankers] Combustion and Breath of fire are now mutually exclusive
• Cremate
  • Tankers now have access to Cremate as a T3 melee attack
  • Not accessible if they have taken both: Breath of Fire and Combustion. You will need to respec out of either power to pick Cremate
• Fire Sword
  • Now has a No Swords theme
• Fire Sword Circle
  • Now has a No Swords theme
• Greater Fire Sword
  • No longer applies a -defense debuff
  • No longer accepts Defense debuff sets
  • Now has a No Swords theme

 

Kinetic Melee

• All Powers
  • -Damage debuffs now effect all damage types (it did not decrease Toxic or Psychic damage)
  • -Damage debuffs are normalized to scale 0.7 for all ATs and powers except for Burst
  • Burst -Damage debuff is scale 1.2
  • -Damage durations increased:
    • Quick Strike, Repulsing Torrent - 6s
    • Body Blow - 8s
    • Smashing Blow, Focused Burst - 10s
    • Concentrated Strike - 12s
    • Burst - 15s
  • -Damage debuffs now show -Damage fx
  • KB values decreased by 50% (ex: Scale 0.67kb -> 0.4467kb)
  • Swapped damage type ratio so Energy is higher and Smashing lower to match En defense type
  • fixed Stalker powers not having the same damage scale ratio of Sm/En damage as other ATs
  • fixed Brute Fiery Embrace damage in Concentrated Strike
• Power Siphon
  • Cast time lowered from 1.93s to 1.17s
  • Recharge lowered from 120s to 90s
  • ToHit and Power Siphon Mode duration lowered from 20s to 15s
  • Stack duration increased from 10s to 15s
  • Power now grants one stack of Siphon at activation
  • Each stack now grants +10% damage (down from +25%), now also increases Toxic and Psychic damage
  • Base powers strength now goes up by +10% per owned stack
  • This increases all the base stats of the power before any other boosts
    • This includes Damage, Mez Duration, Debuffs, and Knockback scale of Kinetic Melee powers
  • This multiplies against the buffed base damage
    • For example, at 5 stacks a 100 damage attack becomes 150 and then is boosted by +50% to 225
• Repulsing Torrent
  • Range decreased from 40ft to 30ft, lowering it's area factor
  • Total damage scale increased from scale 1.1 to 1.29
  • Knockback scale lowered from 3 to 1
  • Now inflicts scale 0.7 -Dam debuff for 6s
  • Now grants a Power Siphon Stack
• Focused Burst
  • Is now able to chain on hit to up to 4 extra targets, richocheting kinetic energy!
  • Tankers can hit up to 10 total targets due to Overcap like with 5-target cones
  • The 1st target takes full damage, with each extra target taking 25% less up to a minimum of 25%
• Burst
  • Cast time lowered from 2.67 to 2.53
  • Now deals damage over time during the start of animation, then a stronger final hit
  • Total damage scale unchanged
  • [Stalkers] Stealth crit rate lowered to 50%
• Concentrated Strike
  • Now can grant 2 stacks of Siphon, one at the start as you begin to drain the target and one at the final hit
  • Now deals 1/3 of it's damage over time during the start of the animation
  • Total damage scale unchanged
  • Stun chance increased from 60% to 100%
  • Cast time lowered from 2.83 to 2.67
  • [Stalkers/Scrappers] Now deals 3 scale 1.1867 ticks on crit, fully matching the total base damage over time
  • [Stalkers] No longer recharges Build Up on crit
  • [Scrappers] No longer has a chance to recharge Power Siphon

 

Psionic Melee

• Insight
  • No longer has a lockout
  • Insight DoTs have been standardized to guarantee their average damage each time they are applied:
    • Mental Strike - Insight DoT changed from 80% chance of 0.084 x4 over 3.1s > 100% chance of 0.0661 x3 over 2.1s
    • Psi Blade - Insight DoT changed from 80% chance of 0.2285 x4 over 3.1s > 100% chance of 0.1799 x3 over 2.1s
    • Telekinetic Blow - Insight DoT changed from 80% chance of 0.18 x4 over 3.1s > 100% chance of 0.1417 x3 over 2.1s
    • Psi Blade Sweep - Insight DoT changed from 80% chance of 0.236 x4 over 3.1s > 100% chance of 0.1858 x3 over 2.1s
    • Mass Levitate - Insight DoT changed from 80% chance of 0.142 x4 over 3.1s > 100% chance of 0.1118 x3 over 2.1s

• Boggle

  • Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s

  • Now has a highlight ring if you do not have any targets you have Boggled.

  • FX now lasts 15 seconds to indicate the effect being active

  • Chances to proc Insight on powers increased from 2x to 3x

  • Ex: Mental Strike's 8.9% goes from 17.78% to 26.67% vs a Boggled target

• Greater Psi Blade
  • Now has a highlight ring when you have Insight.
  • Insight Strike damage increased from scale 1.38 > 1.656
  • Insight Strike no longer changes the Mag 3 hold portion to Scale 12.
  • Instead, it now adds an additional Scale 8, Mag 1 hold that stacks with the base hold
• Mass Levitate
  • Delay for dealing damage reduced from 2s to 1.5s to better match when targets impact the ground

 

Sonic Melee

• Strident Echo / Sonic Thrust:
  • Increased these power's bonus against Attuned targets from 15s to 25s
• Sonic Clap:
  • This power now triggers a dot around up to 5 targets around an attuned target (attuned target must be in the area of effect and be hit by the base power)
  • Highlight ring in this power means you have an Attuned target, but the power has not managed to apply its splash dot on any foes in the last 15s.
• Deafening Wave:
  • This power now triggers a dot around up to 5 targets around an attuned target (attuned target must be in the area of effect and be hit by the base power)
  • Highlight ring in this power means you have an Attuned target but the power has not managed to apply it's splash dot on any foes in the last 15s
• Earsplitter
  • Increased this power's bonus against Attuned targets from +10% to +20%

 

Super Strength

• Hand Clap
  • Recharge time reduced from 30 to 12
  • Endurance reduced from 13 to 11.856
  • Stun changed from Stack to Replace
  • This power should now accept damage enhancement and sets.
  • Power description now warns damage enhancement and sets don't work unless Unleashed Might is active.
• Hurl
  • This power is now a narrow cone with a 10 degree arc that can hit up to 5 targets in a straight line (10 on tankers due to Overcap)
  • Damage was kept the same 
• Rage
  • -Defense crash reduced from -20% to -10.0%
  • Added a -20% res debuff to the crash
  • NOTE: This change is meant to make the crash more equitable across all Armor pairings
• NEW Unleashed Might
  • New Toggle power, mutually exclusive from Rage
  • While this power is active, you will gain a Scale 2.0 buff to Damage and a scale 1.25 buff to ToHit
  • The following powers will also gain additional bonuses:
    • Jab:
      • Deals an additional scale 0.204 damage
    • Punch:
      • Deals an additional 0.3 scale damage
    • Haymaker:
      • Deals an additional 0.492 scale damage
    • Knockout Punch:
      • Deals an additional 0.4447 scale damage
    • Hurl:
      • Deals an additional scale 0.492 damage
    • Foot Stomp:
      • Deals an additional scale damage
    • Hand Clap:
      • Becomes a front facing cone with 180 degree arc and 15ft radius
      • Has a target cap of 5 (10 on tankers due to Overcap)
      • Knocks down instead of knock back
      • Loses the 50% chance for additional mag 1 stub
      • Deals scale 1.0899 damage
      • Base Accuracy is increased from 0.8 to 1.0

 

Spines

• Barb Swipe

  • DoT duration increased from 2.1 to 3.1 (3 -> 4 total ticks)

• Lunge

  • On hit, gain +15% to Spine Poison for 15s (replaces self)

  • Spine Poison increases the odds of Spines DoT of continuing per tick. While active, this increases the odds from 80% to 95%

  • When Spine Poison is not active, a highlight ring will appear around Lunge

  • Cast time lowered from 1.63s to 1.33s

  • Recharge lowered from 6s to 5s

  • Lethal Damage Scale lowered from 1.32 to 1.08

  • End Cost lowered from 6.864 to 6.032

  • DoT duration increased from 3.1 to 6.1 (4 -> 7 total ticks)

• Impale

  • Now deals -100% Regen debuff for 15s (replaces self)

  • Cast time reduced from 2.43 to 2.23

  • Recharge increased from 8s to 10s

  • Endurance cost increased from 8.528 to 10.192

  • DoT now lasts for 15.1s (16 total ticks) at 80% chance

  • DoT starts at scale 0.2, and decays to scale 0.05 by the last tick.

  • Combined, this is a possible total of Scale 3.64 damage

• Spine Burst

  • Cast time lowered from 3s to 1.67s

  • Recharge lowered from 16s to 10s

  • Endurance cost lowered from 15.184 to 10.192

  • Lethal damage scale lowered from 0.9 to 0.6

  • DoT duration increased from 3.1s to 6.1s (4 -> 7 total ticks)

• Ripper

  • DoT duration increased from 4.1s to 7.1s (5 -> 8 total ticks)

• Throw Spines

  • DoT duration increased from 4.1s to 7.1s (5 -> 8 total ticks)

 

Summoning Powerset Adjustments -

Beast Mastery

• Lick Wounds

  • This power has been changed from Scale 1.33 Ranged_Heal to scale 2 HealSelf (20% self heal)

  • Power now available to Howler Wolves as part of the Tame Beast upgrade

• Howl (all versions)

  • Cast time reduced from 3.67s to 1.67s

• Maiming Bite (all versions)

  • Cast time reduced from 2.47s to 1.9s

• Dire Wolf > Freezing Roar

  • Cast time reduced from 2.83 to 1.9s

• Dire Wolf > Terrible Roar

  • Cast time reduced from 3.67 to 1.67

  • Dire Wolf should use this power a more often now

 

Armor Powerset Adjustments -
 

T9 Powers
 

• Quote

  Design Notes
  In this page we are attempting to tweak armor T9 powers to increase their desirability by giving them situational but still more regular availability, removing crashes and adding additional effects in some cases. At this time, most of these changes are exclusive to PvE.
  
  We did a discrete AB testing last page with the Power Surge and Tanker Overload changes and the shorter duration, no crash, lower cooldown versions were extremely popular.

  
  We are not attempting to homogenize these powers, we want them all to have quirks, but we are trying to keep them in a ballpark that makes them feel they are frequently available even on non-perma-hasten builds.  Durations we will be playing with will likely range between 15s-40s and downtime/impact will likely not be proportional to each other. The shorter the duration, the higher the impact the power should have.
  
  If you think some of the powers don't pack enough punch for the duration, please note so and suggestions on what additions you feel might make the powers more worth while in your opinion. Do keep in mind that not all feedback will necessarily be implemented but we will take as much as we can into consideration as we move forward.

 

Bio Armor

• Quote

  Design Notes
  In previous page betas we have attempted to tackle Bio Armor in various ways. Due in high part to it's high complexity, we always knew that we would not manage to get it right on the first try. With this pass, we are focusing on still lowering the set's high performance while being a bit more minimalist in the changes we implement. The performance change will still be significantly felt, but we hope to keep the set's feel much closer to the live version.

   

• Offensive Adaptation
  • Recharge reduced from 4s to 0.5s
  • Proc damage lowered, reduction depends on activated power's endurance cost.
  • Proc damage is now increased by damage buffs.
  • Now debuffs the caster with irresistible: -7.5%/-5.63% res (on Tanker/Scrapper), * -3.75%/-2.81% def
• Defensive Adaptation
  • Recharge reduced from 4s to 0.5s
  • Cast time reduced from 1s to 0.67s
• Efficient Adaptation
  • Recharge reduced from 4s to 0.5s
• Inexhaustible
  • -Recharge Resistance now only applies in Defensive Adaptation
  • End Drain Resistance now only applies in Efficient Adaptation
  • Movement Resistance now only applies in Offensive Adaptation
• Evolving Armor:
  • Now grants -Defense Resistance while in Defensive Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable.
  • Now grants -Regeneration Resistance while in Efficient Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable.
  • Now only applies -res in Offensive Adaptation
• Athletic Regulation (Sentinels)
  • Power now grants an additional +10% -Defense Resistance while in Defensive Adaptation
    • This power should grant approximately 30% total -def res at level 50 while in Defensive Adaptation
  • Power now grants 30% -Regeneration Resistance while in Efficient Adaptation
• Genetic Corruption (Stalkers)
  • Now grants -Defense Resistance while in Defensive Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable.
  • Now grants -Regeneration Resistance while in Efficient Adaptation, +5% stacking, +5% non stackable.
• Ablative Carapace
  • Absorb is now based off base HP instead of Max HP (scale unchanged)
• DNA Siphon:
  • Attack type changed from Lethal to Toxic
  • First (closest) target will apply the full effect; subsequent targets will yield 30% of its effects
  • While in Defensive Adaptation, the power will now only Heal and grant +End regardless of if the target is conscious or not
  • While in Efficient Adaptation, the power will now only grant +Regen and +Recovery regardless of if the target is conscious or not
  • This power now has Adaptive Recharge. It has a base recharge of 25 seconds, and each affected foe will increase the recharge by varying amounts to a maximum total of 90 seconds. First target adds 16.25 seconds, each additional target adds recharge proportionate to its buff strength
• Environmental Modification
  • This power now grants a 5 Max End buff while in Efficient Adaptation
• Environmental Adaptation > Environmental Modification (Sentinel Only Power)
  • Renamed to Environmental Modification
• Rebuild DNA (Sentinels)
  • Lowered the scale of the endurance recovered outside Efficient Adaptation
  • Efficient Adaptation: Increased bonus endurance
• Parasitic Aura/Parasitic Leech
  • Can now also be used while defeated.
  • Using this power while defeated will cost no endurance.
  • This power now recharges in 10 seconds if no targets are hit.
  • Area changed to 40ft PBAoE if used while defeated.
  • Used while conscious, this power now grants an auto self rez if the player dies within 45s of using it in it's conscious state.
  • Attack type changed from Lethal to Toxic.
  • Accuracy lowered from 1.5 to 1.0.
  • Duration of all effects reduced to 30 seconds
  • Recharge increased from 270s to 300s
  • Absorb is now based off base HP instead of Max HP
  • Base absorb increased from +10% to +25%
  • Base regen increased from +50% to +250%
  • Base recovery increased from +30% to +75%
  • Stance bonuses:
    • Defensive Adaptation bonus Absorb increased from +3.3% to 8.25%
    • Efficient Adaptation bonus Regeneration increased from scale 15% to scale 75%
    • Efficient Adaptation bonus Recovery increased from scale 15% to scale 22.5%
    • Offensive Adaptation now inflicts scale 0.1 damage every second over 14.25 seconds for a total of 1.5 scale damage on the first target hit.
    • Offensive Adaptation now inflicts scale 0.01 damage every second over 14.25 seconds for a total of 0.15 scale damage on subsequent targets hit.
    • First (closest) target will apply the full effect; subsequent targets will yield 10% of its effects

 
Dark Armor

 

• Quote

  Design Notes: 
  Late in last page development we increased the up-front heal in this power. During that change, we should had lowered the regen buff durations but failed at it. It was never the intention for a high recharge build to maintain max regen permanently on top of constant burst of healing at a very low endurance cost.

• Obscure Sustenance
  • No longer lists AoE/Negative types on its attack types
  • Now accepts endurancre modification enhancements and sets
  • Recharge increased from 60s to 180s
  • Regeneration and recovery buff scales and durations adjusted
    • 10s +175% regen remains unchanged
    • 20s +175% regen lowered to 136%
    • 60s +100% regen duration increased to 120s
    • 10s +60% recovery remains unchanged
    • 20s +38% recovery remains unchanged
    • 30s +10% recovery duration increased to 120s

• Dark Regeneration (sentinels)

  • Power now accepts accurate healing sets

Energy Aura

• Overload
  • Cast time reduced from 3s to 1.67s
  • (PvE Only, Non-Tankers) Duration reduced from to 180s to 30s
  • (PvE Only, Non-Tankers) Recharge reduced from 1000s to 300s
  • (PvE Only, Non-Tankers) Defense lowered from scale 6 to scale 2.5
  • (PvE Only, Non-Tankers) Psi/Toxic defense lowered from scale 4.5 to scale 2
  • (PvE Only, Non-Tankers) MaxHP buff decreased from +40% to +30%
  • (PvE Only, Non-Tankers) Crash eliminated (Tanker version is not affected by this change)
  • (PvP Tanker Only) Duration increased from 30s to 180s
  • (PvP Tanker Only) Recharge increased from 300s to 1000s
  • (PvP Tanker Only) Power now has an endurance crash after effect ends

 

Fiery Aura

• Quote

  Design Notes
  After it's last revamp, we still feel the set has some rough edges that can be improved. Although these changes are not likely to change min-max players minds about the set, we do think they will polish what was done in the last round. We are focusing these changes on Burn, Temp Protection and Phoenix Rising. We are looking at giving Burn a bit of a boost by increasing it's target cap and radius for the bulk of its damage. We are also extending its immob protection to also cover Knockback. Phoenix Rising can now be used as an emergency heal at any time for full strength, detached from current HP levels. Finally, Phoenix Rising will leave the player with increased hit points for a short period of time.

   

• Burn
  • Damage is now entirely applied via the damage patch
    • Pet will apply the one time up-front damage in a 15ft radius as well as the damage over time in a 8ft radius
  • Fiery Embrace effects now last the full duration of the patch
  • Increased Radius of up-front effect from 8ft to 15ft
  • Scale 0.44 damage only apply within 8ft
  • Scale 1 damage applies to the entire area
  • DoT radius remains at 8ft radius
  • Increased target cap of up-front effect from 5 to 10
  • Burn now grants the caster KB protection in addition to immob protection
• Temperature Protection
  • Now adds 50% knockback resistance
• Consume
  • [HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL]
  • 15% Max HP buff now requires a target, duration reduced from 120s to 45s
  • Power can now grant a small 1.5% Max Hp buff for each foe affected, up to a max of +15% max HP for 45s
  • Stacking set to refresh (a single foe hit will refresh all stacks)
  • Adaptive recharge has been implemented
  • 15 seconds recharge base, +4.5s per target hit, max of 60s recharge
• Phoenix Rising
  • Power now heals applies a flat heal and endurance recovery buff regardless of the caster health
  • Power now applies a 30% Max HP buff for 30 seconds regardless if used conscious or as a rez.
  • Health lockout has been removed
  • Damage delivery now applied via a pseudopet

 

Invulnerability

• Unstoppable
  • Cast time lowered from 3.1s to 1.67s
  • (PvE Only) Recharge lowered to 400s.
  • (PvE Only) Duration reduced from 120s to 40s.
  • (PvE Only) Now provides 25% -endurance, -recovery, -Def, -Recharge and -Speed resistance
  • (PvE Only) Endurance cost increased from 2.6 to 10.4
  • (PvE Only) Crash Eliminated

 

Ninjitsu

• Quote

  Design Notes

  With these changes we are looking to introduce some closer parity between the stalker version of the set and the Sentinel/Scrapper version of the set. We are seeking to still retain most the functionality of the Stalker version by merging Smoke Flash and Blinding Powder into a single power. This opens the room to bring Seishinteki Kyoyo from the Sentinel/Scrapper version to Stalkers.

   

  As we do this, we are also adjusting the recharge for Seishinteki Kyoyo. This power was originally made rather similar to powers like Power Sink, without any of the drawbacks of having an alerted foe in range or even an endurance cost. This is considered to be a bit too much for no cost other than recharge, we are looking to retain the functionality but changing it to be delivered over time.

• Blinding Powder [Sentinels]
  • Power now also applies a placate effect on targets (requires a tohit roll).
  • Recharge reduced from 120s to 60s
  • Endurance cost increased from 7.8 to 8.528
  • Arc increased from 40 degrees to 90.
  • Range increased from 25ft to 40ft.
  • Power now takes Taunt enhancements and sets.
  • Power now takes Sleep enhancements and sets.
  • Power now checks for Psionic defense in addition to AoE defense.
  • This effectively merges Smoke Flash and Blinding Powder into a single power.
• Blinding Powder [Stalkers/Scrapprers]
  • Renamed Smoke Flash.
  • Power now also applies a placate effect on targets (requires a tohit roll).
  • Endurance cost increased from 7.8 to 8.528
  • Changed from a foe targeted cone to a PBAoE with a 25ft radius.
  • Cast time increased from 1.07s to 1.83s
  • Animation and description changed to match the changes.
  • Power now takes Taunt enhancements and sets.
  • Power now takes Sleep enhancements and sets.
  • Power now checks for Psionic defense in addition to AoE defense.
  • This effectively merges Smoke Flash and Blinding Powder into a single power.
• Smoke Flash [Stalkers]
  • This power is being replaced with Bo Ryaku.
  • If you had this power in your build, it will be replaced with Bo Ryaku next time you log in.
  • All slotted enhancements and sets will still be in the power but you might want to change some of them.
• Seishinteki Kyoyo
  • Recharge increased from 60s to 90s.
  • +Endurance now delivered over 30s
  • Now grants +30% resistance to -End for 30s
• Shinobi-Iri [Sentinels]
  • Now grants a +30% chance for critical opportunity hit.
  • No longer grants a damage buff while stealthed.
• Bo Ryaku
  • This power is now available to Stalkers at level 24.
• Kuji-In Retsu
  • (PvE only) Endurance cost increased from 2.6 to 10.4.
  • (PvE only) Recharge reduced to 300s.
  • (PvE only) Duration reduced to 30s.
  • (PvE only) No longer crashes.
  • (PvE only) Defense buff lowered from scale 6 to scale 3.
  • Power now takes Heal enhancements and sets.
  • Using this power now recharges all Ninjitsu powers except Kuji-In Retsu
  • (PvE only) Now grants a 40% absorb buff for 30s.
  • (PvE only) Now grants mez protection for its duration.
  • (PvP only) Now grants a 20% absorb buff for 15s.
  • (PvP only) Now grants mez resistance for its duration.

 

Psionic Armor

• Psychokinetic Barrier
  • This power should now show a ring around the power showing if stacks need refreshing in the next 10 seconds
• Devour Psyche
  • This power should now show a ring around the power showing if stacks need refreshing in the next 10 seconds
  • Recovery debuff duration lowered from 45s to 10 seconds
  • Power now applies -20% recovery for 35s after the -100% expires
• Consume Psyche
  • This power should now show a ring around the power showing if stacks need refreshing in the next 10 seconds
  • -Recovery debuff duration lowered from 45s to 10 seconds
  • Power now applies -20% recovery for 35s after the -100% expires

 

Radiation Armor

• Radiation Therapy
  • Diminishing returns changed from a multiplicative -30% per target to a flat 30% strength value for all secondary targets.
  • Adjusted Adaptive recharge to:
    • 25s base
    • +9.5s for the first target
    • 2.8 for every additional target
    • A maximum of 60s recharge
• Meltdown
  • Recharge reduced from 480s to 300s
  • Duration reduced from 60s to 30s
  • Endurance cost increased from 2.6 to 10.4
  • Crash Removed

Shield Defense

• Shield Charge
  • Power is now a true Pseudopet (this should not affect how the power works outside inheriting the caster's caps)
  • This attack should now break hide.
• One With The Shield
  • (PvE Only) Recharge lowered to 160s
  • (PvE Only) Duration reduced from 120s to 40s
  • (PvE Only) Crash eliminated 
  • Now grants 25% Res(-end and -recovery)
  • Now grants +20% Absorb (enhanceable) for 40s
  • Now executes a PBAoE shield slam on activation doing minor AoE damage and knocking down some foes around you

 

Super Reflexes

• Quote

  Design Notes

  Years ago we ran our first experiment with mutually exclusive powers on Super Reflexes for Sentinel. At the time we attempted to tackle the desire many had to have a toggle version of Practice Brawler. The implementation changed how powers in the set worked depending what version players owned. Feedback we received over time (internally and from the community) was one of confusion. It was never clear for many that taking the power granted mez prot to others. With this change, we are aiming to make the alternate power (Master Brawler) grant the mez protection directly but as a toggle. This does mean the sentinel version will experience some changes, but it is more in line with our direction for mutually exclusive powers going forward.

   

• Practiced Brawler
  • This power now grants scale 2.5 absorb that is strongest the less HP and most end you currently have.
  • This power now takes heal enhancements and sets
• Master Brawler
  • Power is now a toggle
  • Powers that used to grant effects if this power was owned no longer do so, all effects moved directly into this toggle
  • No longer grants absorb nor takes healing enhancements or sets
  • Power is now available to Tankers, Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers as a mutually exclusive power from Practiced Brawler
• Elude
  • Cast time reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
  • Endurance cost increased from 2.6 to 10.4.
  • (PvE only) Recharge reduced to 300s.
  • (PvE only) Duration reduced to 30s.
  • (PvE only) No longer crashes.
  • (PvE only) Defense buff lowered from scale 6 to scale 3.
  • (PvE only) Recovery buff increased from +100% to 150%.
  • Power now takes Heal enhancements and sets.
  • (PvE only) Now grants a 150% regen buff.
  • (PvE only) Now grants mez protection for its duration.
  • (PvP only) Now grants mez resistance for its duration.
  • Should now accept Heal enhancements and sets

Willpower

• Resurgence
  • This power can now be activated while conscious
  • If used while conscious, the power will:
    • Heal you for 25% of your base HP
    • Apply a scale 0.5 Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative, Toxic and Psionic resist buff for 10 seconds (Does not stack with itself)
    • Apply a scale 0.5 Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative, Toxic and Psionic resist buff for 60 seconds (Does not stack with itself)
    • Recharge in 90s
    • You will gain an auto-self rez if you are defeated in the next 35 seconds.
  • If used after being defeated, the power will apply the current effects
    • Apply a +100% recharge buff for 90 seconds.
    • Apply a scale 1 Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative, Toxic and Psionic resist buff for 90 seconds (Does not stack with itself)
    • Recovery and +End effects are no longer enhanceable
    • No longer provides Damage or ToHit buffs
    • No longer give a damage buff or crash
  • This power no longer takes Endurance Modification enhancements or sets.
  • This power now takes Resist Damage enhancements and sets.
     
• Reconstruction (Stalkers)
  • This power has been replaced with Up to the Challenge, a regenerative toggle that does not require targets in range to grant it's regen buffs and currently available to Sentinels.
  • The healing is now moved to Resurgence.
  • Players that already owned Reconstruction will now have Resurgence in their builds instead
• Rise to the Challenge
  • This power now grants 7.5% resistance to -regeneration for the first target and 2.25% for each target for a maximum 30% resistance.
• Up to the Challenge
  • This power now grants 15% resistance to -regeneration.
• Strength of Will
  • Cast time reduced from 3.1s to 1.67s
  • (PvE Only) Duration lowered from 120s to 30s.
  • (PvE Only) Recharge reduced from 300s to 120s.
  • (PvE Only) Crash eliminated.
  • (PvE Only) Smash/Lethal resistance increased from scale 2.5  to 4.5
  • (PvE Only) Non Smash/Lethal resistance increased from scale 1.25  to 3.25
  • (PvE Only) Now grants Taunt Protection
  • Now grants 25% resistance to most debuffs for its duration.
  • Now grants a scale 4 damage buff for its duration.

 

Other Powerset Adjustments -

 

Dual Pistols

 

Swap Ammo now changes 100% of the set's damage to the element of the active ammo type. Note that attack type will always remain Lethal.

 

Please scrutinize powers as much as possible for any discrepancies. 

 

Storm Blast

• Quote

  Design Notes

  Storm Blast has a very unique playstyle, but is one that is not able to catch up in fast paced team environments. We would like to allow players to have a much easier time maintaining their Storm Cells as well as have wiggle room where they do not need to “feed” the Storm Cell and Category Five storm as much in order to keep up with combat more easily and do more than just brew their storm at all times.

   

• Storm Brewing
  • Now is a separate temporary power that can stack up to 5 times on the player, instead of being tied directly to the power used.
  • Each stack increases the odds of Lightning Procs from attacks by 1%
  • The High Winds proc is now tied to Storm Brewing and lasts 8 seconds at a time
• Intensify 
  • Now grants 5 Storm Brewing stacks
• Storm Cell
  • Is now immobile
  • Cast Time reduced from 2.03s to 1.17s
  • Recharge reduced from 60s to 15s
  • Radius increased from 25ft to 35ft
  • While High Winds is active, Storm Cell will cast Automatic Lightning in addition to the Lightning Procs granted by attacking with Storm Blast powers
• Storm Cell - Automatic Lightning
  • These procs are now an aura power granted to the Storm Cell as long as High Winds is active
  • Can proc every 1s on any target in a Storm Cell
  • After hitting a target, up to 2 additional nearby targets can be struck with a 15% chance of occurring for each
  • The main target cannot be hit again for 1-3s by the proc, but can be struck by chained procs of nearby targets
  • Each tick, there is a 15% chance of casting a Lightning Proc, and an even smaller chance to cast 3 Lightning Procs at once.
• Storm Cell - Lightning Procs
  • Target cap reduced to 1 from up to 4
  • Damage scale increased from 0.5 to 1.0
  • Proc rate per power changes:
    • Gust - 20%
    • Hailstones, Jet Stream - 30%
    • Direct Strike (Fast), Chain Lightning - 40%
    • Cloudburst - 50%
    • Direct Strike (Slow) - 80%
  • Can only occur every 2 seconds from the same caster, no longer locked out on the target for multiple casters
  • These Lightning Procs can stack with Automatic Lightning
• Storm Cell - Lightning Lockout
  • Damage and Endurance Drain are no longer subject to any sort of Lockout
  • All versions of Lightning now have a 33% chance to either inflict Knockdown or a brief mag 3 Stun
  • If either effect is procced, the target is immune from other strikes inflicting these effects for 5 seconds
• Category Five
  • Duration shortened from 30s to 20s
    • Sentinel duration shortened from 20s to 15s
  • Radius of DoT, Lightning, and StormCell check increased from 30ft to 50ft
    • Sentinel radius increased from 30ft to 40ft
  • DoT rate reduced from 5 times per second to 3 times per second
  • Category Five Eye
    • Delay reduced from 3s to 2s for summoning the Cyclone
    • Duration shortened from 25s to 17s
      • Sentinel duration shortened from 15s to 10s
    • Radius reduced from 30ft to 25ft (damage scale unchanged)
    • Sentinel Radius reduced from 25ft to 20ft (damage scale unchanged)
    • DoT rate increased from 2 times per second to 3 times per second
  • Category Five lightning
    • Now automatically strikes every 0.67 seconds, and has a 25% chance to trigger on up to 5 targets
    • Damage reduced from Scale 1.0 to Scale 0.5
    • Shares the lightning lockout properties with Storm Cell lightning for secondary mez effects
    • Damage and Endurance Drain are not subject to Lockout
• Chain Lightning
  • This power no longer deals additional DoT.
  • It is also now an auto-hit for applying it’s chain across enemies.
  • The power still needs to pass a ToHit check in order to actually hit enemies, but it is no longer subject to critical failure.
• Cloudburst
  • Now accepts Slow and ToHit debuff enhancement

 

Marine Affinity

• White Cap
  • Changed to location power due to extremely unreliable teleport mechanics
  • Recharge lowered from 30s to 15s
  • Endurance cost reduced from 18 to 14.352
  • Cast time reduced from 2s to 1.5s
• Brine
  • Cast time reduced from 2s to 1.33s
• Shoal Rush
  • Cast time lowered from 2.17s to 1.33s
• Soothing Wave
  • -Dam debuff lowered from scale 1.2 to 0.75, is now resistable
• Tide Pool
  • -Dam Debuff lowered from scale 2.4 to 1.5, is now resistable
• Tide Pool Frenzy
  • -Dam Debuff lowered from scale 1.2 to 0.75, is now resistable
  • NOTE: These changes allow -Resistance to increase the -Damage debuff. With the native -Res powers, this will match the previous values on a single target, and can grow even more as more -Res is added
• Tide Pool Frenzy
  • Individual targets can only be knocked down once every 4 seconds
  • NOTE: While infrequent, this prevents multiple knocks at the same time or keeping an enemy pinned for too long. 4 seconds is roughly the time it takes for them to stand up once knocked.
• Shifting Tides
  • Can now only trigger damage 4 times per second on the same enemy
  • NOTE: This sets a speed limit on how often a single enemy can be damaged to prevent too many sources stacking at once

 

Pyrotechnic Control

• Glittering Column
  • Explosion component is now an auto power
• Hypnotizing Lights
  • Damage/Confuse procs should now only trigger of the confuse/damage sub-power

 

Dark Miasma

• Black Hole
  • Due to potential harassment against some enemy groups, now only the main target of the power will be Phased, should it be immune to repel effects.
  • Radius increased from 20ft to 30ft

 

Epic - Dark Mastery

• Black Hole
  • Due to potential harassment against some enemy groups, now only the main target of the power will be Phased, should it be immune to repel effects.
  • Radius increased from 10ft to 20ft

[Steampunkette]

Please please please reconsider cutting Unleashed Might. I was looking forward to it -so hard-...

[BuildsAllTheThings]

Feedback  on the ninjutsu changes:


This. Generally just doesn't feel good to play for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which, coming down to the fact that Ninjutsu between scrappers and stalkers shouldn't be adjusted to be of "equal parity". Because the AT's are different, and serve fundamentally different roles. Even if the power sets are similar, ninjutsu for stalkers v. scrappers is still a vastly different conversation.

 

• Scrappers cannot, and will not ever be able to take proper advantage of a placate or over the previously much mroe usable and more importantly FORWARD FACING cone, of blinding powder and it's confuse elements.
  • Why can't scrappers take advantage of this? Because, they don't have reset on stealth, or guaranteed crits coming out of stealth. And even if they did, it wouldn't be broadly applicable anyway, because it's generally speaking a toss up on whether or not scrappers have crits even enabled on their aoe attacks. Which, let's be clear. AOE crowds was the previous use case function of blinding powder.
  • Making it a pbaoe with its limited range, both reduces the amount of effectiveness it has, and doesn't even necessarily work in crowds to begin with. Scrapper stealth strength on their hide is significantly lower for one, and the power doesn't reach far enough to handle crowds, should you happen to be in the middle of one. So you can't even really effectively reset and escape anyway.
• This is a defense set. If you need to hit smoke bomb as  an aoe defensive tool, it's probably because you got tagged and need to disengage, or buy enemy disruption in order to lower overall dps coming your way. This power cannot do this for scrappers. Blinding powder can! But this is because it's an cone -to hit and CONFUSE, with decent spread range, in the angles scrappers are likely to actually be engaging in. This means they can cast it and either hew down the enemies attacking them, or go and tackle stragglers/ranged opponents while melee creatures are busy. Smoke bomb's cast time prevents this.
• The Seishinteki Kyoyo changes generally feel pretty awful? They don't naturally or organically fit into the a play style, and is something you just kind of have to keep up. At that point it may as well be a toggle. But it doesn't even particularly feel good when it's going on, for its up time, because it still has an endurance cost AND it's 90 seconds. 
  • This change also reduces  the usability of Kuji-In Retsu. This power was DESIGNED with Seishinteki in mind. A skilled player is supposed to be able to mitigate the crash with good timing and use of this power. You cannot do this anymore with this change. You can hypothetically tank this with Ageless at level 50, but this does remove a power from the hands of lower leveled characters that previously had access to it, and over all still feels like a punishment for wanting to engage with the risk and skill necessary to use this power.  AND! It comes at the expense of game feel on the offensive end as well. Its higher recharge ceiling  is to the detriment of the set and its costs.
• Shinobi-iri is STILL kind of just mule fodder for the set? It's a nice one time bonus. But scrappers don't really get to take excessive advantage of it?

 

All this, for parity's sake between two entirely different AT's.

Yes, stalkers and scrappers both share the mechanic of having critical attacks. But scrappers are still. Scrappers. They're still expected to be able to go in and handle a mob by themself at lower difficulties. (+4/x8 and below). Stalkers do not have to have this design consideration, and often have so many tools at their disposal in their offensive kits to enable to their gameplay that scrappers simply do not.

If we want to enable or engage with other forms of balancing or carve out distinctive niches, that's something to discuss! But right now, this is trying to force Scrapper Ninjutsu into a box it was never meant for, because it shares a last name with its Stalker sibling, and it is at every expense of the set's gameplay feel and viability.

 

 

Apologies, if this seems or sounds overly harsh. I swear it's not trying to be! I've just been thinking about the set for a few weeks trying to put together my thoughts on the iterations.😅

[Voltor]

Please restore Unleashed Might I was looking forward to dumping Rage from my SS toons

[Dandropo]

I can't understand. A nice patch that could have been further improved and implemented, completely erased with the powers reverted to their initial state. Now only farmers and hardcore task force players remain in this game. The community is dwindling month after month, and it's probably a consequence of the choices made regarding new features and things to balance. Amen.

[Faultline]

54 minutes ago, Dandropo said:

I can't understand. A nice patch that could have been further improved and implemented, completely erased with the powers reverted to their initial state.

 

We regularly get complaints that people in Closed Beta "decide everything" and the changes are presented to Open Beta as a done deal, with no community input. There have been persistent calls for all development to be done in the open. With Page 3 being done right before the holidays, and the dev team supposed to be on December break (really guys, you can stop pushing commits already) this presented the opportunity to push all the changes currently in the works to Open Beta, regardless of level of polish, to get the larger community involved, gather feedback, and decide what features could be fast-tracked before Page 4.

 

There was no scenario where all the changes in the December patch were going to stay. I treated it just like any other Experimental patch; any of the changes could be heavily modified or taken out at any time. But this was not communicated properly to the players, who expected this to be any regular Open Beta patch where things are set in stone. This was a major failure of communication which is entirely my fault.

 

The good news is that the features that didn't get yanked out are most likely going to hit Live much, much earlier than they otherwise would have. The bad news is that a lot of players are taking the reversions personally or blaming other players for it, which is not acceptable.

 

Still getting early feedback was very valuable, and we might try this again, but only with changes that are less likely to be reverted. I strongly advise people who like to try things early and provide feedback while understanding that nothing is final to apply to Closed Beta and provide feedback there.

[Bionic_Flea]

But Faultline, what if I don't want to blame you and want to blame others and call them mean stupid-heads?

 

Also, where the hell is Jimmy.  Blaming him was even better.

Edited 7 hours ago by Bionic_Flea

[Shin Magmus]

   Stalkers having the option to take Lightning Clap at all is a huge W in a sea of L's.  It's a bit rough how they got it, but I think I can sufficiently compensate for the loss of Thunder Strike by taking an additional pool or epic AoE that I otherwise wouldn't.  Stalkers can now use a "lightning fast" single target attack chain incorporating Fast AS, Lightning Clap (or Thunder Strike if you prefer), Zapp, and Chain Induction (it's an AoE but it's still good in the ST chain).  This will be fun, and fun is good.  "Always seek to make the game more fun first and foremost" - wise words someone once said.

Edited 7 hours ago by Shin Magmus

[legendaryjman]

1 hour ago, Dandropo said:

I can't understand. A nice patch that could have been further improved and implemented, completely erased with the powers reverted to their initial state. Now only farmers and hardcore task force players remain in this game. The community is dwindling month after month, and it's probably a consequence of the choices made regarding new features and things to balance. Amen.

 

I am sad that this type of doom and gloom followed this game from live. The playerbase is not dwindling. People are playing the game just fine. 

[Shin Magmus]

9 minutes ago, legendaryjman said:

 

I am sad that this type of doom and gloom followed this game from live. The playerbase is not dwindling. People are playing the game just fine. 

   You can see the player counts and live player graphs on the HC Discord, it is indeed dwindling.  It has upwards spikes after a new update but it falls off harder and faster each time.  Public data.

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

18 minutes ago, Shin Magmus said:

You can see the player counts and live player graphs on the HC Discord, it is indeed dwindling.  It has upwards spikes after a new update but it falls off harder and faster each time.  Public data.

 

@macskull Made a thing and he has it on his forum signature.  It seems pretty consistent to me, except for that HUGE spike in the middle, which I believe coincides with the licensure announcement.

[Wravis]

1 hour ago, Faultline said:

 

We regularly get complaints that people in Closed Beta "decide everything" and the changes are presented to Open Beta as a done deal, with no community input. There have been persistent calls for all development to be done in the open. With Page 3 being done right before the holidays, and the dev team supposed to be on December break (really guys, you can stop pushing commits already) this presented the opportunity to push all the changes currently in the works to Open Beta, regardless of level of polish, to get the larger community involved, gather feedback, and decide what features could be fast-tracked before Page 4.

 

There was no scenario where all the changes in the December patch were going to stay. I treated it just like any other Experimental patch; any of the changes could be heavily modified or taken out at any time. But this was not communicated properly to the players, who expected this to be any regular Open Beta patch where things are set in stone. This was a major failure of communication which is entirely my fault.

 

The good news is that the features that didn't get yanked out are most likely going to hit Live much, much earlier than they otherwise would have. The bad news is that a lot of players are taking the reversions personally or blaming other players for it, which is not acceptable.

 

Still getting early feedback was very valuable, and we might try this again, but only with changes that are less likely to be reverted. I strongly advise people who like to try things early and provide feedback while understanding that nothing is final to apply to Closed Beta and provide feedback there.

I honestly appreciated this approach, even if the communication wasn't executed well. It's understandable, because of the holiday. 

 

I think a more open feedback phase is better.

 

Hopefully the changes aren't gone for good.

 

I do think this does show a pretty big disconnect the homecoming team has with regards to telling the truth when making unpopular decisions. 

 

Sonic Melee was fast tracked and rushed out while still in an unpopular state, with the reasoning being that development was going to stop for the holidays, and the team wanted it released so people could test it on live. 

 

Development hasn't slowed down whatsoever. Testing has continued on test servers.

 

Now you're saying this past open beta patch was meant to utilize the non-existent development break as a time for players to test things. But on the test server...

 

In my opinion, you need to pick one. Release changes to live, so players can test, or put it on open beta, so players can test. One of those is a test server. I think it's pretty clear which on should be used for testing.

[SenTheFortress]

Quote

We regularly get complaints that people in Closed Beta "decide everything" and the changes are presented to Open Beta as a done deal, with no community input. There have been persistent calls for all development to be done in the open. With Page 3 being done right before the holidays, and the dev team supposed to be on December break (really guys, you can stop pushing commits already) this presented the opportunity to push all the changes currently in the works to Open Beta, regardless of level of polish, to get the larger community involved, gather feedback, and decide what features could be fast-tracked before Page 4.

 

There was no scenario where all the changes in the December patch were going to stay. I treated it just like any other Experimental patch; any of the changes could be heavily modified or taken out at any time. But this was not communicated properly to the players, who expected this to be any regular Open Beta patch where things are set in stone. This was a major failure of communication which is entirely my fault.

 

The good news is that the features that didn't get yanked out are most likely going to hit Live much, much earlier than they otherwise would have. The bad news is that a lot of players are taking the reversions personally or blaming other players for it, which is not acceptable.

 

Still getting early feedback was very valuable, and we might try this again, but only with changes that are less likely to be reverted. I strongly advise people who like to try things early and provide feedback while understanding that nothing is final to apply to Closed Beta and provide feedback there.

 

This is a good approach, provided it is communicated better in the future, Although many are unhappy with some of the changes being yanked, there are a few things that I am glad are being pulled (Super Reflexes Changes w/ Master Brawler for example, which for all purposes made SR kinda /worse/ for Sentinels and was sort of pointless for other armored ATs unless you want to pay END for another toggle in a Armor Set with no END recovery.)

 

I'm glad the developers WILL listen to us about problems with changes before implementing them.) This is coming form someone who has only been in the game for about 8 months. Though I see it wasn't handled the best this go around, It makes me optimistic about patches in the future at least. 

[Faultline]

47 minutes ago, Wravis said:

Development hasn't slowed down whatsoever. Testing has continued on test servers.

 

Like I said, we are supposed to be on break. I wasn't even planning to push another patch out until January. We have some developers who are workaholics and don't know when to stop.

[legendaryjman]

1 hour ago, Shin Magmus said:

   You can see the player counts and live player graphs on the HC Discord, it is indeed dwindling.  It has upwards spikes after a new update but it falls off harder and faster each time.  Public data.

 

Even if the playerbase was lowering, which I still disbelieve, what does it matter? We are not in any kind of worry of the game closing down, the servers are paid for within seconds of the donations being opened up. The game could be one person running AE missions by themselves and as long that person pays for the servers everything is fine. Doom posting is not helpful for anyone.

 

Instead, why don't we focus on actual constructive feedback. I will go first.

 

I liked the idea of the Super Strength changes. As someone who primarily played and Invuln/SS tanker on live I can confidently say that SS is donk. What they had going sounded really really good. The only question I feel they should consider is why should someone take Rage. It gives a damage and to hit buff, but has the crash at the end. Unleashed Might sounds so good. Gives increased damage, to hit, and extra utility to all of the SS powers. There is no downside. If you ever wanted to use normal hand clap you just untoggle Unleashed Might, hand clap, and toggle it back on. If there are going to be mutually exclusive powers there has to be situations to take one or the other and Unleashed Might is so good Rage is obsolete.

 

I did not like the Tier 9 changes. I feel making something like Unstoppable only last for 30 seconds defeats the purpose of the power and am glad they are not going forward with them. 

[Mezmera]

2 hours ago, Faultline said:

There was no scenario where all the changes in the December patch were going to stay. I treated it just like any other Experimental patch; any of the changes could be heavily modified or taken out at any time. But this was not communicated properly to the players, who expected this to be any regular Open Beta patch where things are set in stone. This was a major failure of communication which is entirely my fault.

 

I do like that the experimental is being pushed faster to open beta and you're right the idea behind fast-tracking it to open should be communicated only because the assumption players have is that when something hits open beta the changes are in the polished form and likely to have a lot of it implemented.  Generally I do like this approach most as you're getting a much larger pool of players to draw from to test out the design intent of changes, maybe not as much the technical bug hunting that may get most of it rooted out in closed beta.  You can still have the idea implementation in an experimental patch in closed to get a feel for a quick consensus of the idea and first bugs then get it to open where you can better gauge the idea by a lot of the good and bad reactions, the recent Plant and Tanker changes showed the larger contingency of players not in closed beta have a lot to say.  

[lemming]

Thanks Faultline for the explanation.   Communication is much harder than programming (at least in my experience)

[Wravis]

1 hour ago, Faultline said:

 

Like I said, we are supposed to be on break. I wasn't even planning to push another patch out until January. We have some developers who are workaholics and don't know when to stop.

That's fair. Not everyone likes the holidays, or celebrates the same way, or at all.

 

It does feel like communication could be better, both within the  homecoming team and with players, but that's true for everyone and everything. And your posts make it clear it's being worked on.

 

It's appreciated.

 

 

[Psyonico]

I'm sad to see the Unleashed Might changes removed.  Can we just have Rage as it is now and add Unleashed Might as well?  I think the Rage ragers' biggest complaint was the -resistance.  If rage stays as it is now, people who like double stacking still have things exactly the way they like it while those of us who hate the rage crash have an alternative choice.

 

I know that there will still be people complaining about Unleashed Might making rage less useful, but that's just a perception thing and those are people who are going to complain about *any* change.

[macskull]

What is the point of the Burn change? The upfront damage is currently bugged and is doing about half the damage it should be, but otherwise the only thing this changes about Burn is reducing proc rates by about 2/3 compared to the previous version. I was actually looking forward to dusting off a few of my FA characters because the changes to Burn were actually going to be pretty good, but if this new change goes through they're going to be staying on the shelf. And no, to those reading along at home, I'm not complaining about this because "muh procs!" I'm aware the previous beta implementation of Burn had a negative effect on proc rates because of the radius increase but the change in the target cap made up for that. This new change only makes the power worse again.

Edited 2 hours ago by macskull

[Lazarillo]

18 minutes ago, macskull said:

the only thing this changes about Burn is reducing proc rates

 

19 minutes ago, macskull said:

I'm not complaining about this because "muh procs!"

Very, very convincing. 

[Zahnee]

Here we go with the antiproccers who live in another reality

[Lazarillo]

Just now, Zahnee said:

Here we go with the antiproccers who live in another reality

Tears of the git gud-ers are of great joy to me, yes.

Luckily for them, we all know the devs cave to their whining.

[macskull]

2 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

Very, very convincing. 

It becomes a lot more convincing if you read the sentence immediately following the second sentence you quoted, but that's not nearly as convenient for your argument, is it?

[Lazarillo]

The sentence where you start talking about what you weren't complaining about?  Yeah.  Definitely.  Don't worry, as noted, devs will cave to your whining, like always.