Issue #5 - Feature Update

[Signe]

New Power Sets

In Issue 5 “Forest of Dread” the long awaited Archery Powers arrive for your Blasters, Defenders, and Controllers. From snap shots to a rain of arrows, the Archery set adds another weapon in your battle against villainy. For Defenders and Controllers, there’s Trick Arrows to daze, entangle and confuse your enemies. In addition to Archery Powers, Issue 5 also brings Sonic Blast for Blasters and Defenders and Sonic Resonance for Defenders and Controllers. Here you use your voice to reach out and “touch” your foes with damaging or, in the case of Sonic Resonance, debilitating force.

Archery Powers

Archery

Archery is a Ranged Blast set. It is shared by Blasters (Primary) and Defenders (Secondary). Its inherent secondary effect is an Accuracy Bonus.

    * Snap Shot – A quick attack that fires an arrow at your foe after only minimal aiming. Fast, but little damage. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Fast
    * Aimed Shot – Though it takes longer to execute, your Aimed Shot deals greater damage than the Snap Shot. Damage: High, Recharge: Moderate
    * Fistful of Arrows – You fire a fistful of arrows at foes in a cone in front of you. Good at close range. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate
    * Flaming Arrow – You fire a Blazing Arrow at your foe, dealing some Lethal damage and causing him to catch on fire and burn. Slightly less accurate than other Archery attacks. Damage: Superior, Recharge: Slow
    * Aim – Greatly increases the Accuracy of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage. Recharge: Long
    * Exploding Arrow – You fire a grenade-tipped arrow at long range. This explosion affects all within the blast radius, and can knock them back. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow
    * Ranged Shot – A long range shot that blasts your foes. Like most sniper attacks, this power has a bonus to Accuracy, but is best fired from a distance as it can be interrupted. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Slow
    * Stunning Shot – You fire a blunt, weighted arrow at your target's chest. The Stunning Shot has a good chance of stunning your foe. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Slow
    * Rain of Arrows – You unleash a Rain of Arrows on a targeted location, damaging foes within a large area. Damage: Extreme (DoT), Recharge: Long

Trick Arrow

Trick Arrows is a Buff/Debuff set for Defenders (Primary) and Controllers (Secondary).

    * Entangling Arrow – Upon impact, the Entangling Arrow releases a strong net that can Immobilize most targets. This non-lethal device deals no damage and does not prevent targets from attacking. The Entangling Arrow can bring down flying entities and halts jumping. Recharge: Fast
    * Flash Arrow – This arrow explodes in a dazzling flash of light and sound. The targets are so blinded that they can hardly see a thing. Most villains will not be able to see past normal melee range, although some may have better perception. If the villains are attacked, they will be alerted to your presence, but will suffer a penalty to Accuracy. Recharge: Slow
    * Glue Arrow – This arrow carries a cartridge of intensely sticky glue, which explodes on impact. The glue Slows the movement and attack rates of any foes in the area. Damage: Recharge: Slow
    * Ice Arrow – This arrow can freeze a single foe in a block of ice. The target is frozen solid, helpless, and can be attacked. More powerful foes may not be Held, but all affected targets will be Slowed. Recharge: Moderate
    * Poison Gas Arrow – This arrow carries a capsule cloud of poisonous gas, which explodes on impact and weakens all foes in its vicinity. Affected foes damage potential will be severely reduced. Some foes will be react badly to the poison and choke for a time. Recharge: Slow
    * Acid Arrow – This arrow explodes in a shower of acid on impact. This acid eats through armor, causing damage over time. It reduces the target's Defense as well as his Damage Resistance. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Slow
    * Disruption Arrow – This arrow plants a sonic resonator at a target location. The vibrations of the resonator weaken the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes. Recharge: Long
    * Oil Slick Arrow – On impact, this arrow creates an oil slick that Slows foes in the area and many cause them to slip and fall. The oil slick is very flammable and may burst into flames if fire is used near it. Recharge: Long
    * EM Pulse Arrow – This arrow can unleash a massive pulse of electromagnetic energy on impact. This EMP can affect machines, and is even powerful enough to affect synaptic brain patterns. It will incapacitate all foes in its radius. Additionally, most machines and robots will take moderate high damage. However, this power uses a lot of Endurance and leaves you unable to recover Endurance for a while. Recharge: Very Long.

Sonic Powers

Sonic Blast

Sonic Blast is a Ranged Blast set. It is shared by Blasters (Primary) and Defenders (Secondary). Its inherent secondary effect is to debuff a target’s Damage Resistance. Sonic powers are mostly vocal, and most come from the mouth.

    * Shriek – You let forth a quick Shriek, damaging your target and weakening his Damage Resistance. Damage: Minor Recharge: Fast
    * Scream – Your Scream can cause serious damage to a target, while weakening his resistance to further damage. Damage: Moderate(DoT), Recharge: Slow
    * Howl – A short range, but powerful sonic attack. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow
    * Shockwave – You can call forth a tremendous Shockwave that can knock down foes and deal some Smashing damage in a wide cone area. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Moderate
    * Shout – You blast your foe with a tremendous Shout, damaging him and reducing his Damage Resistance. Damage: High, Recharge: Moderate
    * Amplify – Greatly increases the Accuracy of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage. Recharge: Long.
    * Sirens Song – You send forth a subsonic pulse which causes your foes to fall unconscious and take some damage. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Long
    * Screech – By bursting forth with this hypersonic Screech, you can disorient a target. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Slow
    * Dreadful Wail – Your Dreadful Wail is so strong that most foes will be defeated by being subjected to it. Dreadful Wail deals massive damage to all nearby foes, although the damage does vary. Activating this power leaves you drained of Endurance, and unable to recover Endurance for a while. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Very Long

Sonic Resonance

Sonic Resonance is a Buff/Debuff set. It is shared by Defenders (Primary) and Controllers (Secondary).

    * Sonic Siphon –By setting up a constant vibration within the body of your foe, you weaken his Damage Resistance. Affected targets will take more damage from successful attacks. Recharge: Slow
    * Sonic Barrier – This shield dramatically reduces the damage an ally takes from Smashing, Lethal, and Toxic attacks for a limited time. Multiple shields from the same hero cannot be stacked; however, the Sonic Barrier can be improved when another hero uses the same power. Can also be used in conjunction with your Sonic Haven. You cannot use this power on yourself. Recharge: Very Fast
    * Sonic Haven – This shield dramatically reduces the damage an ally takes from Fire, Cold, Energy, and Negative Energy attacks for a limited time. Multiple shields from the same hero cannot be stacked; however, the Sonic Haven can be improved when another hero uses the same power. Can also be used in conjunction with your Sonic Barrier. You cannot use this power on yourself. Recharge: Very Fast
    * Sonic Cage – Encases the target in an impenetrable field of sonic waves. The target cannot attack or be attacked. Recharge: Moderate
    * Disruption Field – You set up a constant wave of sonic energy around an ally, weakening the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes. Recharge: Moderate
    * Clarity – By bouncing a carefully pitched sound wave off an ally's ear drum, you can free him from any Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Confusion, Terrorize, or Immobilize effects, and leave him resistant to such effects for a good while. Protection will improve with multiple applications and as you advance in level. Clarity also provides your ally enhanced perception. Recharge: Fast
    * Sonic Repulsion – You create a powerful sonic resonance around an ally, repelling all foes nearby. You will lose Endurance for each target repelled. Recharge: Moderate
    * Sonic Dispersion – You create a large field of sonic waves, protecting all allies inside. The Sonic Dispersion gives all allies within increased Resistance against all damage except Psionic. The Sonic Bubble also protects allies from Immobilization, Disorient, and Hold effects. Recharge: Slow
    * Liquefy – You unleash a barrage of sonic waves on the Earth itself, generating a powerful, localized earthquake. Most foes that pass through the location will fall down. The violent shaking also reduces their Accuracy and Defense. Recharge: Slow

[schild]

Does that mean it's in?

[Llava]

Still just on test.  Not sure why they put that on the site.  For people too lazy to go to test and look for themselves, I guess.

[Signe]

I thought they always put feature updates on the website.  It's a feature.

[Alkiera]

Yeah, those 4 powersets have always been planned for i5.  They just put up the page for them in the 'features' section for i5 on the website, tho.

Alkiera

[kaid]

I think it is just the pre release feature as normal but it also has the more up to date listing of what powers are in each of the new pools. There were some pretty big changes and switchs in trick arrow and a few in sonic resonance.


kaid

[Signe]

I've been playing on test since I5 arrived and thought I'd share a wee bit.  I'm enjoying the new powersets, although I think archery really needs some tweaking.  The nerf to sonics was not all that significant and I barely notice the difference.  Of course, I've only leveled any new char to around level 10, so I may notice later. 

I like the new missions I've seen so far.  I didn't realise that when you receive a mission that states, "don't let <mob name> escape" , they really do try and escape.  I was surprised when my prey found the elevators and I failed the mission.  I've had a couple of missions that involve finding a particular NPC.  It's kind of cool that when you do find them, they assist you with the rest of the mission. 

There still needs tol be more variety in the types of missions... especially since that's about all there is in CoH.  They need to be constantly adding new costume bits, perhaps some that you'll need to do missions for like with the capes, new tilesets and areas.  CoV will help to add a bit more oomph to the game, I think.  Building an SG HQ and PvP-centric areas will give us a bit more to do.

[Llava]

Oh, by the way, there are rumors of an unlockable witch's hat with this issue.  I don't know if they're true or not, haven't seen screenshots, but Positron has definitely done his fair share of hinting towards it.

[schild]

Unlockable clothing and apartments should have been in since Issue 1 release. It seems like I repeat that ever few months.

[Signe]

I also noticed that they have a notation for stores on the map in test, now.  I use this:  http://www.vidiotmaps.com/coh/index.php?page=download and it's helped a lot.  It's an .exe and I think that CoH has recently began discouraging it's use... I'm not sure and I don't have a link.  It's just something someone told me in the game.  I love it though... it not only directs me to the proper stores, but also gives me an idea of what sorts of levels the mobs are in different areas.  The ingame map now just has an "S" for Store.  For some reason, I can't get the vidiot ingame map to work on the test server. 

I think I'll accidentally get drunk now.

[Llava]

From what I've heard, they don't actively discourage its use, but they do officially say that using programs to alter the game is against the ToS etc.

At a guess, they probably don't care if you use it or not, they just can't say that because of legal reasons.

[Signe]

I5 will probably go live in a couple of days.  Brace yourselves.

[stray]

Soloability for controllers finally gets a little love. I'm gonna move to Freedom and mess with a controller there. I've got a Grav/Kin on Triumph, but it sounds like Grav/Rad will be the best choice for how I've always wanted to play. If anyone's rerolling (especially those of you considering Arrows or Sonic), Freedom may be a better choice than Victory, I think (Bigger pops).

Oh, by the way, there are rumors of an unlockable witch's hat with this issue.  I don't know if they're true or not, haven't seen screenshots, but Positron has definitely done his fair share of hinting towards it.

They need put in pirate hats. I know there isn't much demand for matador hats, but a pirate hat would work.

[Llava]

They need put in pirate hats. I know there isn't much demand for matador hats, but a pirate hat would work.

"I hear MaddoxWannabe took on both the Skulls and Hellions at once!"

I fear that.

But otherwise I agree, I would like more piratey stuff.  Would be nice if we could carry decorative weapons, like a sword on the belt or strapped to the back.  Even though you couldn't use them, would be nice decorations to have.

[MrHat]

Pirate hat my break me.

[Jimbo]

My scrapper is called Sea Dawg Sam , actually did up a little info on him about being a rough and tough sailor who found a cave with a ton of ol' bucanners and how he learned from them.  I'm using the skull cap since they didn't have hats that fit my style.

[Jain Zar]

I had a character in beta named Arrshikaga, the Ninja Pirate Zombie. 
He soooo needed a pirate hat.  And a peg leg.

[ClydeJr]

Oh, by the way, there are rumors of an unlockable witch's hat with this issue.  I don't know if they're true or not, haven't seen screenshots, but Positron has definitely done his fair share of hinting towards it.

The witch's hat is unlockable during the new Croatoa TF. Supposedly you get ambushed by an AV 10 times and after the tenth, the hat is unlocked. Don't quote me on that though. My info is from here.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/Jonbo298/screenshot_2005-08-13-12-59-15.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/Jonbo298/screenshot_2005-08-13-13-01-43.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/Jonbo298/screenshot_2005-08-13-13-01-48.jpg
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/9421/hat8jb.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a295/Devir92/screenshot_2005-08-14-16-14-39.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/forcesinbalance/NaramieWithAmy.jpg

[stray]

Geez, all that for a witch hat?

On second thought, I don't want pirate hats in this game. Ever.

[Llava]

Geez, all that for a witch hat?

It's not so much.  You do a TF, the hat unlocks.  The TF is just 10 missions long, and each one has the AV ambushing you.

[Glazius]

Geez, all that for a witch hat?

It's not so much.  You do a TF, the hat unlocks.  The TF is just 10 missions long, and each one has the AV ambushing you.

No, actually, the TF's only about 4 missions long, but you only have to do it twice, because in the first mission the AV tries to kick your ass seven times before she's satisfied.

--GF

It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't a giant SapperStorm/Electric with plenty of end drains.

[AOFanboi]

More unlockables? This isn't a PC game, it's a glorified console title!

[Furiously]

Clothing as a mission reward is awesome in COH.

[Shockeye]

Clothing as a mission reward is awesome in COH.

A mission? Don't you mean 4-7 missions?

[Furiously]

Nah - I might be odd - but I play to get the storyline missions and badges. I'm horribly obsessive compulsive that way.

[Signe]

Testing Update:

Now Testing in the Training Room - 8/19/05

Powers

Dark Armor: Slightly reduced end cost of Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud and Obsidian Shield.

Banished Pantheon Summoned Husks no longer give experience when defeated. The Death Shaman has been given a slight increase in experience reward to offset this somewhat.

Pool/Medicine/Aid Self: now also grants you some resistance to Disorient.

Pool/Fitness/Health: now also grants you some resistance to Sleep.

Pool/Fighting/Weave: now also grants you some resistance to Immobilize.

Pool/Leadership/Assault: now also grants some resistance to Taunt (mostly for PvP).

Pool/Leadership/Vengeance: now also grants high resistance to Sleep, Hold, Disorient, Immobilize, Confuse, Taunt and Knockback.

All Taunts (pool, tanker and scrapper) will now only be effective 50% of the time when used in PvP (not an accuracy decrease, so it cannot be modified with enhancements).

Pool/Phase Shift: Although still a Toggle power, Phase Shift will desctivate if you leave it on for more than 30 seconds. Increased its Recharge Time.

Ice Armor/Hibernate will no longer disable your toggle powers when you activate it. You cannot, however, activate new powers once Hibernate is on, and any of your powers will still not affect anyone else. Hibernate will now also give you an Endurance Recovery boost.

Fixed some short help for some archery and sonic powers.

Fixed Sonic Resonance/Disruption Field combat text spam. Disruption Field now auto hits foes.

Fixed Typo in Peacebringer Cosmic Balance.

Fixed Earth Control/Fossilize will no longer do double damage to an uncontrolled target. It will still do double damage to a controller target.

Powers and Inspirations that resurrect will now leave the target protected from XP Debt (duration dependent upon the power).

All archetypes will now be able to reach their Max Defense sooner (was level 40, now level 20). Tankers now have a higher Defense cap than Scrappers and Kheldians. Scrappers and Kheldians have a higher Defense cap than all other archetypes.

Ice Armor/Wet Ice no longer accepts Defense Enhancements. Base defense value for Wet Ice was increased (about doubled, as though it had 6 SOs) to compensate. Old Enhancements will continue to work until they expire. This change was done to help prevent players from inefficiently using Def Enhancements in this power.

Ice Armor/Permafrost now gives resistance to Slow.

Fixed text for Controller/Illusion/Group invisibility (regarding Defense suppression).

Reduced Hold Duration of Freeze Ray, Bitter Freeze Ray and Tesla Cage (To bring it into line with other non-controller single targeted Hold powers).

Reduced End Cost of Web Arrow. Increased its accuracy.

Reduced duration of Slow Debuff for Ice Arrow. Slightly increased its recharge (to ensure it was not better than Paralytic Gaze).

Reduced End Cost of Poison Gas Arrow. It also works more like a AoE click instead of a dropped gas pet. Fixed it so it properly has a chance to choke-hold targets.

Acid Arrow: Reduced Recharge and End Coast. Reduced Radius and dubuff duration. This change was made to allow you to use the power more often.

Slightly Reduced End cost of Disruption Arrow.

Reduced Oil Slick chance for knockback.

Slightly Increased End cost of EMP Arrow.

Increased Energy and Negative Energy Defense for Ice Armor/Glacial Armor.

Fixed some help text for Empathy/Fortitude (text change only).

Slightly Improved Ice Armor/Frozen Armor defense to Smashing and Lethal attacks.

UI
Add new slash command, /release_pets, that unsummons all of your pets.

Fixed bugs causing errors in costume creation (costume pieces that could be delected but had no art).

Game
Players can push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way.

City Zones
Rikti Crash Site: Defeated heroes will be sent to the hospital within this zone rather than to some other zone's hospital.

The Hollows: Pumicites should no longer repeatedly jump in and out of the ground.

Tasks

Fixed bug causing extremely low framerate in some outdoor mission maps

Cool.

[Alkiera]

Players can push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way.

Yay!  That was my biggest problem with stacking controller pet hordes...  there'd be 8 million fire imps in a doorway, ineffectively fighting(because the power was all slotted for recharge, not damage) the things on the other side of the door, and I couldn't get thru to kill them as a scrapper.  Blasters had their clever ranged attack, but us melee folks could get pretty annoyed.

Maybe old ladies on the street won't push me around anymore, too.

Sword Crusade

[stray]

Players can push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way.

Yay!  That was my biggest problem with stacking controller pet hordes...  there'd be 8 million fire imps in a doorway, ineffectively fighting(because the power was all slotted for recharge, not damage) the things on the other side of the door, and I couldn't get thru to kill them as a scrapper.  Blasters had their clever ranged attack, but us melee folks could get pretty annoyed.

On a slightly related noted...

There won't even be 8 million imps from now though. I5 cuts down pets per player to 1. Which sucks.

[Alkiera]

Players can push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way.

Yay!  That was my biggest problem with stacking controller pet hordes...  there'd be 8 million fire imps in a doorway, ineffectively fighting(because the power was all slotted for recharge, not damage) the things on the other side of the door, and I couldn't get thru to kill them as a scrapper.  Blasters had their clever ranged attack, but us melee folks could get pretty annoyed.

On a slightly related noted...

There won't even be 8 million imps from now though. I5 cuts down pets per player to 1. Which sucks.

Not quite true.  Issue 5 cuts controllers and dark defenders pets down to one summoning... which for fire imps, is 3 imps.  Illusion's Phantasms still summon sub-pets, and they can have them up at the same time as Phantom Army.  The lile rock guy, and Jack Frost for ice controllers, are down to 1, true...  I think Dark Defenders are too.

I was looking forward to that change simply so I wouldn't have to wade thru 9-12 imps trying to get to mobs... Now, not only are there fewer, but I can kick the suckers out of the way.  Yay!

You don't understand the hell that fire imps can be until you've been in a group with 2+ fire controllers, who all maintain herds of 9 imps.  They're everywhere.

Alkiera

[stray]

Ah, I didn't know that. I don't know much about Fire Imps (Grav controller here).

[Llava]

And pets follow you through elevators now.  Finally.

[Signe]

Players can push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way.

Too bad it doesn't seem to work... or, at least, I can't figure it out.

[Xanthippe]

Just muscle-ing through doesn't work?

[Signe]

Just muscle-ing through doesn't work?

Didn't seem to for me.  Maybe I'm too short?