Bug Fix
Fixed a crash when acquiring a Warburg Lab Technician when a Genesis incarnate power is equipped.
Fixed a crash when acquiring a Warburg Lab Technician when a Genesis incarnate power is equipped.
SMF - Just Installed!
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QuoteHey folks! I am here to break down the powers of Martial Prowess for Tankers and Brutes. I also wanted give my thought process behind the creation and proliferation of Martial Prowess.
When trying to design the epic pool for Scrapper and Stalker back in Rebirth Issue 1, I tried to keep it roughly within the spirit of other epics available for the ATs when it came to the powers available in it. I also wanted to have a pool that could be more easily made to fit a natural theme while still being applicable to every origin. Martial Prowess specifically came about after a lot of thought being put into the idea that the epic pool was less your character gaining power and more a signifier of your character's mastery of melee combat. For Scrapper and Stalker specifically, I came to the conclusion to make their powers good utility powers for someone focused on scrapping. Finally, I wanted one of the powers available in the pools to be unique to each AT and sort of.. emulate the other AT. All of these concepts carried on for the proliferation to Tanker and Brute.
QuoteDesign Notes: Most of the ancillary pools for Tanker and Brute feature an Immobilize and a Hold for their first two powers. For this power specifically, I wanted something different than Scrapper and Stalkers version of the power. Fitting the theme while having it immobilize and not using the crossbow took quite a bit of thought. I eventually settled on Throwing Dagger as it's secondary effect could be the minor DoT effect with -regen. Effectively giving tankers and brutes a weaker, infinite version of Envenomed Daggers that can be used when temporary powers are disallowed.
QuoteDesign Notes: Most of the ancillary epic pools for Tanker and Brute, minus the patron pools, feature an immobilize and a hold for their first two powers. The exception is Energy Mastery with Conserve Power and Focused Accuracy. I wanted to break the format of Immobilize and Hold with the second available power. This power began life as a clone of Warrior's Mark, except with -dmg and -acc. I eventually tried it with taunt added as well. After some thought and playtesting this was scrapped. Tying a debuff to a taunt effect may result in people using the taunt exclusively to get the debuff effect. This would mess with aggro management and might cause issues. Knowing that players would have to pick Throwing Dagger or this power to get into the pool; I settled on an auto power. The Max HP and Endurance giving weight to the idea that your character is tough because they have seen a lot of fighting. Thus, are battle hardened.
QuoteDesign Notes: A ranged attack is a common occurrence in epic pools for melee ATs. This is no exception here. However the crossbow attacks for Scrapper and Stalker were able to play into their inherent effects. Scrappers can crit and have a double base chance of critically hitting with theirs. Stalkers can fire theirs from a hidden state to deal bonus damage. The purpose of these were to finish off a fleeing opponent. While I could have tied a greater taunt effect to Tanker and Brute's versions of the power; I decided to go with something that could offer more utility and debuff. A Bodkin point bolt came to mind. Bodkin points are a real thing used to penetrate stuff. Like armor.
QuoteDesign Notes: Gather Chi as the capstone power of Martial Prowess for Scrapper and Stalker was made with their role as a DPS in mind. It was designed to offer potent recovery and regen at the cost of adding its management as a click power to your mental stack with an uptime to manage. Valiance came from the idea of the person doing tanking being the initiator of fights (usually). It is themed that your confidence under fire is inspiring and is made to offer a support option for those who want to run it.
The idea behind the regeneration effects is the concept of morale and the drive to actually fight. You gain regeneration because you are here to be on the front and are confident you can handle it. Your allies gain regeneration and resistance to fear and confuse because you are there on the front. Kind of like if Superior Man or The Bulk was on their team. They have an invincible being or an incredibly heavy hitter on their side, so they feel they can fight on!
QuoteDesign Notes: Scrapper's Shukuchi allows them to briefly emulate a Stalker by teleporting into a group of mobs with a very short, very high stealth buff that also has a moderate damage buff to emulate the hidden effect. It is not nearly as potent as an actual stalker by design. Art of War allows Tankers to emulate a Brute's bonus to sustained attacks, aka fury. I didn't want to just straight copy fury however, that's Brute's thing! This is where a stacking global enhancement proc came in. This was made to thematically represent that you're less getting angrier as you attack and more that you're just really good at hitting things. This originally had Resistance bonuses instead of endurance discount as you attacked but that was scrapped as Tankers are durable enough.
QuoteDesign Notes: This was the power that was the hardest to design by far. It was originally meant to be the Tanker emulation power for Brutes. I kept running into the issue of how to do that. Just as I had to impose strict limits on Art of War so Tankers wouldn't do more damage than Brutes, I couldn't let Brutes become as durable as Tankers. This would overpower the balance of the two. This power used to have no self damage effect, gave +regen, and did not give as much Fury.
After playtesting, this clashed with the name and proved to be too powerful in terms of durability. This made me change gears on the idea of the power. I dropped the regen, upped the fury gain, and gave it a self damage effect. It went from a Tanker emulation power to a unique choice for a Brute. The ideal time to use this power is when a Brute is in combat and is secure enough that they can lose a large chunk of health to get a bunch of Fury right there. The +resist stayed as it offers a little extra security and played into the theme super well.
QuoteIf you've been keeping up with our State of the Game 2023 update, you're probably aware that we're raising the bar for challenges. We've taken note of how much our players enjoy a good challenge and are committed to delivering just that. We began upping the challenge in Rebirth Issue 5: Clockstoppers where we introduced ramped-up speed run challenges which set new time thresholds on many task forces and strikes forces and unlocked new rewards. But that was only the beginning!
The new challenges we have in store for players next won't be determined by speed but by teamwork, willpower, or super strength. In Rebirth Issue 6 we expand the available challenge options and specifically focus on the level 35-50 endgame experience. For anyone who has ever become a 'Master of' a famous or infamous task/strike force, there's a new top tier in town. Several tiers in fact.
We knew that to really challenge players the trials they endured would have to mount gradually. Most players are aware of the original 'Master of' challenge requirements--No Defeats and No Temporary powers. Those challenges have been part of City of Heroes since before the addition of Incarnate Powers. Incarnate Powers have trivialized those once mighty challenges--no more. The first tier above 'Master of' is the 'True Master.' True Masters of task forces are able to surmount them without Incarnates. The question is, can you best even more than a 'True Master of' task forces?
| Badge Title Prefix | Challenge Settings | Ms. Liberty's TF | Lord Recluse's SF | Imperious TF | Lady Grey's TF | 5th Column TF | 5th Column SF |
| True Master of | Zero Defeats. No Incarnate and Temporary Powers. |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Grandmaster of | Zero Defeats. No Incarnate and Temporary Powers. No Set Bonuses. |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Legendary Master of | Zero Defeats. No Incarnate and Temporary Powers. No Set Bonuses. No Inspirations. |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Secret Master of | [spoiler]Zero Defeats. No Incarnate and Temporary Powers. No Set Bonuses. No Inspirations. Enemies Buffed.[/spoiler] |  |  |  |  |  |  |
'True Master of' Reward Choices| True Master of | Synthetic Hamidon | Alpha Component | Reward Merits |
| Ms. Liberty/Lord Recluse TF/SF | Level 51 Synthetic Hamidon | Drop of the Well | 2x Reward Merits |
 |  |  | |
| Imperious TF | Not available | Incarnate Infused Nictus | 2x Reward Merits |
 |  | | |
| Lady Grey's TF | Not available | Vanguard DNA Metamatrix | 2x Reward Merits |
|  | | |
| 5th Column TF/SF | Not available | Infinite Tessellation | 2x Reward Merits |
|  | |
'Grandmaster of' Reward Choices| Grandmaster of | Synthetic Hamidon | Alpha Component | Reward Merits |
| Ms. Liberty/Lord Recluse TF/SF | Level 52 Synthetic Hamidon | Notice of the Well (1 only) | 3x Reward Merits |
|  | | |
| Imperious TF | Not available | Notice of the Well (1 only) | 3x Reward Merits |
| | | |
| Lady Grey's TF | Not available | Notice of the Well (1 only) | 3x Reward Merits |
| | | |
| 5th Column TF/SF | Not available | Notice of the Well (1 only) | 3x Reward Merits |
| | |
'Legendary Master of' Reward Choices| Legendary Master of | Synthetic Hamidon | Alpha Component | Reward Merits |
| Ms. Liberty/Lord Recluse TF/SF | Level 53 Synthetic Hamidon | Favor of the Well (1 only) | 4x Reward Merits |
|  | | |
| Imperious TF | Not available | Favor of the Well (1 only) | 4x Reward Merits |
| | | |
| Lady Grey's TF | Not available | Favor of the Well (1 only) | 4x Reward Merits |
| | | |
| 5th Column TF/SF | Not available | Favor of the Well (1 only) | 4x Reward Merits |
| | |
'Secret Master of' Reward Choices| Secret Master of | Synthetic Hamidon | Secret Master IO | Reward Merits |
| Ms. Liberty/Lord Recluse TF/SF | Level 53 Synthetic Hamidon | Liberty's Belt (Resistance Set) | 5x Reward Merits |
|  | | |
| Imperious TF | Not available | Imperial Might (Knockback Set) | 5x Reward Merits |
|  | | |
| Lady Grey's TF | Not available | Forced Indoctrination (Universal Control Set) | 5x Reward Merits |
|  | | |
| 5th Column TF/SF | Not available | Inexhaustibility (Rest Special) | 5x Reward Merits |
|  | |
Deincarnated Complete a level 46-50 Flashback arc without Incarnate Powers
Basic Complete a level 1-15 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Minimal Complete a level 16-19 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Primitive Complete a level 20-24 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Unadorned Complete a level 25-29 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Nothing Extra Complete a level 30-34 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Set Back Complete a level 35-39 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Simplified Complete a level 40-45 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses
Unsettled Complete a level 46-50 Flashback arc without Set Bonuses New Enhancement SetsEnhancements:
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| Unique:
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