Game updates/2021-09-12

Rebirth Issue 2, Episode 1 - September 12th, 2021

Reward Merits

For Rebirth Issue 2 we've standardized the discount at a 40% reduction from sunset costs across all merit vendors. In most cases, this means even greater merit cost reductions, though a few costs have increased.

Exemplar and Recipe Drop Improvements:

While exemplared, level 50 characters receive a chance for level 50 recipe rewards for defeating enemies.
Increased drop pool chances for Very Rare recipe rolls from 1% to 2.5%. Loot Boosters (like Windfall) double the percent chances.

NOTE: Chances of drops have not increased, just the odds of the roll being Very Rare within those drops.

Removed 20-hour lockout from Enhancement Catalysts drops.
Temp power recipe drops reduced 10x. Note: Does not affect Amplifier drops.

Endgame Content and Endgame Character Build Synergy

While completing endgame content we want players to also be progressing on their endgame character builds. Therefore we have included features that enable players to more easily accomplish both goals at the same time.

Astral and Empyrean Merit Bonuses

Very Rare recipes receive a 2x bonus cost reduction.
Rare recipes receive a 40% bonus cost reduction (Astral Vendor).
All recipe lockout timers have been removed.

Incarnate Trials and Incarnate Content (Dark Astoria)

Endgame content receives a 2x bonus drop pool chance for Very Rare recipe rolls. Loot Boosters double the percent chances. NOTE: Chances of drops have not increased, just the odds of the roll being Very Rare within those drops.
Reward Choices for completing Incarnate content now offers a choice for a random Purple Recipe instead of Super Inspirations when receiving a Very Rare reward.
Added a recipe to break down Notices of the Well into an Uncommon Thread Material.
Added Shard Recipes for Tier 1 Incarnate abilities of Destiny, Lore, Interface, Incarnate, and Hybrid.
Team Member will now be granted progress on weekly Dark Astoria Arcs. This applies to Flashbacks as well.
The Dark Astoria contact, Taskmaster Gabriel, now rewards a Rare or Very Rare incarnate material in addition to Empyrean merits.

Dark Astoria

Increased mob experience by 25%.
Added a reward option to Ephram Sha and Maharaj for 2 incarnate thread's worth of iXP split between Physical and Psychic on first obtaining. It will then have a 20 hour cooldown in which you will only be able to obtain 1 incarnate thread's worth of iXP. This option also gives half of said value to Advanced Psychic (aka Hybrid slots unlock).
Arc Completion Incarnate Merit option increased from 2/1 to 4/2.
Changed chances of Astral/Empyrean Merits on Arc Completion Rewards from 80/20 to 60/40.
Taskmaster Gabriel now gives 4 Empyrean merits instead of 2.

"Master of" Task/Strike Forces Rewards

Successfully completing any Master of Task Force will reward 1 random Very Rare recipe. NOTE: You can only obtain this reward once every 60 hours for a given "Master of" completion.

Hamidon Origin Enhancements

Hamidon (The Hive):

The reward choice for defeating Hamidon has been increased from 1 to 3 random Hamidon enhancements.
The 24-hour reward lockout has been reduced to 30 minutes.

Seed of Hamidon (First Ward Zone Event):

Defeating Seed of Hamidon rewards 1 random Hamidon enhancement.

Alignment System and Merit Improvements

For earning alignment-specific merits, we want players to be reward with unique power-ups that virtually no other area of the game currently offers. Here's what’s in store for them.

Hero & Villain Super Packs and Vigilante & Rogue Super Packs will be purchasable with Alignment Merits.
Vigilante and Rogue Alignment Merits have been added. Places where they previously earned Reward Merits will now earn Vigilante/Rogue Merits instead. This goes for Hero and Villains too, where Reward Merits were initially given instead of their own alignment merits.
One Hero, Villain, Vigilante, or Rogue Merit will be awarded during the first alignment change/reinforcement respective to the chosen alignment.
Hero and Villain Super Packs will cost 6 Hero/Villain Merits or 10 Rogue/Vigilante Merits.
Vigilante & Rogue Super Packs will cost 6 Vigilante/Rogue Merits or 10 Hero/Villain Merits.
Reduce the number of Alignment Tip missions to receive a Morality Tip mission from 10 to 5.
Public Fame points now expire in 20 minutes, allowing for faster progression.

Note: These changes allow much faster side-switching for players to join their friends, earn alignment merits, or experience other content.  To balance the reduced number of missions required to earn alignment merits, alignment vendor costs were returned to their sunset values.

Gladiator Merits and PvP Vendors

Lifelong PvPers can rejoice as we have introduced a reward system into PvP so that you can, if you so choose, work towards your character build entirely through PvPing. PvP remains the fastest way to earn PvP recipes and you can now earn any other recipe through the introduction of the new Gladiator Merit.

Defeating a Player with Rep rewards 5 Gladiator Merits.
Defeating a player without Rep has a chance to reward 1 Gladiator Merit.

In addition to defeating players, Gladiator Merits are now obtainable for completing the following PvP zone events:

- Bloody Bay:  Shivan Pet Reward - 7 Gladiator Merits
- Warburg:  Code Event Reward - 15 Gladiator Merits
- RV:  Hero/Villain Reach 1k Mech Pet Reward - 50 Gladiator Merits

Removed the PvP recipe lockout for defeating a player with Rep. Note: You cannot earn Rep from defeating the same player with 5-minutes. As is how Rep works.
PvP recipes received a 4x drop chance bonus for defaulting a player with Rep.
Loot Boosters double the chances that a PvP recipe could drop.

Inspirations Abound

Dual Inspirations have a very small chance to drop from PvPing.
Super Inspirations have a very small chance to drop from Elite Bosses and Archvillains in Incarnate Content.
Team Inspirations have a chance to drop while Teaming. The size and chance of these drops follow the game's natural progression/reward system.
Dual Team Inspirations have a chance to drop from PvPing while Teaming. The size and chance of these drops follow the game's natural progression/reward system.

And also...

Dual, Super, and Team Inspirations are now tradable.
Dual, Super, and Team Inspirations now last 60 seconds like all other Inspirations.
Added HotKey "C" to the Inspiration combine menu.

Souped Up Super Packs

We've reworked Super Pack rewards a bit to serve better rewards and require less in-combat "email" management.

Very Rare Cards now have a chance to reward a Very Rare Attuned Enhancement. This replaced the odds of a Very Rare rewarding another ATO.
ATOs have a much higher chance of rewarding in Rare cards.
Added BrainStorm Idea Salvage cards. They come in three varieties: common (20x), uncommon (40x), and rare (60x).
Inspirations Cards have been removed in favor of the new in-game inspiration drops.
Other reward cards (not listed above) that overlapped in rarity from common to very rare have been reworked in lower tiers to make room for the Rare/Very Rare odds improvement. They should now appear in the common and uncommon card tiers in a more desirable pattern while appearing less to never in rare and very rare. Noteworthy exclusions to this are Reward Merits, Experienced, XP Booster, and Catalysts. These cards can appear in any rarity and have been excluded from the change.
Hero/Villain and Vigilante/Rogue Super Packs can be sold on the auction house like the Winter Super Pack.
Added icons to the Winter Super Pack.

Attuned Enhancements

Made Very Rare attuned enhancements received from Super Packs tradable. Added icons to Winter IOs.

Architect Entertainment

Increased AE Ticket cap from 9,999 to 99,999.

Conversion Sets

Added conversion sets for Very Rare Attuned Enhancements.

Added conversion sets for Universal Damage Enhancements.

Striga Island:

Atmospheric update made to this unique zone inspired by the horror and war comics of the 20th century.

Task Forces

Lowered the minimum Task Force size to 4 players. Task Forces with lower than 4 player minimums remain the same.

Vigilante and Rogue Alignment Vendors:

Vigilante Merit Vendor has been added to Kings Row

Rogue Merit Vendor has been added to Cap Au Diable

Gladiator Vendors:

Hero and Villain Gladiator Vendors have been added to Recluse's Victory, Warburg, Siren's Call and Bloody Bay

Guardian ATO's

Guardian's Gift: Recharge/PBAoE Resolve

Absolute Resolution: Recharge/Chance for Energy Damage Bonus

Tanker Touch-up:

Tanks will now enjoy a unique aggro cap of 25 mobs, outclassing all other ATs in their ability to herd and hold aggro.

Tankers' inherent Bruising ability has been expanded to the second attack in their powersets as well, giving Tanks more option to use bruising debuffs on their foes!

New Power Sets:

Military Assault (Guardian): Your mastery of Military Assault allows you to destroy your enemies with brutal precision. Blast your foes with powerful attacks from your military grade Assault Rifle and pummel them with brutal close quarters combat techniques. Your attacks can also inflict a variety of debilitating effects on your foes, including stunning them, reducing their defense, knocking them down, or slowing their movement.

Ninja Assault (Guardian): Your mastery of the ways of Ninja Assault allows you to dispatch opponents with lethal grace, cutting down foes with the razor edge of your Ninja Blade and delivering death from afar with throwing knives. Your attacks often carry additional poison damage over time, and can also knock opponents down or reduce their defense.

Infiltrator Training (Guardian): You have superb training as an Infiltrator. Your intrusion skills allow you to deftly evade attacks and move behind enemy lines unseen, while your weapons training gives you mastery of a variety of debilitating tools and gadgets to wreak havoc on your unsuspecting foes.

Water Control (Controller and Dominator): You have total control over the power of water. Water Control grants you superior control over large groups and the ability to deal a good amount of damage to single targets. Your powers have a chance to inflict Drowning on a target, while under this effect, Deluge, Suffocate, Hypothermia, Turbulent Aura and Tidal Wave will deal more damage and these powers' secondary effects are enhanced.

Kinetic Assault (Guardians and Dominator): Through manipulation of latent energy present all around you, you create powerful blasts and forceful blows that can prove devastating to your opponents. As you manipulate this energy, you will accumulate Impulse. Each stack of Impulse grants you a scaling recharge buff. Impulse is also used to empower Disrupting Torrent, Kinetic Shockwave, Energetic Strike and Mass Driver.

Power QoL:

Energy Melee (Tanker, Brute, Stalker, and Blaster): Total Focus: animation has been sped up, reducing its animation time from 3.3s to 2.2s. This affects all player versions of the following powers: Total Focus, Tremor, Thunder Strike, and Incandescent Strike.

Stun has been changed to Staggering Burst, a new power with the following effect:

Now a Melee(AoE) power with 8' radius
Change Invention set category from Melee to Melee(AoE)
Smashing Damage Scale increase from .25 to 1.15
Energy Damage Scale increase from .17 to .81
Recharge change from 20 seconds to 16 seconds
Endurance Cost change from 10.19 to 15.19
Guaranteed mag 3 stun on main target, 30% chance to mag 3 stun on AoE

Whirling Hands: Increased Smashing and Energy damage 20%. (Tanker, Brute, and Stalker)

Archery (Blaster, Defender, and Corruptor):

Rain of Arrows: Animation time reduced from 4.0s to 2.0s. Damage delay reduced from 1.37s to 0.67s.
Explosive Arrow: Damage changed from scale 0.6 lethal + 0.3 smashing to scale 0.3 lethal + 0.3 smashing + 0.3 fire, so that the power can now light Oil Slick Arrow.

Bomb Attacks (Blaster, Defender, and Corruptor): Force Field, Repulsion Bomb and Radiation Blast, Neutron Bomb: Unified both powers to use the faster Repulsion Bomb version of the animation, and corrected the erroneous mismatches between activation time and animation length for both powers. This shortens the activation time of both powers to 1.47s, and affects all player versions of these powers.

Explosive Shuriken (Blaster, Defender, and Corruptor): Scrapper and Stalker Weapon Mastery, Exploding Shuriken: Radius corrected from 10 feet to 15 feet and max targets increased from 10 to 16 - this power was balanced incorrectly relative to other APP TAoEs.

Power Customization:

New Alternate Animations:

Energy Blast - Energy Torrent

  Bright & Dark Shoulder Animations
  Bright & Dark Palm Animations
  Bright & Dark Ground Punch Animations
  Bright & Dark Stomp Animations

Martial Combat - Eagles Claw

  Bright & Dark Face Smasher

Martial Combat - Ki Punch

  Bright & Dark Ki Strike

Martial Combat - Storm Kick

  Bright & Dark Gut Punch
  Bright & Dark Heavy Blow

Electric Melee - Jacob's Ladder

 Bright & Dark Charge Bolt

Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Assault, Dark Control, Dark Armor, Dark Miasma, and Dark Composition can now choose from the following themes:

   Skull Theme
   Skull Alt Theme
   No Skull Theme
   No Skull Alt Theme
   Soul Noir Theme
   Soul Noir Alt Theme

New Emotes:

Dab (/e dab): A new pose for players to show off just how cool they are.

Stoic (/e stanceheroic3 or /e stoic):

Cosmetics

Adds multiple integrated tops to asym chests (F):

- Catsuit
- Leotard High Hip
- Leotard Turtleneck High Hip

Adds integrated bottom to asym hips (F):

- Leotard High Hip

Adds new detail category Upper Body Details to multiple chest bonesets. Models include (F):

- Cropped Hoodie
- Oversized Shirt
- Cropped Tank
- Shinobi Gi
- Harness

Adds Shinobi Hakama and Booty Shorts to asym Skirts / Shorts. (F)
Adds chest Holsters to chest details section for tight chest profiles. (M/F/H)
Adds Suspenders and Suspenders with Harness to belts section of tight chest profiles. (M/F/H)
Adds Shinobi Headband and Blindfold to detail 1 for heads. (M/F/H)
Adds Shinobi Scarf and Shinobi Scarf for Capes to detail 2 for heads. (M/F/H)
Adds Fighter's Gloves to left and right gloves. (F)
Adds Shoulder Sheath Left, Shoulder Sheath Right, and Clairvoyent's Sash to shoulder details. (F)

Bug Fix

Blaster now have their 2400 stat improvements to Blaster’s Max HP and ToHit.
Winter Super Pack Candy Canes now reward the correct amount. (5 per claim instead of 1)
Fixed a bug that caused some Elite Bosses recipe drops to have an 8% drop chance instead of 12%.
Low level Vhazilok escort mission involving a doctor and his beloved fridge should now be complete-able (mission is usually assigned from one of multiple contacts in the 15-20 range)
Mayor Devito's copy of H.P. Lovecrafts "The Color of Outer Space" has been arrested for speeding.
Fixed Black Swan's costume.
Martial Mastery: Stalkers may now slot War Cry with Accuracy.
AH slash command should no longer be accessible from tutorial zones.
Player difficulty slash command should now only accept numbers within their expected ranges.

Power bug fixes:

Blaster Darkness Manipulation, Touch of the Beyond: Now is correctly typed as a ranged attack rather than melee, and no longer ignores range buffs since it is a ranged attack. No longer accepts Blaster ATO sets, since it does not deal damage.
Blaster Electricity Manipulation, Force of Thunder: Now accepts Endurance Modification and Healing IO sets.
Blaster Fire Manipulation, Cauterizing aura: Now accepts Endurance Modification IO sets.

Blaster Devices:

-Web Grenade: Now accepts Slow IO sets.
-Field Operative: Now accepts Endurance Modification IO sets.

Blaster Ice Manipulation, Frigid Protection: Now accepts Endurance Modification IO sets.
Blaster Mental Manipulation, Scare: Now is correctly typed as a ranged attack rather than melee.
Defender, Corruptor, and Mastermind Traps, Web Grenade: Now accepts Slow IO sets.
Medicine pool, Injection: Now accepts Tohit Debuff and Accurate Tohit Debuff IO sets.
Presence pool, Pacify: Now accepts Endurance Reduction enhancements.
Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, and Tanker Bio Armor, Parasitic Aura: Now accepts Endurance Reduction enhancements.
Scrapper, Brute, and Tanker Radiation Melee, Irradiated Ground: Now accepts Defense Debuff enhancements, Defence Debuff and Accurate Defense Debuff IO sets, and ATO sets.
Scrapper, Stalker, and Brute Broad Sword, Scrapper and Brute Katana, Stalker Ninja Blade: All defense debuff effects now correctly have a 100% chance to trigger instead of 99.8%.
Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, and Tanker Electric Armor, Lightning Reflexes: Fixed missing jumpspeed and jumpheight slow resistance.
Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, and Tanker Super Reflexes, Quickness: Fixed missing jumpspeed and jumpheight slow resistance.
Arachnos Soldier Training and Gadgets, Mental Training: Fixed missing jumpspeed and jumpheight slow resistance.
Arachnos Widow Widow Teamwork, Mental Training: Fixed missing jumpspeed and jumpheight slow resistance.
Blaster, Defender, and Corruptor Beam Rifle, Overcharge: Fixed the erroneous damage delay on this power.

Controller and Dominator Wind Control:

-Wind Shear: No longer accepts ATOs, as it does not have any mez effects.
-Wind Shear: Corrected endurance cost to 1.04 end/s (Dominator only).
-Breathless: No longer accepts slow IO sets, as it does not have an enhanceable slow effect.

Power animation/balance tweaks:

The 'Total Focus' animation has been sped up, reducing its animation time from 3.3s to 2.2s. This affects all player versions of the following powers: Total Focus, Tremor, Thunder Strike, and Incandescent Strike.
Blaster, Defender, and Corruptor Archery: Rain of Arrows: Animation time reduced from 4.0s to 2.0s. Damage delay reduced from 1.0s to 0.3s. Explosive Arrow: Damage changed from scale 0.6 lethal + 0.3 smashing to scale 0.3 lethal + 0.3 smashing + 0.3 fire, so that the power can now light Oil Slick Arrow.
Force Field, Repulsion Bomb and Radiation Blast, Neutron Bomb: Unified both powers to use the faster Repulsion Bomb version of the animation, and corrected the erroneous mismatches between activation time and animation length for both powers. This shortens the activation time of both powers to 1.47s, and affects all player versions of these powers.
Scrapper and Stalker Weapon Mastery, Exploding Shuriken: Radius corrected from 10 feet to 15 feet and max targets increased from 10 to 16 - this power was balanced incorrectly relative to other APP TAoEs. Power bug fixes:
Blaster Darkness Manipulation, Touch of the Beyond: Now is correctly typed as a ranged attack rather than melee, and no longer ignores range buffs since it is a ranged attack. No longer accepts Blaster ATO sets, since it does not deal damage.
Blaster Electricity Manipulation, Force of Thunder: Now accepts Endurance Modification and Healing IO sets.
Blaster Fire Manipulation, Cauterizing aura: Now accepts Endurance Modification IO sets.
Blaster Devices: Web Grenade: Now accepts Slow IO sets. Field Operative: Now accepts Endurance Modification IO sets.
Blaster Ice Manipulation, Frigid Protection: Now accepts Endurance Modification IO sets.
Blaster Mental Manipulation, Scare: Now is correctly typed as a ranged attack rather than melee.
Defender, Corruptor, and Mastermind Traps, Web Grenade: Now accepts Slow IO sets.
Medicine pool, Injection: Now accepts Tohit Debuff and Accurate Tohit Debuff IO sets.
Presence pool, Pacify: Now accepts Endurance Reduction enhancements.
Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, and Tanker Bio Armor, Parasitic Aura: Now accepts Endurance Reduction enhancements.
Scrapper, Brute, and Tanker Radiation Melee, Irradiated Ground: Now accepts Defense Debuff enhancements, Defence Debuff and Accurate Defense Debuff IO sets, and ATO sets.
Scrapper, Stalker, and Brute Broad Sword, Scrapper and Brute Katana, Stalker Ninja Blade: All defense debuff effects now correctly have a 100% chance to trigger instead of 99.8%.
Blaster, Defender, and Corruptor Beam Rifle, Overcharge: Fixed the erroneous damage delay on this power.
Scrapper and Stalker Mu Mastery, Zapp: Damage significantly increased; this power was unintentionally doing much less damage than it should have been.

Fixed missing jumpspeed and jumpheight slow resistance.

  -Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, and Tanker Electric Armor, Lightning Reflexes:
  -Scrapper, Stalker, Brute, and Tanker Super Reflexes, Quickness:
  -Arachnos Soldier Training and Gadgets, Mental Training:
  -Arachnos Widow Widow Teamwork, Mental Training:

Controller and Dominator Wind Control:

  -Wind Shear: No longer accepts ATOs, as it does not have any mez effects.
  -Wind Shear: Corrected endurance cost to 1.04 end/s (Dominator only).
  -Breathless: No longer accepts slow IO sets, as it does not have an enhanceable slow effect.

Quality Of Life

UI:

- Power trays can be locked to their current numerical value.  This does not affect their position.

Player zone cap

- Max player cap for "The Hive" has been increased to 100
- Max player cap for "Rikti War Zone" has been increased to 75