The much-discussed Guardian Archetype is now available thanks to the release of Rebirth Issue 1 which was released yesterday. Along with the Guardian AT there are a ton of costume parts, a new Ancillary Power Pool for Scrappers and Stalkers called Martial Prowess. There are also a few quality of life updates and bug fixes.
If you want to learn more about the Guardian Archetype then you might be interested in reading these articles:
City of Heroes Rebirth Server Gives an Update (The First News)
City of Heroes Guardians Archetype (Guide)
Also, I would love to know what you prefer to read when reading these news posts. Do you want a short introduction followed by the patch notes like in this article, or do you prefer a TL;DR of what’s in the patch notes written by me with a link to where the patch notes were posted? Let me know in the comments here or on Facebook where you found this article. Thanks!
Now on to the patch notes…
| New Archetype: Guardian |
Guardians have good ranged and melee while still maintaining decent support and protection.
As a Guardian, you are skilled at ranged and close combat, allowing you to move into and out of combat with ease. Your abilities offer decent protection, allow you to take blows with stride. Although you are not able to take hits as well as others, your very presence can strengthen your allies and weaken enemies.
| Guardian Stats | |||||||||||
| Survivability | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | 6 | ||||
| Melee Damage | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | 7 | |||
| Ranged Damage | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | 7 | |||
| Crowd Control | ||||| | ||||| | 2 | ||||||||
| Support | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | ||||| | 6 | ||||
| Pets | ||||| | ||||| | 2 |
Primary Power Sets: Assault
A Guardian’s primary power sets are Assault. With their release, we’re introducing several new Assault power sets. They are:
New Power Sets:
Gun Fu: You are a master of the Gun Fu fighting style. You seamlessly blend sophisticated martial arts perfectly with your skills as a shootist to strike down foes with either hand or bullet.
Hellfire Assault: Your powers are conjured from the depths of the netherworld and beyond. You wield demonic hellfires that serve as your tools of destruction. You are capable of manifesting infernal powers that act as long extensions of hellfire. These powers can tear down even the toughest foes.
Luminous Assault: Masters of light, energy, and matter. Luminous Assault wielders can manipulate light energy to devastate their opponents. Luminous Assault bombards the foe with great force and power often knocking them down and reducing their defenses.
Mace Assault: You can wield a Nullifier Mace, a high tech Arachnos mace that is as good at blasting enemies as it is at smashing them to pieces.
Radiation Assault: You are able to harness the power of the atom to defeat foes at both close and far ranges. Radiation Assault attacks have a chance to inflict the Contaminated state on a target for a moderate amount of time. Powers that deal greater damage, have a longer recharge time and animation time have a greater chance to inflict Contaminated. Single target attacks hitting Contaminated targets cause a portion of that power’s damage to also hit nearby foes. Radiation Assault attacks primarily deal Smashing and Energy damage, with some capable of dealing Toxic damage.
Umbral Assault: Masters of the void, Umbral Assault wielders can manipulate dark energy, gravity and matter to blast and dominate their foes. The gravimetric nature of most Umbral Assault powers often slows the target’s attack and movement speed.
Additional Assault Power Sets:
Dark Assault: Blind and drain your foes with dark energies. Dark Assault allows you to pummel your foes with heavy-hitting melee attacks as well as several ranged attacks. Many of Dark Assaults’ powers reduce their victims’ chance to hit.
Earth Assault: With Earth Assault, you can damage foes with the very ground they walk upon. You can conjure stone weapons, hurl boulders, and even cause magma to erupt from the ground.
Electricity Assault: Electrical Assault grants you several electrical ranged and melee powers. Electrical powers can drain foes’ Endurance and can often temporarily halt their Endurance recovery. This can be quite effective against higher-level foes and Bosses. Some Electrical Assault powers can even sometimes transfer this Endurance back to you.
Energy Assault: Focus pure energy into deadly melee attacks and powerful projectiles. The impact of the melee powers can often Disorient opponents, while the velocity of the ranged projectiles can send your enemies flying.
Fiery Assault: Fiery Assault allows you to conjure up flaming melee attacks and hurl devastating fiery projectiles. Fiery Assault powers tend to set foes ablaze for added Damage Over Time.
Icy Assault: Ice Assault allows the player to use Cold-based attacks. Conjure up frozen melee weapons or hurl deadly shards of Ice. Icy powers are known for their ability to slow an opponent.
Martial Assault: Your mastery of Martial Assault allows you to deliver crippling blows to your enemies and rain blades upon foes who don’t dare approach you. You deliver damage to your enemies via withering kicks and punches in melee range, while your skills with thrown blades cut down aggressors from afar. Your attacks have a tendency to knock opponents down or deal additional damage over time as a secondary effect.
Psionic Assault: Blast your enemies with an array of offensive psionic powers. Your psionic damaging attacks have a chance to grant you Insight into your enemies. While you have Insight, your psionic damage powers cause additional psionic damage over time. Few living beings can resist their effects. Creatures without minds, however, like machines and robots, are much more resistant.
Thorny Assault: Thorns protrude from your body and can deal damage in melee or at range. Thorns are hollow and inject toxin that deals additional Toxic damage and can weaken your enemy’s Defense. Very few foes have resistance to Thorn toxins.
Secondary Power Sets: Composition
Guardian secondary power sets are designed for Composition. Composition power sets offer protection for yourself and support for your teammates. They are:
Atmospheric Composition: Atmospheric Composition users can harness the wind, weather, and lightning to wreak havoc on their foes and protect themselves and their allies.
Dark Composition: Dark Composition wielders focus the dark energies of the Netherworld to protect themselves and weaken their foes.
Energy Composition: Energy Composition users can surround themselves with powerful defensive energy auras. Their mastery of energy allows them to manipulate and transfer energy from foes to protect themselves and their allies.
Fiery Composition: Focusing heat and flame lets those armed with Fiery Composition protect themselves and their allies from harm while also weakening their enemies.
Ice Composition: Ice Composition users have mastered chilling themselves and the air around them to protect their allies, protect themselves, and weaken adversaries.
Organic Composition: Organic Composition users can surround themselves in the forces of nature, enabling them to shield their bodies from harm. Their command over the environment allows them to call forth primal energies to hinder their foes and aid themselves and their allies. Some of their powers place a Bloom effect on themselves and their allies. Each stack of Bloom boosts healing effects on the affected targets by 4% for 30 seconds. Bloom can stack up to 5 times.
Pain Focusing: It takes more than a little pain to keep you down! Pain Focusing uses your willpower to master overwhelming pain. With it, you can channel your pain to protect your allies, yourself, and weaken adversaries.
Radiation Composition: Radiation Composition powers emanate from your body, empowering and shielding you from harm. This energy allows you to manipulate atomic particles and waves to protect your allies and weaken your enemies. Your abilities also allow you to heal from your wounds and even absorb damage.
Reconstructive Healing: Reconstructive Healing lets you regenerate more quickly from damage and effects. Your Hit Point Regeneration can become so incredibly fast, that your wounds heal almost instantly. Reconstructive Healing gives you the ability to heal and aid allies as well.
Stone Composition: Stone Composition users can transform themselves into various forms of rock and stone to avoid hard. You are also able to harness the crushing force of earth to weaken your foes and protect your allies. Many of these powers need to be performed while on the ground.
Temporal Reaction: With Temporal Reaction you gaze into the flow of time allowing you to react deftly to avoid danger. Regardless of what comes at you, Temporal Reaction simply allows you to avoid the attack. Wielders of Temporal Reaction are able to manipulate time itself to inflict crippling debuffs while buffing and healing allies.
Ancillary Power Pools
Fire Mastery: You have Mastery over Fire to deal damage in mass and control your foes.
Ice Mastery: You have Mastery over Ice to deal damage in mass and control your foes.
Primal Forces Mastery: You have Mastery over Primal Forces and energy to devastate your foes and increase your power.
Psionic Mastery: You have Mastery over Psionics and the mind to devastate your foes.
Patron Power Pools
Leviathan Mastery: Captain Mako has granted you access to the power of the Leviathan. The Leviathan is an ancient gargantuan entity that slumbers under Sharkhead Isle. Worshiped by the Coralax, the Leviathan has given Captain Mako many abilities and now he has taught you how to harness its power.
Mace Mastery: Black Scorpion has granted you access to the advanced technology of the Executioner’s Mace. The signature weapon of the Bane Spider Executioner, it is not a typical clumsy mace. The Executioner’s Mace is capable of firing a variety of energy projectiles and grenades. It can even be modified to summon and command some of Black Scorpion’s RV technologies.
Mu Mastery: Scirocco has taught you the ancient powers of the Mu. In their eternal struggle against the Oranbega, the Mu have unlocked many mystical powers, including their very signature crimson lightning. Now you possess these secrets.
Soul Mastery: Ghost Widow has granted you access to the power of darkness and souls. She has shown you how to use the souls of your victims to destroy your enemies. This has granted you access to powers and abilities you have never had before.
Inherent Power: Resolve
Guardians are determined to protect their allies in combat. With their Resolve, Guardians strive to defeat foes before they can cause serious harm to them or their allies. When an enemy is defeated they will grant nearby Guardians and their allies one stack of Resolve. Each stack grants 5% absorption and status protection to Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse on the affected targets for 15 seconds. Resolve can stack up to 3 times outside of PvP. NOTE: When used in PVP Resolve will not stack from players. The amount of absorption granted for defeating a player is 20%.
NEW POWERSETS
Martial Prowess
An Ancillary Power Pool for :scrapper: Scrappers and :stalker: Stalkers themed around the idea of using techniques from history.
Description: Your experience in melee combat and your drive to improve has given you access to new techniques from a wide variety of disciplines. You utilize skills from archers and warriors of the medieval age to ninjitsu techniques of the shinobi.
Universal powers available to both:
Entangling Arrow
– ST immobilize with -fly
– Similar to Entangling Arrow from Trick Arrow
Warriors Mark
– ST Res and Def debuff (20 second duration) that gives Enemy Data in your Combat Attributes
– Similar to Surveillance but with a natural/magic theme
– 45 second recharge time
Gather Chi
– Click Regen and Recovery buff
– Currently valued as twice as effective as Physical Perfection with up to half uptime on SOs.
– 30 second duration with a 120 second base recharge
– requires 2 powers
Scrapper Exclusives
Aimed Shot
– st moderate damage ranged attack from a hand crossbow with high critical chance
– 12 second recharge
– requires 1 power pick
Shukuchi
– Moderate range teleport that gives 8 seconds of Intense Stealth and moderate damage boost
– 120 second recharge time
– requires 1 power pick
Stalker Exclusives
Assassins Arrow
– st moderate damage ranged attack using a hand crossbow. Guaranteed critical hit while Hidden.
– 6 second recharge
– requires 1 power pick
War Cry
– PBaoe to hit and damage debuff. Chance of 2 mag terrorize.
– 90 second recharge
– requires 1 power pick
COSTUME CHANGES
Emblem Pack 1
New Emblems! Emblem Pack 1 is now live. There are 17 new emblems, starting with Star 17 – Star 23
inline with legacy star emblems and another batch found at the bottom of your chest symbol list.
To be found in the Stars section of your alphabetized symbol list:
– Star 17 (upwards shooting star)
– Star 18 (5 star V)
– Star 19 (interlinked stars)
– Star 20 (triple bubble star)
– Star 20 Rainbow (triple bubble star w baked in rainbow)
– Star 21 (star fan)
– Star 22 (star tunnel)
– Star 23 (twin stars pulling away from each other)
To be found at the bottom of your symbol list:
– Barbell
– Hammer & Wrench
– Moon 2
– Poison Syringe
– Seahorse
– Syringe
– Weightlifter
– Wrecking Ball
Cape Packs 1 & 2
New cape patterns are now available wherever you find listings for basic cape patterns.
45 new patterns in total. All can be found at the bottom of the standard cape pattern list
in your character creator.
Cape Pack 1: To be found at the bottom of your cape patterns list:
– All Seeing
– Arbol
– Astrolabe
– Big Bolt
– Cosmic Contrails
– Crescent
– Dart
– Donkey
– Fleur
– Hive Tech
– Icy Tunic
– Keyhole
– New Star
– Serrated Fern
– Splash
Cape Pack 2 Found below Cape Pack 1 in alphabetic order:
– Art Deco 1
– Art Deco 2
– Button
– Cleave
– Crystalline
– Flame Tongues
– Fur 1
– Fur 2
– Gale Force
– Geode
– Gossamer Strands
– Halftone
– Impossible Dots
– Ink
– Lewitt
– Lily Pad
– Pangolin
– Quizzical
– Rockslide
– Rose Curl
– Sakura
– Sheet Music
– Spider Web 1
– Spider Web 2
– Stingray
– Tradewinds
– Triangles
– Wasp
– Waterfall
– WPA
Glove Diversification Phase 1:
Glove Diversification debuts on Rebirth PTS! Many glove models that prior had only 1 possible
wrist skin can now be customized to match many base textures and all standard glove patterns.
This change affects the following glove models:
– Tai
– Overguard
– Barbarian Ring (M & H only)
– Small Pointed Glove
– Small Flared Glove
– Small Padded Glove (F)
– Tied
– Wristbands
– Dragon Bracer (F)
– Cloud Bracer (F)
– Plant w/ Leaves
– Spines
Customizable metallic variants have been added to the game:
– Small Pointed Glove
– Small Flared Glove
– Small Padded Glove (F)
– Dragon Bracer (F)
– Cloud Bracer (F)
Static glowing variants of the following have been added:
– Small Pointed Glove
– Small Flared Glove
– Dragon Bracer (F)
– Cloud Bracer (F)
Animated glowing variants of these are also now available:
– Small Pointed Glove
– Small Flared Glove
– Dragon Bracer (F)
2012 Halloween Pack Now Available:
Long enjoyed on other CoH servers, one of Paragon’s last contributions to the character library
is now available and fully functioning on live for all characters.
This pack includes:
– Full body mummy skin
– Tombstone and wicker basket backpacks
– Floating orb and skull special heads
Fashion gloves and boots unlocked for female characters.
– Seer gloves and boots unlocked for male and huge characters.
Bugs introduced with asymmetric gloves that caused graphical errors on specific villain mobs
have been resolved.
QUALITY OF LIFE AND BUG FIXES
AH CHANGES
– Number of base slots for every player character has been increased. Values have been adjusted so that there is a progression of available slots as you level. (Roughly 5 slots every 5 levels…..ish )
– BUGFIX
-Invention generic, respec, temp power and costume recipes should now once again be tradeable on the Auction House.
SUPER-GROUP BASE RENT CHANGES
– Base rent will no longer be calculated on the items in the base. The exact value that each SG would pay was hard to anticipate and may have hindered some SGs from placing more items that they may have wanted.
– SG base rent now calculated based on plot size. These numbers are still up for discussion and may be subject to change. However rent is currently set to be much less then it was on live.
– Smallest Plot size has no rent.
CHARACTER SLOT PER ACCOUNT INCREASE
– UI hard coding issues have been adjusted to allow more characters per account to be created. Due to the nature of the UI code, slots can only be adjusted in multiples of 12.
– Current slots on every account should now be 96. This comes from 12 slots on 8 pages. This number may be subject to adjustment at a future date if there is demand for it.
POWER DE-QUEUEING
-Stacking auto powers should no longer cause powers selected next in the attack chain to de-queue. This fix should also work for attacks and interuptibles like long activation toggles and snipes among other powers.
UPDATE
Forgot to add this to the original notes but Super Reflexes changes have been added to the server. Practice Brawler is now a toggle and absorb has been added.
also…….
CURRENTLY KNOWN BUGS
-Stalkers with Super reflexes cannot slot Healing Enhancements
-Some hoods may not work properly with Huge Characters