August 17, 2012 Patch Notes

Forum Patch Notes: August 17, 2012

For Release Build Containing New Future Foundation Uniform for Thing

The latest update to the game had many improvements to our underlying systems which allow us to create new kinds of gameplay and resolve many of outstanding issues in Marvel: Avengers Alliance. While there were several bugs that were caused by the system update, users on the forums were quick to identify these issues and they were addressed in subsequent patches.

The game also released many updates to PVP in the form of Rolling Ladders. We are continuing to monitor the performance of players in the Ladders and are working hard to address issues as they arise.

Character Updates
Rogue
 * Generalist class - No class bonus, but no class weakness
 * Gains the benefits of other classes by using her Absorb Power ability
 * Can drain health and stamina from a target
 * Improves all of her abilities with Southern Comfort
 * The Kree Speed buff is a nod to Rogue’s backstory
 * Rogue gained her superhuman strength and ability to fly by absorbing them from Ms. Marvel
 * Rogue was unintentionally released with too much damage on abilities other than Brawl. This was quickly patched after her initial release
 * 8/17 Update - Swapped Absorb Power and Drain Energy
 * Absorb Power is a defining feature of Rogue’s power set. Because of this, Absorb Power is now Rogue’s Level 2 ability, and Drain Energy is now her Level 6 ability. This will improve Rogue’s combat ability at lower levels.
 * 8/17 Update - Replaced High Crits with Deadly Crits on Brawl and increased Brawl’s base damage.
 * The tooltip for this originally incorrectly listed Deadly Crits
 * This allows the “Blaster Power” buff gained from Absorb Power to be more useful
 * 8/17 Update - Fixed a bug where Stun was failing to apply after using Absorb Power

Mockingbird
 * Improved
 * New passive “Tactical Insight” - 50% chance to gain an extra turn when changing classes.
 * Change to Twin Strikes
 * Added Pressure Points - Chance to cause Dizzy, Slow, Exposed & Weakened
 * Change to Pole Vault
 * 60% chance to cause Stun
 * 100% chance to cause Combo Setup
 * Cooldown - 2 Rounds
 * Change to Critical Intel
 * Mockingbird changes to her target’s counter-class before her next attack
 * This means Mockingbird will gain the effect of the class bonus on the attack
 * If this causes Mockingbird to change classes, it can trigger Tactical Insight
 * Change to Mocking Blow
 * Increased stamina cost and damage
 * Added Deadly Crits
 * Fixed a bug where Critical Intel was causing Mockingbird to class change to the same class (and thus possibly gain extra turns)

Mr Fantastic
 * Improved
 * New Passive “Malleable” - May reduce damage from non-energy attacks
 * New Passive “Critical Thinking” - Attacks have a chance to cause Weak Point, making the next attack a crit
 * New uniform “Future Foundation Mr. Fantastic”
 * Uniform Passive “Flexible Thinking” - Single-target attacks have a chance to cause Distraction
 * Uniform Passive “Share the Future” - Grants Flexible Thinking to all teammates
 * 8/17 Update - Added Uniform Passive “Future Countdown”
 * Grants “Future Countdown” with two Future Foundation members
 * On round 4, grants “The Future is Now” - Increasing Attack and Accuracy by 35% for the remainder of the battle.
 * As of this update, Mr. Fantastic and Thing have Future Foundation alternate costumes.

8/17 Update - Thing
 * Updated passive “Interlocking Stones”
 * Immune to Bleeding, Burning and Chilled.
 * Very high Crit resistance.
 * New Uniform “Future Foundation Thing”
 * Uniform Passive “Tough Guy” - Permanently increases Defense when attacked.
 * Uniform Passive “Share the Future” - Grants Tough Guy to all teammates.
 * Uniform Passive “Future Countdown”
 * Grants “Future Countdown” with two Future Foundation members
 * On round 4, grants “The Future is Now” - Increasing Attack and Accuracy by 35% for the remainder of the battle.
 * As of this update, Mr. Fantastic and Thing have Future Foundation alternate costumes.

8/17 Update - Luke Cage
 * Updated passive “Unbreakable Skin”
 * Immune to Bleeding.
 * Very high Crit resistance.

8/17 Update - Colossus
 * Updated passive “Organic Steel”
 * Immune to Bleeding, Burning, and Chilled.
 * Resistant to Psychic attacks.
 * Very High Crit Resistance.

Emma Frost - rebalanced
 * Initial damage on Psychic Tap has been rebalanced
 * A majority of the damage caused by Psychic Tap comes from the Mental Anguish debuff, which is not reflected in the damage on the tooltip
 * Mental Anguish no longer stacks and does not trigger on counter-attacks
 * Damage for War Diamond was brought in line with other attacks that cause stun
 * Mental Trauma damage was reduced slightly
 * Despite these reductions Emma Frost is still performing very well damage-wise and she is seeing heavy use in both PVE and PVP

We are monitoring the effectiveness and usage of all of the playable heroes and will make future adjustments as necessary.

Combat Updates

 * Psychic attacks
 * Cannot be avoided with most evasion buffs (Kitty Pryde’s Phased, Storm’s Protective Shroud, etc.)
 * Goes through shield effects (Iron Man’s Deflector Shield, Invisible Woman’s Force Field, etc.)
 * Does not trigger counter-attacks (Infiltrator’s Class Bonus, Daredevil’s Radar Sense, Luke Cage’s In your Face, etc.)
 * Cannot be protected against (Colossus’s Steel Curtain, Captain America’s Shield Guard, etc.)


 * Psychic Energy attacks
 * Phoenix’s Phoenix Fire and Psi Blast are both energy and psychic attacks
 * These Phoenix Force augmented powers gain the advantages of psychic attacks but also work on mechanical targets!


 * Ground attacks (Thing’s Fault Line, Luke Cage’s Ground Pound, etc.)
 * Cannot be protected against (Colossus’s Steel Curtain, Captain America’s Shield Guard, etc.)
 * Cannot be avoided with most evasion (Invisible Woman’s Invisibility, Storm’s Protective Shroud, etc.)
 * Cannot hit flying targets


 * Mental Resilience, Mindless, and Mental Shield
 * Provides resistance or immunity to psychic attacks
 * Applied appropriately to mechanical or mindless enemies, Magneto and Juggernaut


 * Protect
 * No longer works on counter-attacks
 * No longer works while the character is stunned
 * Cannot protect against Ground or Psychic attacks
 * 8/17 update - Fixed a bug where protects are not being removed as buffs


 * Counter-attacks
 * Generally do not fire while the character is stunned

Bug Fixes
1. Many enemy attacks that were not properly tagged as energy or psychic have been corrected 2. Many enemies tagged incorrectly as robots have been corrected 3. Update 8/17 - Many statuses are now correctly tagged as buff or debuff, and are removed by abilities that remove buff / debuffs (Black Widow’s Flying Kick, Black Panther’s Vibranium Daggers, etc.)

Buff / Debuff Update

 * Pinpoint target (Hawkeye’s Pinpoint Target, The Digital Spotter, etc.)
 * Now allows characters to hit through many forms of evasion (Storm’s Protective Shroud, Mirror Image, Captain America’s Shield Guard, etc.)
 * For the purposes of “Removes Buffs”, the following statuses are now considered Buffs:
 * Absorb Energy
 * Armor Piercing
 * Blast Shield
 * Blazing Strength
 * Calculating Precision
 * Caltrop Damage!
 * Charged
 * Counter-attack
 * Dancing Flames
 * Deep Thought
 * Electromagnetic Energy
 * Eye of the Panther
 * Gathered Darkness
 * Gene Innoculation
 * Guile of the Panther
 * Hail Hydra!
 * Harness Chi
 * Hatebeam Focus
 * Heart of the Panther
 * Ideological Shield
 * In the Fray
 * Kinetic Energy
 * Kree Speed
 * Like a Rock
 * Mental Resilience
 * Optical Elusion
 * Paladin Array
 * Panther Stance
 * Power Amplification
 * Prevent Debuffs
 * Rage of the Panther
 * Recuperation
 * Regeneration
 * Resist Bleeding
 * Resist Burning
 * Resist Chilled
 * Resist Poison
 * Resist Stun
 * Revenge Tactics
 * Shadow Guard
 * Shield Guard
 * Spider-Sense
 * Super Heroic
 * Tempered Steel
 * Tripping
 * Unstoppable
 * Zap-8 (all levels)


 * For the purposes of “Removes Debuffs”, the following statuses are now considered Debuffs:
 * Biofeedback
 * Combo Setup
 * Constricted
 * Damage Amplifier
 * Dark Void
 * Easy Target
 * First Strike
 * In Your Face
 * Lock-On
 * Marked for Death
 * Melee Focus
 * Paralytic Toxin
 * Prevent Buffs
 * Psi-blast
 * Range Focus
 * Static Charge
 * Target Focus
 * Weak Mind

Gear Updates

 * The Rook
 * Now displays Not Usable when no ammo is available
 * The Bishop
 * Now displays Not Usable rather than a really long cooldown
 * Update 8/17 - Magnetic Field Generator
 * Now causes Exhaustion when it grants an extra turn
 * Does not grant an extra turn if the character has Exhaustion
 * Update 8/17 - The Experiment (Spec Ops Gear)
 * Now provides a permanent Deep Thought and Mental Resilience to the Agent while equipped
 * Can be used to grant temporary Deep Thought and Mental Resilience to all party members
 * Clears all psychic debuffs (Migraine, Mental Anguish, etc.) of all party members when used

Reference

 * 2012 08 17 Patch Notes