Fresh of the press are some new updates to Marvel Heroes. If you haven’t checked this game out you must, its extremely fun. We covered this game at the 2013 PAX East event. Below are notes from today’s patch.
Content Changes
All characters will receive a free respec since we’ve buffed so many powers for so many heroes. Upon switching to a new hero you will need to re-allocate their power points.
Options: A new option has been added to show player & boss overhead health bars. This option defaults to ‘off’. This should make enemies easier to see, especially in Limbo. Enemy bars are always on during PVP.
Sound effects heard during loading screens have now been turned off.
Hero Changes
Design Note: We are currently reviewing as many heroes as possible to ensure they have several fun, powerful builds, and this is an ongoing process. Changes could be as small as changing a few numbers or as large as completely redesigning a hero’s power systems. The goal is to buff things that are weak, rather than nerfing things that are strong. We collect data from many sources, especially the feedback threads on the Hero Discussion forums.
When we tune a hero, it does not mean we are done with a hero, not even close. Every hero will continue to be tweaked, tuned and improved until they are perfect, nothing less.
We believe you should be able to play whatever hero you think is cool and be assured they are fun and powerful. If the current hero you play doesn’t fit that description, rest assured we are working on it.
We are putting through many changes each week, which means there may be bugs that can’t possibly be caught by internal testing. We will address these quickly, but feel free to enjoy anything that is overpowered while we work on it!
General Hero Changes
All powers that increase defenses have been greatly increased, to match the retuning previously done on items to improve their defense performance. This is just one step towards making sure melee characters are fun and appropriately durable. Work continues on the system, with several options on the table. The following powers now provide a much greater defense boost:
- Black Panther: Panther Soul
- Cable: Vigilant Aura
- Captain America: Combat Veteran, Fighting Spirit
- Colossus: Bulwark of Steel, Heroic Challenge, Protective Aura
- Hawkeye: Combat Training
- Hulk: Hulk Tough, Anger secondary resource
- Jean Grey: Bolstering Aura, Reinforcing Aura
- Ms. Marvel: Kree Toughness, Stellar Flare, Binary Overdrive
- Punisher: Pain Tolerance
- Storm: Refreshing Breeze
- Thing: Hard as Rock, Guardian Aura
- Thor: Asgardian Stamina
- Wolverine: Adamantium Skeleton
Flight speed has been increased. The starting percentage increase is now 30%. Flight speed maxes at a 70% movement speed increase at 40 ranks. The speed of this will probably be toned down in the future, but we are trying it at this for now
Black Panther
Design Note: Black Panther is scheduled for a full review soon, but we wanted to buff his Ultimate Power ASAP.
Black Panther’s Ultimate Power (Panther God’s Gift)
- Increased radius of resurrection area by 150%.
- Increased radius of buff/debuff area by 25%.
- Replaced heal over time buff with invulnerability buff.
- Added cleanse/free other heroes buff instead of just a tenacity buff.
- Increased duration (scales with ranks) of movement speed and tenacity buffs.
- Cooldown scales with ranks
Black Widow
Design Note: Black Widow received a few small buffs this patch but will get full review in the near future to ensure she has several powerful, fun builds.
Stinging Barrage: Damage slightly increased to be consistent with Cyclops’ Optic Barrage. Cost increased per shot from 2 to 3 spirit.
Deadly Shot: Fixed a bug where the power was not correctly receiving bonuses from the Fighting Skills stat.
Black Widow’s Ultimate Power (Twilight Initative)
- All benefits now scale with rank.
- Added damage bonus.
- Increased buff duration.
- Changed defense penetration to be a percentage
- Changed defense buff to be a percentage of current defense.
Cable
Design Note: While Cable is strong in many situations, we still want to improve the powers that are not used currently to give him multiple build options. We also want to examine his quality of life issues to ensure he plays smoothly and is fun.
Cable’s Ultimate Power (Bodyslider Bomb)
- Increased summon range and area of power by 100%.
- Added taunt to Future Cable to keep enemies near him.
Plasma Barrage:This was changed to an Energy ability in this patch, but will be changed to both an Energy and Fighting ability for the next patch.
Captain America
Design Note: Captain America changes are under development. Please continue to provide excellent feedback in the Captain America Hero Forum.
Dynamic Charge and Heroic Charge now synergize as Cap’s basic powers do.
Captain America’s Ultimate Power (Fighting Spirit)
- Increased radius of power by 25%.
- Increased buff duration.
- Power now restores a percentage of maximum spirit.
Colossus
Design Note: Colossus has a design upgrade planned. We want several options to be powerful so he isn’t a one-hit wonder.
Colossus’ Ultimate Power (Fastball Special)
- Increased Wolverine’s duration.
Cyclops
Design Note: Cyclops will receive a design review later this month. He needs upgrades to ensure he is fun and powerful with multiple builds. He will also obviously lose the ability to single-handedly kill Limbo bosses from 100% to zero with his Ultimate Power. We will be reviewing feedback in the Cyclops Hero Forum, so please take the oppurtunity to share your thoughts.
Channeled Blast: Increased the damage.
Optic Barrage: Evened out damage growth per rank.
Cyclops’ Ultimate Power (Maximum Optic Beam)
- Decreased channeling bonus damage.
- Increased base power damage.
- You can now turn Cyclops with the mouse while using this power.
- Can no longer be interrupted by crowd control effects.
Daredevil
Design Note: A full design review of Daredevil started today, with major upgrades slated for a patch next week. All areas of his powers are being reviewed and improved. This patch has a small upgrade to his Ultimate Power, but expect it to be improved significantly in the future.
Daredevil’s Ultimate Power (Elektra Alliance)
- Increased Elektra’s resistances.
- Gave Elektra some dodge bonus.
Hulk
Design Note: Hulk has a buff to his Ultimate Power this patch but will receive a full design review in a future patch.
Savage Swing: Now displays damage for the next rank.
Vicious Headbutt and Mighty Smash now synergize the same way as his basic powers.
Hulk’s Ultimate Power (Meteor Strike)
- Increased damage dealt by 50%.
- Increased main area of power by 66%.
Iron Man
Design Note: Iron Man has a lot of improvements with this patch but still needs additional work to ensure he has several viable builds.
All basic powers were increased in damage slightly.
Channeled Repulsors: Increased damage. Animations have been sped up.
Death from Above: Damage increased slightly.
Disruptor Beam: Now reduces energy damage instead of slowing their movement speed.
Energy Shield: Now replenishes spirit while active.
Kinetic Shield: Now replenishes health while active.
Repulsor Barrage: Slightly increased damage.
Reserve Power: Now also buffs defense.
Shield Overload: Updated Shield Overload tooltip to accurately describe functionality.
Shield Shutdown: Now gives a flat spirit restore (% of max) instead of regeneration, and has a cooldown. Also has a new passive effect – while any shield is up, you gain increased defenses with ranks in Shield Shutdown.
Ms. Marvel
Design Note: Ms. Marvel is due for a large review in the future, but has a few small buffs today.
Photonic Devastation: Increased damage.
Ms. Marvel’s Ultimate Power (Binary Overdrive)
- Added damage shield to Ms. Marvel while power is in effect.
Punisher
Design Note: The Punisher has many improvements this patch and will continue to get improvements until he is extremely fun, has multiple builds and is the ultimate killing machine!
Statistics: Punisher now starts with an Energy statistic of 2 (up from 1, and still hits 3 at level 34).
Basic power synergies all brought in line with the 3% as seen on Rifle Shot.
Chemical Mine: Buffed to deal damage in addition to debuffing enemy stats, but debuff no longer scales in duration.
Cold-Blooded Crusader: Now slows fleeing target’s movement, and unlocks at level 10 instead of 20.
Deadly Barrage:Now correctly considered a Fighting Power, and gains bonuses from the Fighting stat. Now also considered as an AoE power for the purposes of item and bonus interactions.
Explosive Rocket: Base damage scaling increased.
Flechette Blast: Base damage scaling increased. Synergy now correctly affects bleed, and now reduces enemy defenses.
Impact Shot: Base damage scaling increased, now slows enemies in addition to knocking them back.
Killer Instinct: Unlocks at level 20 instead of 18, bonus damage adjusted to match unlock level.
Mines: All mines now throw and blow up a little faster.
Pain Tolerance: Unlocks at level 18 instead of 10, early defense adjusted to match unlock level.
Proximity Mine: Base damage scaling increased, now deals double damage to feared enemies.
Shotgun: Increased range and damage scaling, now deals double damage to feared enemies.
Show No Mercy: Now triggers off Fear and Stun instead of Knockdown and Stun. Also improved range and detection slightly.
Steel-Toed Kick: Chance to knock down changed to chance to stun.
Sticky Mine: Buffed to deal damage in addition to immobilizing enemies.
Punisher’s Ultimate Power (Grim Retribution)
- Can now be used at any time regardless of health.
- Greatly increased damage and resistance buffs.
- Changed chance to gain fear ability to chance to gain vengeance.
Rocket Raccoon
Design Note: Raccoon is due for a powers review early next month. Until then, we will have a few small improvements here and there.
Energy Barrage: Slightly increased the damage to be consistent with Cyclops’ Optic Barrage.
Big Flarkin’ Gun: Now correctly considered an Energy power, and gains bonuses from the Energy stat. Damage increased to better match similar powers, due to the smaller area that this power affects.
Tactical Destruction: Fixed a bug where the power was not correctly receiving bonuses from the Energy stat.
Rocket Raccoon’s Ultimate Power (Spatial Warp Array)
- Added damage over time to the turret’s power.
Spider-Man
Design Note: Spider-Man has some upgrades in this patch and has more planned for the next several patches. The goal, as always, is to give him several fun and powerful build options. Please provide feedback on changes in the Spider-Man Hero Forum.
Statistics: Spider-Man now starts with an Energy statistic of 2.
Agile Attack: Greatly increased damage.
Amazing Uppercut: Increased damage.
Ballistic Web Shot: Increased overall damage.
Corrosive Web Fluid: Power is now a toggle which reduces maximum spirit by 20 when active.
Spider Strike: Increased overall damage.
Sticky Strike: Increased overall damage.
Web ‘Em All: Increased damage.
Web Shot: Increased damage.
Webswing Assault: Increased overall damage.
Web-Swinging: Now also grants bonus movement speed when not swinging.
Spider-Man’s Ultimate (Amazing Smash)
- Greatly increased damage.
- Now correctly bypasses enemy crowd control resistances.
Thing
Design Note: Thing is due for a full powers improvement review in the near future.
Thing’s Ultimate Power (Pulverizing Fury)
- Added immobilize effect.
- Can no longer be interrupted by crowd control effects.
Thor
Design Note: Thor has many upgrades this patch. There is still more to do, but this is a good first step. The goal is to buff other abilities to compete with Bring the Thunder, so several build options are equally viable in different situations.
Almighty Mjolnir: Increased the damage by roughly 20%. Added tooltips that show the various aspects of the damage the power deals.
Asgardian Smite: Roughly doubled the damage of the power. Slightly sped up the recovery animation to make the power more responsive. Reduced the cost from 36 to 32.
Hammer Punch: Removed the knockback on the power and replaced it with a scaling duration stun, to be more beneficial in melee combat. Reduced the spirit cost from 15 to 14.
Hammer Smash: Sped up the animation to make the power more responsive. Lowered the cost slightly. Increased the damage slightly.
Hammer Throw: Sped up the animation and hammer travel speed to be more responsive. Increased damage.
Lightning Smash: Added the Fighting Skills keyword to this power to ensure it gains the full damage bonus from Hammer Strike.
Mighty Shockwave: Sped up the animation and shockwave travel time to make the power more responsive. Increased the shockwave width and length by roughly 10% each to hit more targets.
Storm Strike: Added the Fighting Skills keyword to this power to ensure it gains the full damage bonus from Hammer Strike.
Thundering Strike: Increased damage slightly.
Thunderous Charge: Removed Odinforce cost.
Whirling Hammer Defense: Reduced the start-up cost to 6 from 10, and the per-second cost to 3 from 4.
Thor’s Ultimate Power (All Father’s Boon)
- Increased the bonus ranks to all powers to +5 at rank 1.
- Increased the aura area to fullscreen, so more friendly players are affected.
Wolverine
Design Note: Design Note: Wolverine has been training in the Danger Room and has come out much stronger. He will continue to train until he has reached the max level of fun and powerful. We will monitor all changes and improve him as needed.
Fury (secondary resource) has been revamped. You now gain Fury in two ways: a small amount of Fury with each of your hits and a large amount of Fury with each critical hit. Fury no longer decays.
We removed mandatory Fury effects from:
- Adrenaline Rush: Increased base duration by 50%.
- Can’t Keep Me Down: Always grants the immunity buff.
- Feral Growl: Increased duration/scaling by 100%.
- Regeneration Boost: No Fury required.
- Slashing Leap: Now always applies a bleed effect.
Bloody Victory: Added passive effect when equipped that gives a damage buff when you crit/kill an enemy.
Brutal Slash: Increased animation/attack speed, redesigned:
- Can only be used when you have Fury to spend.
- Uses all available Fury, deals single target damage per pip.
Feral Senses: Now grants a chance to dodge incoming skillshot-based range attacks, in addition to the minimap functionality.
Hack and Slash: Now causes additional damage on a critical hit, not on killing a target. Additional damage slightly reduced to compensate. Overall, should be much more powerful.
Healing Factor: Buffed significantly. It now increases by a scaling multiplier based on rank. This changes very little at low ranks, but at rank 20 is a 300% increase. Also now grants healing on hit with any basic Fighting Power and the amount of healing per hit has been greatly increased.
I’m The Best There Is: Increased animation, attack speed, and damage.
Quick Slash: Increased attack speed by a significant amount.
Cage the Beast: Added 5 second cooldown to prevent accidentally wasting Fury by hitting it twice. Let us know how this feels to you.
Slashing Leap: Added base bleed damage on top of the synergy bleed damage.
Rending Sweep: Removed knockdown, reduced spirit cost from 15 to 8, increased damage and area size.
Scattering Rend: Now named Eviscerate, and redesigned:
- Can only be used when you have fury to spend.
- Knocks down instead of knocks back.
- Uses all available Fury pips, and deals a high amount of damage per pip.
- Slightly increased area of effect.
Wolverine’s Ultimate Power (Savage Recovery)
- Increased healing done.
- Removed restriction on using it, fixed bug where Fury wasn’t properly being filled on power use.
Changes to Enemies and Bosses
Sentinel experience has been increased by almost 70%.
Doop has been temporarily removed from the game. He is traveling.
Affix Changes
- “Ignores Defense” affixes has been removed entirely.
- ‘Heals When Dealing Damage’ has been renamed to ‘Lifesteal’ to be more clear. Bosses with the Lifesteal affix now heal 2% of damage dealt, down from 20%. This should make Limbo bosses more reasonable. We will continue to tune this amount until it’s perfect.
- ‘Damage Shield’ has been renamed ‘Invulnerability Shield’ to be more clear. Enemies with this power occasionally gain immunity to attacks.
- Red Terminal bosses can now spawn with a wider-variety of powers. Implosion, Slow Aura, Armored, Energy Resist, and Mental Resist have been added to their power lists.
Mandarin Changes
- Projectile speed on Mandarin’s Convussive Blast reduced by 25%.
- Animation wind-up time on Mandarin’s Ice Ring increased by 100%
- Animation wind-up time on Mandarin’s Flame Ring power increased by 100%.
- Mandarin’s Flame Ring power now correctly deals energy damage, which has been reduced by 20%.
Endgame Changes
Enemy experience has been increased in green terminals, red terminals and purple ’spoke‘ Group Challenges. This is a significant buff to experience in these zones. We will continue to adjust these amounts until they are all worthwhile.
Bosses in Limbo now appear physically larger to help with visibility.
Cosmic Keys
We removed Cosmic Key requirements for entering all zones. We want the zones to be accessible to everyone. As a result, we have removed Cosmic Keys from the in-game store for now.
All existing Cosmic Keys in players’ inventories will be changed into a new item at a later date.
Summoned Pet Changes
Design Note: We are continuing to buff the power level of summoned pets. We want pets to stick around and deal damage. This philosophy applies to pets summoned from items or hero powers.
Wundagore Figurine
- Doubled damage dealt by summoned raptor.
- Multiplied health of summoned raptor by 4.7.
- Increased duration of summoned raptor from 30 seconds to one minute.
Tome of Zhered-Na
- Doubled damage dealt by summoned lava dog.
- Multiplied health of summoned lava dog by 4.7.
- Increased duration of summoned lava dog from 30 seconds to one minite.
- Increased summoned lava dog’s attack speed.
Latverian Regalia
- Doubled damage dealt by summoned doomdrone.
- Multipled health of summoned doomdrone by 6.
- Increased summoned doomdrone duration from 30 seconds to one minute.
- Increased summoned doomdrone’s attack speed.
A.I.M. Robot Dispenser
- Multipled death machine damage by 1.2.
- Multiplied summoned death machines health by 1.9.
- Increased death machine lifespan from 30 seconds to one minute.
- Increased attack speed of A.I.M. death machines.
- Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
Raptor Stone
- Multiplied health of summon by 4.8.
- Increased lifespan from 120 seconds to 180 seconds.
Bloodstone Raptor
- Multiplied damage of summoned raptor by 1.2.
- Multiplied health of summoned raptor by 5.
- Increased attack speed of summoned raptor.
- Increased lifespan of summoned raptor from 20 seconds to one minute.
Mask of Doom:
- Doubled damage of summoned doombots.
- Multiplied health of summoned doombots by 5.6.
- Increased attack speed of summoned doombats.
- Increased lifespan of summoned doombots from 20 seconds to one minute.
- Reduced cooldown from 90 seconds to 1 minute.
Mister Sinister’s Medal/Medallion
- Multiplied damage dealt by clones by 2.3
- Multiplied health of all clones by 4.8
- Increased lifespan of each clone from 15 seconds to one minite.
Moleman’s Medal/Medallion
- Multiplied damage of Moloid Leaper by 2.3.
- Multiplied health of Moloid Leaper by 1.8.
- Increased lifespan of Moloid Leaper from 30 seconds to one minite.
Item Changes
Design Note: We are working on new types of items to add to the game in the next few weeks and months. We are pretty excited internally about some of the stuff. Our goal with items is to give you many options to customize your character in fun and interesting ways. We also consider hero powers very closely when we work on new items.
For this patch, the changes that were ready included many buffs to artifacts and pet-based items. We will continue to iterate on these until they are all appropriately powerful and fun.
Atlantean Jewel: Doubled defense.
Blinding Brazier of Balthakk: Overall, increased damage, by making burn damage scale on a curve instead of give the wearer a flat number bonus.
Bloodstone Eagle: Increased damage affix on Bloodstone Eagle by 50%.
Bloodstone Eel: Quadrupled damage dealt by energy damage proc.
Bloodstone Jaguar: Increased damage bonus affix by 50%.
Bloodstone Lion: Reduced cooldown from one minute to 20 seconds and increased health bonus by 20%.
Bloodstone Mammoth: Tripled defense and added a tenacity affix.
Bloodstone Panther: Increased maximum attack speed bonus, increased health bonus by 50%, and reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
Chthonic Idol: Damage increased. Listed damage dealt by fire and poison procs in tooltip.
Circlet of Cyttorak: Increased amount of spirit gained through any orb on Circlet of Cyttorak
Crimson Crystal of Cyttorak: Can now be used in the crafting recipe to put a visual on your costume.
Elektra’s Medal/Medallion: Now grant a movement speed increase.
Extremis Serum: Quadrupled bonus damage rewarded when below 30% below health.
Fantastic Force Field: Buffed physical and energy defense.
Flames of the Faltine: Doubled damage.
Green Goblin Medal/Medallion: Increased damage.
Hellfang of Zarathos: Increased damage dealt by fire proc by a factor of 7.
Hood’s Medal/Medallion: Now burns mobs near you if you drop below 40% health.
Idol of Khonshu: Doubled bonus damage.
Ivory Idol of Ikonn: Reduced cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds and made the invisibility last the full 5 seconds regardless of attacks.
Ka-Zar’s Pendant: Added a movement speed affix.
Lady Deathstrike’s Medal/Medallion: Now grants a movement speed increase.
Mark of the Odinborn: Reduced cooldown on Mark of the Odinborn from 30 seconds to 20 seconds and buffed the spirit bonus affix. Now gives you additional spirit when you pick up an orb.
Mask of Doom: Tripled defense affix and changed it from physical to energy.
Metasensory Array: Changed the attack speed on Metasensory Array from a negative proc to positive 1-5%.
Oculus Oroboros: Tripled physical defense bonus.
Phoenix Feather: Added VFX so that players can tell when they have been revived. Increased the amount of health you are revived with from 5% to full.
Ringed Ruby of Raggadorr: Reduced cooldown for invulnerability affix from 60 seconds to 20 seconds.
Scrolls of Watoomb: Listed damage dealt correctly in tooltip. Multiplied damage dealt by proc by 7.
Shi’Ar Cloaking Device: Minor buff to backstab damage bonus.
Skrull Targeting Computer: Minor buff to backstab damage bonus.
Super-Soldier Serum: Increased health regen by 85%.
Talisman of Hoggoth: Increased health regen by 250%.
Tome of Oshtur: Tripled health regeneration and reduced its cooldown from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
Tome of Zhered-Na: Listed damage dealt correctly in tooltip. Multiplied damage dealt by proc by 18.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where destructible items (cars, trash bags) would constantly respawn, causing significant performance issues.
Fixed an issue where Doctor Doom could leave dormancy and would not correctly remove the visibility state.
Fixed a bug where Doom portal would not appear in Tier 2 red terminal.
Fixed possible chance of getting locked in place when leaving Doom’s boss room during his death animation.
Fixes to multiple tooltips throughout the game.
Stealth powers (such as Black Panther’s Stealthy Escape) will no longer prevent orbs from being picked up. This will make a big impact for certain heroes.
The Hood should no longer teleport to unreachable areas.
Slow on Attack Speed effects are now capped at 50%.
Hero Bug Fixes
Black Panther: Ultimate Power now includes a buff and debuff durations
Cable: Vortex Grenade: Fixed a bug that caused the slow to fall off while the enemy was still in the vortex. Updated tooltip to correctly show that the power does not deal variable damage.
Captain America: Leaping Strike now stops at the first enemy he hits.
Colossus: Steel Splash: Fixed a bug that prevented the power from traveling over some obstacles.
Hawkeye: Freeze Arrow: Now correctly visually freezes Mutates.
Hulk: Anger Secondary Resource: Fixed a bug that prevented Hulk from gaining defense based on the number of pips.
Hulk: Fixed Earthquake Leap bug where Anger cost was doubled and prevented Destructive Mayhem from activating.
Iron Man: Reflective Shield: corrected a bug that prevented the power from correctly reflecting damage.
Jean Grey: Reduced Jean Grey fear duration which was unintentionally long, resulting in boss fights where a boss never had a chance to attack. There may still be issues with fears not properly being mitigated by boss resists as intended. This may also apply to crowd control powers which affect AI behavior and aren’t technically classified as “debuffs”.
Rocket Raccoon: Forceful Shot can now be slotted on right mouse button. (We are working on making almost everything slottable almost everywhere.)
Spider-Man: Amazing Smash: fixed a bug that prevented the dodge bonus from maxing out.
Spider-Man: There is no longer a checkered material when webbing up the Mutates with Spider-Man’s Stick Around power.
Spider-Man: Web ‘Em All: increased damage per tick, but power now correctly only deals damage to enemies inside the web line.
Thor: All Father’s Boon: Now halts movement during initial cast and can be slotted on the right mouse button.
Thor: Powers that optionally spend Odinforce should now call those costs out in power tooltips.
Source: Marvel Heroes Developer Blog
