Approximately 2 weeks ago Paragon Studios and NCsoft unveiled their latest addition to the “City of” of family of games in Going Rogue (GR). Gr is the second expansion to City of Heroes (CoH). The first expansion, City of Villains (CoV), was released back in the end of October 2005, so there has been a considerable wait for this expansion / new game.
The action takes place on a parallel world of Praetorian Earth, not to be confused with Primal Earth of CoH and CoV. This new world takes players to all new locales with some familiar yet oddly behaving faces. No longer is the player confined to a villain or hero role from the get go, but chooses their own path through various decisions on the missions they undertake in the new fascist world. Not only has this new starting world been created, but many other changes have been made to the whole family of City games. I plan on tackling my take (so far) on these changes / additions.
With all of the changes, updates and new content, I think it best to address the changes in the various archetypes and powers, first:
General changes of note:
- Archery/Trick Arrow (All) – Cast Time and Animation Changes
- Explosive Arrow cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.00s
- Stunning Shot cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.00s
- Flash Arrow cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.00s
- Ice Arrow cast time reduced from 1.83s to 1.67s
- Improved the lighting reliability of Oil Slick Arrow.
- To reduce the travel times involved in larger zones, changes were made to some movement powers.
Most of these points are great news for the players. Say what you will about archery, but speeding up those cast times will certainly help the would be archery players out there. I know my archery blaster will certainly benefit from these changes. Almost everyone celebrates when travel time is reduced (see WoW granting players instant communication with their contacts), but I am conflicted. Sure I hate wasting valuable play time getting from point A to point B, but for new players or when taking on a new zone, it can really help to learn the lay of the land. I suppose in the ling run I am pleased with this as well since one can still learn the geography, even if they are going past it a faster speeds.
Some changes of great note in the archetypes:
Brute Fury has now been changed. This, of course, lead to a great rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth, but in my opinion this is a welcome change. Now Brutes have an easier time getting their fury meter to lower levels and an easier time maintaining that level, while the opposite holds true at the highest levels of fury. The end result is an improvement to me because it allows for less hectic and rushed play by the brute. For the players that embraced running amok this will be a disappointment.
Stalkers have had an interesting change made to their lives. Their toggle powers will no longer have an effect on targets while they remain hidden. This change should help the sneaky buggers in their play. They no longer will have to miss their assassination attempts due to their offensive toggles alerting enemies to their presence.
I would be remiss in this piece if I did not bring up the four brand new power sets. These sets each will give players more to play with their new Praetorian characters and hopefully not be unbalanced powers for the world in general.
The first two sets, Dual Pistols and Demon summoning have been available for months to those players that pre-ordered Going Rogue. Demon Summoning is a Mastermind set that has been long clamored for, by the Mastermind community. The animations on these summoned demons look great and their noisiness is quit alarming and annoying in great numbers. Try hanging out at the Black Market in Cap Au Diable and try to disagree with me. The other powers in this set may be a bit unbalanced as the hellfire whip not only provides some melee and non-melee attacks, but is also does fire and toxic damage. Time will tell if this set is unbalanced, but I can tell you it is a lot of fun. Dual Pistols was sought after even longer than the Demon Summoning. In my opinion this Corrupter, Blaster, and Defender set is indeed well balanced and offers a great play experience. The real fun of this set is not in the “gun kata” like animations. I frankly find these lame and wish I could select different animations that are not inspired by a Christian Bale movie. No, the fun comes from the “Swap Ammo” power. Swapping ammo grants the player the choice on how their power’s secondary effects are delivered. No ammo produces wonderful knockback types, fire ammo will yield DOT, toxic ammo provides a nice little debuff, and finally ice ammo will slow the targets. This play dynamic makes for quite a fun experience.
The other two sets; Electric Control and Kinetic Melee are intriguing. Electric Control is for the Dominators and Controllers out there. I have only spent a tiny amount of time with this set to date, but it seems like it could be a lot of fun to not only play crowd control with electricity, but do a little endurance draining on the side with the help of some electricity gremlins! I have spent some more time with Kinetic melee but the jury is still out on this Tanker, Scrapper, and Brute set. I went the Brute route with this and have not been disappointed thus far, but I am a little worried about granting a ranged power to melee classes at such low levels. The animations are fun and work well with what ever origin players can come up with their new creations.
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