Match of the Millennium

The following changes are now live: FOCUS - Focus no longer decays when you take damage. - You no longer take 5% more damage for having a Focus bonus active. - Repeat uses of Focus in a fight will result in faster Focus decay. We are adding diminishing returns for some passives. While we do want passives to be a useful tool in fights, we also want to make sure there is some tension in when to use them or how often without making them useless to use more than once if the circumstances require it. We believe this design allows focus to remain useful for that initial strong To-Hit bonus when you want it, without being as strong for as many rounds otherwise. This might also make you consider the value in focusing on First Action. Since your first focus is going to be your best one, there might be value in saving it for later. While we were reviewing focus, we decided to get rid of some of the Focus drawbacks. Both of them tended to be more punishing to certain build types than others and both of them could be removed for anyone who wanted to with build options. Now that Focus no longer decays on taking damage, it provides a predictable bonus every time. The current numbers are as follows: FOCUS/DIRECT ------------ 1st Use - 20/14/10/ 7/ 0 2nd Use - 20/10/ 5/ 2/ 0 3rd Use - 20/ 6/ 2/ 0 4th Use - 20/ 0 FOCUS ----- 1st Use - 16/11/ 8/ 6/ 0 2nd Use - 16/ 8/ 4/ 2/ 0 3rd Use - 16/ 5/ 2/ 0 4th Use - 16/ 0 CHARGING - You no longer take 8% additional damage the round after Charging. Similar to the defense debuff of Focus, this penalty was situational in what builds it affected and could be removed entirely with build options. We decided Charging does not require this drawback so have removed it. COMPOSE - Compose restores less health but more reserve with each added use. - Compose costs twice the super with each use. In the same way we wanted to make you think about your use of Focus in a match, we also wanted to make Compose less reliable as a health gain tool outside of the first use each match. However, we did feel there is value in letting Compose be a Reserve restoring tool to help you when you need it, provided you're willing to pay the higher cost. The following are the numbers you'll see for Compose use: 1st Use - +12 H / +12 R / -7 S 2nd Use - +8 H / +15 R / -14 S 3rd Use - +4 H / +18 R / -28 S 4th Use - +0 H / +21 R / -56 S ANALYSIS - Old A ANALYSIS Rank removed - Old S ANALYSIS Rank, the use of 'health' on others, is now A Rank - New S ANALYSIS rank lets you use 'check' on others 2x per fight With the removal of focus decay upon taking damage, A ANALYSIS was no longer relevant. While the S Rank is handy, you could determine most of its info fairly accurately with the detailed meters you already got from D ANALYSIS, so we decided that it would be fine as an A Rank. The new S RANK lets you use 'check <fighter>' in a match up to two times in a match. You will only see their status output, not their reaction queue or odds. This ability only works if you are also in the fight with them. Once you have used 'check <fighter>' twice in a fight, you cannot use it again. This has no impact on using 'check' on minions you control and doing that will not count as a 'check' use on fighters. TOUGHNESS - Old D TOUGHNESS mechanic removed. - D TOUGHNESS now reduces Power Hit and Crit Hit bonus damage by 0.5. Now that Charging and Focus no longer cause you to take more damage, D TOUGHNESS no longer had a point. We decided this will be its new bonus, reducing the added damage you would take when you get power hit or crit hit. CALM - Restores 1 fewer ticks of health if you have TOUGHNESS Due to the damage reduction against Power/Crit hits TOUGHNESS now grants, CALM will restore less health if you get Power/Crit hit if you also have TOUGHNESS to prevent these mechanics from stacking too much. Enjoy, -GLaDOS

REFLECT - DEFLECT will now always REFLECT if the incoming attack has energy. It will only COUNTER if the attack is a Melee Attack with no energy. When the Sig Abil was created, we didn't have ability ranks and Melee Relecting was generally weaker than Countering. Now days, you get ability ranks that make your reflects just as strong as COUNTER for dealing damage, so DEFLECT will now prefer to REFLECT whenever possible. CHARISMA - CHALLENGE is now a FREE action. S Rank Abilities should feel easy to weave into fights at dramatic moments without having to trip over other Action Economy when possible. After evaluating CHALLENGE, we felt it is okay for it to be a FREE action to use on any turn whether or not you've burned a DM use that turn. It is still restricted to one use per fight. PRESENCE - SUPPRESS is now a FREE action. For all the same reasons CHALLENGE was changed. ANALYSIS - ASSESS [S Rank Analysis] will not reveal SHROUD charges when used on fighters with SIG MANIPULATE. - CLARITY is now a FREE action. For now, this is the only piece of info you cannot glean from checking other fighters. It didn't feel appropriate for a S Rank ability to serve as a counter for a Signature Ability. As an added note, you cannot ASSESS targets that are shrouded due to using HIDE, nor can you ASSESS when Dazed. Nor can you use 'health' on another fighter while Dazed. For CLARITY, it could often be hard to weave it into fights where you also had other DM actions and DMs themselves to account for. Now you can use it on any turn without worrying about if you want to use a DM as well. Note that the CLARITY bonuses do not stack with: - EVADE - DM/ALERTNESS - DM/SPEED - +EX - +SHIELD It does stack with DM/HYPER however. That's it for now. More changes coming later. -GLaDOS