Match of the Millennium

The following changes are now live with two big updates to RUSH and a small update to OVERBURN. RUSH - Using RUSH now builds levels of AGGRESSION, up to a maximum level of 2. The To-Hit bonus, Reserve Cost, and Reaction Penalty of RUSH scale according to the level of AGGRESSION you have at the time you use it, according to the following progression: AGGRESSION 0 = +[10]% To Hit / -[2]% Reserve / -[0]% Reaction Penalty AGGRESSION 1 = +[12]% To Hit / -[3]% Reserve / -[3]% Reaction Penalty AGGRESSION 2 = +[14]% To Hit / -[4]% Reserve / -[6]% Reaction Penalty AGGRESSION will decay by 1 level any turn that you do not use RUSH. If you perform a PASSIVE (focus, charge, pass, etc.), then your AGGRESSION level resets to 0. These changes are aimed at making RUSH the definitive Hitrate Ability. It has always struggled for a place against the power house that is +EX, with +EX providing the same hitrate bonus of RUSH and also cutting the move cost in half. With the AGGRESSION mechanic, sporadic use of RUSH has almost no drawback and maintains the same hitrate bonus it always has. If you want to hammer RUSH repeatedly, however, you can build up to a higher hitrate bonus than RUSH used to have (up to +[14]%), but doing so will incur a slightly larger reaction penalty than RUSH had before ([6]% up from [4]%) in exchange for this higher level of AGGRESSION. With the change to how RUSH's cost mechanics work, a minor tweak to the TOP mechanic was required. - The QUICKEN bonus of S RUSH now builds faster. The QUICKEN bonus starts at [4]% the first time you fail to connect. From there, it is doubled each time you are dodged or interrupted, or multiplied by 1.5 if you are blocked. This bonus caps at +[16]%. As usual, any time you land a blow, the QUICKEN bonus resets to [0]%. The adjustment to S RUSH is to make the QUICKEN bonus build faster. While we were happy with the premise of the mechanic, the bonus built too slow for it to feel relevant. Having to get dodged or interrupted 3 rounds in a row to only get a [9]% bonus did not pack quite the punch we want to see in the S Rank for abilities. Now it builds up faster if you aren't landing hits. For examples: DODGE, DODGE, DODGE = +4, +8, +16 to hit compared to +3, +6, +9 to hit DODGE, BLOCK, DODGE = +4, +6, +12 to hit compared to +3, +5, +8 to hit BLOCK, DODGE, BLOCK = +4, +8, +12 to hit compared to +2, +5, +7 to hit BLOCK, DODGE, INT = +4, +8, +16 to hit compared to +2, +5, +8 to hit The exact mechanics for RUSH A are still being evaluated, as there is tension between its current design and the new AGGRESSION mechanic. We'll see if there should be some changes there. OVERBURN - No longer prevents health recovery mechanics and no longer blocks use of passives. This is a tuning adjustment to DM/OVERBURN to make it less punitive to use. For our OVERBURN DMs, the target tends to be approximately +2 DMs worth of bonus for around 1 DM in penalty, and this adjustment puts DM/OVERBURN right in line with that target. The health recovery block reduced the number of builds DM/OVERBURN really fit on, and that made its general adoption an uphill battle. -3 health for 3 turns is balance enough. Enjoy. -GLaDOS

The following update is now live: CONTROL - CONTROL is now a Free Action. This also applies to MODIFY and SIG CONTROL. - CONTROL's TOP bonus is now a flat [2]% Super Discount. All uses of CONTROL are now a Free Action, which means they no longer count as your Active Ability use for the turn. CONTROL has always struggled for a place amid our other active abilities since it didn't really provide a direct power boost like most active ability options. Instead, it allowed for adaptability with your attacks to cover different circumstances. A robust attack list can also cover most needs that come up in fights, however, and CONTROL's niche has mostly been that it let you put flags on your Normals to make them into slow specials. Rather than looking for ways to make CONTROL more competitive as an Active Ability, we have decided to change it to being a FREE Action instead so that it no longer competes for your Action economy. With the old TOP mechanic becoming baseline, we gave CONTROL a new TOP mechanic. As a reminder, things you can do with CONTROL include any 2 of the following: - Adding standard Effect flags (ATK+, DEF+, INT+, EVD+, CRUSH, PRIORITY, SAP, PRESS, PROXIMITY) - Adding restricted Effect flags (COUNTER, REFLECT with the abilities, DEADLY with the trait) - Adding CAPTURE ( C Rank ) - Adding SHIFT ( B Rank ) - Adding DASH ( A Rank ) - Adjusting moves Up/Down in Power Level or Speed by 1 level ( S Rank ) In addition, with SIG CONTROL, the following two additional options become available: - Adding Damage Types ( SIG Abil ) - Adding Overdrive Flags to Supers ( SIG Abil ) Please continue to enjoy being controlled. -GLaDOS