Match of the Millennium

This update mostly contains minor balance adjustments. STEADFAST While the numbers on this trait seemed small, this trait was actually granting a tremendous amount of block penalty recovery. If we look at it as +4% reduction in BP per round (once you have any at all), it is essentially a stacking +4% to block every round for the rest of the fight until you zero out your block penalty. Mechanically, this trait was strong enough that basically every character in the game should have taken it regardless of build. It has been redesigned now to limit its potential impact on a fight: STEADFAST - Lose [3]% additional Block Penalty per turn, down from [4]%. - This BP reduction will only happen for up to [3] turns in a row before it shuts off. It will remain shut off until you have [0%] BP, at which point you will get another [3] ticks. The goal of this redesign is to allow STEADFAST to continue to provide a bonus to block penalty reduction as intended but cap its potential per fight. If you lean on block too heavily you will never zero out your penalty which will cap you at [9]% BP reduction. If you use block sporadically, then the numerical impact of STEADFAST will not be too significant because you aren't using block all that much anyway, so even if you manage to get 6 or more ticks of BP decay out of it, it's on a reaction you aren't leaning on too heavily. SKILLED SKILLED is one of those grab bag traits where the individual mechanics aren't too strong, but when added up together, it amounts to a fair amount of to-hit and bonus reaction chances. The bonus to react has been one of the strongest numerical bonuses to dodge/block/endure, capping out at [6]% against any attacks with 3 flags, but even sitting at a reliable [4]% against attacks with two flags which are fairly common. This made it the second strongest reaction bonus trait in the game next to TENACIOUS and TENACIOUS only provides bonuses stronger than that when you are getting worked. So... I've toned down the reaction bonus: SKILLED - Gain +[1]% to react per optional flag on opponent's attacks. This bonus caps at [6]%. No other changes. Even with this nerf, SKILLED remains a numerically effective trait. NOVA I have been happy with the NOVA rebalance already delivered. However, a good case has been made that the mechanic doesn't really need to block health regen mechanics. If you lean too hard on NOVA, you are going to eat a tick that will work you no matter what kind of health regen you have. As such, the following change has been made: NOVA - No longer blocks all Health Recovery mechanics. Only the following are blocked: SECOND_WIND, LAST STAND, REST, NEXTROUND Enjoy. If you know what's good for you. -GLaDOS

Introducing a new FLAG that you can apply to your attacks! CAPTURE CAPTURE is intended to represent attacks that are all about setting your opponent up for a follow up attack. These can be re-positioning techniques or launchers that mostly exist to leave the opponent open to a follow up attack. Prime examples include: Scorpion's Spear Quan Chi's Trance Iori's Scum Gale Chris's Direction Change Orochi Yashiro's Kujiku Daichi Athena's Super Psychic Throw These attacks are about forcing a close range exchange of attacks that favor the one using the CAPTURE attack and so the mechanics of this new flag have been designed with that in mind. Note that many of the above examples actually do zero damage in the source games. Because 0 damage attacks are boring, we would require these attacks to be slightly modified pose-wise to support dealing damage in the process of forcing your opponent off balance. CAPTURE - On Successful Hit, the target gains a CAPTURED effect and the attacker gains the CAPTURING effect. - CAPTURED grants +[10]% to hit on their next attack back at you, but inflicts a [1] Power Level debuff on their attack. - CAPTURING grants a +[10]% to hit on your next attack and also grants a [1] Power Level bonus on your next attack. The above are the basic mechanics. Land the attack and the above two effects are triggered. Don't land the attack and nothing happens. There are a few other things to note, however: - PROJECTILES can have CAPTURE on them. PROJECTILES with CAPTURE will work like normal PROJECTILES in terms of not being able to be countered, but they will not apply a penalty to interrupting nor will they apply a projectile debuff if they connect. - CAPTURE PROJs that get reflected will not retain the CAPTURE flag. - If you have either the CAPTURED or CAPTURING effect active on yourself and use a multi-target/area attack on that turn, the CAPTURED or CAPTURING effects are negated all together. They have no application in multi-target attacks. - You can multi-target CAPTURE attacks, however, and it will apply the CAPTURED effect to anyone who gets cleanly hit, but you will only have a CAPTURING bonus against the last target to get hit by your attack. - You can interrupt with a CAPTURE attack and everything will work like normal. - You can interrupt a CAPTURE attack and the only difference will be that you take your turn with the CAPTURED effect after the CAPTURING player gets to take their turn, whereas normally they get to attack first. - Finally, it is possible to be both CAPTURED and CAPTURING at the same time in a group fight depending on attack order and outcomes... I can only imagine the insane pose that would suggest. NOTE: The CAPTURE mechanic implies a certain flow to the fight. You can't get hit by a capture attack, then pose a monologue, then throw your attack back at the opponent. That would be like someone reading off their fevered manifesto while Scorpion reels them in for an uppercutting. It just doesn't make any kind of sense. When CAPTURE is in play, it is assumed that things are going to play out extremely quickly for at least the next round of poses and your poses should reflect that or you'll end up posing something that completely defies the mechanics in play and then Jackal will descend from his high castle to unleash a fierce whipping the likes of which you cannot possibly imagine. CAPTURE can be added via the dojo like any other effect. If you have an attack you want to get it on but the dojo wants to charge you precious AP for the change, feel free to fire off an email to the standard email address for a revision request so that we can apply the new effect for free. Finally, as part of this update, a lot of underlying code changes were made to facilitate easier future effects development. If you notice anything different about PROJ or EVD+/DEF+/INT+, please report the issues as these mechanics should continue to work as they always have. -GLaDOS

Going forward, the CLARITY mechanic of SIG ANALYSIS no longer serves as a strong counter to the MANIPULATE and SHROUD mechanics. The fact that CLARITY ever did this in the first place was a hold over from when SHROUD and CLARITY were DMs and SHROUD was the better DM of the two. To make CLARITY more appealing, it was allowed to largely counter the mechanics of SHROUD. However, now both of those are Signature Abilities, and both have evolved significantly from those DM days to become solid mechanics on their own. I had actually forgotten that CLARITY revealed the reaction modification of MANIPULATE usage... again, that might have made sense back when CLARTIY was a DM, but it no longer makes sense to so effectively negate the premise of MANIPULATE, especially considering that CLARITY is up for 2 rounds per use. Also, CLARITY is twice as common as SHROUD, so having the more common Sig Abil negate the rarer one is not really a good place for designs to be either. As such, the following has changed: - CLARITY no longer negates the mechanics of SHROUD/HIDE, SHROUD/FAST, and SHROUD/SLOW. Each of those mechanics only last one round while CLARITY lasts 2, so CLARITY is already stronger head to head there. - CLARITY no longer reveals the effect MANIPULATE use has on reaction odds. Considering you can have CLARITY up for 8 rounds of a fight, this was way too strong of a counter to a core ability without having to spend a single resource other than blocking out DMs every other turn. Even with this change, CLARITY remains strong. It can be up for 8 rounds per fight whereas SHROUD can only be up for 3. And CLARITY certainly didn't need to defeat MANIPULATE in order to be a compelling Sig Abil. -GLaDOS

Fixed an issue where EFFICIENT could sometimes refund more than its intended amount, such as when refunding attacks that were already cost reduced by PRODIGY and other mechanics. This fix also applies to the refund aspect of MASTER. If you notice anything weird about EFFICIENT or MASTER reserve refunds, let me know. -GLaDOS

Projectiles have always been a problematic mechanic. Other than their increased reserve cost, they have always been all upside (harder to poke, immune to counter, apply a speed debuff even if blocked...). With the introduction of various reserve management mechanics over the years, the added reserve cost of Projectiles wasn't really much of a downside anymore which meant builds designed to throw Projectiles every round had pretty much no reason not to. We had been aware of this issue for a while but struggled to find the right direction to go to solve it. The initial plan was to nerf Projectiles in general, which was what was posted back near the time of the reboot (along with the AIM mechanic to undo some of the nerf for the cost of an ability). But the issue is that Projectiles are a core part of the game and do serve a purpose in giving you various tools to use in a match to either try and reduce the chance of getting interrupted or set up your opponent for an interrupt or easier reaction of your own. Nerfing projectiles to feel less useful all the time didn't feel like the right direction to go. We've finally settled on a mechanic that we're happy with to give Projectiles an actual downside. Taking inspiration from fighting games, where spamming projectiles non-stop will eventually get you punished, we are introducing a new mechanic: PREDICTABLE Every time you use a projectile attack (either directly or as an interrupt), you gain [2] stacks of PREDICTABLE after the attack. These stacks decay at the rate of [1] stack per round you do not use a projectile. If you throw two projectiles in a row, for example, you will have [4] stacks to work off. PREDICTABLE stacks impose some downsides on your Projectiles. Whenever you throw a Projectile while you have any PREDICTABLE stacks, the following mechanics come into play: - If your PREDICTABLE Projectile is dodged or blocked, your opponent gains a [5]% bonus to hit you back for every stack of PREDICTABLE you had at the time you used the attack. - If your PREDICTABLE projectile is blocked, it will inflict no Projectile penalty. Note that if you throw projectiles without any PREDICTABLE stacks, they will still inflict a Projectile penalty like normal if blocked. - If your PREDICTABLE projectile hits cleanly, the Projectile debuff itself will be reduced by roughly [1]% per stack of PREDICTABLE you had when you threw it. So if you had [2] stacks of PREDICTABLE, the Projectile penalty it can inflict will be [8]%. - The normal 10% penalty to poke Projectiles is reduced roughly by [1]% for each stack of PREDICTABLE you had at the time you threw it. For example, if you had [3] stacks, your opponent will have a [7]% penalty to poke it instead of [10]%. Overall, the way this mechanic works is that if you space out your use of projectiles, they will pretty much work the way they always have. If you use them more frequently, their effectiveness will wane and the risks of using them go up. It isn't our intent to remove their use all together, we just want to make sure that there is a trade off for leaning on Projectiles heavily. There is one upside for Projectile from all this: - Projectiles no longer cost additional reserve unless they are FREE or GLOBAL. Like all mechanics, this new system will be monitored for balance and tuning so changes are possible as we continue to evaluate the impact of the mechanic. -GLaDOS