Marvel Avengers Alliance: Game Update 2012/12/21

2012/12/21 Forum Patch Notes: Chapter 10
“HYDRA's shipment has arrived, and it is more deadly than anyone could have expected. The Syndicate becomes a reality, and the denizens of the Dark Dimension threaten our world. The circle of chaos expands as more enemy forces learn to control Iso-8.”

Featured Chapter 10 Bosses:

Mission 1 – Ironclad
Mission 2 – Madame Masque
Mission 3 – Hydro-man
Mission 4 – Enchantress & Executioner
Mission 5 – Dr. Doom
Mission 6 (Requires Luke Cage) - Elektra

Chapter 11 Preview

Some preview details for Chapter 11 have been added to the game. Remember, Season 1 will conclude with Chapter 12 then we will move on to Season 2: Chapter 1.

Marvel XP Rewards

Note we are working to roll this feature out to all of our players. Please be patient and you will all receive your rewards soon.
Marvel XP will now reward players for participation.
First, if you haven’t signed up for Marvel XP yet, click the Marvel XP tab above Marvel: Avengers Alliance and sign up. You’ll then receive an email with 1 MAA gold as a thank you gift.
Rewards are based on your Marvel XP level, not your Agent level in MAA.
Each time you go up one level in Marvel XP, you will be rewarded a specific rewards package unique to each level. We encourage players to figure out which rewards are given out at each level!
Rewards include, but are not limited to, silver, command points, and unique Agent weapons.
Increasing your level in Marvel XP requires you to complete the various achievements from MAA and other Marvel XP-enabled games (currently only Marvel: Avengers Initiative for iOS/Android).
You will see new rewards in the news page when you log in. If you have just gained a new level in Marvel XP, refreshing the game or defeating a boss may be required to see the new rewards.
The rewards are retro-active, so the first time you log into MAA you will see a flurry of rewards for all the levels you have gained from your previous accomplishments.
Remember, for each Marvel XP level gained, you will be rewarded in ALL Marvel XP-enabled games (again, currently only Marvel: Avengers Initiative). We would encourage you to log into each of them to see which rewards you’ve earned.

Challenge Modes!

Challenge Mode is now available in the following chapters:
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9 (available previously)
- Chapter 10
Each Challenge Mode features brand new weapons, more XP, and a more challenging experience.

Phoenix Reborn

New passive: Mental Resilience
- Chance to block psychic attacks
- Takes less damage from psychic attacks
New Passive: Death and Rebirth
- The next time an ally would die, Phoenix instead heals that character to 25% health
- Increases the Damage of Phoenix’s attacks until it is consumed
- While Phoenix has Death and Rebirth, she cannot use Phoenix Fire
Phoenix Fire
- Damage increased
- Cooldown reduced
White Crown Phoenix costume
- Passive: Phoenix Force
  - Grants Death and Rebirth to Phoenix when she uses Phoenix Fire

Tier 4 Iso-8 Research
Iso-8 Crystals are now available for research for Agents level 100 and above. These can be purchased for Silver and S.H.I.E.L.D. points.

Balance Changes and Bug Fixes

The way status effects that increase a character’s stats (such as Strengthened) works has been refactored
- Stat increases from Iso-8, uniforms, and PVP bonus will now be factored into the total stat gain from these percentage increase statuses
- Players will notice status effects that raise stats will give much more noticeable increases
- Similarly, status effects that reduce stats will be much more effective against enemies
Psylocke
- Many tooltips have been updated to make her moves more clear
Tigra
- New Passive: Hunter’s Senses
  - Tigra takes 10% less damage per stack of Bleeding on enemies that attack her
Valkyrie
- Shield Maiden can no longer be removed by attacks that remove buffs
- Geirr now Exploits Exposure. Damage reduced slightly
- Dragonfang now also causes Static Charge
- Deathglow (caused by Dragonfang) now heals all allies when the affected enemy dies
- Flight of Valkyrie now causes Exposure in addition to Off-balance
- Sacrificial Blessing now restores some health if it expires without triggering
Bruisers now gain Enraged if they hit a Scrapper with an Area attack
Bruisers’ Enraged now increases all stats instead of just Attack and Defense
The Transcranial Stimulator now mentions that it provides Mental Resilience on its tooltip
The chance to counter with the Transcranial Stimulator has been increased to 100%
Cable’s Temporal Shift will now always hit
The tooltips for Hulk’s moves have been improved to better explain which moves generate Hulk Up and which ones consume it
Magik’s Soul Charge is now considered a buff and removed by abilities that remove buffs
Mockingbird will correctly get Critical Intel after the first time using it per combat
The Destroyer epic boss in Spec Op 5 Mission 1 has been made more difficult
Enchantress’s Charmed is now considered a psychic debuff and is removed from
Several Agent weapons now correctly have the Slashing property
Actions that Exploit Bleeding now deal more damage per stack of Bleeding
Deathfrost now counts as Chilled for attacks that affect targets with Chilled
- Characters with both Chilled and Deathfrost do not take double extra damage from attacks that Exploit Burning
Soulfire now counts as Burning for attacks that affect targets with Burning
- Characters with both Burning and Soulfire do not take double extra damage from attacks that Exploit Burning
Soulfire now correctly does damage against characters that have reduced damage from fire or magic effects (such as from the Signpost)
Blind correctly goes away after the next attack
The 3 minute flight deck option has been replaced with a 4 hour flight deck option on all jets upgraded to level 2 or above
Price payouts for certain flight deck missions have been increased
Heroes above level 10 now stand out when looking at a player’s Hero Bonus
- Level 10 heroes show up in Bronze Red
- Level 11 heroes show up in Silver
- Level 12 heroes show up in Gold
The amount of Elite PVP Bonus granted to Generalists level 10 and above has been corrected
Players can now mouse over their Offensive or Defensive bonus totals in the PVP Armory or pre-combat screen to see exactly how much it increases their stats

Known Issues

There was an issue with Marvel XP rewards affecting some players.
Some players who used to have a higher level in Marvel XP prior to rebalancing may have prematurely received rewards at their old level. Players who received awards above their current level will not receive those awards again once they level up.
For example:
- Agent Smith used to be level 13 in Marvel XP. After the rebalance, he is now level 6. He received Marvel XP awards for levels 1 - 13. When he attains level 7 again he will NOT receive the reward again. He will only get another reward once he reaches level 14.
Currently the maximum level attainable for all MAA achievements is Level 6. The current maximum level attainable for completing all tasks in both MAA and Marvel: Avengers Initiative is Level 15.
For players who continue to have issues, you can contact Marvel XP support directly at support@marvelxp.com. We apologize for the inconvenience.

There are several stability-related issues that we are investigating. These will be released as hotfixes as soon as possible.

Some players experience forced refreshes and client errors
Some players experience unexpected loss in PVP rating while away
Some players experience errors loading the entire PVP fight history in battle reports
Some players experience being matched against opponents with much higher / lower PVP rating or agent level
Phoenix does not perform an action when summoned by a distress call

Non-stability issues:

Chapter 10 - Mission 2 & 4 Tasks: Hint text was included in the tasks that instruct players to collect dropped items from combat. The collection requirements no longer exist in the game and it will not impact the completion of the task.