Today marks the launch of the Nemesis Confrontation update in Champions Online. The new lair lets a 5-player group fight against their nemeses and face the Shadow Destroyer! The patch also adds some free costumes and Glow options, as well as introduces changes to Patrol Missions based on player feedback.

In addition, Cryptic has attempted to balance Archery powers. This means that all players who have selected abilities from this power set will receive a Retcon if they don't already have one. The full patch notes can be found after the jump.

Hot Issues

• Nemesis Confrontation is here! Grab a 5-man team, head over to UNITY, and take down your Nemeses!
• Based on player feedback, we have made a number of changes to Patrol Missions, including doubling the rewards and removing the time limit.
• Archery has had a large balancing pass made to it. Anyone who has selected Archery powers has received a Retcon (if they do not already have one).
• We’ve added a handful of free costumes to the Tailor, and we’ve added Glow to a bunch of costume options. Visit this page to take a look at what’s been updated.

General

• Players should no longer perform a back bend when respawning.
• A sound has been added for when you receive mail.
• Defeated foes now drop items of their level. This fixes a bug where sidekicking heroes could get items of much lower level than the defeated foe.
• Experience from defeated foes is now correctly split based on the combat level of the team members.
• It is now possible to buy up to 4 additional 40-slot bank tabs from the bankers in Renaissance Center. Each additional tab increases in price: 10N, 1G, 10G, 100G.
• Players should no longer crash if they log out during a map transfer.
• The Power Armor Defender action figure has been reverted to its original costume.
• Characters will no longer tilt to the left in the female average stance.
• Advanced player roles no longer allow arbitrary powers to be placed in the first (auto attack) slot.
• Queueing for Instances: If you join a Team Queue and then add a member to your team, this member will not join the instance with you when it is ready. Your team needs to leave the queue and re-queue in order to add your entire team at once.

User Interface and Chat

• When mail compose is open, “tab” will navigate through the window instead of targeting.
• Players should once again be able to switch between LFG and Ignore invites correctly.
• The keybind letter on the powers tray should now properly update for the block and travel powers.
• Powerhouse Pro Tips now work for Power armor.
• The ESC key will now consistently close all open windows.
• The “Interact” keybind now clicks “Back” on UIs that only have that option.
• “Start Chatting” can now be bound in the Keybinds tab.
• Character must now have an energy builder selected before pressing “Next” in the character creator.
• Deleting mail with auction lots now deletes the auctions attached to it.
• The Super Group vault configuration UI should now properly display withdraw limits.
• There is a new “Team” tab in the social window. From this tab, players can change current team settings, as well as the default settings for future teams. This tab also contains a list of current team members along with their map, level, and status.
• Added a checkbox to the team request mode dialog box, to “Always use this option for new teams”.
• The “Help” minimap button and “H” key now close the Help UI in addition to opening it.
• The “Objective” header on mission offers should now always display.

Powers

• Players can now target themselves by clicking on their portrait or using a keybind. Default/Fantasy/Shooter keybinds default to F1 (with F2-F5 targeting teammates and F6-F11 switching builds). Heroic keybinds default to Shift+~.

Archery

• Players that have selected Archery powers have received a Retcon (if they did not already have one).
• Many Archery powers had their tags updated properly to match the powers. For example, Ranged Damage tags were added to many powers that were missing them, as well as AoE Damage tags to various powers. This will have some interaction with various items that look at these tags.
• New Archery Power: Snap Shot: Quick firing tap attack with a 100 foot range. Designed to be very time efficient in terms of damage, but less energy efficient than standard full charge attacks. Has the common advantages Accelerated Metabolism and Crippling Challenge and the custom advantage: Finish Him. This advantage adds a 35% damage increase to targets below 25% health.
• Explosive Arrow: Reduced the activate time from 1 second to 0.67 seconds.
• Explosive Arrow: Increased Maximum Charge time from 1.17 seconds to 1.83 seconds. The damage is still the same at 1.17 seconds, but a higher maximum damage is now possible.
• Explosive Arrow: No longer locks player down during charge or activate.
• Explosive Arrow: Where's the Kaboom?: Reduced the delay on the explosion from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
• Explosive Arrow: Where’s the Kaboom?: Updated the description to no longer state it has a shorter radius than the default power.
• Explosive Arrow: Added Accelerated Metabolism as an advantage choice.
• Focused Shot: This power was intended to be the Archery equivalent of Sniper Rifle, but had several issues preventing it from working that way. Now requires a full charge to fire off and is interrupted by damage.
• Focused Shot: Maximum range increased from 100 feet to 120 feet.
• Focused Shot: Fixed a bug that allowed you to repeatedly fire this power at full strength without charging it.
• Quarry: Reworked the base functionality of this power. Now provides less of a direct energy reduction per stack of Quarry, but now also provides a percentage buff to your Intelligence with each stack.
• Quarry: Ranks 2 and 3 now work properly.
• Sonic Arrow: Range increased to 100 feet. Cost slightly increased as a result.
• Sonic Arrow: No longer locks the player down during charge or activate.
• Sonic Arrow: Reduced the activation time from 1 second to 0.67 seconds.
• Sonic Arrow: Now applies the Daze effect on a full charge.
• Sonic Arrow: Deadly Dissonance: Updated description to state that it does not give a chance to stun (the advantage never gave a chance to stun, this chance was part of the base power).
• Sonic Arrow: Deadly Dissonance: This advantage was significantly above the line for how powerful an advantage should be, and made many powers in the set redundant. As such, we have reduced the radius from 15 feet to 10 feet, and reduced the damage dealt to secondary targets.
• Sonic Arrow: Deadly Dissonance: Should work properly with ranks again.
• Sonic Arrow: Added Accelerated Metabolism as an advantage choice.
• Storm of Arrows: Reworked the base functionality of the power so that damage dealt will be more consistent. Instead of 3 applications each with a 33% chance to apply, it now has 3 damage applications: 1 with a 100% chance to apply for half damage, and 2 with a 30% chance to apply for full damage. The net result is about a 10% increase in average overall damage, with smaller peaks and valleys. This also ensures that players won’t randomly be unlucky and deal no damage.
• Storm of Arrows: Achilles’ Heel: Now has a 100% chance to apply the root on each of the main damage ticks, instead of 33% chance on each of them.
• Storm of Arrows: Added Accelerated Metabolism as an advantage choice.
• Storm of Arrows: Initial cost has been reduced.
• Strafe: Fixed a bug that was making this power not shoot as many times per maintain period as it should. It now shoots the appropriate 7 times instead of 5.
• Strafe: Aversion: Now has a buff icon.
• Taser Arrow: Cost now properly scales with charge. While this does increase the maximum cost of the power, the hold chance is not affected by charge at all, so using as a tap to apply the hold still has the same cost.
• Taser Arrow: Reduced the activate time from 1 second 0.5 seconds.
• Taser Arrow: Increased Maximum Charge time from 1.83 seconds to 2 seconds. The damage is still the same at 1.83 seconds, but a higher maximum damage is now possible.
• Taser Arrow: No longer locks the player down during charge or activate.
• Taser Arrow: Updated description to better explain how the hold works.
• Taser Arrow: The amount of damage a target can take before breaking free from the hold applied by this power has been doubled.
• Taser Arrow: Added Accelerated Metabolism as an advantage choice.
• Torrent of Arrows: Cleaned up tooltip by moving the advantage info directly into the advantage itself.
• Torrent of Arrows: Knockback was not using the proper tables before. The power knocks back considerably more now. Also applies proper knockback resistance instead of having a 10 second cooldown on the knockback.
• Torrent of Arrows: Reduced the activate time from 1 second to 0.67 seconds.
• Torrent of Arrows: Ranking this power up should work properly now.
• Torrent of Arrows: Increased Maximum Charge time from 1.17 seconds to 1.83 seconds. The damage is still the same at 1.17 seconds, but a higher maximum damage is now possible.
• Torrent of Arrows: Added Accelerated Metabolism as an advantage choice.

Celestial

• Players that were unable to select the Celestial power set should now be able to.
• Radiance: The heal from this power should no longer be dodged.
• Rebuke: Crippling Challenge will no longer apply to people when you heal them.

Munitions

• Frag Grenade: Now ranks up properly.

Power Armor

• Automated Assault: Added icon for the advantage.
• Downgrade Disaster: Added icon for the advantage.

Telekinesis

• Telekinetic Shield: Telekinetic Reinforcement: Fixed a typo in the description.

Telepathy

• Mindful Reinforcement: Instead of placing a fragile shield and a fragile delayed heal on the target, it now has a fragile shield that applies a heal when it expires. The basic use of this power remains unchanged, and the amount it shields for is still the same. The amount it heals for is now actually double the amount of shield remaining, instead of "pretty close" to double the amount of shield remaining. This change also prevents multiple delayed Mindful Reinforcement heals from occurring.

Travel Powers

• Acrobatics: Jump should now animate when jumping in one place.
• Jet Boots: Ranks 2 and 3 of this power “shift up” at the same rate that rank 1 does. The flight speed at each “gear” for each rank remains unchanged.

Critters

• Critters that can see through stealth should now move to stealthed players.
• Critters that are killed in one shot will properly play their death animation.
• Critter charge-up knockback powers will now do less knockback in most cases.
• Critters should no longer attempt to gain reinforcement from critters of other types.
• If players aggro a group of critters, then aggro another group that would have been the reinforcements, the first group will no longer still look for additional reinforcements. This will prevent players from being overwhelmed by reinforcements.

Missions and Content

• Patrol missions now scale with the number of players on your team rather than just the number of players on the map.
• Patrol Mission rewards have been doubled.
• Time limits on Patrol Missions have been removed.
• Powerhouse: There are now a variety of male and female trainers in the Powerhouse.
• Powerhouse: All Battle Station doors now have an “Instanced by Team” message in the interaction text. This is to differentiate them from the other doors in the Powerhouse which are open rooms on the same map as the main room.

Desert

• Mutant Enemies: Fixed mission so players only receive credit for enemies defeated by the player. KNOWN ISSUE: Kill credit does not track properly when in a group.
• Will to Power: Players can no longer enter the Gertz hatch without his key.

Canadian Wilderness

• Blight of the Living Dead (Crisis Zone): Now grants standard mission XP.
• Into the Storm (Crisis Zone): If you logout after defeating Rakshasa and completing the mission without leaving the lake, the mystic portal will now take you directly to the post-crisis Canada map.
• One if by Sea: Corrected mission so it properly requires the avatar to speak to Alicia Blackmun.
• Pages from a Dark Text: Matchstick has been split into two items, one for crafting and one from this mission. This fixes an issue where the item displayed a required level of 17 but actually required level 31 when obtained from the mission rather than from Crafting.

Millennium City

• Astral Witchcraft: Fixed a typo in Witchcraft’s dialog.
• Biotechnical Difficulties: Changed mutagen antidote power to fix problem with pets interfering with application of antidote.
• Discord and Harmony: Slowed down the crowd and Harmon a little bit.
• Foxbattle of the Network Stars: Fixed some typos in the contact text.
• Psi-Chonaut: Exit door now appears in the destroyed park after speaking with Adina Monroe.
• Sewer Pursuer (Omega hotspot mission): Now correctly listed as a Millennium City mission.
• Tachyon no longer teleports through walls in the Purple Gang Hideout.
• Fixed various typos in the New Purple Gang bounty hunter mission.

Monster Island

• Fixed a bug where Qwyjibo and Teleiosaurus would sometimes not attack players who attacked them.
• Escape Claws: The shock collars can no longer be disabled before you have the objective to do so.
• Zoo’s Prize Attraction: Now gives credit if you complete Zoo Break before this mission. You must still defeat the Exo-Zoologist to complete the mission.

Lemuria

• Trumping the Shark: The mission event is now controlled by an open mission that grants rewards based on the number of sharks defeated during the swarm. Leaving the mission area causes the open mission to reset, but it can be restarted by chumming the waters again.
• Trumping the Shark: Maru's Crown drops off of Skura when defeated.

UNITY

• Changed UNITY HQ door to allow access after completing Brad Playne’s mission.
• Once Submerged: Now properly offered as part of the daily hotspot list.

Nemesis

• Players should now see an error message when a Nemesis fails to spawn.
• Television Prequel: Decreased how often the news crew reminds players of the mind control devices. Now with 50% less annoying!
• Villains, Vandals, and Vermind: Fixed a bug where if the first player logged out and back in, NPC heroes would forget who they were supposed to be following.

Perks

• Some history and collection-related perks in Millennium City could not be reached due to changes in building models. The City Center history plaque, Pieces of Artwork, and one of the Jars should now be accessible.
• New Perk: Icon: This perk rewards players at level 40 with a title, a free character slot on their account, and a free Gained Retcon token for their level 40 character. These tokens are counted separately from Free and Purchased Retcons. Players who already have reached level 40 will receive these rewards upon login.
• Jailbird, Felon, Convict, Smooth Criminal: Reduced the requirement for these perks. Players who qualify will be granted them automatically upon login.

Items

• Stronghold Rucksack is now correctly tagged as a bag instead of an Upgrade again. No items within the bag were harmed with this change.
• If an equipped item’s definition changes such that it is no longer in a valid slot, it will be moved to your overflow bag.

Crafting

• All crafted healing and damage prevention consumables have had their names expanded to make it easier to distinguish different levels. All Blueprints have been properly updated.
• Renamed the level 25 Servitor Serum blueprint to “Greater Servitor Serum”.
• Fixed bug where the level requirements on Servitor Serums, Zombie Bones, and Pestilent Clouds were setting the max level the item was usable at instead of the minimum level.
• Fixed bug where 4/5 researches in the 101-200 skill range for Mysticism failed to yield any Slight or Mild Profundities. Players will now receive the item at the same rate as the other crafting schools.
• Tooltips on blueprints and blueprint stores should no longer display incorrect stats for the item they craft.

Costume Creator/Tailor

• New costume pieces have been added to the character creator, and we’ve added Glow to a bunch of costume pieces! See this page for a preview of the new items.
• Serpent textures have been added to female legs.
• The Tailor now validates costume names before saving the costume.
• When editing an existing costume, the Tailor will now go straight to custom sliders rather than presets.

Hero Games

• Fixed a bug where players wouldn’t get credit for having played if they joined the game midway through.
• Stronghold: Added indicators for when leaders are under attack.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Player defeat perks now give credit for defeating any player on the map (not just those made while a zombie).