Major Changes: Release Notes, April 27, 2012

Chapter 7 Released

• Access to Chapter 7 has been unlocked, granting access to 6 new missions.
• Complete full mastery to gain access to the powerful Golden T.Q. 5000.

Avengers Movie Costumes

• To celebrate the release of the Avengers movie worldwide, we are releasing costumes based on the characters’ appearances in the movie.
• Both Hawkeye and Black Widow have new costumes.
• Hawkeye’s new costume comes in Infiltrator and Tactician varieties.
• Black Widow’s new costume also comes in Infiltrator and Tactician varieties.
• These costumes come with the unique Avengers Assemble passive ability.
• Having one Avenger on the team grants Coordinated Attacks.
• Teammates have a chance in joining in on single-target attacks.
• Having two Avengers on the team grants Cooperative Defense as well.
• Teammates have a chance of countering when a teammate is hit by a single-target attack.
• Expect the rest of the Avengers to assemble soon!
• These costumes are only available for a limited time!

Combat Engine Improvements

These changes resolve the following PVP issues:

• Quantum Jumper
• Quick Action weapons
• “Looping” techniques

Action Cooldowns

• Cooldowns on all actions (from agent gear or heroes’ abilities) now decrement each round instead of each turn
• A round is a collection of each character getting a turn
• Extra turns happen within the same round
• This prevents characters with many extra turns getting their moves off of cooldown faster, which over-values items that produce extra turns

Extra Turns

• Extra turns granted from items and agent gear now give the character Exhaustion, preventing that character from gaining additional extra turns in a round
• This prevents “stacking” extra turns in a single round or infinitely “looping” extra turns
• This does not affect extra turns from Quick Action abilities or Tactician bonus turns

Ignore Defense

• Attacks that ignore defense (such as the Blaster class bonus) now properly deal increased damage against all targets, regardless of their level
• The tooltip has been clarified to indicate that attacks that ignore defense also ignore shield-like statuses (such as Invisible Woman’s Force Field)

Many Bosses and Mini-bosses are now immune to Stun

• This should make certain boss fights more challenging
• This fixes several issues with Stun interfering with boss mechanics

Other

• Various graphical improvements and bug fixes
• The PVP bonus granted by the Chrono Boost was accidentally reduced. This will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

Source: Playdom

Items Nerfed

Along with Chapter 7 being unlocked, it looks like some other changes were made.  Some of the Heroes and items were tweaked.

As you can see from the image above, the Quantum Jumper has been nerfed with this additional property: "Only one extra turn may be taken each round".  The cooldown has also been increased to 4 rounds.  After taking the first extra turn in a round, "Exhaustion" is bestowed on a character:

The Gamma Booster has been nerfed with the additional property: "This effect stacks up to 3 times".

The S.A. "Pincer" has been nerfed by increasing its cooldown from 1 to 2 rounds.  The "Quick Action" text in the display was removed as in the image below, but the Pincer actually still retains this property.    Many other items had this same bug due to the major release today, but the bug was fixed on the same day.

Chrono Boost now only gives PVP bonuses of +70 Attack and +70 Defense, instead of the prior +299/+299.  This is on top of the recent price increase from 1 to 2 Gold.  On the same day as this change, Playdom stated that "the PVP bonus granted by the Chrono Boost was accidentally reduced. This will be fixed in an upcoming patch."  It was indeed fixed within a few days.

Chapter 7 Unlocked

Chapter 7 has been unlocked today, April 27, 2012. You may need to refresh the game to see this.

Mission 1: Anticipation
Recommended Level: 49

Agent Uniforms

The Agent's stats depend on his level and the uniform he wears.  They do not depend on what uniforms he was wearing when he gained prior levels.  Uniforms bought with Gold generally give better stats than similar uniforms bought with Silver and SHIELD Points.

Cyclops

Tactician - Gains a bonus turn after attacking Blasters.

Cost: 15 CP (before any discounts)

Teams:  Mutant, X-Lovers (w/ Phoenix)

Top New Heroes Wanted

There is an ongoing poll on the new heroes that players want in Marvel Avengers Alliance.  This poll does not include villains, except for those that that used to be villains but have been heroes a majority of the time.

Golden Weapons

These Golden or "Excelsior Weapons" are Chapter Mastery Rewards.  To get one, you must earn 5-star mastery on all missions (including the premium mission) of the corresponding chapter.  The damage of these weapons scale according to the Agent's level.

The images for chapters 1-10 were screenshots taken when the Agent was level 50 with no Iso-8 bonus to Attack.  The images for chapters 11-12 were screenshots taken when the Agent was level 139 with total Attack stat 695.

Hawkeye

Tactician - Gains a bonus turn after attacking Blasters.

Master Marksman - This character's attacks almost never miss. [All his attacks have a 100% hit rate before buffs and debuffs.]

Cost: 1 CP (free via story-line)

Teams:  Avengers, Frenemies (w/ Black Widow), S.H.I.E.L.D. (w/ Black Widow)

Hero Ratings

[Black Panther is not included, but will be the future.]

The statistics of the Agent and the Heroes are rated by the game on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.  These ratings, along with the Agent's level, affect how much of each statistic a Hero has.  The Hero's level does not factor into this.

In the table, the heroes are arranged in order of increasing cost within each class.  See "Agent Uniforms" for the Agent's stat multipliers in alternate uniforms.  Stat ratings of Heroes in alternate suits are the same.

Generalist	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
Agent*	3	3	3	3	3	3	3.00
Infiltrator	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
Black Widow	2	4	2	2	4	5	3.17
Invisible Woman	2	3	3	2	4	4	3.00
Black Cat	1	5	1	3	5	5	3.33
Kitty Pryde	2	5	1	3	4	5	3.33
Nightcrawler	2	5	1	2	5	5	3.33
Spider-Man	2	4	2	3	3	5	3.17
Tactician	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
Hawkeye	2	4	2	2	5	4	3.17
Cyclops	3	3	3	3	4	2	3.00
Mr. Fantastic	1	5	1	5	5	3	3.33
War Machine	3	1	5	3	2	2	2.67
Captain America	3	3	3	3	3	3	3.00
Blaster	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
Iron Man	2	2	4	4	3	2	2.83
Ms. Marvel	3	1	5	4	2	1	2.67
Dr. Strange	2	1	5	1	5	2	2.67
Human Torch	3	3	3	2	4	3	3.00
Storm	1	1	5	2	3	4	2.67
Phoenix	1	1	5	1	4	4	2.67
Bruiser	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
She-Hulk	4	2	4	3	2	2	2.83
Colossus	5	3	3	5	1	1	3.00
Thing	4	3	3	5	1	2	3.00
Hulk	5	2	4	4	1	1	2.83
Thor	5	2	4	3	2	1	2.83
Scrapper	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
Iron Fist	3	3	3	2	3	4	3.00
Luke Cage	4	3	3	4	3	1	3.00
Sif	4	3	3	4	3	1	3.00
Spider-Woman	3	2	4	2	3	3	2.83
Daredevil	3	4	2	3	3	4	3.17
Wolverine	3	2	4	3	3	2	2.83
Class	Health	Stamina	Attack	Defense	Accuracy	Evasion	Average
Infiltrator	1.83	4.33	1.67	2.50	4.17	4.83	3.22
Tactician	2.40	3.20	2.80	3.20	3.80	2.80	3.03
Blaster	2.00	1.50	4.50	2.33	3.50	2.67	2.75
Bruiser	4.60	2.40	3.60	4.00	1.40	1.40	2.90
Scrapper	3.33	2.83	3.17	3.00	3.00	2.50	2.97
All Heroes	2.79	2.86	3.14	2.96	3.21	2.89	2.98

*The Agent wearing the starter Generalist's Kevlar Jumpsuit effectively has ratings of 2 instead of 3.

Notes

• Heroes with lowest average stats: War Machine, Ms. Marvel, Dr. Strange, Storm, and Phoenix.
• Heroes with highest average stats: Black Cat, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, and Mr. Fantastic.

Infiltrators

• Highest average stats, but each Hero has highly varying stats.
• High Stamina, Accuracy, and Evasion
• Low Health and Attack.
• Black Cat has the most extreme stats, and Invisible Woman has the most balanced stats.

Tacticians

• Average on most stats, with Health being a bit lower and Accuracy being a bit higher than average.
• Captain America is the most well-rounded Hero out of any class (all stat ratings are 3).  Cyclops is the second (tied with Iron Fist and Human Torch).
• Mr. Fantastic has very poor Health and Attack (ratings 1), but great Stamina, Defense, and Accuracy (ratings 5).
• War Machine has very poor Stamina (rating 1), but great Attack (rating 5).

Blasters

• Lowest average stats.  They have high Attack and above-average Accuracy.  Their Attack rating is the highest of all the classes, but their Stamina rating is the lowest of all the classes.  In a stats sense, they are the offensive damage dealers of MAA.
• Human Torch is the second most well-rounded Hero out of any class (tied with Cyclops and Iron Fist).
• Phoenix is the most extreme of the Blasters, followed by Storm.

Bruisers

• Highest average Health and Defense, but by far the lowest average Accuracy and Evasion.  In a stats sense, they are the tanks of MAA.
• She-Hulk is the most well-rounded Bruiser.

Scrappers

• Average on all stats, with Health being their best stat and Evasion being their worst stat.
• Iron Fist is the second most well-rounded Hero out of any class (tied with Cyclops and Human Torch).
• Iron Fist and Daredevil have good Evasion (rating 4), while Luke Cage and Sif have very poor Evasion (rating 1).
• Luke Cage and Sif have exactly the same stats.

Epic Bosses

To reveal the Epic Boss, all map events (battles and deploys) must be completed.  Only the special, not regular, deploys are listed below.

Ch-Miss.	Epic Boss	Heroes	Epic Drops
2-3	Electra	D: Black Cat T: Daredevil	Grecian Sai
3-5	Dr. Doom	D: Spider-Man T: Hawkeye	The Doombringer
4-4	Magneto	D: Storm T: Invisible Woman	Magnetic Field Generator
5-3	Loki	D: Wolverine T: Thing	Norn Stone
6-3	Doctor Octopus	D: Luke Cage* T: Spider-Woman	Electrostatic Arm
7-3	Green Goblin	D: Spider-Man T: Black Cat	Goblin Glider
S1-1	Hammerhead	D: Black Widow, Spider-Woman T: Black Widow	The Toolbox

Key

• Heroes
• D = Heroes required for special deploys
• T = Heroes required for Team-Ups
• S1-1 = Special Operation 1, Mission 1

Team-Ups

• If you have not recruited the Hero required for a Team-Up, you do not need to worry about having that Hero to initiate the battle.
• If you have recruited the Hero required for a Team-Up, then that Hero needs to be available to initiate the battle.  However, once the battle is initiated, that Hero can be switched out for another Hero.

*The required Hero Deploy for Chapter 6, Mission 3 used to be Black Widow, but it was changed to Luke Cage during the major game update of May 3, 2012.

More information to be included later.

Free X-ploiter

Click this official Facebook link for a Free X-ploiter.

This was a cross-promotion advertised on G4TV.

Benefits of PVP

If you win a PVP battle, you earn 50 Silver (there’s no notification of this) and each surviving hero gains 5 XP.  Each hero that dies gets 1 XP, whether your team wins or loses.  You can also get random item drops, which you can save for later use or sell for Silver.  Depending on whether you win or lose and how you rank versus your opponent, you move up or down the PVP ladder accordingly.

The small rewards of PVP can be combined with short-term remote missions for efficient farming when you’re low on Energy.  If you're low on Silver, you can sell the items you collect.  If you've run out of energy but just need a bit more XP to level up, PVP can get you over that hump.

On a different note, many players find PVP fun for different reasons.  The battles are not live or controlled by other human players, but the teams you are pitted against were trained, equipped, and selected by other players.  It can be interesting trying to find an optimal combination of heroes and equipment to form a team.

PVP can be a good place to battle for fun when you’ve run out of energy.  It can be used as a practice arena to try out new heroes or equipment, different combinations of heroes, or new strategies and tactics.

Then, of course, there are the bragging rights.

Teams

You earn 50 points per team used in battles before exiting a mission.  This bonus comes before multipliers.  Using teams can be useful for gaining Chapter Mastery and ranking higher in Leaderboards.


Teams

Ambulance Chasers

• She-Hulk
• Daredevil

Arachnophobia

• Spider-Man
• Spider-Woman
• Black Widow

Asgard

• Thor
• Sif

Avengers

• Black Widow
• Captain America
• Hawkeye
• Iron Man
• Hulk
• Thor

Aviary

• Iron Man
• Ms. Marvel
• Human Torch
• Phoenix
• Spider-Woman
• War Machine

Bloodlust

• Black Cat
• Sif
• Wolverine

Cat Fight

• Black Cat
• Kitty Pryde

Cosplayers

• Black Cat
• Spider-Man

Defenders

• Dr. Strange
• Hulk

Eggheads

• Hulk
• Iron Man
• Mr. Fantastic
• Spider-Man

Fantastic Four

• Human Torch
• Invisible Woman
• Mr. Fantastic
• Thing

Frenemies

• Black Widow
• Hawkeye

Hard & Soft

• Colossus
• Kitty Pryde

Heros for Hire

• Iron Fist
• Luke Cage

Hot Stuff

• Human Torch
• Phoenix

Hulk Family

• Hulk
• She-Hulk

Illuminati

• Dr. Strange
• Iron Man
• Mr. Fantastic

Marvelous

• Ms. Marvel
• Phoenix

Mutant

• Colossus
• Cyclops
• Kitty Pryde
• Nightcrawler
• Phoenix
• Storm
• Wolverine

S.H.I.E.L.D.

• Black Widow
• Hawkeye

Sibling Rivalry

• Human Torch
• Invisible Woman

Tin Men

• Iron Man
• War Machine

Tossers

• Hulk
• Phoenix
• She-Hulk

X-Lovers

• Phoenix, Cyclops

Heroes Together in 2 Teams (100 points total)

Colossus, Kitty Pryde - Mutant, Hard & Soft

Hulk, She-Hulk - Hulk Family, Tossers

Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic - Eggheads, Illuminati

Iron Man, War Machine - Aviary, Tin Men

Invisible Woman, Human Torch - Fantastic Four, Sibling Rivalry

Phoenix, Human Torch - Aviary, Hot Stuff

Phoenix, Ms. Marvel - Aviary, Marvelous

Phoenix, Storm - Aviary, Mutant

Phoenix, Cyclops - Mutant, X-Lovers

Heroes Together in 3 Teams (150 points total)


Hawkeye, Black Widow - Avengers, Frenemies, S.H.I.E.L.D.

Teams by Hero

Blaster	Teams
Iron Man	Avengers, Aviary, Eggheads, Illuminati, Tin Men
Ms. Marvel	Aviary, Marvelous
Dr. Strange	Defenders, Illuminati
Human Torch	Aviary, Fantastic Four, Hot Stuff, Sibling Rivalry
Storm	Aviary, Mutant
Phoenix	Aviary, Hot Stuff, Marvelous, Mutant, Tossers, X-Lovers
Bruiser	Teams
She-Hulk	Ambulance Chasers, Hulk Family, Tossers
Colossus	Mutant, Hard & Soft
Thing	Fantastic Four, Tossers
Hulk	Avengers, Defenders, Eggheads, Hulk Family, Tossers
Thor	Asgard, Avengers
Scrapper	Teams
Iron Fist	Heroes For Hire
Spider-woman	Arachnophobia, Aviary
Luke Cage	Heroes for Hire
Sif	Asgard, Bloodlust
Daredevil	Ambulance Chasers
Wolverine	Bloodlust, Mutant
Infiltrator	Teams
Black Widow	Arachnophobia, Avengers, Frenemies, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Invisible Woman	Fantastic Four, Sibling Rivalry
Black Cat	Bloodlust, Cat Fight, Cosplayers
Kitty Pryde	Cat Fight, Hard & Soft, Mutant
Nightcrawler	Mutant
Spiderman	Arachnophobia, Cosplayers, Eggheads
Tactician	Teams
Hawkeye	Avengers, Frenemies, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Cyclops	Mutant, X-Lovers
Mr. Fantastic	Eggheads, Fantastic Four, Illuminati
War Machine	Aviary, Tin Men
Captain America	Avengers