It’s finally here, and by here we mean on the Brainstorm beta server: City of Heroes Homecoming’s first big patch since April 2023 (and obviously its first since announcing it had secured a license to operate from NCsoft two weeks ago) is finally up for public testing. We’d had teases, but now we have full patch notes and of course open access to try it all out before launch thanks to the PTS.
Most notably, Issue 27 Page 7 includes two new powersets: Arsenal Control (for Controllers and Dominators) and Arsenal Assault (for Dominators). Unsurprisingly, the powersets borrow heavily from the existing Assault Rifle, Devices, and Traps. If your ears can tolerate the rat-a-tat-tat of Assault Rifle, you’re about to be super happy.
For endgamers, HC is revamping quite a few of its epic power pools in order to balance them and reduce that feeling that you have to take a certain one that violates your toon’s theme just to compete; it’s also adding a ton more to flesh out the offerings across archetypes.
The page also offers the Second Chance At A First Impression personal story finale in the Rikti War Zone, a revamp of Striga Isle to make it co-op and stuff it full of new arcs, a revamp of the Rikti War Zone and the Vanguard base, an advanced difficulty mode for Lady Grey’s TF, some much-needed buffs for Storm Blast, buffs for Council and Circle of Thorns enemy groups, some nerfs for Cold Dom and Storm Summoning across non-Defender archetypes, and (blessed be) a halving of Sonic Resonance’s Liquefy cooldown to 150 (which is still too long, but as a Sonic Res fangirl, I’m cheering). Plus, there are new costume parts, badges, emotes, vanity rewards, and a long list of supergroup base items.
Finally, the team is instituting bonuses for task forces and strike forces with diverse party makeup (as opposed to whatever the steamrolling single-archetype meta of the day is). Incidentally, we asked whether hybrid epic archetypes count as all of their roles simultaneously, and the answer is an exciting yes – go roll some EATs, fam.
We don’t have a release date yet, but last patch took about two weeks on the public beta for launching, so that’s probably a good estimate. You can go snoop everything yourself on Brainstorm right now until it’s on the live servers.
And speaking of those live servers… they broke peak concurrency again last night.
• Into the Super-verse: Why the resurrection of 20-year-old City of Heroes is worth celebrating, even if you don’t play• • City of Heroes Homecoming unveils huge community-driven base building initiative• Into the Super-Verse: What to pick for your Incarnate powers in City of Heroes• Into the Super-Verse: How to get started with Incarnates in City of Heroes• Into the Super-Verse: Tips for building your character in City of Heroes• Working As Intended: 10 more City of Heroes Homecoming base builds you need to see• Into the Super-Verse: What kind of legs does City of Heroes have in the longer term?• Over 42,000 people played City of Heroes Homecoming in the last month• The Stream Team: Backseat Streaming visits creative supergroup bases in City of Heroes Homecoming• Into the Super-verse: How City of Heroes shows its flexibility with how I’ve changed• Into the Super-verse: Missing in City of Heroes is part of what makes it hit• The Soapbox: Why I’m OK with ‘missing’ attacks in City of Heroes• Into the Super-Verse: So what can Homecoming do with City of Heroes’ Incarnates?• Working As Intended: 10 City of Heroes Homecoming base builds you need to see• Working As Intended: A guide to City of Heroes Homecoming’s best player-crafted portal bases• Into the Super-Verse: What’s wrong with City of Heroes’ Incarnate system?• Working As Intended: City of Heroes macros and popmenus for noobs• Into the Super-Verse: Early SOs pose a perplexing problem in City of Heroes Homecoming• Working As Intended: Yes, you can make money as a newbie in City of Heroes• City of Heroes players filled Homecoming’s latest $8.6K monthly donation round in three hours• Into the Super-Verse: Gearing up as a newcomer to City of Heroes Homecoming• Working As Intended: How to mod City of Heroes Homecoming the easy way• City of Heroes Homecoming opens testing of new Arsenal powersets, epic power pool revamp, TF diversity, and more• Vague Patch Notes: What City of Heroes Homecoming means for the wider MMORPG industry• Into the Super-Verse: What City of Heroes needs now is not more endgame content• City of Heroes Homecoming saw 4431 peak concurrent players this past weekend• Into the Super-Verse: Rediscoveries I made diving headlong into City of Heroes Homecoming• Unsurprisingly, City of Heroes Homecoming saw a massive playerbase spike this past weekend• The Stream Team: Team play on City of Heroes’ newly licensed Homecoming servers• Into the Super-Verse: Reflecting on City of Heroes, back officially at long last• City of Heroes Homecoming talks funding, the City Council, and the impending content drop• The Daily Grind: Now that NCsoft has licensed City of Heroes servers, will you go back to play?• NCsoft has officially granted a City of Heroes server license to the Homecoming crew 
