Following on from our “Countdown to Free2Play” articles last Autumn, what’s going on in the world of DCUO? Well last time we checked in there had been 5 updates, one DLC pack, and the game had just gone free to play. Obviously, some time has now passed, so what have we missed?
A fair bit, actually!
So here’s TGR’s whistle-stop round up of the past 6 months in the world of DCUO…
Update 6 – November 2011 “The Deadly Double-Cross”
• New stats – “Combat Level” calculated for your characters (based on your gear’s ‘item level’) – combined with this, a minimum Combat Level has been added to raids
• New Raid “Fortress of Solitude 3” – defeat Zod (combat rating 53) – awarding Marks of Krypton
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
DLC 2 “Lightning Strikes” – December 2011 (£7.99)
• New power type: Electricity (Damage and Healing) – zap enemies or drain their energy to replenish yours
• New open world map: Central City with solo and group missions
• New Duo: The Flash Museum – travel back in time to when Barry Allen became The Flash
• New Gear: Zoom (for villains) and Black Lightning (for heroes)
• New Characters: Livewire, Black Lightning, The Top, The Trickster, Static “and more” – some are “Inspired by” options when creating a character, others are bounty missions.
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
Update 7 – December 2011 “Season’s Greedings”
• Seasonal Content: Larfleeze – recover holiday items stolen by the leader of the Orange Lanterns. (Sigh)
• PVP: New 5v5 arena “The Watchtower”
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
Update 8 – January 2012 “Research and Development”
• New feature: Research and Development (a.k.a crafting)
R&D workstations are now available in Hall of Doom, Watchtower and various police stations and nightclubs. Collect Exobits, Exobyte Plans, Focusing Elements and Salvage to build mods that can then be “socketed” into your gear.
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
Update 9 – February 2012 “Assemble for Battle”
• Novice Raids: To make the endgame content more accessible to new level 30 players, Kahndaq, Batcave and Fortress of Solitude raids will get ‘Novice’ versions with toned down enemies (and accordingly, less loot)
• Role Optional Alerts: Instead of always having to have a balance of Tanks, Healers, Controllers and DPS in your groups, the game will now give your team a boost for the role you are missing. For example, if you don’t have a tank, everyone will take slightly less damage. If you don’t have a healer, any Controller or DPS character will slightly regenerate your health. If you are without a Controller, everyone will get a small power boost. These ‘buffs’ are no substitute for a balanced team each carrying out their roles, but give you another option for when you can’t get a full team together, and reduce queues. Oh, and they’ll only work if you stick together.
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
Update 10 – March 2012 “We haven’t given a snappy name to this one”
• The On Duty screen that list your current missions has had a major overhaul – you also now have much better visibility and control when queuing.
• Legendary subscribers and players who have purchased at least one DLC pack will be able to change the background on the character select screen! Woo!
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
DLC 3 “The Battle for Earth” – March 2012 (£7.99)
• New Earth powers (Damage and Tank) – new tanking mechanic that defers damage to your earth constructs, which you can also
use to crush enemies and reinforce allies.
• New raid: Themyscira – Wonder Woman’s home island – against Chimeric Braniacs and ultimately the Avatar of Magic.
• New Alert and Duos: South Gotham Braniac Invasion – battle Braniac’s forces on the streets of South Gotham.
• The Prime Battlegound: The Battle For Earth – the grand finale of the Brainiac storyline started in the original game. Fight all three of Braniac’s Prime Avatars, and ultimately Braniac himself. Then discover “a shocking new threat to the Universe”.
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
Update 11 – March 2012 “Nope, no fancy name here either”
• Duo improvements – teleporters have been added outside boss rooms to give downed allies an extra 15 seconds to get back into the action after the “boss door” closes
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
Update 12 – April 2012 “Still not doing update names, but here are some incentives to subscribe”
• Alert improvements – just like the Duos last month, alerts now get teleporters outside boss fight rooms
• New “Promethium Lockboxes” drop in-game at random, containing the “hottest” gear ever. Once you find one, you have 30 days to unlock it… if you have a key… otherwise it’s gone forever.
• New Marketplace items for sale
– Volatile Promethium Keys, available individually or in packs of 5 for unlocking the Promethium Boxes you have found (surprise surprise)
– Replay Badges available in packs of 25, 150 or 350. These enable you to reset any duo alert or raid you have just played to give you more opportunities to earn more loot, rather than wait for the normal daily/weekly replay cycle (12 Replay Badges for a Duo, 29 for an Alert, and 87 for a Raid)
• the Bank UI has been overhauled in line with the On Duty overhaul a few months back
• Legendary subscribers now get something to add value to their subscription
– in-game currency (500 Station Cash on PC, 500 Loyalty Points on PS3) every month. For PS3, they Loyalty Points are spendable at Skeet’s Legendary Emporium, which will stock the most popular marketplace consumables and items.
– unlimited Promethium keys
– 500 replay badges per month
http://www.dcuniverseonline.
So how are you guys finding DCUO? Are you still playing it and enjoying the updates?
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