An in-depth look at Issue 11 power sets in CoX

Floyd "Castle" Grubb sat down recently and recorded a video explanation of the upcoming power sets available in Issue 11: A Stitch in Time for City of Heroes/City of Villains. Since the video is only available as a download, we'll give you the complete rundown here on Massively of what we can expect from the two new power sets being added into the game. The first thing Castle mentioned was the fact that these power sets were added to the game because they were what the players asked for most. When asked, the players most requested Willpower for a defensive power set, and dual blades for an offensive set.

Willpower: This is the defensive power set, as I mentioned before, and is a strong mix of defense, resistance, and regeneration effects. It is largely defined by it's three key powers: High Pain Tolerance, Rise to the Challenge, and Indomitable Will.

• High Pain Tolerance: This is a passive Tier One power, granting damage resistance and an increase to maximum health

• Rise to the Challenge: Taunt/Aura power. The more enemies surround the character, the more regeneration he has, and the more demoralized his enemies become reducing their chance to hit. Stalkers do not have access to this power, and receive Reconstruction instead.

• Indomitable Will: Status/Protection power. This power is a toggle giving protection against fear, holds, stuns, sleep, and confusion, and provides a high level of defense against psionic-related attacks. This makes this the only power set in the game to have resistance and defense to psionics.

Dual Blades: First a note about the name. It is not called Dual Scimitars or Dual Daggers because along with new power sets, Issue 11 will introduce weapon customization, where players can select which weapons their character uses with this set in the character customization tool. Each weapon-based set will have a few variations of weapons to choose from when the Issue launches.

Dual Blades introduces the first combo system into CoX, making this one of the more engaging and interactive power sets in the game. How you build your combos is up to you, but creating them successfully yields a nice bonus power at the end. The four abilities in the combo system are:

• Attack Vitals: This is a damage-over-time ability

• Empower: This is a bonus build-up power

• Sweep: This is an Area of Effect power, a lethal damage ability with bonus to knockdown

• Weaken: This power applies a large penalty to enemies' chance to hit.