Cosmic Greetings, Leo Wyld, your Raccoonatic Commander, reporting!
June 4th, 2014 marks one year since the live launch of Marvel Heroes for the general public. As such, Gazillion, being suckers for events of all sorts, are having a big celebration for the week (that includes a massive multitude of gifts for its players) and a big patch, as well. A patch that Gazillion is considering the start of a new "season" of the game, titled "Marvel Heroes 2015"
The big item in the patch is a first for Marvel Heroes (and a novelty for an ARPG, in general), a raid. This ten-man raid will serve as the conclusion of the current Asgard storyline and will involve battles across numerous bosses in the fiery realm of Muspelheim, culminating in a showdown with the mighty (and gigantic) Surtur. As the conclusion of the Asgard storyline, we can expect it to have a post-boss cutscene that will indicate where we are going next. I have a feeling it'll be somewhere cosmic (Gazillion has already teased it will somehow involve Skrulls, let's hope for a Knowhere hub!)
The patch will also introduce the Omega System, something similar to Everquest's Alternate Advancement system. The Omega System will allow you to earn points, independent of experience, that you spend on various bonuses spread across several different fields of SHIELD research (like the arcane, nanotech, advanced weaponry, etc.). And new fields of research will unlock in the future as more story is added to Marvel Heroes (hint, perhaps? there are some decidedly spacey-sounding fields of research that start off locked)
It will also add a Shared Quest system that allows you to complete various daily quests, not unlike the existing legendary quest system. Unlike the legendary quest system, however, the shared quests can be done with a party, if you so choose.
There will also be changes to the way buff powers work across all heroes. And Rocket's skill tree has been reorganized to be a bit more friendly to newcomers. Why... well...
That is a picture that Jeff "Doomsaw" Donais posted as a teaser. What is it? It is what a new player starting the game will see after the June 4th patch. That is, Rocket Raccoon is going to be one of the selectable starter heroes! Now, if you already have an account and have played, this will not give you him for free or anything. But if you, for some reason, have not yet logged into and checked out Marvel Heroes yet, and especially if you are a Rocket fan, after the patch would be a great time to finally check out the game. And, of course, this might help earn our favorite procyonid protagonist some more fans alongside the approaching movie.
One more bit of cosmic Marvel Heroes news, Beta Ray Bill was scheduled to be released as a new team-up (I explained team-ups in my last gaming update). Unfortunately, he requires more polish and will not be released until the patch *after* the Anniversary patch (which, not so bad, *may* be as soon as Friday the 6th)
And one last thing, there is supposed to be a surprise hero announced (which may not be a surprise by the time you read this) with the anniversary celebration. It has been hinted that the hero is in the new 2015 splash screen at the top of this article.
Update: It turns out the surprise hero is the Silver Surfer, after all. So, hey, more cosmic news for this segment! He will be on Test Center on Friday the 6th, which likely would mean a release next week.
Until next time, stay awesome, and see ya round the 'Raccooniverse!