Announcing Act 5 Chapter 4: Cornerstone
Kabam DK
Moderator Moderator › Posts: 221
ACT 5 CHAPTER 4: CORNERSTONE ARRIVES DECEMBER 13TH AT 10:00 AM PST 15th AT APPROXIMATELY 11:00 AM PST
NOW I CAN SEE THAT WE’RE FALLING APART
The Grandmaster’s grip on the Champions of The Contest has slipped, his focus spread thin across an increasingly chaotic realm. With a window of opportunity presented to them, those resisting The Grandmaster’s rule double down in their efforts to find the missing pieces of the Cornerstone that holds The Battlerealm together, but their increased activity forces him to focus his cruel attention upon them, and strike back with his most powerful Champions to date… Can you and The Resistance muster your remaining strength and allies to repair the Cornerstone and discover the cause of all this chaos? Will The Grandmaster and his Lieutenants counter your strength and stand in your way?
FROM THE WAY THAT IT USED TO BE…. YEAAAAH
While the final Chapter of Act 5 might have some new additions, The Grandmaster isn’t above dusting off some of his trickiest tools to test your toughness. A locked camera view will keep you on your toes, while Portals whose names contain hints at the path they lead to will make things even more interesting! New Buffs and Opponents will no doubt keep things unpredictable as well, so be sure to pay attention in each map so you’ll know what team to bring!
YOU ARE MY FIRE, MY ONE DESIRE
The long awaited race to become an Act 5 Legend is here! For those who choose to compete for an Act 5 Legends Title, we will be using the same method as our Event Quests: The fastest 100 recorded times to 100% explore all Chapters in Act 5 between December 13th 2017 at 10:00:00 AM PST until January 31st 2018 at 11:59:59 PM PST will earn themselves a Legends title, plus the awesome rewards below. We count your start time from the moment you enter Quest 1 of Chapter 4, and end it when you 100% explore all of Act 5, which means if you’re going for a Legends title, you’ll want to have 100% explored Chapters 1-3 of Act 5 before you begin Chapter 4.
Top 100:
2x Tier 2 Alpha Catalysts
1x 4-Star Thanos
Top 5 (in addition to the above):
1x Tier 5 Basic Catalyst
1x 5-Star Kang Thanos - EDITED DECEMBER 4th @ 9:17 AM PST
Legends Points
#1: 100 Points
2-5: 75 Points
6-50: 50 Points
51-100: 25 Points
You probably have a lot more questions at this point so here’s some answers:
Q&A
Okay, how do Legends runs work with this?
The actual time recorded is however long it takes you from starting Chapter 4 to 100% exploring all Chapters, so if you start Chapter 4 thinking you’ll record the fastest time, but you still have under 100% exploration on any other quest in Act 5 outside of Chapter 4, your time will not be locked in until you 100% explore the rest of those quests. Here’s an example:
Player 1 has only completed Chapters 1-3.
Chapter 4 comes out, and they 100% Explore Chapter 4 in 3 hours.
Player 2 has 100% explored Chapters 1-3
Chapter 4 comes out, and they 100% explore Chapter 4 in 4.5 hours.
Player 1 has not yet logged a Legends time because they have not 100% explored Act 5.
Player 2’s Legends time is 4.5 hours because they fully explored the Act 4.5 hours after they began Chapter 4.
The period to record your legends time will be from December 13th 2017 at 10:00:00 AM PST until January 31st 2018 at 11:59:59 PM PST. It is important to note that you CAN continue to 100% explore and play Chapters 1-3 of Act 5 during this Legends qualifying period without risking “starting” your Legends clock, as long as you do not enter Chapter 4. It’s perfectly fine to prepare for a Legends run during the Legends qualifying period, just be careful not to start Chapter 4 or the clock will start ticking.
You’re locking the camera? Like Labyrinth?
Yes. Locking the camera along with the use of portals is meant to escalate the stakes of choosing certain paths and emphasizing “solving” the map as a riddle. Don’t worry, you won’t be COMPLETELY in the dark about what to expect on certain paths, but Chapter 4 is meant to be hard in more ways than just one, and adding some elements of gameplay/problem solving to the map is part of that.
What do you mean we won’t be COMPLETELY in the dark?
Portals are now labelled with short hints about the type of encounters you’ll find on the other side. For example, you may see a Portal with text next to it saying “POWER” which means the fights on that path will all focus around your opponent’s power meter. Perhaps another might say VITALITY OR RESILIENCE, which means there are 2 options at the end of that path, one which focuses on health (whether that be regeneration or simply high health pools), another on damage resistance, such as energy or physical resistance, or even high armor. As a general rule, here’s how Portal Labels are written:
A & B - The & joiner means BOTH effect A and effect B will be on the path this Portal leads to
A OR B - the OR joiner means you will be able to choose a path containing EITHER A or B, but not both, after exiting this Portal.
Some Paths feature Act 5 Buffs you’ve squared off against before, and those Portals will be labelled with the name of those specific Buffs so you know what you’re getting into.
Does this mean each path has their own unique Buffs?
Not necessarily. Most paths will have their own unique identity as far as Buffs are concerned, but some fights may not have any unique local Buffs. There are harder paths with their unique Buff identity with additional Buffs that highlight each Champion i.e. a path called Bane where every fight has the Bane Buff, but Colossus on that path has Enhanced Armor Up, Ultron has Stun Immunity, etc.
What about the bosses? Who are they? Do they have their own Buffs?
Each Boss has at least 1 unique Buff specifically designed to enhance their existing abilities. These Buffs have been created for these Champions especially in Act 5, so you won’t have encountered them before. Because we want each to be a cool and exciting surprise, we’re choosing NOT to reveal who the bosses will be and what their Buffs are. We know you want to know, but we do want to have some surprises in store when Chapter 4 releases. One thing we WILL say is this: All 6 Bosses in Act 5 Chapter 4 will be 6-Star Champions, however, as we are still in the process of finalizing the tuning of Adrenaline, these bosses will NOT have the Adrenaline mechanic activated.
NOW I CAN SEE THAT WE’RE FALLING APART
The Grandmaster’s grip on the Champions of The Contest has slipped, his focus spread thin across an increasingly chaotic realm. With a window of opportunity presented to them, those resisting The Grandmaster’s rule double down in their efforts to find the missing pieces of the Cornerstone that holds The Battlerealm together, but their increased activity forces him to focus his cruel attention upon them, and strike back with his most powerful Champions to date… Can you and The Resistance muster your remaining strength and allies to repair the Cornerstone and discover the cause of all this chaos? Will The Grandmaster and his Lieutenants counter your strength and stand in your way?
FROM THE WAY THAT IT USED TO BE…. YEAAAAH
While the final Chapter of Act 5 might have some new additions, The Grandmaster isn’t above dusting off some of his trickiest tools to test your toughness. A locked camera view will keep you on your toes, while Portals whose names contain hints at the path they lead to will make things even more interesting! New Buffs and Opponents will no doubt keep things unpredictable as well, so be sure to pay attention in each map so you’ll know what team to bring!
YOU ARE MY FIRE, MY ONE DESIRE
The long awaited race to become an Act 5 Legend is here! For those who choose to compete for an Act 5 Legends Title, we will be using the same method as our Event Quests: The fastest 100 recorded times to 100% explore all Chapters in Act 5 between December 13th 2017 at 10:00:00 AM PST until January 31st 2018 at 11:59:59 PM PST will earn themselves a Legends title, plus the awesome rewards below. We count your start time from the moment you enter Quest 1 of Chapter 4, and end it when you 100% explore all of Act 5, which means if you’re going for a Legends title, you’ll want to have 100% explored Chapters 1-3 of Act 5 before you begin Chapter 4.
Top 100:
2x Tier 2 Alpha Catalysts
1x 4-Star Thanos
Top 5 (in addition to the above):
1x Tier 5 Basic Catalyst
1x 5-Star Kang Thanos - EDITED DECEMBER 4th @ 9:17 AM PST
Legends Points
#1: 100 Points
2-5: 75 Points
6-50: 50 Points
51-100: 25 Points
You probably have a lot more questions at this point so here’s some answers:
Q&A
Okay, how do Legends runs work with this?
The actual time recorded is however long it takes you from starting Chapter 4 to 100% exploring all Chapters, so if you start Chapter 4 thinking you’ll record the fastest time, but you still have under 100% exploration on any other quest in Act 5 outside of Chapter 4, your time will not be locked in until you 100% explore the rest of those quests. Here’s an example:
Player 1 has only completed Chapters 1-3.
Chapter 4 comes out, and they 100% Explore Chapter 4 in 3 hours.
Player 2 has 100% explored Chapters 1-3
Chapter 4 comes out, and they 100% explore Chapter 4 in 4.5 hours.
Player 1 has not yet logged a Legends time because they have not 100% explored Act 5.
Player 2’s Legends time is 4.5 hours because they fully explored the Act 4.5 hours after they began Chapter 4.
The period to record your legends time will be from December 13th 2017 at 10:00:00 AM PST until January 31st 2018 at 11:59:59 PM PST. It is important to note that you CAN continue to 100% explore and play Chapters 1-3 of Act 5 during this Legends qualifying period without risking “starting” your Legends clock, as long as you do not enter Chapter 4. It’s perfectly fine to prepare for a Legends run during the Legends qualifying period, just be careful not to start Chapter 4 or the clock will start ticking.
You’re locking the camera? Like Labyrinth?
Yes. Locking the camera along with the use of portals is meant to escalate the stakes of choosing certain paths and emphasizing “solving” the map as a riddle. Don’t worry, you won’t be COMPLETELY in the dark about what to expect on certain paths, but Chapter 4 is meant to be hard in more ways than just one, and adding some elements of gameplay/problem solving to the map is part of that.
What do you mean we won’t be COMPLETELY in the dark?
Portals are now labelled with short hints about the type of encounters you’ll find on the other side. For example, you may see a Portal with text next to it saying “POWER” which means the fights on that path will all focus around your opponent’s power meter. Perhaps another might say VITALITY OR RESILIENCE, which means there are 2 options at the end of that path, one which focuses on health (whether that be regeneration or simply high health pools), another on damage resistance, such as energy or physical resistance, or even high armor. As a general rule, here’s how Portal Labels are written:
A & B - The & joiner means BOTH effect A and effect B will be on the path this Portal leads to
A OR B - the OR joiner means you will be able to choose a path containing EITHER A or B, but not both, after exiting this Portal.
Some Paths feature Act 5 Buffs you’ve squared off against before, and those Portals will be labelled with the name of those specific Buffs so you know what you’re getting into.
Does this mean each path has their own unique Buffs?
Not necessarily. Most paths will have their own unique identity as far as Buffs are concerned, but some fights may not have any unique local Buffs. There are harder paths with their unique Buff identity with additional Buffs that highlight each Champion i.e. a path called Bane where every fight has the Bane Buff, but Colossus on that path has Enhanced Armor Up, Ultron has Stun Immunity, etc.
What about the bosses? Who are they? Do they have their own Buffs?
Each Boss has at least 1 unique Buff specifically designed to enhance their existing abilities. These Buffs have been created for these Champions especially in Act 5, so you won’t have encountered them before. Because we want each to be a cool and exciting surprise, we’re choosing NOT to reveal who the bosses will be and what their Buffs are. We know you want to know, but we do want to have some surprises in store when Chapter 4 releases. One thing we WILL say is this: All 6 Bosses in Act 5 Chapter 4 will be 6-Star Champions, however, as we are still in the process of finalizing the tuning of Adrenaline, these bosses will NOT have the Adrenaline mechanic activated.
Post edited by Kabam DK on
42
Comments
Yes there are! These Buffs will be featured on different themed paths. You can read up on them below:
Vigor
- Every 15 seconds after the start of the fight, Regenerate for 50% of Base Health over 5 seconds. The timer refreshes when this Champion reaches intervals of 25% missing Health.
- This Buff means you’ll want to bring Champions who deal lots of Damage, and try and push them to intervals of 25% Max Health every 30 15 Seconds.
EDITED at 12:55 PST 11/29/2017 The above note incorrectly stated the timer kicked in every 30 seconds - the time is actually 15 seconds.
Resistor
- When struck with an Energy or Physical Attack, activate a corresponding Resistance Buff increasing respective Resistance by 20%. When an Energy Resistance Buff is activated, remove a Physical Resistance Buff, and vice-versa.
- The more physical damage you do, the more Physical Resistance the Opponent Gains, and vice versa, so you’ll want to bring Champions who have a good mix of both types through Basic and Special Attacks.
Explosive Personality
- When Blocking an attack, activate an Armor Up Buff, boosting Armor by 25%. Upon reaching 5 stacks of Armor Up generated by Explosive Personality, Armor Up stacks explode and remove 25% of opponent's Health.
- This one is pretty simple: don’t hit your opponent’s block or they’ll get a huge Armor bonus, and you’ll risk taking a lot of damage.
Feats of Power
- When above 1 Bar of Power, gain a Fury Buff. When above 2 Bars of Power, gain a Precision Buff. When at 3 Bars of Power, Gain a Cruelty Buff.
- These Buffs are VERY strong, so this is meant to have you control your opponent’s Power Bar effectively to avoid having to deal with the very strong effects.
- These Buffs DO Stack, so at 2 Bars, the Boss will have Fury and Precision, and at 3 Bars, they’ll have Fury, Precision, and Cruelty.
Rage
- Damage taken in a single hit is capped at 2.5% of Max Health. When damage cap is reached, gain a Fury Buff. Upon reaching 5 Fury Buffs activated by Rage, attacks become Unblockable.
- Here, your strategy should be to avoid burst Champions and focus on bringing Utility or Damage Over Time Champions. These Furies CAN be nullified, which will bring the champion out of their Unblockable state.
Biohazard
- When struck, 20% chance to inflict Bleed, dealing 100% of Attack as direct damage over 7.5 seconds. When Blocking an attack, 50% chance to inflict Poison, dealing 100% of Attack as direct damage over 7.5 seconds.
- This is meant to require a Bleed Immune Champion, and be even easier for those who are Poison Immune. If you’re both, you can play normally. If you’re Bleed Immune only, you will want to play normally, but intercept instead of block wherever possible.
So… how hard does this mean the fights will be?
In general, VERY hard. Here’s the range of PIs you can expect in each Quest:
Quest 1:
Paths: ~15000 to ~19000
Boss: ~25000
Quest 2:
Paths: ~16000 to ~20000
Boss: ~26000
Quest 3:
Paths: ~17000 to ~21000
Boss: ~26500
Quest 4:
Paths: ~18000 to ~22000
Boss: ~28000
Quest 5:
Paths: ~18500 to ~22500
Boss: ~29000
Quest 6:
Paths: ~19500 to ~23500
Boss: ~40000
Alright… So that seems pretty hard, what do we get?
We know that’s what you’re looking for, so here you go! We’ll start with Chapter 4 Quest Rewards:
For Completing Quests 1-6 of Chapter 4, you will receive:
60,000x Tier 4 Basic Catalyst Fragments
1,750x 5-Star Crystal Shards
13x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystals
220x Units
For Exploring Quests 1-6 of Chapter 4, you will receive:
120,000x Tier 4 Basic Catalyst Fragments
3,250x 5-Star Crystal Shards
17x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystals
18,000x Tier 2 Alpha Catalyst Fragments
330x Units
For Completing Chapter 4, you will receive:
5,000x 5-Star Crystal Shards
1x Tier 4 Basic Catalyst
60x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Fragment Crystals
1x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Crystal
18,000x Tier 2 Alpha Catalyst Fragments
For Exploring Chapter 4, you will receive:
10,000x 5-Star Crystal Shards
2x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Crystals
1x 5-Star Basic Crystal
10x Generic 5-Star Signature Stones
1x 5-Star Awakening Gem Crystal (1 of 6 Class Awakening Gems)
For Completing Act 5, you will receive:
6x Tier 4 Class Catalyst Crystals
5x Tier 2 Alpha Catalysts
2,500x 6-Star Crystal Shards
1x 5-Star Basic Crystal
20x 5-Star Generic Signature Stones
For Exploring Act 5, you will receive:
2x Tier 5 Basic Catalysts
2,500x 6-Star Crystal Shards
1x Generic 5-Star Awakening Gem
1x 5-Star Rank 3 to Rank 4 Rank Up Gem Crystal (1 of 6 Classes)
1x “Elder’s Bane” Rare Title
but please for the love of god, go easy on the magiks, duped dormammus, and ice men.
3 Magiks Sig 50
5 Dormammus, sig 5
4 Icemen, sig 10
We lowered these signature abilities as much as possible to mitigate the damage applied through the Champion Boosts.
Awesome. Low sig abilities. Still sucks to take unavoidable damage, but there’s something
No one better be complaining
Without playing it yet I offer a thank you...
I expect there to be a few Mephisto's along the way as well.
You sure bout that? Bc you clearly miscalculated the block damage in 5.3 and refuse to adjust instead you allowing it to remain!
I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe we could know how much meph we’ll see along the way as well?
did you not read the rewards?
Thanks for giving me a good chuckle. To answer your question, neither the Furies or the Armor have timers, and BOTH can be Nullified.
thanks for the answer.