Infested Arena 2
Now On B.net NA and EU!
Welcome Back...
It has been 43 years since your last encounter with the Infested, which took place on a space station in a remote part of the Universe. You thought you were victorious after defeating the Broodmother. Little did you know that the Infested followed you back to your home planet in the Galminus system and have since been mutating, evolving and multiplying directly above you. It is clear to you that the Infested are far more powerful than they were last time. Mutant strains and cross breeding has brought about new and terrifying Infested units. But, you are not easily discouraged...43 years has brought about advancements of your own. Prepare yourself the Invasion is about to begin...
Evolving from Infested Arena to Infested Arena 2
New Arena Invasion Dynamic
Infested Arena had 4 hallways which spawned the same amount of Infested units (a total of 2 different types: ranged and melee) at the same intervals with randomized Special Infested Units (SIU's) spawning at 1 of the 4 hallway locations at set times.
Infested Arena 2 has a randomized Invasion dynamic where at the beginning of each round randomized Drop-pods will fall from the sky in random locations. Once the Drop-pod lands it will begin generating eggs which after a short time will hatch and release the Pods designated spawn unit (i.e. Spewer Pod will spawn several infested spewer units). There is also a % chance based on active players and difficulty selected to generate new Drop-Pods at varying locations and varying times into the Arena. There are 4 basic Infested units (Infested Arena only had 2) each has it's respective Drop-Pod. Furthermore, you will easily be able to identify, with the "Infested Pod" dialog, all the current pods found within the Arena. In addition, Special Infested Cocoons will drop from the sky into the arena and after the duration will hatch a random SIU, all of which can be tracked using the "Infested Pod" dialog.
New Special Infested Units
There are now 10 SIU's including new ones, such as: Behemoth, Vile Imploder, Stalker, Desecrator. Some of the SIU's from Infested Arena were removed because...,well, they just weren't any fun.
Infested Blood Transfusions
Infested Arena 2 Introduces "Infested Blood Transfusions." Each time a Special Infested Unit or Boss is killed there is a chance for them to drop "Infested Blood" when one Specialist picks this up all specialists receive 1 Infested Blood. You can use a new menu to load up a stat tree in which you can further modify your Specialist by injecting yourself with the Infested Blood - Things ranging from increased movement speed, damage, extra shields, armor to having a chance to apply the "plague" or chain explosion reaction each time you attack.
Each available stat change found within the Infested Blood Transfusion Tree is modeled after Infested units you are fighting (Infested Bulwark Plating - Increase Armor +1/2/3/4/5)
Specialist changes
My original plan was to incorporate several new Specialists in Infested Arena 2, but after consideration and plenty of feedback I decided to change the fighting mechanics with each specialist. In Infested Arena everyone had energy and all abilities had close to a 10-15 second cooldown. Many times people would run until there ability was up. This wasn't to much fun. How could I make battle more fun and enjoyable? I decided to go with an action game battle dynamic. Each Specialist now has a total of 6 abilities (up from 4) and cooldowns are down around the 1-3 second mark.
Infested Arena witnessed 5 specialists who almost were identical in operation but with different special effects.
In Infested Arena 2 each Specialist is completely individualized everything about them operates differently from other specialists. Read on for details
A Few Examples of The New Battle System
Seifer's New Battle Mechanics
Built for Tanking.
-Seifer uses fast regenerating Energy to perform his abilities.
-Seifer has a "charging up" mechanic known as Ravager's Roar to boost his attack power and armor. With each roar Seifer receives 1 Ravager's Mark which will keep Seifer's damage and armor up until he uses "Igniting Wave." Once used all Marks will be removed. How do you get the most out of your Igniting Wave? Keep charging up with Ravager's Roar.
Fulgore's New Battle Mechanics
Built for damage from the shadows
-Fulgore uses Fast regenerating energy for a few of his abilities
-The rest of Fulgore's abilities operate off of a combo system known as Marks of Death. Each attack Fulgore executes has a 20% chance of awarding 1 Mark of Death. Other abilities and upgrades can apply additional Marks of Death just by using them. Fulgore can then choose to use his other abilities powered by Marks of Death. Once a Mark of Death ability is used all Marks of death are consumed. Depending on how many Marks of Death Fulgore had when executing the ability will determine the effectiveness of that ability (i.e. Vexing Shadows requires at least 1 Mark of Death. For each Mark of Death consumed when Vexing Shadows is executed Fulgore will teleport and deal extensive damage to 2 enemy units. If Fulgore has 5 Marks of Death then a total of 10 enemies will be warped too and attacked).
Blaze's New Battle Mechanics
Built for Siege and AoE
-Blaze uses Fury to power the majority of his abilities. Blaze's Fury meter starts at 0 and as Blaze attacks his Fury meter will begin to rise reaching a maximum of 100. As Blaze reaches certain thresholds of Fury he will be able to perform various abilities. Blaze also has abilities that require no Fury and will actually add a certain amount of Fury to Blazes Fury meter when used.
-Blaze utilizes "Presences" - Blaze can only have 1 Presence on at any given time and depending on which presence Blaze has on they will positively/negatively effect him (i.e. Fury Presence grants 150% additional Fury increase with regular attacks, Increases damage by 40%, and movement speed by 10%, but at the cost of degenerating Shields, and 50% increased damage from all Infested attacks.)
and much more.
Dead Eye's New Battle Mechanics
-Dead Eye uses Fast regenerating Energy to power his abilities. Dead Eye has the capability of dealing extreme damage to single targets as well as using superior crowd control abilities to protect his teammates. Dead Eye has access to Critical Strike Upgrades which allows every attack and ability a chance at dealing 200%, 205%, 210%, 215%, or 220% damage depending on critical strike upgrade level.
Salv's New Battle Mechanics
Salv can be used to focus directly on damage and AoE or Healing. Salv has access to Quick Access Heal buttons which allows him to cast his healing spells (via buttons on the leaderboard) at great distances. This way Salv can keep track of his teammates health and still remain an effective damage dealer.
Salv uses fast regenerating Energy to power his abilities and has great Crowd Control abilities such as "Mind Sync" which allows Salv to convert up to 10 Infested Units (SIUs included) to his side for a duration. This ability can turn the tide of battle quickly if the right units are "Mind Synced" (i.e. Mind Syncing a Special Infested Behemoth - sends the Behemoth to do massive AoE damage to all nearby Infested Units).
NEW SPECIALIST Psion's New Battle Mechanics
Psion is a new addition to the team and although requires a persistent player level of 7 Psion is a power addition to Infested Arena.
Psion uses fast regenerating Energy to power his abilities. Psion's main purpose is to rain down destructive electrical magic from above. All of Psion's abilities have some form of electrical attribute. Although Psion's Health and Energy starts out low Psion Energy Reserves start out higher than the rest of the Specialists.
Psion is capable of enabling "Flight Form" which increases his Electrical damage and increases his movement speed. Psion can traverse cliffs and has the ability of summoning his favored ally "Arc." Arc's weapon is increased along with Psion's weapon. Whenver you upgrade Psion's weapon the benefits transfer to Arc.
Psion is also capable of restoring teammate shields via the Quick heal keys located next to the leaderboard. Instantly clicking on the appropriate team icon will heal the corresponding teammate.
Persistent Player Level
All of your kills are permanently recorded within Infested Arena 2. Whenever you start a new game of Infested Arena too you will notice that your kills refelct all prior kills you have recieved while playing Infested Arena. As you Level up (via your Persistent Player Level) you will be granted access to exclusive Hero Specialist Units. In addition, you will partake in the Persistent Level Player Stat Menu.
The Persistent Player Level Stat Menu allows you (upon starting Infested Arena) to add upgrades (dependent on your Player Level) to your Specialist. In other words, the longer you play and the higher your Player Level the more initial upgrades you can make to the Specialist you have selected.
Latest Patch Notes
This Map was created for the NA Server. If you are from EU server please include the version you are playing in your comment
Comments
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_ForgeUser4426202 Owner
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Posted Jun 19, 2011blaze is pretty decent late game, took him to round 38 or so but theres 1 main problem with him besides caster damage, the graphics stack from enemy attacks in the range shield and cause horrific lagg in later rounds, its the only saving grace vs range enemies later but with all the lagg it gives u cant do anything about it.
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Posted Jun 19, 2011@Etravex: Go
the key point from that was when you upgrade your weapon speed, the bonus from the player level decreases. and unless you have basically all of your stats in weapon speed, the bonus doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things. (i would much rather have an extra 30% damage then 15% speed. the weapon damage bonus increases as you upgrade, the speed bonus decreases as you upgrade)
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Posted Jun 19, 2011@YinKuza: Go
I do believe you are spot-on with airstrike. Something will be done although I'm not sure what yet.
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Posted Jun 19, 2011@rayinen: Go
Even though the 1% increase doesn't seem to show up on the tooltip info trust me when I say that the benefit is still applied. 1% of .2 is .002 so for each playerlevel upgrade the attackspeed goes from .200 down to .198, but the system automatically rounds up for visual representation not being tedious hence it still shows .200.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011Blaze has felt somewhat imba to me. whenever i play him i tend to just ignore his spells and just mass weapon upgrades. I also have a feeling this is what the average blaze user does just because the whole kiting and micro aspect is tedious. I do agree that blaze, when properly microed, is vary from weak, but, again, most players either don't have the skill or the will to play him correctly.
Because of this, as i've said before, I feel it would be beneficial to edit blaze so he fits a "no spells needed" role, with his spells being tailored to maximize his usefulness, instead of being an integral part of it.
edit: another thing i just thought of, when upgrading attack speed via the weapon upgrade, the effect of the plvl stats scales with it. would it be possible to modify that so the bonus doesn't become something that hardly changes a thing? as it stands the 1% per level stat gain doesn't even change much. just doubling that would do a great deal to giving it some impact.
also, i'm loving the new update. had the sui survival on the first round and we ended up getting 4 blood XD epic starts ftw!
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Posted Jun 18, 2011@Etravex: Go
I have done exactly everything you mentioned in your post, and it just doesn't seem right. I am probably one of the most experienced players of Infested Arena as it is right now, with more games played, and higher rounds reached than anyone has legitimately, yet. And also with alot of time put into testing Blaze and his different aspects.
I just don't see a big purpose of him later on compared to other characters, and kiting is not really a good friend of this game since you have to stay grouped most of the time, especially later on. Constantly needing your group to move around with you since you need to kite yourself to make yourself useful, especially after round 20 just seems way too edgy. But yes, his Open Season is indeed strong now, maybe too strong, but that doesn't make change the whole thing about him having flawed mechanics, and getting a build where you have to switch inbetween the two stances does not work out very well.
Otherwise i am just completely failing at something that you and others see as something quite obvious.
I mean... It's easy enough to just add some extra damage to a skill and then say he's not flawed anymore because it does a zillion damage. I agree that the whole Open Season thing now is pretty crazy, but that's not where i want to go with him, and now his airstrike is pretty much useless, which just leaves a hole there... Not that it was ever very useful, but still.. It's just how he functions in general, which does not fit the map very well.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011@YinKuza: Go
I think you have misunderstood a couple things about Blaze's mechanics. First of all, the patch hasn't been out, but for only an hour or so which means you could have only of played one game with blaze and who knows how far you made it. How can you assume that reaching round 20-30 is plausible with Blaze, but beyond that isn't? Playing only 1 game (or even 2) is definitely not enough time to make a stand like you've made.
Here are a couple of things you are confused about. Blaze's Presences should be switched back and forth during combat depending on the situation. Obviously if you are finding yourself surrounded by Infested then toggling Protective Presence is important and if enemies are farther away or you find yourself in a jam and need quick Fury then Fury Presence needs to be toggled. The Idea that Protective presence is for tanking and should be on all the time is false and was never meant for this and will make an extremely ineffective character if done this way. Same goes for Fury presence if you are in it constantly for a DPS spec then you will find yourself dead constantly.
That being said, switching in between Presences is imperative to maximizing survivability and damage. Blaze is a Siege hero and if you calculate the damage per second blaze does with any other Specialist you will find that he has the highest base DPS so just because you are not one shotting enemies doesn't mean that his DPS is low. He fires 3-5 times faster than all other specialists. Let's do some math [Blaze .2 Fire Speed at 8 Dmg;;;; In 1 second Blaze has done 35 damage. 8 damage an interval with -1 damage for armor reduction per hit is 40 damage -5 damage = 35 damage. Now let's take Dead Eye [Dead Eye .7 Fire Speed at 22 Dmg;;;;; In 1 second Dead Eye has done 29.4 damage. 22 damage in interval with -1 damage for armor reduction per hit is 31.4 damage - 2 damage = 29.4 damage. We could compare the other specialists, but Dead Eye has one of the highest weapon interval damage counts so he was a good one to use.
If you are finding that you are getting surrounded easily as Blaze here are a couple pointers for you.
Blaze is a harder character to learn, but he is a kiting class if you aren't kiting the enemies and using your abilities from far away (Yes Blaze is built as a Siege Class; he can get his attack distance almost to 20 and his abilities are 15 range) then you wont last long.
I'm sorry that your experience with Blaze has been unfortunate. However, as good news, There are people who have really perfected Blaze's Play-style even before the last patch and were very powerful assets.
In terms of group assistance, Projectile Protectorate is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, Team assistant abilities out of all the classes especially for rounds 21+.
Blaze is extremely unique in that after maxing out attackspeed and getting additional fury gain through the special infested tree combined with fury presence. Blaze doesn't have to have a completely maxed out Open Season for it to be vital. In fact later game a tester who I play with who is very good with Blaze Spams Open Season because of how fast his fury gain is. It may not be comparable to other specialists Nukes, but being able to use 3 Open Seasons in the time it takes another specialist to use their 1 nuke you can see how it balances out.
Keep trying you will feel differently once you evolve your play style.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011I just tried Blaze a couple of times with his new 1.66 improvements.
I have to admit... Those buffs didn't do much to Blaze as he is pretty much the same.
Here are some reasons:
I don't know if i am the only one seeing this, but his overall mechanics are pretty flawed, and doesn't coorporate well together. I tried it out. Sure his tanking is alright now, but i'd still rather go with just a Seifer. Switching inbetween the 2 stances doesn't make much sense either, since you would either have to go for the Fury Prescence build, or the tank build. Mixing them is a bad option, since you would have to put points into way too much stuff at a time.
The extra 5 range doesn't change the fact that his damage output is crap, and doesn't benefit anything in this map, since you don't really need more than 12 range at the good camping spots.
Sure it's easy to reach round 20-30, but i guarentee that he won't be able to do anything useful at that point without other people around him, and even then, he doesn't add much to the group. I made some suggestions in an earlier post with thoughts that would definately make him more useful. Like a knockback.
The way that i'd see him prove himself more useful was switching his stances out with Ammo types. For example 1 ammo that decreases enemies armor, one that knocks them back, and one that heals him, one that stuns, etc, etc... These are just examples, but i am sure that they would prove him much more useful than he is right now.
Having to boost Open Season to the point where it's actually useful, especially lategame leaves your regular attacks really low, and leaves Open Season as your only option which requires way too much fury for him to handle the bigger waves of enemies, where other characters Nukes will do an instant damage, and regenerate their mana even when running away from enemies, while Blaze has to jump around to avoid dying, and still have to attack to regain his fury. I admit that his Open Season does crazy damage now, and maybe a little too much on bosses, but that doesn't make the creeps avoid him less.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011@michaeldrotar: Go
That has already been implemented in 1.65. You get a 7 second Invulnerability, cloak, x2 movement speed, and you can pass through units like a ghost.
Cheers
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Posted Jun 18, 2011The new continue system is nice but dying 3 times instead of one is not so hot. How about a brief period of invulnerability after a continue? :D
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Posted Jun 18, 2011@iXoZTwisted: Go
Fixing AI as we speak will be done shortly and new version will be uploaded
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Posted Jun 18, 2011@Xcracker: Go
That happens if a Burster doesn't get shot before it reaches one of the team members and explodes. This gives the enemies a speed buff.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011I've been wondering if this is a bug or not, so I'm going to mention it now.
At random periods of time, the infested units' movement speed changes into some extremely fast speed, not sure of the exact speed and their radius turns into 0.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011Yeah new targeting system seems to have alot of glitches. Even with fulgore cloaked, the infested all still follow him. The infesting attacking nearest specialist is messed up.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011I don't know if it is a bug or not, but it make it really easy to go to infinite round. You can have 1 character sacrifice himself in the middle of Infested traffic, and they will all hug him, even after he die. No Infests will reach the rest of the party, making it a cruise through the later level
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Posted Jun 18, 2011Not sure if anyone has made this suggestion or not, but I enjoy playing Seifer, but with a full group getting any exp is pretty much impossible, any way to implement an exp sharing system for him with his taunt, where if he takes part in the death of units, he'll still get some exp... cause otherwise there is no point to play him till im level capped.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011@iXoZTwisted
The last few patches were bug fixes and player level cap increase.
@Etravex
The new Stronghold Objective looks a little too impossible. Not early on, but later on into the game, and especially on Savage+ it it impossible having to kill all the Strongholds after round 25+ without having to split up your group and risk getting killed. Going with the full group takes too long, and you won't be able to kill all the Strongholds in time.
And then there's the new SIU rounds (Survival) - Basically just a free round. Nothing spawns.
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Posted Jun 18, 2011Can i support others? Oh well ill do it anyways. I think that weighting the kills like rayinen says would be a great idea. When the cap is raised, this will stop people from playing Easy 100x rather than anything harder to get their exp. I also think you should somehow also change the exp for Infested Terran/Spewer/Guard/Etc untill you seem it fit.
Can i disagree with others? Oh well ill do it anyways. I havent played Krug much but from what ive heard, Turrets are useless late game (maybe fixed in the last couple patches) and from what ive played i saw that Pyro Charge is a fun, awesome, viable? build. Ill go try those out right now.
Theres a bug im sure you've at least heard about. 2 people picking and game starting with 3 people. This turns out to be an invincible glitch. The 3rd person can sit there forever and when the other 2 die, game isnt over, continues not used, they just revive as the 3rd person waits. As long as the 3rd person still has his hero selection screen up he is invincible and so is his team.
Edit: The cap is raised! HOORAYY! Question: Can you put the patch notes off the the side or something? Last night it was 1.58 and now its 1.63 I missed what happened in 5 patches lol. Could u put the most recent where it is but the last couple like... Bottom right?
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Posted Jun 18, 2011Hey, just posting to say this is a wonderful game. Been playing it a lot
With that being say, there is a few bug. 1) SIU round (team survival) is bugged, as no infested are spawned 2) The 2nd subclass spec (where you choose to have bonus by being Physical DPS, Healer, Magical DPS or Tank). If you click really quick, you can have 2 spec. In game, I have both Magical DPS and Healer on my character
And ye, Healer subclass seem really underpowered. Maybe make it into a % thing, or have some kind of mana reduction % on heal/shield recharge
Also, character are vary in their Stop command. By this, I mean some character have Hold Position (H) command and others instead have Stop (S) command. Personally, I prefer Stop (S) as it is closer to many skill hotkeys, and having to reach so far to press (H) for Hold Position seem really inconvenience, and bugged me to no end at some point. A solution could be to changed them all to Stop (S) or re-coded the Hold Position command so that it used (S) instead
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Posted Jun 17, 2011noticed that the dust cloud for psion is finally gone. thanks for that.
another thing i was wondering: would it be possible to add osmosis (or something like it) into the game? you have a life/shield leech but no energy leech. and for those of us who use the spell casters and just ignore the weapon upgrades all together (aside maybe from some range and attack speed once said leech is achieved) this would add a bit more incentive for getting it.
another thing i was wondering is what upgrades arc gets. is it just the upgrades you buy in the weapon tab or does he get the blood upgrades too?
also, have you ever considered giving arc a passive that causes X% of his damage to be returned to psion as energy?
another thing i just noticed is that the SIU doesnt scale, and unless you get a creeper spawn, you can't complete the objective
edit: also, the stronghold objective is a little much. without jeopardizing survive, my team was unable to complete it. to many strongholds not enough time.
edit 2:something else i just thought of: for the healing spec, instead of increasing the heal, what about decreasing the energy cost?
edit 3: one more thing (yay for multiple edits) the darkness is akin to game designers making a boss 2hit the players units. it doesnt add any real challenge to the game. it just makes it seem harder (and horribly screws with objectives) would you be able to make the darkness it's own objective at least? like a survive the darkness round? (switch that in and exchange it for the normal don't fall to incapacitation)
edit 4: something else i just thought of: is it possible to add weight to the kill gain for the player level? I.E. each kill counts as 3 kills on lunatic, 2 on brutal, 1 on normal and .5 on easy
edit 5: siu survival round is broken. nothing spawns and you still get the mineral bonus