DIFFICULTY MODE CONSOLIDATION - FAQ
With the Ant-Man patch, difficulty modes have been removed and consolidated!
The goal of this consolidation is to make grouping simplified, but it has several side benefits and lays the groundwork for further changes and new features for the future.
Difficulty Modes
There is no longer a “Normal”, “Heroic” and “Superheroic” difficulty for story mode.
All references to difficulty modes in the Story have been removed throughout the game. There is now simply "Story Mode"
Grouping
Grouping is now simplified. You do not have to switch difficulties at any time in order to join another player’s group, you simply join them.
Story Mode Experience and Missions
Experience rewards for story mode have been greatly increased.
Players can level from 1 to 60 in story mode alone, at a brisk pace, if they wish.
Several new optional story missions have been added in various chapters, with experience awards, to aid in leveling. More may be added in the future, as needed.
Those new missions will be reflected in your mission log, if you wish to complete them for fun, but there are no new “must have” rewards.
Achievements
Several achievements related to difficulty modes have been simplified or moved in the "Retired" section within the Feats achievement category. They will remain on a player’s record for posterity, but no longer contribute to achievement point totals. This applies to the Heroic and Superheroic versions of the "Defeat the Brotherhood" achievements.
Achievements which required an objective to be completed in a specific difficulty mode have been adjusted to simply require that task to be completed in "story mode" and not reference a difficulty. This affects nine achievements in total. If you've previously completed those achievement, you will of course keep your credit.
The set of achievements requiring a defeat of Doctor Doom in Superheroic mode now simply require the defeat occur in story mode. (Since Doom is towards the end of the revised story, it's roughly the same difficulty). These are the "... vs. Doctor Doom" achievements. If you've completed them already, you'll keep your credit.
Treasure Rooms
Whenever a story region spawns, it usually randomly creates two of the three possible treasure rooms in the area. For achievement hunters, it will no longer be possible to simply change difficulty modes to try and respawn treasure rooms. It will require either a relog or joining a different party.
However, we are going to increase the spawn rate of Treasure Rooms to the maximum possible per region (resulting in ~50% more treasure rooms in any given story region), which will be exciting.
Consider this if you want to complete certain achievements in an easier fashion before this change happens.
Mission Awards
Story-mode mission awards have been consolidated whenever appropriate, essentially resulting in “triple” rewards for many missions.
If a mission awards health, spirit or power points, completing the mission will now combine the awards for Normal, Heroic and Superheroic into one award.
A player who completed any of these missions, on any difficulty, prior to the patch will receive full credit for completing all three of them.
If you have not completed any difficulty of these prior to the difficulty consolidation patch, they can simply complete it afterwards and receive the full “triple” credit.
If you've already completed ANY difficulty of these missions in the past, you don't need to do anything - everything will be handled automatically.
Story Mode Artifacts
Three artifacts awarded for quests are no consolidated to award only the Superheroic version, with a name change and lowered level requirement. Details:
Maht's Arrowhead (Normal) and (Heroic) are no longer available. Maht's Arrowhead (Superheroic) version will now be awarded as the quest reward, with a reduced level requirement of 19 and the item name officially changed to Maht's Bladed Arrowhead. Image:
http://i.imgur.com/n8kkhM2.jpg
S.H.I.E.L.D. Motion Tracker (Normal) and (Heroic) are no longer available. S.H.I.E.L.D. Motion Tracker (Superheroic) version will now be awarded as the quest reward, with a reduced level requirement of 19 and the item name officially changed to S.H.I.E.L.D. Motion Analyzer. Image:
http://imgur.com/JJWMbE8
Yukio's Charm (Normal) and (Heroic) are no longer available. Yukio's Charm (Superheroic) version will now be awarded as the quest reward, with a reduced level requirement of 15 and the item name officially changed to Yukio's Lucky Charm. Image:
http://imgur.com/Q1T92NF
If you are interested in collecting specific versions of these 3 artifacts, be sure to complete the appropriate difficulty missions before July 16th if you haven't already. The normal and heroic versions of these artifacts won't be available once the Ant-Man patch goes live and you will not receive the revised Superheroic version once the change is made if you've already completed the missions on normal or heroic previously.
What To Do Now
If you want to acquire the Normal or Superheroic versions of the 3 artifacts listed above, you should complete the appropriate missions now.
If you are an achievement hunter and want to quickly reset treasure rooms by changing difficulty modes, you may want to do that in the next week.
If you want to have some achievements in the "Retired" category of X-traordinary Feats, you may want to complete the Heroic and Superheroic versions of the "Defeat the Brotherhood" achievements.
Otherwise, you don't have much to do.
Future Plans
The consolidation of difficulty modes is a fine step to making grouping easier and has lots of benefits for new players, but it also lays the groundwork for additional features for the future.
We are planning a "Mentor Mode" which will allow you to auto-magically scale yourself down and group with lower level friends in story zones (and possibly other zones) while still gaining gear for your level. This is planned for later in the year.
We would like to eventually create a level 60 Cosmic Story "terminal", with appropriate rewards, achievements, etc.
We are working on designs for self-selected scaling difficulty and other features that will be used with the upcoming "Leaderboard" tech.
Let me know if anything here is unclear so I can clean it up or add more info.
The beta version of this Difficult Mode Consolidation work will be on test center tomorrow night and will launch with the Ant-Man patch.
