Going Rogue

Overview

City of Heroes: Going Rogue is the second expansion of the City of Heroes universe (the first being City of Villains). It is a new box featuring a whole new world, where a character's choices may decide whether they end up a hero or villain. While the official release date for Going Rogue is August 17, 2010 [1], those who pre-purchased the game through NCsoft were able to access all of the Going Rogue content on August 16, concurrently with Issue 18 and the market merger.

At the Official Going Rogue site, there is teaser trailer available, which introduces Maelstrom, a pistol-wielding hero turned Vigilante, and Desdemona, a demon-summoning villain turned Rogue. There are many other videos available as well, including "ViDocs" (video documentation) of the developers explaining the process behind creating Going Rogue.

The skyline for the title logo is an outline of Nova Praetoria, the heart of Emperor Cole's domain, like City of Heroes has Paragon City skyline and City of Villains has Spider City (Grandville)'s skyline. The center building is Emperor Cole's tower of operations in Nova Praetoria, and is visible from almost any point in the city. This is to show citizens that the entire city is always under observation and under Emperor Cole's rule.

Features

A small section of Nova Praetoria with Cole's tower visible in the background

Several new zones in Praetoria, including new enemy factions
To begin as a Praetorian instead of a Hero or Villain. This will put the newly created character directly in Praetoria
Praetorian players may choose to align with the Resistance or with Loyalists in the beginning levels, and make moral decisions to change their status throughout the arcs.
- Once a Praetorian reaches level 20, they leave for Primal Earth, and choose whether they are considered a hero or villain, regardless of any moral choices they have made previously.
The ability to switch from Hero to Villain and vice versa
- Heroes will be able to become Vigilantes, an intermediate step between hero and villain. This will enable them to visit the Rogue isles and team with villains.
- Villains in the intermediate stage become Rogues. Likewise, they may visit Paragon City and team with heroes.
- Note that Issue 18, released alongside Going Rogue, merges the market database between Wentworth's and the Black Market. This allows heroes and villains to auction off and bid from a common pool of items, and any character may use Wentworth's or the Black Market (restricted, of course, by zones the character can access).
Heroes and villains that reaffirm their current alignment will gain Alignment Merits. These can be used to purchase IO Set recipes, including "Purple" and PvP recipes, from special lounges in Paragon City (Fort Trident) or the Rogue Isles (The Crucible).
Introduction of the Incarnate System, an end game system (Note: This was removed from Going Rogue's initial release, and released with Issue 19, but Going Rogue is still required to access it.)
All base archetypes get a new powerset:
- Demon Summoning primary powerset for Masterminds
- Dual Pistols primary powerset for Blasters and Corruptors and as a secondary powerset for Defenders.
- Electric Control primary powerset for Controllers and Dominators
- Kinetic Melee primary powerset for Scrappers, Brutes, and Stalkers and as a secondary powerset for Tankers.
In the complete collection, four new stance emotes:
- /e stancehero1
- /e stancehero2
- /e stancevillain1
- /e stancevillain2