Marvel Avengers Alliance: Spec Op 14 Begins! Patch Notes!

Spec Ops 14 launched today for Marvel Avengers Alliance. This one features a tie-in with the upcoming Thor: The Dark World movie and as such the Heimdall is yours for the taking if you finish this round of tasks.

There's a group boss again this time. It's Kurse, the dark elf lieutenant and if you get lucky with the collected lockbox, you'll recruit Loki.

Here are the full patch notes released today:

Special Operation 14 – The Dark World
The Dark Elves are invading London, with portals opening throughout the city. Without the Bifrost, options are limited, but unless we can find a way to take the fight to Svartalfheim, we will fall. In our darkest hour, we turn to Thor.

New Hero: Heimdall
Bio – Brother of Sif and steadfast friend of Thor, Heimdall is the guardian of the Bifrost Bridge and the eternal sentry of Asgard. His vision and hearing are so sensitive that they border on omniscience, allowing him to perceive threats from all across the Nine Worlds. Though statue-like in his demeanor, he is anything but idle, and will not hesitate to use his considerable skills as a warrior to protect Asgard.

• Bruiser
• Self-Passive : Asgardian
  • Immune to Burning, Chilled, Poison, and Radiation
• Self-Passive : Far Sight
  • Most enemy attacks cannot be stealthy
  • Chance to negate preemptive counter-attacks
• Level 1 : Hofund
  • One Enemy
  • Melee, Slashing
  • Deadly Crits
    • Deals extra damage on critical hits
  • Finest Hour
    • Deals extra damage while Agile, Focused, Fortified, Strengthened, Shielded, or Healing
• Level 2 : Vigilance
  • All Enemies
  • Buff, Debuff
  • Subtle
    • Does not trigger most status effects
  • Quick Action
    • Grants an immediate free turn after using
    • Does not trigger follow-up attacks
  • Target Debuff : Off-balance
    • 50% chance of being applied
    • Removes and prevents Counter-Attack effects
    • Lasts 1 Round
  • Target Debuff : Winded
    • 50% chance of being applied
    • Removes and prevents Follow-Up attacks
    • Lasts 1 Round
  • Self Buff : The Eternal Vigilant
    • Chance to prevent enemy attacks
    • Lasts until next turn
• Level 6 : Uru Blade
  • All Enemies
  • Melee, Slashing
  • Target Debuff : Wide-Open
    • Taking additional damage from melee attacks
    • Lasts 3 Rounds
  • Target Debuff : Tenderized
    • Takes increased damage from Slashing attacks
    • Lasts 3 Rounds
  • Target Debuff : Staggered
    • Cannot dodge most attacks
    • Ignores most Avoidance effects
    • Lasts 3 Rounds
• Level 9 : Gjallarhorn
  • All Allies
  • Buff
  • Target Buff : Call to Asgard
    • Transports combatants to the Bifrost Bridge
    • Lasts 2 Rounds
  • Target Buff : Sound the Alarm
    • Grants Agile, Focused, Fortified, and Strengthened

New Villain: Malekith
Malekith the Accursed is the ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim. His goal is nothing less than to plunge all of the Nine Realms into utter darkness.

New Group Boss: Kurse
Algrim the Strong was Malekith's most loyal lieutenant. Abusing that loyalty, Malekith transformed Algrim into the monstrous Kurse, then convinced Kurse that all of his suffering was the fault of one Asgardian: Thor.

New Lockbox Hero: Loki
Our newest lockbox hero is Loki, which can be recruited by completing the Mischievous lockbox collection.

Bio – Son of a frost giant, lover of deception and chaos, Loki Laufeyson was always doomed to be an outsider in Asgard. Despite his cunning wit and mastery of sorcery, he remained forever in the shadow of his step-brother Thor. Though Loki crafted many schemes to destroy Thor and usurp the throne of Odin, he failed time and time again. Newly released from an Asgardian prison, he now offers to help S.H.I.E.L.D. in exchange for his freedom. But make no mistake; nothing Loki offers is ever as it seems.

• Tactician
• Passive: Lie-Smith
  • Chance to create illusions, avoiding attacks and then countering them
• Throwing Dagger
  • One Enemy
  • Ranged
  • Guaranteed Hit
    • 100% chance to hit… usually
  • True Strike
    • Ignores most Avoidance effects
• Fog of Chaos
  • One Enemy
  • Ranged Magic
  • 2 Round Cooldown
  • Target Debuff: Cursed Mirror
    • The next two attacks heal the target instead of harming
    • Can be removed with Recharge
    • Lasts 2 Rounds
• Trickster Seal
  • All Enemies
  • Ranged Magic Debuff
  • 2 Round Cooldown (Starts With Cooldown)
  • Subtle
    • Does not trigger most status effects
  • Target Debuff: Trickster
    • Many beneficial status effects are replaced with their opposite
    • Healing actions damage their targets instead
    • Lasts 2 Rounds
• Hall of Mirrors
  • All Enemies
  • Ranged Magic
  • 3 Round Cooldown
  • Target Debuff: Disoriented
    • Has a chance of attacking allies
    • Lasts 1 Round
  • Self Buff : Mirror Image
    • High chance to Avoid the next two single-target attacks
    • Lasts 4 Rounds

Mighty Thor Uniform:

• Bruiser/Scrapper
• Asgardian
  • Immune to Burning, Chilled, Poison, and Radiation
• God of Thunder
  • Might of Mjolnir can stack up to 3 times
  • Grands Storm Herald to party members
• Storm Herald
  • Chance of a follow-up lightning strike when attacking with or being attacked by single-target attacks
  • This causes and triggers Static Charge

Lockbox Progress Bar:
We are introducing a new progress bar which should allow users to see how close they are to receiving their next guaranteed NEW collection cover. The math for new covers has not changed since we originally launched the feature. We are now just visually showing what’s always been working in the background, and it works as described below:

You have a chance to receive duplicate covers until you have received a number of duplicates equal to the number of unique covers you currently own IN THAT COLLECTION. Each collection has its own counter and does not influence the chances of duplicates in other collections. Here’s an example below.

You open your 6th NEW cover and now have 6 unique covers in your collection unlocked. You only need 2 more covers to unlock Loki. You now have a chance to receive up to 6 duplicate covers before you receive your 7th NEW cover for your collection. However, each duplicate you receive REDUCES the chance you will get a duplicate on your next lockbox opening.

The progress bar we’ve added to each collection page will show you how your chances to get a NEW cover are increasing as you get duplicates and hopefully will make it easier to determine how close you are to obtaining the lockbox hero.

Of course the example above applies to both opening 1 lockbox and 10 lockboxes at a time, but the chance to open any cover at all when opening 1 lockbox never changes. So be aware that in most cases opening 10 lockboxes at a time will complete your collection faster. Unless you’re lucky!

Halloween-Themed Gifts:
We are rolling out some fun Halloween themed gifts to send to your allies and pick up from their visitation maps.

Bug Fixes:

• Research complete popups no longer link to the store if the item cannot be purchased.
• Tooltips for research that has been completed/unlocked no longer show the item twice
• Group boss reward pins should now properly display the agents you helped
• Maria Hill now informs agents about recent Circle of 8 victims in Season 2 Chapter 2
• Black Knight’s issue with Blood Curse not working has been addressed
• Moon Knight will now properly help when he arrives via distress call
• Tooltips for the Demon set bundle should now display properl

Balance Changes:

• Staggered prevents most Avoidance effects and prevents the target from dodging

Known Issues:

• Having Heimdall on the player's team prevents Flanked follow-up attacks.
• Svartalfheim Effect is being applied to Heimdall even though he is Asgardia