Today the controversial Issue 5 went live. This is a fundamental change to the defense aspect of CoH combat, as well as many other changes with regards to area effect attack powers and pets. There are way too many changes to go through here, but you can find a list of them on the CoH updates page.

In addition to the power changes, a new zone called Croatoa has been introduced. You can get to Croatoa from any Green Line station and the estimated level range for the zone is 25 to 34. For Blasters, Controllers, and Defenders, there are new power sets. The new powers are Sonic Attacks (Blaster Primary and Defender Secondary), Sonic Resonance (Defender Primary and Controller Secondary), Archery (Blaster Primary and Defender Secondary), Trick Arrow (Defender Primary and Controller Secondary), and Electric Mastery (Blaster Ancillary Power Set).

Because of the vast changes in powers, a free respec is also being offered to each hero (but will not be available until 24 hours after Issue 5 is released, to allow anyone with a previous outstanding 'freespec' to use it). You can claim your respec by typing in '/respec'. You can not change your primary or secondary power set with a respec; to use the new power sets listed above, you must create a new hero.