With one million people giving the game a try in the game’s first week, it’s no wonder SOE is rolling more content into the game.   In the first DCUO DLC update we were blessed with the powers of light, and with this pack revolving around the fan favorite The Flash, what better to introduce than lightning to both heal and harm!

New Instances

In a new type of instance for the game and pretty much for the genre, up to 50 players will be colliding in a small area for solo and group content outside the Flash Museum, which itself is also open for duo content.   You’ll be able to go back in time and see that faithful moment that Barry Allen was on the receiving end of nature’s wrath, becoming The Flash in the process.  These origins have always been one of the strong points of DCUO, and this one is raising the bar just the same.  The good news is that you don’t need any minimum number of players to enter the instance.  Want to run in solo and get some stuff done before work?  That’s an option in this system, and it’s a good design choice.

Try before you buy

You don’t have to buy it immediately if you’re not sold on it—some of the content will be available without investing the money into it, but if you want to cash in on the new bounties or check out the cool reactive lightning heals that go off automatically below a threshold, you’ll have to drop ten dollars.  That said, you will be able to access the zones, but the content of the zones will be highly limited until you invest—think of them like LOTRO Quest Packs.  Legendary access members will be getting it for free. 

Sadly, the content will be fairly universal to both heroes and villains.  Lightning isn’t exactly a power of good or evil.  One of the evil parts about lightning though is that there will be no respec with this DLC.  If you want to be a badass lightning caster, you’ll need to start from scratch this time around.  So if you want to take a lightning character on one of the new raids, get started soon!

The two trees of lightning are Voltage and Amperage – one being focused around instant effects, and the other about more reactive, high damage/healing over time.  Both are capable of healing.  I’ve always wanted to strike people with lightning to heal, now if only I could strike the actual players of some of my groups with lightning.  Unfortunately, no new travel powers are going in with these skill trees, but you can basically get super speed with any character regardless of travel power thanks to a new ring from The Flash.

Don’t worry, as the old areas are getting all kinds of new high level bounties.  Someone has to beat up that upstart Kid Flash!

The developers have also said that the whole story to go back in time and mess with origins will be a recurring thing, now that this update is adding the Cosmic Treadmill.  Future updates may offer the ability to save one of your favorites, as a villain or as a hero.  The villains have to save them as well, because without that superhero, the rival villain wouldn’t exist.  So WoW has dragons sending you back in time, and DCUO DLC has a superpowered treadmill—ah, I love fantasy!

Look forward to the Lightning Strikes content coming out before the end of the year, and if you’ve been good, you might get news of a crafting revamp for Christmas!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our DC Universe Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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