New Hero: Black Prior
The Black Priors are protectors of the battlefield. Masters of the sword and shield, their powerful defense is their offense. Bulwark Stance allows them to block attacks from all directions and Bulwark Counter can negate any attack as long as it is timed correctly.
- Difficulty: Easy-Medium
- Defense Specialist
- Strong Support Abilities
Special Capabilities
- Bulwark Stance: Special Stance that blocks all incoming Attacks
- Bulwark Slash: Powerful attack that can be Feinted
- Bulwark Counter: Negates all opponents’ Attacks and Unblockables. It does not work on Guard Break.
New Map: Harbor
- The Black Priors arrived at this port town on the shores of Lake Eitrivatnen to help the Knights defend against their enemies.
- The map is available in Dominion, Elimination, Skirmish, Brawl and Duel.
Fighter Rebalancing
Shugoki
Developer Comment: The goal of these Shugoki improvements is to allow the Shugoki to initiate combat, and sustain it into a mix-up allowing a potentially successful finisher. Further, Shugoki should be able to sustain pressure even after landing the Finisher (especially if done with Demon’s Embrace).
Uninterruptible Stance:
- Shugoki’s unique Passive Uninterruptible Stance no longer exists.
- Instead, many of the Shugoki’s strikes gain the normal Uninterruptible Stance property.
Health:
- HP lowered to 140 (from 160).
Light Attacks:
- Light Attacks are now 500ms (down from 600ms).
- Light Attacks now gain Uninterruptible Stance starting at 2
Heavy Attacks:
- Can now fully charge the Heavy Finishers to make them Unblockable.
- Heavy Attacks can now be feinted even after they’ve become Unblockable.
- Can still press Guard Break to cancel them into Demon’s Embrace like before, but it is now possible to cancel Heavies into it even after they have become Unblockable.
- Heavy Attacks now gain Uninterruptible Stance during the Strike.
- Uncharged Heavy Attack Openers Strikes are now 800ms (down from 1100ms).
- Uncharged and Fully Charged Strikes now all cost 12 stamina to perform instead of having a base cost of 12 and higher costs depending on the amount of charge.
Headbutt:
- Headbutt is no longer guaranteed after a Light.
- Headbutt may now be performed after any Light Attack Opener, Heavy Attack Opener, or Zone Attack, whether they HIT, MISS or BLOCK.
- Headbutt deals 50 stamina damage (down from 80), stuns and allows a link to Heavy Finishers.
- Headbutt no longer pushes the opponent away.
Demon’s Embrace:
- Demon’s Embrace can only be performed by pressing Guard Break during a throw OR by cancelling any Heavy Attack with Guard Break.
- Has Uninterruptible Stance starting at 500ms and hits as early as 900ms (down from 1200ms) from short range.
- Now always heals for 25 (down from 40) and deals 25 damage (down from 40).
- The critical health one-hit kill version no longer exists.
- Completely now refills stamina on a successful hit.
- No longer drains 40 Stamina from the target on a successful hit.
- Now costs 35 Stamina (down from 45) and no longer deals damage to the Shugoki on Miss (used to deal 60 Damage).
- The bind on a successful hit can now be interrupted by friendly and enemy attacks.
- Demon’s Embrace will no longer interrupt opponents during their Revenge Activation.
Zone Attack:
- Zone Attack is now 600ms (down from 900ms)
- Zone Attack now gains Uninterruptible Stance at 400ms.
- Zone Attack is now a single strike – but this links to Headbutt and the Heavy Finishers.
- Developer Comment: We hope the improved speed and ability to flow into Finisher will make it more useful in group fights, and to close-in distance to opponents trying to stay out of range.
Sprint Attack:
- Is now a Top Stance attack.
- Links to Headbutt and the Heavy Finishers.
Demon Ball:
- Strike is now 800ms (down from 1200ms).
Feat Hard to Kill:
- Damage Resistance when full HP is now 0% (down from 20%)
- Damage Resistance when HP is below 130 is now 5% (down from 25%)
- Damage Resistance when HP is below 100 is now 10 % (down from 30%)
- Damage Resistance when HP is below 70 is now 20% (down from 40%)
- Damage Resistance When HP is below 40 is now 30% (down from 50%)
Peacekeeper
Developer Comment: The goal of these Peacekeeper changes is to improve the ability for Peacekeeper to perform enough damage in striking, get kills, and get executions. Before Peacekeeper’s damage was lowered in Season 6, she was very strong – now that she has useful Dagger Cancels, we’re trying to find that mid-point where damage is good enough, but not quite as high as before.
Guard Break:
- Guard Break timing now allows 800ms Side Heavy Openers to connect.
- It is now possible to perform a Zone Attack after a Guard Break.
- Top Heavy Attack Opener:
- Top Heavy Opener now deals 23 damage (up from 20).
- Top Heavy Opener is now 900ms (up from 800ms).
Damage:
- Dodge Attacks now deal 17 damage (up from 15).
- Heavy Attack Finishers now deal 27 damage (up from 25).
- Light Attack Openers now deal 14 damage (up from 13).
Stamina Costs:
- Deep Gouge now cost 12 stamina (down from 25).
- Dagger Cancel now cost 6 stamina (down from 10).
- Zone Attack stamina cost is now 40 for the first strike (down from 60) and 20 for strike (up from 0).
Warlord
Developer Comment: The goal of these Warlord improvements is to remove the 1v1 power of the Crashing Charge. We’re not happy with Out of Lock attacks being the defining feature of a character in 1v1 situations, so here we instead emphasize Warlord’s Locked combat abilities by giving him new chain options, and improving the basic attacks.
OOL Nerfs:
Crashing Charge:
- Shield Charge is now active only after 500ms (down from 300ms).
Lunge Strike:
- Lunge Strike reaction is now Light (from Heavy)
- Lunge Strike transition to Headbutt is now 100ms later
- Lunge Strike does not guarantee a Headbutt on block anymore.
- Damage is now 35 (was 25)
Buffs:
New Chains:
- New chains added: Light Light, and Heavy Heavy.
Light Attack Finishers:
- All Light Finishers are now 500ms (down from 600).
- Light Attack Openers:
- On a successful superior block, Light Attacks now gain Unblockable property
- Top Superior Block Light Opener now does 29 Damage (up from 17)
- Side Superior Block Light Opener now does 25 Damage (up from 13)
Heavy Damage:
- Top Heavy Opener now does 30 damage (was 25)
- Side Heavy Opener now does 35 damage (was 30)
- Top Heavy Finisher now does 35 damage (was 30)
- Side Heavy Finisher now does 40 damage (was 35)
Zone Attack:
- Zone Attack is now Undodgeable
Full Block Stance:
- Entering Full Block Stance now costs 10 stamina (down from 15)
- Maintaining Full Block Stance now costs 5 stamina per second (up from 4.5)
- When exiting Full Block Stance you no longer have a 4 seconds of stamina regen penalty
Skill Rating Matchmaking
- Now only winning or losing a match has an impact on your personal Skill Rating.
- To allow this change to have the proper impact on matchmaking, we are resetting the Skill Rating of every player.
Developer comments: To improve For Honor matchmaking accuracy, we’re updating the methodology to calculate Player Skill. Now, only the win/loss will be taken into account, all the layers linked to the player end match score (Kills, Renown, etc) have been removed. This change is effective in all modes, both ranked and unranked.
New Rewards
- New Arcade Rewards
- Weekly unique Arcade: Pink Plasma Shock Effect.
- Regular unique Arcade: Altered Reality Battle Outfit.
Developer comments: New rewards were added to the pool of Arcade rewards. They follow the same rules as before. If you already looted all the Crimson Conquest Effects, you will start getting Pink Plasma Shock Effects. If not, they will be mixed in the pool.
Trial Rewards Update
- Added Ornaments and Character Symbols for Wu Lin Heroes and Black Prior
- Developer comments: If you have completed the requirements to unlock these items, it should be automatically added to your inventory.
New winter items!
- New Winter-themed Mask outfits are now available for all heroes!
- 1 new different Legendary “Icy” Weapon is available for the 22 characters
New Gear
Discover new Legendary gear, for the Heroes that released before Year 1 Season 1 by looting and scavenging the battlefield:
- 1 new Legendary Weapon.
- 1 Legendary armor set for Wu Lin Heroes.
The Black Prior come with:
- 25 new Weapons (different rarities).
- 12 armor sets (different rarities).
Developer comments: We added new weapon and armor variations allowing for even more customization options for all of your heroes. With the recent release of the Wu Lin faction, they received one extra Legendary armor set.
Main Menu
Following the community feedback, we modified the selection of Heroes to be show cased on the Main Menu to provide more diversity. The Black Prior will be prioritize but only during the first weeks of the Season.
General Improvements
- Sliding down on a player or attacking a player sharing a ladder does not deal damage anymore. It only knocks the opponent off. Fall damage has not been modified.
- Developer comments: Damage was applied inconsistently in these scenarios and we think ladder conflict should not be a valid form of combat.
Bots
- We slightly reduced the defensive capabilities of Level 2 and 3 Bots. Players will have more opportunities to land attacks and chains.
PC
- Added an option to select the preferred controller type in the control options menu. Available options: Auto, XInput, Directinput Disabled
Developer comment: Due to multiple players running into performance issues caused by controller drivers and how the game is set to detect multiple input methods, we added the option to select the controller type used and force the game to only accept inputs from this type. The option should be kept at “Auto” if no issues are experienced at all.
