Season 5 – Core Fight Update
With the upcoming start of Season 5, we’ve made a significant change to how the Core Fight system works with our upcoming Parry change, and also significant changes to how a number of Fighters will work – specifically Kensei, Berserker, and Conqueror. Additionally, Highlander and Nobushi have also received major balance passes in Season 5.
This is the first a series of articles to describe these changes coming with the Season 5 patch launches. Today, we’ll start with the Parry change since it affects every hero, then follow up with individual articles to describe the coming changes to Kensei, Berserker, and Conqueror.
(All the detailed changes for Parry, Kensei/Berserker/Conqueror, and Highlander/Nobushi can be found in the Patch Notes here)
Parry - Core Fight Update
The gameplay situation we want to change:
We feel that Parry is currently too threatening; if your opponent Parries you, it leads to an Uncounterable Guard Break. This Guard Break then leads to a variety of possible punishes:
- Throw-off-a-Ledge (for an instant kill!)
- Throw-to-Unbalance (for multiple attacks – depending on the character!)
- Throw-into-Wall (for your strongest attack!)
- Free attack
“Free attack” seems like a fair result. But looking at the other possible outcomes, we can see that most of the penalties for being Parried vastly outweigh the reward you could actually get for hitting your opponent with your original attack.
Also, right now there’s little difference between Parrying a Heavy and Parrying a Light. We wanted to differentiate them a bit more, with the thinking that Parrying a Light is generally more difficult and should lead to a larger punishment.
The changes:
Parry no longer gives an Uncounterable Guard Break.
Parrying a Heavy now allows you to land a 600ms-or-faster attack (e.g. a free Light Attack).
Parrying a Light now allows you to land a 900ms-or-faster attack (e.g. a free Heavy Attack, generally). You also see a more intense visual at the start of the Parry to let you know you have a longer window to punish your opponent.
The intended result of the changes:
What we didn’t like in current gameplay is that the fear of Parry>Guard Break>Throw is so intense that you don’t want to launch an attack at an opponent if you’re within range of a pit, or within range of a wall, or low on stamina. But the reality is, you’re generally near a pit, or a wall, or trying to manage your stamina almost all the time.
There is also a fear in current gameplay of being Parried even in safe 1v1 arenas, as the extreme punishments for being dropped into Out Of Stamina and Unbalanced still apply.
With our upcoming changes, if you get Parried the worst thing that will happen is that your opponent will hit you with an attack – but you won’t be Thrown to your death, Thrown into a wall, or suffer an Unbalance, because you can Counter Guard Break.
(Of course, if you launch an Out Of Stamina Attack and get Parried, you’ll still be Unbalanced).
Also, because Parrying a Heavy only gives a 600ms window to punish, this generally means the punishment for a Parried Heavy is a Light Attack – actually less damage than you threatened with your initial Heavy Attack.
Other impacts:
We know that people currently have a habit of performing Parry>GB. We know that once this patch lands, there will be a period in which you have to work to change your habit, and we know that while you’re still breaking the habit you may lose some games because of this change. However, we think the temporary pain of changing your habit will be offset by 3 major benefits:
- far fewer situations where you get ledged while at full health
- attacks now are less risky since the maximum punishment is generally lower
- Parry situations should end a bit faster without the Guard Break, and allow you to regain control of your character earlier. Hopefully this makes duels feel a bit more fluid after a Parry, and hopefully group fights cause you to be vulnerable for a shorter time after being Parried.
More information:
Check out the articles for the Kensei, Berserker, and Conqueror updates here on http://www.forhonorgame.com!
And patch notes can be found here: http://www.forhonorgame.com/patchnotes
See you on the field of battle!
