Season 5 Fighter Update: Berserker
Why do we want to improve Berserker?
We find that often Berserkers hard a very hard time opening an opponent who decided they will only block everything (and Counter Guard Break when necessary). Even when the Berserker hits, the next hit in the chain is not so fast that it cannot be blocked/parried with confidence by the opponent.
How do we approach improving Berserker for Season 5?
Berserkers were built to be offensive characters, meant to strike and feint constantly – and trade hits with the Uninterruptible Stance to continue the aggression. We want to keep this intention, but also make Berserker effective against players who are currently shutting them down with strong defensive play.
We also want to retain the difference in play-style between Berserker and Shaman – while Shaman has Cancels, Bleeds, and Melees which all create a very staccato tempo with lots of stops and starts, we want Berserker to rely on Uninterruptible Stance and Speed to create a fast unrelenting tempo.
Feint Openers
- Light Openers and Heavy Openers gain Uninterruptible Stance if used immediately after a Feint
(Note: “Uninterruptible Stance” is often called “super armor” by players.)
- After a Feint, these Side Lights are 400ms (while normal Side Lights are 500ms), and the Top Light is 500ms (while normal Top Light is 600ms)
- New animation
Currently, Berserkers do a lot of Feints to try to mess up the opponent and sneak attacks past their failed parry attempts.
Now, we improve this in two ways: First, we make it so that a Light performed immediately after a Feint is 100ms faster than usual (with a new animation) - this is to make it more likely that this attack will land even against opponents who will only block. Second, any Light or Heavy immediately after a Feint gains Uninterruptible Stance (Super Armor) – this is so that the Berserker comes out ahead on trades much more often, and allows Berserker to be the one dictating the tempo more frequently.
Unblockable Finishers
- 3rd Side Heavy Finishers are now Unblockable and do 45 damage (were 30)
- 2ndTop Heavy Finisher is now Unblockable and does 30 damage (was 55)
While faster Feint Lights are helpful and fit the character, Berserker players still need a tool to smash through extremely defensive players. So here we give Berserker’s Finishers the Unblockable property.
We reorganize the damage output, because we reward the Berserker for going deeper into the chain, while still being able to threaten respectable damage from that early Top Heavy Finisher.
Faster Lights inside the Chain
- Dance of the Paired Blades’s Infinite Lights attacks from the 2nd strike in the chain onwards are now 400ms (were 500ms)
Berserker’s chains are meant to be a strong part of the character – but because the 500ms Lights aren’t so fast that they aren’t blocked, and blocking a Berserker’s Light ends the chain, it seems that Berserkers very seldomly manage to get deep into these chains.
So now we make the Lights from the 2nd hit onward in the Chain 400ms. Since Berserker has to alternate Lights and Heavies it won’t be open season to spam Lights, but it should mean that Berserkers are able to use them with much less fear of being parried or simply blocked to stop their chain.
More information
Check out the articles for the Kensei and Conqueror updates here on http://www.forhonorgame.com!
Also, check out our Parry Changes.
And patch notes can be found here: http://www.forhonorgame.com/patchnotes
See you on the field of battle!
