Patch 1.26

Live Update 1.26.1

FIGHTERS

Valkyrie

• [Adjustment] 2nd Top Light strike is now 400ms. (from 500ms).
• [Adjustment] Increased “Sweep Punish” damage to 35 (from 25).
• [Adjustment] Increased Zone Attack strikes damage to 20 (from 15).
• [Bug Fix] Movement during a missed Guard Break has been standardized to be like all other heroes.

***Developer comment:*Based on community feedback from the Technical Test, we have included a couple of adjustments. The intention here is to ensure that her Chain is sufficiently dangerous, and increasing the potential of her 2nd Light, as well as the “Sweep Punish” should help with that. Also, by fixing the issue with her Guard Break Miss Recovery, that your feedback brought attention to, she should no longer be more likely to be punished for missing a Guard Break than any other hero.

Gladiator

• [Improvement] Gladiator’s “Crowd Pleaser” and “Bee’s Sting” Blocked recoveries are reduced to 800ms (from 900ms).

Developer comment: These moves will no longer lead to a Guard Break that could not be countered on Block.

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Gladiator's "Sucker Punch" to not drain stamina.

GENERAL

Revive

• [Bug Fix] Increased the time it takes to Revive another players to 4 seconds for all PvP game modes, excluding time-limited events. For real this time!

Developer comment: This change was supposed to be activated with 1.25.0 but it wasn't, due to a bug, so we're activating it now.

Feats

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Valkyrie’s “Bloodlust” feat to not activate properly after defeating an opponent.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Gladiator's "Sucker Punch" to not do damage while the "Haymaker" feat is active.

USER INTERFACE

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Breaking” timer to be display during the whole match in Duels, Brawls, Skirmish and Elimination.

Developer comment: With 1.25.0 we introduced a bug that caused the "Breaking" timer to be displayed when it shouldn't, the superfluous timer is now gone!

Patch 1.26

WARDEN UPDATE

Zone Attack

• Zone Attack can now be chained into Heavy Finisher.

Developer comment: The Heavy Finisher link gives the Warden new options to link up to do additional damage.

Crushing Counterstrike

• “Crushing Counterstrike” no longer guarantees a Shoulder Bash (it still links into it, however).
• “Crushing Counterstrike” now guarantees a Top Light.

Developer comment: “ Crushing Counterstrike” already deals quite a large amount of damage, and leading into a guaranteed extra damage was too strong. Instead, you can now go into a guaranteed Top Light, which leads to additional follow-ups that are not guaranteed.

Shoulder Bash

• Charge time for maximum charge is 1000ms (up from 800ms).
• Maximum charge hits at 300ms (down from 400ms).
• Can be cancelled into a Feint at any point before movement starts.
• You have up to 100ms after releasing the “Guard Break” button to feint.

Developer comment: The intent for this new version of Shoulder Bash is to have both a strong opener that forces a reaction from your opponent and has options to beat every single defensive option your opponent possesses.

Heavy Finishers

• Top Heavy Finisher is now unblockable, hits at 1100ms (up from 800ms) and costs 6 stamina (down from 12).
• Side Heavy Finishers now deal 40 damage (up from 35) and costs 6 stamina (down from 12).

Developer comment: The Warden’s Heavy Finishers are very rarely used outside of feinting, and this change makes the top unblockable, giving the Warden a great tool in-group fights.

Side Lights

• Side Lights are now 500ms (down from 600ms).
• 1st Side Light now does 12 damage (was 15).
• 2nd Side Light now does 6 damage (was 9).

Developer comment: The Warden’s opening game was quite weak (against a Warden, you always guarded top and switched your guard to beat Zone Attacks). With this change, all of his opening lights are 500ms, and as such, this increases the opening pressure the Warden can use on his opponents.

New Attack: Forward Dash + Heavy

• The Warden now has a brand new attack – Dash Forward + Heavy.
• Costs 12 stamina to use.
• Deals 20 health damage.
• 500ms attack.
• Starts at 300ms in the Dash Forward movement.
• Always hits from the Top.
• Chains into Heavy Finishers.

Developer comment: The Warden needs an attack with a lot of forward movement to help close in the gap against more mobile heroes as well as to catch roll attempts. This attack solves both problems and rounds out his kit much more.

Sprint Attack

• The Warden’s Sprint attack now chains to Heavy Finishers (both out of lock and locked).

Developer comment: This change was made to have consistency between the new Forward Dash Heavy attack and his Sprint attack. It also adds viability to his Sprint attack, making it more effective.

VALKYRIE UPDATE

New Chain Attack

The following chains have been added:

• Light -> Heavy -> Heavy
• Heavy -> Heavy -> Light
• Light -> Heavy -> Light
• Heavy -> Heavy -> Heavy
• Heavy -> Light -> Heavy

Developer comment: This gives the Valkyrie a more fluid and much better path to her mix-ups. Note that Shield Crush (on Hit or Miss) and Shield Tackle (on Hit) still count as a Light chain starter.

Sweep Attack

• NEW INPUT: Now performed by pressing X.

• Can now sweep multiple targets (Friendly and enemy).

  • All Sweep no longer chain to regular attack.
  • Sweep now unbalances opponent for 500ms (down from 900ms)

• Sweep Attack is no longer guaranteed after a throw.

Sweep Punish Attack

• Can be done from the hit recovery of a successful Sweep Attack (From 600 to 800ms) with Heavy Attack.
• Does 25 damage and costs 12 Stamina.

Shield Crush

• Shield Crush Miss Recovery has been reduced to 600ms (from 900ms), and you can now branch to chain attacks at 300ms (was 500ms).
• Shield Crush can no longer be performed from Heavy Attack recovery.
• Shield Crush is no longer performed after a chained attack. Now, it is only performed as a Cancel from any Heavy Attack in the chain.

Developer comment: Shield Crush now guarantees the 2nd Light Attack in the Chain.

Shield Tackle

• There is no longer an uncharged and charged Shield Tackle. Now, the only version of the move does not cause Unbalance.
• Shield Tackle no longer has Full Block Stance during the Strike portion.
• Shield Tackle can now be feinted from the move entry, loop and beginning of the strike with B.
• It is no longer possible to cancel Shield Tackle with a back dodge.

Throws

• Removed the charge from the Valkyrie’s Headbutt (Front Throw).
• Headbutt is now a normal Front Throw.
• Throw’s connection to Sweep are now at 700ms for the front, right and left throw (was 600ms) and 1100ms for the back throw (was 1000ms).

Light Attacks

• Light Openers range increased.
• Top Finisher Light Attacks are now 400ms (down from 600ms).
• Side Finisher Light Attacks are now 500ms (down from 600ms).
• The Valkyrie’s Side Light Finishers now have Special Hit Reaction that push the opponent on hit, and can stagger opponents if they hit walls.

Superior Block Light Follow-up

• When the Valkyrie blocks attacks with her Superior Block when using Light Attack Openers, the attack becomes Unblockable and does 27 damage.

Shoulder Pin

• Now Count as Chain Starter.
• Removed the branching to Shield Crush.
• Shoulder Pin is now guaranteed on a successful Dodge Block.

Developer comment: Shoulder Pin was a very risky move for very little reward – being guaranteed now, you can safely use it every time a Dodge Block connects.

Zone Attack

• Added a 200ms Feint Clip after the second strike of the zone attack.
• The second hit of the Valkyrie’s Zone Attack can now be cancelled into Shield Crush at 400ms.
• The second hit of the Valkyrie’s Zone Attack is now feinted at 400ms (was at 100ms) to prevent a flicker issue.
• Second hit of the Zone Attack is now 800ms (was 700ms).

Dodge

• Dodge Attacks now launch at 300ms into the Dodge (was 0ms).

Dodge Recovery

• Dodge Recovery is now 600ms (down from 700ms).

Attack Damage Rebalancing

• Heavy Opener now deals 24 damage (down from 25)
• 2nd Heavy in a chain deals 28 damage (New Chain)
• Heavy Finishers deals 32 (up from 30)
• Shoulder Pin now deals 20 Health 15 Bleed (3dmg/2sec for 10sec) from 1 Health 15 Bleed.
• Light opener now deals 15 damage (up from 12).
• 2nd Light in a chain now deals 13 (down from 18).
• Top Light Finisher now deals 12 damage. (Down from 20).
• Side Light Finisher now deal 12 Damage and Stuns.

NEW MAP

Secluded Keep

• It is told that the Secluded Keep was the personal retreat of a pious Lord. He lived the life of a monk in the fortress, paying daily homage to his ancestors. When the war arrived, armies saw the strategic value of a fortified castle surrounded by waters and invaded it. What was once a haven has become a highly disputed outpost holding precious supplies.
• Available in Duel, Brawl, Skirmish, Elimination and Tribute.

GENERAL

Tournament Rewards Update

• Players that complete a tournament get one guaranteed item from the current tier plus one reward from all the tiers below.

Developer comments: We hope to make tournaments more competitive with these changes, minimizing the need to lose on purpose to get items from the other tiers. We also believe that the random number generator was making the system’s perception more complex than what it actually is.

Rewards from Previous seasons are back!

Rules are the following:

• If you win (and you have not collected all the ornaments), you are guaranteed to get one ornament.
• The priority of the reward is still for the last hero played.
• There isn’t a priority between seasons (you can get a Season 4 reward on the first try, then a Season 3 and then only after, a Season 7 ornament). They don’t drop in order of the season.
• After you looted all the ornaments for the last hero played, you are going to get a random ornament.
• Once you looted them all, you get a reward from the tier below for the last hero played and so it goes until you looted them all.

Developer comments: Thanks to your feedback, we have decided to reintroduce all season’s rewards for tournaments.

Ranked Rewards Update

• All Tournament Rewards can be acquired in Ranked Matches (Including Ornaments).
• At the end of each Ranked match win, players have a low chance of getting a tournament reward from each tier.
• Rewards are also prioritized for the last hero played.

Developer comments: We are testing new ways to encourage players to play ranked modes. Let us know what you think!

Master & Grand Master Ranks

• Introducing 2 new divisions in our Ranking System: Master and Grand Master for the best warriors of the current Season!
• When you complete the 5th Tier of Diamond Division, now you enter the Master Rank. Keep an eye on your Skill Rating progress with the new Ranking Leaderboard!
• The top 100 players of Master Division become ranked in Grand Master!
• Beware, after 14 days of inactivity, a Skill Rating penalty starts to be applied everyday so that players can’t stagnate indefinitely in the Grand Master Division leaderboard.

Developer comments: As announced during the ranked play introduction, we’re finally adding the end goal in Ranked play thanks to those two new Divisions. Now players can fight to reach Grand Master Rank Division and the top of its leaderboard .

Ranked Playlists

• The Ranked Front is updated based on all the changes being done in Ranked play. To focus the community on the new leaderboard and Master divisions, Ranked Duel matches can now be played outside tournaments. Tournaments will be only triggered in rotation, starting on a week-end basis. Ranked Dominion playlist is being removed for the moment.

Developer comments: Thanks to the major update regarding Ranked play, we’ve decided to focus the community on the more accessible Ranked Duels and remove Ranked Dominion temporarily, which was very hard to play based on its low population. As requested by the community, we’re adding Ranked Duel out of tournaments with Tournaments being only triggered through rotations. This frequency will be updated based on community feedback.

Order Participation

• Starting on Season 7, players can still participate in Community Orders after they are completed, as long as the order is still available.
• For example, Tribute Warrior Event is live on Friday until Sunday. The order is completed Saturday morning. Players that play on Saturday afternoon until Sunday can still contribute towards the goal.
• Rewards will be distributed to all participant players at the end time of the order (Sunday) and not on the completion time (Saturday morning).
• Note: This doesn’t affect Faction Rush - since participating after the event is over might change the results of the Rush, for this specific order type, players still need to participate in the event before it is completed.

Developer comments: The order participation was something brought up many times by the community. We want to reward players based on their engagement with the game and it was hard for us when we heard that players were frustrated because they were not able to participate because of the unpredictable nature of estimates. We hope to address this with the participation change.

Progression Update

• Max reputation level increased from 50 to 60. Each reputation level come with an outfit as rewards. As an ultimate reward, you get an exclusive Effect at Rep 60!

Developer Comments: With more people reaching the max reputation, we introduced more levels to bring a new objective to high-level players.

New Weapons

• 2 New Weapons visual for all heroes! One for each Hero will only appear in the Change Look once you loot it.

Improvements

Revive

• Changed the health upon being revive to 50% (down from 100%), applicable in all game modes.

Ladders

• Ladder Punch Strike is now 400ms (was 600ms), and can now hit opponents between 100ms and 400ms (was 500ms-600ms).
• Ladder Punch Recovery is now 400ms (was 500ms).
• Ladder Slide hit area slightly reduced.

Developer comments: We do not want to see a lot of combat on ladders - but the combat we do see has been biased in favor of the opponent who is above. Now, this will even out a bit.

• Sliding down on a player or attacking a player sharing a ladder does not deal damage anymore. It only knocks the opponent off.

Developer comments: Damage was applied inconsistently in these scenarios and we think ladder conflict should not be a valid form of combat.

Feats

• Fiat Lux : Damage decreased to 0 (from 25)
• Bear Trap : Cooldown increased to 120 seconds (from 90)
• Fire Trap : Cooldown increased to 160 seconds (from 120)
• Stun Trap : Cooldown increased to 75 seconds (from 45)

Matchmaking timer

• Added a timer in the Matchmaking screen to show the actual time passed searching for a match.

AFK Kick Warning

• A 10 seconds warning message will be displayed before being removed from a match due to inactivity.

Battle Outfits

• At the start of the season 7, all battle outfits will have a permanent price drop:
  • Battle Outfit from 1500 Steel to 1000 Steel
  • Battle Outfit from 3000 Steel to 2000 Steel
  • Battle Outfit from 5000 Steel to 3000 Steel

Quickchat can be set to (off, Team Only, All) in the user interface options

Developer comment: Due to community request, the Quickchat can now be disabled or set to Team only. This new setting only effects the received messages and the default setting is All as before.

BUG FIXES

FIGHTERS

General

• [Bug fix] Stance Change now properly updates stance when hit for the Conqueror and the Aramusha.

Developer comment: The fix that is being applied to Conqueror and Aramusha puts them on the same level as the other static guard heroes. There was an issue with these 2 specific heroes where their stance wasn’t properly updated after being interrupted. However, this fix now introduces the 100ms instant Stance Change bug to Conqueror and Aramusha (who were previously unaffected by it), where static guard Heroes can instantly change their guard after 100ms during their Stance Change action instead of having a 100ms delay. We are aware of this issue and are working on it to be fixed in a future patch. The correct behavior is to always have a 100ms delay before your guard updates when performing a Stance Change action.

• [Bug fix] Orochi, Peacekeeper, Conqueror, Lawbringer and Highlander (in Offensive form) can no longer perform diagonal back dodges.
• [Bug Fix] Reduced Deflects left movement of the Peacekeeper and the Shaman by 0.25m, to make sure Multi-Deflect connects through all 4 hits of the Berserker's Zone Attack.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused Throws to sometimes cost more stamina then they should.

Conqueror

• [Adjustment] Fixed an issue that allowed the Conqueror to block hits while in Full Block Stance without any stamina cost:

  • Reduced the stamina cost to enter Full Block Stance to 10 (from 20).

  • Reduced the stamina cost of Flail Uppercut to 10 (from 20).

  • When Blocking an attack from Full Block Stance will cost stamina (just like the Warlord).

  • When blocking your Locked Target:

  • Light Block Reaction - 13 stamina.

  • Medium Block Reaction - 25 stamina.

  • Heavy Block Reaction - 34 stamina.

  • When blocking an External Source:

  • Light Block Reaction - 7 stamina.

  • Medium Block Reaction - 12.5 stamina.

  • Heavy Block Reaction - 17 stamina.

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an animation issue for the Chained Light Attacks after a Heavy Top Attack.

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused Conqueror to play the exit animation of Charge Heavy twice in a row when cancelling the charge.

Raider

• [Bug Fix] After a Guard Break, the Raider’s attack can now correctly be launched from any stance.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed that caused the Raider's “Press Backbreaker” to not ledge properly.

Warlord

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused a camera issue when Warlord’s “Head Splitter” was being deflected.

Kensei

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that allowed Kensei's Right Heavy Finishers (when cancelled from Top Heavy Finisher) to act as a chain starter on Miss.

Shugoki

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where “Demon Embrace” improperly ignored defenses (such as another Shugoki’s Passive Uninterruptible Stance).

Nobushi

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Nobushi’s kick to cost extra stamina when missed.

Shinobi

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Shinobi to be unable to Counter Guard Break after Heavy Finishers is parried.

Gladiator

• [Improvement] Increased the rotation at the start of the Gladiator's “Crowd Pleaser” and forward “Cheap Shot”.
• [Bug Fix] Gladiator's Skewer’s 3rd Bleed application is now applied at 1200ms after the Hit (was 1100ms).

Developer comments: This is to prevent the 3rd Bleed being applied and still allowing the branch to Dodge.

FEATS

• [Bug Fix] “Punch Through” changes:
  • Block Damage is now doubled.
  • Punch Through cannot kill though Block Damage anymore.
  • The Uninterruptible effect on light attacks has been removed.
  • Bleed effects have been removed.

Developer comments: “ Punch Through” initial setup was causing issues in an increasing number of edge cases. We decided to re-tool it from the ground up to make it future-proof and more consistent with the basic fighting mechanics.

EMBLEM EDITOR

[Bug Fix] Potentially fixed an issue that caused the Emblem to reset, as we were never able to reproduce this issue internally we hope that this will fix the issue.

USER INTERFACE

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Default controller layout to show feat 3 and feat 4 as inversed.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the player to not be redirected to the Main Menu if 'Back' button is clicked on the 'Preview Bundle' page.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused forfeit to not be displayed when a player leaves a game mode that has forfeiting enabled.

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Bug Fix] We noticed that some Reputation outfits we were giving the same symbols or paint patterns at two different Reputations levels on the same character. This created a bug so that the expression would not unlock correctly at the lowest reputation. To fix this, we are making sure that the symbol or paint pattern will be unlocking at the lowest reputation, and adding a new symbol or paint pattern to the highest reputation to replace it. Affected heroes:

Lawbringer

• The “Spiked Banner” paint pattern that is awarded with Reputation 18 and Reputation 22 outfits. This will now unlock at Reputation 18 Outfit only, a new Paint pattern will replace it for the Reputation 22 outfit.
• The “Thundermoon” symbol that is awarded with Reputation 4 and Reputation 16 outfits. This will now unlock at Reputation 4 Outfit only, a new symbol will replace it for the Reputation 16 outfit.

Peacekeeper

• The “Three Towers” symbol that is awarded with Reputation 2 and Reputation 14 outfits. This will now unlock at Rep 2 Outfit only, [new Symbol] will replace it for the Rep 14 Outfit
• The “Iron Grip” symbol that is awarded with Reputation 18 and Reputation 22 outfits. This will now unlock at Reputation 18 Outfit only, a new symbol will replace it for the Reputation 22 outfit.

FIGHTERS

Valkyrie

• [Adjustment] 2nd Top Light strike is now 400ms. (from 500ms).
• [Adjustment] Increased “Sweep Punish” damage to 35 (from 25).
• [Adjustment] Increased Zone Attack strikes damage to 20 (from 15).
• [Bug Fix] Movement during a missed Guard Break has been standardized to be like all other heroes.

***Developer comment:*Based on community feedback from the Technical Test, we have included a couple of adjustments. The intention here is to ensure that her Chain is sufficiently dangerous, and increasing the potential of her 2nd Light, as well as the “Sweep Punish” should help with that. Also, by fixing the issue with her Guard Break Miss Recovery, that your feedback brought attention to, she should no longer be more likely to be punished for missing a Guard Break than any other hero.

Gladiator

• [Improvement] Gladiator’s “Crowd Pleaser” and “Bee’s Sting” Blocked recoveries are reduced to 800ms (from 900ms).

Developer comment: These moves will no longer lead to a Guard Break that could not be countered on Block.

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Gladiator's "Sucker Punch" to not drain stamina.

GENERAL

Revive

• [Bug Fix] Increased the time it takes to Revive another players to 4 seconds for all PvP game modes, excluding time-limited events. For real this time!

Developer comment: This change was supposed to be activated with 1.25.0 but it wasn't, due to a bug, so we're activating it now.

Feats

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Valkyrie’s “Bloodlust” feat to not activate properly after defeating an opponent.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Gladiator's "Sucker Punch" to not do damage while the "Haymaker" feat is active.

USER INTERFACE

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Breaking” timer to be display during the whole match in Duels, Brawls, Skirmish and Elimination.

Developer comment: With 1.25.0 we introduced a bug that caused the "Breaking" timer to be displayed when it shouldn't, the superfluous timer is now gone!

For additional patch notes, visit www.forhonorgame.com/patchnotes