Patch Notes 2.15.0

NEW HERO: ZHANHU

The Zhanhu are dodge attack experts who use their mobility to defeat any foe. Strong and agile, they wield a long, single-edged blade named Changdao. As masters of artillery, they have devised various feats to burn the enemy and wreck havoc on the battlefield.

• Difficulty: Medium
• Counter-Attacker
• Dodge Attack Specialist

Special Capabilities

• Powerful dodge attacks that can be chained together
• Finishers are Unblockable
• Unique fiery Feats
• The Zhanhu comes with 25 Weapon sets and 3 Armor sets with 4 variations each

NEW MAP: QIANG PASS

At a narrow pass nestled between two mountains, the Wu Lin once built this grand fortress to claim the strategic route.

• Only available in Breach

MATERIALS AND EMBOSSINGS

With the start of Season 12, players will be able to unlock materials and embossing’s with steel, like we currently have with feats. In addition to this change, we are introducing a new white color material unlockable by steel. Previous materials and embossing’s remain unlockable through regular progression.

Developer comments:* The goal of this change is to enable players to accelerate their progression for more customization options for a new hero or secondary characters. The steel values for unlocking the materials reflect the time it takes to unlock through regular progression.

SPECTATOR MODE BETA

Developer comments: Following our technical test we have made several Quality of Life changes to the spectator mode:

• Breach matches can now be spectated
• Player selection has been improved, both for controllers and keyboard + mouse
• Stance Indicator is now visible when in Player Camera
• Matches now start in Tactical Camera
• Spectators can watch the same player between rounds of Duel, instead of going back to the default one every round
• Player outlines are hidden when User Interface is hidden
• Player information panels have been increased in size (when in spectator mode only)

USER INTERFACE

We migrated all “spatial” HUD display elements (visual feedbacks that follow something in the map as you play a match) to a new user interface rendering technology.

*Developer comments: This migration update allowed the team to improve features such as the Spectator Cam and will bring slightly better overall in-match performance in both framerate and memory. *The team worked hard to make sure that the HUD elements are kept unchanged by the migration but players may experience slight variations of behavior in certain specific conditions.

MATCHMAKING

• When joining a game already in progress, players will now get the renown of the lowest renown player already in the game

GEAR

Weapon

• One New Rare weapon set for all Heroes
• One New Epic weapon set for all Heroes

IMPROVEMENTS

FIGHTER

Raider

• [Adjustment] Stunning Tap has been renamed to Storming Tap, no longer Stuns, no longer pauses Stamina regeneration and no longer deals Stamina damage
• [Adjustment] Reduced Top Heavy Opener damage to 40 (from 45)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Side Heavy Opener damage to 35 (from 40)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Top Finisher Heavy damage to 45 (from 48)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Raider Fury damage to 44 (from 50)

Developer comments: Much of the frustration in facing a Raider was due to Stunning Tap’s ability to take away your vision. We've removed the stunning aspect entirely in order to reduce this frustration – while keeping the soft feint timings in order to keep it a viable attack. While we’re aware this will make the follow-up Light less dangerous, Raider should have sufficient chain options to still threaten opponents after a successful Storming Tap.

Secondly, even though the Raider's Heavies and Raider Fury are slow, it still felt like their damage was overtuned, especially the Starters that can easily land externally during ganks and the Raider Fury that can be easily accessed after any Opener.

Warlord

• [Adjustment] Reduced Heavy Finisher Hit recoveries to 700ms (from 900ms)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Heavy Finisher Normal Block recoveries to 700ms (from 900ms)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Heavy Finisher Interrupt Block recoveries to 800ms (from 1000ms)
• [Adjustment] Reduced Heavy Finisher Miss recoveries to 800ms (from 1000ms)
• [Adjustment] Reduced the timing at which the Warlord gets his defense back to 500ms (from 700ms) after Heavy Finisher Miss recoveries

Developer Comment: Warlord was not the first to be able to act after committing to Heavy Finishers. With these changes, the Hero is now in frame advantage if he wants to keep attacking after committing a Heavy Finisher.

Orochi

• [Adjustment] Increased Sprint Speed to 7.5m/s (from 7m/s)
• [Adjustment] Increased “Crashing Wave” forward movement
• [Adjustment] Increased the speed of “Crashing Wave” to 600ms (from 800ms)

Developer comments: These buffs are intended to allow the Orochi to be more efficient at rotating and back-capping points, as well as chasing down fleeing opponents.

Shaman

• [Adjustment] Increased the forward movement of Heavy Starters to 2.0m (from 1.75m)
• [Adjustment] Increased “Raven's Bile” forward movement to 1.5m (from 0.75m)
• [Adjustment] Increased the speed of Side “Raven's Bile” and “Raven's Claw” to 466ms (from 500ms)
• [Adjustment] Increased “Wild Cat's Swiftness” range to 2.0m (from 1.8m)
• [Adjustment] Zone Attack's 3rd and 4th hits are now considered "Heavy" (were "Light")

Developer's Comment: We are aiming to improve the Shaman's initiation by raising the forward movement of Heavy Openers and Raven’s Bile – which makes them harder to back-strafe away from.

Hitokiri

• [Adjustment] Decreased the speed of “Mangetsu” to 800ms when not charged (from 700ms)
• [Adjustment] “Mangetsu” strikes now gain Uninterruptible Stance at 500ms (from 300ms), and the Uninterruptible Stance no longer occurs during the charge portion – it only applies in the strike portions
• [Adjustment] Increased “Senbonzakura” feat cooldown to 135s (was 90s)
• [Adjustment] Decreased “Endless Myriad” uncharged Heavies' damage to 28 (from 30)
• [Adjustment] The strike portion of the fully Charged ”Endless Myriad” Heavies and fully Charged Right Stance “Mangetsu” are no longer vulnerable to Guard Break

*Developer comments: The very fast appearance of Super Armor on the Hitokiri's Heavy Openers led to a lot of frustration as Hitokiri’s were able to trade attacks easily and enter “Mugen-Ryu” to press their advantage into even more damage. We want the Super Armor on “Mangetsu” to be harder to use for trading and come with a conscious decision on releasing to trade or continue holding to reach Unblockable and Super Armored state. *Lowering the damage on “Endless Myriad” Heavies aims to prevent a Hitoriki from killing Heroes with 120 health pools with only 4 correct reads and a single Stamina bar.

“Senbonzakura” is an impactful feat that, when coupled with a teammate, can guarantee one shot kills. While we want to reward team play, we felt its cooldown was a little too low, which caused frustration from players having to face the feat often during a single match, especially in Breach.

Black Prior

• [Adjustment] Light Attack Openers recoveries now branch into “Tenebris Rising” at 266ms (was 200ms). This allows opponents who try to buffer a Stance Change after being hit by a Black Prior Light Opener to be able to Dodge “Tenebris Rising”

Jormungandr

• [Adjustment] Light Attack Openers recoveries now branch to “Jotunn Farewell” at 266ms (was 200ms). This allows opponents who try to buffer a Stance Change after being hit by a Jormungandr Light Opener to be able to Dodge the “Jotunn Farewell”

BUFF AND DEBUFF STACKING

• [Adjustment] Buffs and Debuffs will always use the highest and strongest value. This rule applies to everything independently of its origin (Feats, Perks, Game Mode Boost, etc)
• [Adjustment] Buffs and Debuffs bonuses will stack and the value chosen will be the resulting addition of the values

FEATS

Heal on Block

• [Adjustment] No longer triggered by of soldier and pikemen
• [Adjustment] No longer triggered if the Hero blocks an ally attack

Developer comments: Heroes in the minion lane (Conqueror in this case) could trigger Full Block Stance and gain massive amounts of health back very easily and be very difficult to force out of the minion lane.

Morale Booster

• [Adjustment] Decreased the attack buff that affects the whole team to +30% (from +50%)
• [Adjustment] Decreased the duration of the buff to 20s (from 30s)

Battlecry

• [Adjustment] Decreased the attack buff buff that affects the whole team to +25% (from +35%)
• [Adjustment] Decreased the duration of the buff to 20s (was 30s).
• [Bug Fix] Effect will now remain active for the ally team even if the caster dies.

Developer comments: Being map-wide buffs, Battlecry and, especially, Morale Booster are powerful feats that can easily turn the tide of a battle, making them essential picks at high level to close out games. By lowering the buff values and durations, we hope to make them less overwhelming while still being powerful when used with proper timing.

Scout

• [Adjustment] Decreased the defense debuff that affects the whole enemy team to +15% (from +35%)
• [Adjustment] Decreased the “Extra Stamina Usage” for the whole enemy team is now +25% (from +35%)
• [Adjustment] Increased the “Bounty Given” for kills to +50% (from +35%)
• [Adjustment] Decreased the duration to 20s (from 45s)

Marked for Death

• [Adjustment] Decreased the defense debuff to +15% (from +25%)
• [Adjustment] Decreased the duration to 20s (from 30s)

*Developer comments: Scout used in conjunction with map-wide attack buff Feats (like Morale Booster) allowed coordinated teams to massively raise their damage output on the whole enemy team for an extended amount of time, making the combination extremely powerful to close out games. *While these combinations will still be powerful, this reduction of duration and damage values will force teams to pick the right moment to capitalize on the buff.

We are also making changes to Marked for Death to make it consistent with the debuffs Scout gives to the opposing team so that its description of casting Marked for Death on the enemy team is accurate.

MAP

The Shard

• [Adjustment] Fire trap was removed from Capture Point B and Spike Trap was removed from Capture Point A in Dominion
• [Adjustment] Brawl location was moved to Main Lane castle area to support real 2v2

The Harbor

• [Adjustment] Railings were added around the opening in the middle of the room at Capture Zone A in Dominion
• [Adjustment] Fire trap was removed from Capture Zone C in Dominion, Skirmish and Elimination

USER INTERFACE

• [Adjustment] We now only display the Revive icon and visual effect if player can be revived

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Adjustment] Ornaments on Raider and Valkyrie are not forced anymore, players can decide to equip them or not. These ornament are now available for free in the barracks

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Revenge Activation during a Feint to perform an Emote instead of activating Revenge. It is no longer possible to use Emotes when the Revenge Meter is full

FIGHTERS

Berseker

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that was causing an Out of Lock Light Attack after a Feint to still deal 15 damage. Now deals 13 damage as expected

Warlord

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Warlord’s “Headbutt” to teleport to target when switching target during the animation
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that allowed Superior Block Light Opener to be used on another target then the one that triggered it
• [Bug Fix] Fixed issue that caused “Crashing Charge” would not stun nor deal stamina damage if the victim was too close to a wall

Nobushi

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the timing at which the Nobushi can enter Hidden Stance after a Side Heavy Opener Miss to be incorrectly set to 700ms to 800ms, it now matches the same timing as the Top Heavy Opener Miss, which is from 400ms to 700ms

Hitokiri

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused “Rei Kick” to track heroes with slower side dodge after a Guard Break followed by a Heavy Attack

Highlander

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that allowed the Highlander to switch his stance during the Fomorian Kick recovery to chain it infinitely

Gladiator

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that allowed the Gladiator to have Superior Block property on Out of Lock Light attack Opener

Shaolin

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that allowed to the Shaolin to get up too quickly after being knocked down by an opponent Revenge Activation

Jormungandr

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that allow the Jormungandr to be able to “Hamarr Slam” an opponent after having used Throw or “Jotum Gift” on a pikemen or a soldier

MATCHMAKING

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused user that have special characters in their username to be unable to find multiplayer matches

RANKED DUEL

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Ranked specific loot drops to no longer be awarded to players in Ranked Duel

MAP

• [Bug Fix] Fixed a lot of issues that allowed player to pass through walls, ledges and other obstacle. This fix affects most Maps and Game Modes

USER INTERFACE

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Executed symbol for allies or enemies to not have the proper Colorblind effect

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused Shugoki "bare-chested" chests (Ex: Ryutora Chest, Kiku no Sekku Chest, Namazu Chest, Uminami Chest) to offset Patterns and Emblems

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Lichen Growth” effect to become offset if applied to the “Sword in the Stone” emote

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Nuxia’s “Incense Blades” to clips with all Guards in barracks as well as in-game

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Tiandi’s “Luminous Beast” to be offset

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused a few of the Black Prior’s Ornament to use the Head Material instead of the Shoulder Material

  • Castellum
  • Survivor of Kaidan
  • Vortiger's Bane
  • Scylla's Coil
  • Lemuria's Crown
  • Ardent Aquilla

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Hitokiri “Kamaitachi” execution to cause a white flash for all players