IMPROVEMENT

FIGHTERS

Reflex Guard Removal

• Reflex Guard has been removed from all Assassin heroes as well as Shaolin.
• Heroes that had Reflex Guard now have Static Guard

Dev comment: Reflex Guard’s time has come to an end. It has been in the game since launch, and over time its presumed advantage (of attempting to hide the guard stance) became more and more outweighed by its disadvantages (failing to block attacks). So with this change, all Reflex Guard heroes now have the same Static Guard as regular heroes: so Assassins (and Shaolin) no longer have to refresh their guard between hits, and no longer have to worry about their guard disappearing for a small period of time when it expires. Note that these heroes keep everything else, including Deflects, and so this is purely a buff to every old Reflex Guard hero.

Lawbringer Revamp Integration

We’re integrating the Lawbringer revamp with some significant changes to what was played in both rounds of Testing Grounds for the hero. We’ve opted for a middle ground – some changes were appreciated, while others were not, and so we’ve decided to address the more problematic issues with the hero while keeping some of more loved kit intact.

Some of the more significant changes to the hero are the following:

• Impaling Riposte is now only guaranteed after Light Parries (as its damage potential was too high off Heavy Parries)
• Swift Justice can now be accessed after Heavy Openers (to shortcut to Finishers)
• Chained Heavy Attacks now have Uninterruptible Stance (to let Lawbringer use offensive tools in group fights more effectively)

Note that the changes listed here are what changed from the old Live version of Lawbringer compared to the new version of Lawbringer; if a change is not listed here, it means the move has not changed, even if we had tested changes in the Testing Grounds.

Stamina Drain, Stamina Pause, Stun

• All instances of Stamina Drain, Stamina Regeneration Pause and Stun have been removed from Lawbringer’s moves.

Shove

• Front Dodge Shove’s miss recovery now regains guard in the last 100ms of the recovery
• Chain Shove’s miss recovery now regains guard in the last 100ms of the recovery

Heavy Openers

• Now deal 20 damage (down from 24)
• Now chains to a guaranteed Swift Justice on hit when performed in the same stance
• Top Heavy Opener recovery changes
  • Hit and Block Recovery is now 800ms (down from 900ms)
  • Miss recovery is now 800ms (down from 1000ms)
• Side Heavy Openers recovery changes
  • Hit and Block Recovery is now 800ms (down from 1000ms)
  • Miss Recovery is now 800ms (down from 1100ms)

Heavy Chained Attacks

• Now deal 26 damage (down from 27 on sides and 28 on top)
• Now gain Uninterruptible Stance at 100ms
• Chained Top Heavy is now 800ms (down from 900ms)
• Recoveries are now 800ms on Hit, Block and Miss

Heavy Chain Finishers

• Now deals 28 damage (down from 30 on sides and 32 on top)
• Top Heavy Finisher is now 966ms (down from 1100ms)
• Top Heavy Finisher can now be soft feinted into Guardbreak
• Top Heavy Finisher now moves forward 1.25m more during the attack
• Miss recoveries are now 900ms (down from 1100ms)

Swift Justice

• Now accessible after a Heavy Opener hit as well as a Top Heavy Finisher hit
• Now counts as the 2^nd hit in chain and chains to Finishers
• Attack is now 200ms and deals 4 damage

Parry Followups

• Blind Justice and Impaling Riposte can now be performed from 600ms to 700ms after a Parry (down from 500ms to 666ms)
• Blind Justice now deals 25 damage (down from 32)
• Blind Justice now initiates chains and chains to Swift Justice on hit
• Light Riposte is now 300ms (up from 200ms)
• Light Riposte now counts as the 2^nd attack in chain and chains to Finishers
• Impaling Riposte is now 1100ms (up from 800ms)
• Make Way now costs 30 stamina (down from 60)
• Make Way now initiates chains

Long Arm

• Can no longer be performed from Guardbreak
• Now pins for 1333ms (up from 1200ms)
• Chain link timing to Heavy Openers is now 1200ms for Top and 1300ms for Sides (down from 1600ms for both)

Zone Attack

• Now costs 30 stamina (down from 60)
• Now initiates chains
• Miss recovery is now 600ms (down from 300ms)

Quality of Life changes

• Front Dodge now lasts 900ms (down from 1000ms)
• Chain link timing to Heavy Finishers is now 100ms to 300ms (down from 200ms to 300ms)
• Side Light Finisher attack trajectories adjusted to better match weapon visuals
• Back Throw distance is reduced by 1.25m

Medjay

• All Staff Mode Chained Heavy Attacks now deal 28 damage (down from 30 on sides and 32 on top)
• All Staff Mode Finisher Heavy Attacks now deal 30 damage (down from 32 on sides and 34 on top)
• Adjusted attack trajectories to better match weapon visuals for the following attacks:
  • All Staff Mode Light and Heavy Attacks
  • Staff Mode Zone Attack

Dev comment: Medjay’s Staff mode was overperforming in a lot of instances; the damage was too high, and the attack trajectories for a lot of their attacks did not match the weapon visuals, which caused situations where strikes would hit external opponents when the weapons were not colliding. This should now be fixed, and there should be a visual consistency with the weapon visuals and their collision timings. We’ve also adjusted the size of the trajectories – in most cases these are now slightly smaller, again to match the weapon visuals better. We’ve also lowered damage so it is more in line with other attacks.

Orochi

• Storm Rush changes
  • No longer pins opponents that are in states where they can’t normally be pinned
  • Hit reactions no longer allow the opponent to be pinned from other players
  • No longer chains to guaranteed Double Top and Side lights (see Dev Comment below)
  • Now deals 20 damage (up from 16) (see Dev Comment below)

Dev comment: Orochi’s Storm Rush has problematic properties and enabled ganks that should not be possible. Specifically, it would both pin opponents that were in unpinnable states, its pins could also be pinned from other players, and the guaranteed lights after the pins put the opponent in a pinnable state, like every other normal attack in the game. We’ve made several changes to address these issues, but to compensate the fact that Storm Rush now effectively deals less damage due to the removal of guaranteed lights, we’ve buffed its damage output so it deals the same amount overall.

Hitokiri

• Zone Attack stamina cost now 20 (down from 60)

Dev comment: Hitokiri’s Zone Attack still had an inflated stamina cost; we’ve reduced it to better match the costs of other zone attacks.

Pirate

• Heavy Finishers now deal 24 damage (up from 22 damage)
• Guaranteed Pistol Blast now recovers 100ms earlier and pins for an extra 33ms
• Non-guaranteed Pistol Blast now recovers 33ms faster
• Cavalier Dance changes

o Attack is now 700ms (down from 800ms)

o Uninterruptible Stance now starts at 433ms (down from 500ms)

• Grand Cavalier is now 533ms (down from 600ms)

Dev comment:* Pirate has been underperforming after a series of nerfs made to the hero in the past. We’re readjusting the hero to raise her efficiency in fights, increasing damage from her Heavy Finishers slightly, speeding up her dodge attacks and adjusting the frame advantage of her Pistol Blasts so Pirate has one frame of frame advantage upon returning to neutral.*

BUG FIXES

FIGHTERS

Black Prior

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Black Prior camera to shake when performing Dodge Attack into Bulwark Stance (FH-5504)

Ocelotl

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Ocelotl Skull Smash to not feed the proper Revenge score
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Ocelotl Gained blessings visual effects to be visible while dead
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Ocelotl to not be able to cancel the Combat emotes into prowl stances.

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Ocelotl Remnant Cape to not take paint patterns (FH-5917)
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Ocelotl’s Remnant Chest to be missing a cloth piece under skirt like other chests (FH-5928)
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused some Ornament to clip with the shoulder armor of the Ocelotl
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Orochi I Bring War mask effect to be misplaced on Body Type 1
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Nuxia to hold the sword down during “I AM WAR!” emote
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Kensei’s Kenka Arm shoulder armor to stretch and be offset (FH-3879)