IMPROVEMENT

BALANCING CHANGES

Revenge

• The amount of Revenge given now scales relative to the amount of damage reduction applied.

[Developer's Comments]
We recently tested these changes in the Testing Grounds and they were met with positive feedback, so we're now bringing these over to the live game.

After the recent anti-gank changes, even when your damage was reduced due to the hitstun rules, you awarded Revenge as if you're dealing full damage. This resulted in longer fights and a too large penalty for engaging in ganks.

Now that the amount of Revenge awarded is scaled to the damage reduction it helps reduce the length of fights and makes ganking less punishing.

Conqueror

• Crashing Apprehension (Dodge Forward Heavy) can now performed from 100-500ms in front Dodge (up from 100-300ms).\
• Slightly increased the forward movement during Crashing Apprehension's feint.\
• Increased Crashing Apprehension's Guardbreak Vulnerability to 200ms (up from 100ms).

[Developer's Comments]
Crashing Apprehension is working as intended but was unreliable as soon as Conqueror wasn't right next to their target. These changes should make it easier to catch targets further away with the strike or feint to guardbreak.

The extended guardbreak vulnerability matches the recent changes on other feintable forward dodge attacks.

Lawbringer

• Reduced lateral movement on Side Dodge Shove.

[Developer's Comment]
By lowering the distance covered with the attack, it should make it a bit harder for Lawbringers to avoid external trajectories & attacks when using this move.

Centurion

• Increased movement when feinting Jab or Charged Jab.
  [Developer's Comment]
  It can be difficult to catch enemies with a Guardbreak when feinting Jab. This change should make it slightly more reliable, while remaining a read for the defender.

Black Prior

• Bulwark Slash Guardbreak Vulnerability increased from 100 to 200ms (total of 300ms from Bulwark Stance startup).

[Developer's Comment]
Once in Bulwark Stance, players can Feint Bulwark Slash to avoid Guardbreak attempts and guarantee a Guardbreak of their own during the 'bounce' animation.
This was happening too often, making the attack stronger than intended. By increasing the Guardbreak Vulnerability window, it should force Black Priors to commit earlier to their action if they expect their opponent to Guardbreak.

Warlord

• Removed Stamina Damage and Stun caused by Crashing Charge's Wallsplat.
  [Developer's Comment]
  We're making this change for multiple reasons. First, it is in continuation of the removal of Stuns & Stamina Damage when possible.
  Second, Crashing Charge already gives Warlord easier access to Wallsplat punishes, so it doesn't need additional rewards on top.
  Lastly, the Stun isn't necessary since the Heavy is already guaranteed.

Highlander

• Chain Light Damage reduced to 13 (from 15).
  [Developer's Comment]
  This change brings the Chain Light Damage in line with the rest of the cast.

Shaman:

• Predator's Mercy Stamina Cost reduced to 12 (from 20).
  [Developer's Comment]
  Shaman already has to get the target bleeding in order to access Predator's Mercy. Having an additional cost for it was unnecessary and dissuades players from using one of her key moves.

Jormungandr

• Serpent Smite Guardbreak Vulnerability increased to 200ms (from 100ms).\
• Hamarr Slam Damage increased to 30 (from 26).
  [Developer's Comment]
  Similar to Black Prior's Bulwark Slash, players could Feint Serpent Smite to avoid Guardbreak attempts and guarantee a Guardbreak of their own during the 'bounce' animation.
  This was happening too often, making the attack stronger than intended. By increasing the Guardbreak Vulnerability window, players will need to commit earlier to their action if they expect their opponent to Guardbreak.

As for Hamarr Slam, we are reverting some of the damage changes done in the past. Currently the move is hard to use since it has no defensive properties when compared to similar moves (like Eagle's Talon).
To give this move its unique flavour and play in the fantasy of a hard-hitting hammer, we're buffing the damage without additional defenses.
Moving forward, we will closely monitor the performance of this move and its impact on the character's overall balance.

Kensei

• Health increased to 130 (from 125).\
• Top Heavy Finisher Damage reduced to 32 (from 34).
  [Developer's Comment]
  The health change puts Kensei in line with all other Vanguards.

As for Top Heavy Finisher, although the attack is very slow, it was still dealing more damage than other slow attacks. We're toning it down slightly to be in line with the rest of the cast.

Orochi

• Reduced Zone Attack's trajectory & angle to be more aligned with the animation.
  [Developer's Comment]
  Because of how big the trajectory for this attack was, it made it overly difficult for players to punish it when spaced out correctly. Now, it should be slightly easier for players to jump in and punish after whiffing the move.

Shinobi

• Ghoul's Affliction Guardbreak Vulnerability increased to 200ms (from 100ms).
  [Developer's Comment]
  Same as Black Prior's Bulwark Slash or Jormungandr's Serpent Smite. Players could Feint Ghoul's Affliction to avoid Guardbreak attempts and guarantee a Guardbreak of their own during the 'bounce' animation.
  This was happening too often, making the attack stronger than intended. By increasing the Guardbreak Vulnerability window, players will need to commit earlier to their action if they expect their opponent to Guardbreak.

Kyoshin

• Kaze Stance Light Damage reduced to 6 (from 8).
  [Developer's Comment]
  This lowers the total damage from Kaze Stance Light into Fujin cuts to 16 (from 18).
  Although it can be challenging to have an attack blocked while in Kaze Stance, since the character can hold this stance, the damage & hit stun for this move made it too rewarding. We are toning down the damage to make it more in line with the rest of the cast.

Shaolin:

• Double Side Light & Third Side Light Damage reduced to 3 (from 4).\
• Astonishing Blossom Damage reduced to 14 (from 17).\
• Shadow Step Guardbreak Vulnerability increased to 200ms (from 100ms).

[Developer's Comment]
The total damage from Triple Side Lights has been lowered to 16 (from 18). Similar to Kyoshin, we are reducing the total damage gained from this combo. It should still be viable but make it less oppressing at all levels of play.

Astonishing Blossom was in a similar spot as the Triple Side Lights. It can deal a lot of damage for a Light. However, we don't want to punish skilled players that time it correctly, so the Superior Block version remains unchanged (22 damage).

As for Shadow Step, it is the same as for Black Prior, Jormungandr and Shinobi. Players could feint this attack to avoid Guardbreak attempts and guarantee a Guardbreak of their own during the 'bounce' animation.
This was happening too often, making the attack stronger than intended. By increasing the Guardbreak vulnerability window, players will need to commit earlier to their action if they expect their opponent to Guardbreak.

Zhanhu

• Torturing Maneuver Damage increased to 30 (from 24) when performed after a successful superior block on dodge.

[Developer's Comment]
Zhanhu had little reason to go for Torturing Maneuver since it didn't guarantee damage. Now the risk/reward should be more favorable, while giving space for Stinging Maneuver to remain a viable option

Pirate

• Cavalier Dance can now be performed during front dodge from 133 to 400ms (was 100 to 400 ms).

[Developer's Comment]
Due to a previous change on the parry timing for Cavalier Dance, there were situations where the move could become unparryable (eg: after a Heavy Parry). With this fix, players still can't react while giving the proper parry window in other contexts.

Khatun

• Zone Attack's Stamina Cost reduced to 20 (from 30).\
• Priceless Control Damage increased to 10 (from 8).\
• Steppes Ruler Guardbreak Vulnerability increased to 200ms (from 100ms).

[Developer's Comment]
Khatun is underperforming, so we're looking to improve small areas of the kit while keeping her in line with the new standards.
Khatun needs to use Zone Attack to execute when performing a Guardbreak. Having a 30 stamina cost in addition (instead of 12 for most heroes) made this extra punishing. Reducing the cost to 20 should make it less egregious.

We're also slightly increasing the damage for Priceless Control to give a better reward when you land Brutal Punishment in a team fight.

As for Steppes Ruler, we're putting it in line with Black Prior, Jormungandr, Shinobi and Shaolin.
Players could feint this attack to avoid Guardbreak attempts and guarantee a Guardbreak of their own during the 'bounce' animation.
This was happening too often, making the attack stronger than intended. By increasing the Guardbreak vulnerability window, player will need to commit earlier to their action if they expect their opponent to Guardbreak.

Virtuosa:

• Sideways Misdirect speed reduced to 600ms (from 533ms).\
• Performing your Heavy during Evade will now target your locked target instead of the last Evaded opponent.

[Developer's Comments]
By lowering the speed of these attacks, it will become easier for newcomers to deal with, without impacting their viability at higher levels of play.

At higher levels, 533ms attacks are reactable and should primarily be used as a defensive tool or a counter rather than an offensive tool (or risk being parried).

We're also adjusting the Heavy targeting during evade as we felt it was too restrictive.

BUG FIXES

Heros

Virtuosa

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where; Virtuosa is unable to attack locked opponent if stuck evading external attacks.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where; the VFX is missing for "Fencer_Mood_All_TBD_35008_Idle"mood effect for fencer in barracks and in game.

Shaman

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where; the weapons clips with shaman hand while performs Execution 'Incessant Migraine' in barracks

Sohei

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where; Sohei's souls are not visible to a player who has just performed a join in progress

Kyoshin

• [Bugfix] Adjusted the range on successful Superior Block Light to better match the normal version.

Conqueror

• [Bug Fix] Added the missing Arena custom moveset entry for Conqeror's "Crashing Apprehension". Appears under "Basic Moves" in the custom moveset.

Maps

The Shard:

• [Bug Fix] Capture Zone A: we fixed an issue where; the Player can impale themselves on the back-wall spikes simply by walking into them.

[Developer's Comment]
We updated the overall capture zone by opening the fighting space a bit more. We removed the barrier that divided the space and connected the area via stairs. We wanted to finally test this out as it's been long requested by the community. As a result, we felt the back-wall spikes would be a lot more lethal and temporarily removed them, pending community feedback. While these changes were being implemented, we erroneously submitted an unfinished collision pass that resulted in the spikes not functioning as intended. And although we followed through on the initial intentions of the changes for the capture zone, we saw the feedback concerning the spikes this past TU and we will keep the feedback in mind for any potential investigations in the future.