Greetings warriors! From June 19th to the 26th, the Testing Grounds will open its doors once more!
Our focus is on improving defense during Dodges for the entire cast and exploring ways to give the Assassin archetypes more identity.
Part 1 - Dodge Defense
Most heroes don't have the ability to deal with unblockable melee strikes followed by undodgeable strikes. They are forced to either get hit by the melee, or to dodge it and get hit by the undodgeable.
To overcome this, every hero will gain the ability to Block, Superior Block or Deflect during their dodge, for a short period of time (similar to how Deflect currently works).
Heroes with Block on Dodge:
- Aramusha, Black Prior, Centurion, Gryphon, Highlander, Hitokiri, Jiang Jun, Jormungandr, Kyoshin, Lawbringer, Medjay, Nobushi, Ocelotl, Pirate, Raider, Shugoki, Sohei, Tiandi, Varangian, Warden, Warlord, Warmonger
Heroes with Superior Block on Dodge:
- Afeera, Conqueror, Kensei, Valkyrie, Zhanhu
Heroes with Deflect on Dodge:
- Berserker, Gladiator, Khatun, Nuxia, Orochi, Peacekeeper, Shaman, Shaolin, Shinobi
Lastly, to keep things intuitive, all characters* will also change their Guard to match the direction of their Dodge. This is already how Deflect & Superior Block dodge heroes behave.
*Note: Lawbringer and Nobushi will NOT change their Guard to avoid input conflicts.
Part 2 - Assassin archetype
Assassins can deflect but it is limited in group fights due to trajectories coming from all directions. To help assassins deal with this, we are making a change to all heroes with Deflect:
- When Dodging Forward, Deflect will apply to strikes from ALL stances.
This will give them more reasons to be aggressive, while still having ways to deal with external trajectories. Assassins should feel less vulnerable in team fights thanks to this change.
As always, we need your feedback so join in on our next Testing Grounds and try out the latest changes!
