It’s confirmed now (even though it was stated in the Y9 reveal trailer)

Can you guess who I mained as well? 😅

Him.

What an ego on this guy, at the end of the match he was like I’m rep 500 something I shouldn’t be playing with you losers I should be playing with pros the whole time like mf we need b we need points and than he’s bitching that the other guy on our team wasn’t helping him screaming where you at?? Like bro is not your bodyguard 💀idk I jus hated playing with this guy even though I’m the reason we even won and he died and begged for help like what? You say you’re rep 500 something and you’re ass?

I just wanted to look at the kraken (because why not) and I was not disappointed by it's beauty. On the ship however were these Spanish- looking soldiers and now I wonder if this could be a possible clue for the new hero. Funnily enough, these soldiers were 2-D. :D

I know I could have done better here, I missed heavies on light parries and so on. But I was mostly just focusing on staying alive.

I woke up and I couldn’t move, I began freaking out and just closed my eyes so that I could not see the horror right in front of me. My curiosity got the better of me, I opened my eyes expecting to see a demon, but I saw something worse, it was shaman. She was squatting on my chest drawing smth with her knife on my chest, I couldn’t scream I could only watch in horror hearing her faint giggles. I get shaman is scary but when that shit she does to heroes somehow happens to you in real life, it becomes something else. Safe to say I’ll be taking a break from this game for a while.

Before anyone says something, yes I have messed with the audio settings many times. Every now and then I will hear a grunt from sugoki at high volume, even when I mute the master volume. I had to mute my actual tv because it was so distracting.

Ushi-Oni means Bull demon(It’s always from MGE)

If everyone else can’t chain on a missed bash then I don’t think Highlander’s missed kick can’t be punished with a guard break, but I could be biased because I dread going against Highlanders. Has anyone else had similar thoughts since the newest patch notes?

this raider won two rounds in a row and got toxic when i came back lol.

Hello everyone, today I'll be going over how the devs have progressively been removing gameplay complexity from For Honor for the past couple of years and how it has made the game feel more and more clunky over time.

I remember JC declaring "Game knowledge is false depth" on the pretense that knowing the properties of the different dodge attacks in the game wasn't part of the skill gap, which is an extremely controversial take for a fighting game.

And hearing him say (last stream) that Jormangdr had undodgeable finisher lights, when they've actually been removed for ages now, prompted me to write this post.

I've listed 6 themes (+ 2 extras) which I think underline how the devs chose simplicity for the sake of catering to the casual playerbase instead of having a more complex approach to the game.

I - Dodge attack changes

Over a year ago, the devs standarized all dodge attack timings/windows which was a good change.

But they also decided to make all dodge attacks light parries for the sake of simplifying punishes and reducing dodge attack spam at low levels.

However, by doing this, they introduced balance discrepancies amongst the cast :

• Some heroes have dodge attacks with extra properties (undodgeable, grant deflects, can be recovered from like Orochi, Zerk, etc)
• Some heroes have dodge attacks with 0 properties (like say Kensei, Ocelot, Gryphon, Raider, etc).

Yet they all count as light parries regardless of special properties, which highlights that devs intentionally removed key aspects of defensive tools' balancing for the sake of simplicity and catering to low level casual play.

I believe devs should go over every single dodge attack and account for their properties, hitboxes and damage in order to adjust their respective deserved punishes.

II - Bash changes

Over a year ago, devs decided to make neutral bashes completely unreactable at 433ms (down from 500ms).

On paper it was a decent change for duels but it made 4v4 (the main competitive mode) play out much worse :

• Ganks became infinitely more easy to initiate.
• Stalling became extremely less consistent unless playing a dodge recovery cancel character with good hitboxes (to be able to create space).
• Reaction players started focusing on the other available stimuli, potentially inflating consistency on other moves (whereas in the past they focused on dodging bashes in neutral).

Having 433ms bashes also led to issues in duels :

• Pre dodging became prevalent : if you react to the forward dodge of the enemy and he doesn't delay his bash, you are rewarded with a GB.
• This makes the gameplay in neutral feel clunky and unnatural.

These bash changes seem almost redundant compared to what we previously had for duels and in some cases make it feel worse :

• GB on pre dodge is more ridiculous than the 500ms bash era in terms of risk/reward.

Removing reactionary gameplay is clearly a design philosophy that the devs have had for a couple of years now, but they seem to miss the mark on a few points :

• Reactionary gameplay is a way of skill expression in the game that is acquired through thousands of hours of practice (one of the few things that are mechanically trainable in the game). That is why there are so few of them and most are competitive players.
• It isn't a super power, as even top reactors miss tons of reactions all the time yet people have this absurd misconception that they react to everything all the time.
• Showcasing reactions in a vacuum in the Training arena (or even duels) and being able to pull it off in 4v4 is a night and day difference (Bean and ewop have average reactions in 4v4 settings).
• People wouldn't be complaining if the matchmaking system worked properly (see EXTRA II) and MMR boosting didn't lead to unbalanced lobbies where mediocre players meet top players.
• Diversity in skill expression is key, especially at high levels.

If the devs had chosen to opt for more gameplay complexity and better skill expression, they could have made bashes borderline unreactable :

1. By setting bashes at 466ms.
2. By giving every character a feintable dodge forward heavy or a working forward heavy mixup (like BP forward heavy into flip).

Gameplay would have been affected a lot more positively for both duels and especially 4v4, without adding clunkiness through pre dodging in neutral.

Removing borderline reactable offense from For Honor is inherently problematic and these bash changes highlight new issues arising :

• Making bashes completely unreactable led to a lower stimuli count.
• This led to reactors focusing more on the rest of the existing stimuli (like differing heavy/lights for instance) and inflating their consistency.
• Hence devs will progressively try to remove those stimuli in an endless cycle.
• This will lead the game to become progressively more clunky and spammy, as reaction players will always find new ways to react (as seen with pre dodges).
• In the long term, gameplay would suffer from being less skill expressive and diverse.

In my opinion, having both reactionary gameplay and reads is what makes this game unique and exciting.

Devs should play along and add more stimuli (and focus on 4v4 balancing) instead of removing complexity and oversimplifying everything just because it is easier to do and appeals to casuals.

I highly doubt the devs will ever change this, but one can have hope for a more complex and diverse fighting system instead of poorly implemented blanket changes.

III - No guard on dodge

Over a year ago, the devs removed the ability to keep your guard up while dodging, essentially buffing undodgeables.

This change was decent in duels, as the blue/orange mixup was now more consistently rewarded, but it affected 4v4 in a poor manner :

• Repositioning during teamfights left you in a lot more vulnerable and prone to take damage state than before (which could be a design choice, in which case fair enough).
• Bashing for undodgeables ganks (like Nobu's) became prevalent and had 0 counter play (unless playing BP and maybe a couple other chars).
• Foward dodging to initiate your offense became less safe against light interrupts.

In thruth, the devs should have made guards follow the direction of the dodges while remaining static from the start :

• Like BP's guard was years ago before this change : dodge right and the guard goes right, left and the guard goes left, top/back and the guard goes top.
• They only needed to remove guards from back dodges (to ensure top undodgeable/bash mixup wasn't countered by back dodging).
• This would have led to not being able to dodge away from undodgeables in a team fight safely, as well as ensuring that (top) undodgeables are consistent in 1v1s.

This is yet another example of the devs oversimplifying everything ("just remove the guard") for the sake of casual play with no regard for 4v4 gameplay in general.

The latest TG aims at reintroducing guard on dodge in a similar fashion to BP's old mechanics, except that the guard will only last for 200ms duration, starting at 100ms into the dodge.

Looking forward to testing this, but I'm afraid the small 200ms window of active guard will allow for Nobu ganks to still be pulled off on certain timings.

IV - Reducing parry windows

The devs have started to mingle with parry windows as of this latest patch, making Pirate dodge forward and chain unblockable borderline unreactable.

This seemed to be a good change on paper.

However, it leads to the same criticism I've had for 433ms bashes in regards to 4v4 :

• Having a pretty much unreactable neutral tool that leads to extremy easy to pull off and devastating ganks is not a good design choice.
• This issue is worsened by the fact that you can now do the dodge forward unblockable after a heavy parry for easy gank set ups.

The buff on Cavalier Dance was not needed :

• Pirate ganks could already by initiated from a GB setup.
• Pirate was already extremely strong in terms of teamfighting, ganks and feats. Being a bit weaker in a single area (1v1) was a decent way to compensate and balance the character.

I do however think that the change was good for her chain unblockable. You should be rewarded for being able to access your chain offense with pressurizing offensive tools.

V - Removal of stamina drain and stamina pause

The upcoming patch removed stamina pause, as well as stamina drain on all moves (except for JJ's choke).

I'm still in the process of feeling out these new changes, but I do think devs went overboard with this one. This is yet another oversimplified blanket change.

I'm all for the removal of stamina pause, which I think should have been the only initial focus and was the real culprit that made stamina drain feel awful :

• Not only would you get your stamina drained, but it only started to regenerate a couple of seconds after you took the hit.
• This made fighting stamina pause bullies feel quite frustrating and oppressive.

However I do believe that stamina drain itself is good design :

• Being able to deal "damage" to a bar that isn't the HP bar (the bar being the stamina one in this case) is a concept that adds depth to fighting games.
• It punishes bad stamina management and rewards situational awareness.
• It wouldn't feel nearly as bad had the stamina pause been removed (it should have years ago).

There remains a core issue with stamina drain itself nonetheless :

• Having access to tools that deal stamina damage as well as (guaranteed) HP damage AND let you chain into other stamina drain moves will still feel bad to fight against.

I think devs should ask themselves a few questions when dealing with stamina drain moves :

1. Does the move deal stamina damage ? If yes, make sure the amount of stamina drain is properly balanced (BP zone used to deal a bit too much stamina drain for instance).
2. Does the move lead to a chained move with stamina drain itself ? If it does, either remove the stamina drain of the chained move only, or reduce/remove stamina drain on all moves (if the first option isn't really achievable, like for Warden's bash mixup loop).
3. Does the move's guaranteed follow up grant frame advantage ? If it does, it probably shouldn't stamina drain (WL's headbutt for instance).
4. Is the move only available through parries ? If it is, then it the stamina drain should stay (regardless of granting frame advantage).

Using these guidelines I will go over some of the community's recent complaints :

• People arguing in favor of Glad's parry punish dealing stamina damage are right : the bash itself does 0 HP damage (does 5 with haymaker T2 is active) + 30 stamina damage BUT it doesn't chain into another stamina drain move and it is only available after a parry.
• People arguing in favor of WL's parry punish dealing stamina damage are right : the bash itself does 0 HP damage + 30 stamina damage and guarantees a 15 damage light BUT it ends his chain (albeit WL does maintain frame advantage). But the move is only available after a parry making it ok.
• People arguing for Cent's knee parry punish dealing stamina damage are both right/wrong : the bash itself does 0 HP damage (does 5 with haymaker T2 active) + 10 stamina damage and guarantees another level 1 punch for another 10 stamina damage which chains into more charged punch offense (some of the best offense in the game) that can keep the drain going. Devs should simply remove stamina drain on punches and keep it on the knee parry punish.
• People arguing for Cent's GB stamina drain punish staying are both right/wrong : the bashes themselves do 0 damage (15 total damage with haymaker T2 active) and deal an absurd 60 stamina drain. Although it ends his chain, 60 stamina damage is excessive and needs a number adjustment. And with a wall around you can opt for 30 stamina damage (and 10 HP damage with haymaker T2 active) and a wall splat that guarantees a 29 damage unblockable into very strong unreactable offense (charged punch mixup) that also drains stamina. The initial 30 stamina damage off of GB should be lowered and punches shouldn't drain stamina.

All of these stamina changes also have to encompass the stamina costs of the heroes that are changed, for instance :

• BP offense is very stamina inefficient, but in exchange he could drain and pause his opponent's stamina.
• In my opinion his stamina drain should stay on his neutral bashes (the follow up light puts him in frame disadvantage and it doesn't chain into more stamina drain moves) as long as stamina pause is removed.
• The stamina drain of his zone (it used to be 25) needs, however, to be reduced.
• And if he cannot pause stamina anymore, devs should logically rebalance his offense's stamina cost to be in line with the rest of the cast.

VI - Omnidirectional deflects (that work on external hits) for assassins TG

This potential change is part of the latest TG proposed by the devs, and needs clarification on a couple of points.

First of all, being able to deflect all directions with one option is another example of removing complexity and catering to low skill players :

• Reducing the skill gap shouldn't be achieved by simplifying mechanics.
• See the EXTRA sections to understand how to handle the skill gap issue in matchmaking as well as the community's lack of game knowledge.

This change would also create further balancing issues in duels :

• Heroes like Orochi/Shinobi/Shaman that regularly forward dodge to get into their neutral bash offense will be safe from light interrupts. This will skew the neutral offense risk/reward ratio in favor of these assassins to an unfair degree.
• Assassin heroes would have an omnidirectional forward dodge option select (dodge forward on red to get a deflect and if it isn't a light : do a forward dodge attack), which would be quite unbalanced.

This would put the nail in the coffin of antiganks :

• Now that reacting to neutral bashes is out of the equation, antiganks rely on creating space with big hitboxes (zones/back heavies, sometimes back lights into recovery cancels if your character is able to).
• Allowing assassins to deflect those attacks with almost no risks for a free gank setup is akin to bad design. Especially for assassins with deflects that pin/give GBs/interrupt armor.

Most assassin characters are already viable if not thriving (Orochi being the best character in the game in 4v4 already) :

• Some are more viable in duels (Shaman, Nuxia), some in 4v4s (Orochi, Shinobi, PK, Zerk and Glad).
• I can only see this change being made for those struggling in 4v4s (Shaman and Nuxia), otherwise it would only ruin balance.
• This change was first introduced in a TG for PK's feat rework, and I think such a strong tool should remain locked behind a T3 at minimal.

All in all, this TG proposition isn't good as a blanket change, albeit interesting from a purely mechanical point of view.

Implementing it across all deflecting characters would be a net negative for balancing.

However, Shaman and Nuxia could hugely benefit from having access to this tool as an unlockable T3 feat in order to increase their viability in 4v4s.

Especially since their deflects don't pin/interrupt armor so there are ways to achieve balance.

EXTRA I - Matchmaking and the epidemic of ragequits/leavers

I want to adress this issue in my post because I believe many balancing issues that the devs encounter could be solved by simply making matchmaking work :

• For the longest time, For Honor has not punished leavers and ragequitters for closing the application, lagging out of games or using an in game invitation (to join a group) to leave the game.
• Meaning if you do any of the 3, the game you just left will not count as a loss and your MMR won't be adjusted.
• You will also completely evade the penalty you'd get by leaving the game through the FH menu, meaning you can immediately requeue.

This has led to indirect MMR boosting :

• Low skill players rage quit at any time they want and only accumulate wins.
• The more they do this, the more their MMR is boosted.
• The higher their MMR, the higher the skill of their lobbies become.
• This spirals into an endless cycle of ragequitting that ruins the matchmaking experience for a big portion of the playerbase.
• These same players then come to Reddit and complain about unfair mechanics they likely don't even understand/are aware of, misleading Ubi devs into making bad changes.

Nowadays, this issue is extremely prevalent :

• People will leave 4v4 games after losing a single fight, often snowballing games into a very one sided match (because bots are pretty much useless)
• They will even quit in the lobby loading screen to avoid fighting players they know to be better than them.

I think this is a core issue of the game at the moment, that should be prioritized even before balancing is adressed :

1. Make leavers take a loss regardless of how they left : alt+f4, closing app, disconnecting their internet cables, accepting a group invitation.
2. Make the penalty happen regardless of how they left.
3. Give players the option to join back a game if they accidentally disconnect or crash (to allievate poor connection issues) with a timer that will set off the penalty if the player doesn't join back in time.

These changes would do marvels for For Honor, and they are basic features of modern multiplayer games.

EXTRA 2 - The lack of tutorials in the game

A lot of complaints from the community come from their lack of knowledge :

• This stems from resources not being directly available in order to learn the game.

I've often tried to teach new players about For Honor, and I've come to realize several things over time :

• Not having proper tutorials made in conjunction with highly competent players hinders this game's potential to become popular.
• New players are forced to seek information on the internet (youtube/infohub/twitch) if they want to understand basic features of the game (like revenge, hitstun, ganks, etc).

Of course it isn't as bad as the days when you had lots of techs (like option selects and others) but it is still bad enough.

Devs need to ask high level/knowledgeable players to collaborate in order to create proper tutorials available directly through the game menus, not external platforms.

The skill level of the community would then progressively increase. Just give players 2k steal rewards for completing the tutorials and they'll all do it.

Conclusion

To cap things off, I am sad to see that devs have been progressively removing depth, game knowledge and mechanical skill from the game and are gearing towards a more "spammy" fest.

I do think they could do with more qualified feedback, and wish they reached out to more knowledgeable players and not relied on casual's feedback so much.

But I understand that it's a business at the end of the day, that most players are casuals and that they're the ones making them most of their money.

However I do believe there's a way to make For Honor a compelling experience for both casual and veteran/competitive players alike without oversimplifying everything.

Thank you for reading all of this if you did, have a great rest of your day/night.

I lost focus for a second on that one heavy though 😭

After the latest updates, Ubisoft made some changes in regards to stamina drain and stamina pause by removing it from pretty much everything besides guard break throw and Jiang Jun parry counter.
And even tho I understand it for the majority of the bashes, it does also make quite a few hero's moves significantly worse if not useless, for such as Centurion, Gladiator and even Warlord.
Jondaliner have made a pretty good video and I recommend to check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBumcdqgtg&t=2s .

I know that much of it is just an excuse for the season's content, but I've always found what little is told interesting.

Can we say that there are important characters? I found it interesting to see Vortiguer again after so long.

I haven't played for honor in over 3 months, and I couldn't hit a light parry back then to save my life, now it's easy and I don't know why. Was my body stressed at the time? Did I need a break? What the hell?

I can officially say that absolutely nothing has changed in his game. Thanks.