CONVERTED MAP: CATHEDRAL

War has come to Cathedral!

DOMINION

- Capture Zones A and C have been added alongside the cathedral exterior, while Capture Zone B runs through the interior of the cathedral itself.
- Several modifications made to the navigational flow of the map, allowing Players optimal pathing towards the different Dominion objectives.
- Available in 3 uniquely different weather conditions.
- Available in Matchmaking and Custom match.

IMPROVEMENT

FIGHTERS

BALANCING CHANGES

Highlander Rework

*Dev comment: The Highlander rework is now live! The overall goals of this rework are: *

- Improve entering and staying in Offensive Form
- Adjust Defensive Form and Offensive Form to have access to better tools to deal withopponents
- More easily accessible Guardbreak and Parry punishes
- New Dodge attack in Offensive Form
- Feintable Formorian Kick to allow Highlander to deal with Dodge attacks and catch roll attempts
- Caber Toss from Offensive Form Front Dodge to catch roll attempts

The full list of changes is below:

Offensive Form entries

- Can now hold Heavy Attack while Feinting an attack to fast flow into Offensive Form
- Can now Dodge when entering Offensive Form from neutral after 533ms (was 800ms)
- Re-entering Offensive Form during a Side Dodge while in Offensive Form is nowperformed from 600ms to 800ms (was 400ms to 600ms)

Defensive Form changes

- Light Attacks
- Light Opener Crushing Counter damage is now 18 (down from 20)
- Chained Lights no longer have Uninterruptible Stance

- Heavy Openers
- Top Heavy Opener is now 800ms (down from 1000ms)
- Top Heavy Opener now deals 24 damage (down from 30)
- Top Heavy Opener now causes a Medium hit reaction (down from Heavy)
- Side Heavy Openers are now 900ms (down from 1000ms)
- Side Heavy Openers now deal 27 damage (down from 30)

- Heavy Finishers
- Can now chain to Zone Attack on Hit/Block/Miss
- Now have 100ms of Guardbreak vulnerability (was 200ms)

- Zone Attack
- First Hit can now be Feinted
- First Hit now gains Uninterruptible Stance at 500ms
- Second and Third hits now gain Uninterruptible Stance at 100ms
- Second and Third hits now have 100ms of Guardbreak Vulnerability (down from200ms)
- Second and Third hit Feints are now 200ms (down from 300ms)
- Third Hit now chains to Heavy Finishers on Hit/Block/Miss
- All hits now cause a Medium hit reaction (was Heavy hit reaction)
- Adjusted Weapon Trajectories to better match the weapon visuals

- Other changes
- Celtic Curse is now Feintable
- Celtic Impetus now causes a Medium hit reaction (down from Heavy)
- Adjusted Weapon Trajectories to better match the weapon visuals on all side Heavy and Light attacks, as well as for Celtic Impetus
- Movement Speed has been increased to match Kensei's movement speed

Offensive Form changes

- Formorian Kick
- Can now be Feinted
- Now costs 15 stamina (down from 20)

- Dodge attacks
- Can now perform Caber Toss from Front Dodge by pressing Guardbreak
- NEW ATTACK: Balor's Flight
- Performed by releasing Heavy Attack during Side Dodge
- 14 damage, 600ms attack

- Top Light is now 400ms (down from 500ms)
- Heavy Attacks
- Now deal 26 damage (down from 30)
- Now cost 12 stamina (down from 24)

- Other changes
- Formorian Kick and Caber Toss no longer drain Stamina
- Exiting Offensive Form now costs 6 stamina (down from 12)
- Left and Right Dodges now move 0.5m further

- Bug fixes
- Fixed an issue that allowed Highlander to chain on Defensive Light Attack MISS 100ms earlier than intended.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Highlander from Target Swapping Caber Toss.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Highlander from performing Caber Toss as early as intended when changing stance (was 600ms, is now 200ms)
- Fixed an issue that caused Highlander to have extra backwards movement whenperforming Heavy after Guardbreak while holding a direction with Left Stick.
- Fixed an issue that caused Highlander to cancel Right Heavy (miss) 100ms laterthan intended (from 0-300ms to 0-200ms)

Warden:

- Shoulder Bash Followups
- All Shoulder Bash followups now gain Uninterruptible Stance at 100ms
- New unique animations for the following Shoulder Bash followups

- Side Light, including combo lights
- Heavy Attacks
- Zone Attack

*Dev comment: Warden's Shoulder Bash is a strong tool in 1v1 situations but is difficult to use in group fight situations, especially when outnumbered, because the attack followups are slower than average but do not offer protection from opponent peel attempts. We are improving these attacks to gain Uninterruptible Stance to help protect Warden in these situations, and we have also changed their animations to make them fully distinguishable from their neutral attack counterparts, with the exception of the Top Light followup, which still gains Uninterruptible Stance but keeps its old animation in order to keep the Superior Block property. *

*Note that these attacks deal the same amount of damage and chain to other attacks at the same timing as before. *

Backstepping Superior Block Lights

- The following heroes' neutral Light attacks can no longer be backstepped
- Warlord
- Valkyrie
- Kyoshin
- Afeera
- Black Prior
- Varangian
- Highlander

*Dev comment: Superior Block attacks are strong in that they let players counter attacks using Light attacks instead of attempting to Parry. On Live, they currently have an issue where players can use them to Option Select opponent attacks by backstepping - as they walk backwards, if the opponent's attack is a Light Attack, the attack will be countered by the Superior Block, but if it is a Heavy attack the hero will move backwards enough to avoid the opponent's attack. This change removes this ability to Option Select opponent attacks from neutral completely and should lower the effective power of these attacks. *

Shinobi:

Opener lights now deal 10 damage (down from 12)
Zone Attack 2nd hit now deals 4 damage (down from 6)

Dev comment: We had an issue where the previously announced damage changes to Shinobi's Opener Lights did not end up going live. We have fixed the issue, so they now deal the correct amount of damage. We're also adjusting the damage of the 2nd hit of Shinobi's Zone Attack as part of this damage curve adjustments.

Hitokiri:

Heavy Openers now have a minimum Guardbreak Vulnerability of 433ms (up from 333ms)

Dev comment: Hitokiri has had an issue where the total Guardbreak Vulnerability of their Heavy Openers could be 333ms - the charge portion has 300ms of minimum charge, and the strike portion only had 33ms of Guardbreak Vulnerability. The strike portion of the attack now has 133ms of Guardbreak Vulnerability. With this change, the minimum duration of Guardbreak Vulnerability is 433ms (300ms during the charge portion, then 133ms during the strike portion).

Orochi:

Zone Attack now deals 11 damage (down from 14)
Side Heavy Finishers now deal 28 damage (down from 30)
Storm Rush now deals 17 damage (down from 20)

Dev comment: Orochi's damage curve is above normal, especially with their Zone Attack and Side Heavy Finishers. We are lowering their damage to bring them closer in line with the rest of the cast. In addition, Storm Rush was buffed when we removed the combo lights from the attack, but this proved to be too strong for the hero, so we are lowering the damage it causes as well.
Berserker

Top Heavy Opener now deals 28 damage (down from 29)
Top Heavy Finisher now deals 30 damage (down from 31)
Side Heavy Finishers now deal 32 damage (down from 34)
Side Dodge Lights now deal 13 damage (down from 15)

Dev comment: Berserker has been overperforming at some levels of play, partially due to his damage curve, which is above normal. We are therefore slightly lowering the damage values, and will keep an eye on the hero as things progress to see where they end up.

Afeera:

Top Heavy after melee attacks now deals 16 damage (down from 18)
Right Heavy after melee attacks now deals 16 damage (down from 18)

Dev comment: Afeera's Heavy Parry punishes deal above average damage at 18. We are lowering the damage of these two moves to 16 to ensure that her damage curve is better aligned with the rest of the cast. Note that it is still slightly above average due to the extra Stamina cost that is incurred for these specific punishes that require the use of Knockout Punch.

Varangian:

- Hjaldr Oathkeeper now attack in the correct stance when Superior Blocking (was always Left stance)
- Opener and Finisher Lights can no longer have their Superior Block followup be target swapped
- Can now throw diagonally
- Adjusted wallsplat and ledge windows of opportunity to be earlier in the throw victim's reactions to allow for more consistent wallsplat and ledging

ECO MODE

- Added an ECO Mode on Current Gen Consoles.

Dev Comment: On Current Gen consoles (PS5, Xbox Series S & X), a new Graphic Settings is added to enable an ECO Mode to save energy by reducing framerate, resolution, and graphic upgrades. Four modes are offered: Off, Minimal that activates only in the menus, Smart that activates after 2 minutes of idle time and Full that activates at all times. In the menus only, an ECO Mode icon will appear when it's activated.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL
- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where Samurai and Viking minions incorrectly had Knight weapons. FH-7110 [forhonor.ubisoft.com]

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue with Eagle Companion that make the eagle appear too black on podium screen when night map weather is selected.

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where the Frozen Profundis blade for Black Prior was upside down.

FIGHTERS
Hitokiri

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where Hitokiri's weapon clips with their fingers while performing the execution "Toriireru"

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where Hitokiri's hand is offset with the opponent's hand while performing the execution "Toriireru"

Shaman

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where the enemy's weapon does not disappear after falling down to the ground while previewing execution "Take it on the chin"

Orochi

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where paint patterns aren't applied well on Orochi's Honnari Arm shoulders. FH-6256[forhonor.ubisoft.com]

Kyoshin

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where the enemy's hand is displaced when Kyoshin's Celestial Discipline Execution is performed from the front on certain heroes. FH-5484 [forhonor.ubisoft.com]

Medjay

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where Medjay's Heavy finisher animation could change into top light finisher animation in certain circumstances. FH-4271[forhonor.ubisoft.com]

Warden

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue where Warden's Zone Attack animation skips frames from the enemy's perspective when thrown from left & top left guard stance. FH-1824 [forhonor.ubisoft.com]

MAP

Viking Village

- [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the player to pass through a wall. FH-3444[forhonor.ubisoft.com]