For Honor’s 2.1.1.0 Update Adds Jormungandr for Year 3 Pass Owners, Balances Combat, and Fixes Bugs

The patch notes for For Honor‘s 2.1.1.0 update were recently released. The new patch aims to improve the game’s combat and balances a ton of characters just in time for the new character, Jormungandr, to debut for Year 3 pass owners. The update also adds two new maps into the game, alongside some new weapons and armor, and fixes some bugs as well. The first map, Storr Stronghold, can only be used in the game’s Breach mode, while the other map, The Sanctuary – Competitive, is the only map available in the Ranked Duel mode this season. For those who don’t own the Year 3 pass, the new character will be available on August 8, 2019 for 15,000 Steel.

To balance things out, this update includes changes to how simple it is for players to disengage from combat. This was done to promote more actual fighting. Ubisoft has increased the amount of time it takes to unlock from an opponent, and has slowed down the movement speed when going backward. Before this update, it was possible in some cases to move backward faster than someone could move forward, resulting in some frustrating engagements for players. Ubisoft has also given each character the same rolling distance to balance things even further.

There are some important character changes in this update as well. Nobushi’s bleed effect can now be stacked, but its damage has been reduced from 20 down to 12. Nobushi’s kick move is also now open to a Guard Break, but activates slightly faster. Valkyrie’s Heavy Attack Opener damage has been increased from 24 to 28, and her second Heavy Attack’s damage has been increased from 28 to 30. She can also recover from her Sweep move faster as well. The stamina cost of Peacekeeper’s Deep Gouge attack has been reduced from 12 to 6, and “Slipping Lunge” has been changed so it can’t be dodged, but its range has been decreased from 5.75 meters to 4.75 meters to account for this.

Ubisoft also offers developer commentary, giving insight into the reasons behind each of these changes.

The entire list of patch notes can be seen below:

For Honor Update Patch Notes

NEW HERO: JORMUNGANDR

• The Jormungandr are fearsome warriors who excel at whittling the opponent’s stamina. Wielding the mighty war hamarr, they cull the weak with their unbalancing attacks.
  • Difficulty: Medium
    • Disabler, Harasser
    • Unrelenting Attacks
  • Special abilities
    • High Damage on opponents who are out of stamina
    • Good at trading blows and initiating the fight
    • Their enhanced Light Attacks are not interruptible when blocked

NEW MAP: STORR STRONGHOLD

• Storr Stronghold stands sentry over the seas. This Viking fortress was built on the site of an old trelleborg fort that had burned to the ground. It is a massive stone structure with broad turrets that honor Viking tradition. The high walls that hug the ocean shoreline make any assault a brutal affair for attackers.
• Only available in Breach

RANKED DUEL MAP

• We’ve created a new, high-octane map: “The Sanctuary – Competitive”. The purpose of this map is to encourage fight interaction between the players and not rely on environmental hazards or disengagement/running away.
• Please note that will be the only map available for Ranked Duel this Season but all duel maps are still available in Custom Matches

SKILL INDICATOR

• Improved calculations when comparing the skill of players to their team and the enemy team

FACTION WAR UPDATE

• Faction War updates on the World Map have been streamlined and optimized to allow players to get into Matches more quickly

GEAR

New Gear

Weapon

• 25 Weapon sets for Jormungandr
• New Rare weapon for all heroes
• New Epic weapon for all heroes

Armor

• 3 Armor sets for Jormungandr with 4 variations each

IMPROVEMENTS

GENERAL

Escape Standardisation

Developer comments:

The following escape standardisation change 3 major things:

1. Opponents can no longer Roll away from many mix-ups without being vulnerable to Feint into Guard Break
2. Unlocking to escape combat is a bit slower and more dangerous than before
3. Opponents can no longer back strafe away faster than you can strafe forward

We believe that these changes will greatly open the door to more satisfying combat: it will reduce the ease of escape and avoiding combat, as well as make it much more difficult to stall out match-ups. It will still be possible to disengage in group fight modes, however it won’t be as safe of an option as it was before.

Roll/Guard Break

• All Rolls are now vulnerable to Guard Break from 0ms – 333ms (from 0ms – 300ms)
• Dodge is now vulnerable to Guard Break from 0ms-633ms (from 0ms – 600ms)
• Branching from Dodge to Roll can now only be performed between 300ms-400ms (from 300ms – 500ms)
• Guard Break immediately after a Feint is now 300ms (from 400ms)
• Guard Break Counter now has a 300ms window (from 200ms). The actual Guard Break Counter will begin between 200ms-300ms depending on when you input the Counter Guard Break. This means if you input it immediately as before, it comes out at the same time – but you have a bit more grace period to input it.

Developer comments: Opponents can no longer Roll away from many mix-ups without being vulnerable to Feint Guard Break

Unlocking

• When Unlocking, the branching to Out of Lock Roll or Sprint now requires 300ms (from 100ms)
• When Unlocking, movement has been cut to 2m (from 4m) during the Unlock animation
• When entering Lock, Lock requires 300ms (was different per Hero, between 200ms – 400ms)
• When entering Lock, you no longer have Defense property (some Heroes had it between 100-300ms)
• When entering Lock, you can Change Stance at 200ms (allowing you to be in the stance you want when the “entering Lock state” is complete at 300ms)
• When entering Lock, movement is now 0, but you retain some velocity from the previous movement state.

Developer comments: Unlocking to escape combat is a bit slower and more dangerous than before

Combat Strafe

• Backward Combat Strafe for all heroes have been capped at 5 units maximum. (If they were slower before, they haven’t changed.)
• Forward Combat Strafe for all heroes have been capped at 6 units minimum. (If they were faster before, they haven’t changed.)

Developer comments: Opponents can no longer back strafe away faster than you can strafe forward

Roll Distance Standardisation

• Roll distance has been standardized for every hero at 5m

Developer comments: Most Heroes already had a roll distance of 5m – but some Heroes were able to roll further. This was unnecessary, since at 5m you can roll out of Feat Area of Effects successfully. Some Heroes (such as Highlander, Raider, Shaman) had much smaller roll distances, and now we can ensure all characters have equal ability to escape Area of Effects.

Activating Revenge

• Activating Revenge when standing takes effect after 100ms (no change made here)
• Activating Revenge when unbalanced now takes effect after 100ms (was 300ms)

Developer comments: When Revenge is available, it should take the same amount of time to take effect, regardless of whether you triggered it when on the ground or standing.

FIGHTER

Peacekeeper:

Deep Gouge

• Reduced “Deep Gouge” costs to 6 Stamina (from 12)
• “Deep Gouge” and “Dagger Cancel” recovery is now 400ms (from 500ms)

Zone Attack

• Reduced Second hit of the Zone Attack costs to 10 Stamina (from 20) but you now pay the cost even if Feinting

Riposting Stab

• Deflect Attack branches to “Riposting Stab” at 266ms (from 300ms)

Slipping Lunge

• “Slipping Lunge” is now Undodgeable
• Maximum “Slipping Lunge” distance is now 4.75m (from 5.75m)

Light Attack Openers

• Increased Light Openers damage to 15 (from 14)

Developer comments: We reduced the recoveries on Deep Gouge and Dagger Cancel to help Peacekeeper continue pressure through frame advantage after these moves. We’ve also slightly reduced the stamina consumption in order to also help her keep pressure up.

Riposting Stab now functionally hits earlier by 33ms to outrun some heroes’ 2nd chained attacks.

Orochi

Light Attacks

• Top Light Opener is now 466ms (from 500ms)
• Reduced Top Light Opener damage to 12 (from 15)
• Reduced 2nd Top Light Damage Combo to 6 (from 7)
• Side Light Attack Finishers are now 466ms (from 500ms)

Heavy Attacks

• Top Heavy Attack Opener now has 800ms Miss recovery (from 1100ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Opener now has 900ms Hit recovery (from 1000ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Opener now has 900ms Blocked recovery (from 1000ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 800ms Miss recovery (from 1100ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 800ms Hit recovery (from 900ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 900ms Blocked recovery (from 1000ms)

Attack Trajectories

• Updated all Side Attacks Trajectories so it is easier to hit external Targets

Riptide Strike

• “Riptide Strike” can now Chain on Miss

Zone Attack

• Zone Attack is now 466ms (from 500ms)
• Zone Attack recovery is now 700ms (from 800ms)

Lightning Strike

• Forward Dodge + Light Attack is now 566ms (from 600ms)

Developer comments: With these changes Orochi should be a bit more powerful in 1v1 with the faster Light Attack and Zone Attack, and be less vulnerable when throwing out Attacks.

Nobushi

Bleed

• Nobushi’s Bleed now stacks
• Reduced Bleed damage to 12 (from 20). Bleed Duration is unchanged

Dodge

• Now allow changing stance when doing dodge forward + Heavy Attack.

Cobra Strike

• Dodge now branches to Cobra Strike from 200ms to 400ms (from 100ms to 300ms)

Sidewinder

• Dodge now branches to Sidewinder from 200ms to 400ms (from 100ms to 300ms)
• Sidewinder recovery is now 1000ms (from 1300ms)
• Sidewinder recovery now branches to Dodge, “Retreating Viper”, and “Kick” starting at 500ms (from 400ms)
• Sidewinder recovery now branches to Hidden Stance starting at 500ms (from 1000ms)

Kick

• Kick is now 566ms (from 600ms)
• Kick now has 100ms vulnerability to Guard Break on start-up (from 0ms)

Hidden Stance

• Can no longer Counter Guard Break while in Hidden Stance
• Hidden Stance does not stop Stamina regeneration for 4s anymore
• Light Attack from Hidden Stance now hides the first 100ms of the attack
• Increased range of Heavy Attacks from Hidden Stance
• Hidden Stance Heavy Attacks now all deal 35 damages (from 35 on top, 24 on side)
• Branching from Hidden Stance Heavy Attack to Kick is now 100ms later (removing the guaranteed Kick on Block)

Retreating Viper

• “Retreating Viper” is now 500ms (from 600ms)
• Can now dodge forward during “Retreating Viper’s” recovery.

Light Attacks

• Cannot use Hidden Stance to cancel Light Attacks Strikes anymore
• Top Light Openers is now 500ms (from 600ms)
• All Light Attacks in chains are now 500ms (from 600ms)
• All Light Finishers are now 500ms (from 600ms)
• All Light Openers now do 15 damages (from 18 top and 12 sides)
• Second Light Attack in chains now deals 10 damage (from18 on top and 12 on side)
• Light Combo Finisher now deals 2 damage + 12 Bleed damage (from 6 + 20 Bleed damage)
• Reduced All Light Finisher to 15 damage (from 26 on top and 18 on side)

Heavy Attacks

• Reduced Top Heavy Attack damage to 32 (from 38)
• Increased Side Heavy Opener damage to 32 (from 30)
• Increased Side Heavy finisher damage to 35(from 24)
• Increased Top Heavy Finisher damage to 35 (from 33)

Swift Recoil

• Swift Recoil has been removed

Developer comments: We reduced her overall safeness when she is killing minions in the lane, and when she is in group fights. By making her Hidden Stance a bit more offensive, accelerating the Kick and making so that her Bleed’s stacks, we hope that she will find a bit more prowess in 1v1 scenarios. We also want to reduce Nobushi’s hard hitting moves and bring them down to more standard values.

Valkyrie:

Damage

• Increased Heavy Attack Opener damage to 28 (from 24)
• Increased 2nd Heavy Attack damage to 30 (from 28)

Sweep

• “Sweep” Recovery is now 700ms (from 1200ms)
• “Sweep” and “Sweep Punish” now allow the victim to Activate Revenge

Shield Tackle

• “Shield Tackle” backwards movement reduced to 0.5m (from 1.5m)
• “Shield Tackle” Strike is now 400ms (from 500ms)

Zone Attack

• Zone attack recovery is now 700ms (from 800ms)

Shield Crush

• Reduced “Shield Crush” Dodge window to 200ms (from 300ms)

Developer comments: These changes will make Valkyrie less vulnerable when trying to Sweep an opponent. We are giving her more damage and quality of life changes to help Valkyries be more effective on the battlefield.

Shinobi:

Stance Change

• Stance Change Standardized to other Reflex Guard Heroes’ time of 1100ms (from 800ms)

Rope

• Long Range Grab no longer beats Revenge Activation

Sprint Slide

• Only has active hit frames for 400ms (from 600ms)
• No longer beats Revenge Activation
• Victim can now activate Revenge during the hit

Uninterruptible Stance

• The following Moves no longer have Uninterruptable Stance:
  • Backflip
  • Roll
  • Double-Dodge Kick
  • Kick-After-Deflect
  • Kick-After-Roll
  • Sprint Slide
  • Sickle Rain (including on Victim)

Developer comments: Shinobi is already hard to hit, so we want to make Shinobi more vulnerable when hits happen. “Sickle Rain’s” change to be interruptible also follows our recent changes to Shugoki’s “Demon Embrace” – making bind moves interruptible on hit makes them less frustrating.

Warden

• Tweaked Heavy Attack trajectories to make killing minions easier
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 800ms Miss recovery (from 1000ms)
• Side Heavy Attack Finishers now have 700ms Miss recovery (from 900ms)
• Side Heavy Attack Finishers now have 800ms Hit recovery (from 900ms)
• Side Heavy Attack Finishers now have 700ms Blocked recovery (from 900ms)

Developer comments: Warden’s Heavy Finishers were too vulnerable to be used in group fights. With the recovery improvement, it should be a bit safer.

Berserker

• Reduced Light-Attacks-following-a-Feint damage to 13 (from 15)

Developer comments: We want to keep the berserkers kit as is, but we want to reduce the damage output. Being under 15 damage often means Berserker will require 1 more hit to kill (because opponents often have 120 HP, a multiple of 15).

Kensei

• Side Light Attack Openers are now 500ms (from 600ms)
• 2nd Light Attack in Chains are now 500ms (from 600ms)
• Reduced Top Light Opener damage to 18 (from 20)
• Increased Side Light Opener damage to 15 (from 12)
• Increased Soft Feint Side Light Opener damage to 15 (from 12)
• Reduced 2nd Top Light in chain damage to 18 (from 20)
• Reduced 2nd Side Light Attack in Chains damage to 15 (from 16)
• Reduced 2nd Soft Feint Light Attack in chains damage to 15 (from 16)
• Increased 2nd Side Heavy Attack in chains damage to 30 (from 25)
• Increased 2nd Soft Feint Side Heavy Attack damage to 30 (from 25)
• Reduced all Light Finishers damages to 18 (from 20)
• All Light Finishers now have a Reaction Override set to Medium to still allow ledging

Developer comments: With these changes we want the Kensei to be standardized in terms of Light Attack speed. We think that theses changes to Heavy and Light damage coming from the sides will be used more in group fights so Kensei does not need to rely as much on the zone attack.

Tiandi:

• Light Attack Finishers now have 600ms Miss recovery (from 800ms)
• Light Attack Finishers now have 600ms Hit recovery (from 800ms)
• Light Attack Finishers now have 600ms Blocked recovery (from 800ms)
• Light Attack Finishers now have 700ms Interrupted Blocked recovery (from 800ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 700ms Miss recovery (from 1000ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 800ms Hit recovery (from 900ms)
• Top Heavy Attack Finisher now has 700ms Blocked recovery (from 900ms)
• Side Heavy Attack Finishers now have 700ms Miss recovery (from 1000ms)
• Side Heavy Attack Finishers now have 700ms Blocked recovery (from 800ms)
• Side Heavy Attack Finishers now have 800ms Interrupted Blocked recovery (from 900ms)

Developer comments: Tiandi’s Finishers were too vulnerable to use in group fights. With the recovery improvements, they should be a bit safer.

Lawbringer

• Side Heavy Finishers are now 800ms (from 900ms)

Developer comments: This will help Lawbringer threaten opponents with who want to dodge and roll away (since Feint>Guard Break will now work).

Shugoki

• “Demon’s Embrace” Healing lowered to 20 (from 25)

Developer comments: Two Shugoki landing “Demon’s Embraces” will no longer cancel out all damage done to each other.

• Added slight forward movement to Heavy Attack Feint (Openers and Finishers)

Developer comments: This should keep Shugoki close enough to Feint>Guard Break and beat opponents who want to Dodge and Roll away.

Jiang Jun

• Jiang Jun “Sifu’s Pose” backward movement has been reduced to 0.75m (from 1.25m)

Developer comments: This movement decrease will keep Jiang Jun a little closer to opponents, and therefore less safe.

Aramusha

• Aramusha now has 0.75m forward movement in the Heavy Finisher’s Feints

Developer comments: This will help Aramusha threaten opponents with who want to dodge and roll away (since Feint>Guard Break will now work).

Black Prior

• Zone Attack’s Strike now has Guard Break vulnerability from 0ms-100ms (from 0ms-400ms)

Hitokiri

• Zone Attack’s Strike now has Guard Break vulnerability from 0ms-100ms (from 0ms-200ms)

FEATS

Inspire

• Cooldown is now 120 seconds (from 90)

Developer comments: Specifically in Breach, teams of coordinated players could keep their pikemens Inspired constantly, and really make it difficult for Defenders to stop the Ram’s movement.

Second Wind

• Cooldown is now 120 seconds (was 60)

Developer comments: These feats allowed many heroes to stay alive too long, too often. Second Wind in particular could be used in every fight, prolonging every encounter. With that cooldown increase, it now requires some decision as to when best use it

Tough As Nails

• Max health multiplier is now 1.15 (from 1.25)

Body Count

• HP is now 2 (from 3). Stamina is now 2 (from 5)

AI

• Rank 2 and 3 Bots can now sometimes be fooled by Feints, and will end up throwing out a Heavy.
• Standard Dominion footmen now wield some random shields during the fight

MAP

Overwatch

• The two traps at the center of Capture Zone C no longer open in all game mode
• The two traps at the extremities of Capture Zone C will only open when either team falls in to Sudden Death, for the first time. This applies to both Dominion and Skirmish
• There are now newly added ladders which create a new path for reaching Capture Zone A. These ladders are located near the outskirts of Capture Zone B

Arena Maps

• Added 6 new contexts to the Arena Maps to provide more diversified environment and weather

USER INTERFACE

• Removed all hero videos from the Training Media section

Developer comments: With all the reworks and balancing changes we’ve done in the past, and that we will keep doing, keeping videos updated was very difficult. We’ve decided to stop making new videos to focus instead on our interactive training tools (Arena & Advanced Tactics), and remove the videos to avoid keeping inaccurate content in the game.

• Enabled new widgets for Tactical Camera, Player Respawn and Killer Information

CUSTOMIZATION

• Items in the “View Progression” page are now displayed on the 3D Hero
• Characters team are revising his rules and regulations for the type of Color swatch. We are allowing more Neutral color to be also, either Attacker/Defender. As a result, we changed these color swatches assignation.
• Revised the Player Expression of the Berserker’s outfits, both Male and Female
• Revised the Player Expression on the Fubuki, Shika, Senmatsu and Kijin armor pieces for the Female Hitokiri to make the outfits look better

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• [Bug Fix] Some Heroes had the ability to switch targets during their Dodges and completely change their current momentum to be in relation to this new target, causing unintended hard to read animations. We have removed this ability on all affected Heroes. Note that this will not change the fact that some Heroes can Dodge then change their momentum by changing their targets and starting a Dodge Attack
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused all the attack sounds for the Wu Lin to be missing on side attacks
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused certain Feats like “Kiai” or “Fiat Lux” to give revenge to the opponent when used in 1v1 situations

FIGHTERS

Conqueror

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that was causing Conqueror’s Out of Lock trajectories to end sooner than intended. These should now properly complete the swing before chaining to the next attack

Warlord

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that was causing Warlord’s Out of Lock trajectories to end sooner than intended. These should now properly complete the swing before chaining to the next attack

Aramusha

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused one of the Aramusha’s weapon to become invisible after performing the “Bare Hand Beat Down” Execution
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Aramusha’s Out of Lock Heavy Attack to play an incorrect animation

Nuxia

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Nuxia’s Side Heavy Finisher to be unable to ledge opponents on successful hits

Black Prior

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that cause the Raider’s “Stunning Tap” to apply its Visual Effect while being countered by “Bulwark Counter”
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that was causing Black Prior’s Out of Lock trajectories to end sooner than intended when striking minions

FEATS

General

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused some Feats effects to stop when the Hero that activated them died

Blink

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that made the “Blink” feat to appear available when executing someone
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that made the “Blink” feat to appear available when locked on the Guardian or the King in the Breach
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Blink” feat to cost Stamina on activation

Senbonzakura

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the “Senbonzakura” feats to appear available when executing someone

Infection

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue with the Nuxia’s “Infection” Feat description in Russian

BREACH

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Docking and King music volumes to fade out and become inaudible
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the introduction cinematic sounds to play for players that joined a Breach match already in progress

USER INTERFACE

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Scoreboard to be displayed in Grey instead of using the team colors
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused XP Boosts to sometimes be impossible to activate on the Hero Selection Screen

CUSTOMIZATION

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the Heroes to appear in low resolution in the Customization Screens
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Emblems applied on Heroes’ Shields to not be displayed in-game.
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the color swatch “Dry Mustard” to be missing from the Attacker colors
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Hitokiri Sjika Chest piece to be missing customization on the back faulds
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the Lawbringer Halberd to fly out of the his hands when changing Stance while preforming the “You’re welcome” emote

PC

• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the match found notifications, sound, controller vibration and icon flashing, to be missing while in Fullscreen
• [Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the VRAM of AMD RX 560X graphic cards to not be correctly recognized

In June of 2019, For Honor saw the addition of the Shadows of Hitokiri event, which featured a new character known as Sakura, a possessed samurai. The game was also featured as part of the PlayStation Plus lineup of games in February of 2019.

What do you think of all of these changes to For Honor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

[Source: Ubisoft]