First For Honor patch lands tomorrow: buffs Valkyrie, Conquerer and Berserker

Update February 27, 2017: For Honor’s claymore-sized first patch lands tomorrow, and the game’s community manager has just laid out the full notes.

As well as changes to multiple classes, the patch will fix guard breaks, make the camera less likely to clip through walls on executions, and make fast swings easier to read. The patch lands on PC tomorrow, February 28.

Have a look at our For Honor PC review if you’re considering getting involved.

Eric Pope with the full notes on thesubreddityet again.

Feats

Shugoki

Fixed a bug that caused players to lose the “Hard to Kill “ Feat upon death.

Orochi & Berserker

Addressed bugs with their area of effect (AOE) ground Feats not working if the player stopped moving
The Orochi’s Nail Bomb & the Berserkers Stun Trap Feats now apply their damage effects correctly to characters who trigger the trap, but stop moving towards the trap, as it was intended.

Valkyrie

The Valkyrie Bloodlust Feat is now triggered on all types of kills as it was intended.

Berserker, Warlord, & Valkyrie

Tweaked the “Rush” Feat animation transition bug from idle to sprint animations

Fight

All Fighters

We reverted the Guardbreak mechanics to the Beta behavior in order to have it be a more usable skill. Guardbreak is no longer un-counterable if you’re Guardbroken during Guardbreak startup.
Attacks that cannot be blocked because they are too fast no longer display the Unblockable Attack feedback.
Fixed camera clipping issues with walls on executions

Peacekeeper

Some tweaking was made on the Peacekeeper during the Beta, which caused some bugs and unintended changes. We are changing some of her moves to behave as designed.
Fixed the Peacekeeper Guardbreak and Bleed stacking bug

Stab 1 applies 2 dmg + 15 Bleed dmg over 10 sec
Stab 2 applies 2 dmg + 12 Bleed dmg over 8 sec
Stab 3 applies 2 dmg + 9 Bleed dmg over 6 sec
Bleed damage now stacks up for a total of 36 dmg, in the Beta this total was higher (45dmg) but has been reduced for balancing along with the accompanied bug fix

Increased the range of the Peacekeeper Stab Attack to fix issues with missed stabs and therefore not applying Bleed

Stab range increased from 1 m to 2 m

Changed the range distance of the Peacekeeper Light Attack. She can now connect a Light Attack after a parry.

Normal Light Attacks had their range increased by 0.25 m; from 2.75 m to 3 m

Berserker & Conqueror

Light Attack recoveries decreased to prevent free Guardbreak on Block. This was never the intended behavior.
Berserker’s Light Attacks and chained Light Attacks recoveries on Block reduced from 900 ms to 700 ms
Conqueror’s Light Attacks and chained Light Attacks recoveries on Block reduced from 900 ms to 700 ms

Valkyrie

Overall Valkyrie gameplay update/buff. We found that the changes we made during our latest Technical Test were impacting too much the dueling abilities of the Valkyrie. She has gone from the 1st place in Win/Loss in Duel to the last spot.We’ve made some of her moves a little faster and we’ve added some mix-ups.
Pouncing Thrust & Hunter’s Strike damage increased from 12 dmg to 17 dmg
Pouncing Thrust & Hunter’s Strike can link into Light Chain faster: from 400 ms – 900 ms to 200 ms – 500 ms

Light Attacks recoveries reduced by 100 ms
Light Attack Miss Recovery 900 ms to 800 ms
Light Attack Hit Recovery 700 ms to 600 ms
Light Attack Interrupt Block Recovery 800 ms to 700 ms
Light Attack Regular Block Recovery 700 ms to 600 ms.

Light Chain second Attack Startup reduced by 100 ms, recoveries reduced by 100ms

Light Chain second Attack Startup 600 ms to 500 ms
Light Chain second Attack Miss Recovery 800 ms to 700 ms
Light Chain second Attack Hit Recovery 600 to 500 ms
Light Chain second Attack Interrupt Block Recovery 700 ms to 600 ms
Light Chain second Attack Regular Block Recovery 600 ms to 500 ms

Shield Crush can now be chained into Light Chain

After 400 ms into Hit Recovery
After 500 ms into Miss Recovery

Hunter’s Rush Recoveries shortened by 200 ms

Miss recovery 1000 ms to 800 ms
Hit recovery 800 ms to 600 ms
Interrupt Block recovery 900 ms to 700 ms
Regular Block recovery 800 ms to 600 ms

Orochi

Increased the dodge back on the Orochi’s “Riptide Strike”
Increased the backward displacement from 1.75 m to 2 m

Game mode

Duel, Brawl, Elimination

Bots joining an in-progress match will be dead for the current round.

Miscellaneous

Changed Music in Face Off screen

For the bug fixes, check out the subreddit.

Update February 21, 2017:Ahead of the balance patch, hotfixes will be deployed to the PC version of the game today. These are mostly bug fixes.

In further For Honor patching news, the first set of bug fixes are due to go live on PC today, at 1pm GMT / 8am EST / 5am PST. Details below, though no word yet on when the balance changes are due.

Eric Pope with the full notes on the subreddit once again.

Easy AntiCheat

Error messaging now clearer and more helpful.
No longer stops people entering the game.

Steam Controllers now register as inputting to the game, rather than being kicked for AFK.
Shutdown process:

No longer switches to borderless window mode on shutdown.
No longer leaves ghost window for short time in task bar.

Statup bugs:

No longer starts windowed mode if focus is lost during startup.
No longer switches display mode on startup.
Alt+enter behaviour fixed.

Game will now cache window position properly on minimise.
Now warns users with old Intel GPUs on boot.

Pope specifically notes that this patch will not include the balance changes laid out below, but does say that we should expect more news on that “soon.” Given they were announced last week and gladly received, patience may be wearing a little thin by this point. Details on what will be inside below.

Original story February 17, 2017:For Honor’s mighty multiplayer will receive its first balance patch soon, and Ubisoft headed over to the well-stacked official subreddit to let players know exactly what they plan to change. They’re tweaking guard breaks for the whole cast, giving the Peacekeeper a bug-fixing buff, a small tweak to Conquerers and Berserkers and a series of buffs to the shield-’n’-spear Valkyrie.

Ubisoft community developer Eric Pope brought the knowledge, explaining that the following changes came from listening to the community:

Conqueror and Berserker:

Will no longer get combo’d if their light attack is blocked.

Peacekeeper:

Second and third guardbreak stabs will now correctly apply bleed.

Valkyrie:

Light Attacks: Decreased recovery time.
Light Chains: Decreased time between attacks.
Pouncing Thrust & Hunter’s Strike: Damage increased, additional link options afterwards.
Shield Crush: Can be linked into Light Attack chains.
Hunter’s Rush: Decreased recovery time

Guardbreak Counter (All Heroes):

Currently you can’t counter a guardbreak during a guardbreak attempt. This will be return to the previous behavior seen in the Beta.

Also mentioned is that full-health bots will no longer replace players who disconnect during a match – they will be replaced by a dead bot. This will end the round if they were the last player left, and the bot will continue to play as normal after that.

No word was given as to when this patch would be deployed, but given the announcement was made last night, chances are it’s on the way soon – expect it early next week. Looks like this is how Ubi will be broadcasting changes in the future too, so keep an eye on the subreddit in future.