For Honor continues to work on new, exciting content to serve players. At the end of January, the next major patch will be released, radically changing many existing heroes and introducing a completely new hero. A reason for our author Benedict to check back in.
For Honor has been my passion since the early alpha of the game. This fighting game has been my secret love since the first time, which unfortunately has cooled somewhat in recent times. However, the upcoming update on January 31 drives me back into my armor and is the first step of the “big plans” for 2019.
In August, an action even brought more than 200,000 players. For me, the reasons are a new hero that excites me to play and changes to several heroes that significantly improve game quality.
The new hero in For Honor: The Black Prior
Who is the new hero? The Black Prior will be a new “Heavy” class of knights. The Black Priors are a religious order that assists the knights in their battle against enemies. They fight with sword and massive shield in a rather defensive style and with dirty tricks.
They are fighting “for honor” not, but with interesting tricks. The Priors have three core abilities:
- Bulwark Stance
- Bulwark Slash
- Bulwark Counter
The names already suggest that this is a heavily armored hero. Although I usually prefer faster heroes like the Valkyrie or the Peacekeeper, the design of the Black Prior is intriguing.
This is what the Black Prior can do: Among his abilities, especially the Bulwark Stance and the Bulwark Counter stand out. Both are unique and give the Black Prior special mechanics that no other hero possesses.
The Bulwark Stance allows the Black Prior to block in all directions. Unlike, for example, the Warlord, he does not lose stamina while doing so, and he can move freely. This makes the Black Prior a “walking fortress.”
The Bulwark Counter, on the other hand, is a quite tricky gimmick. With the right timing, all enemy attacks can be countered with an attack, even unblockable ones. Only guard breakers will get through.
Both abilities give the Black Prior a strong tactical aspect. Especially the counter will be interesting, as it gives opponents a chance to feint and can open the Prior’s heavy guard if he misjudges the timing.
What is changing in For Honor
Changes to heroes: With the patch on January 31, adjustments will be made to several heroes:
- Warlord
- Shugoki
- Peacekeeper
Particularly notable are Shugoki and Peacekeeper. The Shugoki loses his passive ability to ignore the first attack. Instead, many attacks gain this property now.
Additionally, his hit points will be reduced, and he will gain more ways to attack. This makes the Shugoki generally harder to play and easier to kill, but also more versatile and dangerous. Fights against him will become more interesting.
The Peacekeeper will gain the ability to follow up with more different attacks after a guard break. She now has a bit more time after a guard break, allowing her to land side heavy attacks or zone attacks with certainty.
In addition, the damage of some attacks is increased, and she uses less stamina. Previously, she relied on striking quickly and hard before she had to retreat quickly. Now the Peacekeeper can also withstand a while in a duel without becoming immediately vulnerable if the first attacks do not kill the target.
Further changes: The patch also fixes some bugs, brings new cosmetics, and changes some features. Notably, damage from fighting on a ladder has been removed. An important change that will make many matches better.
Previously, attacks on ladders dealt damage to the target and knocked it off the ladder. From my experience, this is particularly annoying when I want to climb a ladder directly after an enemy and already take damage from the opponent falling down.
Now all attacks, whether from above or below, will no longer deal damage. Only fall damage still exists on ladders.
Will you give For Honor another chance? It should be worth it:
