Age of Wolves

**Age of Wolves** celebrated the first anniversary of *For Honor*. This season focused on gameplay and stability improvements together with major hero updates, global fight changes, new training features and the long awaited arrival of dedicated servers.

## Summary

The fifth season of For Honor was a large update, covering everything from balancing to overhauls in player progression. Many heroes were updated and new training features was added to let players train skills, be they as newcomers or veterans. But most of all, For Honor will now work on dedicated servers for PvP gamemodes (all other game modes are peer-to-peer where applicable), allowing for better connections that don't rely on the setup of individual PCs or consoles.

See the official patch notes page for more details on the more intricate details of what was updated during the Age of Wolves.

## Features

### Dedicated Servers

It's been a long wait but they're finally here. After a lot of hard work, the For Honor team is happy to announce the implementation of Dedicated Servers in Season 5 Age of Wolves. It will be deployed on all PvP game modes and enhance the experience for all warriors with more consistent connections and a lack of reliance on a player host of the session.

Dedicated servers will be released on PC on February 19 (date subject to change), while release on console is expected at a later date.

We Need Your Feedback! Please make sure to report any bugs and send us your feedback on our dedicated forum page.

### Balancing

With all the factions all having an even headcount of six Heroes, the development team focused their efforts on some major updates to Heroes of the current roster as well as global fight changes affecting overall gameplay.

After listening to community feedback, the Kensei, Berserker and Conqueror have had their movesets updated with new moves and animations to increase their efficiency on the battlefield. In addition, some major balancing updates have been made for combat, most especially for the Heroes Nobushi and Highlander. See below for more about individual changes per Hero. Part of the efforts of balancing includes rating out the strength of defensive behaviors in PvP combat; the team has also updated the fight system for players to aim for a more offensive mindset. Turtles beware!

### Player Progression

Season 5 gives players more options when it comes to player progression with the introduction of refined gear and XP boost. Reward gain from a match has been rebalanced for this purpose.

For all players looking to maximize their Gear sets further, you can now do so with a new layer to your crafting: Refined Legendary weapons and armor. Refined weapons and armor adds an extra little bonus stats than non-Refined gear, making them that much more unique. On top of that, maximum Reputation rank has been increased to 50 from 40, and players will now be able to spend their Salvage (gathered by dismantling gear) in exchange for an XP boost that you can apply before any match. If you accidentally leave a match, due to disconnection of some kind, your XP boost will be saved for you in the next full match.

Four new weapon visuals has been added for each Hero too.

### Training Mode

Apprenticeship to Mastery! Hone your skills in For Honor's new Training Mode. Learn the basics of the Art of Battle in our apprentice and warrior trials as a newer player to the game. With these trials, you can earn a score to show how well you are performing, or how far you may be falling behind; these trials can be redone as many times as one wants.

For seasoned veterans looking to take their game to the next level, take a step into the arena mode where you can work with a bot to improve your skills. You can have them either be your attack dummy, perform specific actions for you to spar against, or even have them work as your typical leveled bot AI also like in real combat. You can setup a list of movesets for you to follow, or setup the bot's and your health and stamina to any status. The latter is most helpful if you are just looking to train without dying every time you fail a move.

If you wonder where the hero specific training videos will go, don't fret. They will still be available for the viewing. Practice makes perfect.

### And More...

Many more has been added with this season, including new mood effects (and the ability to equip different emotes and executions with different effects), 4v4 Tribute Ranked mode and strategic points on the Faction War map.

## Hero Reworks & Changes

### Kensei

We feel Kensei didn’t have a good way of opening up the opponent – someone dedicated to defense could block most of what the Kensei launched. And if the Kensei did reach the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher, the opponent could just roll away and completely ignore the mix-up.

It’s important when changing a character to first try to understand the “soul of the character”, do our best to preserve that, and try to make it shine even brighter. In Kensei’s case, we can feel the “soul of the character” in the mix-up game of the Top Heavy Unblockable Finisher – it feels satisfying to land, and Kensei has ways to shortcut into this mix-up from Guard Breaks and Dodge attacks.
Between the Top Heavy Mix-up, Swift Strikes coming from the opposite direction as Dodge, and the current reliance on Feints, we feel that the “soul of the Kensei” is that it likes to show attacks, but be a bit tricky with what the real attack is. So bearing that in mind, let’s see how we can improve the fighting ability throughout the “soul of the Kensei”.

* Top Heavy Finisher Cancels:
	+ Cancel starts later reducing the gap of readability for the opponent.
	+ All Light Finishers now have Uninterruptible Stance.
	+ Cancel into Dodge happens at the same time as feints.
	+ Can now cancel into Guardbreak.
	+ New animation, as the old animation is now used for the new move, "Nature's Wrath."
* All Top Heavies can now be Side Cancelled.
	+ First Top Heavy can be cancelled into Side Openers, Dodge or the new move, "Pommel Strike."
	+ Second Top Heavy can be cancelled into Side Chains, Dodge or Guardbreak.
	+ As a result, side Lights deal less damage, while the non-Finisher Top Heavies deal more damage.
* New Moves:
	+ New Chains added (uses existing animations, just new branchings):
		- Heavy, Light, Light.
		- Heavy, Light, Heavy.
		- Heavy, Heavy, Light.
		- Light, Heavy, Light.
	+ Nature's Wrath: Recyclingthe old Top Heavy Finisher animation, input "forward dodge + heavy" to perform an unblockable overhead strike that has great forward momentum. This move can be followed up with a Finisher.
	+ Pommel Strike: Cancel Top Heavy Opener with guardbreak to perform an unblockable bash. This is meant to crack turtlers, and allow Kensei to lead into their Chains.
* Swift Strike now uses the Heavy input and counts as a Heavy Attack. As a result, it can also execute enemies and causes a heavy hit/block reaction.
* Helm Splitter is not enhanced anymore, thus will bounce off if blocked.
* Superior Block for Dodges now start at 100ms until the end of the Dodge, while also forcing the block direction towards the Dodge direction.
	+ Can perform your Dodge attacks after Superior Blocking an attack (even if it’s late in the dodge).
* Zone Attack revised to now elongate the first strike, which now strikes the front then the back in one long sweep. Visually, this now looks like three strikes. As a result of this change, it has lost its Uninterruptible Stance.

To see a more detailed outline of the update, check this page on the For Honor official website.

### Conqueror

Conqueror is a difficult case – defensively, Conqueror’s passive Superior Block shuts down nearly every Heavy attack and guarantees the Conqueror a free Guard Break. Offensively, Conqueror is overly-reliant on Shield Bash to confirm an attack – and then Conquerors generally stop attacking as it’s too unsafe to continue.

We want to keep the feeling that Conqueror is a wall – but we have to add some risk to the defensive options. We also need to improve the Conqueror’s ability to attack, and let Conquerors have confidence in their attack options such as Charged Heavy.

* Charged Heavies:
	+ Charged Heavies are now Unblockable.
	+ Charging now only has two phases: charged and uncharged. Uncharged is a normal Heavy, while a pink visual will show when the move has been adequately charged.
	+ Cannot launch a Light Attack anymore while charging.
* Reworked Superior Block: Conqueror does not possess passive Superior Block anymore. Now he possesses Superior Block properties on select moves:
	+ Heavy Openers, Fully Charged or Normal.
	+ Front and Side Dodges.
	+ Zone Attack.
	+ Full Block Stance.
* New Move:
	+ "Shield Uppercut": All Heavies can be cancelled into Shield Uppercut. Shield Uppercut functions very similarly to Shield Bash Mix-up.
	+ "Flail Uppercut": Replaces Shield Bash Reposte, allowing Conqueror to deal damage after blocking with Full Block Stance by inputting a heavy. Can execute or lead into chains.
* Chains now function as infinite, allowing Conqueror to chain Lights/Heavies with another Light, Heavy or Shield Bash Mix-up, while Shield Bahs Mix-up can be followed with Light or Heavy chains.
* Full Block Stance Changes:
	+ Can now initiate Flail Uppercut upon successfully blocking a move with Full Block Stance.
	+ Can no longer can Shield Bash Riposte, Dodge, or basic Attack during Full Block Stance or when attempting to exit the Stance.
	+ Can smoothly transition from Full Block Stance into Zone Attack.
	+ As noted above, Full Block Stance now has Superior Block properties (was regular).
	+ Stamina model changed.
* Shield Bash and Shield Bash Mix-up now does not guarantee a Heavy nor does it drain as much stamina from the target. It also has less horizontal hit boxes. In trade, it has slightly better tracking.
* Charging Shield Crush now has a longer recovery, no longer forces Conqueror out of lock, and more. These changes allow the target to be up to block Conqueror's next attack, but to also prevent Conqueror from attacking the target while they have get up armor (this allowed targets to perform an uncounterable Guardbreak on Conqueror).
* Zone Attack now starts up instantly (no gap in defenses), can be parried on later hits, and won't be interrupted if he blocks a minion's strike.

To see a more detailed outline of the update, check this page on the For Honor official website.

### Berserker

We find that often Berserkers have a very hard time opening an opponent who decided they will only block everything (and Counter Guard Break when necessary). Even when the Berserker hits, the next hit in the chain is not so fast that it cannot be blocked/parried with confidence by the opponent.

Berserkers were built to be offensive characters. Meant to strike and feint constantly and trade hits with the Uninterruptible Stance to continue the aggression. We want to keep this intention, but also make Berserker effective against players who are currently shutting them down with strong defensive play.
We also want to retain the difference in play-style between Berserker and Shaman – while Shaman has Cancels, Bleeds, and Melees which all create a very staccato tempo with lots of stops and starts, we want Berserker to rely on Uninterruptible Stance and Speed to create a fast and unrelenting tempo.

* Light and Heavy Openers:
	+ Light and Heavy Openers now possess Uninterruptible Stance if they are used immediately after a feint.
	+ Light Openers also are 100ms faster if used after a feint.
	+ Light Openers deal slightly less damage.
* Heavy Finishers:
	+ 3rd Side Heavy Finisher is now Unblockable and deals more damage.
	+ 2nd Top Heavy Finisher is now Unblockable and deals less damage.
* Dance of the Paired Blades:
	+ Infinite Light attacks from 2nd strike onward are slightly faster and deal more damage.
	+ Infinite Heavy attacks from 2nd strike onward now deal more damage.
* Bear Mauler's 2nd Heavy Attack now deals more damage.
* Head Slicer's Uninterruptible Stance starts earlier to make it easier for Berserker to trade with it.
* Deflect now does not automatically chain into Brute Force, requiring a Guardbreak input upon deflecting an attack.
* Zone Attack and Slashing Rush:
	+ Zone Attack now has better forward momentum.
	+ Parried Zone Attack and Slashing Rush now uses the shorter Heavy Parried reaction.
	+ Slashing Rush cannot execute anymore, on top of now following normal Stamina rules for Zones (high cost, but no penalty for being blocked, missed or parried).
* Head Rusher now does not cause Berserker to hesitate if the target dodges backwards, and will cause Berserker to leap when closer to their target than before. This is to prevent whiffs and vulnerability
* Out of Lock Attacks now have Uninterruptible Stance and Unblockable properties to match the functionality of the Locked attacks.
* Throws now do not deal damage, and their stamina damage has been standardized.
* Removed an ability to counter-attack early after blocking a light. Now Berserker must wait for the end of the Block Stun before attacking, like every other character.
* Dodge Cancels:
	+ Removed Dodge cancel from Light Attack Opener strikes.
	+ Removed Dodge cancel from Heavy Attacks starting from the 2nd in Dance of the Paired Blades.
	+ Gave Light Opener's miss recoveries the ability to branch to Zone Attack (as other miss recoveries already have).

To see a more detailed outline of the update, check this page on the For Honor official website.

### Highlander

Improvements have been made to make Highlander less Stamina exhaustive, be able to initiate fights more safely and catch opponents more often when they try to dodge or escape.

* Celtic Curse:
	+ The Top Strike can now be Cancelled into Fast Flow to Top Offensive Form, by holding the Heavy Input Button - shows the pink flash of entry into Offensive Form.
	+ Slightly increased rotation of Top Strike to better track sprinting opponents.
	+ Improved ability to acquire targets that are sprinting at the Highlander.
	+ “Celtic Curse” can now switch targets when cancelling to the side attacks.
* Stamina changes to allow Highlander to sustain his Offense without becoming exhausted too easily:
	+ Removed the stamina cooldown for entering Offensive Form.
	+ Can now regenerate stamina while dodging in Offensive Form.
	+ Reduced stamina cost of Balor's Might.
* General increase in all Heavy Attacks to play to Highlander's gameplay fantasy of hitting hard with each strike.
* Uninterruptible Stance is now applied to Defensive Form's 2nd Lights, starting at 100ms.
* Better tracking and forward momentum on Caber Toss to catch dodging opponents better.
* Small forward momentum increase on Offensive Form's forward Dodge.

### Nobushi

Changes have been made to make Nobushi a better experience to both fight as and against. As Nobushi, your attacks are slightly faster and flow in combos better. Against Nobushi, you don't receive as much punishing damage and can punish Nobushi better when she messes up.

* Reduced damage on Zone Attack for Hidden Stance Light Attacks.
* Kick:
	+ Earlier start-up and updated trajectory.
	+ Branching from Heavy to Kick is slightly later.
	+ Reduced Invulnerability window to Guardbreaks.
	+ Does not consume Stamina on hit anymore.
* Side Light Finisher and Hidden Stance Top Light are slightly faster.
* Swift Recoil can now connect to the Viper’s Retreat.
* Sprint Attacks:
	+ Sprint Light no longer causes the opponent to be knocked off ledges.
	+ Sprint Heavy now causes the opponent to be knocked off ledges.
* Removed the ability to cancel Sidewinder Form recoveries with a back dodge. Can only be cancelled with a Front or Side Dodge.

## Other Improvements

### Hero Changes

A few changes have been made for Shaman, making her less frustrating to fight with. Her Predator's Hunger has less knockback and her left Throw now does not unbalance foes who enter Exhaustion (will unbalance if the foe was already in Exhaustion).

Orochi has also received some damage changes in response to the below Parry changes. His Top Light now deals less damage, but in trade, his Deflect attacks are more lethal.

### General Gameplay

#### Parry

Changes to the Parry mechanic have been made to make it a better experience, both in regards to its interaction with Guardbreaks and for specific Heroes.

Heroes who are guardbroken while in Parry reaction, and those Guardbroken after having been Parried, can now Counter Guardbreak. The inability to Counter Guardbreak slowed the game down. This was especially made worse when Parrying an attacking guaranteed a Guardbreak, because the punish outweighed the damage output the Parried foe attempted to initiate. Now, while other moves are still guaranteed when Parried, they won't outweigh the Parried foe's attempted damage output.

Heroes who had some changes to their parry interactions to be streamlined with other Heroes are the following: Berserker, Highlander, Lawbringer, Orochi, Shinobi, and Shugoki.

#### Balancing

Skill-based team balancing is now live! After matchmaking, there will be a new balancing phase added before players join a lobby, with teams being balanced towards the best composition through the players' skill rating. Skill rating does not take into account renown. This also only affects new game sessions; joining a game in progress or the end lobby will not go through the team balancing phase.

Skirmish also now uses the Pulse Respawn mechanic, where all dead Heroes will respawn simultaneously every 10 seconds. This should help teams regroup after losing a team fight, making for a fairer match. To supplement this change, executions will not inflict a respawn duration penalty, but instead reward the executioner more hard points the longer the execution is. This as a result will also make matches shorter and more intense.

#### Special Orders Rule Changes

Community orders rewards will only be given to players participating towards the order’s goal upon completion. Participation requires players to take part in the goal; simply logging in or playing matches that will not contribute to the goal will not reward players. Partaking in the activities before the order starts or after the completion of the goal will also not reward players.

This should hopefully let players be more active in partaking in the Community orders instead of reaping the rewards passively.

### Faction War

Strategic Territories have been added to the Faction War map. Strategic Territories are selected faction war territories that give a bonus to the Faction that controls them. The bonus given by the territory depends on its type, and have different visual models on the map to display distinctions:

* Mill: Represented by a Windmill, each Mill gives a **5% bonus on the base XP** at the end of matches. Base XP includes XP from Hero Actions, Match Completion, and XP Bonus if there’s any.
* Forge: Represented by a Forgery, each Forge increases the **Loot Rate of gear by 7%** at the end of matches.
* Castle: Represented by a Faction-Themed Castle, Castle Territories have a different bonus than the other two where the number of troops deployed increases by 10% if applied to a Castle Territory. Castle Territories are individual, and controlling more than one will not increase their individual bonuses. The bonus only applies to manually placed Troops, so Troops assigned by War Banner or by hand between matches.

Each faction has a set number of Strategic Territories, and when the borders reset every Campaign, each will always start with 2 Mills, 1 Forge and 1 Castle. These territories will not change position or types. Conquering an enemy Strategic Territory during the season will transfer access to the Bonus to the new controlling Faction.

The Capital Territory has now been reduced to one, with the rest becoming normal Territories. Capital Territories cannot be taken by other factions.

*We want to give a new level of strategy to the Faction War by adding Strategic Territories. They give concrete mid and long-term objectives, as well as rewards to player’s participation during the Campaign.*

*Following the addition of these strategic territories, we reverted the capital territories gained with Faction War Season victories to make sure the map stays balanced and fair.*

### Others

Other items have been featured, as listed below:

* User Interface: Player Menu Experience has been improved.
	+ Players are now able to equip a different effect to each execution and emote slot.
	+ Non-playable Heroes (locked Heroes) are now greyed out in the Heroes Grid to increase the visibility on which heroes can be picked in the current match.
	+ Player Reporting Dialog has been improved to help report toxic behavior better.
	+ Players can now access the Interactive scoreboard faster by using shortcuts.
* All Heroes have updated camera orientation control to provide a better control to the player.
* Orders are now refreshed within 5 minutes after the previous ones closing time or after playing a match.
* Updated Map Overviews for most Skirmish and Elimination to better represent the placements of the Boosts.
* Fixed a lot of Level of Detail issues across all maps
* Improvements to masks and facial rigs of Heroes.
* And more...!!

## Gallery

### Videos

For Honor- Season 5 Age of Wolves - Dedicated Servers, Hero Updates, New Mode - Ubisoft -US-For Honor- Season 5 - Apollyon's Legacy Event - Trailer - Ubisoft -US-For Honor- Season 5 - Age of Wolves Teaser - Trailer - Ubisoft -NA-