Year Of The Harbinger Season 3

## Hulda

**Year of the Harbinger: Season 3**, named "Hulda," is the eleventh season of the ongoing Faction War. This season offered a single hero from the Viking faction, along with three Hero improvements/reworks.

The darkest cults always creep back to the surface in times of despair and self-doubt. As the Knights marched on Valkenheim and conquered most of the North, the Vikings began to lose hope and turned to the Jormungandr for help. The Viking sectarians began to spread their ominous beliefs and crushed the weak in the name of their god, the Great Serpent. The legendary Hulda rose as a new leader among the Northerners and fought the bloodiest battles in Viking history to reclaim Valkenheim.

## Features

### Heroes Changes

* Orochi
* Nobushi
* Shinobi
* Notable Hero Touch-ups:
	+ Peacekeeper
	+ Valkyrie
	+ Kensei
	+ Tiandi

## Updates

### Major Hero Updates

With the launch of Year 3 Season 3, Heroes received some changes to their moveset, most especially three Heroes from the Samurai faction (Orochi, Nobushi, Shinobi). These changes not only refreshed the experience for each Hero but aimed to better the overall balance of the game.

### New Cosmetics

With every season comes new cosmetics. Each faction received their own new set of weapon visuals, together with a faction-based battle emote, allowing you to compliment your opponent. "Macte Virtute" (lit. "Blessings to you") for the Knights; "Ageatavel" (Ágeatavel; lit. "Excellent") for the Vikings; "Subarashi" (素晴らしい; *subarashii*; lit. "Amazing") for the Samurai; "Zuode Hao" (做得好; *Zuòdé hǎo*; lit. "Well done") for the Wu Lin.

### Escape Standardization

The Escape Standardization changes the following 3 major things:

1. Opponents can no longer Roll away from many mix-ups without being vulnerable to Feint into Guard Break. This is done by making dodging more vulnerable, rolling harder to perform and guardbreak easier to perform after a feint. In trade, Counter Guardbreaking now has a 300ms window from 200ms.
2. Unlocking to escape combat is a bit slower and more dangerous than before. Unlocking has a longer delay, whereas Locking no longer has defensive properties. Locking also reduces movement to 0, although momentum will still affect the Hero. This makes the act of rolling or unlocking a very dedicated action.
3. Opponents can no longer back strafe away faster than you can strafe forward. Back strafing for all Heroes will no longer be faster than any Heroes forward strafe by having back strafing be no faster than 5 units (1.25m/s) and forward strafing be no slower than 6 units (1.5m/s); if a Hero had a slower back strafe and/or faster forward strafe, they were not affected. This also does not affect side strafing speed.

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, especially when a match-up is between faster Heroes vs slower Heroes. 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.

### Others

"The Sanctuary - Competitive": A new high-octane map was created strictly for Ranked Duels, and is the only map available for that mode. The purpose of the map is to encourage fight interaction between players without relying on environmental hazards or disengage tactics. All duel maps are still available in Custom Matches and non-Ranked modes.

Feats deemed to be too strong have been nerfed. Inspire and Second Wind now have longer cooldowns, whereas Tough As Nails grants less total health and Body Count rewards less health and stamina.

Zones on Overwatch have seen changes. Zone C's trapdoors now do not open up, with exceptions being the outer most trapdoors, which will only open when Sudden Death is triggered in either Dominion or Skirmish. Ladders have also been added near Zone A to make it more accessible from Zone B, as players were forced to head away from Zone A and onto the bridges to access the Zone. Also, all Arena maps now have more diversified environments and weather with the help of 6 new added contexts.

Changes have been made for Customization and its menu. Items in the "View Progression" page are now displayed on the 3D Hero. The team overseeing Customization are revised rules and regulations for Colour swatches, allowing more Neutral swatches to apply to either Attacker or Defender. Player Expression for Berserker cosmetics, along with select Female Hitokiri cosemetics have been revised.

## Midseason Changes

During the midseason changes, a number of improvements were initiated.

* Heroes received minor reworks, two of them based on feedback from the Testing Grounds.
	+ Peacekeeper now has Enhanced Lights on Bleeding Targets, together with better recoveries.
	+ Gladiator has had his Reflex Guard duration and Light Attack speeds standardized, together with an improved Fuscina Ictus (Toe Stab), Skewer and movement speed all to improve his ability to catch enemies.
	+ Warlord now has Enhanced Lights, together with his Heavy Finishers having standardized Hyper Armor (400ms before impact).
* The map High Fort has had some ledges blocked on Capture Zones to reduce frustration of dueling with enemies at the entry points of the Zones. Spikes on Zone C were also removed.
* Colour Swatches have been mixed around to give more Attacker/Defender Colours for use.
* A number of bug fixes for Heroes, Maps and more.