Year of the Harbinger: Season 4, named "Sun Da," is the twelth season of the ongoing Faction War. This season offers a single hero from the Wu Lin faction, along with a handful of Hero improvements.
After a massive sandstorm wrecked most of the Wu Lin territories, many fled west and sought refuge in Heathmoor, while others stayed behind with the Emperor to rebuild an army. Among them, Sun Da, leader of the Zhanhu, found new ways to use fire in his laboratory at Qiang Pass. As he tried to increase the Wu Lin arsenal, an unexpected enemy got wind of his discoveries and attacked the fortress...
Features[]
Heroes[]
Heroes Changes[]
Maps[]
Updates[]
Hero Updates[]
With the launch of Year 3 Season 4, Heroes have received some changes to their moveset, most especially for two Heroes (Raider and Hitokiri) who have been a cause for much frustration. These changes will not only refresh the experience for each Hero but aims to better the overall balance of the game.
New Cosmetics[]
With every season comes new cosmetics. Each faction has received their own new set of weapon visuals, together with a new pure white material for all Heroes. Show off this new look to your opponents! In Arcade, there is a new visual, "Seer of Rays"!
Spectator Mode - Beta[]
Spectator Mode had been launched in the middle of Season 11, and has received some further changes/improvements in its beta phase.
- Breach matches can now be spectated
- Player selection has been improved, both for controllers and keyboard + mouse
- Stance Indicator is now visible when in Player Camera
- Matches now start in Tactical Camera
- Spectators can watch the same player between rounds of Duel, instead of going back to the default one every round
- Player outlines are hidden when User Interface is hidden
- Player information panels have been increased in size (when in spectator mode only)
Others[]
Players will be able to unlock materials and embossing with steel, as is the case with feats. In addition, there will be a new white color material unlockable only by steel. Previous materials and embossings will remain unlockable through regular progression. The goal of this change is to enable players to accelerate their progression for more customization options for a new hero. The steel values for unlocking the items will reflect the time it takes to unlock through regular progression, while the white material will cost as much as the highest tier material at 10000 steel.
All Buffs and Debuffs in the game will now prioritize the highest or strongest value. This also means that buffs from different sources will not stack, properly choosing the higher value. Buffs and Debuffs bonuses (separate from general Buffs and Debuffs) will stack and the value chosen will be the resulting addition of the values.
Shard & Harbor have received adjustments to the map layout to make PvP modes fairer to fight on. This includes removing certain hazards (fire traps, pitfalls and spikes) from Capture Zones, while moving the Brawl location on Shard to be fully on the Main Lane than being separated.
Some feats have been nerfed as their effects proved to be very powerful. Heal on Block now does not heal by blocking minions, preventing Heroes (most notably Conqueror) from being hard to remove from the minion lane. Morale Booster and Battlecry, as feats that affect map-wide and are able to turn the tide of battle with a button-press, have had their values decreased. Scout and, consequently, Marked for Death have had their values decreased for similar reasons as Morale Booster and Battlecry. In trade, Scout rewards more Renown reward.
Midseason Changes[]
During the midseason change, couple of improvements were initiated.
- The map River Fort received Dominion changes so that there are less hazards, together with making Point C a better point to fight on for either team.
- War Banner in Breach now greys out when on cooldown, compared to before where it did not change shades even when on cooldown.
- Matchmaking changes to allocate more accurately players to servers for the best experience.
- A number of bug fixes for Heroes, Maps and more.
Trivia[]
- For Honor's lead writer, Elise Trinh, confirms during the Season 12 Reveal Livestream that, while the new Heroes continue to have names applied to the Heroes, players still play as classes, not set-characters. When playing a Zhanhu, players are not playing as Sun Da and Fu Huo, but as Zhanhu warriors who can take up a similar look.
- On the Season 12 Reveal Livestream, she explained: "the narrative in this game is meant to inspire people, we are not forcing any kind of specific identity... the players in the game will play as a Zhanhu; then they can decide [their backstory/identity]."
- This method of world-building is called semi-fixed characterization, where classes have roles in the game's universe (hence them being classes), but their stories and identities are the player's to create. This is regarded as typically the most immersive form of world-building.
- On the Season 12 Reveal Livestream, she explained: "the narrative in this game is meant to inspire people, we are not forcing any kind of specific identity... the players in the game will play as a Zhanhu; then they can decide [their backstory/identity]."
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Videos[]
