Certified MM warrior and resident no skill exploit abuser is back in studio cooking up the worst posts imaginable. If you don’t remember or know me from my previous posts. I'm wispfam1, I created and documented the HL tech list while discovering much of what’s on it. you can find it in my post history or searching on the comp subreddit. Now that you understand my qualifications, I’m gonna throw in my ideal HL rework. One that’s trying to fix the current problems with the rework, solve accessibility issues with him being too hard to play, solve his viability issues(because he sucks), and maintain his character identity.
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Before I get started I do want to say this
My time in this game has unfortunately come to an end. I was a long time player, started in middle school, and kept playing all the way into college. I always pushed for the games competitive future and health. I deeply enjoyed HL and did my best to spread information and support people in their attempts to learn about him. The community that once supported him is essentially dead now, and with the recent light changes I’ve finally made the hard decision to move on from the game indefinitely as well. At least until the character receives a significant design change. I cannot express how much I love this game, and how much it pains me to say that I’m done. The tech list will also be paused indefinitely with it. So rejoice exploit haters! I know knight_is_right is happy about that. Either way I’m pretty sure the well is dry, so until something changes, new tech or changes to tech will likely not happen.
Now on with the rework!
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Playstyle
Highlanders kit is based around spacing focused zoning, and intense fast paced pressure from light attacks and heavy’s. An often overlooked core part of his balance is that DF stance is bad but necessary, and that OF stance is very strong but difficult to reach. I intend to better restructure his kit around these concepts.
DF stance changes
Almost all of the DF stance changes were good things for the character. in general they made it all much easier and intuitive to use. It also genuinely helps in team modes. But unfortunately what we wanted to be openers turned out to be more just quality of life features. It leaves him with a bottom 3 neutral in the entire game. Arguably bottom 1. Especially at a higher level.
1. Back light with no CC
Highlander is fundamentally a zoner. It was a part of even his first implementation. The backlight was problematic because of the CC mechanic attached to it. But many characters have backlights that give significant distance with no design problems. The issue was the CC, not the movement. By re adding backlight and striping CC from it, you re-add a tool that flows extremely well with his kit, without including what made it problematic. You can implement this either like nobushi, with a unique back light. Or by stripping the CC property entirely, which would suck, but it would also make his light attacks and heavy’s harder to differentiate at top level. Which is an issue he suffers from.
2. Forward dodge light
Make it 600ms, deal about 12 dmg, and maybe give it CC for a bit of fun. This is a healthier roll catcher than the forward dodge grab. It also gives him real functional peel for team fights. Something he lacks and also deeply holds him back in team modes. Because while he's playable in teams now, due to limitations in his kit he’s out classed by better picks. With this he has a much more well rounded kit, meaning his specialists can start to better break out into the 2v2 and 4v4 format as wild cards and rouge characters.
OF stance changes
This is where the rework mostly showed its flaws, I intend to bring it closer to its pre rework state while modernizing it. OF was problematic because it was outdated, polarizing in its mechanics, and unsure of its exact identity. Much of that can simply be solved by dmg tweaks and the stamina changes. Some smaller changes are also in order to better focus his kit.
1. Lower unblockable heavy dmg
UB having high dmg is a big source of problems because it’s also a punish. Wavedash was unhealthy because heavy dealt way too much dmg. It’s much harder to justify using the 27 dmg DF heavy for punishes when it gives you worse offense, trading 1 point of dmg for better hit stun is a no brainer in every duel. By reducing the dmg somewhere between 21-24, you create more competing options for the player to choose. It also makes the wavedash kick inline with other dodge reads, like deflects.
2. Re add wavedash
Wave dash is not inherently problematic. It’s skill and knowledge based while not completely warping the format and game around it. It massively improves the feel of his kit, and it truly is one of the most important things to the character's player base. It’s particularly important to his identity as a spacing focused zoner, much like how JJ needs extended dodge attacks and a hidden stance. With the dmg brought inline you can much more justify its inclusion. It goes without saying that the dodge attack in OF stance should be removed as well. In a vacuum that dodge attack is quite strong, in practice it's annoying due to its huge hitbox and I frames while serving very little overall use to his kit. I assume it was implemented to be used in team fights or as a punish tool? But being in OF during a team fight is way too risky, and one strong dodge attack doesn’t make up for it. And I just never really found myself using the dodge attack in duels. Maybe that’s a skill issue? But the moments you might want to use it in are very specific, you're better off fishing for interrupts with heavy and kick instead of dodging these days. So, it’s just kind of a nothingburger most of the time, especially since with the goofy pseudo wave dash techs we have now, you can often get away with going for a dodge kick for more dmg anyway.
3. Get rid of forward dodge grab
It’s an unhealthy mechanic. Not only is it an annoying oppressive reaction check at lower levels. Not only is it a needlessly stronger gank tool than regular grab. It’s also just bad at its job of being a roll catcher. Sure it catches the rolls, but it’s trapped inside OF stance. For the dodge grab to work you need to feint back into offensive stance and dodge forward. Most of time when you feint you use and react to things in DF stance like every other char. Which means even attempting to punish a roll with it is a hard read. Putting the role catcher onto DF really helps solve the problem. Pro tip to beat HLs, just dodge roll away from them like you used to. If you play smart and don’t spam it, you just have a get out of jail free card from his kick mixups whenever you want.
4. The feintable kick problem
I’m really not sure how to deal with this. I’ve mulled it over for a while and I don’t have a satisfactory answer. Kick as a viable mixup is unhealthy. The same goes for his heavy’s. HL is bound by the fact that any wrong read doesn’t just lead to you taking dmg, it also always leads you back into DF stance. Where the character is purposefully underpowered, and often times even after getting back into OF you then have to play OFs neutral game to reopen your offense. That means that any incorrect guesses on HL lead to a very losing position. Which means he cant play it safe, safe options leave him in a terrible neutral, or otherwise unable to continue his offense. For kick and unblockable to be viable offense on their own, they need to be so strong that they can nuke you in a couple right guesses. Despite the fact that HLs kick is a 26 dmg stamina efficient vortex, you would need to give HL even more dmg for it to be viable in his current design space. With significant dmg nerfs like OF heavy dropping down to 21 or 22 dmg, it might be okay in his overall balance with my changes. But personally I would rather see OF heavy have slightly higher dmg, and have the kick feint removed. With unblockables becoming viable offense with parry window changes, the role kick intended to fill can now be filled by his unblockables, which already focus on that hard reading aspect better with his kick and grab soft feints. That way we can better keep his identity as a hard hitter on read. But a part of me does enjoy the kick feint, it’s also loved and was a long time request by many players. So in some ways I’d be sad to see it go.
5. Fix OF lights
HL lights are what greases the wheels of the character. They function as a pressure based offense, where you trap the opponent in a situation where they need to take a risk to escape. That style is common in other fighting games, and different from the typical mixups FH has to offer. But I agree that they were too oppressive in their implementation. My suggestion would be to re add the enhanced mechanics, lower the dmg down to 6, but raise the chip dmg to 4 or even 5 to make it better fit its role. You could even consider a small raise to the stamina cost, although I highly doubt that will be needed with the lower dmg numbers.
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I really want to see my community thrive again. I also think this would be a much healthier way to balance him in general. For Honor objectively has problems with player retention. We bring new players in all the time. I often see them asking for advice or wanting tips on how to improve, and that warms my heart. But we struggle to keep older players as the game changes around them. The game's player count and viewership numbers have stagnated since launch (viewership I think has actually fallen recently). Hopefully if something like this change happens we can start to have a future where some of the games' more out of the box ideas can be better explored. And old design spaces we’ve now closed off can be revisited in our current game with a team more ready to tackle them. That way old players like me won’t feel alienated as the game continues to changes around them, and new players can experience the game in a much healthier space than it was many years ago.
That’s it. Tell me what you think in the comments of the idea, I’d love to engage with people one last time before I move on. I love you all, even the people I argue with. We all just want what’s best for the game, and I want everyone who I might’ve given trouble in this community to understand that I respect you and your opinion. And that I only argue with you because I enjoy doing it. It’s like enrichment for me.
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I’m available for contact in the Highlander tavern discord, and through this Reddit account if you have any tech or question you would like to show me or ask.
If you would like to be bullied by me in MM again, you can find me onetricking Doomfist in Overwatch PC comp.
Enjoy your summer, enjoy for honor, and enjoy Highlander! Do it for my sake and everyone else who’s had to reluctantly move on from the game for one reason or another. Cherish your time and to quote my favorite movie.
In case I don’t see you again
Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.