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incorrectly-quoted-queers · 5 years

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Wicked Surprises

Merribela Week, Day 1: Cards

fandom: Dragon Age rating: PG-13 characters: Merrill x Isabela words: 2.3k additional tags: Wicked Grace, flirty, first attraction description: Varric brings Merrill along to Wicked Grace, but after Varric leaves things get a little steamy between Isabela and the sweetest elf she’d never thought she’d have the hots for

For all the clever airs he put on, Isabela was always amused by how Varric ended up in a duel to the death against her during the final rounds of Wicked Grace. And he’d always start furrowing his brows a few hands in, because he’d go in so sure he could beat her. She knew well enough to let him win a few rounds, get his hopes up, just to destroy him when his self-confidence turned into unfounded arrogance.

They were just hitting the tipping point, about five games in. He put too much money in this time after a streak of wins. And even though his mouth acted in control, it was always his eyebrows that gave it away. Isabela smirked. Everything was going according to plan.

Well, at least when it came to Varric and Hawke. She’d scared the sassy mage under the table two rounds ago and the dwarf was hitting his tipping point. But there was an unexpected element in the game tonight.

At the end of the table, only inches from her, was a chipper little elf with gorgeous, bright green eyes, her feet crossed dainty under her chair. Merrill was sitting there smiling at her cards like they were candy. Most of the time, she figured the ex-Dalish was too saccharine for her tastes. However, tonight there was this mischievous little grin on her face each time somebody dropped out.

Isabela couldn’t tell if she just had good cards and didn’t know how to lie, or was pulling off the most manipulative, yet wholesome looking heist she’d ever seen.

Taking her eyes off the most interesting character at the table, Isabela leaned back in her chair and nodded at her dwarven buddy, his eyebrows looking so tense they could fly right off. She asked, “Going to do anything with your turn, Varric?”

After a few flitting glances between his cards and Isabela, he grumbled and threw his cards down. “Dammit, I’m out.” Even though he was glaring and crossing his arms, Isabela felt so much electric satisfaction. It sizzled under her skin. If she wasn’t such a good pirate, she might have made one hell of a gambler.

Merrill pouted next to him. Bemused, Isabela wanted to see what she was up to. A cute pout like that had to be deliberate. Batting her eyelashes at Varric, Merrill said, “That’s no fun.” Isabela was caught off guard when those sparkly eyes looked straight at her. “Guess that just leaves me and Isabela, right?Or are you quitting, too?”

Running her tongue behind her teeth, Isabela shook her head. Not so easy, baby doll. Not that she minded seeing this new side of Merrill. “Don’t think your cute smile’s about to scare me away.”

“You think my smile’s cute?”

Isabela wasn’t used to finding herself caught off guard more than once in a conversation. She also didn’t know how to respond to Merrill’s eyes sparkling extra while looking at her and talking about smiles. But whatever the elf’s ploy was, she wasn’t going to get in her head. “Not the point.” Isabela gestured to the finished game in front of them and said, “Time to show your hand, better hope it’s a good one.”

“I dunno, but I think I did okay for myself.” And then with that helpless, adorable grin Merrill flipped her cards to show the best hand Isabela had ever seen in this seedy bar. Guess the dark haired elf with had more surprises than she expected in her tiny little hands.

“Well, well, can say I didn’t expect that.” Isabela showed her own abysmal hand and felt her entire body liven up with interest. There wasn’t much about this world that surprised her anymore, more like unfortunate possibilities that she hadn’t counted on happening.

But a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, was something she didn’t want to let go of so easy. Giving Merrill a once over, she said, “I have to see if you can make lightning strike twice. You in, Varric?”

“Nah, Hawke’s already weeping under the table because he lost so I’ll get his ass home.” After standing and dragging up the drunk Hawke with him, Varric gave Isabela a pointed look. “Take care of Daisy, will ya?”

Merrill didn’t look too happy about that, though she couldn’t tell if it was out of annoyance or guilt. “She doesn’t have to--”

“My pleasure.”

Varric seemed pleased with that and lef Hawke out of The Hanged Man, managing to miss other handsy drunk patrons along the way. They both waved the two off and watched the door open and close behind them.

But the second Varric’s orange head was out of the way, Merrill was looking at her again with pinched lips and a wrinkled forehead. “I can take care of myself.”

It made Isabela laugh, how tightly wound Merrill looked. That was more like what she expected. However, Isabela was a little too intrigued to let the elf get all awkward and tense again. She wanted to see what else was underneath. The few glimpses already made her way too interested to let the more salacious side of Merrill slip away. But she did admit, “Sure you can. I’ve seen you in a fight. I’m just making the grumpy dwarf feel better.”

“Oh. Thank you, then.”

Isabela raised an eyebrow, flicked a card with her fingers, and egged Merrill on, saying, “So are you actually good at this game or was that just a lucky draw?”

“What? Think I can’t have beaten you on wits alone?”

Chuckling, Isabela leaned on the table and bit her lip. “No offense, but I doubt it.”

“I take offense to that, but I’ll let it go. Not your fault I have a “cute smile””

Of all things, teasing wasn’t what Isabela expected. This night was only getting better and better. She even was starting to wonder what other surprises those cute, pink lips of Merrill’s had for her.

Maybe this night would get even more interesting than she ever expected.

“Is that all you’re going to talk about now, the fact I said you have a cute smile?”

“When you normally tell people they have nice arse or tits? I take it as a uniquely rare compliment.”

Isabela bristled. She didn’t like that as much as the rest of this conversation. She cut her eyes at Merrill. “There’s nothing wrong with me enjoying company in my bed.”

Shaking her hands in front of her innocently, Merrill looked startled.“That’s not what I meant at all.” Then she looked down at her hands, this little blush covering her cheeks, and said, “I meant it’s nice to hear you say you like my smile.”

While most things about tonight were a delicious mystery, Isabela knew that kind of smile and it made her fingertips tingle. Little miss flower might just have a crush on her. Things just got so, so much more interesting. Especially when said woman wasn’t bad to look at. Good company, too, albeit like a sugar rush sometimes.

In her element, Isabela brushed her foot against Merrill’s. Her posture shot straight up and the blush got a little more noticeable. “If I didn’t know any better, Merrill, I’d say you were flirting.”

“M-maybe it’s all a part of my grand scheme to beat you at cards.”

Winking, Isabela said, “You starting this kind of game with me, flower? I will win every time.”

“Will you? How so?”

Merrill was just making this easier and easier for her, huh? Well, either she was going to scare the elf off or get a much more evening than she bargained for. Whether it was some squirming or screaming, Isabela was open to either option. She twirled a lock of her hair with her finger. “With someone like you? All I have to do is have a drifting hand or to talk about what my tongue can do under your dress, and you’re done. I’ll have won.”

Even though Merrill’s cheeks flared, she swallowed and didn’t flinch. Impressive. “Well you aren’t winning right now.” The little elf, exhaled, slow. Isabela watched the way her chest fell. Even though she was petite, she had to admit her body had to be beautiful under her green tunic. She did wonder how soft her skin that didn’t touch routine battle might be.

But as Isabela was getting far too distracted about all the possibilities of tonight, even though she was pretty sure they’d never happen, Merrill tipped her finished hand and raised an eyebrow at Isabela. Another great damn hand. Merrill's eyes were practically gleaming when she winked at her. “So what do you want to do next?”

Okay, she had to admit that was a little hot. Her throat was a lot dryer than she remembered.

Showing her own cards, she had to accept she got her ass handed to her. Again. “How--”

“A winner never tells their secrets.” Merrill’s cute smile was starting to have less than a wholesome effect on Isabela. She was fantasizing about what she had to do to get Merrill’s intentions to turn a little more than friendly. Cleavage and some mild flirting normally worked, but they were already past that point. “

Across from her, Merrill asked, Another?”

“I’m out of spare coin, I’m afraid.” Isabela couldn’t get the idea of that green tunic on her bedroom floor out of her head, though. It was time to put the ball in Merrill’s court, try to feel out where her head was at. After all, this wasn’t just some drunken, hot girl that she could make fall in love with her for a night. This was sort of her co-worker. She had to be a little more delicate with it. Raising an eyebrow, Isabela said,“But we can always wager more interesting things.”

“Like what?”

“Each failed round, loser drops a piece of clothing?”

Merrill's red cheeks were really starting to do it for Isabela, and it was getting really distracting. She replied, a little overwhelmed.“Not in the middle of the bar!”

Isabela accepted the loss. This idea of her and Merrill wasn’t a real practical one. This was probably just a rare night that’d never happen again. Chocking it up to fun flirting that she’d have to work out of her system on some cute rando later, Isabel conceded, “Well then--”

“W-What if we went to your room?”

Her lips fell into an easy smile that warmed up her whole body. But Merrill just kept on surprising her, didn’t she?

Cocking her head towards her back room, she collected the cards and brushed her fingers against Merrill’s. “Then I guess we have ourselves a game.”

When they got back to Isabela’s room, she was practically drunk on the thought of seeing how far her vallaslin really went. So drunk that Isabela lost a couple rounds way too fast. She had wriggled out of her boots and top less than half an hour later. Only upside was that the red-cheeked Merrill was having a hard time keeping her eyes off of Isabela’s, um, assets.

So much trouble that after losing way too many helpless rounds, Isabela finally won.

“Ha! Seems your winning streak just ended.”

When Merrill grabbed the edges of her shirt, though, her hands were shaking. No matter how much Isabela wanted to toss the elf on her bed and see how long it took to make her moan, it didn’t sit right with her, seeing her so uncomfortable. Before Merrill started pulling off anything, Isabela grabbed her hand and shook her head. “You know, you don’t have to--”

But Merrill took away her hand and peeled off the top like it offended her. “I’m not a child.”

“No, you’re not.” Isabela took a deep breath, seeing the pale, pristine skin underneath. She could see Merrill’s chest rise and fall under her crossed arms. With a soft hand, Isabela caressed her side. Though her face was still red and she looked so unsure, Merrill didn’t pull away.

Tucking a hand under her chin, Isabela pulled Merrill closer and said, “You’re beautiful, you know.”

“Funny, coming from the most beautiful woman in every room.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“Of course I do.” When Merrill’s eyes flicked down to Isabela’s chest, she covered her red face with her hands. “A-And I’m not just saying that because you don’t have a top on!”

“You’re adorable.” Letting go of her, Isabela held back her more powerful feelings about looking at Merrill and said, “But don’t start this game unless you’re serious about playing it through.”

“You dare ask that? I may be awkward and small and people don’t take me quite seriously. But I’m still a woman, Isabela.” She unfurled her arms and held her head high. “Don’t patronize me.”

With that, Isabela found her fingers on Merrill’s hips, pulling her in closer, whispering in her ear, “I’m not trying to patronize you. I’m trying to make sure you want this. Because I want you to end up in my bed because you can’t resist me, not because you weren’t sure how to tell me to stop.”

“Don’t.”

Isabela looked directly into those bright green eyes and waited for the delicious words she wanted to hear. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t stop.”

One gentle pull and Merrill’s body was pressed against hers, and she could feel the elf’s heartbeat against her own chest. It made it hard to keep teasing her, but it was so damn worth it. “And what would you like me to start doing, then?”

“Kiss me.” Hovering her lips over Merrill’s, Isabela chose to play the insatiable asshole. She wanted to see just how much she could make Merrill squirm.

“All you have to do is say you want me.”

Merrill pulled back her face and glowered. “Don’t make some sadistic joke out of my feelings--”

“I’m not.” Isabela got close again, running her hand up Merrill’s back, pulling at the smallclothes left on her body. “Tell me you want me.”

“I bloody want you. Happy now?”

And that was all she needed to hear before crashing her lips down onto hers.

What a surprising night, indeed. She wouldn’t mind letting Merrill surprise her more often.

#Merribela #Merribela week #Dragon Age 2 #Bioware Romances #merrill x isabela #Wicked Grace #Merrill #Isabela #Varric #Dragon Age fanfiction #fanfiction #Merribelaweek

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linerwriter · 5 years

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Primrose is useless (and here’s why)

*slight spoilers for Octopath Traveler and Persona 5*

In my 50 hour, several month long voyage through Octopath Traveler, I have learned a number of things about the game. I have learned that Alfyn, while sweet, has a vindictive street a mile wide. I have learned that Cyrus, though oblivious, is actually quite charming. And finally, I have learned that Primrose, as a fighter, is useless.

Now, before you come at me with flaming torches and pitchforks, shouting about You just don’t like her as a character!- her character has nothing to do with it. I like her story, in fact, I would say it’s one of the more unique stories in the game, which is saying something (besides Tressa’s. Hers is just... ugh). Wants to get revenge for her parent’s murders and her family’s fall from grace in the aristocracy? Sign me up. Her personality? Also a win. It’s sarcastic and flirty, just the type of thing to keep me going in a bar full of drunk men.

Her actual gameplay? Not so much.

I have a theory that when Square Enix was making the characters, Primrose’s story was one of the firsts. But then, when they got through everyone else, they were left with Primrose, and their creativity kinda ran out.

My protagonist (or the first person I played as) was Ophilia, and I slowly worked my way clockwise around our heroes. When I got to Primrose, I was thinking “This is the character that has knives and dark magic! That’ll be useful!” And then she didn’t end up that way.

See, Primrose, at first, is useful. She’s one of the few that starts out with a knife, and the only one that has dark magic naturally. Sounds pretty helpful, right? Well, uh, not quite. There’s another character who uses a knife- his name is Therion, and he is one of two Best Boys- and has a higher attack stat than her. Which, okay, that’s fine. Primrose seems to be more focused on magic, like Cyrus. Maybe her dark magic is powerful?

Wrong.

I don’t know what it is, but the elemental spells that only attack once are incredibly weak. Like ice is absolutely fine at dealing damage, but as soon as wind is played, it feels like you did 30 points of damage (dealt by a very high leveled character!) Dark magic, in particular, seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in that the spells just aren’t very powerful. Period. I’ll use them to break an enemy’s shield, and that’s pretty much it.

‘But if she uses such weak magic then why does she have such high SP?’ You may be asking. I’ll tell you, friend- it’s because she buffs others. Buffs, in itself, isn’t bad. In some cases, they can even be incredibly useful, like when you want to defeat an enemy quickly. But besides boss fights or impatience, I’ve never really used buff spells, and I rarely use them during boss fights

Finally, the big cherry on top- her ability. In case you don’t know, one of Octopath’s game mechanics is special talents the character uses during their story or regular gameplay. Such abilities include Olberic and H’annit’s challenge ability, Therion’s steal ability, and Ophilia and Primrose’s guide/seduce ability.

Abilities in Octopath are often used again, like with H’annit and Olberic. However, besides H’annit’s ability to challenge others to a duel, she can capture monsters to summon again later, differentiating herself from Olberic. Primrose doesn’t do that. Ophilia has the skill Guide, where she can talk to townspeople and summon them later in battle for help. Primrose’s skill, Allure, does the exact the same thing with no variation. See where I’m going with this?

With all four of these problems mixed together, my motivation to use this player is pretty low. If one of these things were by itself, it would’ve been fine. If she used knives but her dark magic was pretty good? Cool, I’ll use her. If she had the same ability as Ophilia but good at attack? Eh, I could ignore it. But it was the fact that everything she could do was done better by other characters was what really made me lose my incentive to use. To be honest, she kinda reminds me of Haru from Persona 5, with a few differences.

For one, I actually had a reason to use Haru. She’s the only one (besides Joker) that is able to use physic moves. For another, when I didn’t need to use her, she still earned EXP from battles. I wish Square Enix did what ATLUS did, where characters still earned EXP and leveled up even when they weren’t being used, but alas, they did not. Because of this fact, whenever I wasn’t using Primrose, the others’ levels would slowly creep higher and higher, up into the 40s, while poor, poor Primrose stayed at lvl. 20.

The thing with Octopath is that, despite having to juggle through and play 8 different characters, you can only have four party members with you at a time. This can lead to some characters being forgotten until you reach their story, or having to grind for several hours until everyone is at an acceptable level. This cycle of continually being forced to grind, play, forget with Primrose led to my motivation and reasoning to use her to become nonexistent. After all, who wants to use a character with skills and abilities that were already done better?

In short, Primrose, as a playable character, was unneeded. With her forgettable and, quite frankly, lazy abilities, need for grinding every chapter, and overall lack of motivation to use her, it is with no surprise that I think she is unhelpful.

I really want to use Primrose, honestly, I do! Her story seems really interesting (from the first two chapters I’ve played through) and her interactions with other characters during travel banter feel really genuine and fun. It’s just, with all of these things piling up against her, I can’t be bothered to use her as much as Cyrus or Therion. At the very least, I can say that she isn’t my least favorite character. That spot belongs to a certain merchant.

Thank you for listening to me rant about this. It’s been building up for a long time. It was kinda fun to write all this out, if I’m being honest. Maybe I should do it again for Tressa... welp, that’s something entirely different. See you next time if I do this again!

#octopath traveler #primrose azelhart #and her abilities #liner rants #although this is more an essay than a rant #bit of persona 5 in here

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berserker-official · 7 years

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For Honor 1.15 Patch

This is the big patch for Season 4. Here’s a link to the patch notes, if you don’t want to read them here, but I’ll put them under a line now.

Shaman

The Shaman fights like a wildcat on the battlefield. She uses a dagger and hatchet to stab and slash relentlessly, overwhelming their opponents. When she smells blood, she will pounce upon her prey and remorselessly deliver the deathblow.

Difficulty: Medium

Fighting style details:

Predatory combatant

Fast attacker

Special Capabilities:

Fast attacks let her strike at will

Short range stabs inflict Bleed

Becomes more deadly when the opponent is Bleeding

Aramusha

The Aramusha uses his blades for offense and defense. He can move very carefully or dodge very quickly on the battlefield. He capitalizes on the mistakes of his opponents to unleash a never-ending flow of fast attacks in every direction.

Difficulty: Hard

Fighting style details:

Counter Attacker

Fast attacker

Special Capabilities:

Infinite chains

Very good special block move

Very good dodges

New Maps

The Gauntlet

A pair of massive stone skulls stand as welcome or warning to those who seek to enter the Viking Fortress. Perched high on a hill, the Fortress is protected by a defensive gauntlet, built by seasoned warriors to stop attackers from reaching their most valued haven.

Few have ever made it in the Viking citadel, and none have made it out.

Available in all gamemodes except Tribute.

Market Town

Out of tranquil marshland rises a Samurai village, a densely populated maze of twisting alleys and unusual architecture. Here the people live in stilt houses above the water, and the landscape has necessitated a push skyward, creating multi-tiered neighborhoods at varying elevations.

Navigating the village is a significant challenge for visitors and invaders alike, but a system of ziplines is sure to expedite travel.

Available in all gamemodes except Dominion.

New Gamemode

Tribute

Two teams of four players fight for the favor of the gods. Each team must gather or steal offerings and bring them back to their shrines to unlock powerful blessings. The first team with three offerings (or the team with the most offerings at the end of the timer) wins.

Tribute is playable in Tower Ruin, Canyon, Shipyard, Cathedral, Cinder Mill, Forest, Viking Village and Market Town.

Improvements since Public Test

When the timer reaches 0:00 (during any phase of the match) the phase will not resolve until the latest interaction with a Shrine is completed or interrupted. The match carries on or finishes according to the result of that interaction.

Example: If the score is 3-0 for the blue team. Win confirm state starts. After 40s an orange players tries to steal an offering. Before he finishes, the timer ends. On Public Test, this meant a victory for the blue team. Now, if the orange player successfully steals the offering, the match exits the win confirm state and goes back to the regular timer with the score being 2-0.

This effect can be triggered with a steal AND/OR a secure.

Drop conditions when carrying an Offering have been refined, they should now be consistent throughout:

On PTS, moves and feats that controlled other players would not make the offering drop. They now do.

Being in revenge gives you the same immunity super armor gives you pertaining offering drop conditions

Renown gain has been rebalanced, players should unlock their 4th feat towards the end of the match if all teammates contributed equally to the game. It was too fast on the Public Test.

The damage boost from the “Vindicator’s Blessing” has been reduced to 20% (from 25%) and it does not affect feats anymore.

The shield from the Guardian’s Blessing now has accurate regen rules, it will fill back up to 25 health (same amount as Public Test) 9 seconds after the last attack received (blocked or successful). This timer resets every time the character is attacked. The shield can still regen while in combat.

Respawn rules have been improved to greatly reduce the chance of players respawning in front of an opponent.

New Features

New patching system

In order to significatively reduce the size of all future content updates, the team had to repackage parts of the game data in a more efficient manner. This is why this content update is bigger than our past season content updates. That one time increase only applies to players who currently have version 1.14.1 (our last patch).

Loading times

The optimization included in the new patching system is reducing the map loading times by more than 10% in most cases.

Anti-Run system

Players were quickly locking and unlocking when fleeing from enemies, allowing them to run forever without activating the debuff for dishonorable play. Though players could still reach them, it was too easy to simply dodge one attack every time they locked on and time-out the match. So we are slightly increasing the dishonor gauge incrementation to stop the bar from stagnating and allow the runner to receive the debuff as intended. This change has no effect in normal play.

Level 3 Bots

Level 3 bots should appear more often during matches based on the skill level of the players in the match.

Developer Comments: This change has been very popular during our last Public Test, so we decided to include this in the main game. The threshold, player Kill Death Ratio, at which Level 3 Bots appear has been reduced to provide a better challenge.

Fighters

Out of Stamina State

Light Attacks are uninterrupted while the opponent is Out of Stamina.

Developer Comments: This change allows players to be more aggressive against targets that are Out of Stamina. Since your lights are now uninterruptible by Block, they will chip, and the opponent’s only option to break your chain is to Parry.

Roll

Roll stamina cost increased to 50 (from 40).

Roll no longer has defense.

Developer Comments: We’re increasing roll stamina cost by 25% in order to make it riskier for players to spam Roll and escape. Roll still works as a strong escape tool, but if you spam it you’ll run out of stamina faster. We’ve removed defense for all characters too. It was inconsistent across characters and generally not coherent with the nature of the move.

Navigation

Navigation speed tweaks prevent characters from gaining speed while switching between locked and unlocked modes.

Developer Comments: This fix addresses the issue referred to as “shuffle”. You would lock/unlock rapidly to navigate faster than you would by simply strafing. This was caused by inconsistent speed data’s in our transitions between locked and unlocked modes, especially for slow characters. We’ve made those transition speeds consistent with the base navigation speeds of each character to prevent that from happening again.

Critical HP Regen Removed

Critical Health regeneration has been removed in all game modes.

Developer Comments: Critical HP regen encouraged stalling tactics and slowed down the pacing of the game, especially in Duel. We’re removing this from all PvP modes. It’s still available in Campagin though.

Sprint Attacks

Sprint Attacks can acquire target dynamically if they started without one.

Developer Comments: This is an improvement on our latest update to targeting in order to limit unlock tech. Some long-range sprint attacks could still be unlocked if you attacked out of the set range of the attack and a target would come in range after it started. Now sprint attacks can dynamically acquire a target if they started without one.

Dodge

Dodge and roll can now be used to avoid the effects of Traps and Bombs. Dodging these at the right time will allow the player to avoid all damages.

Developer comments: To provide better ways to avoid Traps and Bombs while in combat, we introduced the ability to dodge, as the explosion occurs, to avoid the damage. We hope that this will provide challenging situations during breaking!

Guardbreak

[Bug Fix] Resolved an issue causing Guardbreak not to connect when both heroes are fighting on certain stairs in “The Forge” and “The Sentinel” maps. This was previously planned to release with 1.14.1 but it could not make it in time, so it is released with 1.15.0.

Lawbringer

Top Heavy opener range increased to 4.7m (from 4.5m).

Top Heavy chain range increased to 3.75m (from 3.5m).

Top Heavy chain finisher increased to 4.75m (from 4.5m).

Developer comments: We’re updating the attack range of Lawbringer’s Top Heavy attacks in order to improve range perception. In some cases, it was hard to read if the attack hit or missed.

[Bug Fix] The Lawbringer could not performs his parry into “Make Away” if his opponent was Out of Stamina, instead of was performing the “Light Riposte”. It is now fixed.

Raider

[Bug Fix] When the Raider performed the grab in his Light Attack chain against Minions, he was knocked back (bumped) and he did not finish his animation. It is now fixed.

[Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that caused the parry to sometimes not play the animation.

Berserker

[Bug Fix] Execution "Punch Drunk" is now properly interrupted by external attacks. This allows a not-yet-executed opponent to be revived by their teammate.

[Bug Fix] The Berserker was sometime bumped back when killing Minions. Minions can stilll bump other Minions but this prevents a Berserker from being bumped by the very Minions he is killing.

[Bug Fix] Fixed the weapons of the female Berserker flying out of her hands when recovering from hits, blocks and stance changes.

Kensei

[Bug Fix] The Kensei can no longer activate Revenge during an Out Of Lock Roll.

[Bug Fix] The Kensei can no longer perform “Sprint Attacks” when Out of Stamina while “Iron Lungs” feat is active.

Developer Comments: “Iron Lungs” allows you to sprint while Out of Stamina but it should not allow you to “Sprint Attack” while Out of Stamina. This is now consistent with the other characters who have “Iron Lungs”.

Shugoki

[Bug Fix] The Shugoki “Zone Attack” can no longer hit a locked opponent behind him.

Nobushi

“Blissful Rest” feat was replaced with “Second Wind” on the Nobushi.

Developer Comments: We felt the feat was providing too much, between nerfing and replacing with Second Wind, the latter made more sense.

Shinobi

Guardbreak input buffer has been increased from Forward Dodge to make it more reliable.

Highlander

[Bug Fix] Fixed an issue that sometimes cause the parry to not play the animation.

[Bug Fix] The Highlander can no longer “Caber Toss” an enemy out of Shugoki's “Demon Embrace”.

Gladiator

[Bug Fix] Heavy opener block recoveries increased to 900ms (from 800ms).

Developer comments: No characters, beside Gladiator, can counter the Guardbreak after a Conqueror’s block. Gladiator is strong enough in its current state so we decided to correct this to be consistent with other character matchups.

[Bug Fix] Delayed cancel of the “Zone Attack” by 200ms and reduced the trajectory angle.

Developer Comments: When the “Haymaker” feat is activated during Revenge, the Gladiator could make infinite “Zone Attacks Punch” cancels and kill an opponent without giving him the possibility to react. Feint on “Zone Attack” has been delayed, the Gladiator must wait 500ms instead of 300ms before making a new attack.

Feats Rework

Removed the Uninterruptible flag on all feats except the following:

“Second Wind”

“Stalwart Banner”

“Champion's Aura”

“Juggernaut”

Developer Comment: This is a change we wanted to make for a long time and we are happy to finally release it. With this change, you can interrupt any feat activation except Healing feats and “Juggernaut”, which has a Full Block Stance built in.

“Smoke Bomb” now denies interactions, including Capture Zones.

Developer Comment: We want feats to provide tactical advantages and this change helps make “Smoke Bomb” a better choice for certain game modes like Tribute. It also makes it a more viable choice in game modes with Capture Zones, like Dominion.

“Deadly” (Warlord, Gladiator, Valkyrie, Aramusha)