#we are getting quality unique maps and beautiful hats now that the bots are gone and you bloody claim that the two years before tf2 found

[goblin-enjoyer]

oh by the corpses I just seen someone on twitter point to when they added first added hats as when tf2s artstyle died. Calling tf2s artstyle beforehand "restrained 50s cold war art direction" as if it wasn't silly day one. "people rightfully shit on cod for breaking its art style but tf2 has been a mess for longer that nobody questions it" as if the game didn't have cartoony gore effects, funny voice lines and general golden comic era stupidity from as soon as it released. Im sorry but that idea of tf2 died 2 years in, even sooner if you actually look at any of the meet the team videos. and at the end of their little "thing was actually much better back in the day" speal they had the gall to go tell people to play tf2 classic. I'm sorry to people who play "classic" versions of games but why is it that whenever a bad take with someone saying that "oh the tone has been RUINED from its original light" or whatever, it's always a git who hasn't played the main game in over 10 years and stopped 2 years in. Like mate, you barely played the game! This period of time you talk about is less than a third of the games lifespan, less than even "the golden years" that the game was like in its prime. Why is the complaint with the yeti taunt glitch that a yeti is in the game as a taunt and not that the glitch exists? ugh, i need a drink. sorry for bringing twitter discourse filth here, just needed to quickly vent a little steam out me.

[berserker-official]

Livestream 4/25

The reveal stream is here! A 3-hour stream with a bunch of new content coming out with the new season! Let’s dive in

The Hitokiri

The main reason to watch, really. The Hitokiri is the new hero coming out. To start off, we got to hear about the narrative design for the hero, Sakura and Yato.

The Hitokiri are former samurai executioners, The Manslayers With No Heart, that have lost faith in humanity and now roam the lands to execute criminals with no intention on stopping. Their massive axes, the masakari, spread fear wherever they may go.

Sakura, the female Hitokiri is a ghost. She travels from town to town dispatching criminals. Unlike normal Hitokiri, who slowly became psychologically and emotionally damaged from living as an executioner, This was Sakura’s calling. She is death, and death is her gift to the world. Eventually she arrives at her home town to execute a fisherman, but as she was about to behead the fisherman, she stops, and sees the head of an Orochi roll away. Sakura realizes that she killed her whole village, but she felt no remorse. Instead, she felt the power of the village’s spirits strengthening her, so she wears a belt of eerie masks, here she believes the souls of those she kills are stored to give her power. Eventually, she battled a master Kensei and loses, but instead of getting killed, Kensei recruited her, realizing her potential on the battlefield.

Yato, the male Hitokiri is part of a famous executioner clan. He used to believe he would do anything for his clan. He followed his duty without fail, and to others, his duty became art. His executions were so beautiful that people would travel near and far to watch him work. However, he had another job as a family assassin, who took out rival families to raise the fame of his own. One day, his father tasked him with killing the local Daimyo. The plan was flawless; the Daimyo would be in a specific place at a specific time, guards were paid off, this would be nothing more than a success. On the night of the planned execution, Yato brings his axe down on the sleeping Daimyo’s head, but there was no blood. The entire plan was a set-up by Yato’s father because even his family started to fear him. That was the moment Yato’s duty died. Without fear, he killed the Daimyo, the guards protecting him, his father, and every other Hitokiri in the village. With no remorse for his actions, he now follows his own code, and he stands with the Samurai to tear down any enemy in his way.

Character Design

As with all heroes, the design starts with the weapon. What kind of person could wield such a massive weapon? The overall design the team wanted to show off was a sense of fear when looking at these massive characters. Unlike the Shugoki, which is a very round character, the Hitokiri is meant to be broad but fit, being able to lift the axe and using it’s momentum to their advantage. They also wanted to have a more emotionless character, since being an executioner for a living is a very draining job. It looks like most of the costume design is cloth so colors can really shine. Players can also choose between masks and kabuki-style face paint. The ornaments are on the shoulder, similar to the Black Prior. This gives designers to make more unique helm designs, and the axes all have pretty unique designs as well, after taking some liberties designing the axe. (The Masakari is a single-headed axe originally, so the team added a second blade to make it look dangerous.)

Hitokiri Fight Demo

How does the Hitokiri play? The team says this hero is meant to be a very aggressive heavy. With the ability to activate an infinite heavy chain and super armor making it easy to trade blows and keep the pressure on, they focus heavily on pressure. The Hitokiri has a specific state called Mugen-Ryu, which grants special moves. My guess is the Mugen-Ryu is when the hero has super armor. This means you’ll want to come in with an attack that will get you into this state, apply pressure with heavies, and then either finish it with a kick, sweep or unblockable. You can also exit the state with a quick light that doesn’t stun you if blocked, returning you into neutral state. Like Shugoki, you can charge heavies to make them unblockable, but you can also feint out of them to keep enemies on their toes. While in the Mugen-Ryu state, Hitokiri has access to a kick attack. This kick can allow more combo opportunities or to open the enemies defenses. You can charge the kick as well, and if fully charged, the kick changes into a sweep. This sweep can also be feinted, giving players options, making things a guessing game. If you connect the kick, you get a free heavy, and if you connect the sweep you get a free light opener, allowing you back into a combo. The zone attack and the dodge forward heavy has a nice amount of forward movement to keep enemies close to you.

The feats all focus around executions. Hitokiri’s level 1 feat gives them super armor and a full shield, which means you won’t get interrupted by outside hits while executing. The level 2 feat marks an enemy. If the Hitokiri or any teammate executes the marked opponent, any teammate nearby will get a burst of health. Feat 3 gives the Hitokiri a defense buff that’s marked by the mask belt glowing. Feat 4 is a special attack that deals 200 damage to the locked enemy. If you connect this it’s essentially a one hit kill. (During the tournaments on this stream, the attacking team in a breach match uses this feat on the Lord, dealing a huge chunk of damage to win the match. It is possible to apply attack debuffs to the Hitokiri to lessen this damage, but generally try not to get hit by this.

Hitokiri Customization

What will we see as we level the Hitokiri up?

There are masks, face paints, and other hats that otherwise obscure the hero’s face. Body armor goes from just cloth to some leather armor. Each silhouette looks different from each other so you can mix and match to your liking.

Map Showcase: Canopy

A new Samurai map made for Tribute mode, this map takes place in the Samurai’s secret monastery in The Mire. To reach the Canopy, one must go through the forest of The Mire. It’s a large circular area with a temple in the middle.

Hero Improvements: Lawbringer and Raider

(this is all that is said during the stream, patch notes will have more info)

Lawbringer

Shove on Block has been removed, since it halts all offense, slowing down the game immensely.

New chains

Heavy, Heavy, Heavy

Heavy, Heavy Light

Light attacks are 500 across the board. Top light attacks for the first or second hit are 400. Side lights are not interrupted on block, so you can continue the combo to go to the unblockable, which is now all heavy finishers.

After a top heavy finisher, you can do a quick light to stun.

Dash impale attack and flip can now be interrupted by other players. This is similar to Shugoki’s Demon Hug.

Shove in a combo counts as part of a chain, so if you hit with an opener you can shove, then hit and hit with an unblockable, or you can dodge shove, hit, unblockable.

Make Way attack is now super armor and unblockable after a parry.

Shove has armor and 500 ms, gives confirmed light, and you can activate shove on hit, miss, or block. This gives LB more options to keep pressure without being forced to rely on blocking.

Damage numbers have been changed, most have gone up in numbers.

Raider

Similar to Lawbringer, Raider has some trouble initiating

New chains

L, L, H

L, H, H

H, L, L

All lights in the chain are 500 ms

Second heavy in chain gets armor, so now you can trade or feint

All heavies can be soft-feinted into Guardbreak.

Stun tap is 500 ms, and apparently it’s possible to change the timing of when the tap goes off, although it’s slight.

Zone will always be from the left, the other unblockable side attack will always be from the right.

Stampede Charge can now be interrupted, like Shugoki’s hug or Lawbringer’s impale (this is all relevant to group fights)

Damage numbers have been changed, most of them have gone up in numbers.

On all static guard heroes, stance change is now 100 ms.

Weapon Showcase

New weapons were revealed for the Hitokiri as well as the other heroes

Arcade Updates

This season, the team wanted to improve accessibility and address difficulty. How did they do this?

The recommended gear score for the weekly quest has been reduced to 108 (yellow-rarity gear) This also reduces overall difficulty, while rewarding you for playing with higher level gear.

With the addition of new objective quests, a quality of life update has been added to notify you what you’re doing before you start the chapter instead of guessing.

Rebalancing the impact of player’s gear score with respect to rarity levels when playing Arcade.

Under Recommended Gear Score = Penalties to damage dealt and received

On Par = No penalties

Above Recommended Gear Score = Bonuses to damage dealt and received

To compensate for this big of a change, bots will get a slight health and damage boost throughout arcade.

Decreased the success rate of Bot defensive moves (Block, Dodge, Parry and Deflect)

This season, there will be a selection of new quests every week, as well as previous ones, this gives the Arcade team some time to work on the mode, as well as gives players a chance to play any quests they might have missed, and this gives us a feedback loop. If players say something about a specific questline, the team can look at it and tweak it if need be.

Music Composition

To wrap things up, we got to hear from the game’s music composers and how they work on creating music for the factions and their crafting of Sakura’s theme.