• His Defensive stance is largely bad and not particularly useful
• His Offensive stance is terrible and only gets worse over time due to powercreep, with his only real mixups being gimmicks like Kick -> Caber which doesn't even work against like half the cast, or unblockable/guardbreak. It's also shut down pretty easily by anyone with a quick undodgeable from neutral i.e. Tiandi dodge lights
• He's overall pretty weak and generally uninteresting since his cool ideas don't actually work, and his kit delivers neither the flexibility nor the "technical" feel that a two-stance character promises

• Celtic Curse top is now unblockable and can be hard-feinted. Celtic Curse can now be soft-feinted to Defensive Stance, like it can with Offensive Stance.
• Neutral opening side heavies are sped up by 100ms just to make parrying/feinting less clunky. Top heavies sped up by 200ms. Highlander can now get a top heavy punish on GB.
• Any move in Neutral Stance that can recovery cancel to Offensive Stance can be recovery canceled into Defensive stance at 100ms slower than the Offensive Stance transition
• His zone is now 500ms and 15 dmg but only performs the first hit, is no longer a 3 hit chain

• All soft feints from one Offensive Stance move to another are removed.
• Stamina consumption dramatically reduced (~25% overall) and exiting stance no longer costs stamina.
• Offensive Stance can now block. You still cannot parry or counter GB. This helps prevent undodgeables or fast interrupts from immediately shutting down the stance.
• Dodge recovery standardized.
• Offensive Stance lights are now 466ms and deal 12 dmg, making them more used as interrupts rather than real offense
• Offensive Stance heavies now deal 27 damage.
• Fomorian Kick can now be hard-feinted, or soft-feinted into Defensive Stance (important). No longer mixed up with Caber Toss, which remains in order to be used for ganking.

• Activated by pressing Full Block. Can be accessed from neutral in Neutral Stance or Offensive Stance.
• Has full block properties but guarantees nothing when blocking, like Black Prior
• Can be dodge canceled, which opens the possibility of dodge attacks or Celtic Curse
• Stance visually shows Highlander in a crouched position, with his sword braced above him and the point towards the ground (think Siegfried from Soul Calibur)
• Top Heavy is a 700ms 24 dmg unblockable which can be hard feinted, or recovery canceled into Offensive/Defensive
• Side Heavies are 700ms 20dmg undodgeable versions of Highlander's Celtic Curse side cancels and can be recovery canceled into Offensive/Defensive
• Pressing Light performs a Bulwark Counter-esque move where Highlander charges and rams the flat of his sword into the first attacker that hits him with ANY attack except GB. This move would be performed much faster than Bulwark Counter's followup and have hyper armor, however it would only deal 20 damage, and cannot counter or hit multiple opponents like Bulwark Counter. This move always returns Highlander to Neutral Stance, success or fail.

• Highlander now has offense comparable to Afeera's neutral bash mixup when in Offensive Stance, and a hopefully viable opener from Celtic Curse in neutral. He remains a largely defensive character overall but now has some viable offense available that functions against most or all of the cast.
• Offensive Stance is no longer easily shut down by any character with fast undodgeables since it can block.
• Defensive Stance offers Highlander a unique defensive tool in Defensive Stance Counter, which allows him to punish many things on a successful read.
• Highlander would now have a much larger moveset than most characters, which would be a lot to manage for both the user and the opponent and would secure him a unique role without being gimmicky as he is now. He would have pressure and options but hopefully without being too overbearing.
• Highlander would be a versatile character overall with an answer to any situation but no particularly strong focus, able to 1v1, gank, teamfight, and maybe antigank?

• Reduce Stamina consumption to 25.

• Light Openers now have the superior block property and deal 17 damage on superior block.
  
• Standard damage values remain the same.
  
• Heavy Openers remain unchanged.
  

• Light finishers are sped up to 500ms.
  
• Damage reduced to 14.
  

• Unchanged.

• Unchanged

• Torturing Maneuver is now undodgeable.

• Unchanged.

• Remove the ability to side dodge light.
  
• Side dodge now only works on heavy input.
  
• Side dodge heavy attacks in guard direction.
  
• Side dodge heavy damage increased to 12 (from 9).
  
• Side dodge heavy retains superior block property and damage unchanged at 22.
  
• Side dodge heavy is now a heavy parry.
  
• Input timing remains the same.
  
• Dodge heavy retains its enhanced property and ability to execute.
  

• unblockable offense is bugged massively
• Bashes that rewarded a Gb should still reward a Gb, if not heroes like gryphon or hito would become very “fun” to fight against.
• All low recovery 500 ms bashes are nerfed

• surprisingly almost no changes since he can always use his Sb to chain.
• The changes affect him like affect almost every other hero

• no longer Gb punishable from her dodge attacks nor from a missed finisher heavy, so she doesn’t east as much dmg as she used to.
• given how she relies on her GB punish she is one of the most hurted by this change.

• his bash is severely nerfed, chain version is no longer safe, neutral shove is worse.
• His parry game is actually buffed, given no heroes will get a Gb from a missed finisher a hero like LB that still deals a heavy worth of dmg from a heavy parry is stronger.

• can use his chain heavy and not worry about being panic dodged and getting punished with a Gb
• parry are buffed since other heroes will never get a huge amount of dmg from a missed finisher, this gives cent and edge.

• skewer is no longer unsafe on dodge, making it the best unblockable move from risk reward perspective

• Actually severely nerfed in 1v1s, at least he can bash and deal dmg during antiganks

• parries are buffed, massively, warmonger have an amazing edge here when compared to the rest of the cast
• She cannot be GB during teamfights, this means that all her heavy finisher and her team fighting power are buffed a bit.
• She can still be Gb from her missed bash, right? Right?

• neutral bash is safer from pre dodge
• team fighting is buffed since gryphon can’t be Gb out of his finisher recoveries.
• antigank very buffed, since oponente won’t be able to punish his kick while on revenge
• imagine kick not being punishable with a GB, lol

• team fighting become "safeish", since he doesnt have to worry of being GB from his finishers recoveries
• 1v1 even more safe, since he cannot be GB from a missed chained unblockable or heavy finisher he doesnt have to worry about being punished with a similar amount of dmg

• Buffed antigank, he can headbutt at will with no worries.
• Safer trades in teamfights and in antiganks, his heavy finisher are very good and removing their weakess aspect is a good buff

• Better 1v1s since he is no longer forced to make a read after missing an unblockable, actually buffed a lot since he can focus on dodge recovery cancel enemie dodge attack

• No amazing changes outside of her not being punished for letting a heavy finisher fly

• If chained attacks have 0 GB vuln that could mean that HL can punish GB attempts to his offensive stance with a heavy to the face, huge buff
• Can use his DS heavy finisher and in antiganks at will
• forget about punishing him with a GB on a missed OS heavy

• Imagine not being punished with a GB from her bash
• The same as the previous point but with her bite lol

• Buffed antigank since she can use her finishers to keep people away or even stun them with her heavy finisher
• Safer 1v1 since her unblockable cannot be GB on dodge

• Massively buffed teamfight, where he cant be GB from his finishers, he can dead angle at will with no drawbacks
• Massively buffed 1v1, since his finisher cannot be GB on dodge this means he has a safe 34 dmg unblockable with soft feint options to punish dodge attacks, good

• Unblockable heavy massively buffed too, since she doesnt need to make a read after it misses, she can concentrate on her enemy punish and dodge cancel to punish it back

• No great changes, maybe if her kick is also GB inmune she would have one of the best risk/reward bashes

• Unblockable heavies are way safer and the same reward, this means he is buffed in 1v1 and in antiganks

• If his chain bashes cannot be GB punished he would be so broken, unblockable is safer too

• Massively buffed in 1v1 since his heavy finisher cannot be GB anymore, skews the risk reward completely in his favor

• 34 dmg heavy with huge reach, tracking and HA with no chance of it being GB on miss?, yes please
• Imagine hito kick not being punishable on GB, that would become the best variable timing bash IMO

• Better antigank since he cant be GB from his zone anymore
• Better heavy finisher and light finishers too, can keep people at bay way easier

• Good luck punishing his finishers, sifu to punish dodge attacks, amazing block recoveries, in teamfights he would be a god
• Depending on character his heavy finisher would be really hard to deal in 1v1, removes the read after a missed unblockable to go into sifu and zone to punish a GB
• Massively buff parries too, en extra edge for this character that is already top tier

• Better 1v1s i guess, no as unsafe

• Better antiganks with his bash no giving a guaranteed GB for the enemy

• Almost no changes outside of the common ones

• She never had an issue being GB out of he recoveries

PLAY UNBLOCKED GAME

1. What is your mindset like when playing against players in top 100? What's a difference that you see between casual and ranked?
   
2. Most chosen characters in ranked? Do you think a nobu main could average and last ( not have an extremely hard time against Master and top 100 players, same with Valk or Shaman. Do you think it'll be harder to play top 100 or Master players as nobu). is everyone really patient, or whats the common behavior.
   
3. Do masters and top 100s go for unblockable parries more often than lower ranked or rep?. How did you make it to top 100? Character win rate( if you don't mind me asking, kinda just for comparison). When or if you ever hit a learning block, what did you do? Did you study deep into frame data? Did you make it by just knowing basic frame data?
   
4. What do you do do when frustrated mid match? (IM ONLY ASKING ALL THIS SO I CAN GET THE IDEA OF HOW SOMEONE IN THE HIGH RANK THINKS.) Nobu advice? 1v1? Shaman advice? Valk advice? Do you emote, beggining of the match, it there a lot of players who just rush you when match starts? You have opponent effects turned off?
   
5. What character frustrates you the most?(BTW you are awesome for spending your time to answer this, I grately appreciate it SO much. You are the best). Your main? Senario: (one heavy from being dead, your caught in a mix up and the opponent decides to throw a side unblockable finisher. Is it more common for them to feint or let the unblockable go?)
   
6. Favorite cereal(lol)? Serious question tho, do you believe having a regular sleep schedule with a good diet to have sharp reactions? Do you notice a difference in reaction if you were fatigued or haven't got much sleep?
   
   1. Do you have some sort of rule in your head as you play(Ex: when hit with blade blockade, always parry the right light attack. Or never atrempt a full light chain when opponent is low.)? Are you Master or GM?
   2. when did you start? Average total rep players you see(rep 300s, 400s,200s)? Ever played a rep 100 in Master or top 100? Do raw heavies feel utterly useless if your using a character that can't soft feint or dodge cancel? How was your day?