How to Master Your Character Class in ‘For Honor’
The long, hard road to success.
When you boot up For Honor for the first time, you’ll be prompted to pick a faction and unlock a set of three basic character classes (one from each faction) to choose from while you’re starting out in multiplayer. There’s 12 total available to unlock in For Honor, but mastering even one requires a ton of practice due to the game’s very high skill ceiling. It remains one of the biggest hurdles in For Honor for new players.
No matter how confident you feel in your abilities with any particular character, understanding the basics of For Honor’s unique combat system is the key to success. Make sure to spend some time practicing the active blocking and attacking mechanics of the game, as well as guard-breaking and dodging before moving into mastering a specific character class. But once you feel that you’re ready to head down the long, hard road to mastery, here’s a few tips to help you out.
Research Your Character’s Moves
Every single character class has access to the same basic set of moves including light attacks, heavy attacks, the ability to block or dodge incoming attacks, and the signature guard break for heavily fortified enemies. Learning how to use these basic maneuvers on the battlefield is key to staying on top of your opponents in combat, but if you want to truly become a dangerous combatant you’ll also have to learn the advanced moveset for your selected character.
Each different character class in For Honor comes with a special set of moves exclusive to them, such as the Warden’s Shoulder Bash or Crushing Counterstrike, which both require a set of very specific conditions to use in combat. Before you even dive into a multiplayer match, head to the hero customization section of multiplayer and memorize your character’s move combinations.
Practice Versus A.I.
Once you’ve mastered the basics of combat and started working to memorize all your character’s special combination moves, you’ll have to practice until you can get used to using them while simultaneously dealing with incoming attacks. To do this, we recommend diving into For Honor’s 1v1 Duel mode and selecting an A.I. opponent to practice against; doing so will help hone your skills in actual combat scenarios.
Since Duels are a relatively quick match type, you’ll have three to five rounds which take place over five to ten minutes where you can practice against the other 11 character classes with your own. This teaches you how to best counter each character other players will throw at you in multiplayer. Be sure to spend plenty of time here practicing before going up against other players. Once you can win each match 3 - 0 against the A.I. with your character of choice unscathed, you’re ready.
Learn to Actively Parry Attacks
While mastering the basic and special set of moves available for your character of choice is necessary to becoming a legendary warrior, nothing is more important in combat with another player than learning how to parry incoming attacks. Parrying is one of the most advanced combat mechanics in For Honor, and it isn’t directly addressed in the game’s combat tutorial when you first dive into multiplayer. To parry an incoming enemy attack, you must wait until your opponent’s weapon is just about to connect with your own (as indicated by a flash) and heavy attack towards the direction your opponent is attacking from. Timing is key, so you’ll probably have to practice parries for quite some time before you get the tactic down.
Once you manage to successfully parry an incoming attack, you’ll force your opponent off-balance and drain a hefty bit of their stamina, allowing you to tear into them with a combo for heavy damage. Many of For Honor’s characters actually have combo moves which are entirely reliant on parrying incoming attacks too, such as the Lawbringer or Orochi, meaning that you’ll have to master parries to use the class to its full potential. Parries also allow you to successfully counter unblockable attacks too, making them one of the most valuable defensive strategies in For Honor.
