Combat overhaul, battleground gameplay, and class kits

The October 2024 update presents a major combat overhaul for Scars of Honor. The revised system replaces passive auto-attacks with active combo-based basic attacks, adds stronger class identity for the currently playable kits, and introduces more explicit crowd control, healing, and utility effects.

At the time of the update, the battleground test build includes three playable classes: Knight, Ranger, and Mage. These are shown without subclasses enabled, using default class versions intended primarily to test the new combat model.

Active basic attacks instead of passive auto-attacks

A central design change is the removal of the old passive auto-attack model. Instead of clicking a target and allowing repeated automatic attacks to resolve on their own, the new system uses repeatable active combo abilities as the character’s basic offense.

For melee classes, these attacks are intended to interact with weapon arcs rather than only a single locked target. The team describes this as a way to give players more ownership over combat and to make positioning matter more.

Weapon choice is also intended to influence how a class fights. A knight using a two-handed weapon is described as favoring wider, harder-hitting swings, while a sword-and-shield setup is intended to trade some offensive reach for durability and defensive options such as shield-based mitigation or blocking.

Combat pacing and tactical intent

The revised combat aims for a middle ground between fluidity and tactical decision-making. The stated goal is not a slow or clunky system, but also not a pure damage race where success comes mainly from unloading the highest DPS rotation first.

The team repeatedly describes the intended interaction as closer to situational counterplay: slows, silences, roots, stuns, healing, damage-over-time effects, and movement tools are meant to create a rock-paper-scissors style of decision-making at the moment-to-moment level rather than a hard class-wins-class hierarchy.

User interface direction

The update also highlights UI changes intended to keep player attention near the center of the screen. Nameplates and combat information are positioned to reduce the need to look away toward a traditional upper-left unit frame layout. This is presented as part of a broader attempt to make combat feel more immediate and readable.

Knight abilities shown

The Knight is presented as a heavily disruptive frontline class with area pressure, support tools, and strong engagement potential.

Its basic attack is Holy Slash, a repeatable three-strike combo. Other abilities shown include:

• Final Verdict: Innocent and Repentant, an area effect around the knight that stuns enemies, applies damage over time to them, and applies healing over time to nearby allies.
• Final Verdict: Guilty, a follow-up area attack used for heavy pressure after engaging.
• Healing Hands, a direct healing spell with updated visual effects.
• Reviving Hands, a resurrection ability intended for broader gameplay use, though battleground respawns are immediate.

The Knight is described as dangerous against grouped enemies, especially at control points. At the same time, the update notes that the class still lacks some planned movement and defensive tools in this test build, which affects its current balance.

Ranger abilities shown

The Ranger is presented as a ranged damage class built around spacing, slows, silences, and target control.

Its basic attack is Marksmanship, a three-part ranged combo whose third hit applies a slow. Other abilities shown include:

• Entrop (trap ability), which places traps in an area and slows enemies caught in them.
• Charged Shot, a charge-based attack that increases in power across stages and applies a stun at full charge.
• Smoke Bomb, which applies silence to enemies in the area and is described as especially useful against Knights and Mages.
• Hunter’s Ashes, a movement-speed boost used for chasing or escaping.

The Ranger is framed as a strong counterplay class because it can interrupt enemy setups and maintain distance while applying pressure.

Mage abilities shown

The Mage is presented as a high-pressure caster with burst damage, control effects, and stronger mobility than the other two showcased classes.

Its basic attack is Elemental Missiles, a three-part sequence using fire, frost, and arcane attacks. Other abilities shown include:

• Phoenix Strike or Phoenix Blast (caption wording varies), a high-damage projectile attack.
• Ring of Ice, which roots and slows enemies.
• Fire Barrage, which applies strong damage and a burn-over-time effect.
• Elemental Beam, shown as a channeled offensive spell.
• Blink, a teleport movement ability assigned to a dedicated movement input.

The Mage’s blink is used as the example for a broader movement-system plan in which classes receive dedicated mobility actions such as blink, dodge, or roll.

Planned movement layer

The team states that all classes are expected to receive dedicated movement abilities. Blink is already present for the Mage, while dodge or roll equivalents are planned for other classes. These are intended to help players avoid dangerous effects, reposition in combat, and create more active encounter design in both PvP and PvE.

Balance status and testing purpose

The combat shown is explicitly treated as an early iteration. The team says the current battleground build is meant to expose balance issues and gather feedback on what works. Examples given include the Knight being very strong against grouped targets but vulnerable to slows and silences because some of its future counter-tools are not yet implemented.

The battleground test is therefore positioned less as a final statement of class balance and more as a focused environment for evaluating the new combat foundation.

Build depth and progression direction

Although the battleground build uses simplified class setups, the update outlines a broader progression model. Classes are said to have three subclasses each, with some core class skills shared and the majority of the kit coming from the chosen subclass.

For the Knight, the update names:

• Inquisitor as the basis for the currently shown battleground kit
• Paladin as a support-and-damage variant with blessings and auras
• Templar as a more defensive shield-focused tank

The team also states that players are not expected to carry very large action bars. Instead, the intended model is roughly six to ten active abilities depending on class, with build depth coming from subclass choice, skill selection, and per-spell modification rather than from maintaining a very large rotation.

A further progression layer is described through codexes and spell books, which are intended to let players learn new spells or improve the rank of existing ones through PvE activities such as dungeons and raids. Each spell is also said to have its own separate talent or augmentation structure, allowing two characters of the same class to use the same named ability in different ways.

Source

• Recording: Battleground Gameplay & BGS Recap | Scars of Honor Development Update - October 2024
• YouTube: Watch on YouTube
• Published: Monday, October 21, 2024 at 12:10 PM UTC