New Combat Mechanics

The main question to ask though, is; why?

• If you're surrounded by enemies, is that not largely your own fault? I don't think you should be rewarded with what sounds like a high priority move (forcing enemies to block or take damage) because you let yourself get surrounded. While I also feel like it would look quite ridiculous, at least you would be able to finally unleash your inner blender.
• Double and triple slash, imo close enough to the same thing; what do these offer that your normal attack doesn't? With how many people are already crying about a small buff (4 hit kill instead of 5), lord knows we'd never hear the end of it if 2 or 3 hits worth of damage could be dealt even faster.
• Energy and cooldowns? It's already pretty clear the devs want to have as little visual clutter as possible, and we already have panting audio cues after a lunge. How would you incorporate energy and cooldowns without visuals?

In my opinion, the only additional mechanics swords could really have is;

• Slightly delay combo attacks (larger window for combo hits; you can press the button a little bit later instead of spamming it to keep your combo going).
• Release block to do a quick parry (doesn't interrupt the game flow; you just can't block again for a moment after releasing block).

Very specific and difficult timing on the parry (release a couple frames before you get hit); if you're too early you're going to take the hit, if you're too late you'll just block it, but will be left open for the next hit (if they're still on the 1st or 2nd swing of the combo). But if you pull it off, the opponent will be slowed, and can't attack for just long enough for you to get 1 hit in.

The obvious counterplay to parries would be the delayed attacks I mentioned; so you swing one hit into the opponent's block, and you think they're going to try to parry your 2nd swing so you delay it slightly to try and get the late hit in.

Implementing something like that would also quickly turn the game away from the "just spam" behavior a lot of people seem to be struggling with right now. People just blendering at you are already a free kill, but having a mechanic that actively interrupts them and has them taking free hits is going to incentivize them even more to wise up a bit and play better.

@bubah1z1 why would it be a meme?