So as we all know the sword (and gun) mechanics in this game are bad. The community keeps making suggestions and Rare seems to do their own thing. Appearantly they play and pvp more than we do. For I dont know how many patches they've been making questionable changes nobody asked for. Why?
I feel the design team at Rare doesn't know what they need to do in order to fix the combat in this game. The guns are kinda alright now because they've prevented double gunning.
But who ever asked for a delay in swings when missing? Why does TERRAIN cause you to continue your swinging? You would think that hitting a rock with your sword would stagger your arm more than missing. IRL missing with a sword ain't that big of a deal. I understand your character is out of breath atfer lunging. But blocking is still a mess.
The combat is so weird in this game. Some elements are good and some are horrible. Because of this, the fights look so weird. Everyone hitting objects and lunge jumping. Since this patch everyone is gonna abuse the weapon holster mechanic to continue slashing.
My suggestion is, because the combat is as horrible as it can be and just doesn't feel right, restart. Go back to the original sword mechanics from launch and start over. You're making things too complicated right now Rare. People joining this game have to remember to hit terrain because your sword cant miss anyway. They need to remember to holster and unholster their weapon after every third swing now. They need to remember blocking works 50% of the time and that guns have a delay when unholstering or switching.
Start over. Make it simple. Double gunning should be allowed, but make it skillfull. It was way too easy so the EoR hipfire changes were good. Reduce spread on the blunderbuss. Make the pistol the perfect midrange weapon. FIX the sword hitboxes and range. FIX blocking. If I can't see if my rival is aiming his sword down, blocking should block everything in front of you. If I could see people hitting my feet, I should be able to block downwards. Make a parry mechanic for people spamming their sword. If you release block at the right time you stun them for 0.5 seconds which would give you an opportunity to swing back.
Figure out what you wanna do Rare but just start over. Start with the basics because you're losing track of all the changes you're making. The combat system isn't fluid and is full of "handicaps" and weird mechanics.