Sword Blocking

@musicmee The only issue I'm wondering about is with the ability to block downward blows from a leaping pirate. As with others, I've been able to successfully block so long as I keep my pirate aimed at the person attacking. They haven't been able to get through.

@juggalosmokez I heard a rumor that the failures of blocking are due in part to the fact that the speed to begin a new attack sequence is faster than the speed to block. So basically every fourth strike will hit just a fraction of a second before the blocking player's defense goes active. I kinda like this. It means you can't just sit there holding the block button, you have to move, dodge, counter-attack, etc.

@mith-bosevem said in Sword Blocking:

@musicmee said in Sword Blocking:

@one-eye-ethan Ahoy matey...

Care to elaborate a little more? Is there anything, in particular, you are looking for with sword blocking?

....What?? How about make it work more than 2% of the time.
Id also add please fix the skeletons phasing through you. The two issues are always present together.

I think he was just asking for OP to be more specific about what improvements he thinks need to be made. Good feedback is always elaborate and detailed, as every issue may not be obvious to everyone or even considered an issue by everyone.

Sounds like a PEBCAK error.

I constantly have people swinging through my blocks.

@vorondil1 The issue is that it has become incredibly difficult to move, dodge and counter-attack while having to do it while someone is flaying at you without any downsides to it. The removal of the slow down is that the attackers defense is, I am slashing at you while running just as fast which conveniently is also their offense. Since the first hit seems a bit of a detriment or well you were defending so you need to make some space to reset as well, you are defending because you are behind on health and need to recover or change the style of fight as you clearly are losing. This opportunity was achieved previously by making that dodge.

Dodging an attack would cause a slow down effect on them, making you in essence quicker and therefore could gain ground, circle them or just go straight into them. The opportunity of the dodge was provided by the small knock-back we get for defending 3 blows. A successful block gave us a moment to respond, counter, gain better footing so we could try and dodge or go on the offensive if we were quick enough and maybe have them on the defensive.

It was what made the sword fights fun for me, there was a lot of planning involved and you always had to worry for the dash off, kite and bringing a gun to the sword fight. What can we say, not all pirates play clean after all and change it up. It was giving you the option to go on the aggressive or start kiting them and eat a banana to recover before continuing the sword or change it up and pull out a gun. Now you didn't always win this little engagement for power and they would be able to keep the pressure on by not making a mistake of taking a bad swing or doing a different move like a lunge at the bad moment or they would change it up themselves and catch you out.

Now a days they can keep swinging without remorse and this speeds up the entire fight, makes it also way more hack and slash than strategy and I don't see much room for improvement without at least some minor tweaks. Which happily Rare already stated they are working on, so I wonder which minor adjustments as it can easily change and become great with just some minor timing and such or it might be to hard to balance and a bigger change is required. It is the reason I don't necessarily feel the need to make a topic on it.

Then add the fact that the first hit will interrupt the opponents activity, this has become a major factor in combat due to the speed up. Since they move just as fast and can keep swinging, so you are forced again in pure defense mode, without anywhere near the same type of option to have this little battle for control of the fight.

This failure to shift the roles based on the designed counter play, block 3 strikes for the knock-back as well as we used to has made sword fights feel more luck based between two dudes running and slashing away. It has become a little game of who can land a strike first and stick to them after they slow down for that split second. The flow stops for one due to that little interruption happening on the first hit. It seems so vital in to many occasions that it becomes one of the aspects that determines the fight, you are behind and there is little to no room to recover versus spam the button, easy to execute tactic. It reduces the fight almost to a single mistake instead of offering you a way to recover, even if you managed to get your block up.

Everyone knows this effect and uses it, so I think you know the effect I am talking about. As it is great on skeletons wielding guns, but is kind of determining the whole sword fight at the moment in my view in PvP and this is all due to the speed up of the way swords are used. They made it more fluid, quicker and less punishing for the attacker and kept all their strengths and to clarify I don't mean its damage here people, I think that is still fine.

For me the solution would maybe tweak the blocking in a minor way maybe, but mainly make the interruption a reward for landing the 3 strike combo, so instead of it being on the first hit have it only on the last one. Making it to avoid the stun, one must block the third strike and if you were able to block the first and second one as well you will get a knock-back effect giving you space to maneuver out of that bad spot you are in. Yes, I do know that a change like this might require a minor change in the gun skeletons accuracy or have them still be effected on the first hit, as defeating them will be more challenging for sure.

That is how I see it and I might be completely wrong with my analysis and feel free to point out where and why you would disagree with me or if I am just not approaching the fight correctly all together as I am stuck in my old ways. I guess you figured out a way when placed on defensive to get yourself that window of time that you can stop holding that block button as you say that is not what you want people to do and dodge, counter, etc. For me that inconsistent behavior in blocking and the effect of the best attack seeming to be: slash, slash, slash... is that what a sword battle has come down to? Make sure you get the first hit so you don't need to swap a slash for a block.

In my opinion, the only thing that needs to be done to completely fix sword play:

• Set sword fighting/blocking/damage/etc back EXACTLY how it was before the double gun nerf.

@nairamus sagte in Sword attacks cause the Target to stop its movement: a Problem for fluid PvP experiences:

Today I was able to test the blockmechanics a bit further. It is possible to deal damage through a block, even if the block animation and sound happens. Me and my testpartner both did not move our camera and we had situations were sometimes the second, sometimes the first or the third attack of a combo deals damage through the block. I don't know if this is a bug or intended. But it let blocking become more and more an less valuable option. And staying at max range is often not possible due to the combination of limited space on the ship and the stunlock that keeps you from moving.