TL;DR at near Bottom
A lot of people may disagree with how I see the sword combat and how it should be tweaked. Currently, the sword combat has taken steps in the right direction but it has made sword combat feel a bit too floaty. After about a week and a few days here is my review.
The new sword combat currently encourages W+M1 (Forward+Attacking), Blocking either does not block or is much more difficult to do, and it spawned a new meta method of fighting with a sword. I will adress each issue, how to fix and how they impact the game.
Firstly, This needs to be fixed. (Sword swing damage cancel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6G_pC-4ym4
This is a bug (That i reported) in which it makes trading hits happen way to often and makes retaliating after a block a gamble. This has been here for too long... Sometimes you hit him, sometimes he interrupts you instead and hits you. This is because of your sword swing cancels because of damage, but not really. The swing pulls through yet you can start your 3 swing combo, effectively making something 4 swings.
Maybe you have noticed it, someone hitting you for 2 hits faster and still continuing to hit another 2.
Secondly, Jumping to avoid and make attacks
Jumping away from sword attacks worked often due to the sword user halting their own movement by swinging. This is supposed to be no longer the case with no movement halting. The reason why jumpers still manage to escape sword strikes is because of their air-movement. By the time they hit the ground they will be able to continue this momentum and jump again, resulting in the second or third swing finally fall out of reach just like it did with previous sword combat. Being hit in mid-air negates the "stunlock" that the sword tries to apply and is why this is still the case.
You currently must now jump or move in tandem with the jump user. This carries over to the next point and this is a growth to a new Meta if this issue does not get addressed.
When a sword user attacks another sword user while spamming the jump button, it will be even more difficult to block those attacks as there is a chance that the Jumper will fall inside the enemy character, or attack over him. This further emphasizes spamming the jump button and de-emphasizes blocking.
The proposed fix to this jumping meta
Whenever a player gets damaged by anything, they suffer a 0.6 second no-jumping debuff. They can still move if they are allowed to. However this is coded, all it needs to do is make sure that a player cant get another air momentum immediately to avoid a sword attack after being attacked mid-air.
Whenever a player is under the swinging animation, they cant jump until the third strike struck or missed. They can still swing mid-air, such as jumping in for a swing.
What this does
This will hopefully ground players a bit more instead of abusing jump. Ive always thought that it was due to being tricky to hit, but infact it negates some mechanics which is the real savior to jump spamming.
Notes: Spamming jump is not skill, im just saying this ahead of time as some people find more of this kind of movement to equal more skill. This is not the case for a game like Sea of Thieves. It adds more unpredictable chances due to the listed issues and will be the new meta once it is practiced and will be highly annoying to contend with, as it is throwing away basic mechanics such as blocking and could force spamming jump.
Thirdly, Sword movement maybe needs to tune back down.
Previously, you would move slower when swinging. This was negated slightly with blocking+first swing. Currently, that no longer exists and is instead replaced with being able to move freely while swinging.
This has changed the basic combat of attacking someone into something even more mindless such as W+M1. The swinging sure has felt less punishing, but it made blocking more difficult and escaping swords harder due to this added movement. Combine this with constant jumping and how you can get lucky with the 2 hit swing bug because you can reach easier, and this becomes a bit too mindless.
This change always further makes Gun users have a hard time, as there is not much mistake you can make with a sword that a gun user can abuse.
Proposed Fix to new sword movement
Tune it back down, but not a complete reversion.
Either the first swing gives free movement like it previously did with Blocking+Attacking.
Or the first 2 swings give free movement, while the third one is the one that has you halt for that brief moment.
What this does
If combined with fixing jump spamming, this should be the more obvious way to escape or abuse the mistakes of a sword user. This should also make blocking these sword attacks easier. The sword user will also be more mindful of not spamming the attack button, and stop at first or second swing to avoid the drawback, especially if he is not sure if the third strike will even hit anyone.
Lastly, Sword charging needs a buff and a Nerf
Mostly due to how it activates.
I was under the impression a while ago how the sword has more depth with holding block+sword charging or block+attacking making attacks better or have more uses, but what it really just does is negate a drawback. Just like how the sword movement removed the "annoying" drawback of having to be slowed while swinging, there is no reason for not-blocking+sword charging be different from blocking+sword charging.
But there were some mechanics that we all want to keep that changes between the two...
Proposed "Fix" to sword charging
Make blocking+sword charging and not-blocking+Sword charging equal.
Give sword charge the actual penalty that is much slower movement during charge, BUT give the player the ability to jump off of the lunge regardless of having held block or not.
What this does
There is no more a trick to sword dashing through water and can be more easily discovered. However, sword dashing is now much more committed and forces the intended slowness effect instead of punishing those who do not know the trick.
TL;DR
The new meta will be to jump while swinging, and jump while being swung, also this has players mindlessly just sword strike and blocking much more difficult. Additionally, at this point there is no need to have a difference between having blocked first before attacking so why not make the sword simpler. This is not taking any depth away, this just makes what we can always do more obvious.
-
Any damage (Or just sword damage) has you suffer a 0.6s (Or any good balance of time) no-jumping debuff.
-
You no longer can jump while swinging your sword, but can still swing mid-air.
-
You now slow down like you did pre-patch on the second (or third) swing regardless of holding block first or not.
-
Sword charge regardless of blocking beforehand is now proper with the slowdown and everything except for jumping as you lunge.
In the end,
I think that these changes is an equalizer between what we have currently, and what it was pre-patch. These changes also had in mind any FUTURE melee weapons. So that the sword is not something vastly different due to the overly-fluid perhaps-buggy nature, and instead make it more solid and have limits that the other melee weapons can work around but also have their own limits.
