I have been using the Claymore and the Sunbeam weapons and have noticed some issues with combat that give a perception of unfairness that could likely be solved with distinct animations or UI elements. Outside of some extreme attack recoveries, which I have been able to adjust to, I think there are overall issues tied to targeting and unresponsiveness. I’m not trying to dunk on the game or saying that my solutions are the way to go, I love how the development of the game has answered different issues in it’s own way. Sometimes, it’s just better not to reinvent the wheel. I just want to see where the game can go to feel more responsive and precise. I know it’s a fine line between frustrating and fair.
Targeting
I have essentially moved away from using the auto targeting and think that even with hard locks, there are issues.
The auto targeting jumps illogically to really far away enemies that aren’t within my attack range. It should jump to the nearest enemy in the direction my character is facing and within my attack range.
When enemies evade and that are hard targeted, there may be a bug where you immediately attack in the opposite direction, rather than continuing in the direction you were facing. What’s more annoying, is that giving directional input does not change the direction you attack in the slightest.
When you are close enough to backstab someone without auto targeting, you should probably get the indicator that you can backstab the target. Right now nothing pops up.
Backstabs don’t always work when the icon is displayed, but this might be because the window is really short or there is a start up on two handed weapons.
Multi-hit rune attacks feel awful with auto-targeting, hard targeting, or no targeting. If the target dies, you can’t switch to a different target in the middle of it. You can also fall off edges (I’m aware this is being addressed). I think the issue is not as simple as edge protection, in similar games, I determine how much of the hits I want to do. For example, if the rune attack does 4 hits, hits 1-3 may be quick but hit 4 might be a longer wind up for a finisher. It would be great to let hits 1-3 happen automatically and I repeat the input for the 4th hit. The focus use for this would need to be split up of course.
Unresponsiveness
Out of roll, after seeing your character standing, there is still a delay in attacking or using rune attacks, but inconsistently. This leads to the feeling of a missed input.
When running and immediately out of run, there are definitely missed inputs for using rune attacks, I have to mash the buttons several times and may still not have the rune attack execute.
I’ve noticed when traversing off of very small bumps in the the ground, it leads to missed inputs as well. Might be because you are considered to be in the air for an air attack.
When you kill an enemy with your normal combo, holding the direction to the next enemy still makes the next hit of your combo continue in the direction of the fallen enemy. This includes when you intentionally leave a delay. It should really begin turning in that direction immediately, even if it still whiffs because there isn’t enough time to completely turn towards the enemy. Currently, it just continues in the same direction, moving you further away from the next target.
Charged attacks miss entirely after an evading enemy has finished evading and you reacquire your hard lock. This happens even if you re-acquire the hard lock before the charged attack has begun it’s active frames. This seems to happen with enemies trying to attack you as well. Even if I stand completely still after evading before they leap into the air, It leads to them to leap far away from you and do a full combo string, whiffing every hit. This trivializes enemies by walking up behind them and back stabbing them.
Charged attacks can just whiff entirely on stationary enemies for no reason, I’ve noticed this particularly with the Sunbeam. Since you jump in the air, the targeting just fails completely for some reason, even on stationary enemies that are directly in front of you.
Enemy body blocks are far too effective in altering your attack trajectories, even with plate armor and increased charge poise, you are blocked or nudged out of position by enemies just walking into you. You can be pushed backwards by attacks (not referring to knock down). Even the smallest enemies, like the smallest siren, will change how far a jumping charged attack will go on the sunbeam, and of course, the attack even misses them. The body blocks might be too over-tuned because it feels as if my plated armor character has no weight or influence on the enemies in the same vein.
Knockdown States
When large enemies have knocked you down, maybe after whiffing a dodge or parry, they can obstruct your view. You may try to attack without recognizing that you are in a knock down state. The problem is, that attack is buffered for way too long, so by the time you have realized that you are on the ground, your character get’s up and tries to attack, even if you are trying to roll instead. I think the knockdown recoveries are really one of the less intuitive things in this game, there needs to be an indicator showing how long the knockdown is in effect. Maybe a soft knockdown allows you to quick recover and a hard knockdown shows an indication when you are able to roll. This doesn’t need to be a UI element, just a stronger animation indicating that you are lying down and playing dead.
There is just way too much knockdown spam from enemies when you jump between ledges. This is kind of lame in the crucible and is the only reason I’m not trying a hardcore character. I know fall damage is being addressed, but in the crucible, it’s way to common for two-three different enemies on a small island to start charging differently timed knockdown attacks and launching you off of a cliff. Dodging one still leads to being hit without any window to even parry another knockdown attack. If it weren’t for the pits you fall into for immediate death, this wouldn’t be an issue. Once again, it’s as if the plated armor has no influence. I think that leveling equip load alters my carry weight to normal, but that shouldn’t mean my weight in the world is also “normal”.