I agree with a lot of points you made.
You’re not alone in the feeling that the animations are sluggish and clunky. The enemies sure as hell like to go at you like hyenas on speed but the player meanwhile is fighting underwater.
I really really think we need animation canceling, the game punishes you HEAVILY for pressing a button at an odd time and simply makes you commit to it. There is a skill and it basically muscle memory for me from playing games like Super Smash Bros competitively that there’s a grace period where you can animation cancel into something else. There’s bosses that are HUGE assholes about you getting hit, it makes combat very slow and tedious where you have to be ultra careful because the boss might throw this pretty quick move that knocks you down to the floor and guess what now you’re dead because you cant do anything about it and hits you like a truck.
Animation cancelling will be requested constantly forever until it gets implemented, might as well implement it now. There’s 0 design downside to it and only upside.
1.- It still takes skill to perform (you’re reacting)
2.- you pay in stamina cost, dealing no damage (if thats what the devs want)
3,- the only reward is that you potentially reset the momentum of the fight.
4.- ultimately animation cancelling feels good to the player and gives them control over the situation (of course I think there’s a point where an animation should not be cancellable anymore)
I’m a game developer and aspiring game designer and I really spend a lot of time thinking about game design. Im by no means the know-it-all of game design but I do my studying and play a ton of games, I really think some of this mechanics need to be reworked and tweaked. The “git gud” argument only has so much weight when it comes to game design, people will throw it just to feel good about themselves to to have a laugh.
Ultimately I think the developers will realize that the combat needs to be tweaked and im sure they already know that, they are very smart people.
Anyway, sorry for the long reply but if you have a minute you can read my post talking about these issues and others as well if you’re interested: Feedback & Suggestions Post-Breach Update – Combat, Builds, Gear, and Enchantments - #5 by Zenith