Enemy Difficulty Balance

Wicked Feedback
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From my ~24h of playing I feel bosses are too weak, and basic enemies too strong. I did every boss besides the last one on the first try, simply by using small Focus flasks and a Claymore with Fire Throw. But I struggle with basic enemies, mostly ones with shield.

I think the main problem is that the fastest attacks some enemies have are too fast, and the slowest moves they have are too slow.

I sneaked up on some shield enemy only to learn that this one can’t be backstabbed. Exactly then it started turning around, notices and shield-bashes me before even fully turned around, and attacks me before I can act.
In another instance I jump-attacked an enemy, but it lived, and attacked me before I could move again.

So generally I think the reaction speed of enemies is too quick there.

But whenever I make the mistake of getting hit too much so I get stunned from a full poise bar, I can usually dodge before enemies can hit me again, so I didn’t get punished for it.

What I would do:
-Make every player animation cancellable by dodging. This should not remove any challenge, but make things less frustrating. Especially if stamina costs are consumed at the start of animations, you would get somewhat punished for starting a slow attack and cancelling it.
-Make some of the fast animations enemies have more clear. Honestly not sure how to do that. The only problematic ones are the shield-bashes, headbutts or whatever near instant stuns there are.
-Add a slight reaction delay to enemies spotting you. This could definitely be varying for different enemies, I think the most problematic are humanoid enemies as those usually have fast attacks.
-Make enemies more aggressive when you are stunned or locked in animations, and/or increase the duration of some stuns on the player. Enemies should be able to use the stuns more effectively. This would play well with being able to cancel animations with dodge.

I don’t think I would change much about the damage of enemies or the player, it feels quite right.

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This really messes me up from time to time. The enemies with two-handed axe has this shove attack that can come out of nowhere, not telegraphed at all. They can even do it while you’re in the middle of a combo, like they recover so fast they can do a shove to interrupt your attacks.

What’s worse it the time it takes for me to get back up is so long, he’ll do an attack which knocks me down again, and then follows it up with another attack, effectively stun-locking me until I die. I don’t know if a stat or armor type controls this stun duration, or maybe it’s because I happen to be out of stamina.

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I get caught by that axe haft push far too often. But I think it’s a good attack. For one the enemy AI is very consistent about using it, if you are very close and they just recovered from hitstun, guess what move they’re doing next? It’s nearly always that one.

You can parry it, or dodge and come in with the post dodge combo attack, it’s very smooth and it feels like you’ve really mastered that enemy type.