I already gave a bunch of feedback in the closed beta thread, so I won't repeat those points here. These are merely two vital conclusions I have drawn so far that I believe nobody else have pointed out.
1. Semi-PB should be available during all staggers and on Swingblocked returns.
I don't want Semi-PB to be available while running, walking or at the start of a swing. This is to punish bad play and make timing more relevant. One of the good things about 1.4.5 is that all the ppl who just attack mindlessly without a feeling for timing get punished heavily. I made this mistake too. This is great and needs to be kept. But I also thing semi-PB needs to be available in staggers and on returns. The stagger thing is crucial to me. I kind of like them, and I also like the disarm on 0 BP parries. But some form of PB should be available during staggers, and I dont think full PBs should, so semi-pbs it is.
2. PBs should receive a significant buff in their reward. Combo breaking doesn't work well and most ppl seem to dislike the ACM drain on PB.
So you need to implement the BP regen idea on PB very, very swiftly. It is essential to maintaining a balance between offense and defense viability. Right now, with these multipliers (which I like btw, fast duels high risk YAY fun and good for open too), defense is being trivialized very much. Hitting a PB is decently challenging due to yaws, new anims and so on, but when you hit a PB it doesn't even compare to getting 1 swing on your opponent in terms of usefulness.
Look at it this way. Right now, the system is favoring offense like 80-20. PBs still matter a little, but you can forego them almost completely if you hit your offensive timings correctly. I really, REALLY like how attacking works in this system. I love the high AP, higher risk, punishment for bad timing and all that, but I really need PB to reward me more. I am thinking something like an order of magnitude more than I suggested in the closed beta thread, since the AP multiplier and ACM stuff all works together to skew the system far towards offense, leaving defensive skills like PBing at the wayside in favour of simply dodging or out spamming your opponent. I find the new offense fun, but it needs to be more balanced like 60/40 or even 50/50.
Since we're going for a volatile system where missing a timing punishes you heavily, and attacks drain alot of BP so duels are fast, PBing should likewise be a big deal just like hitting attacks are a big deal. The whole point of having a high AP multiplier is to make mistakes count for more, and to allow skilled ppl to power through non skilled ppl quicker. Problem is defense hasn't been accounted for, and is still adjusted for when attacks were alot weaker and it took ages to kill. However, now you can kill in 5 seconds easily if opponent makes a mistake. In such a volatile environment, I believe that PBs need to be buffed more to fit in with the increased dmg of swings. Hitting a good combo, getting an interrupt with nice timing, Mblock into stagger into counter and all that... is heavily rewarded which is good cause that is rewarding skill. But the defensive skills are not rewarded nearly as much, since PB is tuned for the old system while offense is tuned for the new system.
Thus, my point is that PBs aka skillful defense should be buffed in some way.
I suggested the BP regen before and I think that is a good place to start. However, I also think adding -1 ACM drain across the board is a salient and reasonable thing, since even without ACM you can deal massive dmg, so you won't run into the yellow turtle problem we had in 1.4. Even achilles should recognize my point here. The two things together would make for a much more balanced system I think. It has to be tested ofc, but the sooner offense and defense is balanced the better, since the system being skewed so much towards offense trivializes defense.
+2 BP; -2 ACM to opp for PBing blue. (Tuned down a bit cause of wet noodle AP, up if blue AP is upped)
+4 BP; -2 ACM, to opp for PBing duals/cyan
+5 BP; -1 ACM to opp for PBing medium/heavy styles
Thus, hitting a PB partially negates the benefits of an opponents attack (BP dmg and ACM), which leads it to being worth practicing and using. These values with this system means that hitting all PBs will sustain you, but missing a few will still get your BP rekt cause of the high AP multiplier. The brilliant thing is that errors fuck you over, good play rewards you heavily, and the system is volatile, meaning you cant go on autopilot like old builds and just drool and go through the motions with ur brain turned off. No, with this you have to pay attention and use all the skills.. It's so delicious.
So for example.
Yellow 2 hit combo.
11 BP dmg +3 ACM on first hit
2nd hit is PB'd.
+5 BP to you, -1 ACM to opponent.
This still means attacking is strong because it doesn't just cancel out attacks, but provide reasonable benefits so that its worth doing. Right now you're almost better off ignoring PB and going for offense timings almost exclusively, throwing in a PB mblock here and there to get a stagger and just attack like a maniac. I like the attacking like a maniac part, I like high dmg offense. I really liked the old red style for this reason, since it was an attack beast that plowed through ppl if they were unaware/inattentive. The new systems attacking gives me the same feeling. The problem is that defense is too weak to compare to the increased offense, thus skewing the balance and throwing some skills into near uselessness.
