1.4 open beta skillgap duels

SeV

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Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even consider producing this kind of video, but since there's been a considerable amount of people expressing that they have difficulty killing eachother and ending duels quickly, I thought I would hop on and play a few rounds. Today I have demos from 5 rounds in total. 2 duel rounds and 3 open rounds. Yellow and red is used, but I would be able to kill any duelist significantly worse than myself very quickly with a stance like cyan or blue too. Certainly with purple/staff and duals. It's not so much about the stance as it is about showing you guys that it is actually possible to have short duels.

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Yeah, 1.4 duels are really slow right? Turtling players have a massive advantage right? Even a skilled player can't kill people fast right?

This was just from 5 demos I had recorded earlier. I was even lagging with 110-130 ping and lagspikes as I dueled. If I had spent more time I could've showed you this with each and every style, even blue and cyan. So, is offense weak? Is offense easy? Is defense easy? Is defense OP?

Note: Vid just uploaded so if quality is bad wait awhile for youtube to process 720p
 
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SeV

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TBH, SeV, this video is very... biased, I'd say? You and stassin were changing this system, let's be honest, to your liking. It is obvious that you both will have a significant advantage over the guys who've started the beta for the first time.

The way of fighting in 1.4 is quite different from my style in the past year and more. It's much closer to stassin's preferred style, so I've had to adapt alot myself. My whole focus was to make it better and more skill-based. If I happened to suck at the system then so be it, if it was a far better system than before. And in the beginning I did suck. But I got used to it, trained nudge on dummies for a good while with every stance to get used to the timing again.

What I like alot about the 1.4 system is that it pays you back in full if you wish to invest training into becoming better at it. It's not like in 1.3 where someone can just combo and jump away from you with 0 BP. Now you can stop many tactics by skillful use of PB, counters, Mblock, nudges and so on.

Ofc the video is biased, as I said before it's very hard to find ppl playing the beta who can legitimately stand toe to toe with me and this video, as stated explicitly, didn't even make such an attempt. I wanted to show ppl that duels can be fast and I think I accomplished that goal. It also ended up show-casing some of the potential achievable if you train your skills well.
 

SeV

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Now use Cyan against a good Blue user and tell me if it ends in under 4 minutes.

Obviously Red/Yellow against not so good players will stomp. You can kill an inexperienced player in 3 seconds flat with red in 1.3.

Obviously I wasn't able to track down the god of blue style and ask him to rek my face. But I did use cyan here against some players that you'd probably have trouble with.

 

{Δ} Achilles

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But I did use cyan here against some players that you'd probably have trouble with.

If you say so.

Yes, matches will end quickly if both players decide to run into each other's face and nudge until someone dies, however, realistically, there are turtlers, and killing a good blue turtler with Cyan, will take minutes. Turtling with Blue was a very strong and practical style in 1.3, and it was somewhat common in NA, so there are a number of skilled blue users in 1.4 that do not die.
 

SeV

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If you say so.

Yes, matches will end quickly if both players decide to run into each other's face and nudge until someone dies, however, realistically, there are turtlers, and killing a good blue turtler with Cyan, will take minutes. Turtling with Blue was a very strong and practical style in 1.3, and it was somewhat common in NA, so there are a number of skilled blue users in 1.4 that do not die.

Yeah, cyan is probably not the style to kill good Leonardo's (blue turtle, get it? lolol). You'd want to use smth like yellow to steadily gain ACM while keeping the blue user impotent with PBs/bodyhits. A turtling blue user has an almost impossible time gaining any ACM vs anything but cyan even if he is parrying and using PBs well, if u just out bodyhit him with nudges and throw in the occasional PB with yellow, then you're eventually gonna have an enormous amount of ACM and can just hit a few good swings and destroy him.

If someone is super good at defense, doesn't it make sense that you should be good at attacking to break his defense? Patiently chipping away at his armor until ur acm advantage is overwhelming, then wham. In cyan vs blue, it's much easier for blue to maintain some ACM, especially if he is PBing well while backpedalling and using 2 hit combos, so to kill something like that, a stance that takes away 2 ACC per bodyhit is ideal.
 

{Δ} Achilles

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Sev, after fighting you, I agree that you're very good, but the skill gap between us, atleast in 1.4, isn't that wide. I will however say that you have my respect as a duelist. And with that, I went back to 1.3 after our duel, and honestly had 10x more fun, even in EU servers. I really think that the devs should just work to making 1.3 better, it is so much more fluid, and entertaining. I suppose to each their own, though. Personally, I've grown very tired of 1.4, and won't be partaking in it.


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Oh, and as a reply to your post, yes it would make sense that chipping away and building AC against a turtler is how you win, unfortunately that isn't how it works (especially against yellow). You cannot build ACM against someone competent, you'll just lose it quickly. Against Raptor (the best blue user I know that actually plays 1.4) we couldn't keep any ACM against each other, we'd instantly take it away after every nudge fight.
 
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T r i s t a n

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Sev, after fighting you, I agree that you're very good, but the skill gap between us, atleast in 1.4, isn't that wide. I will however say that you have my respect as a duelist. And with that, I went back to 1.3 after our duel, and honestly had 10x more fun, even in EU servers. I really think that the devs should just work to making 1.3 better, it is so much more fluid, and entertaining. I suppose to each their own, though. Personally, I've grown very tired of 1.4, and won't be partaking in it.


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Oh, and as a reply to your post, yes it would make sense that chipping away and building AC against a turtler is how you win, unfortunately that isn't how it works (especially against yellow). You cannot build ACM against someone competent, you'll just lose it quickly. Against Raptor (the best blue user I know that actually plays 1.4) we couldn't keep any ACM against each other, we'd instantly take it away after every nudge fight.
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