Testing grounds extended feedback
I just finished filling out the survey and while I was more than satisfied with the survey itself I still feel the compulsion to hear myself talk with my own thread. So i'm posting one. Unlike the last one I did this covers general changes rather than hero specific ones. So i'm simply going to break down the post into 3 sections. What I liked and disliked about the changes specifically, Issues i've found while playing the TG born from the changes, And lastly some suggestions to build off the changes we've gotten with closing thoughts on my overall experience.
Likes and dislikes:
Likes:
-Recovery changes.
-Most of the stamina changes.
-Indicator changes/attack speed increases.
-The idea of lower damage values.
-Better feints.
-easier zone input.
Dislikes:
-Complete removal of of stamina loss when being parried.
-Some of the higher end damage values.
Overall the combat flow and pace feels better and closer to what I think FH is meant to be like. The direction is right but it needs polish.
Found issues:
-Revenge gain. Feels very hard to net revenge when people huck attacks into you externally now compared to live.
-Feats. In general feats have never been in a good balance position. But in my opinion the combination of live feats versus TG changes feels almost as bad as when feat stacking was absurd.
-Animation polish. I understand they specifically made things to be delayed consistently regardless of input. But some animations just feel busted now. Notable ones being warlord headbutt and Black prior's chained side heavy.
-Certain ganks feel more oppressive than on live. examples being Shaman's bleed gank, Glad ganking with literally anyone, Nuxia and cent. In the former 2 it's strictly due to damage values. In the latter it's due to a combination of centurion still having cutscene's and Nuxia being able to trap 2 sides while said trap being unreactable.
-If you go over 100 latency in a match delayed inputs will actually begin to mess with how you look to your opponent again.
-Shugoki's trading capabilities feel more absurd due to not being able to reaction parry after baiting him. And your lower damage versus his better damage and ability to heal. He still somehow manages to slow down the game even in TG.
-Jormungundr's capability to stall due to his feats, stamina drain, and stamina pausing on his opponent feels more oppressive on TG. Because lower damage universally. Because he can still do big stamina damage. Because his slam is still 50 damage.
-Bleed damage in combination with some weird attack damage buffs makes kits like shaman's straight up broken. Glad's skewer is broken. And while neither pk nor Nobushi's values are broken as bad/close as these two examples Bleed damage didn't need buffing along side their basic attack damage. PK on live already has decent enough damage. Same with Nobushi. I don't mind slightly buffing their damage values. But bleed shouldn't be buffed period.
-While I enjoy neutral based attacks being "unreactable" I still think the amount of damage most neutral combo starting lights do is a bit too much in combination with the TG changes. Berzerker is actually almost a problem due to this (and his side heavies still being absurd damage wise.)
-Reflex guard feels actually like a downside now. It's basically impossible to refresh your guard in outnumbered situations now.
Suggestions/closing thoughts:
Suggestions:
-Major rebalance of feats
-Lower the damage in outlier cases (ex glad skewer, shaman dodge attacks/soft feint/bite, LB's parries, etc)
-Lower the damage on neutral light chain starters to 8-10 damage.
-Making parrying any move cause the person parried to lose a fixed 50 stamina barring parry counters. Those keep their own unique values.
-Keep bleed damage's live values over TG values.
-Remove reflex guard or allow them to block multi hits without needing to refresh.
Closing thoughts:
Let's get one thing clear. I don't think TG changes fix the game. I don't think they were flawless. In my time spent playing with my group, watching comp/pro players discuss things, and reading general threads and comments pretty much everyone was in agreement on the damage values being very off and needing to be looked into. Most are not against lower damage. But in some cases it's not low enough. In other cases some damage was buffed for seemingly no reason. Even though these changes make basic offense much better there are still characters who need help. Absolutely no hero was 100% fixed with TG. And there are still some moves that have too much recovery for literally no reason (lookin at you Goki.) And feat imbalance is only more obvious.
That being said. Even with TG being as rough as it is in quite a bit of areas the devs set out to accomplish one major thing. Making basic tools (basic attacks and feints) more usable. To make combat flow better. And they've accomplished this. Better than I was actually expecting. TG feels like where the devs should have had us 2 years ago. Not going into year 4. With their renewed focus in the comp scene via supporting tournaments and adding spectator and now making net positive changes to base game mechanics like this I firmly believe the game can continue to last for a few more years. As long as they keep going like this that is.
I've largely stopped playing the game myself. Haven't put nearly as much time into the game as i'd have liked to back when i moved to PC. And while I can't tell you if these changes would make FH a regular game for me again I can tell you one thing. TG is the most fun i've had with the game since season 5's big boy changes. I actually enjoyed my experience when playing. I didn't feel the need to "sweat" and feel discouraged when I make bad mistakes. It gave me something i've not experienced in pvp since I was a kid. I enjoyed playing just because I was playing.
I can also tell you this. If these changes do not go live I don't ever see myself really coming back to FH as a regular game again. I suppose it's possible they could make other changes that give the same good flow effect. But I don't wish to hang my hopes on something I can't see myself. So there you have it. My extended feedback. Regardless of you agreeing or disagreeing with me or how any of you may feel about me I thank you for your time to read one of my rambles.