Junior Member
The only disadvantage I can think of right now is that you can't grapple with either hand... It's shield. It's designed to protect your body.
Maybe they emphasize in guard breaking and making quick attacks before they regain their stance, or performing a parry and riposte (like the Warden in the gameplay), or teamworking and surrounding the shield bearer to attack him from behind. They should balance it someway (maybe with weaker feats), but shields must inflict fear. Think of the wall shields of Romans and Spartans. Vikings also used this tactic, by the way.
Junior Member
Since this game is not intended to be historically accurate, and technically in a fictional universe (albeit largely inspired by real warriors) i kind of think grouping warriors from different area's into factions would be cool. Also I think a mediterranean inspired faction would be a cool expansion/DLC. Just would be cool to pick different kinds of warriors in the load out for each team. Also not just swords but weapons like spears/naginata/halbeard that need more distance, flails/kusarigama that need timing, and warriors double wielding weapons.
The Chosen
-Samurai w/ Katana (current)
-Samurai w/ Naginata
-Ninja w/ Kusarigama
-Shaolin inspired warriors
-Mongolian inspired warriors
The Legions
-Knight w/ 2-handed sword (current)
-Knight w/ 1-handed sword & shield
-Knight w/ Flail
-Knight w/ Halberd
The Warborn
-Viking w/ 2-handed weapon (sword or long axe) (current)
-Viking w/ 1-handed weapon + shield (sword or axe)
-Viking Beserker w/ 2 weapons (axes + swords)
-Highlander w/ Claymore
The Dominus - Mediterranean inspired warriors
-Legionnaires
-Spartan hoplites
-Myrmidon
-Gladiators
Member
I look forward to the shield bearer class for Legion. I love me a sword and board knight!
I expect, based on the historical accuracy, trailers, and the desire for novelty, that the shield bearer knight will come equipped with a flail. The shield will be used to block, so you don't need a defensive weapon. I would prefer the option to customize sword/axe/mace/hammer/flail but that may not happen.
As for how the mechanics of a shield will be applied, I think it would be cool and not too imbalanced if you kept your guard up while attacking, in the same direction you are attacking. Skallagrim makes the point in his For Honor realism rant at 5:55 here that there isn't a need to lower your shield while you attack. Obviously this will be useful because your heavy attacks will be harder to counter with light attacks, but not a huge advantage because you can still be struck on either other direction, or blocked/parried/dodged.
Beyond that, the devs have stated their interest in introducing polearms and I am very much a fan of that idea. The attacks need to be slow, both for realism's sake and for balance because almost always getting first strike needs to have a serious disadvantage to balance it out. Perhaps having a weakness in close quarters, though how that would work mechanically I don't know.
In response to what some have said, don't get your hopes up about quick warriors. The Oni is "quick" in that their attacks are faster and their guard break allows you to roll around your opponent to change position, but they do not run any faster than the knights. It would be unbalanced for one class/faction to be able to dictate the time of engagement so easily.
On the point of "Support" classes, I should first emphasize that this is not an MMO with prescribed roles in combat. Everyone is there to murder the other team as efficiently as possible. There is no holy trinity here. That being said, perhaps polearms could fill that "Support" niche in that it will be easier for them to attack alongside an ally, striking from a distance while one/two/three close range warriors are hogging all the space.
