This is my summary of around 20hrs of gameplay this weekend focused on the modes and combat, as well as some recommendations:

TLDR: 1v1 combat great, like duels. competitive ladder w/ leaver punishment needed for launch. 1vX combat needs to be fixed or done away with. Need acheivement and upgrade system re-work. More ways to make your hero feel like your own. If re-work of combat successful 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 "arenas" could be cool for competitive play.

Some notes about me:
*Like warden most
*Play Keyboard and Mouse (i actually got used to it pretty quick... it is tough not overreacting with mouse, which could be tweaked... but still not that bad). Then again I also play freakin' darksould with k+m and people think I'm crazy... so I dunno
*Play games entirely for PvP (still looking for a wow arena replacement - we will see how it is in Legion)

Duels:
The reason to play this game... its like chess with quick thinking, instinct, and clever deception to beat your opponent toe-to-toe... this is where the game shines. There are some broken tactics sure... but nothing that I haven't been able to find a way around yet... so honestly balance isn't that crazy for an alpha! (I rarely see raider used... but the ones I have still did ok and I did ok playing them a few times). I see a lot of Orochi's... that "whirlwind blast" (or w/e its called... the parry to unblockable counter) is a bit annoying... but there are still ways to punish it... but still by far the hardest to beat. I myself like Warden the best because of (as the tooltip says) the adaptability. I found myself being most successful when knowing when to barrage with attacks, or counter-play/bait. There were frustrating moments (FOR SURE!) like when you find yourself getting wrecked by the unblockable over-head Kensei power attack... but then you find ways to counter and immediately feel accomplished when u roll out of the way and smash him up. Anyway... I loved it and think with a well thought out competitive ladder, this could be great.

Unfortunately... it's a very small part of the game and therefore I fear for how popular it would be, but my hopes are high! (Please DO A GOOD JOB WITH A LADDER FOR LAUNCH!)

Brawl

Pretty useless... but has potential maybe? So I say it is a useless gamemode because combat outside of 1v1 is just silly... its not fun. I mean I know you shouldn't be able to just crush a 1v2 and it should be hard... but honestly right now the "just block and hope u get revenge mode before they just charge u and guardbreak u" is pretty lame. Either you get wrecked, or manage to get revenge mode, knock them down, kill one, and duel the other. The latter is... well its ok. But it's not like I did soemthing special, its just my opponents sucked and I pointed the mouse/stick where I needed to and held it there. Maybe I'm just bad at multiple opponents... but I find it incredibly clunky, and not rewarding. Therefore brawl is really just 2 separate 1v1s. it has some interesting things like if you beat your guy and the enemy beats your ally, then its like 2 fun separate duels that feels rewarding, but thats about it.

I think this gamemode has potential if it was somehow arena style. Im thinking like wow arena, basically encorporating teamplay into a 2v2 or 3v3 scenario... but given that combat, to be frank,... sucks outside of 1v1 (and is amazing 1v1) I don't know how it could be accomplished unfortunately.

Dominion

It's alright... I like when you are for example defending a point and have clutch plays to throw one off the map before his friend gets to you... etc... its fun. "The front" is interesting... I guess I like it with the little minions, makes it less boring than just "heres a point, cap it" and makes the game feel like a battlefield. Doesn't feel as competitive as duels though, and the feats are a bit messy - but they can help alleviate some of the problems with 1vX combat by being able to blind a group.

The drawback that undermines the mode: On teams that clump up (which is probably teh best strategy), and this leads to silly 4v1,2,3 scenarios that are jsut messy and not fun at all because everyone is power attacking and hitting eachother and their teammates and it just totally screws up the amazing feel of 1v1 combat. And if you aren't clumping up, then every time you are 1v2,3,4 your best strat is to just run... so most of the time you end up running around to the points counter-capping... BOOOOORING.


My thoughts and suggestions.... some might even be crazy
Duels are great... I hope there is a great ladder and lots of interest in competitive for honor duels at launch!

non 1v1 combat needs to be addressed to make the rest fun... (or i just suck at 1vX... but anyway... this is MY summary):
*What if (BIG WHAT IF!!!) it was made so that in multiplayer modes you could challenge individual opponents and then others could not interfere until someone died... that means that the game revolves around fun duels... even in 4v4 dominion. I know this solution probably won't appease many people, but I think something like this or a derivative of it is needed. Maybe even if it was only activated in near the end when your team is breaking giving a strong player a chance to clutch (not saying they win the match if they win 4 different 1v1 duels at the end... but maybe a teammate gets rezzed or the otehr team loses 100 points or something). or just have a separate version of all the gamemodes... like a special "honor mode" where there is no interference in 1v1 combat... (kinda goes with the game title). I was actually in a dominion match where when the team was breaking and they had 1 guy left he said "can we do 1v1s" and we did... it was actually fun.


Miscellaneous thoughts (aside from combat/modes)
People love acheivements and looking cool... this is where wow arena shines with the achiev and rating system with cool armor and titles and weapon glow... I think this should be implemented in the game because everyone wants to fight for the right to show off how badass they are.

I don't really know how useful the upgrade system and all that is... I think it could be good if it was clearly beneficial, but it should nto be too difficult because I am a huge proponent of the "free to win" model... (ok ok... not so much free to win as don't need to grind endlessly to win). Therefore I'd even be ok if the upgrades were cosmetic (see prior achievement comment). But in its current state I don't really care too much for supposedly upgrading stuff and not noticing.

PUNISH LEAVERS I know it is just alpha, but once the launch is out and assuming there is a well-thought out competitive ladder, punish the *** out of leavers and cheaters (just want everyone to start thinking about this early)

What about instead of (or in addition to) a dominion mode there is a "capture the fort" or "Do some objective" mode (free the prisoners and escort them to safety for a top-of-the-head example).

Kind of like brawl... but a "gladiator" type arena could be a cool replacement subject to combat in 1vX situations.

I find these games that are driven from a menu usually don't' get popular... Maybe have cities in the game where you can "be your hero" and talk to armorers and sign up for arenas etc... I dunno, maybe its stpd... but even a mode where you are your hero would be cool.

Writing that last comment made me think... some kind of "hardcore" gamemode could be cool where death is punished more severely or no respawns.

I just know that some of my friends that have looked at the game are saying "cool concept... but I won't get it unless it really takes off" so I think the perception that this style of game is too difficult to execute well (current 1vX combat is broken) will turn people off.

Bugs
Warden's tabard clips the back while sprinting

Had a few games where someone would leave mid-duel and then I'd be stuck int eh game (bot wouldn't be clip-able)

Sometimes there is a bug when you are falling off map but just kind of lay on teh ground next to the edge moving up/down for a while.

Sometimes legs go under the ground (100% example is in the defender spawn on the samurai map for duels, the person starting down the steps always starts with their legs int he ground).