After my Day 1 Feedback I was too busy playing to make any more posts, so now it has to all go into this one.

I was able to play for a couple of hours each day and was almost always in a group with at least one friend of mine. After some more time with the Warden, I was also able to test out all the other character and in the end was surprised to find out, that I'm liking the Kensei way too much!

The Good:
Thank you to TheNimda for pointing out that I could change sensitivity for the GamePad as well. This helped a lot in changing stances the way I wanted to.

Character Variation and Balance. I just have to mention how awesome it is that we have six different characters, that each play differently but still can defeat and be defeated by all the other characters available. Then each of them looks badass as well, always recognizable on the battlefied and fun to play as. Here's my short impressions of the classes.

-Warden: The bread and butter fighter. Visually he still appeals to me the most, who doesn't want to play a Knight in full armour that swings a huge sword? As the balanced Vanguard he has middle reach and middle speed on his attacks. I love him for the versatility of that, but in this Alpha I was unable to make use of his unique abilites. Mainly the Top Down Parry and the Shoulder Bash. I was never able to make those work for me consistently. As a result my game stagnated and I was not able to use the Warden to its full potential. Fighting against the Warden is always interesting and I like prolonged Vanguard vs Vanguard fights. His executions are what keep me coming back every time!

- Conqueror: The only Heavy we have seen so far makes me look forward to see the other factions take on it. Right now the Conqueror is fun to play as. I'm not good with him, but it is very statisfying to stand fully surrounded and just shrug off those hits coming at you. Fighting against the Conqueror is always a challenge, as it should be. This is the only class I struggled with against the Bot version in 1 v 1 all the way to the end of the Alpha. All the other classes were easy picking, but it always got complicated when a Conqueror was around.

- Raider: Love the visual style. Picking up people and bashing their head in or throwing them off cliffs is fun for a while, but it gets repepitive quickly. I think the punch of his hits is really well realized and it is always statisfying to fight with him or against him.

- Berserker: Love the concept, but could not get good results with him this time around. Still a fun combination, where you have several moves to open up the enemy and the potential for burst damage is strong as well.

- Kensei: I had a hard time warming up to his visuals, but I do love his playing style. The reach is fantastic, nimble on his feet and it is a blast to play around those Combos, always trying for that third Heavy Attack! The way it is working out right now this might become my new main. Unlike the Warden I was able to use his complete Moveset and as a result was way more successful with him. Luckily there are some Customization options that make the Kensei look more in line with my wishes. His executions are also some of the most statisfying for me!

- Orochi: Everybody's favourite character to complain about. I feel that he is almost at the right spot between ease of use, mastery of his skills and deadly pawnage against his enemies. I found him easy to pick up, but ever harder to master. Maybe still a tad too easy, but this was the enemy that would drive me to tears, fighting against them as a Vanguard in 1 vs 1. In the hands of a capable player they are a force to be reckoned with. Also the only class so far, that has ranged attack potential. Not really a fan of that either. As a Vanguard you have to be careful and bide your time, keep your distance. Well the Orochi just shoots you with his Arrow and finishes you off with his Kunai. The most unfun exprience of the whole Alpha by far.

The Bad:
Connectivity. Seems like I just got lucky on my first day, where nothing much happened. It got gradually worse the longer the Alpha went.
There were Disconnects due to Server Migration that threw you back into the Lobby. Sometimes everybody but me would leave the game, but the game wouldn't start not even when the Counter reached Zero. Back to Lobby again.
Joined fights without my group member several times as well. There were Network Errors while joining the group or inviting other people to my group. One of them was shown as offline afterwards, although he was clearly in the game.
But the best part was the last day of the Alpha, where we finally had a group of four going. We couldn't get into any Player vs Player games though: The problem was one of my friends, whoe NAT had gone from Green to Red literally overnight. The day before I could play with just him against other Players just fine, Brawl, Dominion, you name it. But on Sunday no such luck. We ended up having to play against Bots for the rest of the evening, as that was the only thing that worked. Repeated attempts at Player vs. Player always resulted in a Timeout.

The Ugly:
Parrying and Feinting should be included in the playable tutorial. Theses skills are essential, if you want to progress beyond a certain point. Both require good timing and it's hard to practice them against a live opponent, since it is also not clear when the exact right moment for parrying has come. When the animation connects, when the Red triangle is shown? Nobody knows. If you miss two Parries, you're dead and that's it. Also you're not dependent on connection / lag issues that further complicate those timing skills. I was maybe able to parry twice during the whole Alpha, maybe connectivity issues got worse or they changed the timing, but it used to be easier to successfully parry.

One time I hot-joined a game session just to be stuck in a bridge Pillar near B on the Overwatch Map. I could not move, but was luckily killed after some time by an enemy player.



In conclusion I had a blast during the Alpha, WHEN I was able to play. But getting to the game was sometimes just too hard. Especially once grouped up we ran into too many problems. Like many other players I would love to see dedicated Servers for the game, but I am doubtful this will happen. The connectivity issues have to be improved though. To quote one of my Teammates: "It is 2016! You should not have to forward ports to play an online game, anymore!" And that's not even an option for many people, with ISPs restricting access to the Routers. If the connectivity problems persist the Mutliplayer will be dead withing months of release. What I would love to see, would be a Connectivity Tool that shows what kind of NAT you would get in the game. Because if for some reason my NAT ended up being strict, without me able to change this, I would definetly not buy the game.

I look forward to testing this more and hope that we see gradual improvements in connectivitiy in the upcoming Alphas, Betas. I'll hopefully see you all around!