High level Meta, Discussion thread on competitive balancing and class viability. | Forums

[Battle_Otter]

With over 60 hours in Beta, and a lot of 1v1 I am by no means the best, But I have fair understanding on competitive and high mmr play.

With the Current class balancing I personally Think Only 3 classes are viable for competitive play. Warden, Nobushi, Peacemaker. I'm open for other high end players to argue this claim.

I do not have the answers for this problem, I do not have a good enough understanding of all class mechanics to offer balanced solutions to the current Meta.

This thread is simply opened to let people know and for people with viable solutions to come forward. Also for UBI to be aware that there is class imbalance at high level competitive play. As people become more experienced at the game, there will be a move towards these characters as player skill levels rise with the game. Reducing class diversity.

Personally I think Peacemakers dash mechanic is too cheap, Wardens Shoulder Charge isn't punished enough when opponent is forced to roll evade in case of cancel - GB. Nobushi's damage is too high. These are broad claims and I invite other more experienced members of the community to expand upon this.

Please attempt to refrain from class bias in this thread.

[TCTF_SWAT]

When people say high level already.....I can't but feel it's "not high level". I'd say it's more average play at best right now.

[xilixer]

i'm surprised orochi isn't up there. the amount of damage the character gets off of guard breaks is a little ridiculous. although the character is based around counter-attacking meaning the character is only as good as the player is at counter-attacking and parrying.

[TCTF_SWAT]

It's never stated what opponents they face.

[Vlademar_Dracht]

"Nobushi's damage is too high" - Cept for characters that remove her bleed ability. And anyone who knows how to beat her *cough* DODGE *cough*. Attack a Warden through their shoulder charge wind up, if they cancel GB it's canceled right back from your attack, if they don't cancel it, they still get hit, win-win. Peacekeepers are just annoying as ****.

Shield***s and their constant shield-bashing against people in narrow streets/corners is game breaking, and dodging around their initial attacks is almost impossible, at least with my connection. Though I don't know the actual ms timing, I know my internet isn't the best, and I know I can't recover from the stagger animation/being hit before the next shield bash/headbutt comes in.

[Kwasymotto]

With over 60 hours in Beta, and a lot of 1v1 I am by no means the best, But I have fair understanding on competitive and high mmr play.

With the Current class balancing I personally Think Only 3 classes are viable for competitive play. Warden, Nobushi, Peacemaker. I'm open for other high end players to argue this claim.

I do not have the answers for this problem, I do not have a good enough understanding of all class mechanics to offer balanced solutions to the current Meta.

This thread is simply opened to let people know and for people with viable solutions to come forward. Also for UBI to be aware that there is class imbalance at high level competitive play. As people become more experienced at the game, there will be a move towards these characters as player skill levels rise with the game. Reducing class diversity.

Personally I think Peacemakers dash mechanic is too cheap, Wardens Shoulder Charge isn't punished enough when opponent is forced to roll evade in case of cancel - GB. Nobushi's damage is too high. These are broad claims and I invite other more experienced members of the community to expand upon this.

Please attempt to refrain from class bias in this thread.

With what you've said I've already put in over 100 hours in this game and my KD is quite insane compared to other games i play like rainbow siege so i can safely say that im at least at the higher end of the skill level tree so far. ive been playing since the first closed alpha and have slowly been seeing players gravitate towards faster characters BUT with that said no your not in high level pvp yet if thats what you see warden is played but unoften and anywhere outside of duels or brawls nobushi is nonexistent and even in 1v1-2v2s shes rare people are really good at getting in close and they're to fast to actually get some distance if you try and guard break them they block it peace keeper is everywhere as is orochi and kensi every other class except for berserker who is there but just as rare as nobushi are not played at all. a good balance would be to make the assassins have a stamina cost on their dash and when their stam is fully gone make it harder to block. and or just increase the stamina cost of all assassins attacks so they cant combo as much. this would keep them viable but not dead in the water and increase variation in what people play. as well as give better counter play to assasins other than try and parry an attack that comes out fast thats then cancled and changed into a light attack. oh yeah and the kensi has and true stunlock with his overhead unblockable so that needs to go.

[Vlademar_Dracht]

"Kensei has a true stunlock with an overhead unblockable so that needs to go" - You're not a good player, or a high level player. Post a picture of your K : D ratio and your win percentage or else what you're saying is completely market as irrelevant with your closing sentence of your post. Every character in the game can recover from Kensei's double GB + overhead unblockable in time to parry it. Every, character.

[RLTygurr]

As a response to OP:

Warden is strong simply because of his two fastest attacks: His overhead light (which also is a counter) and an insanely fast zone attack. I mained warden during both betas and can confirm that the zone attack is simply too strong at the moment, especially when you can use it to knock people off ledges if they're not lucky or fast enough to defend. The shield charge is spammable and can be combo'd, but the only thing you have to do is dodge backwards rather than sideways. It's not so hard after you pick up the character for a bit.

Nobushi? I dunno man, I don't think nobushi is that strong at all. Pretty finely balanced. I very rarely lose to a Nobushi simply because her unblockable kick thing that can be combo'd into free bleed damage is easy to dodge. On the other hand, her heavy attacks are not even worth using because they're so slow (in my opinion)

Peacekeeper is annoying but the only time I've had trouble with them is when they just spam light attacks because there's such a small window of opportunity to block or parry them. Dodge attacks are easily punishable with a smart parry and never once have I been hit with the guard break triple stab unless I was fighting 1v3 or more.

In my experience, Conquerers and Warlords are the ones people will use the most simply because they're so defensive and have a lot of control abilities that move the opponent around, making cheese plays an extremely easy tactic. Too many Conquerers spam their shield charge and shield bash because that's like the only real ability they have that can help do damage, and Warlords are tough as hell. High hp, medium damage, superior block on all light attacks, a full block, uninterruptible heavy attacks at the beginning, and a sprinting charge that shoves people back (a lot). Shield characters will be the ones people use to try to emulate good players, and will usually win if any environment is around, even a wall, since the conquerer can just wallbang you with his shield bash-light attack combo infinitely unless you're an assassin and can dodge fast enough.

Thoughts?

[Kwasymotto]

"Kensei has a true stunlock with an overhead unblockable so that needs to go" - You're not a good player, or a high level player. Post a picture of your K : D ratio and your win percentage or else what you're saying is completely market as irrelevant with your closing sentence of your post. Every character in the game can recover from Kensei's double GB + overhead unblockable in time to parry it. Every, character.

youve miss understood a true stunlock is one you cannot get out of my man. i found this out with my friend when we were just goofing around. it only becomes and true stunlock if you mismanage your stamina and run out. then once your on the ground he can use the overheard your still getting up and then he gaurd beaks you again just before you get out and since your in the "fallen" animation still you cant block it then he repeats.

[Vlademar_Dracht]

youve miss understood a true stunlock is one you cannot get out of my man. i found this out with my friend when we were just goofing around. it only becomes and true stunlock if you mismanage your stamina and run out. then once your on the ground he can use the overheard your still getting up and then he gaurd beaks you again just before you get out and since your in the "fallen" animation still you cant block it then he repeats.

But it's your fault for getting guard broken at such low stamina in the first place. So it's not the Kensei being broken, it's you for letting your stamina drop. And this goes into the problem of the true meta of the game: Playing Hyper Defensive is the meta of this game, and it will cause it to die faster that the P2P Connection system.