Attack: Any offensive maneuver (excluding Guard Break) including unblockables
Guard Break: Self-explanatory
Patience: To block, dodge, deflect or parry
The core of this game's balance revolves around the simple rock paper scissors of
Attack beats Guard Break
Guard Break beats Patience
Patience beats Attack
Obviously, there are many more layers of mechanics, depth and complexity that make it less straightforward than that, but that's the foundation.
A side dash attack consists of a dodge (patience) followed immediately by an attack.
If your opponent attacks into the dodge, they will lose the trade.
If your opponent guard breaks into the attack, they will lose the trade.
On the other hand
If your opponent guard breaks into the dodge, they will win the trade.
If your opponent is patient against the attack, they will win the trade.
On the surface, it seems perfectly balanced and functional, sure.
The problem here is that the dodge is entirely too effective, too efficient, devoid of risk, and TOO EASY to use both proactively and re-actively as a nearly universal defense mechanism.
It doesn't matter if you dodge before, during, or after your opponent's attack. The MAJORITY of the time, the dodge will counter the attack successfully without nearly enough regard for timing or direction.
What this means is that assassins can use the side dash attack both proactively and re-actively without concern (relatively).
In contrast, even an uninterruptible attack doesn't offer the damage prevention of a side dash attack
In contrast, a parry requires both precise timing and directional accuracy.
Sure the reward of parrying properly can be substantially greater than that of a dash attack, but the
risk of mistiming a parry is greater BY FAR than the risk of side dash attacking prematurely.
Furthermore. . .
The transition into such a swift attack makes the window of availability for it to be countered by guard break terribly small. Even when I know my opponent is going to use a side dash attack (because all assassins do half the time is spam their dodge attacks), If they use their dash even a quarter of a second before I attempt to counter it with guard break, they will transition into an attack before my guard break resolves. I lose the trade.
Assassins (and Kensei) can spam side dash attacks to their heart's content, denying their opponent the option to play aggressively without any of the effort or skill required to produce the same result with blocks, parries, or standard dodges.
Blocks, parries, deflects, standard dodges, etc. can also punish aggression just as well, but the difference is that they require much more exact timing, directional accuracy, and above all: PATIENCE. None of these things can be done proactively. You MUST wait for your opponent to strike before you can properly utilize any of these tools.
SIDE DASH ATTACKS ARE THE ONLY ATTACKS IN THE GAME THAT CAN POTENTIALLY COUNTER EVERY ATTACK IN THE GAME.
I'm not saying it can't be countered. It isn't exactly breaking the game, but it's toxic in an otherwise respectably skill oriented competitive environment.
- Some zone and side attacks have a wide enough arc and/or secondary properties that demand a certain degree of timing of direction from the dodges, and they will succeed against a proactive side dash attack on occasion, but if the side dash is used defensively, it will still win every time.
- Guard break will successfully counter the dodge phase of the technique, but the transition into an attack makes that window of opportunity frustratingly small.
- Obviously at the end of the day it's an Attack like any other, which is countered by Patience. You can block, parry, dodge, and deflect them like anything else but this translates to you being denied the option play with any degree of agression.
If you're quick, you can even attack into the direction they're dodging AFTER they start their dodge and interrupt their attack but it's up to YOU to keep track of what direction they're dodging, and skillfully place an attack in the small window available. It goes without saying that this falls into the "Patience" category.
I don't blame people for spamming it, because it's a move worthy of spam.
I blame you, Ubisoft, for allowing this to be such a viable tactic.
Sidebar - If you ever think,"This guy is spamming guard break" take a moment to ask yourself, "Am I spamming dodge?"
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