Balance Talk (Since everyone complains about every other class, please read)
[B]First of all, hello[/B]. I want to start with saying I am not an expert, and not a developer, so take what I say as you wish. Now on to the point.
Considering the fact that all I see on the forum currently is talk about "this class is weak, buff it" or "this class is broken, nerf it and make it unplayable", I shall try to help all of you out with some words of wisdom.
The balance in the current game is bad, we all know it. Add to that the fact that connectivity issues causes lag and other problems in duels, and suddenly some classes will be really hard to beat as some-or-other class. I will be going through all twelve classes currently in the game, hopefully you've all stayed with me so far. Let's begin:
VIKINGS:
Raider
Berserker
Warlord
Valkyrie
No doubt some of you have problems with these classes, so I will list their strengths and weaknesses, something that others have failed to do in the midst of their rage at certain "********" prospects that classes indeed do have.
So first of all, there's four roles in the game, let's go in the same order and let's give a brief background to these roles. Why? Because contrary to popular belief, roles mean what type of playstyle a Hero in the game has, and his/her strengths.
Vanguard: Frontline type, moderate damage and speed as well as strong defensive capabilities and cc. Typically Vanguard is the most all-around class. Can fight all roles with lesser disadvantages / advantages.
Assassin: Backline type, the dude who stays back and waits for a good target, not built to fight Heavies, Quick class with moderate to high damage, deflects are a special ability that requires good timing and gives a decent reward for pulling it off. Typically has issues with Heavies, but can stand toe-to-toe with any other role.
Heavy: Frontline type fighters who specialize in their defensive capabilities. Has a ton of cc and very strong guardbreaks. Often played as a counter-attacker, with high damage and stamina drain. Typically good in every situation, arguably the most important role to have atleast one of in your team, regardless of gamemode.
Hybrid: Here's where things get tricky, people want nobushi defense boosted, valk damage increased et cetera. No. A Hybrid is a, read again, HYBRID, and not any other type. That means they will be a blend of 2-3 different roles, and likely a mix between two Heroes in the game. These are the most versatile classes in the game (Worth noting is that Warden is also extremely adaptable, even though it's a Vanguard.)
Keep in mind that the classes have different healthbars. There are three types (that I am aware off). Those are Vanguard type, which is about 5.1 healthbars. Heavy, which is about 6 healthbars. And Assassin, which is about 4.5 healthbars.
Vanguard: Raider
The Raider is a Vanguard type class who typically wants to do a lot of mixups. The class has many, many tools available for using to win a duel. Good blocking, high heavy damage and a good speed on light attacks, which do a completely okay amount of damage.
The guardbreak has a pretty good distance as well as a quick animation, and the throwing distance is insane. Charging people into walls will automatically trigger a stun on the opponent, causing them to be unable to see guard direction indicators for a short time. It does not guarantee a heavy overhead, but it does guarantee a heavy side attack or light attack.
The area attack is a hard-hitting, unblockable attack. It is slow, it has a long range and is very telegraphed in both sound and animation. Easily parried.
The class also has glaring stamina problems if not managed correctly, use this to your advantage!
Be careful not to let them use environmental hazards against you, and let them take the initiative, or bait them by faking.
Everyone who complains about this class being weak/op, I firmly believe that you are wrong and that the class is balanced. My friend who has played the class since closed beta and is still going strong, can confirm that it is very rewarding played correctly, but easily made mistakes gets you punished. He thinks the class doesn't need a buff of any kind, and that a nerf would be unnecesary. I, myself, not being a Raider player, agree.
Assassin: Berserker
The Berserker is the Vikings Assassin type class, a mobile offensive class which has crazy combos and fast cancels as well as hyper armor on heavy attacks. Hyper armor means that the attack cannot be interrupted even by hitting them during it.
Their guardbreak is very short range, but is extremely fast and guarantees a heavy attack, or a throw with a moderate distance.
Lacks any sweep attack which most other classes have, but instead has a lot of movement and very strong dodges.
Deflecting attacks guarantees a guardbreak, but has no other follow-up hit, unlike the Peacekeeper and Orochi (will be covered further down).
They deal a low amount of damage with most attacks, but hit fast with very scary combos which barely drain stamina.
Key to playing vs this class is to play defensively, and let them come to you. Careful not to fall for their fakes!
I have seen many posts about this class, and I think the class is actually another one which is balanced. Low damage on most attacks, but the overhead heavy for example deals a lot. You can play it in many different ways, and if your skill matches your opponent, you can always beat them. They make up for their low damage with fast attacks and the (arguably) most fake-heavy moveset in the game. Outplay your opponent, and you win. It's a skill based class, not one that can abuse on single thing to win. A friend of mine plays almost exclusively Berserker and he is a god at it, consistently beating almost everyone and being 7-0 or 11-2 most games. He says if anything it feels a bit too strong, but looking at the attacks there is nothing you can nerf without impacting the class in such a way that it becomes too weak, as evidenced by certain classes that are almost unbeatable because of the disadvantage when playing against them. Examples are Conqueror and Warlord.
Heavy: Warlord
The Warlord is the Heavy class in the Vikings armies, an extremely defensive class that focuses on counterplay and whittling their opponent down. This class, like the Berserker, has hyper armor on heavy attacks, making them easy to trade with or get that last heavy for the execution. They also have so-called "Superior Block Light Attacks" which means that during the startup frames of the light attacks, the Warlord still has his shield block active, which works as hyper armor in a single direction. Heavy attack damage is about 35 damage, which is pretty good! Lights do something along the lines of Warden lights, and are moderately quick.
The Warlord guardbreak has great range, by dashing forward automatically it will most likely hit most of the time. The throw range (in the form of a charge, in any of the four directions, right, left, back or forward) is massive, and staggers the opponent after the charge has been completed, allowing for a light attack. If you charge your opponent into a wall, they will be stunned automatically and you will be able to try to get a heavy attack off, but it is not guaranteed.
By pressing C the Warlord will enter "Full Block Stance" which blocks in all three directions. This can be used to cancel certain attacks and will throw your opponent off and stagger them for a free guardbreak!
Their Headbutt attack drains 20 of the targets stamina and guarantees a follow up combo'd light attack. It is, however, easily dodgeable and will be punished if it happens.
The key to this class is to be patient, let the enemy come to you and counter them using parries and trade with hyper armor and the light attack block.
Defeating a Warlord is to fake them out and bait them into coming after you, so that you counter them instead. Beat them at their own game!
This class, in all honesty, is just a bit too strong from mine and my friends experience. It is beatable, and it's not like they can spam one thing to win, but they have an advantage over most other classes in the game, to an extent that a Warlord who plays correctly is almost unbeatable. I suggest just nerfing heavy attacks by 5 damage so they hit for 30 and not 35, I think that's the only thing. It means that they have to hit one more heavy to kill and assassin or Kensei, just about, and I don't think it'd impact the class to such an extent that it would be too much. I just think it needs that one tiny little tweak.
Hybrid: Valkyrie
This class is a defensive hybrid with quick attacks, long combo chains and tons and tons of cc. Damage is quite low on the light attacks and the heavies are very slow. The stamina drain is quite high, so be careful with it. The Valkyrie also has access to a deflect with a strong bleed if you succeed! This, being the class that came out with the release, has a lot of complaints (they are understandable, but I think incorrect). I'll try to break the class down for you guys and explain.
This class highly benefits from being a skilled player, since it takes a long time to whittle your opponent down.
Like the Warlord, the Valkyrie has access to Superior Block Light attacks, as well as the Full Block Stance. This gives the Valkyrie the tools to trade and play the counter-attack game with their opponent, baiting their foes into a false sense of security with their passive playstyle and eventual pokes.
The Valkyrie guardbreak has moderate range, and a low throw distance, but guarantees side heavy attacks.
This class also has access to a Headbutt attack which drains the opponents stamina, as well as a Shield Tacle which knocks your enemy far, far away and makes pushes them back. Another attack is the Shield Crush, which makes the enemy fall.
Another cc ability they have access to is the Spear Sweep (which can be dodged in any direction, with the right timing), it will knock your opponent down and guarantee an overhead heavy attack.
The key to this class is, like the Warlord, the counterplay playstyle. Being patient and smart will greatly reward you with clean combos and taking all the stamina away from your enemies.
At the moment, after release, people are already complaining. I get why, the lights do not deal enough damage, it is true. Buff it by 2-3 damage per hit, and it'll be enough. It doesn't need more than that with how fast and cost-efficient they are. The reason why so many people complain is because they can't play it yet. A friend of mine recently started playing Valkyrie and is loving it. He has no complaints other than the light attack damage (since in elimination, time is very important when you can get 2v1'd), but he consistently beats other players. Again, the light attack does not need a large buff, but a slight one. But it does need one.
Now onto the next faction, Knights!
KNIGTHS
Warden
Peacekeeper
Conqueror
Lawbringer
Let us get right into it.
Vanguard: Warden
The Warden is an all-around character who is a very strong character due to his counter for overhead attacks, making him one of the single strongest classes in the game. Yes, you who believe Warden is weak, I am serious. Let me explain this to you:
Warden, like the Raider, typically wants to do a lot of mixups. The class has the perfect tools for this in the form of heavy-hitting heavies and moderate damage, fast lights. Side lights has a guaranteed second hit for a bit reduced damage, and almost equals the damage of a heavy attack, like the Orochi overhead double light.
The Warden's guardbreak has good range, a rather slow animation, and great throw distance. it guarantees a side heavy attack (I might be wrong, but haven't been able to guard it for a week even by just pulling the direction of the attack from the moment I fail my counter-guarbreak) and is a great tool to keep your opponent in check, and crazy good for your mixups!
Another strong point for the Warden is the fact that they have something called a "Crushing Counterstrike" which means that the top light attack can be used as a parry, and make it inflict heavy attack damage instead and becomes unblockable! This in itself, makes it have an advantage versus every class that relies on overheads. Two classes that come to mind are Orochi and Lawbringer.
Their area attack is also probably the best one in the game. It propells you forward a long distance, hits VERY quick, and deals more damage than normal overhead light attacks (Almost certain, might be the same). It is also only dodgeable in the direction that it comes from. Which means left, if the Warden is trying to hit you with it (it comes from the right side every time).
Warden also has a Shoulder Bash, a charge-up tackle attack that staggers the opponent and allows you to hit a guaranteed double light combo (from the sides) or a guardbreak. It can also be canceled into a guardbreak to catch your opponent offguard.
Ontop of this the Warden has a passive block like most other classes, making it a counter-attacking class with strong offensive capabilities.
The key to playing a Warden is doing a lot of mixups, and trying to be unpredictable. You can either play it offensively and fake out your opponent, or you can play reactively and counter-attack. Just be careful not to get guardbroken yourself!
Beating a Warden, however, comes from one of the hardest things to do in games like this: Reading your opponent. You need to adapt and know what they will do basically before they themselves know it. That is why the Warden is too strong, not too weak. Countering almost every class in the game because of the overhead counter is a bit ridiculous, but that's not the issue.
The real issue with the Warden is the combined speed, range and damage of the area attack. Nerf that, and I think it's enough. Nerfing a class doesn't mean making it bad, it means making less strong than they currently are. Again, don't overdo it. (Same goes for buffing, don't overdo it. Make it viable and good, not great.)
Assassin: Peacekeeper (Here comes the tears)
To ALL of you on the forum saying Peacekeeper is overpowered... Learn how to counter the class, don't just expect them to not cheese you if they can. It's like throw distance classes knocking you off ledges every time, if you let them spam the jump stab without punishing, you lose. Get over it, and focus on learning. Let me explain how it is:
The Peacekeeper is an extremely offensive character that has a great dodge distance, making it easy to weave in and out of combat. It has good offensive capabilities in all it's forms of damage, but severaly lacks any defense apart from their dodging around. Careful not to get too aggressive, or they will dance around you with their jump stab!
Peacekeeper is another of the Assassin role which has access to the Deflect ability, which means dodging into an attack at the same timing as a parry, and then getting a guaranteed hit off. The hit is a dagger stab which applies a bleed (which has been nerfed).
The guardbreak is the main strength of the Peacekeeper, because it lets you land three stabs which all apply bleed onto the target (this is currently BUGGED, NOT NERFED, so all of you who still say it is too strong, you people truly have no idea. I will explain further) dealing a high amount of damage. This damage is just about equal to the guaranteed overhead heavies from classes like the Orochi. And wow, now people realize that "Oh... so PK actually isn't broken since their guardbreak bleed is basically weaker than Orochi guaranteed overhead heavy... oops." Excuse me, but I have read too many threads with these complaints. On to the show:
The Peacekeeper has a great amount of switches and mixups, with many different ways of engaging their targets, but rely mostly on jumping in with a stab, and their guardbreaks, to win fights. This is EXTREMELY easy to counter, since it only requires a block in the direction of their dodge. Don't commit with a parry or an attack when you see them dodge, wait for the indicator!
Playing a Peacekeeper requires you to stay on your toes and constantly be careful and smart about when you go in. It actually requires a lot of skill to play it, but it has one thing which makes it dumb: The jump stab spam. Not every player knows how to counter it, and it is abusable. It shouldn't be. Nerfing it's damage is not the "fix" it needs, nor it the speed or range of it anything that makes it overpowered and giving it a cooldown would completely ruin their chances of counter-attacking other classes. The bleed that you can get off of it now does no longer do a lot of damage, and I think that was all the nerfing the ability actually needed. Now it is up to the players to figure it out. THIS CLASS IS FINE, IT NEEDS NEITHER NERFS OR BUFFS SO LET THE DEVS BE. Honestly, read the above and practice it. You'll find PK players are not playing the "broken" class everyone is complaining about.
Heavy: Conqueror
The Knights' Heavy class is the Conqueror, a shieldbearer with a large amount of cc and hard hitting, chargeable attacks. Their main strength comes from counter attacking their opponents, which gives them guaranteed light attacks that chain into further combos. Careful to not get stuck!
Their guardbreak is quite good, allowing for a heavy attack most of the time (I believe sometimes lag causes it to be blocked in time, but not sure).
But the main strength of the Conqueror is its huge stamina drain on it's targets! By using their Shield Bash and Shield Bash Mixups they can drain someone out of stamina in only a few hits!
Add to it that they have the Full Block Stance (Being a Shield class, duh), which if you manage to block an attack gives you a guaranteed Shield Bash Riposte, and you have yourself yet another passive counter-attacker with strong offensive capabilities.
Also keep in mind that the class has the Superior Block feature, which means heavy attacks stagger you like a parry, and that their heavy attacks have the Superior Block Heavy Attacks feature, and they can properly pressure as well as defend!
The key to playing the class is to play defensively, but to know when to go on the offense as well! Don't let your enemy come to you all the time, make him!
Countering him is by faking him out and dodging the heavy attacks with a dodge attack. This makes most Heavy classes very hard to play versus the Conqueror, but not unbeatable.
The class feels balanced to me. It's strong, but not too strong. You will die if YOU make mistakes, and you let them punish you. You can still punish them yourselves. Their Shield Bash is the easiest thing to counter, very simple and very rewarding. Luckily I believe everyone is fully aware that Conqueror's need no buffs already, so I won't reprimand anyone like with the Peacekeeper
Hybrid: Lawbringer
The Lawbringer, looks cool, damage is low and range is short, which is weird, as well as having very telegraphed abilities and no guaranteed heavies. Though, I don't think it's too weak at all. Here's why:
The Lawbringer is the Knights faction Hybrid class, sporting a halberd which makes you look pretty darn cool.
Their guardbreak is insanely good, with a massive throwing distance and a moderate range (Long Arm of the Law, puntastic eh?). The guardbreak will not allow you to land a guaranteed heavy, but a guaranteed light attack is there. However, using your throwing distance you can throw your opponent into walls and get a guaranteed side heavy!
The Lawbringer's heavies hit for a rather lackluster amount of damage for how extremely slow and telegraphed they are, but the overhead stuns! You can also instantly Shove by pressing the guardbreak button after a successfull heavy attack. But BE CAREFUL WITH THIS! The Lawbringer uses up a ton of its stamina very, very fast, and can easily leave you exhausted and vulnerable!
This class has access to four combos which are very powerful, but badly designed. It's cool to have a long chain attack, but no player in this game will allow you to hit light, heavy, heavy to actually get your unblockable off.
Apart from all these glaring problems, here is what his strong points are:
In teamfights (teammates are with you) using Long Arm of the Law greatly benefits your allies as it guarantees 1-2 heavy attacks on the target being lifted! This makes it extremely viable in gamemodes like dominion and Skirmish.
The Lawbringer also heavily relies on it's defensive capabilities, having an instant Shove ready after a block can get you a guardbreak if your opponent is not ready for it, since the guarbdreak is counter-able.
His area attack is extremely wide, moderately fast and pretty quick. It deals a nice amount of damage too, but be careful with the stamina!
Parrying the opponent will allow you to either use an unblockable (really, really slow) overhead heavy, or a quick guaranteed light attack that deals a nice chunk of damage.
The key to playing the Lawbringer is to simply let the opponent outplay himself on you, by countering with parries and combos, Shoving and using guarbreaks, that is how you win. Also, abusing your throw distance makes him excellent for using environmetal hazards, so keep an eye out!
Simlilarly, winning against a Lawbgringer at the moment is quite simple because he lacks a viable way of playing offensively. There's really nothing but using guardbreaks that makes you actually hit someone.
Now, the class is a bit weak, as you can all tell. The problem is buffing his damage or speed will make him too strong in teamfights, so the balance has to be something else. A good way of balancing out is to simply make his heavies a tiny bit quicker, literally just a tiny bit, and giving him access to his unblockable attack outside of combos and parries (I know it's a Vanguard thing, but this class likely needs it. I'm not saying I know better, but I think it would help).
So now it is only the Samurai faction left!
SAMURAI
Kensei
Orochi
Shoguki
Nobushi
On a side note, pretty sure this faction is the "strongest" in terms of the balance on their heroes. But let's get into it!
Vanguard: Kensei
First to note is that Kensei has less hp than the other two Vanguard heroes (Raider having the most by a little bit over Warden), but is a very good all-rounded Hero.
The Kensei is another of the Vanguard types, sporting an insane amount of fake-able attacks. Most of anything he does can be canceled into other attacks, and he deals a lot of damage.
The heavies from the class hits for a nice amount of damage, and in every chain finisher there is an overhead unblockable heavy which deals a huge amount of damage!
Their guardbreak has crazy range with their dash-guarbreak, allowing for an easy stun into a faked attack, catching the opponent offguard.
Worth noting is that their zone attack, whilst being moderatly slow and telegraphed by a voice line, has hyper armor! Makes trading very simple with its high amount of damage.
Their light attacks are fast stabs from different directions, dealing an insane amount of damage at 20 per hit! A good comparison for this is the Orochi double overhead light (everyone knows how much this hurts) which deals 18 per hit!
The Kensei is not a defensive class, as it lacks the means to counter players the way Warden does, so instead plays more like a squisher Raider with more damage.
The key to playing Kensei at the moment is to fake your opponent out, you don't spend too much of your stamina when using your attacks, so you have a lot of room to fake
Playing versus a Kensei is usually best to play as reactively as possible, parry and counter-attack since he will go on the offensive. But don't be scared to pressure him, since he lacks the same counter abilities as Warden or Lawbringer!
At this moment, I feel that Kensei is too strong. Weird, right? Well, considering the fact that Kensei double light (almost guaranteed, it's very quick and a good player will manage to land it a lot by fakes and attack direction fakes) deals more damage than Raider overhead heavy, in a shorter amount of time, I don't think I'm wrong. At the same time, I feel like that is the only thing that actually needs a nerf. They used to be 15-15, but are now 20-20. I say the middle ground, maybe 18-17 for a total of 5 damage nerf? It wouldn't hit the class too hard, skilled players won't exactly start losing matches because of it and at the same time it doesn't let you do it 3-4 times to kill any assassin in the game.
Assassin: Orochi
People will get mad when I say this, but I think this is one of the most balanced classes in the game currently (no, I am not an Orochi main). The class does exactly what it is supposed to do, and is rewarded by quick thinking and player skill. The only thing which is really dumb is the guardbreak double overhead spam that some Orochis seems to enjoy so much right now. But it's the exact same as with Peacekeeper, just counter the guardbreak and wam, they can't cheese you anymore. Just practice the timing in some 1v1s, it's a lot easier than you think. Onto the class:
Orochi is a class that relies extremely heavily on playing reactively, but has very strong offensive capabilities. Its main weakness lies in its stamina consumption and exhaustion recovery, so parry them and block them and then you can capitalize!
The Orochis guardbreak has very short range, and throwing distance. But the strong point is that it guarantees an overhead heavy or a double overhead light attack, which means they can deal a lot of damage if people are not careful! After a successfull parry, the guardbreak cannot be countered, which makes classes like the Nobushi very good as they out-space the guardbreak range even when the Orochi parries her.
The class has access to many good fakes and quick attacks which all deal moderate to high damage. But keep an eye on that stamina bar!
Orochi is a very mobile class that builds on punishing others' mistakes and counter-attacking. Their dodge will go quite far and can be used for three different directional attacks (light attacks) that deal a moderate amount of damage. Also, when dodging backwards, they can use a dashing-strike called Storm Rush. This attack is a heavy attack that deals a high amount of damage, but is extremely slow and very telegraphed. Careful though! They can fake it after two steps or when holding the blade, don't be fooled into a missed parry because they faked you!
The Orochi sweep attack is very, very good. It hits fast, it hits wide (but pretty short) and it hits hard. However, like the Raider unblockable it takes about 55%~ of your stamina, and if blocked even more, again stamina is key here!
The key to playing versus an Orochi is to be prepared to counter-guardbreak. Don't let them get any parries either, fake them out to hit them and guardbreak them yourself!
The class is balanced. Sure, it mostly has strengths as you can see, but the thing is this: The kit is hard to use correctly. With skill an Orochi is among the best classes, because the moveset is good. Not beacuse it's unbalanced. If you are dying constantly to Orochis, you likely just need more practice against them, so don't be discouraged and please, please, don't just complain about it on the forum because they went 5 - 0 in a Brawl match.
Heavy: Shoguki
This is the one class that I have some proper complaints about. Shoguki lacks any real counters because of his moveset, since it allows him to make mistakes that the enemy can't capitalize on. This game is more or less built on counter-attacking at the higher levels, and you can't counter attack a Shoguki because of their Passive Uninterruptable Stance, unless you play a Bleed class and manage to keep it on them at all times. Anyway, onto the class:
The Shoguki is the Samurai factions' Heavy class, capable of dishing out huge amounts of damage with very few and very slow attacks.
His strength lies in that he has a so-called "Passive Uninterruptable Stance" which makes him take one attack (or guardbreak...) every x seconds which doesn't stagger him, allowing him to freely hit you back for just about twice as much damage as you did.
His Heavy attacks are chargeable, and therefore extremely slow, but can be canceled. They deal absolutely humongous amounts of damage, and because of the Passive Uninterruptable Stance, you can rarely punish him unless you risk a parry, which if you miss you'll take 60~ damage.
The Shoguki's light attacks cannot be blocked normally, but can be parried and can be interrupted with Superior Block (such as the Full Block Stance of the Shield Classes), and deal a moderate amount of damage. They have some different timings on them, so parrying them requires a bit of practice to pull off.
The main strength of the Shoguki lies in his guardbreaks and the variant of them. A normal guardbreak is very quick and will land him a guaranteed. combo'd heavy that will throw you far backwards. The other version is the Charge of the Oni, which is a slow dash-up to the target (very quick after about a second of charging, so careful!) and then a grab, where he puts them over his shoulder and then breaks their backs with his club. This deals about 1/3 of your hp to most classes, and also heals him after he has thrown you onto the ground.
When the Shoguki is on critical health (blood effects on screen, red flashing, less than one healthbar) his Charge of the Oni (if successfull) deals 10000, yes ten thousand, damage to the target and heals him for about 65-70% of his hp afterwards. This makes him have an out even if you manage to outplay him, so be very careful!
The key to beating a Shoguki is to bait him into missing a charged heavy, then hit his passive stance off. After that you have to pressure him whilst not allowing him you counter you. He really only needs one catch to actually win versus basically any class.
Playing as the Shoguki, you just need to be smart with your heavy attacks, and to not be predictable.
The only real weakness to Shoguki is how slow he is, and when you compare it to Lawbringer (which is almost equally slow) it is downright broken. The only thing that actually needs nerfing however, is the Passive Uninterruptable Stance. I get why it's there, but it probably needs removing. I'm fine with everything else, really.
Hybrid: Nobushi
Here is where you all who hate Bleed SHOULD be complaining, since it is stronger than the Peacekeeper (especially now that the PK bleed is bugged, why there is no fix yet, I cannot understand, rip all of you PK mains).
The Nobushi is the Samurai factions' Hybrid class, specializing in making the opponent Bleed to death.
This class has five different ways of hitting a bleed attack, one being a combo-chain, and the other four being standalone specific attacks. This bleed is close to the damage of a heavy attack, so be careful! One mistake might be all it takes.
The light attacks of the Nobushi, as well as some of the Bleed-stacking attacks, are very fast and quite hard to read because of their Hidden Stance.
Hidden Stance is an ability that hides where the Nobushi is guarding, and can cancel basic attacks as well as be followed by any attack you wish. Using this to catch the opponent off guard is Alpha and Omega with this class, since this is your main fake and your cancels.
Their passive, Way of the Shark, makes them do an additional 30% damage to Bleeding targets, making their Heavy attacks hit for over 40 damage! Add to this fact that they have guaranteed heavies after certain combos, and they can land a bleed into guardbreak kick, heavy and there goes 80% of your lifebar. The next mistake is your death.
Playing against a Nobushi is mostly about being able to read them, and making sure you don't get hit by their Bleed or that you manage to punish the guardbreak-combo attempt.
Playing as a Nobushi you just need to be patient, but you are the one pressuring them since you are very easy to kill. Fake a lot and use many mixups, and you will get the win.
Honestly, I don't think Bleeds are that bad for any class, they never were (no I am not a Nobushi or PK main either). What they need to fix here to balance the class out is one of two things, either make the attack speed a bit slower so it's not as no-brain to Bleed-stab spam, or just nerf Way of the Shark by 10% or 15% damage. I don't think you can nerf it less than 10%, but 15% is probably too much.
Anyway, that is all I have to say. Turned out to be a long, really long, post. But for all those of you who read it all, thank you for understanding, and I would appreciate your input since I likely got some things wrong.
Kind Regards,
DubbelPandan
13 people found this helpful
Junior Member
Member
Took me 2h 40 m x) But I think it's needed for people to realize that they just have to practice to get over most stuff.
Member
Junior Member
Member
Member
