Hello. Like many of us I've been enjoying For Honor, and I appreciate its deep combat system, but I feel that many of the design decisions undermine the combat system and cheapen its impact. Chief among the offenders are: power-ups, revives, feat abilities, unfocused game modes, and an overabundance of environmental kills. I think you can make an argument that the game benefits on some level from all of those things, but that's besides the point - I'm not arguing that they should be removed altogether, but instead I think they're too prevalent.

For example, why are power-ups so easy to pick up? I can disengage from a fight basically at will, and with that headstart I can run to a power-up and pick it up before the other guy can catch me. Why do so many duel maps have ridiculous segments where you fight on a narrow bridge, or cliffside that thoroughly benefits big, heavy characters like the Shugoki, or characters with a high degree of forwards-backwards movement and attacks (ex. Nobuke)? What good is deftly deflecting opponent's attacks when he can call down a catapult on me instantly? Even if I react instanteously, there's a bit of delay in 'unlocking' from guard mode. And don't get me started on revenge mode. All of these things, in my view, serve to cheapen rather than improve gameplay, especially to the level they're currently implemented.

Game modes are another issue. Emblematic of this is the fact that Skirmish and Elimination are, apparently, so similar that they need to be in one queue together.

It would be far better if Elimination was basically a 4v4 version of Brawl and might even serve as a sort of 'hardcore' game mode like so many other games have. That is to say, no power-ups, longer revives, no feat abilities. Possibly even no revenge mode. This would then provide a clearer distinction for the players who enjoy those sort of elements (and if you do, fine), but allows players who don't to have a haven they can go to. It would also help to remove some of the toxicity from Elimination - players are no longer as heavily incentivized to run away and play catch-the-rabbit when they're losing, if revives take longer than a second or two, and there aren't any power-ups to horde.

In Summary: Overall I've been enjoying the game a lot, and I think I'll be playing it for quite awhile. That said, there's definitely some issues and I would like to see the more arcade-elements toned down across the board. I'd also like to have better differentiation between game modes, with Elimination being a bit more 'hardcore', with less arcade elements. Dominion and Skirmish will remain for those who prefer that type of gameplay.