Lawbringer: An Analysis
Warning. This is a long post. There is no TL;DR. There won't be. Proceed at your own risk.
So, it's been a week guys. Time to crack the knuckles and crack down on the Law. I've been playing him since the elusive TechTest2, and he's been my favorite character and main since then, and of course, after Launch. However, no rose-tinted glasses here, boys. So let's break this guy down and figure out what the **** went wrong.
I'd like to first start that, NO, Lawbringer isn't trash-tier. However, competition in this game is really stiff, and unless you're ON ****ING POINT with your play with him, you're gonna have a bad time. At least against the guys I fight, and they're certainly no joke. So, let's first take a look at his kit as a whole before we take a gander at each piece of it specifically.
Point One: The Kit. Heavy-Vanguard Hybrid.
Lawbringer's kit as a whole seems to feature ideas from a game we're no longer playing. His kit as a whole is very disjointed and all over the place. He takes a bit from everyone, but does nothing special himself. And what's worse, the things he can do, he does literally worse than the others as well. Chains are long to cash out good, threatening damage, but are slow, and require him to switch between slow lights, and slower heavies. He can't cancel any moves into any others without hard, obvious feints which take place very early in his animations. He's also the only character who's specialties don't actually help HIM out at all. Lawbringer helps OTHER characters WAY more than he can ever help himself. Pretty sad for a big dude with a big weapon. But we'll get into what that means exactly later on in the post. Thematically his kit also feels rather weak. You'd expect someone of his size and with that weapon to be pretty devasating, especially in 1vMore situations where he could Lu Bu some ****. Even this isn't the case. As one of his moves "Make Way" straight up doesn't work in any scenario. I've personally not been able to get it triggered ONCE. Odd indeed, but I'll tear it apart later as well. With all of this you would figure, "Well hey, he's slow, and supportive. I bet he does a lot of damage!" ****IN' NOPE! You won't be much of a threat to someone if you choose to go on the offensive, regardless of your position in the fight, and the only true value you have going for you is your health pool, which you will most likely be using a resource to take any risk you can
to kill the guy who's after your head.
Now, before I end up going on a tear any more, let's look at each part of his kit in detail. Below each point I'll suggest some feedback.
Point Two: Chains. Shared with Warlord, and Shugoki.
Lawbringer's chains do not feature ANY combinations to use Light Attack twice in a row, and only 1 chain that utilizes 2 Heavies in a row, which is unique to him as it triggers an Unblockable which (Thankfully) can be used in any direction he chooses. "An unblockable, you say?" Yes, an unblockable, that has to be preceeded with either a Shove, or Connected Light attack, AND a Heavy before it comes out. So in case you didn't get parried the first time, guess what? Now your opponent REALLY knows that attack is coming because your poleaxe is on fire and you're screaming at him. Lawbringer also features something that a heavy DOESN'T get, a free attack similiar to the Orochi and Warden. Sounds good right? Except this chain is 4 buttons long. Heavy(Or Shove) - Light - TOP Heavy (Specifically) and THEN you can confirm that into a free LIGHT attack. That's right, boys! If you managed to land a Top heavy in the 3rd hit of a slow chain, you get a FREE LIGHT ATTACK! WOOOOO. That's exactly what I want to follow up my stunning top heavies with.
If you couldn't tell by my tone, I'm very less than impressed with this set-up. At least with Shugoki and Warlord, they're heavies have special properties to them, and are also short enough so you're not itching as a player to keep pressing the attack. I personally only ever go for the unblockable, and that's only if I have enough health to risk that my enemy will both 1) Decided to try to parry it and not just dodge away from it at no cost AND 2) Miss the parry, giving me at least a decent hit. No super armor. No charging of heavies into unblockables to throw off the opponent's timing. Everything about the Lawbringer's chains are pretty cut and dry, and less than impressive.
Suggestions?
I'd honestly like to see his chains sped up a bit. I don't have too much of a problem with them thematically, but when someone that large and in charge starts swinging a poleaxe around I would expect the enemy to feel a bit nervous about it. But right now that's not the case. It might be even better if he had a passive that increased his attack speed so long as he kept attacking. It would play to that "Fanatic" vibe I get from hearing his name, or seeing his character. A WH40k Marine who's crazy about what he believes in.
Point Three: Shove
Shove's a decent move, sure. I guess. Because he doesn't have any other options off of blocking, or landing a heavy it's kinda stupid to NOT use it. It's a shame that the command for it is also the vanilla Guard-Break command. I personally shove accidentally sometimes. It's probably a personal problem. But what do you get off of a shove? Well, you stop their stamina from regenerating for a second or two, at the cost of your own, and deal some stamina damage, and can use it to initiate your oh-so-lovely Chains, which we talked about before. Now, Shove does have 1 redeeming quality. You can use it after a Wall-Stun > Top Heavy to go for your unblockable faster while they're UI is still a tad messed up, or make them guess what you're gonna do next.
I keep hearing about "Oh, just Shove into GB. It's SO GOOD!" I suppose. Against someone without a Guard Break button. It's not guaranteed. And it's certainly not a "Mix-up". It's a very obvious, very slow, and very reactable strategy to use. You have to bank pretty hard on your opponent slipping up to make use of this strategy. And while I do use it from time to time myself, unfortunately the players I fight against to get good know that this is one of my few options to actually engage on them. Oh, and you can side-dash it easily as it's as telegraphed as Nobushi's kick, but you can actually be punished for missing it, unlike her. So keep that in mind.
Suggestions?
Shove being decent doesn't say much. But making it any better might make him broken, since it would promote passive play from anyone who fights him because he can use it after pretty much anything. I'd honestly like to see one of two things. Shove hitting more than one opponent. Or the animation being replaced with a straight haymaker (that causes stun) to lead into his chains, but hopefully at a significant stamina cost, so it's not something he can just spam like he can now. That way maybe his slow attack speed would make sense as he'd end up gassing himself out too easily to abuse it. Other than that, I got nothing.
Point Four: Long Arm. Goki's have it better.
Let's make one thing clear. Long Arm is a pretty decent move. I find it satisfying to land every time I hit someone with it. But everytime I see a Shugoki hug someone I cry silently to myself. Slow wind-up, pretty good stamina damage (if that actually mattered I'd give this move some more slack), and a free light attack. No ****. Another free light attack. Now I know what you're gonna say to me, "But Dreegan! Come on. It's amazing for burning people's revenge gauge. Your teammates can just kill him while he's in the ferris-wheel of Long Arm's sexy flips!" Except it can be escaped (Which is a good thing, mind you) and is constantly repositioning the opponent. It also deals no damage itself. So if you're relying on this cheesey strategy (Which I do, I'm not judging) then you have to at least admit that something's wrong. Shugoki's hug is both damaging (an instant kill under proper conditions), heals him, and leaves plenty of time in the animation to get you killed by his teammate(s) as well in JUST ONE HUG! Did I mention Goki can have hyper armor on his as well? Yeah, if you wanna just bop him out of the animation, you're gonna get Shreked. I draw this comparison, because these two moves seem pretty similar.
But Lawbringer doesn't actually benefit HIMSELF from flipping someone, aside from a free light attack. It is a completely selfless move, which is a huge bummer. You may not know this, but every single character in this game has a move that benefits them in a 1v1 scenario BEFORE it benefits teammates in a 4v4 1. Goki's Hug. Valk's Sweep. Even Conq's running Shield Bash not only clears more distance for a ledge kill, but also gives him a free heavy/light/nose-pick. And let's not forget Raider. But we'll move on to Raider's similarities next.
Suggestions?
Honestly, Long Arm needs to be an equivalent to a Shugoki Hug, or do something drastically awesome for the Lawbringer to pull out of his sleeve for a high risk/high reward play. It needs to do damage, or it needs to shovel someone quite the distance for it really impress me. Lawbringer doesn't get passive Hyper Armor on anything besides Shove, so I feel him taking that kind of risk for a big damage move would make perfect sense. I wouldn't even care if it healed me (Remember, he's a fanatic, he doesn't care about his own wounds) just so long as it was a satisfying, useful card I could play that didn't need to be spammed to be decent. Animation wise? I dunno. Him charging at you, grabbing you by the throat, and "snapping your neck" before letting you drop to get back up? I'd be cool with that. And it would fit the name of the attack.
Point Five: Impaling Charge. Raider 2.0? More like .25.
This move makes me more salty than the people I manage to ledge kill with it. I don't remember this move being THIS bad. Does it cover a lot of ground? Hell yeah. But... I'd honestly rather have Raider's charge, or Warlord's! It's another thing he shares in common with another class, but is significantly worse at. How so? Well, it can be blocked, drains your stamina like ****ing crazy, and it can be blocked, which means it can be parried. If this move gets parried? YOU LOSE 100% OF YOUR STAMINA BAR AND GET GASSED INSTANTLY. Does that blow your mind? It blows my mind. "But it does damage! Raider and Warlord's don't!" Yeah, not really stoked about trading half my stamina bar on a move that's both blockable and by itself only does enough damage to equal 1 light attack. Even if you manage to wall-stun someone with it and get the follow up heavy stun? You're nearly too out of stamina to do anything else to capitalize on the fact you manage to land this bad attack on someone and punish them properly for getting hit by it. Unless you ledge kill with it. Because no one else in the game can do that...
The best use of this move honestly comes from clipping someone who's running away from you over and over with it and not going the full distance; Clipping someone who's mid attack and saving your best friend from certain death; or after parrying a light attack, and activating it after realizing that using it will result in a ledge kill, otherwise you'll almost always use Blind Justice
Suggestions?
It's stamina cost can stay as long as it does more damage and doesn't move people around as much. We don't need any more cheesey moves to be used for ledge kills. Let the Raider and Warlord be more the bar-room brawlers who throw people into walls and ****. How about if it connects he picks you up just a bit and dunks you back into the ground. Deal some decent damage (Maybe a bar+?). And since you're animation locked during that time it will still fit his other tag as a "Disabler". Running out of stamina doesn't mean much in this game. So maybe animation-locking is the way to go.
Point Six: Blind Justice! Lawbringer has a good move!
Hey! We finally reached a positive move! Awesome isn't it? Well, don't get too excited. It's good, not great. Also, you're only guaranteed to land this thing after a parrying a Light Attack. But it's unblockable (For in case you're feeling brave after parrying a heavy attack and can risk getting parried yourself), deals your passive Top Heavy Stun, and does pretty respectable damage. Not too shabby as a reward for parrying a light attack, all things considered, and is his only 1 totally unique aspect of him. Get a parry? BRING DOWN SOME JUSTICE! And it feels hella satisfying, not gonna lie. I have no actual complaints against this move. That's probably the most surprising thing you've heard this whole post. The sad part is, that after reading this up until now, you're probably starting to realize that this is his BEST way to deal damage. And while I have no problems with him being a "Counter Attacker" based Hero, this is the only thing in his kit that actually makes sense for him to have.
Suggestions?
Nadda. This move is pretty fair.
Point Seven: Make Way! Doesn't work. Wouldn't use it if it did.
So, I wish I could actually point you to a video or something of this move working. But it doesn't. I haven't gotten it to activate under any circumstances, and neither has anyone I've asked to test it. With one exception. Our own /u/HandheldBrando got it to function ONCE. And was never able to replicate it. I was awe struck. But then I looked at the tutorial video against which shows this attack in use. It's just a faster zone attack, just 360 degrees instead of a right heavy frontal cone. Same damage. Blockable, probably parriable, and you don't get any super armor on you when you use it. So I would imagine if someone DIDN'T get parried if this move worked, and was wailing on you, you'd still get knocked out of it. Absolutely trash. I'd talk more about this ability, but until it actually works? Well.. oh well.
Suggestions?
I would imagine having a poleaxe, Lawbringer would be one of the heavies in the game that's about going on the offensive while attacking multiple people, where as the other heavies (aside from our Goki) are all about that defensive nature. If this move actually worked? I wouldn't have a problem with it. I can't really comment on anything else about it because... well I can't use it. That would be rather arrogant of me to make judgements on something I literally can't use right now.
Point Eight: Lawbringer's Passives.
His top heavy attacks stun. Stun is nearly useless. His heavy attacks, especially the top ones, are very slow. His follow up on people who are stunned is also bad. Did I mention Shove can initiate chains?
And that's it. That's all he gets. No thematically interesting, useful, threatening things you have to worry about. Just don't get top-heavied and he brings nothing to the table you need to be concerned with. What a sad sad joke.
Suggestions?
I made this suggestions under his Chains. But a passive that increases his attack speed as long as he's attacking would be both pretty helpful to his abyssmal speed right now, and give him an edge once he revs up a bit. It would also be a unique twist that isn't on any other class right now. Other than that, I can't honestly think of anything as his kit right now is just kinda meh. So it's kind of hard for me to think up any kind of other passives that would work and not be totally OP for him to have.
Point Nine: Lawbringer's Feats.
While plenty of people don't really care about this, and I don't really blame them, even his feat selection is quite the laugh. Body Count is probably his best Tier 1 feat, as it allows him to heal on the Front. Harsh Judgement sounds thematically cool. But it affects stamina. Hah. Another joke. The rest of his feats are basically just mishmashed from the other Knights and he has nothing unique or special about him. Even his Tier 4 feats are a laugh. Catapult? Seen it. Regnerate? An out of combat passive Heal Over Time, wooo. Hey, do you like Pungo Mortis? Throwing explosive grenades? WELL NOW YOU HAVE THREE OF THEM! WOW!
This part bums me out. I look at everyone else's feats and I just get welled up with jealousy. Once again, nothing unique, nothing to make the Lawbringer feel like a LAW BRINGER. I expected someone who had some fanatical tools as it disposal. Something to help out his team, or make him crazy good. Actual decision making in talent choices. There's none of that here, boys. None.
Suggestions?
I'd have to read up more on the Lore and what and how the designers envision their classes to BE in this game to make any respectable suggestions to his feats. All I can say right now (as pompous as it sounds) is that I'm very much not impressed.
Point Ten: What do we change about Lawbringer?
Okay, so this is the part you're probably gonna be looking at the most. What do we change about Lawbringer? This is actually one of the hardest questions I've had to ask myself since playing him in the Tech Test. I've mulled this over in my head for a LONG ****ing time. But unfortunately, the answer is a sad one. His kit in and of itself is actually quite broken. Making Shove, or Long Arm any better than what it is, might actually just make him straight up broken. I mean God-Tier broken, not Conq without a Shield broken. I don't even know if it's possible, but I honestly am starting to feel he needs to go back to the drawing board for a clean start on his life. As of right now, he's just sort of a dude swinging around a poleaxe, and doesn't feel threatening or thematically sound. Which is a shame because I love the **** out of the big guy. But let me make some suggestions. I've left suggestions where I can, but, that's really all I have for now as it was pretty draining to type all of this up. Feel free to agree, disagree, or whatever you want. Hope you've enjoyed the read, and hope you guys enjoy your battles.
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