The Announced Buffs won't Fix Valkyrie | Forums

[keyveee]

It is common knowledge that Valkyrie isn't in a particularily good spot right now. Most players who try to main her will probably agree when I say that playing Valkyrie can be very frustrating. The reason why I am starting another thread is that I will try my best to compile all the reasons why Valkyrie is struggeling so hard in the first place and why the announced buffs won't change that.

For reference: I will use the phrase guaranteed Guard Break for a Guard Break that can not be countered.

Let's start with the obvious. Valkyrie's Block is bugged. You will sometimes recieve damage from enemy attacks even though your guard was in the right direction. You can find several reports about this issue here on reddit and in the ubisoft forums. There's also a video on youtube.

Her Shoulder Pin is almost impossible to perfrom consistantly. If you're dodging too early you'll dodge the enemy attack without performing any action. If you're dodging too late you'll take the damage from the enemy attack without performing any action. If you somehow manage to dodge in the right time chances are you'll perform the heavy attack too late and therefore will be stuck in it's animation after dodging. Now if you are some kind of a kung fu master with godly reflexes and are able to perform it consistantly it still can simply be blocked by your enemy. Shoulder Pin is Valkyrie's highest damage ability but it's risk is so high that it is simply not worth trying to go for it.

The recovery time after a failed Shield Crush, Shield Tackle and Spear Sweep is so high that your opponent gets a guaranteed Guard Break. Think about that - Shield Crush -> Spear Sweep -> Heavy Attack is the most common attack chain of the Valkyrie. Not only does your enemy has two chances of dodging that chain, if he manages to do so he can Guard Break you and there's nothing you can do about it. So in order to have a chance to apply a single heavy attack (which deals 30 damage I believe) you are using a very good amount of your stamina and take the risk of being Guard Broken which will easily cost you about 30% of you life in most cases.

Spear Sweep can be avoided in all directions, meaning your opponent can dodge it even if he is against a wall.

Her recovery time on a failed Guard Break is horrendously high. Compared to other's her Zone Attack is too slow and deals too little damage.

I wouldn't say that her tool kit is useless against a skilled player, but trying to get him into a CC chain will be punished extremely hard and without much effort. A single failed Spear Sweep, Shield Crush or Shield Tackle will most likely lose you the duel. What's left if your poking ability with Pouncing Thrust and Hunter’s Strike and your light attacks of course.

I found several reports of other bugs and - let's call them mechanical inconsistencies. However, I don't list them here because I wasn't able to neither confirm nor deny them. Just a little reminder that this compiled list may not cover all of the Valkyrie's problems.

Now let's talk about the annouced buffs. They are basically buffing her Pouncing Thrust, Hunter’s Strike and Light Attack Chain. And this is a bit ironic considering these are the only tools that work somehow at this point. It would make alot more sense to buff the tools which she cannot use right now. I do have a few ideas of what to improve, but I want this thread to be a discussion about her problems in the first place. I might add some suggestions to improve her later.

Anyways - if you made it till this point, thanks for reading! What is your impression of the Valkyrie? Do you have anything to add to this list? How would you fix those problems? Input is very appreciated!

[Saeryf]

My impression is that she's pretty good at crowd control, but only when the enemy doesn't dodge literally everything like it's nothing. She can't follow up on any of her crowd control currently (though that may be fixed with the patch). The fact that being exhausted has no downside for defense is more than a little stupid.

[Skarvig_Odinson]

I'm maining Valk myself and let me tell you that some of it is balancing that will be fixed like the recovery of the failed guardbreak. Maybe not this time but some time later, I'm sure of it.
Leg sweep should absolutely be dodgeable. And recovery after a failed shield crush is okay because it shouldn't be a spammable attack, some risk should be involved.
The shoulder pin timing I'm not that familiar with, just try not to dodge light attacks then you should be fine.
I don't know why but the buffs she is getting are the ones that made the most sense to me.

[Sallimar]

I main valk and I thought she was weak for a long time, but now I realize just how good she is at what she does. This buff will put her at or near the top. Although somewhat hard to get down she punishes everything with constant unrelenting damage. Learn to dodge instead of always blocking for big guys and use her reach with assassins. Best of both worlds.

[keyveee]

My impression is that she's pretty good at crowd control, but only when the enemy doesn't dodge literally everything like it's nothing. She can't follow up on any of her crowd control currently (though that may be fixed with the patch). The fact that being exhausted has no downside for defense is more than a little stupid.

In my experience you can follow with a heavy attack when your opponent didn't dodge your Spear Sweep. It should hit 9 of 10 times.

I'm maining Valk myself and let me tell you that some of it is balancing that will be fixed like the recovery of the failed guardbreak. Maybe not this time but some time later, I'm sure of it.
Leg sweep should absolutely be dodgeable. And recovery after a failed shield crush is okay because it shouldn't be a spammable attack, some risk should be involved.
The shoulder pin timing I'm not that familiar with, just try not to dodge light attacks then you should be fine.
I don't know why but the buffs she is getting are the ones that made the most sense to me.

You are right, Spear Sweep should absolutely be dodgable. It's the fact that the Valkyrie is punished so badly after a failed Spear Sweep that doesn't make sense to me. If your opponent is somewhat capable he will dodge and Guard Break. And you CAN NOT counter that Guard Break. Again, I'm not saying Shield Crush and Spear Sweep shouldn't be dodgable, but the should have less recovery time so you can atleast counter if you are Guard Broken.

[Skarvig_Odinson]

...

Okay, yeah that's fair. I guess they will fix that soon enough.