LB changes to make the character more interesting again | Forums

[Gwynbradd]

• Fix guard switch delay. Doesn’t need further explanations.
• Reduce recovery on dodges. Unlike most characters LB doesn’t get to punish moves that are supposed to be unsafe on dodge because of his ridiculously long recovery time on a dodge
• Reduce stamina cost of Impaling Charge and Impale Riposte. Using either of those in their current state leaves you with very little to no stamina depending on how far you push your opponent. A parry of Impaling Charge actually leaves you out of stamina.
• Fix Impaling Riposte sometimes using the old, slower animation. I’ve noticed that sometimes it appears to be using a very slow animation when going for Impaling Riposte, which can then be blocked or even parried on a heavy parry, when it is supposed to be guaranteed.
• Add forward tracking similar to Raider’s ZA on JJE unblockable finisher. That way people will be forced to time their reactions instead of preemptively back dodging as the move currently has absolutely no forward tracking.

Most of these are just Quality of Life changes to make his current tools usable or more consistent. The biggest buff would likely be having normal dodge recovery because LB is right now one of the few characters in the game that absolutely doesn't get anyhing out of properly dodging things like Headbutt, Shield Bash or Shoulder Bash as Shove will guarantee any damage against good opponents.

Personally, I really dislike the playstyle focusing on Shove Alternative (Block Shove) as it feels very boring. It also isn’t exactly useful against better opponents as they can just reliably avoid the Shove follow up on reaction anyway. I wouldn’t mind the removal of the follow up from Shove Alternative if they’d speed up the normal Shove and either add guaranteed damage to it or make it an actual 50/50 where the opponent has to guess instead of being able to react to the follow up. Those changes are a lot more questionable so I felt like separating them from the rest. Another option would be adding stun to the normal Shove similar to the kick of Centurion.


I know that an argumentum ad verecundiam doesn't add any value. Yet, I'd still like to point out that I have a lot of experience on LB and am playing in the upper brackets of this game. Here is my profile.

[Gwynbradd]

I have noticed some bugs which I'm certain aren't intended. When unlocking to whiff in order to get the Judge, Jury, Executioner unblockable combo finisher (usually against enemies who are out of stamina) you get two scenarios which both seem strange. The first is unlock to whiff the light then relock and do heavy, heavy. Instead of finishing on an unblockable you get a normal heavy finisher which is used if you do the chain without ever locking onto the target. The attack also only comes from the right, so changing guard doesn't change attack direction. The second is unlock whiffing the light and heavy before locking and going into the unblockable. In that case you can't feint the unblockabe which is an integral part of the mix up against opponents who are out of stamina. And the attack can again only come from the right, switching guards doesn't affect its direction.

I believe that you should be able to whiff the light and then relock to continue with the normal JJE combo. Without it as LB you have absolutely 0 ways of punishing good players when they are out of stamina since the removal of GB feints. Of course this combo will still not be very effective as long as they don't add forward tracking similar to Raider's ZA to the unblockable finisher as you can just back dodge way too early and won't be hit by it due to its pathetic hitbox.

Edit: If you unlock to target a throw with your mouse into heavy light heavy combo you also get put into the same combo where he will only attack from his right instead of his normal one.

The biggest buff would likely be having normal dodge recovery because LB is right now one of the few characters in the game that absolutely doesn't get anyhing out of properly dodging things like Headbutt, Shield Bash or Shoulder Bash as Shove will guarantee any damage against good opponents.

It was supposed to say that it won't guarantee any damage against good players.

[Illyrian_King]

• Fix guard switch delay. Doesn’t need further explanations.
• Reduce recovery on dodges. Unlike most characters LB doesn’t get to punish moves that are supposed to be unsafe on dodge because of his ridiculously long recovery time on a dodge
• Reduce stamina cost of Impaling Charge and Impale Riposte. Using either of those in their current state leaves you with very little to no stamina depending on how far you push your opponent. A parry of Impaling Charge actually leaves you out of stamina.
• Fix Impaling Riposte sometimes using the old, slower animation. I’ve noticed that sometimes it appears to be using a very slow animation when going for Impaling Riposte, which can then be blocked or even parried on a heavy parry, when it is supposed to be guaranteed.
• Add forward tracking similar to Raider’s ZA on JJE unblockable finisher. That way people will be forced to time their reactions instead of preemptively back dodging as the move currently has absolutely no forward tracking.

Most of these are just Quality of Life changes to make his current tools usable or more consistent. The biggest buff would likely be having normal dodge recovery because LB is right now one of the few characters in the game that absolutely doesn't get anyhing out of properly dodging things like Headbutt, Shield Bash or Shoulder Bash as Shove will guarantee any damage against good opponents.

Personally, I really dislike the playstyle focusing on Shove Alternative (Block Shove) as it feels very boring. It also isn’t exactly useful against better opponents as they can just reliably avoid the Shove follow up on reaction anyway. I wouldn’t mind the removal of the follow up from Shove Alternative if they’d speed up the normal Shove and either add guaranteed damage to it or make it an actual 50/50 where the opponent has to guess instead of being able to react to the follow up. Those changes are a lot more questionable so I felt like separating them from the rest. Another option would be adding stun to the normal Shove similar to the kick of Centurion.


I know that an argumentum ad verecundiam doesn't add any value. Yet, I'd still like to point out that I have a lot of experience on LB and am playing in the upper brackets of this game. Here is my profile.

Lol the LB was never more fun, then since 1.07!
I like him exactly the way he is now ... no buffs or nerf requiered!
PLEASE JUST LEAVE HIM THE WAY HE IS !!!!

Also the block-shove is his unique tool, so no change neccessary or even useful!

[Gwynbradd]

Lol the LB was never more fun, then since 1.07!
I like him exactly the way he is now ... no buffs or nerf requiered!
PLEASE JUST LEAVE HIM THE WAY HE IS !!!!

Also the block-shove is his unique tool, so no change neccessary or even useful!

Block shove isn't exactly a very useful tool at higher level because the mix up is entirely reactable. Block shove can also be canceled in its start up by characters that have a fast heavy light chain or Cent can do his really fast heavy heavy chain.

Beyond that LB has no tools to open up a turtle currently and that's not going to be much better after the changes to the defensive meta because of his long start up phase of his heavies and the feint animation happening 300 ms before the attack hits.

I agree however, that the changes to his parry punishes made him a lot more fun in general. But people solely relying on Shove on Block just makes the match incredibly boring, even if it's counterable.

[kanuzira]

I wish they would also add something like the raider heavy to light cancel attack.

[l8knight347]

He needs a long arm buff. it needs to be faster or less punishable some how. a free heavy was the wrong buff that just made it stronger in 4v4.

[Tyrjo]

The Lawbringer needs nothing at the moment. He is in a good spot.

[kanuzira]

The Lawbringer needs nothing at the moment. He is in a good spot.

He needs extra's, currently he is to slow and has no real good options to open. it is just block shove now and all the heavies get parried so you have no real combo to make other than light and shove. In all ways the LB is inferior to the warlord. I wish that they could give the LB the moveset of the warlord. The reason i still play LB is that i have my hopes up for LB and because he looks badass but other than that there is really none.

[Gwynbradd]

The Lawbringer needs nothing at the moment. He is in a good spot.

LB has no way of putting up pressure on a decent opponent who only blocks since the removal of GB feints. This results in you not being able to do anything after getting your opponent out of stamina. You used to be able to use shove to open up people but now the majority of the players I meet in matchmaking will dodge every single shove and never fall for the dodge into GB due to how incredibly slow the neutral shove is.

One option in theory would be using light while holding back and following up into the JJE combo to do an unblockable mix up in the end but because this combo has no forward tracking the opponent can just spam back dodges with no risk of being caught. The same holds true with shove into JJE combo because he can just dodge straight after blocking the first heavy in the combo instead of having to time the dodge to avoid the unblockable with iframes, as the unblockable won't reach him afterwards due to the lack of forward tracking on it.

And using lights to at least get some damage in doesn't work either against passive opponents because he only has 1 direction with a decently fast light, so they can just keep their guard top and easily react to all other options that he might do.

[l8knight347]

For the whole opener thing no one thinks their main has a good opener. LB has wiff heavy hit light, dodge shove light, top light, sprint stop heavy from left, sprint stop gb, sprint stop light, after you do those impaling charge is an opener. oh and for the warlord thing the warlord is an op pos that is no fun to play and I don't want that for the LB. that being said the warlord is NOT better in every way. LB's chains and mix ups are way better. his range is better. his parry punishes are way better. He is more useful in team games. my only complaint about the LB is that the long arm isn't very useful in a 1on1 fight after a shove is about the only good time to throw it and it usually still gets dodged. I think it should be a bigger part of his skill set not just something you use to kill people when you have then out numbered.