LB changes to make the character more interesting again | Forums

[Gwynbradd]

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.

None of the things you listed will open up an opponent that doesn't try to parry or be aggressive, e.g. when they are out of stamina. As such it's not useful to deal with turtles.

LB's chains and mix ups are way better.

Warlord's mix ups are better because he has 500ms lights on all directions, hyper armor on his heavies, faster heavies with shorter start up time and their feint window is 200 ms before the attack hits instead of 300 ms. He also has his 600ms long range ZA that also does 25 damage on top of it.

his range is better. his parry punishes are way better.

I'll give you that for the most part. Warlord has his ZA which is faster and has better range and tracking than any of LBs heavies.

He is more useful in team games.

Warlord is most definitely better in 2v2 and 4v4 game modes than LB, although LB is doing better in 4v4s than he is in the other modes.

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.

Long arm will never be a useful tool for 1v1s else it will be utterly broken in 4v4s. It also doesn't have to be as long as they give him some other reasonable options. Their last change to the Shove follow up just makes fighting LB annoying for most people (due to Shove on Block) but it doesn't actually make him much better at higher level. And Shove in neutral is still pretty much completely useless due to how slow it is and together with not even guaranteeing damage when it actually hits.

[l8knight347]

you didn't address the part about the warlord being no fun to play. if someone is being a complete turtle not even trying to parry or counter there is a real ez solution for that that all heroes have. you just keep guard breaking them. the warlord doesn't have any chains or mix ups he has a light follow up that in spite of being fast is easy to parry. people have the Cent ninja and raider to complain about now they have forgotten about the 5050 that wasn't a 5050 that only delt 15 damage. something that would be very useful in 1on1 fights and help none in 4v4 would be to increase the speed of the long arm after a back dodge.

[RLTygurr]

Personally I feel that LB is only viable right now in 1v1 at all because of the turtle meta. As soon as they find more unique ways to alter gameplay to allow more aggressive gameplay styles to be viable, LB will be probably the one who suffers most, as almost all of his good damage comes from parries. Unlike Warlord and other similar characters (Conquerer is kinda in his own level of useless right now so he's omitted) his damage in neutral is pretty much all predictable and dodgeable (and punishable).

For the most part, i get the majority of my success by predicting guard breaks and using top lights for chip damage. If I manage to get a parry I'll clobber someone, but on block I just shove. I don't even bother attacking half the time since it'll either get dodged for a free guard break, or deflected to hurt me more.

Usually I'll attack until they show me they can dodge or deflect it. Occasionally I'll throw in a heavy after the shove and let it rip to start my JJE combo, which generally is a good 50/50 to throw someone into, even though they could dodge backwards most people won't, expecting you to feint it.

I have a lot of success with whiffing my heavy intentionally but leaving it extremely close to them, so if they don't respect my range and walk forward they get hit or at most just block it. After that I use the side lights which are incredibly quick and people aren't ready for them a lot of the time.

I've seen some people use the shove lights knowing you'll dodge them only to throw out a heavy while you're trying to guard break them, giving them free damage and another shove. It's interesting, but not foolproof.

In general I think once the turtle meta is much weaker LB will need some options to either a) become a fully defensive character, with a few weaknesses or b) a more aggressive sort of bruiser character similar to a warlord/centurion hybrid with a few strong defensive options and a few strong offensive ones.

[kanuzira]

Currently I just wish there was an option to let him play like warlord.

[l8knight347]

Currently I just wish there was an option to let him play like warlord.

why not just play warlord