Two combat changes that should have been from the start.
For Honor is a great combat game, but there are some things that don't really make much sense. The execution of the game was very poor and the current combat system is very poor. Defensive play is too easy and simple since every attack is able to be easily reacted to and there are very little to no variations.
The two suggestions I propose aren't necessarily aimed at the defensive meta, but would help with the issue. They're mostly things that should have been part of the game from the start.
1. The speed and damage of an attack will no longer be influenced by the direction of the attack.
- An example to explain this: Say with whatever hero you take, you perform a light attack. Regardless the direction you perform it (right side, left side, top), it will have the same speed and damage. So side lights will have the same speed and damage as top lights.
Why this change? When a hero has more damage and speed on a specific direction with a certain attack, it basically forces that hero to use that direction with said attack. There is no variation, so the opponent can simply put their guard in the direction they know is the fastest since there would be no need to focus anywhere else. For example, take Kensei's light attacks. Kensei's top light is his fastest light, so his opponents can simply focus up top to react to it. If Kensei uses his side lights, they're slower, so they can be more readily and easily reacted to. Another example is Orochi. His top light is much faster than his side lights, so he can never use his side lights reliably, which means his opponents just need to simply focus up top.
A certain attack needs to be the same speed no matter the direction because it would allow for more variations and it would force players to actually react to attacks, instead of focusing on a single direction, which can completely shutdown certain heroes. By doing this, heroes that only have one or two reliable attacks can now be more unpredictable. A lot of the game seems to be the same attacks over and over because only certain directions are viable, which causes very mundane and redundant gameplay and promotes easier defensive play/turtling. There are only 3 directions to attack from in this game, so it doesn't make sense that only one or two directions are viable to attack from. Should have been obvious that this would cause problems. Some heroes even have strong counters against certain directions, like Warden's top counterstrike, so he can very harshly punish heroes that rely on top attacks since they have no other viable direction. Every direction should be viable.
Why do you think that PK can throw out lights from every direction and be constantly successful? It's not just because her lights are fast in general, but because every direction is viable to attack from.
This would NOT change combos and finishers. Only attacks from neutral. And to not be confused, this does not make every heroes' lights and heavies the same speed and damage. It just removes the speed and damage differences depending on direction.
Mostly, this change is just to make all directions viable to attack from. That's really all this is.
2. Change all blocking to reflex/non-active guard blocking (assassin blocking).
- When there are only 3 directions one can attack from, it isn't enough considering all non-assassin heroes only really need to react to 2 directions since the other direction is automatically blocked. This would also increase the skill cap for players and make defensive play more difficult in general. Assassin heroes have a much harder time turtling than non-assassin heroes and reflex is a part of why (not saying they can't turtle, but it is more difficult to do so).
With this change combined with the 1st change, it would make playing defense much more skill based, which would also indirectly increase the skill cap and reveal an obvious difference between skilled and non-skilled players. It would also make turtling much more difficult to pull off and give more options to heroes without many offensive options (Raider, Kensei, Orochi....). It would make combat much less redundant and predictable and make it more skill based and fast paced with more variations.
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