Hey, I play a PK and am having a difficult time understanding several mechanics of this game. I am referring to 1v1 duels in this thread. First of all is the guard break. I have heard it is possible to dodge but for me that is not the case. I will dodge well out of range, in good time, back or to the side and my opponent is just like a heatseeking teleporter and gets me every time. Also, my guardbreaks are countered at least %80 of the time which makes no sense to me as I time it well, the window to counter is very small and I find it nearly impossible to counter myself, possibly because im usually ready on x (ps4) to dodge, though I doubt that is the reason. My counter attempt is usually just ignored. Second, my dodge seems to have a huge delay in normal combat. I dont k ow if this is due to server connection or what but some fights my dodge is lagging badly and it is near impossible and I just rage quit because my character is useless. My opponents rarely if ever seem to have this problem, whether it be blocking or dodging. It seems extremely inconsistent and many times visually I have dodged out of the way yet am still hit. Third is stamina. I get some opponents have stamina draining skills but regardless of this, I have matches where my stamina just disappears after 1 or 2 strikes and I just have to run away, then it happens again. I have watched my stamina just completely disappear where as my opponents stays nearly full the entire time. There are more but I think this post is long enough. To me it looks like pk was a character that was complained about and nerfed in so many ways before I even started playing (played for maybe 2 months now) and then new, stronger characters were released without addressing the nerfs to the pk. Any help or advice is appreciated, keeping in mind I fully understand the pk's timing (even though it seems to vary from duel to duel, possibly due to connection speed). Thanks.
The way dodge works in this game is:Originally Posted by Loi2e Go to original post
You dodge, The game checks at a certain point in time during the opponents attack wether or not:
-The attack is in range?
-The attack is during the iframes of your dodge (iframes vary based on character)
If you are in range and not in your iframes their attack will connect regardless of how far you dodge away. Range doesnt matter beyond that point in time. Neither does angle. (this is often times wrongly interpreted by the community as "insane tracking" when the issue simply is that they did not have iframes at the precise moment when the attack requires them to have iframes to be avoided). The game doesnt tell you the timing for dodges for any attack at all so its entirely trial and error and its a outstandingly atrocious trial and error learning experience.
For guard break there are no iframes. Instead if you are in range and in a dodge animation you will get guardbroken AND ARE UNABLE TO COUNTERGUARDBREAK!
^this is what people mean when they say guardbreak is undodgeable. The check for range is VERY early in the GB animation. So dodging on reaction is absolutely never going to work.
Counterguardbreaking is VERY easy to do consistently (try against bots in training if u want to check the timing) but IF the character who is being guardbroken is counted as inside an aftercast of an animation OR starting a heavy (timings vary depending on character) OR in a dodge you will NEVER be able to counterguardbreak at all.
Furthermore EVERYTHING you do in the game has aftercast which often times is not adequately represented by animations. This is the time when your character is not responding to your inputs because the character is simply not ready yet. Often times the input will come out half a second later because it still counts as a buffered input.
Aftercasts of attacks and dodges are characterdepending but are generally high for backdodges and generally low on average for PK when compared to other characters.
None of these concepts are explained ingame btw, youre welcome![]()
I'll try to keep it simple. In general, it sounds like you just need more practice.
Guard breaking is a way to counter dodging. You can't dodge a guard break or counter guard break when you've been gaurdbroken out of a dodge. As for counter guard breaking in general, the window is small. You need to anticipate that you are going to get gaurd broken if you want to be able to counter gaurd break. This just takes a lot of practice.
As for the dodging delay thing, I'm not really sure what you are taking about, but if your internet is descent then it's not the connection speed. Could you be just mistaking the dodge? Every attack in this game has different timings than other attacks.
As for the stamina thing. Every attack takes a very specific amount of stamina. Heavy attacks usually take a lot. You just need more practice to understand when you can throw out attacks and still have enough stamina.
First of all is the guard break. I have heard it is possible to dodge but for me that is not the case.
<< no, its is not possible to dodge a Guard break(which i'll refer to as gb from now on), but different characters have different gb range, so if you test things out, you can out-space a gb (stand slightly outside the range of one gives you an opportunity to gb the attempt to punish).
dodge well out of range, in good time, back or to the side and my opponent is just like a heatseeking teleporter and gets me every time
<< gb has basically 2 checks, one for the opponents distance from player at launch, and whether the opponent cgbs(Counter Guard Break) it. you can fail a gb in this manner or if you are interrupted by an attack on startup or the opponent is in the middle of an attack and becomes gb-immune.
My counter attempt is usually just ignored
<< probably because most actions make you unable to cgb. actions like dodging or feinting an attack does that but you can preemptively attempt a dodging attack for characters that have them to get gb immunity. the opponent can parry it tho.
my dodge seems to have a huge delay in normal combat
<< pk dodges very far and takes longer to go the distance. if you just let the dodge animation finish, sure its long, but you can cancel it to an attack near the end of the animation
It seems extremely inconsistent and many times visually I have dodged out of the way yet am still hit
<< dodging at the last second usually guarantees you get hit. either make sure you have enough distance to escape or block/parry if you dont think you're making it on time. Dodges in for honor has very little I-frames compared to other games. you can do normal dodges through attacks if timed really well.
I have matches where my stamina just disappears after 1 or 2 strikes and I just have to run away, then it happens again
<< you are probably getting parried. parrying does huge stamina damage to your opponents. Some characters specialize in removing stamina so its important to know your matchups. i recommend playing all the character for awhile to get a hang of their moves.
All in all, i'd reccommend you play kensei or warden to pick up the basics of the game, but if you dont feel like it, then try learning pk's moveset and experimenting for new playstyles. Dont worry if you lose to much, after 30 hours or so, you'll get a really good grasp of the system. Try the trials in the training mode, its boring as heck but it will help you get better. Oh, and turn on the parry timing when you are training in the arena. Most attacks have similar dodge timing as their parry timings. sorry about my formatting
Thanks for the responses. I was just hoping for a more realistic experience I guess, more customization around my gameplay as opposed to perfect timing and untold factors determining outcome. Dont really want to learn the distance of every characters gb and such. Range is one thing but I am not fond of what Ive heard. I find I am just way ahead of the game which in turn just results in me throwing delayed strikes I dont want to. Also, is there a way to get rid of the red arrows, that show what the enemy is doing? I just find that they are more of a distraction than anything as it is difficult to see the actual strike which appears to be more important.