When saber fighters will get a real defence against thrusts?

[Michanicks]

In real life deflecting thrusts it's somewhat as easy as changing the guard (no dashing and sidestepping required), something that could be emulated in game as holding "move backwards" would mean you gonna reliably block every thrust.

[voronin_mike]

While I personally don't agree with the current implementation - still, holding 'long guard' does work, and, of course, moving backwards can also make their attack failing.
My personal objection is almost the opposite - that sidestepping almost never works. Though, of course, in my own sparring experience I often did still reach guys who attempted sidesteps, so... ;)

[Michanicks]

Originally posted by voronin_mike:

While I personally don't agree with the current implementation - still, holding 'long guard' does work, and, of course, moving backwards can also make their attack failing.
My personal objection is almost the opposite - that sidestepping almost never works. Though, of course, in my own sparring experience I often did still reach guys who attempted sidesteps, so... ;)

Long guard doesn't work for me in mid-close range, that's where parry would be useful.

Walking backwards help by default against all kinds of attacks, but while you can parry regular strikes, you don't really parry thrusts.

I know that sidestepping almost never works, as stepping is almost always slower than striking, but i can imagine people trying to justify lack of proper defence by saying that you can always sidestep, so i mentioned it in advance.

[Subutai]

If you are trying to sidestep or dash to the side then you are doing it wrong. You just need to use long guard. You can also counter thrust or try beating the blade with your saber as thrusts are beatable with proper timing. Simply being close can also render a thrust ineffective too. This is not to say you cannot sidetsep a thrust in this game, you can with really good timing but for beginners I would say avoid doing that altogether since it lowers your guard completely.

[Michanicks]

Originally posted by Subutai:

If you are trying to sidestep or dash to the side then you are doing it wrong. You just need to use long guard. You can also counter thrust or try beating the blade with your saber as thrusts are beatable with proper timing. Simply being close can also render a thrust ineffective too. This is not to say you cannot sidetsep a thrust in this game, you can with really good timing but for beginners I would say avoid doing that altogether since it lowers your guard completely.

I don't sidestep against thrusts to begin with.

[voronin_mike]

Originally posted by Michanicks:

I don't sidestep against thrusts to begin with.

Yes, you did state it in the answer to me. But - your initial post was formulated in such a way that it can be understood as you been trying that and disappointed that it doesn't work.
Let this be a lesson to us all - correct wording is important if we don't want to spend hours correcting misperceptions. %))

[Stevcorp]

Traditionally, the way you'd use a sabre to "defend" against a thrusting blade is to attack first. Use the weight of the blade to knock their extended point down or to the side, then step in and bring the blade back up to slice their arm or torso.

But my understanding is that the game only lets you knock blades away when they're striking - and by that point, the sabre user is already in trouble.

[Michanicks]

Originally posted by Stevcorp:

Traditionally, the way you'd use a sabre to "defend" against a thrusting blade is to attack first. Use the weight of the blade to knock their extended point down or to the side, then step in and bring the blade back up to slice their arm or torso.

But my understanding is that the game only lets you knock blades away when they're striking - and by that point, the sabre user is already in trouble.

Well, yeah, but i can add two more things: in real life you also can push blade away when your opponent is mid thrust/lunge, it's also an option.
And in game you can knock enemy's blade if they are in a long stance without attacking, try it out. Sadly, it's not easy in game to chain it into attacking, but i hope it will change in the future.