When do enemies take a break?

[Quake.]

So, running through the capital, and I'm noticing my biggest gripe with the enemies- They don't pause. They don't take a break, and most of the knights seem to just spam infinite combos without taking a moment to let the player hit them. It's because of stuff like this that I keep wondering why people say this game is "hard but fair" and a "10 out of 10", like geeeezz. Every time an enemy twitches I should be able to respond in some manner beyond parrying as even guarding is steadily becoming useless with how often enemies attack.

Like, seriously! What do I do in this area as enemies just melt my stamina and are too busy already starting another combo for me to guard counter. It feels like they really went overboard in this game.

[Sparhawk 59]

Range attacks work better. I found being a mix between melee and mage works better

[NeonRed]

I think it has something to do with the player's distance to an enemy and how their attacks are coded.

Small examples I've noticed:
-Troll: standing right under a troll they go crazy with using stomp and slam attacks until you move away.
-Malenia: sometimes if you're slightly too far away from her she goes nuts with combo attacks and back to back slash combo until you kinda move closer and she calms down.

Other examples of this but it varies from enemy to enemy.

[MundM]

Yeah, the fair aspect has taken a bit of a back seat, in order to compensate for the potential spirit summon to be present. I believe spirit summons ruined their challenge balance. It made it easier for people to reduce difficulty, sure, but they negatet that aspect by having spirit summons making most fights be a normal difficulty, while not using them becomes hard mode (2 gargoyles in Elden Ring vs 2 Gargoyles in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls comes to mind, same concept, worst implementation in their latest game).

You'll need to adapt to the new enemy aggression. Maybe use different attacks that better stagger (like 2 handed jump attacks), try to learn how to parry, or take advantage of the many throwing items (maybe put an enemy to sleep, or apply poison and play passive to let the chip damage do the trick).

Edit: Not to say the whole game is unfair. Given the amount of content, I'd say about 10% has DS2 just be hard design, rather than being challenging but fair. And I would bet a fight like the 2 gargoyles was made by B team members... or even worse, the double godskin apostles, who, for some reason, took inspiration from the 4 kings and actually are as many as needed for the hp to be 0.

[Quadsword]

Thing I've learned in this game is that it doesn't pay to play defensively. You gotta be aggressive. The enemies will just overwhelm you otherwise.

[Old Man Gamer (OMG)]

Shields are great at interrupting that on almost all foes. Some, like the crucibles, you just have to pretend to be Sonic and roll for the win.

[thecraftyknitter]

Some enemies I get shrekked if I go highly defensive. Othertimes I can just run in spam rivers of blood and boom! Win. It's sort of random.

[tallgeese]

It's a well-known issue in this game. Actually someone recorded a GIF where one enemy literally kept attacking non-stop for 20 seconds with no opportunity for the player to get a hit in - thought that was funny as hell.

[Edifier]

It borrows from the Dark Souls 2 enemy design.

Magnetic attacks
Never running out of stamina
Can constantly attack without any openings. Some enemies are worse than others.

[TropicalLad]

That's the neat part, they don't. From my experience, it's better to react to what attacks they give you than wait for when they stop attacking. Since y'know, everything in the lands is a master of delay.

If something is just eyeing you down and walking to the side, it's not that it isn't attacking. It's thinking of the perfect counter move to gigabrain, outplay your ass back to the grace.

[Julymorning]

If you are having problems with knights at the capital you seriously need to git gud. They do have recovery frames where you can reliably damage them. Only mobs in the game that can be called BS are those revenants and lobsters.

[Shooty Manz]

Every enemy has a 3 hit combo. Like not even joking. EVERY enemy except maybe the starting zombie/nobles who are just really really slow.

What's worse is that there is a huge delay too in some of the attacks. The attacks come down really fast but the monsters have this unbearable wind-up to some of their attacks. So there is not intuitive jerk reaction to dodge roll or blocking. It also makes parrying harder because you have to time it just as the swing animation is starting.

Short of memorizing every single different attack pattern, there is just no winning. Armour doesn't really do anything for you in this game either apparently so its just endless frustration and death.

Coupled with how long the game is I doubt the average player will even get 75% completion. I just finished Lunaria and starting to explore both Caelid and the Royal Capital and I feel like I'm only like 25% of the way through the game I'm guessing.

I don't even like the design of the Crucible and Lesser Crucible knights. That ♥♥♥♥ is just dumb. Whomever designed that clearly hates the rest of humanity.

[MrSoul]

Originally posted by Shooty Manz:

Every enemy has a 3 hit combo. Like not even joking. EVERY enemy except maybe the starting zombie/nobles who are just really really slow.

What's worse is that there is a huge delay too in some of the attacks. The attacks come down really fast but the monsters have this unbearable wind-up to some of their attacks. So there is not intuitive jerk reaction to dodge roll or blocking. It also makes parrying harder because you have to time it just as the swing animation is starting.

Short of memorizing every single different attack pattern, there is just no winning. Armour doesn't really do anything for you in this game either apparently so its just endless frustration and death.

Coupled with how long the game is I doubt the average player will even get 75% completion. I just finished Lunaria and starting to explore both Caelid and the Royal Capital and I feel like I'm only like 25% of the way through the game I'm guessing.

I don't even like the design of the Crucible and Lesser Crucible knights. That ♥♥♥♥ is just dumb. Whomever designed that clearly hates the rest of humanity.

the real fun doesn't even start until after the capital ;)

[McREEEEEE]

Probably because the enemies were designed in tandem with Sekiro and you are much more nimble there. Since this game started its development at roughly the same time with Sekiro, lots of stuffs were "reused".

You can see this clearest in Malenia. Her moveset is katana-based. Her kick attack is lifted straight from the purple ninja. Her ultimate move is a combination of One Mind and Spiral Cloud Passage. She even has a low thrust atk that looks mikiri-able lol.

[zero]

after every combo (or if you move out of their vague attack range) they will take a break.

[Pozzy Vibes GGHF :)]

the knight enemies won't stop until you parry or stagger them, you should just learn how to make use of the tiny windows give you to prepare you for bosses.