Endless stun locks... sick of them!

[Agent707]

I mean, SERIOUSLY sick of the ENDLESS stun locks. Even the most nooblett mobs have the ability to lay you on your face for 10 seconds and proceed to cut your balls out and chew them up and spit them on you. Only to do it again soon as you get up.

Getting flipping OLD man....

[Limdood]

Originally posted by Agent707:

This game is sooo freaking bad in this aspect. I'm 90+% ready to throw it.

Advice I get is watch my stamina bar and your resilience bar....
Both completely full, I still get dropped into a 10 second stun lock, only to go into a bleed out when I get up.

everything the enemy does, you can do too. As a human, you can do it better, because as a human, you can bait the AI into doing what you want. (you're also invincible during your own animations, the AI isn't)

You get stunned when:
1) your resilience drops to 0
2) coma damage builds up (I don't know that this happens in PvE....all my stuns have come from the other sources)
3) you take certain, special attacks completely unguarded, such as the hammer heavy attack or some gauntlet trips. These stuns are very short, but the animation to get up is long, so try to roll and you'll skip the standup animation.
4) the enemy does an unblockable special attack. These are signalled by a very bright red gleam in their eyes.
5) you get parried. This is the big one you're complaining about now.

I'm going to assume that 1-4 aren't a really big issue for you. #2 is nonexistent afaik in PvE, and #3 can be countered by blocking or dodging the triggering attack, or if you get hit, dodge rolling to get back up/away. #1 just happens when you take too many hits....if your resilience is really low, either get away for like 10 seconds or get your health up so the stun won't drop you (like when fighting an elite or boss, who will reset if you run). #4 is problematic because some of them have VERY VERY short windows, but the more you face certain types of enemies (some animals + elites and bosses only...never normal barbarians), the easier it'll be to know what their specific danger-attack(s) are.

#5 is frustrating a lot of people right now. but it's perfectly avoidable. The enemy can't block/parry when in the middle of an animation (a weapon skill or heavy attack or bandaging) or when THEY'RE stunned.

If you just charge right in and spam your heavy attack (looking at you, spear users...), you're rolling the dice with every attack that they'll choose to block. it'll happen occasionally, and when it does, it's punishing.

so instead, block, use single quick attacks (the quick press left mouse button), and wait for the opening. Either from parrying THEIR attack, or from the AI using a longer attack....strafe or roll around and heavy attack them back. Those crazy long stuns affect (non-elite) enemies too...you can get 2 full spear heavy attacks AND the execute attack in the space of a single parry stun if you're fast....or bandage and still execute.

I'm not perfect at this either, and I still get overconfident/greedy/desperate and launch an attack straight into a parry....but it's my fault. I threw a big windup attack while the enemy was already in position to throw a parry...I SHOULD be punished for that.

oh, and when recovering from a stun (either resilience or because you threw an attack and got parried), dodge roll as soon as you can...it avoids extra animation time to get up while able to be hit.

[Varyn [GER]]

Well written, wish my english would be on that level, but I have some complains.

Originally posted by Limdood:

everything the enemy does, you can do too. As a human, you can do it better, because as a human, you can bait the AI into doing what you want. (you're also invincible during your own animations, the AI isn't)

I cant parry while being stunlocked from a spearheavy or other attacks. I have limited stamina. I'm not almost stagger immune. I dont have 3x more HP like them or can dodge attacks/ranged attacks from enemies I dont have in my vision. I dont have inhuman reflexes. I'm not able to outnumber enemies 5v1.

Originally posted by Limdood:

#4 is frustrating a lot of people right now. but it's perfectly avoidable. The enemy can't block/parry when in the middle of an animation (a weapon skill or heavy attack or bandaging) or when THEY'RE stunned.

Saying it's "perfectly" avoidable is kind of misleading, because doing it that way has an unreasonable cost. It's like saying "no this boss isn't op, because you could climbs on a strange spot and shoot him down with 2k arrows in 1 hour". Doing it perfectly means never attacking an idling enemy, always waiting for them to act first, never attack when there's another enemy around cause he might parry you while standing behind/next to you. Doing it perfectly is imho not possible without making the fightis a boring only reactive acting coffee break, where the only option is to eat through your armor with hit trading or poking enemys within tiny parry-free dmg windows after blocking/dodging their attacks.

I do agree however, that with enough skill one can probably negate 95% of the newbie's eaten parries without losing too much speed. But the remaining ones still feel too punishing imho. The most funny parry death i had in my early hours where from a tribesman who surrendered, his face on the ground. I hit him, he insta-parried without any windup and finished me :D

[DaddyLife]

Not even a little bit hard. Imagine a world where your over-extended attack results in your death....

Can solo level 50 steel NPCs in iron no problem in melee. Spear/shield is easy if you want to go hardcore countering/defensive but Hammer is how I farm ;)

[Volkov]

Remove NPCs' ability to parry-stun you.

I just watched a fat shield user parry-stun me in the SAME FRAME as having swung at me. I don't care what your design philosophy is dev, get good at animations/netcode before you start cramming in sub-systems into your game please.

[Xiff]

The worst of the permastuns I've seen has been actually Ostriches... they have an attack that will stun you. And they appear to have almost no cooldown on the attack... its possible for them to use it often enough that if you happen to miss dodging the attack once, they can sometimes keep you stun locked till you die with no chance of recovering as it gets reapplied before it runs out.

[Limdood]

Originally posted by Varyn GER:

Doing it perfectly means never attacking an idling enemy, always waiting for them to act first, never attack when there's another enemy around cause he might parry you while standing behind/next to you.

Not what I said. I said not to use a HEAVY attack on an idle enemy. From my earlier post:

so instead, block, use single quick attacks (the quick press left mouse button), and wait for the opening

Ever notice how the shield+spear enemies advance on you with the shield up and do little single pokes, but even if you time the blocks, they don't get stunned?

Same goes for you.

you can safely quick attack an idle enemy, you CANNOT safely heavy attack (long press left button) or skill attack (F ability) or jump attack an idle enemy.

Once again, the enemy fights like you. they have resilience same as you. they can quick attack you without fear of being parried, and you can quick attack them. Use bow or spear throw to attack from range and draw them to you (spear is ludicrously good for this...so good that most of the other spear abilities just CAN'T compete no matter how powerful they are in melee). Strafe around so that you can push them away from their comrades and fight cautiously...quick attacking occasionally to whittle them down and watching for their bigger animations to block it, or to avoid it and launch your own heavy while they're finishing their animation.

Also:

I cant parry while being stunlocked from a spearheavy or other attacks.

neither can they, IF you caught them during part of an animation. You actually can parry partway through a spear heavy if you were doing nothing and facing them when it was launched, but if they caught you in the tail end of an animation, you're stuck the same as them.

I have limited stamina.

true, but the enemy can't launch flurries of attacks...they have an enforced pause between each attack. If you attacked that slow you wouldn't ever have stamina issues either.

I'm not almost stagger immune.

the enemy gets staggered plenty, for the same reasons you do. drop their resilience to nothing and they're stunned. Land a control impairing special/heavy and it affects them if the conditions are met (something like the gauntlet trip or hammer heavy smash - getting caught from the side or back, or while in an animation is worst. Getting caught from the front while blocking will avoid pretty much all control loss, unless they drop your resilience to nothing).

I dont have 3x more HP like them

this one is fair...there are certainly some normal barbarian enemies who I've attacked with same tier weapons that have taken far more punishment then I'd have been capable of taking...but there are also some less so... on balance though, I think same level, same tier enemies do tend towards moderately more hp than the player.

or can dodge attacks/ranged attacks from enemies I dont have in my vision.

you're using 3rd person behind view with a free cam. you absolutely can dodge things your CHARACTER can't see. dodging things you aren't aware of is different, and the AI can't either (they can't dodge if they haven't aggro'd)

I dont have inhuman reflexes.

for normal barbarians, you don't need them...everything parryable has enough windup to react to

I'm not able to outnumber enemies 5v1.

pull smarter. run when you're in over your head. bring a tribe member. and you're attacking their base...when they attack your base, you absolutely outnumber them 5v1.

(None of this is talking about elites/chiefs/bosses, they absolutely and intentionally break the rules)

AI can't adapt, humans can. It's a system that's set in virtual stone. You learn the system, you play the system, you beat the system. These aren't "stand on a roof out of reach and bow them to death" exploits. This is interacting with the system the way it's MEANT to be interacted with. I didn't dig into code or anything to learn to fight the AI effectively, I watched the AI. I learned at least half of the tricks I mentioned BECAUSE the AI did them to me. Didn't parry much at all until I faced plunderers, then after they kicked my face in after parrying me a few times, I learned to return the favor AND avoid falling for it myself. Didn't dodge roll much at all until I faced the sabertooth tiger and the fight forces it and showcases its value....now I mix some dodge rolling into most of my battles.

[sbdexplosion2]

My only complaint is the length of time, it needs to go down a few seconds for both us and mobs. No one should be able to bandage and then also do the special parry attack- one or the other.

[MJY]

yep a bit much, if they get u on the ground, u had it, even in begainer zones, its a bit annoying

[Johnny Mayhews]

The bush dogs are annoying at low level, but it isn't bad when you know the fight. I just wish they would fix the sounds. Chomp chomp meat sounds on wolves and bush dogs when they don't even hit you are not needed sound effects. Maybe even a slider for different elements in nature like animal sounds, footsteps, etc. Also at low level their alert radius is WAY too high. Personally, I think they should've had a couple tiers of the way bush dogs work. Low level bush dogs with lower alert radius. And the higher they get in level the more annoying they get. Not annoying at the "get go". It's a mind abuse for sure.