Musings on Superior Block and general mechanics

[Malidictus]

By this point, I've introduced a few people to For Honour. One thing I've consistently struggled to explain to them has been the concept of Superior Block - largely because I didn't fully understand it myself. It's called a block, but it's not a block. It's more of a parry, bit it's not a parry, either. Also, Deflect Dodge is a form of Superior Block? What's going on?

Well, I've had a fair bit of experience with the game now (just shy of 700 hours), so I THINK I have some idea of how this might work. What I propose here is not a guide and isn't based on knowledge of the source code or insider information. These are merely assumptions based on observation and common practice. Please, PLEASE let me know if any of what I say past this point is wrong. I'd like to actually know how these systems work.



Player States and Triggers

Before I talk about what Superior Block is, I need to talk about Block. And before that, I need to draw a distinction between two separate concepts - the "states" which our characters can be in and the "triggers" which cause us to shift from one state to another. Specifically, I want to draw a distinction between "block" and "guard."

As far as I can tell, Block is a state that a character can be in. Guard is the direction in which the player's Focus Guard is pointing (if any). Shortly before an attack lands (or concurrent with it), a guard check is made. If the defender's Guard direction matches the Attacker's attack direction, the player is put in a Block state which lasts for a brief while (feels like about 500ms). During this time, ALL attacks which impact the defender will be considered "blocked".

What this means is that Block itself is non-directional. A blocking player will block attacks from all directions. Instead, directionality comes from Guard - from how the Block state is triggered. Timing and direction matter only until the defender enters the Block state. After that point, the defender's controls are locked until Block state ends. Here's why this matters:



Block and Reinforced Attacks

When an attacker strikes a defender in the Block state, a few things happen. The defender takes no damage and suffers light blockstun, the attacker suffers heavy stun. Keep in mind that the defender can remain in the Block state for some time after blocking an attack, so additional attackers might also be blocked.

But what about heavy attacks? Well, there is a special-case exception carveout. Certain attacks are "Reinforced." When a Reinforced attack strikes a Block, it works a bit differently. The defender takes partial damage (looks to be ~10-20%) and suffers heavy blockstun while the attacker is unaffected and finishes their attack animation normally. A Reinforced attack impacting Block appears to count as a hit for the purposes of chains.

All heavy attacks are Reinforced. Some light Attacks can also be Reinforced, depending on the character and the attack.



Superior Block, finally

Superior Block appears to be a special-case exception carveout for Block just like how the Reinforced state is for attacks - a "Reinforced Block" if you will. From what I can tell, a Superior Block is simply a Block which disregards an attack's Reinforced status. All attacks which impact Superior Block reflected. The defender suffers no damage and may or may not suffer bockstun, the attacker suffers heavy stun.

In fact, you can see this in action in some but not all versions of Full Guard. The Black Prior's Full Guard is a Block. Light attacks will be deflected, but Heavy and Reinforced attacks will still stagger. In contrast, the Conqueror's Full Guard is a Superior Block. All attacks which impact it will be deflected, be they Heavy, Light or Reinforced Light.

That right there was the trick - what it took for me to understand what Superior Block is and why we call it that. But there's more.



Why does Superior Block "feel" like a Parry?

I'll get into Parries in a bit, but the reason why is simple - because of how it's Triggered. In almost all cases, a defender can only enter a Full Block state during portions of an attack's animation. Blocks and Parries are triggered by Guard state at or shortly before the moment of impact. Most attacks with Superior Block have the Superior Block portion right at the start of their animation. It is for this reason that Superior Block attacks feel like an exotic Parry in practice.

Mechanically, however, they appear to function very differently. Superior Block attacks are closer to Uninterruptible attacks, in that they put the attacker in a "defensive" state. When an attacker is struck during the Full Block portion of such an attack, then the same situation happens as though the "attacker" were blocking with a Superior Block. That is to say, all attacks will be deflected, the attacker will take no damage and their attack animation will continue.

In essence, attacks with Superior Block enable a player to both attack and block at the same time, blocking attempts to interrupt them. This is actually much better than the Uninterruptible state, because it negates all damage and staggers.



Potential implications

Knowing this, it seems like For Honour has the potential for some exotic character designs. Keep in mind that I'm not claiming any of this would be balanced or a good idea, merely that it should be theoretically possible:

An assassin with Block stance on their light attacks. This would would allow said Assassin to push through non-Reinforced light attacks and "clash" with Reinforced and Heavy attacks - both parties are staggered.

A "Superheavy" who has Superior Block instead of regular block. This would allow this character to deflect all attacks as though they were Lights, fully shutting down any combos with a simple block.

A "Superheavy" Trait which puts the character in a Block state for 10 seconds. Light attacks would simply bounce off the character, heavies would cause stagger and deal reduced damage. A different version of Juggernaut, I suppose.



So what about Parry, then?

From what I can see, Parry simply seems to be a modified version of Block. That is to say, through the "correct" use of Directional Guard, the player can put themselves in a Parry state. When attack impacts a defender in a Parry state, the attacker suffers heavy stagger while the defender takes no damage and suffers light blockstun. This game has tremendous capacity for animation blending, so the character will visually "parry" towards an attacker, but this seems to be cosmetic only.

A funny artefact exists here. Unlike the Block state which seems to trigger almost perfectly concurrent with the attack impact, the Parry state can be triggered a substantial amount of time before impact. This can lead to the attacker being staggered before the attack actually hits. In this case, the defender will "mime" a parry anyway. It can also lead to the defender being struck by another attacker before the initial attack impacts. In this case, the defender will parry the "other" attack first, then parry the original attack afterwards. This is consistent with the player being in an omnidirectional Parry state and parrying all attacks.

It also appears that the Parry state refreshes itself on every Parry - something Block doesn't do. It seems to last for ~1 second, but it can parry attacks for a good 2-3 seconds if they keep coming.



A progression of states

So far, we have multiple versions of Block and multipler versions of attacks. Very broadly, they seem to stack up like this:

• Standard hit
  
• Block: Fully negates a hit
  
• Reinforced: Partially negates Block
  
• Superior Block: Fully negates Reinforce
  
• Unblockable: Fully negates Block
  
• Parry: Fully negates Unblockable
  
• Bash: Fully negates Parry.

Bashes are... weird. They do absolutely count as their own separate thing, but for a couple of reasons. First of all, Bashes are non-directional, meaning that a defender can't even trigger any form of Block against them. However, if a bash strikes a defender who has triggered a Guard state in some other fashion, it will still override that Guard state and connect anyway. This is why I believe that Bashes require a different icon from just the standard "fiery" Unblockable one. Maybe a blue flame?



Conclusion

Currently, this is my understanding of how Block states work. All forms of Block (Block, Superior Block, Parry) are omnidirectional, but their triggers are typically unidirectional. If a player is able to trigger a Block state, then that player will block from all directions. Not all attacks behave the same against all Block states, however.

If any of what I've said is wrong, please correct me. I'm making a lot of assertions and extrapolations purely based on what I've experienced in playing the game. It's possible I've seen something wrong, remembered something wrong or interpreted something wrong. I'd rather know how the game works than "be right."

Thank you for your time.

[Viable_Golem4375]

Superior block is just a block that makes all attacks bounce off and stun you, usually confirming something for the enemy (although not always, looking at you Kensei).

Deflects are something else entirely unless you're Valkyrie, then your deflect is also a superior block for whatever reason.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Superior block is just a block that makes all attacks bounce off and stun you, usually confirming something for the enemy (although not always, looking at you Kensei).

Yes, quite literally a Block which disregards an attack's Reinforced status. My broader point, though, is that the way in which Superior Block is usually triggered makes it confusing to figure out what it is. We almost never trigger it using Guard, so it doesn't feel like a type of Block. My own personal hang-up is I couldn't separate Superior Block and the attack it's usually part of in my head.

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Deflects are something else entirely unless you're Valkyrie, then your deflect is also a superior block for whatever reason.

Oh, I'm not claiming that they're the same in practice. It just seems to me like they're using the same system on the back end. Consider what a Parry actually does - the the attacker is staggered, the defender takes no damage. That's functionally identical to a Block, except it also disregards Reinforced status (like Superior Block) and also disregards Unblockable status. Yes, the trigger for it is different and the duration seems to self-refresh, but it looks like very much the same system.

This is why I talked about Parrying attacks which never land and Parrying an external attack before the locked attack. A parry isn't an attack which "clashes" with another attack like a Superior Block attack is. The heavy attack input doesn't spawn an attack at all. It quite literally just shifts you into a Parry state for around a second, during which time you will parry all incoming attacks and reset that duration with each parry.



Speaking more broadly, For Honour seems to use a finite-state machine dressed up in fancy animations. When an attack lands, check for defender state. Depending on that, check for attack state. Depending on the result, update attacker and defender states, push result to animation sequencer, let that sort out making things look good. It's the "looking good" part which hides the otherwise very basic and straightforward state changes, making it "feel" like flowing combat as opposed to a series of flipping switches.

Block, Superior Block, Parry - all of those "feel" like we're pushing into an opponent's attack with our own body weight or our own attack, but that's just presentation. In practice, we're gaming systems to shift our characters in the correct state at the correct time. For example, Superior Block works on roughly Parry timing but ISN'T a Parry. We don't trigger the Superior Block state change ourselves - it's automatically triggered as part of the attack sequence. We do trigger the Parry ourselves, in contrast. We use attack input to do so, but perform no attack.

Think about it like a context-sensitive "interact button" from older console titles. If you hit it near a switch, it'll flip the switch. If you hit it near an enemy, it'll grab the enemy. If you hit it near nothing, it'll perform a quick melee attack. Parry seems to work the same way. Using your Heavy Attack input in the correct context doesn't do a heavy attack at all, but rather changes your state to Parry briefly. "The correct circumstances" depend on the attack and are controlled by the Guard system.

[Viable_Golem4375]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Superior block is just a block that makes all attacks bounce off and stun you, usually confirming something for the enemy (although not always, looking at you Kensei).

Yes, quite literally a Block which disregards an attack's Reinforced status. My broader point, though, is that the way in which Superior Block is usually triggered makes it confusing to figure out what it is. We almost never trigger it using Guard, so it doesn't feel like a type of Block. My own personal hang-up is I couldn't separate Superior Block and the attack it's usually part of in my head.

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Deflects are something else entirely unless you're Valkyrie, then your deflect is also a superior block for whatever reason.

Oh, I'm not claiming that they're the same in practice. It just seems to me like they're using the same system on the back end. Consider what a Parry actually does - the the attacker is staggered, the defender takes no damage. That's functionally identical to a Block, except it also disregards Reinforced status (like Superior Block) and also disregards Unblockable status. Yes, the trigger for it is different and the duration seems to self-refresh, but it looks like very much the same system.

This is why I talked about Parrying attacks which never land and Parrying an external attack before the locked attack. A parry isn't an attack which "clashes" with another attack like a Superior Block attack is. The heavy attack input doesn't spawn an attack at all. It quite literally just shifts you into a Parry state for around a second, during which time you will parry all incoming attacks and reset that duration with each parry.



Speaking more broadly, For Honour seems to use a finite-state machine dressed up in fancy animations. When an attack lands, check for defender state. Depending on that, check for attack state. Depending on the result, update attacker and defender states, push result to animation sequencer, let that sort out making things look good. It's the "looking good" part which hides the otherwise very basic and straightforward state changes, making it "feel" like flowing combat as opposed to a series of flipping switches.

Block, Superior Block, Parry - all of those "feel" like we're pushing into an opponent's attack with our own body weight or our own attack, but that's just presentation. In practice, we're gaming systems to shift our characters in the correct state at the correct time. For example, Superior Block works on roughly Parry timing but ISN'T a Parry. We don't trigger the Superior Block state change ourselves - it's automatically triggered as part of the attack sequence. We do trigger the Parry ourselves, in contrast. We use attack input to do so, but perform no attack.

Think about it like a context-sensitive "interact button" from older console titles. If you hit it near a switch, it'll flip the switch. If you hit it near an enemy, it'll grab the enemy. If you hit it near nothing, it'll perform a quick melee attack. Parry seems to work the same way. Using your Heavy Attack input in the correct context doesn't do a heavy attack at all, but rather changes your state to Parry briefly. "The correct circumstances" depend on the attack and are controlled by the Guard system.

Yeah this game has a strange combat system. Usually other fighters have a more "rock-paper-scissors" approach where there's a few different main move types which each get countered by one thing, whereas in For Honor we have like, several different ones, sometimes with properties randomly added from another move type which get countered by some types of counters but not others. I guess it's what makes the game so unique.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Yeah this game has a strange combat system. Usually other fighters have a more "rock-paper-scissors" approach where there's a few different main move types which each get countered by one thing, whereas in For Honor we have like, several different ones, sometimes with properties randomly added from another move type which get countered by some types of counters but not others. I guess it's what makes the game so unique.

It's a VEEERY flexible toolkit, at least if it works like I suspect it does. For all the ♥♥♥♥ this game gets over balance and connections and such, they did a pretty good job with the back-end mechanics. That's one of the cool bits of compartmentalisation. The animation system handles all the animation transitions, so you can pretty much string mechanics together and it'll work. Superior Block on attacks, for instance, is such a clever way to use mechanics outside of their intended purpose. It's a BLOCK in the middle of an ATTACK, and it works just fine both visually and mechanically.

This is why I had a segment in the OP speculating on potential weird mechanics interactions, such as regular block on some light attacks, or a version of Juggernaut with Superior Block on it. Modelling Blocks and Parries and such as continuous states rather than actions is quite clever, since you can attach them to just about anything. Hell, characters like the Peacekeeper have it the other way around - their attacks become Reinforced depending on the enemy's Bleed state. That's a really clever way to add uniqueness to the character.

The first few games I played of For Honour, it felt like all the characters are broadly interchangeable aside from stuff like Dodge Deflect and Reflex Guard. Except the developers have such a wide toolkit to play with that they managed to make most of them REALLY unique. Sure, sometimes you get characters who play similarly, like the Peacekeeper and Shaman, or Berserker and Shaloin. Obviously, they're not the SAME character, but they share some elements here or there.

It honestly feels like For Honour could do better if it did a better job of introducing new players to its core mechanics. For people coming from other games, the intuitive playstyle is to just button-mash and try to out-light-spam the hordes of light spammers, fail and proclaim that the game sucks. There's a wealth of mechanical complexity that the game really should be teaching us, yet I've had to continually ask about here on the forums, read obscure guides online and ostensibly infer on my own. For Honour really IS an absolutely unique game.

[Viable_Golem4375]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Yeah this game has a strange combat system. Usually other fighters have a more "rock-paper-scissors" approach where there's a few different main move types which each get countered by one thing, whereas in For Honor we have like, several different ones, sometimes with properties randomly added from another move type which get countered by some types of counters but not others. I guess it's what makes the game so unique.

It's a VEEERY flexible toolkit, at least if it works like I suspect it does. For all the ♥♥♥♥ this game gets over balance and connections and such, they did a pretty good job with the back-end mechanics. That's one of the cool bits of compartmentalisation. The animation system handles all the animation transitions, so you can pretty much string mechanics together and it'll work. Superior Block on attacks, for instance, is such a clever way to use mechanics outside of their intended purpose. It's a BLOCK in the middle of an ATTACK, and it works just fine both visually and mechanically.

This is why I had a segment in the OP speculating on potential weird mechanics interactions, such as regular block on some light attacks, or a version of Juggernaut with Superior Block on it. Modelling Blocks and Parries and such as continuous states rather than actions is quite clever, since you can attach them to just about anything. Hell, characters like the Peacekeeper have it the other way around - their attacks become Reinforced depending on the enemy's Bleed state. That's a really clever way to add uniqueness to the character.

The first few games I played of For Honour, it felt like all the characters are broadly interchangeable aside from stuff like Dodge Deflect and Reflex Guard. Except the developers have such a wide toolkit to play with that they managed to make most of them REALLY unique. Sure, sometimes you get characters who play similarly, like the Peacekeeper and Shaman, or Berserker and Shaloin. Obviously, they're not the SAME character, but they share some elements here or there.

It honestly feels like For Honour could do better if it did a better job of introducing new players to its core mechanics. For people coming from other games, the intuitive playstyle is to just button-mash and try to out-light-spam the hordes of light spammers, fail and proclaim that the game sucks. There's a wealth of mechanical complexity that the game really should be teaching us, yet I've had to continually ask about here on the forums, read obscure guides online and ostensibly infer on my own. For Honour really IS an absolutely unique game.

Oh this game has horrendous tutorials lmao, it'd be really nice if at some point they would update them to actually explain more to new players than "right click to parry" as in the current iteration of these new player help tools they don't really explain much of anything which might be the cause of the... interesting forum posts you see around here sometimes.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Oh this game has horrendous tutorials lmao, it'd be really nice if at some point they would update them to actually explain more to new players than "right click to parry" as in the current iteration of these new player help tools they don't really explain much of anything which might be the cause of the... interesting forum posts you see around here sometimes.

Yeah, the Tutorials are pretty awful, especially the advanced ones. They tell you that special mechanics EXIST, but don't actually explain what they are or how to use them. And the special conditions are just bad. I aced all the tutorials and still didn't have idea one how to actually play the game.

The character-specific ones are also pretty bad. They'll tell you some (but not all) of a character's mechanics, then dive into these really long Hard Feint combos that you're never actually going to use. I run one of them every time I play a new character and it still takes me all day just to get a grasp of what they even do. Classic example of teaching advanced crap before establishing the basics.

Speaking purely for myself - I'd have appreciated a basic breakdown of mechanics, what they are, how they work and what their limitations are. Maybe TELL ME that bashes exist, and aren't just weird uninterruptible attacks. Maybe explain what a Zone Attack is and why it costs so much Stamina. Stuff like that. I'm almost 700 hours in and still struggling to piece together basic facts :) Sure, could be I'm just dumb, but I can't help feeling a better tutorial system would have helped. Or... you know, some documentation, at least. But that's going off-topic.

[Viable_Golem4375]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Viable_Golem4375:

Oh this game has horrendous tutorials lmao, it'd be really nice if at some point they would update them to actually explain more to new players than "right click to parry" as in the current iteration of these new player help tools they don't really explain much of anything which might be the cause of the... interesting forum posts you see around here sometimes.

Yeah, the Tutorials are pretty awful, especially the advanced ones. They tell you that special mechanics EXIST, but don't actually explain what they are or how to use them. And the special conditions are just bad. I aced all the tutorials and still didn't have idea one how to actually play the game.

The character-specific ones are also pretty bad. They'll tell you some (but not all) of a character's mechanics, then dive into these really long Hard Feint combos that you're never actually going to use. I run one of them every time I play a new character and it still takes me all day just to get a grasp of what they even do. Classic example of teaching advanced crap before establishing the basics.

Speaking purely for myself - I'd have appreciated a basic breakdown of mechanics, what they are, how they work and what their limitations are. Maybe TELL ME that bashes exist, and aren't just weird uninterruptible attacks. Maybe explain what a Zone Attack is and why it costs so much Stamina. Stuff like that. I'm almost 700 hours in and still struggling to piece together basic facts :) Sure, could be I'm just dumb, but I can't help feeling a better tutorial system would have helped. Or... you know, some documentation, at least. But that's going off-topic.

Nah you're definitely not alone here, the tutorials explain basically nothing about game mechanics to the point where even 1,000s of hours in you still learn new random things, like only shortly ago I learned that zone attacks don't bounce off of superior blocks, I thought it was just a weird Shaman + Zerk thing for a long time. Why do they do this? God knows, and it's not like this is explained literally anywhere so that was just something I learned from the forums.

[Spooky7.62]

Superior block and deflects are different but also the same.

Deflects are normally attached to assassins / hybrids

Deflects have tighter timing

While superior block timing is less strict and protects the player while attempting the dodge.

Deflects only offer some protection if one times the dodge correctly and even then depending on if the opponent has HA, the deflect punish may still fail.

Superior blocks dont always allow for a punish but generally protect the user.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

Deflects only offer some protection if one times the dodge correctly and even then depending on if the opponent has HA, the deflect punish may still fail.

Oh, that's true. Superior Block will stagger the attacker - the attack will bounce. Deflect dodges won't. In fact, I've had instances of Deflecting the opener in a chain of attacks (such as the Berserker zone) only to get hit by the follow-up attacks. No matter how brief, Superior Block would have staggered the Berserker.

OK, so it sounds like Deflect is its own thing, probably some version of Uninterruptible (if I were to make a blind guess). An Uninterruptible defender will still take full damage from attacks, but can't be staggered. Deflect could be a version of that, except with full damage immunity, as well.

Incidentally, the terminology here is also strange. The term "Deflect" feels similar to the term "Parry" and gives the impression that it's just a variant Parry. But you guys are right - it really isn't, since it doesn't stagger the attacker. Hmm... OK, this is where my guess somewhat breaks down :)

[Spooky7.62]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

Deflects only offer some protection if one times the dodge correctly and even then depending on if the opponent has HA, the deflect punish may still fail.

Oh, that's true. Superior Block will stagger the attacker - the attack will bounce. Deflect dodges won't. In fact, I've had instances of Deflecting the opener in a chain of attacks (such as the Berserker zone) only to get hit by the follow-up attacks. No matter how brief, Superior Block would have staggered the Berserker.

OK, so it sounds like Deflect is its own thing, probably some version of Uninterruptible (if I were to make a blind guess). An Uninterruptible defender will still take full damage from attacks, but can't be staggered. Deflect could be a version of that, except with full damage immunity, as well.

Incidentally, the terminology here is also strange. The term "Deflect" feels similar to the term "Parry" and gives the impression that it's just a variant Parry. But you guys are right - it really isn't, since it doesn't stagger the attacker. Hmm... OK, this is where my guess somewhat breaks down :)

in the case of a berzerker their deflects are the equivalent of a light parry if it lands as you get a gb heavy punish off of it but other heroes deflects aren't as viable.

another hero with a move that's similar is valk, her superior block acts a lot like a deflect by applying bleed but its really a superior block.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

another hero with a move that's similar is valk, her superior block acts a lot like a deflect by applying bleed but its really a superior block.

I'm experimenting with the Shaolin right now, who Superior Block on his dodges. It's what made me wonder initially. What's the difference between a Superior Block dodge with a guaranteed heavy follow-up (which he has) vs. something like the Berserker or Valkyrie with a deflect and a guaranteed heavy follow-up? Well, you guys have already answered this question for me. The former will cause attacks to "bounce," the latter won't.

I want to class Deflect closer to Uninterruptible, but Deflect doesn't work on Unblockable attacks while Uniniterruptible does. That's interesting for sure, and I don't really have a good answer for it. Kind of curious to have a peek at whatever finite-state machine they have on the back end :)

[Spooky7.62]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

another hero with a move that's similar is valk, her superior block acts a lot like a deflect by applying bleed but its really a superior block.

I'm experimenting with the Shaolin right now, who Superior Block on his dodges. It's what made me wonder initially. What's the difference between a Superior Block dodge with a guaranteed heavy follow-up (which he has) vs. something like the Berserker or Valkyrie with a deflect and a guaranteed heavy follow-up? Well, you guys have already answered this question for me. The former will cause attacks to "bounce," the latter won't.

I want to class Deflect closer to Uninterruptible, but Deflect doesn't work on Unblockable attacks while Uniniterruptible does. That's interesting for sure, and I don't really have a good answer for it. Kind of curious to have a peek at whatever finite-state machine they have on the back end :)

Shaolin doesnt have superior block on dodge, he has a deflect with HA, and a dodge with I frames.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

Shaolin doesnt have superior block on dodge, he has a deflect with HA, and a dodge with I frames.

Oh? I'm almost positive that I played something with both a Deflect and Superior Block on dodge. I may remember wrong, if that's the case.

[Viable_Golem4375]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Spooky7.62:

Shaolin doesnt have superior block on dodge, he has a deflect with HA, and a dodge with I frames.

Oh? I'm almost positive that I played something with both a Deflect and Superior Block on dodge. I may remember wrong, if that's the case.

That's Valkyrie who just has a deflect that is also a Superior block, it's a weird thing that only she has.

[Malidictus]

OK, so some more musings on the nature of Superior Block.

I went back to my Conqueror the other day, and I've been playing around with her Full Block - which I personally believe has a Superior Block property. I've noticed that while most attacks bounce off of it, quite a few don't. With what you guys have explained to me in this thread, however, I've been able to identify all of those as Zone Attacks. The Berserker's flurry of attacks and the Shaman's four-hit combo don't bounce. I've not played the Tiendi, but she also has an attack that doesn't seem to bounce.

I didn't know this when I made the original thread, but I do know that now - Zone attacks don't bounce on ANY kind of block. They do bounce on a Parry (everything that can be parried does) but not on Superior Block. However, that brings me back to one of my original questions:

What's the difference between the Valkyrie's Superior Block Dodge (which, incidentally, the Conqueror also seems to have) and a standard Assassin's Deflect? We already know that the game can "listen" for hits to Superior Block, such as the Highlander's attacks becoming Uninterruptible or the Conqueror gaining access to an uninterruptible heavy on Full Guard hit. As such, there really is nothing about Deflect that Superior Block can't do, and nothing about Superior Block that isn't consistent with Deflect.

As far as I can see, anyway.