Yeah, there is usually counter play tho. Team does help a lot w/ counter play. But the fact that in this game there is no limitation to how many times you can parry and like cerq said "imagine being locked out of an input," well, for the sake of ping and balance, having something similar to momentum would be nice. I remem back in the day the bball games I played didn't have momentum. Every person was like a crazy spider. You could still get by people and defend them really well, but now that they do, it just adds a different wrinkle and sometimes you make the wrong guess and get lost because they are going this way and you are going that way.
I mean I'm spinning while I play, too, but I'm not RAW spinning. If I based my game around parry, I could prol do pretty well, but it's not as conducive to effective parry to keep moving. Cerq keeps moving forward, but slowly, and he has stronghold lvl defense, if you imagine the parry input as + and the attack input as +, you realize there just aren't enough options. I've watched Mordhau and while it looks wonky at times, I think it looks a lot more exciting than MO2. If you can parry everything for 0 dmg, the people w/ v low ping will be at a huge advantage.
The lack of 'links' is also something, but it ties back, imo, to how fast you can go right into a parry. You *can* do basically any sort of crazy combo in MO if you are charging your swing, it's just not likely to be any more effective. It's smarter to just sit back and camp a parry and then hit people. But like I said that vid had moments of really strong exchanges that could have been exciting gameplay but were blocked by parries. That and a lot of the times hits got thru it wasn't even visibly obvious or it seemed almost like a mistake that they did. That's a problem IMO.
If MO2 combat was raw dogshit I would not worry to much, do my MA thing, live, team fight, etc, but it has potential to be good. True that about high lvl gameplay looking wonky and unlike other gameplay, but my main problem is that if you can always parry, the whole combat is dictated by that. It's cool that some people can parry every hit, and like I said, I'm kinda in brain melt land, but gimme a week or two and I could figure out a playstyle to fit within the meta. I just hate 1. overabundance of parry and 2. my playstyle is effectively nerfed. I maintain awareness of people ( usually loool,) and can guess what they are going to do even if they are behind me, so imagine me in the middle, imagine an opponent placed ANYWHERE except right in front of me (which is how people fight,) and think of ALL the options both of us have to strike at each other, but in the end it will probably just be a parry, and it would be better if I just faced up and focused on only reading animations and not moving. I dislike that A LOT, but only because I know how 'sick' (to use that word, cuz it gets me tingly) the swing arcs can be at hitting people in crazy locations, dodging them, etc etc, but then you get back into the face up game and it's like ting ting ting. I feel like both aggressive moving playstyle and defensive should be viable. Strong surgical defense and counter is like Floyd Mayweather boxing, but what about the people who are just overwhelming the defense. At some point,IMO, there should be a penalty to parry that will start to erode your confidence, whether it's dmg or whatever. Some way to apply some pressure. It would open up the game more. I don't think it would make it less skill based, and I think it would make it very exciting to play and watch, but that's just my 2c. Obviously someone like cerq who has spent countless hours mastering the combat and even prol has his mouse/kb settings tuned finely for that play style is not going to want to change, but I seriously doubt it would make him worse.
I like winning, TOO, but after awhile winning gets boring, to me. MO1 combat was probably worse in a lot of ways, but it FELT better. IT FELT like you were doing something. I think with the framework they have, they could make a really exciting game that was more exciting than, say, Mord, and relatively balanced for all pings. A tough task, but I can imagine it. Dudes talking about chess masters, chess masters lay in bed and think about matches or set ups, I got a million things that pop into my mind, but one of them is always the games I am playing. I can envision how to make it better, and it makes me slightly sad that people dismiss my PoV when I am the one thinking about it. Alas! I think about more than combat, but combat is really the 'bottom line' of MO.
It's w/e tho. I mean, I understand people aren't going to take me seriously unless I make a name for myself as a duelist. I HOPE I can get some team fight situations that help people realize I'm not just smashing my face on the KB. But I dunno if people will care unless it's beating good duelists.