If there is one thing that i despise, and from what i've read on the forums seems shared by others, its combat mechanisms that causes your death even though you did'nt make a mistake or missplay. There are not plenty of said mechanics, but those who are there are just obnoxious as hell.
1- Crushthrough : nobody seems to like it, and i despise it from the bottom of my heart. When ennemy player does a upper swing and you do an upperblock, you did the RIGHT thing and should be 100% rewarded from it. Crushthrough is a stupid mechanic that requires no skill to use, nullify the essence of the dueling system of the game. and is just plain frustrating. I've killed people that are better duelists than me by doing a 91 dmg crushthrough with a voulge. This mechanic needs to be permanently deleted.
2- The fact that when you do a glancing blow on an enemy, his swing is not cancelled. Completely ridiculous, when you hit an enemy, fair and square, but it turns out the multiplier decided he has too much armor for your bad empire sword, you deal 5 damage on him and his swing isnt canceled so you take a 80 damage in the face EVEN though you outplayed the opponent by landing a swing FIRST. I know there is some positioning required to prevent doing glancing blow, but we do not have pure control. More often than not we deal glancing blows with non-spear weapons and we were pretty sure it was a clean hit, but the game decided otherwise.
3- Getting couched through your shield. The fact that the horse hits your shield before his spear that is like 4 foot away from the horse makes 0 sense and there is no counter-play to that. The defender's shield was up, it should always be blocked.
4- Rocks in Siege : It is ridiculous, it is not being used like intended. People are just walking into melee range with their rocks. Sorry mate but if i attack you with a HUGE rock from 1 meter away, the worst that can happen is that i break your toes. Rocks should bounce off shields and deal less and less damage the closer you are to your opponent. Rocks were made to be thrown down the walls, not to be used in a melee 1v1 or in the stairs.
These are the "no counterplay" bad mechanics that i can think off the top of my head.
1- Crushthrough : nobody seems to like it, and i despise it from the bottom of my heart. When ennemy player does a upper swing and you do an upperblock, you did the RIGHT thing and should be 100% rewarded from it. Crushthrough is a stupid mechanic that requires no skill to use, nullify the essence of the dueling system of the game. and is just plain frustrating. I've killed people that are better duelists than me by doing a 91 dmg crushthrough with a voulge. This mechanic needs to be permanently deleted.
2- The fact that when you do a glancing blow on an enemy, his swing is not cancelled. Completely ridiculous, when you hit an enemy, fair and square, but it turns out the multiplier decided he has too much armor for your bad empire sword, you deal 5 damage on him and his swing isnt canceled so you take a 80 damage in the face EVEN though you outplayed the opponent by landing a swing FIRST. I know there is some positioning required to prevent doing glancing blow, but we do not have pure control. More often than not we deal glancing blows with non-spear weapons and we were pretty sure it was a clean hit, but the game decided otherwise.
3- Getting couched through your shield. The fact that the horse hits your shield before his spear that is like 4 foot away from the horse makes 0 sense and there is no counter-play to that. The defender's shield was up, it should always be blocked.
4- Rocks in Siege : It is ridiculous, it is not being used like intended. People are just walking into melee range with their rocks. Sorry mate but if i attack you with a HUGE rock from 1 meter away, the worst that can happen is that i break your toes. Rocks should bounce off shields and deal less and less damage the closer you are to your opponent. Rocks were made to be thrown down the walls, not to be used in a melee 1v1 or in the stairs.
These are the "no counterplay" bad mechanics that i can think off the top of my head.