NA meta always lags behind EU.
Allowing kickslash to be chamberable will likely be seen as something that is prohibitively difficult to implement. At least the way I understand it. On successful kick, the defending player would have to be able to wind up a swing basically while they are still stunned and then deliver the attack if the chamber is successful but receive the attack if not. Just thinking about the implementation twists my mind up. And at any rate it still doesn’t solve the problem of e key being un-counterable except for keeping distance and also doesn’t solve the issue that throws or shots can’t be chambered or blocked at all.
Kicks annoy me on an aesthetic level but I do enjoy them thoroughly during boxing. Sticking your foot out further than your sword against an opponent who has a sword themselves seems intuitively like a very bad idea. However I see that kicks serve as a way of stepping inside someone’s guard and there is nothing else which simulates this behavior and so kicks, while some may think are annoying, op, or look ugly, serve a crucial function. I would shy away from thinking about it in terms of kicks being tw mixing karate with hema but think instead that the “e” key is the game mechanic of unexpectedly stepping inside someone’s guard and interrupting their defense or offense. I mean there is nothing else that stands in for grappling in melee or using means other than the sword to push away an opponent who has gotten too close and is applying too much pressure. Or maybe I might just want to use my hand to pull open my opponent’s shield after they’ve turtled into a corner.
I consider then how would I prevent someone from stepping inside my guard?
Currently the only way to prevent someone from stepping in and stunning me is to keep my distance or run away and this is the issue that bugs players, especially those who have purist tendencies or aggressive playstyles.
Thus I believe the best idea I’ve read to deal with e key being op is including somehow the ability to block them, perhaps make the movement more telegraphed and easily avoidable, and include a recovery period on a missed interrupt.
Imho shield/pommelbash is also an issue, maybe moreso than the kick because it’s much more difficult to sidestep and punish a shield/pommelbash since it has an attack arc.
On that note, why isn’t shield/pommelbash slash/throw/shot a thing?