On topic – let's start with a global cry from the heart: it's time to expand the mechanics of the near. Let's be honest, the adrenaline skills haven't lived up to their promise. There are a couple of useful skills, but overall, they're garbage. The adrenaline bow tree is several times better than any weapon tree.
We need to stop torturing melee fighters, overtraining and wasting tons of skill points on a single weapon, depriving them of the opportunity to use trophy weapons. It's time to convert weapon skills to secondary skills, and invest the freed points in useful activities.
I offer you a solution capable of stirring up the melee swamp and knocking the kings of the hill to the bottom. The new combat skills – combat schools – are simply named to emphasize their basis.
From a skill point management perspective, the logic is simple: all weapon skills lose their damage bonus, retaining the stamina consumption bonus, and are transferred to secondary skills. The player then spends the freed skill points on upgrading one of the three combat schools. Unlocking a combat school grants an active ability for the selected combat stance. Its activation is required for the school's rules to work, and the skill level determines the damage dealt by weapons using that school.
Combat schools represent three different approaches to character defense in melee combat. When a school's stance is activated, the character attacks and defends against attacks according to the rules of the selected school.
The new combat schools do not affect or detract from the experience of MO2 veterans, as they only change the defense rules, leaving the basic principles of attack unchanged, without forcing veterans to switch to them. The classic combat mechanics remain intact; they are reformed into one of the schools, called the School of Parrying, denoting this school's main advantage over others.
Briefly.
The new combat schools are primarily designed for players with lower skill levels, offering them a more simplified version of defense in exchange for more rigid, yet understandable, health resource management during combat.
Blocking School – offers a compromise option where a player with enhanced blocking skill minimizes the health loss from each enemy attack with a successful block, while maintaining the offensive potential of the classic version.
Shield School – offers an option where the player's skill limitations are compensated for by increased armor and reduced incoming damage during blocks and defense failures, in exchange for a loss of offensive potential due to more noticeable and slower attacks (the need to charge attacks).
And now in more detail.
The Parrying School is the classic MO2 defense mechanic, with four directions of defense. When parrying an enemy attack, the attack's damage is ignored, and the player's attack is charged. When blocking an enemy attack, the player suffers partial damage based on their level of blocking skill.
The Blocking School is an adapted defense mechanic that reduces the variability of defense actions from 4 to 3, making defense easier in exchange for not parrying. Just like in the classic version, the player must defend against enemy attacks, but with a few nuances.
1. The School does not have a separate defense technique from above; defense is performed by a combined block from the left or right. Characters hold their weapons at an angle, simultaneously protecting the side and head. Defense from below is performed with a standard block. In essence, the defense mechanic takes the form of a triangle, similar to the game "For Honor."
2. The School does not have a parry effect; all defense is a block, meaning some damage always goes to the player. An additional damage reduction bonus can be built into the school's skill if needed for balance reasons.
3. Instant attack charging when blocking an enemy attack, just like in the classic version.
Shield School – simplified combat mechanics with a floating defense point and a passive boost to character survivability in exchange for a partial lack of parry and attack charging bonus when parrying an enemy attack.
1. Shield School only works if you have a shield.
2. The shield side (blocking from the left) is considered blocked by default. The effect is almost always applied to any attacks (up, right, bottom, left) and blocking from the right (with a weapon). The exception is blocking attacks from above and below, in which case the blocked attack is considered fully deflected, but opens the way for an attack from the left (based on the animation).
As with the Blocking School, the player only needs to control three directions of the enemy's attack.
3. An attack from the left is performed with a shield, dealing no damage but pushing the enemy back. At this point, the left side is also protected from attacks.
4. A unique property of this stance is the addition of shield stats to each armor element (possibly only some of the stats). This makes the character more armored, allowing the player to make mistakes more often than in any other school.
5. The school's weakness relative to others is:
- Partial lack of parrying capabilities, only upper and lower defense with parallel defense removal from the left direction. (This effect can be exacerbated by a delayed defense recovery (on the left side) after canceling a block (upper and lower) to expand the attack window. Again, this only applies if the shield-wielding player relies on the shield's passive defense. If the player uses a shield attack against an enemy attack, such an attack must be blocked.)
- All blocked attacks are considered "blocked" and partially miss damage.
- The Shield Warrior has three attack directions at any time, through which full damage can be inflicted.
- Any attack must be charged first.
