Hey hello,

Chances of PA actually reading this or anyone else in our community even agreeing with my take on this are very slim. I am aware, but im going to try anyways because i played and loved this game for such a long timei just dont want to sit here and watch it die without atleast trying to help save it.

So here goes, my (probably controversial) suggestion on how to fix the pvp/combat system:

FG:
Should only block

Should never CC
Should never have high damage
Should never break
Should always be stationary or slowly moving backwards
Should never also be SA
Overall, the theory here is that an FG is a block that blocks 1 direction. There is no need to overcomplicate this. Just look at simple 2D fighter games. If you move backwards, you block everything in front of you automatically, but thats all it does. You dont also deal damage or parry or CC opponents. Its just a block, thats all it should be. (i am aware fighting games are way more nuanced and usually have specific blocks and counters, but u get the idea)

SA:
Should decrease incoming damage
Should be rare
Should never CC
Should never have high damage
Can have low mobility.
The theory here is that SA is like a fortitude skill. You still get to plow through and do things, abeit slower. But in order to get additional defences, you should be sacrificing high mobility and damage. It should feel like bracing for impact.

Iframe:
Should be extremely rare
Should never have mobility
Here the idea is simple aswell. Iframes should just be a dodge, to dodge that 1 crucial thing you can definitely not eat as a last resort.

CC:
Should be somewhat rare
Should just be CC's and not also have damage
Should always be unprotected

Grabs:
Should only be useful as a disrupt, to make this work, landing a grab should give the user a huge damage debuff for the remainder of a combo. As the reason for using a grab shouldnt be to onecombo your opponent, it should be to disrupt your opponent with a mechanic that is specifically used for this. unlike other CC's that have counters.

Resistances:
Should simply not exist
BDO combat should be like a fencing match or a fighting game. Your skill level should rely almost entirely on outplaying your opponent. If your opponent is doing something big, disrupt him with 0 dmg. If you caught your opponent, use big dmg. If they try to CC you, you have to dodge or block. Etc Etc. Resistances make the entire skill irrelevant and the game turns into complete RNG. The solution should never be to just make everything SA. This was such a bad idea. If people are getting CC'd too much, reduce the amount of CC's. Dont just give everyone protection.

Mobility:
Should cover less distance
Should be slower if protected
The problem i have with every single class getting more and more mobility and execution speed is that the game is simply not made for it. Sure it feels good if your class gets buffs and plays faster, but in the process its ruin the game as a whole. Only specific "scouter" classes should have a moderate level of mobility, everything else should move slower and less far. Im sure everyone enjoys killing people before they get to respond because you came zooming from out of render distance, but not a single player enjoys being on the receiving end of that. Its just not a fun game concept with almost no outplay potential. I understand ranged classes would have a huge advantage if they arent getting hunted down in 0.1 seconds by everyone else, but then just nerf ranged mobility even more. Dont give them equal or more mobility.

Mouse movement:
Should simply not exist
Classes that currently rely on it to be viable should instead receive massive reworks or buffs to compensate.
The problem with m2m is simple, it turns the combat into an exploit that can not be countered. It feels like a skill expression for the one using it, but since his opponent can basically not see it due to the way client/server interaction works the opponent does not get to respond to mouse movement. On the receiving end it looks like instant teleports and you just get CC'd out of nowhere with 0.1s to respond. Thats not fun. The whole point of not having m2m is outplaying someone because you know where he is going.

Blockjumps:
The amound of near instant blockjumps currently in the game is absolutely stupid. And its the same complaint i have with some of the other mobility problems. Some of these blockjumps are so fast, go so far, or CC so quickly that its impossible to counterplay them. There is no skill in even catching your opponent with a blockjump, because your opponent literally can not respond to it. You could argue that being able to correctly predict a blockjump is skill expression, but seriously how often does that really happen? While every other time you just die instantly? Blockjumps are fine if they are telegraphed and cant be canceled.

Overall:
Im sure some or most of you wont agree entirely with what i suggested here. When viewed in a vacuum, some of these changes im sure sound really bad. But my goal here is to look at the combat as a whole and return to a feeling of skill expression and interesting combat instead of braindead SA trading and grabbing and every single class in the game going at light speed only to then get RNG cucked by resistance. ITS JUST NOT FUN ANYMORE and i might aswell go play some terrible tab targeting game coz the end result is basically the same, IE braindead rotating 1 2 3 4 5 while holding forward leftmouse while ever having to actually think about what im doing, why im doing it or when i should be doing it. My whole take on combat in this game is that it should be if i do this, you do that, but then i do this and you do this or that etc etc. It should be a fencing match or fighting game. In other ways it should be a continues back and forth of trying to outplay eachother.

Class expression:
Only after establishing this initial baseline, could one consider giving some classes some specific mechanic or class expression by giving 1 class a special way of countering or outplaying something. Be it with being the only class with a long iframe, a blockbreak, a grab that has combo potential, etc etc etc.

Well, peace out and thank you for ruining a once great game J