The general trend of fixing weapons by removing animation canceling is really bad for the game. We’re going from interactive, fast-paced game-play to stale turn based clunkyness.
The recent efforts to balance the Musket has made the weapon lethargic. The issue of crouch exploit needed to be fixed, it was. The firing rate was unintentional and was fixed by removing animation canceling resulting in a slower rate of fire and a significantly hampered ability to move your character after attacking. This was the easiest way to “fix” the problem but it’s this kind of problem solving that is making combat feel much worse overall, for everyone.
This inability to cancel the lethargy that is imposed on you after using your weapon (basically all ranged weapons, FS, LS, IG, Musket) has made for an overall clunky and unresponsive combat experience.
The Bow is next on the chopping block. People are upset that Bow players can jump out of their post-shot hamstring. This is not a problem. The problem is that the hamstring exists in the first place. If other weapons did not have this problem and no way of getting out of it, it would be much easier to react to the movement of the bow players and attack when you want to attack - not when it’s “your turn” again.
As it is now, you’re most likely playing a turn based game(most builds) with a cooldown on movement and with a long global cooldown on your ability to attack, making the somewhat free-moving bow players a problem.
There’s been a lot of complaint about the clunky and unresponsive combat experience lately and I hope this is acknowledged. Animation canceling is good for the game. Don’t “nerf” fast-paced weapons and builds, bring the others up to par. Remove the unnecessary hamstring and long gcd. Let us freely animation cancel into weapon swaps and abilities. Lets make the game pop!
Oh and happy new year!
