by psychichobo Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:56 am
Hey, am only new here, but just posting my thoughts:
I'm not keen on backstabs myself, since every fight I've ever had against a non-Dark Magic user results in endless circling looking for that backstab opportunity.
I understand the principles of backstabs, but with the inevitable lag it increases the opportunity window to almost over 180 degrees. It's a bit daft really in practice.
Why not simply replace backstabs with a weapon specific move that occurs when you're behind them - one that doesn't necessarily lock them into a painful grapple-like animation?
For example:
- Greatswords, Ultra Greatswords, Great Hammers, Great Axes: Your character does a slightly faster swing (different weapons have different speeds) horizontally that smacks the opponent away landing on their face and does a lot more damage? This attack wouldn't lock them into an animation, but the knockdown effect and extra damage should be reward enough for being in an enemy's back arc.
- Maces and Hammers: Your character delivers a sharp downward flick downwards onto the opponent, delivering more damage. If it hits the head, the opponent is also floored. No animation lock.
- Daggers: Your character actually does grapple the opponent, locking one arm around their neck and using the weapon hand to drive it into their neck or back, causing a LOT of extra damage and potential bleed, before they slump to the floor. The added bonuses here reflect the fact you're using a short ranged weak weapon.
- Spears: A sharp, slightly paralysing thrust to the lower spine, doing a little bit more damage. The bonus here is that the range of the backstab is extended due to the weapon's reach. No animation lock.
- Fist weapons: Plenty of opportunity here for silly moves like necksnaps and suplexes.
Basically, if you include these with maybe a second or two for the opponent afterwards where they can't be backstabbed (to avoid any strange kind of chaining), you could probably add a lot of variety to the weapons without making every match be about circling until the window comes up for the insta-kill animation (especially as 90% of the time it seems to be people using Lightning Zweihanders...)
