@Lionheart Chevalier said:
Bring back Alpha patch 14/15 shields. Edit from there.

You still persist on making shields viable and balanced.. xD

I have given up. It seems quite clear that the goal of shield balance is to make it noob mechanic. So high level melee is gonna be mostly 2 hander with occasional 1 hander. Don't wanna be negative but I am sad cuz Mordhau used to have a different philosophy. Crush most likely thinks Large parry box and kick makes more sense for noobs instead of side hits. I mean how many new players actually know how to waterfall, side stab etc. They would find it harder to parry leg hits and stuff too instead of just holding right mouse.

Oh yeah that happened to me too. Some guy stole my name and kept ffa ing in duel server. Than votekicked me. People thought I am the imposter. Pretty fucking annoying. Votekick system is still in a bad state. Although uninstalling the game because of one random asshole is a bit too much. The game has a lot to offer.

Once you get decent at the game, playing against casual players become quite boring and so does duelling. Get into competitive. Play in scrims, get clan buddies. That's where the real fun is at.

It happened to me a few days ago after I used to VPN for a bit while logged in on steam and also played Mordhau. I don't know if the problem has anything to do with that. However, after I restarted my computer the problem was solved.

There are pro players who doesn't play ranked cuz it's not worth the time for them. There are also pro players who doesn't have very high level because they mostly played competitive during Alpha testing. However, the best players in the game are the ones that play/used to play in competitive, clan fights (scrim/pug) etc.

Simply put: Competitive players are pro. Rest are not. Noobs are easy to find. It's hard to find pros because they don't play as much in public servers.

Firstly, feints are not in OP state by any means. The game can never be balanced for every level of players. It's impossible.

If you're switching between platinum and diamond it means your current skill level is on that area. Which is good because you know that to go higher you need to 'level up' your skill.

You've already identified your problem which is dealing with feints. So the skill you need to step up is:

1. Reading feints
2. learn to be better at chambering.

I would suggest before you keep grinding stressful ranked duel, go play in duelyard servers for a while (servers that has good players). Do chill duels and learn to chamber better, learn to read feints. Sometimes you can spam chamber people to get better at chambering. Try spam feinting higher level players and see how they deal with it. Some players would also spam feint you back so you get more practice. You will lose duels but it's only practice. Keep at it and you will see that your defense is becoming stronger. Once you see people can't 'spam feint' and win against you, go back to ranked duel and you will get higher rank.

Flesh wound needed nerf. It was completely broken in competitive. Flesh wound rewards bad play (dying). Flesh wound won't be useful in duels (tbh it shouldn't). I believe it would still be useful in team fight since often times you can run away and Target switch to an enemy your team mate is fighting for some damage before you die (especially with light armor and big damage weapon). It just won't be cancer anymore.

Additional suggestion:
Another suggestion is to reduce ammo capacity of toolbox to 4 instead of 6. That way, one engineer player would make less impact on battlefield. In addition, decrease the repair rate / increase weapon damage of structures so that if one player is destroying structure the damage is higher than the repair rate of engineer. It's because sometimes a engineeer can keep repairing from the other side of the structure and basically block the enemy because repair rate is faster than weapon damage.

Currently the best use of toolbox is the buildable ballista. Since it cost 8 points, it can be used as an archer like build. However, spending 8 points for building a bunch of spikes is really not worth it. There's no way to play a good hybrid builder melee build because of the cost. Ballista is the best use of 8 points.

I would suggest reducing toolbox cost to 5. However, adding a 3 point perk that allows toolbox user to build the buildable ballista. That way people who want to play 'builder archer' will have to spend 8 points like usual. However, toolbox having 5 points will allow players to play hybrid melee build that make spikes etc.

I would also suggest changing the way buildable ballista works. Currently they are VERY powerful if put in certain spots. I would suggest turning buildable ballista into 'stationary crossbow' that shoots crossbow bolts that are parryable. Perhaps decrease the rate of fire slightly.

Another suggestion is to reduce ammo capacity of toolbox to 4 instead of 6. That way, one engineer player would make less impact on battlefield. In addition, decrease the repair rate / increase weapon damage of structures so that if one player is destroying structure the damage is higher than the repair rate of engineer. It's because sometimes a engineeer can keep repairing from the other side of the structure and basically block the enemy because repair rate is faster than weapon damage.

Tbh it would be cool to have separate Archer ranked 1 v 1/2 v 2 mode. The new call of duty has 2 v 2 mode that looks kinda interesting. Although good map design is extremely important for Archer duel mode so I am not sure if they can just use the current map to make it balanced and skill based.

Even though I am usually on the side of shield having better parry box than normal weapon I do believe if the devs want to keep held block without any stamina drain, making parry box tighter and enabling leg hits are the ways to balance it. As you said give better turn cap and perhaps slight stamina buff for one hander (assuming shield is a lot more penetrable with enough parry box nerf). Giving dropped shield a parry cooldown could add some mind game potential as well. Perhaps even increase the parry box for normal weapon parry. Then weapon parry will be more timing based and shield block will be location based. Different Playstyle.

And just remove kick stun already. Thinking kick stun will balance shield is a delusion.

There is one issue with stamina for shield currently that will still remain. Even though shield stamina is not good right now, shield users tend to use one handed stabbing weapon. Reading stab morph for one hander up close is pretty much impossible. Which means a non shield user will have to almost consistently stab chamber to read the stab morph while the shield user can just chill. This is the main reason why shield win stamina wars and I don't think simply nerfing shield stamina will be a good solution. However, as long as held block exist I am not sure how it can be solved.

Dodge barely receied any tweaks/ adjustments ever since they were added and still remains underused in competitive. Here's some suggestion I have to make it more viable and less annoying:

1. Reduce perk cost to 2: Armor is arguably the most important point investment in the game. The reason why people don't use Dodge is because sacrificing 4 points to put less armor is simply not worth it.

2. Add considerable cooldown between dodges: currently people can spam Dodge and slide away like magic carpet.

3. Add a Dodge lockout after being parried/chambered so it's impossible to dodge while the enemy riposte lasts/ chamber morph lasts. It is there so dodge don't give free read.

4. Add a Dodge lockout during parry so people don't early parry feint and dodge at the same time to avoid drags/ get a double parry (getting double parry with dodge is actually surprisingly easy). Which means it's not possible to parry and dodge at the same time.

5. Add lockout after a misparry like the Comp mod man at arms (Chivalry). In comp mod, if man at arms parry window is over(after falling for feint), there would be a dodge lockout so they can't escape the punish.

6. Add dodge lockout after being hit so it's not possible to escape a combo.

7. Please make a distinctive and better dodge animation.

8. Reduce dodge stamina cost to 5/7.

The idea behind the dodge 'nerfs' and reduction of point cost is so that dodge is a circumstantial tactic for spacing/occasional read (especially in team fight) instead of a sliding away playstyle. The reason why man at arms remained very cheesy and annoying in Chivalry is because the class heavily relied on dodges and it was very powerful. Dodges dictating a playstyle simply breaks the combat. Lockouts are there so dodge do not remove read/ break the flow of combat and point cost is reduced so it's a good investment. That way it can be incorporated with Mordhau.

There has been many debates about the existence of 3rd person in Mordhau. I never really wanted the 3rd person to be removed mostly because there are players who come from 3rd person games like Mount & Blade and such and removing such feature will decrease the playerbase. However, that does not change the fact that 3rd person gives some very unfair advantage over 1st in team fights as you can still look from corner, kind of look behind and all the 'good stuff' .... you get the idea. Some people have said that it's harder to read attack from 3rd (maybe)... However, there are players who use both and keep switching as they are fighting in team fights. And that's probably the biggest problem. Because even if 3rd has some disadvantages it completely mitigates that.

Here are some clips that I have found from a player of top tier Russian competitive clan (I am not shit talking the guy/calling him anything just to be clear so no salt):

https://clips.twitch.tv/EagerViscousWaspCurseLit

https://clips.twitch.tv//BlindingHungryFriseeKippa

https://clips.twitch.tv/SavoryBombasticWerewolfHoneyBadger

As you will see in the clip, the guy typically plays 1 v 1 with 1st person (I guess it's easier to read attacks). However, whenever he runs away, engage multiple enemies he uses 3rd person quite intelligently. You can call it skill ceiling if you want but I don't think anyone want to see this game devolve into this. If it remains, a lot of competitive games will probably eventually turn into this as this seems quite optimal.

If 3rd person remains, Here are some tweaks I suggest:

1. Make it so it's harder to peek corner & harder to know surrounding.. It was done to some degree in a patch before release as far as I remember but it's not enough.

2. Make it so the players have to choose between 1st/ 3rd person and once the map loads and it can not be changed while in a game. It is very crucial because that way 3rd person will have it's advantages and disadvantages.

3. Identify the other 'not so discussed' advantages and disadvantages of both.. I am talking about things like: doing extreme drags with 3rd person being easier and less risky as you can keep track of your enemy all the time. better footworking and dodging for the same reason, target switching in team engagement MUCH easier and so on.. then balance it out in a way where they are more similar and both are fair in their own way.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Tbh I have encountered that guy as well. He does team kill people with maul. Although if you want to report the devs about him you have to give his steam id and better proof than a potato.. like a screenshot from steam. no offense. If you can report him doing this for a couple of games, maybe something will be done. I hope a forum admin will confirm.

Apart from how terrible the one handed Messer looks, Mordhau lack good skins for messer. The guards are quite nice. However, almost every blade has a top part that's thick af. And the one that seems to have a decent looking blade doesn't allow players to have guard. Oh well. I really wish there were some lean blades for Messer.

Also one handed Messer delated when.

Messer is by no means floaty imo. It used to be floaty. But the turncap was nerfed a lot latest patch. Also messer is faster now. It's more like an insta hit/insider weapon rather than floaty.
Cleaver doesn't seem floaty at all.
Heavy Hand axe is VEERY floaty. Need changing.
Mace drag is good but the big problem is the ridiculously instant stab. the stab needs to go.
I agree that rapier is very annoying and pretty much cheese. need rework.

Might seem off topic but if the devs decided make new stab animation that's not GARBAGE the game would be a lot better.

Tbh I think the tier should be named things like Berzerker, vanguard, foot soldier etc instead of gold, silver, diamond and such.

Honestly I pretty much just stopped playing Frontline after trying a few days mostly due to horses along a few other bullshit mechanic. One of the worst mechanic of horse is the flinch + 1 shot combo. Sometimes the horse bump flinches the player and then the momentum based weapon attack 1 shot the you during flinch animation and there is nothing can you since you can't parry the attack due to horse bump flinch. It happens more often when you try to attack the horse since horse hitbox is fucking ridiculous.

The main fix would be:

1. Make the horse bump flinch different so it is possible to parry during the flinch. (But not possible to attack the horse)

2. Remove the small damage dealt by couched weapon when parried. It disarms and ragdolls. What more does it need.

3. Add considerable slowdown when horse bump into people. If horse bump into like 5-6 people in a very short amount of time horse momentum will stop completely. It will force cavalry to flank more instead of just running into a group of people like it's nothing. A counter to cavalry would also be to stack team mates nearby and force flinch to slow the horse down and kill.

4. Fix horse hitbox.

5. Fix sound so it's easier to track how far away/ where cavalry is coming from. Right now it feels very arbitrary.

6. Perhaps add momentum based damage on the cavalry as well so it's high risk high reward. Unless it makes them too weak.

7. Make bear trap deal more damage against horse.

Right now horse is a low risk high reward and yet one of the easiest mechanic in the game with barely any depth. Making it impossible to ride horse in too many places would make them very unfun (fixing certain ridiculous places is fine). Let them ride but add proper counter that is in control of the player instead of map design. That is better.

What you are saying is understandable. Perhaps activate hunstman only for projectiles (throwables and weapons) and not for bows/crossbows so you can still 1 shot archers with throwing axe, javeline etc but increase skill ceiling for archer vs archer.

It all works until you get 1 shotted.