Combat in The Witcher 3

[topeira]

Any penalty for lazily holding "block" in TW3?

hi guyz.

is there any penalty in the combat of TW3 for just holding the block button and parrying automatically any incoming arrow or blow? is that like an invinsibility button against weapon wielding opponents?
it doesnt seem like there is any sort of timing in parrying nor does it take stamina. its just seem to automatically parry everything that isnt a monster....

 

[tahirahmed]

I think there will be some power attacks that will break your guard or stagger you for a while and that's where you'll have to leave your lazy blocking and do something else.

 

[sidspyker]

As far as I understand there is no blocking, only timed parrying.

 

[tahirahmed]

As far as I understand there is no blocking, only timed parrying.

That could be the case as well, even better and more challenging. With IGN video being so fast, it's really difficult to understand full combat mechanics.

 

[Garrison72]

As far as I understand there is no blocking, only timed parrying.

Really? Is there confirmation of this? I thought I saw him block a few times in the footage,

 

[ReptilePZ]

As far as I understand there is no blocking, only timed parrying.

I think blocking is in. He keeps block up when parrying arrows and you can see him blocking in the latest IGN footage. The timed stuff is for block + counter, I think, like the riposte in TW2.

 

[sidspyker]

It's speculation, there's no confirmation Slim

You mean the combat pose where he holds his sword in front? I'm still not sure if that's blocking or happens automatically. It looked like a natural 'combat mode' pose to me in the Debut trailer and it's definitely quite the similar animation hard to say. But I didn't notice any attacks being blocked yet in any footage, only parried/countered.

 

[ReptilePZ]

You mean the combat pose where he holds his sword in front? I'm still not sure if that's blocking or happens automatically. It looked like a natural 'combat mode' pose to me in the Debut trailer and it's definitely quite the similar animation hard to say. But I didn't notice any attacks being blocked yet in any footage, only parried/countered.

It's only when he has that combat pose that he's able to parry arrows, otherwise he gets hit by them. So I assume that's the parry pose.

And he did block a couple of times in the IGN footage. When I say block, I mean parry without a counter.

 

[moonknightgog]

I hope it will be like The Witcher 2, where parry/blocking wasn't free, because all attacks you get consumed HP.

 

[sidspyker]

And he did block a couple of times in the IGN footage. When I say block, I mean parry without a counter.

Ah, I was thinking more along the style of TW2 where you just hold the button and he'll take up the blocking pose and wait to be attacked.

I think that might work on arrows but to parry sword attacks you need to time it, atleast that's what it looked like to me otherwise we would see ATLEAST ONE person just holding block.

 

[ReptilePZ]

Ah, I was thinking more along the style of TW2 where you just hold the button and he'll take up the blocking pose and wait to be attacked.

I think that might work on arrows but to parry sword attacks you need to time it, atleast that's what it looked like to me otherwise we would see ATLEAST ONE person just holding block.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=McI_PbjqWsg&t=844

I dunno, this did not look like a timed block to me. Guess we'll need to see more footage/play the game to really know

 

[tahirahmed]

In IGN video I saw him doing more parries than only only blocking, most of the time the guy was just back stepping to avoid attacks instead of using blocking. In any case there should be no lazy camping behind the sword.

 

[sidspyker]

I dunno, this did not look like a timed block to me. Guess we'll need to see more footage/play the game to really know

Ah THIS footage(I was looking at the rock music one this entire time), didn't notice before interesting... guess we really will have to play and see

 

[redwood36]

I stayed away from that video but thishttps://youtu.be/McI_PbjqWsg?t=866 looks to me like a parry.

ps sidspyker, would you refer me to how i can merge my GOG account with my CDPR account? I've messaged 2 mods and searched and searched for how but haven't found anything. Did i miss the boat? PM me if you prefer, thanks!

 

[topeira]

from all the vids i've seen of the game, and we've seen more than 80 minutes of it so far, it appears like there is a BLOCK stance that automatically parries arrows and melee blows. i didnt even think there is any doubt that this is how it works. looks really obvious that its an auto-parry stance - when geralt is holding the sword with the tip forward he is guarding. when he's wolding it with one hand he isnt.
generally i would prefer a timing based system like in shadow of mordor or ACU but thats not what we're getting.
however i can only hope that there is a benefit to timing the guard stance. i can assume that holding guard and timing the addition of the attack along with the guard will do a riposte or something, but i dont likw this as much since it means there is no penalty to timing the riposte too late (this is how it worked in AC)
maybe geralt cant guard behind him?! i dont know. it was like that in the early moments of TW2 but i have a feeling this isnt the case with TW3.
i hope that, as someone here said, guarding wont prevent damage from enemy's heavy attacks or something.
i'd hate it if geralt could just hold guard up and be invincible. it was like that in the AC series for a few good years and it felt like a cheat.

 

[theLaughingStorm.108]

The penalty for timing the riposte too late is getting hit and losing health(or dying as the case may be).

I like the system. Parrying is easy to the front, as Geralt is a superhuman master swordsman. And counter attacks require a bit of timing.

 

[DukeAlmighty]

however i can only hope that there is a benefit to timing the guard stance. i can assume that holding guard and timing the addition of the attack along with the guard will do a riposte or something

If you check January gameplay video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgJUL3nN4iI
first 10 seconds vs wraith you can see that after first parry Geralt kinda stumbles back, meanwhile at 2nd and 3rd parry he smoothly steps back while moving the sword to the side. So looks like there is some kind of bonus for perfect parry and penalty sloppy parry.
In the IGN first 15 minutes video, the parry vs deserter @ 14:04 looks like sloppy one too.
I think one of the devs talked about it (don't remember where), he said that parry system is easy to learn, but hard to master

 

[thislsmadness]

from all the vids i've seen of the game, and we've seen more than 80 minutes of it so far, it appears like there is a BLOCK stance that automatically parries arrows and melee blows. i didnt even think there is any doubt that this is how it works. looks really obvious that its an auto-parry stance - when geralt is holding the sword with the tip forward he is guarding. when he's wolding it with one hand he isnt.
generally i would prefer a timing based system like in shadow of mordor or ACU but thats not what we're getting.
however i can only hope that there is a benefit to timing the guard stance. i can assume that holding guard and timing the addition of the attack along with the guard will do a riposte or something, but i dont likw this as much since it means there is no penalty to timing the riposte too late (this is how it worked in AC)
maybe geralt cant guard behind him?! i dont know. it was like that in the early moments of TW2 but i have a feeling this isnt the case with TW3.
i hope that, as someone here said, guarding wont prevent damage from enemy's heavy attacks or something.
i'd hate it if geralt could just hold guard up and be invincible. it was like that in the AC series for a few good years and it felt like a cheat.

I dont know about Unity, but Im glad its nothing like Mordor or Blackflag, countering in those games is ridiculously broken and the window for performing it was a mile wide.

But Yeah, Geralt has a parry stance and properly timing the parry results in a riposte. Looking at the IGN footage you can see that he takes a hit from behind while his guard is up. I doubt it makes him invincible, if it did wed probably see the IGN guy using it more often instead of nearly dying every fight. Wouldnt surprise me if enemies will be able to break or stagger you if you abuse it.

 

[topeira]

the parry window in ACU is huge. usually very very easy to get a parry. you can try and time it well for a perfect parry that opens the enemy up for a counter, but that window within the parry window is also big. bigger than the sloppy parry window in the beginning of the attack animation.

the way i always wanted a melee system to be is such that the enemies usually attack fast enough to make it look realistic (no as slow as AC and faster than shadow of mordor though i think the uruks speed in that game is pretty fine) but since im aware that a human reaction makes it really hard to ALWAYS time block when an enemy strikes (in a game. in reality its different and easier to see what you opponent is doing since he is so big within your FOV) so there is a passive guard stance that prevents damage but also staggers the defender, so the attacker can keep on attacking him until the defender loses his balance and becomes open for attacks.
but if you DO manage to time your guard than its a parry that opens the enemy for a counter.
i hope it's sorta like that. from the footage we've seen it appears that it's "almost" like this.
it does seem that the parries that push enemies back are always done when the guard stance was initiated really close to the moment of impact, so one can hope...

also i got a reason to believe that if you hit an enemy who is guarding too much than you recoil backwards. in the IGN video it looks a bit like the player always jumps backwards after the enemy parries him. so i wonder if that is a mechanic...


@thisismadness - i didnt see a video where geralt is guarding yet is being hit from the back. can you point me to the exaclt moment in the video where this is shown?

 

[thislsmadness]

I agree that it is not always easy to tell what is happening in the videos. Even though Geralt looks staggered he is still able to parry the subsequent attacks, so who knows.

That said, we do know that depleting an enemy's stamina breaks his guard and enemies are able to knock Geralt offbalance. So those mechanics are definitely at play for the enemies.