The block changes on the PTS feel terrible. After several hours of dueling and time spent just hitting dummies and testing different things, there are a number of different issues I've run into.
1. Animation cancelling did NOT remain untouched, as the developer comment states. Certain abilities can still be block cancelled in the same manner as before, while others seem to play out their entire animations before allowing you to activate block. On live, you can block cancel every ability with 100% consistency across the board, cutting off the animations at the same points every time. On the PTS, this is wildly inconsistent and makes the skill based mechanic of animation cancelling feel far less rewarding.
2. "Note the visual effects for blocking still appear as soon as block as officially activated, which has been untouched in terms of how long it takes to activate."
This does not appear to be true in all cases. For example when barswapping on live, your block drops for a VERY small window (somewhere in the range of .3-.5s). On the PTS, it feels like barswapping causes your block to drop and not re-activate for 1.5s. This severely hampers the player's ability to respond quickly to incoming damage by bar swapping and blocking, and makes the practice of "tap blocking", or predicting/rapidly responding to burst damage by blocking for short periods of time, completely inconsistent and unreliable.
3. There is a severe bug occurring in duels (and likely all combat scenarios) where something is causing your character to be FULLY UNABLE TO ACTIVATE BLOCK until you relog. It is hard to say exactly what action causes this to occur, whether it be getting CC'd through block, mid dodge roll, hit by certain effects/abilities, etc. But in probably 4 hours of constant dueling, this happened to me 6x times. I witnessed it happening to opponents 3x times during that same session. Dying does not fix this, /reloadui does not fix this, fast travelling does not fix this. The only way is to log out and back in.
I'm sure more issues related to this new system will arise as we progress further into the PTS. However, I would strongly suggest that the system simply be reverted until a POLISHED rework can be implemented. By implementing a half completed and poorly functioning system that affects the CORE COMBAT MECHANICS, you are going to completely destroy the user experience for people who have spent hundreds, or even thousands of hours honing their timing and skills with the combat system.
@ReactSlower - PC/NA - 2000+ CP
React Faster - XB/NA - 1500+ CP
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