THICC Veteran's opinion on the new AI.

[Syllabear3]

I appear to be the only player who found a massive jump in difficulty (practice arena man with the club actually hits me hard sometimes).

I am finding the AI get hits on me out of nowhere from an emergency parry to a one-inch-punch style whack or slice, they seem more okay to attack into an attack so we get trades of severe injuries (just like some people in HEMA tournaments do), plus more of the parries I perform get struck through.

I also noticed that whether I attack using one or defend against one, thrusts almost always hit someone who doesn't have a shield. I tried this theory in the Novice practice arena and basically always hit anything that wasn't dodged until I myself got stabbed to death by the man with the shiny longsword!

Is not more dificult... you make a swing and you cant make another because its delayed. I get hit because of that every time, because i am really used to the old gameplay.

 

[WelcomeBack]

As far as difficulty goes, on the surface the AI is much better at getting hits at good distances and using reactive play to not just get smashed in by sweeping blows. This does make the combat somewhat stale quickly however as their reactive play makes them predictable for what ranges they will backpedal in and what ranges they will go in to attack. So the difficulty goes away as you learn the AI and it's just patience.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm actually finding the combat...improved? I certainly find it more difficult. It's been a long time since I played prior to this patch, but before all I had to do was bait them with near-miss swing then clobber them on the backstroke. I have to include much more variation in my attacks now. Thrust feels like it has been improved--the AI certainly makes far better use of it. I find that the AI tends to better recognize when it has made an effective blow and better attempt to follow up. The AI also seems to better understand when it has advantage of equipment and higher health, and act accordingly. I also notice that it better guards against any attack which was particularly successful against it.

Overall, I'd say the AI improvements have been exactly that. I am certainly out of practice, but I can no longer steam-roll the basic and advanced practice arenas in a single, first attempt.

 

[Syllabear3]

You got the ilusion that ai is harder... my opinion is that movements are slower and more delayed. The only thing that works better is stabbing thats why is so efficient, and if you spam it, you will kill the ai.
Slash, overhead are super slow. That gives time to the ai to react much bettter, at the cost of doing the game more painful and boring.

You get adapted pretty quick, and i am already rekting the new gameplay. Already killed saitama that has: more speed in any way (my use my char max str...), lies in his movements, punish any wrong movement or attack unless its a stab with absurd quick and accurate counters (it will be more careful with stabs), armor and a better weapon.

Oh and your character feels more shaky.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I can now reliably get through all the practice arenas. Victory is still not guaranteed, but I have much more reliability now. I still feel the new AI is an improvement. I feel like I have better control over my weapon now, and am better able to make sure of feints and other techniques. Oddly enough, I feel like the boss of the advanced practice area is very easy now. All of the others--particularly the sword and board AI are much tougher though.

 

[Kaladin]

I do not like the new AI. They turtle, and basically every fight is now like fighting against a noob. Shield users especially come away stronger than before because of this - when you move forward your slashes have a tendency to go low, which are easily blocked and simultaneously countered. I mainly use two-handed swords in arena mode, but the combat is not exciting or fun anymore. There is no challenge to it.

They also seem to have changed how certain weapons (two-handed swords?) work, making them clunkier to use.