Melee enemies animations

[amber patio]

I strongly think that the main reason melee combat doesn't feel good is because the enemies have insanely weird attack telegraphs, like they feint so much for no reason at all. I get if bosses or elites do feints, but regular enemies?
Also, there are some borderline unreactable moves, like the club banneret's budge (which does half of your HP bar btw, good luck if she does it twice). Are we supposed to tank these? I'm genuinely confused on what the design is trying to do.

All these may very well be skill issue on my part, but losing or failing to avoid an enemy attack here feels very frustrating, it's different to when I get hit in other games. This is the main reason I'm writing this as a feedback. Thanks for reading.

[tiny bay]

+1

[young dust]

yeah enemy animaions need a rework, they have very short if any windup hit nigh instantly on swing and just, dont telegraph properly, the windup to their attacks needs to have a clear "peak" right before the swing,i also think a lot of atk swings should be slower so you can actually react. also, big attacks especialy magick ones lie the tower sheilds fricken carpet bombing attack needs to have way more telegraphing all they do is a spli second circular swing of their sheild them boom instantly hit and staggered all over the place, needs to have a charge up and some glowing warning. also why doe some enemies instantly follow up a blockable attack with an unblockable attack, whats the point in blocking then, and why are unblockables so fast theyre supposed to by heavy attacks why are they the same speed as normal attacks, they should be half the speed as normal attacks like our heavies. the insta hit on enemy swings also makes blocking reactivley night impossible ontop of the unreadable telegraphs that arent really there.gonna end rant here, hoping for an overhaul to enemy attacks if not melee as a whole both ways.

+1 too

one more thought, mine mixed with others from a different post, it feels like our attack anmations and the enemies were made in a vacuum from each other, in timing and pace, enemies attack like theyre playing a hack n slash and are almost unstoppable with the rappid barrage of unblockables, the near inability to stagger them out of their attacks and combos, and the fact that many enemy attacks can start and in in the span of one of ours. in contrast we can only break their blocks with a very slow fully charged heavy attack, we get completley knocked out of any attack by any enemy attack, and we have overall slower attack patterns with little animation cancelling. enemy animations need to match the timing and flow of our animations it should be like a choreograph, a dance, two swordsmen not a swordsmen and someone maniacally swinging a sword on a string.

[fleet fossil]

+1
Many of the feints also feel like they have very little flow with the follow-up hit. the most conspicuous example for me being the, uh, stone guys possessed by ghosts. they have this one attack where they sorta dash at you twice, then do an oddly timed swing?

[remote blade]

+1

[fervent comet]

+1. I have hundreds of hours in souls & soulslikes. I know this is pre-alpha and not a direct comparison. But melee combat feels bad. Zweihander bosses/enemies especially have ranges/tracking that make no sense. The enemies should also respond differently to backstep/R1, backstep/R2, jump/R1, jump/R2 attacks, etc. etc., but now the loop feels like there's no reason to apply skill - instead, just build to tank. Being chain staggered to death because you're stuck trying to get off the ground also feels absurd.