Quote Originally Posted by Dzian View Post
the problem here is that you're pressing so many buttons and they all have such similar effects that combat feels nothing more than a glorifed auto attack.
I don't feel that's an issue, honestly.

Having played an Assassin in Dragon's Dogma not long ago (dual dagger class), even those attacks seemed pretty impactful and as an action game, I was pretty much mashing buttons like crazy. Snake/Spiderbite and Masterful Kill were probably my favourite, but even rapid attacks like Scarlet Kisses felt very satisfying. That's not even mentioning the glory of heavy 2-handed weapons that just felt immensely powerful, whether you ploughed through bandit/goblin packs or staggered creatures 3-4 times your size with it.

It's very hard to nail on one thing in particular. The fact that people never really stagger, pause or show any signs of being wailed on is probably one of the reasons why attacks feel less impactful. Sound effects "do" matter, but I will agree however that it can seem odd to hear a heavy impact and see no actual dent in the HP. What irks me more is that hit sounds are identical, whether they hit metal, wood or flesh. I think one of the biggest reasons however is that attacks simply don't do a lot of damage relative to the HP - In 24 man raids, even a LB3 can feel rather "meh", because it's still only like 3-4% of the mobs HP. Huge buildup, big animation, big oomph...and you go:"That was it? ._.' "