I’ve seen quite a number of users noting that Arcane Oddyssey’s PVP was at its best state on release, barring the high power of mages. One of the more common reasons cited for this is the easier prediction and requirement of positioning skill for combat, both of which are negated by the existence of an ability which can grant the player burst mobility while still airborn.
Additionally, Dodge Reflexes encourage the player to stay in the air more, as there’s no effectively no trade-offs to doing so. It’s objectively better to be above your opponent in both PVP and PVE, and now it’s easier to do so than it used to be.
Additionally, opinions have been pushed that other free, easy aerial options such as T-Jump may also be in need of questioning and reconsideration. This has lead me to wondering if the same is true of Dodge Reflexes. Especially as Dodge Reflexes were fairly contentious prior to their release.
Well I can definitely say it created an unfair advantage to some: Metal Magic users only got barrier dodges, while others got burst or step(I forgot what the latter’s called but pretty sure it’s that) dodges with increased mobility.
Sure, we got the total charges reduced from 2 to 1 for balancing, but some people are going to be dense enough to never be able to find the quest from Hendrix and get the dodge reflex. (and yes I’ve seen this please never ask me about it)
So overall I think it’s not really a mistake, rather that its implementation was flawed due to its encouraged airstalling playstyle with no downsides whatsoever: perhaps something can be done to rectify this. Maybe all moves take up air moves(the two diamonds at the bottom of the screen whenever holding a weapon if I’m not wrong) or have some sort of downside while above a certain height(such as reduced casting speed, slower blocks, things like that).
Honestly, the inclusion of another universal movement option was somewhat inevitable with how attacks continue to get bigger and bigger each update (no, you cannot expect everyone to become parry gods)
personally i think it’s the same logic as before- where you had to time when your opponent would hit the grund, except now you need to account for dodge reflex too
a good pvper keeps count of the opponents leaps, dodge reflexes, and air movements as the fight goes on- adding dodge reflex to the game actually lowered the skill ceiling in this regard^
it also gives everyone some sort of “close range” or “neutral” option since before, if you got caught in a grab/crash/explosion-type your only option was to block
Maybe after a certain level (200+) we could gain our 2nd dodge reflex’s back? As an extra show for our growing power, once we have better moves/attacks we could get another mobility upgrade and improve exploration at the same time
I think dodge reflexes made combat worse in terms of actual flow/quality but made combat more fun. Yeah it makes combat more chaotic and inconsistent but “press button to zoom forwards” = fun.
It’s from the same perspective that you can have a low quality film that lacks artistry but still provides entertainment value. I might prefer a Marvel movie to a Christopher Nolan film but that doesn’t make the Marvel movie any more intricate or well-designed.
I love air dashes in video games and Arcane Odyssey is no exception. What could be more fun than being able to leap off of the air with a burst of speed? Prior to their inclusion, jumping in combat, at least in my opinion, was pretty stale. You had only two options: stall/move via a skill, or simply land.
Balance wise, I do think the double dodge reflex was excessive and allowed for absurd levels of movement for all classes, but I would hate to see them altered too much from how they are now.
