Nah. Learning to deal with proper variations in the gameplay is not the same as adapting to inconsistency in application. If you play cricket you expect to face bowlers who can vary the speed, bounce, direction and movement of the ball; but it's unreasonable to expect the batsman to cope with bowlers occasionally using a different ball or a bowling machine, or to play in the rain or snow (even if it would be a test of skill to do so).
Well, you can just over block and get through it. Blocking perfectly is just something for higher skilled players. Skill floor, and skill ceiling. Once you learn the system you realize that it is actually consistent.
Also your cricket example is a bit too exaggerated. It's more like when you go up to bat and the pitcher throws the ball in different ways - a skilled batter won't be phased by it, an unskilled one might.
consistent as in applied the same way each time or consistent like each enemy does the check the same way each time(even if they do it differently from the others)
consistent as in applied the same way each time or consistent like each enemy does the check the same way each time(even if they do it differently from the others)
It's consistent for any given power, though it's not always clear that two NPCs are using the same power. The main issue is that for most villains there's no visible indicator of charging vs activation (a few critters have visible charge bars, in which case you just have to block before the charge indicator fills, but for most critters you can only do it by memorizing timings or animations).
I'm going to guess that the check for effects like knock is done when charging finishes and the damage check is when the animation finishes?
The check for whether to apply an effect (including damage) is done when charging finishes. The effects are resolved when animation finishes (damage is done, status effects are applied, knockback is done, etc). This is how an early block vs the dino mighty roar power turns the hold into a root, a late block causes a suspended hold that actually takes effect when you release block, and not blocking at all just causes you to be held.
It's the "Bam", "Foom", "Freem" animations that come up over the villains' heads. These are generally the most dangerous attacks. Occasionally you get charge bars as well, much the same as you would for your powers. However people don't always see these things, especially in multi-player fights, because they appear over the villain/target, who is generally being obscured by the number of attack fx, reaction animations, auras, etc etc in play.
There's also Boom, and KaBoom.... and some case where the enemies use other kinds of tell. Like how a lot of enemies have that life drain attack. They'll do an animation and say something like "Your soul is mine!" Block and it does very little, don't block and the enemy will usually recover a large amount of life while doing a lot of damage to you.
NOTE: the various tell icons are for specific types of attack.... generally. Boom is an AoE centered on the enemy, Kaboom is an aoe centered on their target, Bam is a single target attack, Foom is a cone attack, and Freem a cylinder IIRC.
There's also Boom, and KaBoom.... and some case where the enemies use other kinds of tell. Like how a lot of enemies have that life drain attack. They'll do an animation and say something like "Your soul is mine!" Block and it does very little, don't block and the enemy will usually recover a large amount of life while doing a lot of damage to you.
In general only charged attacks have a tell icon; simple maintains, even if quite dangerous (e.g. life drain, devour essence, Kigatilik's breath) do not.
There's also Boom, and KaBoom.... and some case where the enemies use other kinds of tell. Like how a lot of enemies have that life drain attack. They'll do an animation and say something like "Your soul is mine!" Block and it does very little, don't block and the enemy will usually recover a large amount of life while doing a lot of damage to you.
In general only charged attacks have a tell icon; simple maintains, even if quite dangerous (e.g. life drain, devour essence, Kigatilik's breath) do not.
Ah, right, that's true. Like with Strength of Takophanes and his ground pound...
Comments
Also your cricket example is a bit too exaggerated. It's more like when you go up to bat and the pitcher throws the ball in different ways - a skilled batter won't be phased by it, an unskilled one might.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
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Block timing explained
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Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
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NOTE: the various tell icons are for specific types of attack.... generally. Boom is an AoE centered on the enemy, Kaboom is an aoe centered on their target, Bam is a single target attack, Foom is a cone attack, and Freem a cylinder IIRC.
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My characters
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
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My characters