hoplite stabs were buffed by letting them connect earlier in the animation.
Once again you are ascribing qualities to hoplites exclusively that go for other weapons as well, including your precious long awlpike. Pretty much all stabs can connect early in the animation, or the so called instastab. I can do it with a pike, a longspear, an ashwood with shield, an ashwood without shield, a long awlpike and a Danish. Same technique applies to all. In fact it is harder the longer a weapon gets, instastabbing is easier with a long awlpike than an ashwood pike with shield, fact. It's just that you don't need it as much. Sure some good players can do instastabs quite consistently, but 80% of the scrubs who also play hoplite now don't even dare to try. Hell, I've played long stab polearm for like a 1000 hours now and I still fail like 30% of my kickstabs.
a ashwood pike can litterally hit on facehug distance if you curve your stab enough
Wanna see me do it with a longspear or a long awlpike, this is not unique. The
only weapon which cannot possibly stab at facehug distance is the pike, because it simply has no hitbox for the first meter in front of the user. Yet with correct movement you can kickstab with a pike, it's a challenge but so rewarding when you pull it off.
But I agree, hoplite, well specifically ashwood pike hoplite is somewhat overpowered. The reason it outshines stab weapons I class in the same class, longspears and pikes, is because of the turn rate. Playing longspear or pike feels extremely clunky and dumbed down, it turns so slow it is simply not fun to play. Ashwood however got faster turning, making it a lot more fun to play and a lot more effective. Turn rate is simply a huge deal for the effectiveness of stab weapons. If a rebalance of hoplite is going to happen I hope longspear and especially the pike can get a slight buff, preferably to their turn rate.
Just "un-fix" the stabs. I don't remember those facehug stabs being possible prior to the turn rate nerf. Sure you could wiggle them instead, but that was slower to hit.
Indeed, the stab change after the turn rate nerf broke stabbing for all weapons, not just hoplites. There was a minimum time animations required before they hit, which was always the same. You could chamber based on timing, because you knew how long it would take for the stab to hit. While we are at it, remove the turn rate, in these times of perfect blocking faster turn rates spice the dumbed down combat up a little.