We're still thinking about that. Urist just implemented a longer delay for thrusts that get blocked, so we need to wait and see how that plays out first. I suspect it won't really have too large of an impact, though to be safe, we don't want to do too much at once. I've wondered if maybe we should shorten the sweetspot duration from 30% to perhaps 20%(40-60%). With a shorter window, thrusts become slightly more difficult to use. You won't have as much time to wiggle therefore they will have to be used in a more straight forward manner. They would become much more predictable I'd imagine.
To address the damage issues, I am leaning more towards simply lowering the thrust damage on some weapons, rather than further changing animations. If I tweak animations again it'll likely be to the polearm thrust, where I better distinguish the arm extension part of the animation from the rest. One thing I really like about the current thrusts though, is that a 1her can quite easily contend with a 2her in the domain of thrusts, the reach disparity becomes much more manageable.
San, yes. Although to what extent I can't be entirely sure until cmp verifies whether the %damage modifies raw damage, or if it comes after the soak/reduce. If it comes with say, the speed bonus, in effect it will be more of an "abrupt drop".
Damage reduction on stabs would help. Personally though I think its a mistake to think each class needs to compete with each other in the same areas. You play to your strengths and exploit other's weaknesses, and as a shielder I don't think you have to compete with 2 handers for stabs anyway. You don't see people using the 2 hand stab to maintain distance so much, and a backpedaling 2 hander won't be moving faster than a shielder that puts up the shield just to block an attack. 1 handers don't really have a reach problem imo even with just right swing and overhead and they excel with their swings in medium range. If kicks are an issue i'd take a look at kicks, but buffing 1 handers across the board just because of 2 hand stab is not necessary. You could have fixed the problems with 2 hand stab even first
You have to consider what a shield brings to the fight as well rather than just looking at the damage/reach
Shorter 4 direction poles got nerfed kinda hard with 1 hand buffs too
