Yeah I have been trying it out recently and I have a feeling this game isn't going anywhere, I've had fun with it, but for 2 years in development I don't think they have any fucking idea about what they even wanted the combat to be like, or if they can actually make a decent combat system at all.
Even if you removed the lag from combat, you're still left with a bland combat system that has retarded mechanics. The only block breaker ( kick ) is next to useless against anyone that has half a brain, it is easily avoided due to its slow nature and the speed at which you can back pedal and block. If you hit someone that is blocking, you get staggered, giving them a free hit on you, let's remember there is no such thing as block directions, you block everything just holding block, blocking without a shield does require a little more thought, but you basically can block constantly when you are in melee range of your enemy.
Now, you combine both the useless block breaking kick and the effect of being staggered when hitting a blocking opponent, then what you see among the competitive fights where people are scared to lose one or two imaginary items, are people that will beck pedal constantly while blocking, easily able to avoid any kick attempts. This means you can chase them trying to kick them forever and probably failing, or you will get fucking bored of doing that and swing a hit at their block that will stagger you and hope you can stumble out of the way of their attack or just get fucking hit, then they will go back to blocking and running away until you get bored again, or of course you could also play the same and reenact Gandalfs final battle with the Balrog where they fought for two days until Balrog got bored of holding block and Gandalf rekt him.
I've rekt some of these guys that play like this, but it was honestly a very drawn out and boring affair and made it painfully obvious how the combat in Gloria Victis punishes aggressiveness and favours being a "hold block backpedaling" fairy leaving combat with little fluidity. I have tried to bring this issue up in detailed posts, along with the issue of being able to fire UNBLOCKABLE high damage arrows point blank into someones face even as they are hitting you with a weapon repeatedly, yet most of the few replies consist of a Fanboy saying "it's fine you're just bitching" without any real argument or explanation to their opinion.
With such a brown nosing and passive community that is so content with having this shitty combat system with dog shit mechanics, I can imagine this game is never going to really go anywhere, as the devs seem clueless on what good mechanics are they will think it's fine as the majority of players seem to do so too. I am going to play that game some more with the intent on making other players playtime as awful as possible by being really fucking annoying and boring to fight, then when I get bored I will just check in every few months to see how much the game has progressed to its inevitable death, which I believe is inevitable considering the game is mainly based on PVP, yet the PVP mechanics and design are dogshit even after 2 years.
/rant