There seems to be a confused clash of opinion on these forums, where most people seem to want to make the combat more "realistic"... but at the same time, 'high skill' players such as yourself, are generally in favor of "feints," which often involve other "obfuscating" tricks, like 360 spinning. Neither of which lend to realistic combat... in fact, they border on the high-fantasy genre of games.
In my opinion, those "trick" devices only exist in warband because they add necessary complexity to an outdated and overly-simple combat system at the mercy of Warband's antiquated engine. From I've seen of MBG combat, you'll have all the complexity you need to outsmart another high skill player, without the (unrealistic) additions of limitless feints and spin exploiting.
Stamina, stances, and angled attacks. These three mechanics are all nuanced elements of MBG that have never existed before, and it seems a mastery of them will do the same job of separating a great player from an even BETTER one. The bottom line is that the reason this is better than what you're nostalgically longing for is because these new mechanics, while serving the same purpose of a higher skill cap, will also help to enhance the realism of the game, rather than detract from it.
Like Warband, you want more complex attack patterns, but then you also want easier blocking, also like Warband, to better "protect" against those more complex attacks.
In the end, I really think they're going to achieve the same heavily skill-dependant result with the new system they have created: 1) Making attacks easier to see coming 2) meanwhile making parrying a more precise action to perform.
Again, I think these are good steps towards realism.
I think it will mean the opposite. High-threshold stamina will instead be beneficial for good players, because if they need to fight multiple lower-skill enemies at once, they still can, without being too severely disadvantaged.
I personally think that will still be the case!
