I know I'm not the best gamer in the world but I have decent reaction times and a good understanding of game mechanics in general, and yet I've never had the kind of difficulty with combat that I'm having with Valhalla. Your basic, small enemies are no problem but as soon as they start getting bigger, I have bigger and bigger problems.
Some enemies are too quick and manage to dodge every attack I make, no matter how fast my weapon is. If I can actually manage to shoot them using my controller they shake it off before I can get any real damage in.
Enemies that carry heavy shields are like brick walls. I've tried every type of attack with every type of weapon but I can't seem to consistently break their guard without dodging behind them and sneaking in a backstab, but they recover pretty quickly from that too and I very quickly run out of stamina.
I hate the stamina mechanic. The last two AC games got me used to dodging and now I can't do that without leaving myself completely open to attack when my stamina runs out. I find the parry system unreliable; the timing is nearly impossible to figure out, either I'm too early and end up using a special attack/block or I'm too late and get hit. That is if the enemies ever stop using unblockable attacks. On the rare occasion when I manage to get the timing right, the enemy recovers far too quickly for my liking.
Against bosses, every time I take a swing they close the gap between us and hit me. If I use a long or heavy weapon it's too slow and the enemy dodges. If I use faster weapons they're too weak to break enemy guard. I've tried skills that are supposed to knock enemies down but the big ones aren't bothered. I've tried every weapon combination in the game, single and dual-wield, light and heavy weapons. Shield and no shield but every one falls short against an enemy that's even remotely decent in combat. Adrenaline abilities are the only thing that reliably break enemy guard but I can't generate enough adrenaline to use them consistently.
I feel like I'm trying to fight using half a controller but as far as I can tell I'm not missing anything and every internet search just tells me I'm apparently the only one who can't figure this out. The only usable advice I've found says to just come back when I've levelled up but I don't think outlevelling the content should be the solution. The enemies I'm having trouble with are all within 15 levels of me and they don't have skulls by their names so I should be able to beat them without too much trouble, right?
