Q-Lock is the focus of most of the community, but it’s really not even the main issue.
I’m going to shamelessly shill my own prior post on hyper-armor changes, but only because it’s a huge part of the problem:
The biggest immediate PvP differences between the Age of War meta and the Age of Sorcery meta are:
-Hyper-armor is basically non-existent
-Stamina regenerates instantly
-Time to kill is very low due to over-tuned damage
-There’s no momentum mechanic anymore
-Q-lock is viable
As a result of Q-lock and missing hyper armor, no weapon can ever out-perform the daggers or spear in melee. No matter how well you time an attack you’ll never out-speed a dagger thrust or out-reach a spear poke. Weapons like the axe and sword previously had hyper from the beginning of their movesets, but now they get staggered out of attacks every time.
The instant stamina regen not only kills the stamina management aspect of skill expression, but creates a situation where there’s no downside for roll-poke spam or infinitely running away as an archer.
The burst damage meta only compounds these issues. Health recovery was a critical part of Conan PvP, and now it’s almost meaningless because time to kill is measured in single digits. Slow down to drink a potion? You’re dead. Using food? The passive healing isn’t nearly enough to matter.
There’s also no viability to trading/baiting anymore. Most weapon movesets are useless now, and even if they weren’t why sit there and tank damage when doing so results in a three-hit death? Players are currently incentivized to use their infinite stamina to disengage and joust with running attacks. A lack of any momentum mechanic (a situation where you can’t INSTANTLY start at full speed when running) means that there’s no downside to sprinting away from a losing trade. So instead of a fight we get two players chasing each other in a circle.
The previous meta was a very risk-reward type system. You could tank damage knowing that you had more hyper in your moveset and could achieve a knock-down. You could roll out of a losing trade and re-engage using a weapon with starting hyper to punish spamming. You could punish spear-poke spam by rolling and wheeling on them with an axe and heavy staggering them for a couple hits to get them off your back. You could catch someone with a greatsword light attack post-roll and out-trade weapons like the 1h sword and 1h axe. Every fight was a back and forth in which you carefully managed your health and stamina so that you could keep trading until you put your opponent on the back foot.
Skill mattered a LOT. Not just for winning trades, but for knowing how to prevent someone from recovering and being mindful of your own statuses. Age of Sorcery created a solid meta with a myriad of mechanics that influenced the outcome of a fight.
Now? Just pick up a bow or a spear, press the win button, and hope that your latency carries you.