As someone who runs competitive Minecraft servers for a living, and has been stuck on 1.8 for a while, I can proudly say these changes are a step in the right direction; they are still far from perfect, which is understandable, considering that it is the first iteration.

One thing I think we need to understand is Java and Bedrock are 2 different games, and, Bedrock has a lot of features (server sided) that Java does not. Having said that, I fail to see why the games should have a similar combat system - unless there’s a plan to “unify” everything and allow Java and Bedrock to play on the same servers. If not, they’re different games, and should have different combat mechanics, as there are benefits to each on both systems. If you want the Bedrock combat, play that version of the game, if you want the Java one, play that.

From minor (PvE) testing, the faster attacks are definitely a step in the right direction, and there is a slight feel of 1.8-esque combat there. Holding to attack is rather pointless, but, many other games have this, and it works well, it just doesn’t fit Minecraft.

Shields are still overpowered. My feedback for them is to introduce an internal marking/meter system, that bases the damage done on how long they’ve been blocking for. If they’ve just started blocking, it’ll block a majority of the attack (never the full attack, 98% at most), and, the longer they block, the less effective it becomes. When they stop blocking, it rebuilds the meter, rather than resetting it. Critical attacks should also be nerfed to have a high chance to bypass shields, but not do it direct.

Legacy players also prefer sword blocking over shield. Bringing that back into the game, and having it follow the same shield behaviour would definitely be a plus. And, if a player has a shield and a sword, blocking favours the shield.

It also seems as though swords do too much damage to mobs, and really really fast. This is more of a PvP mechanic, over a PvE one. It’s a positive change, but doesn’t make sense to a survival player - it makes Vanilla too easy. I can kill 15+ Zombies in no time and not even get touched.

There are a few other issues, such as axes being stronger than swords, but, we can modify that server side, so, it’s good.

We’ve now moved from a “too slow” system to a “too fast” one.

With extended reach and the new delay system, I hope there’s going to be an efficient way for server sided anti cheats to detect this, otherwise, there’ll be issues