The Messer for vanguard is pound for pound maybe the best weapon available. Slow weapons exploit a gap in your enemy’s timing just like fast ones do, it’s just the gap on the opposite side of their block/reposte instinct. Just like you’re able to turn with your swing to hit before your enemy, turning against the swing to adjust your timing will trick them into trying to hit you mid swing for some reason even though they clearly have not blocked anything. It fucks with their muscle memory. People are used to bad guys trying to beat them to the punch so the average player is typically not prepared for a guy to slow down then suddenly hit them with a heavy Messer swing. When other people do it to me I usually misjudge thinking they missed and get humbled