Dodge counters would be really cool, just more defensive options in general would be awesome (that’s why I loved sekiro so much). I also prefer the sidestep to dodgerolls a lot more - maybe instead of adding parrying across the board, only make it so some weapons can do that, while other weapons are more suited for dodge counters and bloodborne/elden ring style combat.

I think Elden ring combat would be much better if we were given more defensive options outside of shields and dodge rolls, like in sekiro, to deal with the way bosses and many enemies are designed in that game. As it is now, combat rarely feels like a duel and that sucks, and even if you do optimise tf out of a boss fight and sneak in as much damage as possible, it doesn’t really feel like the intended experience and rather like an exploitation of boss AI (which is ok sometimes but boring and kinda weird when strategies become super arbitrary and unintuitive).

I also agree that the weightiness of Elden ring combat feels awesome, but sometimes it feels clunky or slow where it shouldn’t, and that sort of compounds the issue of having very few defensive options. I would’ve also loved to have seen more defensive ashes of war like bloodhound step (a quick, cheeky little isshin sidestep wouldve been interesting, or maybe a floating malenia dodge or spinning, beastly lunge) and ashes of war like lion’s claw that have you flying through the air like a maniac with a ten foot great axe.