Hello! Wanted to check in now that we're back in office after the weekend.

We ran some tests to make sure what we think is going on in THF is actually happening, and generally speaking it is. (For the sake of discussion, gonna refer to the two animation styles as "Greatsword" and "Greataxe" - it applies for all weapons that share animations with those weapons).

1) The Timing
The timing of the detect relative to the start of the animation on the new THF (both Greatsword- and Greataxe-animations) is intentionally later than the old ones were. That said, we've determined that it's landing later than it should, and for next patch we've moved the detect up to a little earlier in the four basic attack animations (and two mobile basic attack animations) in both of those styles. Having tested it internally, it feels snappier; we'll see how that fares on Live before determining if we need to make further changes.

2) The Range
We heard quite a few remarks about the range of THF being significantly smaller in U45 relative to U44-and-earlier, so we looked into it to make sure that wasn't the case. With U45, all four standing Greatsword detects got larger, gaining 25% to the distance they extend in front of you. The first and third Greataxe animation detects got larger as well, gaining 13% to the distance they extend in front of you. The rest of their detects are unchanged (including mobile); none of their detects became smaller. I think some of the issue here stems from the Timing above - With people not used to the changes to timing, creatures are somewhat more likely to move out of range before the detect. We do not have any changes on the radar here, but the change to the Timing above ought to make this happen a little less often, which should feel better.

It's also worth noting that I've seen a few people say "the detect for Strikethrough feels smaller/larger than the main attack". To be clear, Strikethrough is a modifier to the number of targets your attacks hit. There is no secondary detect - Only your attack. Strikethrough determines how many targets that attack hits.

3) Animations
We know of a few animation issues that we have artists looking at (female human/half-elf hands do some weeeeeeird stuff, and mobile animations can get a bit clippy), but those won't make it in time for the next patch. We're also talking about positioning/angle of various swings in the new animation sets, and looking into whether or not we want to make any changes there, but we don't have any conclusive changes to share at this time.

Thank you for your feedback on Two Handed Fighting! We know that the changes aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but we're working to make sure the style is both mechanically good and feels good, and thanks for bearing with us.