Talk:Backstab/@comment-24912592-20140807041228/@comment-3492791-20140813221011

Counter attacks, like backstabs and their cousins ripostes, are rewards for skill. They allow more tactical and generally more varied gameplay options. Typically small weapons are tailored to this by being generally weak but having high critical hit modifiers to allow them to compete with larger more direct damage weapons. Where the problem comes from in my opinion is that every weapon can be used counter attacks. What's a point of carrying around some dinky little dagger that's only good for crits if you can carry around you massive megaton hammer and still get a huge damage bonus?

The lag problem in PvP is not at all a fault of the design and you shouldn't be removing features completely because they don't work perfect under latency. The lag issue has more to do with defending against backstabs than players being able to get unfair backstabs. Mind you this is in DS1, but pretty much every time i've been backstabbed my opponent was not actually behind me. If I can't reliably tell when they are in a position to backstab, how can I possibly defend against it? I don't know how many i've been backstabbed while I was standing behind them ready to do a backstab. Believe it or not backstabs are a skill maneuver about outmaneuvering your opponent. What's unfair is not that you get extra damage for it, but the game doesn't tell us we are being outmaneuvered.