Free Step Dodge

Stagger escaping (aka stun shake) at the moment is no longer present.

So its just mash hold out or deal with it? I feel like I am missing something here cause that just leaves me kinda bummed out.

Unfortunately yeah. I mean, it's still a long ways until the final product for vanilla so it may return (or not). There might be compensation for it, but who knows really.

Thank God !!! Hated that thing...

Well there's always break hold to get out of it

All those years of muscle memory, Wasted! But on the flipside this does mean you can divert more attention to watching your opponent and reading their options so i guess that s good? I dunno,

It's not entirely a bad thing, depending how you look at it. Since you don't have to know situations where you should stagger vs when you should hold, you can focus more on holding. However, this also means there's more chances for HCH baits and more "guessing".

DOA is definitely playable without it, but it did made situations a bit more smart on avoiding things that are not exactly guaranteed.