How do you feel about the bleed mechanic?

In the last few years bleed has become a highly favorited combat mechanic in simulation games. If I'm not mistaken it was heavily popularized by The Isle (unless there was another game before then that popularized it), and since then bleed has become the norm, and even seems to be expected in a way? But my question is, how do you guys feel about the bleed mechanic in wolvden? 

For me personally it just feels kinda cheap and out of place here? Regardless if I'm bleeding enemies or they are bleeding me, and that's because it is HEAVILY rng based. It's no secret that wolvden's fighting system is based heavily on rng and not really any true skill, unless they've worked on that but I haven't noticed it. Although I still kind of find it a bit of a cheap move in general, I can at least understand its presence in a game like The Isle or other similar games where you are battling other players of varying skill levels, and just because you manage to get the bleed on someone doesn't necessarily mean an instant win for you, or even for them if they start bleeding you first. However, in wolvden, the bleed mechanic kinda feels like a death sentence? Plenty of times I'd enter a fight with a low level enemy, and even with a lucky foot, if they bleed me first it's pretty much game. In fact, there's been plenty times the enemy lands the first hit, bleeds me out, and every attempt I make to hit at them doesn't even land.

So I have two questions, how do you feel about bleed as a mechanic, doesn't just have to be here on wolvden but just as a whole? Also, any tips to help me avoid being bled out and making me lose instantly when I start the fight with full health and near full energy? it's honestly really frustrating.  

I enjoy Damage Over Time mechanics when executed well.  I do not enjoy Random Number Generator largely defining an outcome.  If a DOT is too weak, and it is a core part of gameplay, that can be as much of a problem as it defining the outcome.  I feel the same can be true with RNG.

I do not mind not choosing what I encounter or my rewards after the encounter.  I mind when RNG completely determines the system.

With the Combat Update, we get +1 to Prey Opponent, and -1 to Fearless.  Our stats can give us +1 or -1.  We can choose whether to receive an advantage or a disadvantage due to Opponent Type selected upon entry.  We do not control which of our stats is selected.

We can learn through Explore the various ways to obtain the Lucky Foot +1 or y'know, buying/trading for them.

If you try to fight an Eagle, for example, you're asking to lose the initial "roll."  Whether or not you know this going in is somewhat irrelevant.  As a player, this would not feel too awful if the Quest token did not request them as an objective to achieve in roughly 3 RO.

Therein lay our problem, I feel.

I still enjoy the climb.  Somehow.  XD

The bleed mechanic is pretty broken, but it goes both ways. If you double bleed an enemy, you can most of the time just spam the wait button until they bleed out. (Double bleed gives you +2 for the wait roll. +4 or above is success. So you can only lose the wait roll if you're unlucky enough to roll a natural 1.) If you double bleed an enemy and have a lucky foot active, that's +3, which means you auto win the fight unless the enemy has a special modifier that gives you a penalty to wait rolls.

However, if an enemy bleeds you early, it sucks. If I get bled, I usually try and rest immediately to try and remove the bleed. If my rest either fails completely OR fails to remove the bleed, I often retreat, unless it's a low level enemy and I think I can still win the HP race while bleeding out. That's the best tip I can give - know when to retreat to save resources.

As for whether I like it, I gotta say I don't especially like Wolvden's battle mechanics in general. I wish it were more like a normal RPG, with skill trees and stats playing a bigger role. A 300-strength lead should be doing a lot more damage than a 100-strength lead. A 300-speed lead should be able to double-turn slow enemies. Etc. But barring a total overhaul of the battle system, I don't mind the bleed mechanic. I've had my share of insta-losses because of it, but also a good amount of cheap wins, and I think overall it's done me more good than bad.

Yeah, the negative modifier can be things like Fearless or Group Opponent.  If you win initial move, another negative can apply to Slow Opponent if you select Chase.

We can see the modifiers present for our actions if we hover over the Die in the combat text box.  On phone, I have been holding to view modifiers active on a roll.

And like 34199 said, you can Retreat if afflicted with Bleed early. There is no shame in retreating to fight later.  We are only more permanently punished for staying until we lose, and that is if we get an illness.  I would say 0 HP is its own punishment, but we do have ease of access to trading herbs/crafting Healing and Cures at Herbert.  Along with that, certain explore encounters reward Healing Salves: Inspect the pool can reward Salves or cave materials, for example.

I haven't played too many games with bleed mechanics, so I can't say how I feel overall about it.

Here, though, it basically defines the battle system. Without it, the two biggest strategies I use wouldn't work. Them being:

1. Low energy, high health risk - Bite until Bleed, Wait until fight ends. I don't bother with double-bleed here because that uses more Energy. I usually use this strategy against regular-world enemies, especially prey or ones with that don't have an advantage over me.

2. Low health risk, high energy - Latch and whatever works in that state. Fight goes faster, opponent has fewer chances to hit me. I usually use this against Lunar enemies because I usually have 0 Energy when using Lunar Explore anyway.

Without Bleed, the Wait strategy would just plain not work, and the Latch strategy wouldn't defeat opponents nearly as quickly, especially at 0 Energy. Fights would be very different.