I think the way that shield canceling currently works with swords is broken, repeatedly being able to use the first strike of a combo or being able to easily avoid the last strike of a combo (which cannot be canceled out of) makes a few swords far too powerful, especially in Lockdown. For example, the flourish/barb line's big first swing and speed are supposed to be balanced by the small hitbox of the second two swings and the powerful sealed line's large swings are supposed to be balanced by only having two, but shield canceling can negate these balancing factors.

My proposal is that if you cancel out of a swing, instead of it resetting the combo back to the first swing the next time you attack, it should use the next swing in the combo, but if enough time passes between the shield cancel and the next swing (maybe a second or so) then you can use the first swing again.

I think this would go far to balance certain weapons in Lockdown and in the Clockworks.

In case I'm not being clear, here is a helpful visual demonstration with a 3 attack combo sword!

HOW IT IS NOW:
Swing 1 -> Shield cancel -> Swing 1 -> Shield cancel -> Swing 1 etc.

MY PROPOSAL
Swing 1 -> Shield cancel -> Swing 2 -> Shield cancel -> Swing 3 (not able to be cancelled)
and
Swing 1 -> Shield cancel -> Short period of time -> Swing 1 -> Shield cancel -> Short period of time -> Swing 1 etc.

Comments are appreciated.