So.. I fully understand the concept of melee engagement, and I like it a lot. What I'm not quite clear on is why it has been implemented NOT with the traditional "attack-of-opportunity" implementation, but instead a "cannot leave without special abilities" implementation. Is there some reason for this? I sort of understand the mechanical reason for it (allowing frontliners to CC enemies) but I'm not clear on the rationale... if you're fighting with someone, nothing's stopping you from running away except the fact that you'll be turning your back on them (hence the traditional "attack-of-opportunity").

That's exactly what it is. You stop moving the moment you're engaged (except for wild-sprinting barbarian, who will still take hits), after which if you leave engagement you get whacked with a disengagement attack. They're pretty punishing. Watching streams of people who haven't realised this yet really makes for some winces, because they tend to go "oh dear, X is getting hit a lot, run away!". Cue smackdown.

 

The special skills (grimoire slam, escape, cipher knockback blast) are there to break engagement without provoking such attacks.

That is how I would expect it to work, but from what I've seen in the documentation that's been released so far and in my limited play, I haven't noticed disengagement attacks. Characters just seem to be unable to leave engagement. I can't link the page while I'm on mobile, but I think it's in the backer beta how to play section that they say characters are not able to leave engagement once engaged without using a special escape.

@Matt516 That's probably due to one of the many AI bugs. I have definitely been able to disengage and paid the penalty; BB Wizard lost half his health in one hit this way once.

Hmm. I'll see how it behaves once they say they've fixed the movement and AI issues. There are so many bugs in the Beta build right now that it's really hard to diagnose what's going on or figure out the game mechanics.. :/