Better Combat

Better Combat is a combat mod created by ZsoltMolnaique. Enhances melee combat with weapon-specific attack animations, swing arcs, combos, and dual-wielding support. As a combat mod it concentrates on weapons, armor, and the way fights play out, and it has been downloaded around 30 million times, which puts it among the options players reach for in this space.

Better Combat is built for players who want vanilla-style combat with real reach, sweeps, and weapon feel. It adds animated, directional attacks and per-weapon attack patterns while staying lightweight and broadly compatible with other mods. It is approachable enough to drop into a world and use right away, with little setup required.

The mod is available for Forge, Fabric, NeoForge, and Quilt, so it fits a range of modpacks and launchers. It currently supports Minecraft 1.20.1 and 1.21.1, spanning the 1.20.1 to 1.21.1 releases. It runs on both the client and the server, so on a multiplayer server every player who connects needs it installed alongside the server itself.

Better Combat works particularly well alongside Player Animator. It depends on Player Animator, so those must be present and on the same loader and version. Because it ships for both Fabric and Forge-family loaders, it slots into most popular modpacks regardless of which side they are built on.

Better Combat has a modest footprint for what it adds and is widely used in modpacks without notable performance concerns.

If you are comparing options, similar mods include Epic Fight and Combat extensions. They cover comparable ground, so the right choice usually comes down to your loader, version, and the rest of your pack.