Beats Suck(?)

[Bruno]

As written in a one-on-one duel no, there's not many reasons for the normal-sized guy fighting a normal-sized-guy to use a Beat. As noted, a Beat IS resisted by currently-in-use weapon skill unlike a Feint, which is important, but not common in duelling situations where presumably both duellists are, well, duellists - they do whatever it is they're doing as their major hobby or job.

It's much more useful (as written) in a group-on-group fight where the skilled character can set up a defence penalty for the strong-but-not-skilled character.

I'm a little uncomfortable with the "beats are resisted by ST-based rolls, not DX-based rolls" idea - it's tempting, but with all the effort to exorcise ST-based skill rolls from 4e I'm a little leery of unintended consequences. It seems like a safe idea, though, since Beats are ST-based skill rolls in the first place.