[Kameron8]

Why is this necessary?

This -used- to happen, I believe. Before, cutthroat criticals would knock someone down and they wouldn't turn to face you.

As for why it's necessary, it gives Cobra the ability to dick over flanking bonuses from Guile when the opponent already has to deal with never attacking them in the face. KD and Blind are supposed to give you temporary windows of advantage to exploit; having them turn to face you after you do so just makes those windows smaller. This makes things that are already difficult to deal with when paired with Cobra -- like Blade Barrier, Bulwark, Quick Rise, and Riposte -- even more painful to work around.

I don't know if this was intentionally changed after the Reckoning update, unintentionally, or only changed for Cutthroat, but those are the reasons I'd like to see it go back to how it used to function. Slippery snakes certainly aren't hurting for representation, it's one of the most powerful classes we have still.