Aight, can respond finally.
KLOL told me that Amon can use Akiyama's and Mine's moveset,
so another skill so some additional agility, because
Akiyama is agile as hell, and
Mine also is (worth to note he's also the strongest Yakuza antagonist, posing threat to Kiryu despite losing)
I mean, that's a defensive stance you need to specifically use, it's not something passive. The fact that it's needed proves that without it blades would effect him.
It's just holding guard. It's nothing difficult to hold his hands in front of his head.
Imma be real, I still do, he doesn't have any feats of tanking cutting stuff that's at least equal to him in AP. Keep in mind beam katanas can effortlessly cut through those comparable or superior in AP to the wielder. Normal lightsabers are just heat, but Beam Katanas also have a physical component to their blows, which is evident from an increase in strength leading to an increase in damage in-game. Travis' current Beam Katana is also far stronger than a "baseline" Beam Katana if you wanna do that.
Ok, but Amon is the stronger one here (above 1.11 times, with amps even more), and if he enters Extreme Heat Mode (which will happen quickly), he gains a VERY hefty advantage in durability. Forcefield would help him even more. Like I mentioned, Amon has Dragon God's Ward which blocks bladed weapons (bullets as well). He can hold guard in Extreme Heat Mode.
He does favor offense, though he doesn't suck at defense. That said, I think Travis' Instinctive Reaction gets him a dodge before the forcefield comes out.
Fair enough. That's before random bullshit goes in his way.
I mean, you're just giving me more of a reason he wouldn't immediately use the tough stuff against a random nerd. Not that I doubt he'd pull it out quickly, I'm just saying starting out far away doesn't matter much.
Like I said - he doesn't use tough stuff immediately against Kiryu or Majima either. It's just a little bit into the fight. 25-30 seconds? Something like that from what I've seen in the fights (and from my fight with Amon, even if I fought him just once

)
Eventually, Amon definitely takes out Travis through superior random bullshit, but Travis is really hard to wear down, and he's constantly gonna be breathing on his neck, dark stepping away from any attempt at a direct counter- it's gonna be risky for Jo to attempt and disengage to USE that random bullshit.
Well, you can forget about my Tiger Drop one shot argument, but Amon can still counter Travis before the amps. It's pretty fortunate for him that Travis uses the amps probably around the same time Amon goes into Heat modes.
I'll also note,
Kiryu's enemies also do not have time to react to Rush, just like Travis' enemies. I do think that Travis has the better amp because it's almost like he teleports, but Rush would help Amon to dodge some attacks. Not necessarily match the amp if he can't react, but if he survives the attack flurry after the amp kicks in (I believe he can survive, like I mentioned in my second point), he will have better circumstances and preparation to deal with it again.