Unarmed

[EveryTimeV]

Is there really any real reason to be a purely unarmed fighter?

I'm trying to stay as an unarmed character for the sole purpose of attaining a gentlemans outfit and defeating my opponents by way of bartitsu, how would I however have the ability to out power someone who has adopted a weapon fighting style?

Or will there be possibly some unarmed updates in the future?

[KoE]

My observation (and what I've heard) is that lower-leveled animals are much more conveniently dispatched with unarmed. No need to lug around a weapon, you can fight with your tools (though you might want to dequip them to use Strangle). The attack rate is supposedly faster by a good margin, but the damage is really quite low. This is fine against unarmored animals, but you won't be doing much good through a player's platemail.

I'm probably not one to speak, though, as I've never swung a sword in my life. I've been hoping for Marksmanship to get some love when pathfinding comes along. I do have experience with unarmed, though, and can say it's a fine tool for impromptu hunting and fox-strangling.

I'm sure others can give better comparisons, but that's my experience.

[Potjeh]

It's a fine skill to train if you're going to fight with a battleaxe later on, as unarmed is used for dodging (can't use shield with the axe).

[kimya]

rift killed raephire with unarmed :p

[Rift]

in my opinion, For killing something quickly at higher levels [strangle], uanrmed in the best... however any even slightly drawn out battle gives a sword+shield combo a advantage, and it only gets worse as time goes on. A sword+shield is the best for hunting, fighting ect EXCEPT in the one case where you are trying to kill someone in less then 30 seconds... since you can strangle someone without any initative points like the other instance attacks.
A battleaxe has a insane disadvatage because you need UNARMED to doge and MELEE to hit, so you have to lvl 2 things. the 1/3str+50 damage the axe gives you is nothing to sneeze at, however since i do over 100Damage with my fist, so while if i used a axe i would do over 150damage.... it's not that big of a deal, since i can attack much much faster with my fist then a axe. A shield is 150% as effective as a unarmed dodge, so its A LOT better for dodging attacks
Battleaxe=useless except against animals you can 1/2 hit.
Sword+shield=best in any fight longer then 30 seconds [shield uses melee, sword uses melee, you only need to lvl one skill], and best against any animal except those that you can't 1 hit kill but could with a battleaxe.
unarmed= Best if you have INSANELY high str and need to kill stuff in less then 30 seconds.

[Potjeh]

If you use Consume the Flames you can pretty much strangle indefinitely, provided you have the hp to take the damage. I used that trick to beat lvl3 foxes with just 12 unarmed.

[kaka]

One advantage of unarmed combat is that you gain IP faster, since you attack faster.

[Rift]

yea, every weapon [cept marksmanship] has atleast 1 combo thats designed for it.

*rolls eyes* kaka that sounds misleading.
Would be more acurate to say that you can kill masses of stuff faster if you can 1/2 hit it with a punch, since you have to wait less between punches then other weapons.. in theory you could gain LP faster, but thats only true if you can 1/2 hit those nasty foxes.

[kaka]

With the basic knowledge that you have to miss to gain IP's, it's not very misleading. :P

[Rift]

*facepalm* i'm a idiot, i read IP as lP[LP]
yea, if you want lots of IP you have to attack faster and miss a lot