Defense bar

[Grable]

I've got more questions, but this time it's more combat tips, if you will.
I've always made my combat chars more towards UA, but seeing a lot of players skill Melee high too, I was interested in how this works in combat.
I'm gonna guess the greatest advantage is probably Valorous strike, because of it's 1.75 weight modifier? Anything else besides Val.Strike/Sting from melee that is good for PvP combat?
Why would one have a higher Melee than UA value?
Any tip on this matter appreciated, I sadly don't know anyone who could teach me this stuff and I'm still quite new to PvP

[Procne]

Shield maneuver is good too, although not sure how does it work for pvp.
Remember that valorous strike also resets advantage which may be useful if enemy gains advantage over you.

Another good thing about melee is its high damage.
You need really good damage to get through armor. You can try using unarmed with its penetration but it's still low damage, even with very high strength

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

• Your attack weight is determined by what type of attack you use. Attacks that has a fist icon as weight utilize your unarmed combat rating. Attacks that has a sword icon as weight utilize your melee combat rating as weight. Note that these weight may also have a fraction next to it. This is how much your attack is multiplied by.
• Your defense weight is determined by what maneuver you are using when attacked. Again the icon will indicate what combat rating it will utilize but the only maneuver that uses melee combat rating is shield. WARNING: If you are moving and do no have a combat command issued, your defense weight is 0. Meaning you will take full damage and your defense bar is depleted.
• Advantage gives a bonus to your combat weight by 20% x advantage rating when positive. It will not reduce your weight if it is in the negative but the negative indicates how many points of advantage you need to restore it to neutral.

• The amount of defense that an attack will damage the defense is = sqrt ( (Att weight / def weight) * % of att bar) / 2. I'll call this formula A.
• If the above formula is above (def weight) * % of def bar (I'll call this formula B),
• then you deal: full damage * martial/peaceful belief modifier * ( (A - B) / A).

. If you are not using valorous strike, you will gain a +1 advantage. You will also deal a percentage of piercing damage that ignores armor if the damage weapon permits as mentioned in this thread.
[*]Unarmed has a 30% damage bypass. Axes have a 5% damage bypass. Swords and range weapons have a 0% bypass.
[/list]

Can someone check the above formula to see if I made an error somewhere?

• The damage will first be subtracted by total amount of deflect armor value which is the number to the left.
• The damage will next be subtracted by the total amount of absorb armor value which is the number to the right. That value will reduce the amount of HP for each armor piece in relation to the amount of absorb armor value it has (need confirmation). Should an armor run out of HP, it will be destroyed. Damage to armor cannot be repaired
• Any damage that is not negated will strike directly to your HP.

You need to make sure that the valorous strike will knock out the enemy or you will suffer from the longcooldown, the advantage scale resetting, and the fact that the enemy gains 2 IP. If you are not so sure, use sting instead as it is easier to gain the IP from and is roughly 50% of the cooldown.

[Grable]

post

Let's say I fight with 200UA/400MC char against a 200MC/400UA char. Would it be better to just keep stinging to break his defense or would it be better to punch till low defense then use sting?

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

Unless you know what you are doing in PvP, it is generally better to use the 200 MC/400 UA as you can use punches to bring down their defense before using sting as a finisher. The reverse build actually uses an entirely different style combat.

[bmjclark]

In a 1v1 where both players stand just attacking each other with typical combat moves, unarmed will win 90% of the time simply because it's cheaper and faster. Melee has it's advantages in some situations but i would go UA if ur new to combat.

[Grable]

Unless you know what you are doing in PvP, it is generally better to use the 200 MC/400 UA as you can use punches to bring down their defense before using sting as a finisher. The reverse build actually uses an entirely different style combat.

Could you sum this "different style combat" up? Just what are the usual manuevers/moves used in combat with char who have more Melee than UA?

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

Unfortunately I am not at the liberty of disclosing that information.

[MagicManICT]

Could you sum this "different style combat" up? Just what are the usual manuevers/moves used in combat with char who have more Melee than UA?

Unfortunately I am not at the liberty of disclosing that information.

The styles are as varied as the number of combat experts in this game. One person not disclosing a combat style is about as ineffective as one person not explaining their poker playing style. Nobody really wants to give away how they play, but the basics all come down to the same general concepts.