Combat

[hushpuppi3]

I'm a long time returning member and I'm off to make my hermit way once again

One thing I don't understand at all despite many guides is combat.


You used to be able to put up blocks and not take damage from Ants at 10% UA, but I haven't figured out how? the option is there but it doesn't seem to do anything, with 15 UA I almost died to a single ant, I gave up trying to understand the system (since blocking seemed to have no effect at all)

is there a simple way to describe how to do this? going to get real annoying trying to make it on my own if I can't even beat ants without suffering 100% SHP damage

[MagicManICT]

Forget any old version of combat. Here you have attacks, defenses, and maneuvers.

Attacks create openings. As the openings grow, you do more damage.

Defenses close openings, thus preventing damage.

Maneuvers provide some sort of benefit or bonus in most cases, though the basic maneuver of "Chin Up" does little.

You want to actively use your defenses to lessen openings. Each tick of the combat clock you can enter a new action. Many actions are repeated if you don't make a new selection, some are not.

To sum up: close your openings, make openings on the target.

Ants are decent to practice on because you can kite them around until you get the hang of timing and how everything functions together. Focus on keeping defenses closed, and they won't do more than a point of damage (at best) at a time.

There are some tricks later on after you get to hunting bigger game to mess with IP, cooldown timers, and such, like their used to be.

i'm not sure how much simpler I can put it. Someone else might take a stab at it and do better.

[hushpuppi3]

I guess that confirms I'm going to be taking damage regardless then, thanks

[MagicManICT]

Yeah. Damage is unavoidable and you will always take some. Ants are just bad because they pretty much ignore everything. I found that once I knew how to keep a cycle going and what moves to use against what animals, I could fight most anything without taking much damage. You can fight ants quickly so you can raid a hill without taking damage, but it takes a little bit more UA, some STR, and decent Q axe, at least, and probably a few more attacks than Punch.

Also worth noting that armor has changed since you last played quite a bit. It might be worth reading up on on the wiki or the patch notes.