Combat and PVP

[Flame]

Most of the peoples die with the first Punch, because most of the people are normal noobs that don't have nothing to steal. Other people die with 2 punches.

Really few people "fight" in this game.

[Grable]

To my knowledge, some of the finest combatants joined the game in w3/w4.

I guess vets wasn't the correct word for it. I'm talking about a tight knit group that keeps the combat magic to themselves.
I mean I'm learning too, slowly. I could use manuevers (semi properly I guess) months ago, but am only now learning that stuff like Throw Sand and Seize the day is actually quite useful.

And even with all that, I still believe combat skills/stats should be capped. Any game without caps favours 24/7 grinders.

[Muffy]

I decided to just give it a go to get a feel for this different combat system but holy crap the lag is unbearable. Is it my connection? Im in the eastern USA.

[Tonkyhonk]

mind you, this is coming from a total combat noob, but...

more players than you expect actually know moves and maneuvers and some tricks WHEN they are fighting/taming animals. (or maybe when they know they are perfectly ready to attack someone beforehand, like when summoning.)
but when it comes to PVP, especially when you get ambushed all of a sudden, there are other factors that change everything... your mindset, key/belt settings, readiness, applicability, flexibility, the opponents' actions, helpers joining in or not, and so on. when you are in panic, you cant expect to do what you could usually do. one misclicking can be deadly.
(thus, combat experiences play a big part. no wonder why people just spam-punch or run in panic, better than standing still.)

as for combat caps, search around, there was a big discussion thread regarding combat caps quite a while ago.

[TeckXKnight]

mind you, this is coming from a total combat noob, but...

more players than you expect actually know moves and maneuvers and some tricks WHEN they are fighting/taming animals. (or maybe when they know they are perfectly ready to attack someone beforehand, like when summoning.)
but when it comes to PVP, especially when you get ambushed all of a sudden, there are other factors that change everything... your mindset, key/belt settings, readiness, applicability, flexibility, the opponents' actions, helpers joining in or not, and so on. when you are in panic, you cant expect to do what you could usually do. one misclicking can be deadly.
(thus, combat experiences play a big part. no wonder why people just spam-punch or run in panic, better than standing still.)

as for combat caps, search around, there was a big discussion thread regarding combat caps quite a while ago.

You are correct. Panic plays a huge role in combat. I hate when people I'm fighting just sort of give up once I've broken their defense bar. No pain no gain, Death or Glory, and come at me fools.

You can usually topple fights stacked against you if you can shake opponents up by KOing one or pulling them too far away from the water or too close to wild animals. The smallest things take people out of their comfort zones and give you an advantage if you're brave. I've heard of fights being won by an opponent being clipped on a tree and losing their entire defense bar for trying to repath erratically. I've also taken down two people before by getting them to hop into boats to chase me and singling them out for combat by jumping on and off of land. When you're outnumbered, the chase is critical in determining a winner.

I've never had a problem winning fights, for the most part, even though my stats and skills have always been terrible. Just remember that half of combat is knowing how to get away and what your escape route is.

[Grable]

even though my stats and skills have always been terrible

Just wondering, no pun intended, what is your definition of "terrible stats and skills"?

[Potjeh]

There's nothing wrong with flex + punch if you combine it with good use of manoeuvres and wait for the opponent to switch to Bloodlust before you punch.

[TeckXKnight]

Oh gosh, I remember early world 5, the first time I met Burg and we went on a raid I only had like 60 UA. That was embarrassing! I hardly wanted to show my face. W5 has been my most peaceful world by far though. In W3 I thought I was hot shit with 300 Melee and went on raids thinking I was damn near invincible. I never broke 350 Melee in W3 though. W4 was my most combat heavy world and my UA and Melee never even reached 300. I was somewhere around 250-280? That world not only did I come out on top in a few 3 on 1s (I admit fleeing one of them when I was ambushed outside of my home and figured it better to just stay inside than risk it) but I was also outrageously happy when I took down two opponents that had twice my skill levels.

Most people brag about having 500 to 1000 and I'm just here with 250 doing my thing. Sure, it's harder and you Really have to be creative and on your toes but you learn so much! If there's anything that I've learned it's that when you venture no risk and no attention to combat, you take nothing out of it. Harder fights, bigger risks, and lots of them make you a better combatant. I wish I could say more but knowledge beyond that was graciously imparted upon me by players better than myself and I would not wish to violate their training secrets.

[Horatius]

I'm a peaceful player and as such never had to fight so far (not a fight I could win anyway - you can avoid combat usually if you're careful enough) but from my sparring experience the game is heavily biased towards stats. I've never seen someone gain ground when his stats were a lot worse than the opponent's stats. As such I'd rather say the skillbased aspects of the combat system are more or less a myth. Of course sparring creates a situation where both opponents are mentally well prepared for what is to come and as such isn't exactly realistic but it does proove that in an equal fight stats matter a whole lot.
The combat system is complex but complexity doesn't necessarily mean that there is a good chance to easily overwhelm your opponent by simply being tricky and knowing the skills / combos better. If he can break your def bar with 2 hits then you're usually on the defense all the time and can't get your ass up anymore.

Also, you will not catch up to the top players ever if you just started the game. I'd say there is probably even a fair amount of "normal players" with 500 UA running around these days. The longer you play, the smaller their advantage becomes but you will never ever reach somewhat equal grounds, not even months after starting the game. But that is not the real problem anyway. The real problem is that people usually hunt in groups and when they randomly stumble upon you, you're just plain fucked. In that case even your 1000 UA probably won't matter much if they coordinate their attacks properly.
Dreams of revenge will also never become reality as most of those raider groups hide in vaults which you can only get past if you camp a ram for 24 hours and survive any counter-attacks. And even then they could just escape to another vault and make their HF there. They on the other hand sometimes employ bugs to jump over your brickwall and simply destroy everything you made in months (vaults are constructed in a certain fashion that this cannot happen - villages cannot do this).

In short, combat in this game sucks big time - in my opinion at least. It's all about stats, coordinating people and broken game mechanics.

[WarpedWiseMan]

Punching is for losers. Real men STING.