Current State of Knight Combat

Many of us feel that knight combat is going downhill. It's not fun like it used to be, but it's hard to say why. The loss of shield-bashing is often cited as a major factor, but I think I've finally gotten down to the heart of the matter. It comes down to risk and reward.

Slashing is high-risk, high-reward. It's a powerful attack, but it leaves one vulnerable during the charge and after the attack.

Jabbing is high-risk, low-reward. It's a weak attack, and a good knight will generally succeed in counter-jabbing.

Shield-bashing was low-risk, low-reward. It didn't do much damage, but it was also relatively safe.

What does this mean? Knight combat was once a contest of timing and creativity. Now, it's mostly timing. The margin for error is considerably smaller. One mistake can easily end the contest. Personally, my timing is good, but not god-tier. What I'm good at is assessing a situation and finding the upper hand. Shield-bashing could interrupt attacks and push enemies around, allowing me to jostle for position. Now, combat is either slash-chicken or jab-chicken. I'm good at those, but not great. Add a bit of lag, and I'm one frustrated son of a bitch.

We can debate the merits of a system that favors creativity over one that favors timing, but the point I'm trying to make is that I'm not crazy. Combat has fundamentally changed, and I think it's something we ought to acknowledge and discuss.

 

What is the point? When the big "All-Changing Update hits" Everything will be different.

 

Risk?

Reward?

If you're thinking about these things as knight you'll fail miserably

90% of knight combat is positioning.

You could have the worst timing in the world, and you'd still be untouchable with proper positioning.

 

It's KAG theory. If we really get supreme modding power with the new update, then we will be able to make combat whatever we want it to be. I'd like to see what other people think it should be.

EDIT:

If by positioning, you mean camping a cliff, that's barely combat. A gradual slope can be used to your advantage, but it doesn't determine the battle.

 

Nope, not camping

Simply graceful in combat.

I'll show you if ya like.

 

Ok fair enough, people get what your saying. But slashing has always been like this, one of them is supposed to be vunrable, yet the one vunable can still shield the first one cant he?

Jabbing is a bit of a problem for some, counter-jabbing is fine and works 9 times out of 10. But theres some people that constantly spam jabs, thats alright aswell its just some people get pissed off.

Shield bashing is just a no no, (In some turns) people spam the fuck out of shield bash(Abuse it like fuck). I saw a knight the other day shield bash 5/6 knights by himself, and every time he died he did that agian. I dont mind a bit of shield bash here and there, but it was(And is in most cases) abused when your able to shield bash.

Yes, knight combat was once on timing and creativity?(Not sure about creativity). But people can still win in a slash war/jab war, they just need the right timing(Like you said), but sometimes most of the days rounds and matches comes down to the ping differences and lag each player has.

Knights havent been fundamentally changed persay, just that a litte of the combat is weird, peice that together with ping and lag and you are one frustrated(Like you said) knight.

 

Surfing has revolutionised Knight water combat, no longer is the night a clumsy slow swimmer. It is now a fast mobile class that can surf across a lake or large sea (if youre good enough). Quickly raid and or bomb a building then surf back again. You can now fight someone in the water and not die trying to reach the shore again. In less than a day i have had many one on one battles with other knights in the middle of seas. Both knights would be surfing to the other shore, they meet in the middle and engage in battle. They fight with slashes, jab and bombs and the winner then starts surfing from in the water (this is hard to do and requires a lot ofpractice before you can do it succesfully regularly). The winning knight reaches the other shore raids and bombs it, then either dies or surfs back to his teams shore. Surfing has definatly changed water maps and knight playing style alot.

 

I still greatly enjoy knight combat. It's nowhere near as fun or immersive as it once was, but I see... The times, they are a changing.



That's Bob Dylan, you know.

 

I've recently accepted that there is a lot of chance in KAG; even if you perfectly time a slash, and are in the right position, there is a large chance that it will not be registered and their slash will override yours. Since this also happens amongst 20-pingers, I've put this down to something I like to call cha-lag. Or shlag.

"Violence is my last option," Chuck Norris. Lawl.

 

You can't even imagine how much I am looking forward to this update...

 

Soooooo.... this should've been in the suggestions/ideas sub-forum?

Hey guys, what if the player CHOSE what type of knight they wanted?
Defensive knights can shield bash, jab.
Attacking knights shield normally, can charge slash.

 

That gives me an idea, but its kinds off topic.

I think they are still trying new things, and that along the way it will keep metamorphing into something beautiful.

side note-being able to chose a weapon for your knight would be neat, I don't mean any gameplay changes either, just do it like heads

 

But if they're trying out new things, they should release a beta version, get resutls from surveys or feedback, and then get the feature back into the main release. But then again, we've got to consider about the amount of time they have. And if you're not so certain about playing as a knight, and want to be immortal like those in Warcraft, play as archer or builder.

 

Hey hey hey I feel bad doing this but it needs to be done. I've just woken up and read a number of your posts and they've all been consistently ignorant and bad.

Please stop thinking that you know anything about this game or the community, because you don't. There's no shame in it, you're new so how could it be any other way? But you're acting like you're qualified to make these sweeping criticisms and comments and it's very irritating. Now this post isn't the worst of the bunch but still there is a lot wrong with it.

The devs have been running a test version for a long time now and frequently go on the testing IRC channel to chat with players and get feedback on the test build and the current build.

That comment about wanting "to be immortal like those in Warcraft" is so irrelevant and is such an incorrect assertion that I'm having trouble breaking down it's wrongness in a coherent way. You're trying to imply that people are complaining because they die, when really what is being discussed here is the options that we have in knight combat and how they relate in different situations in order to make a fighting system which currently is not as skill based or balanced in the sense of having multiple viable options which one must choose from based on the situation and actions of the opponent. So to imply that everyone is just complaining about dying and to try to dismiss it with what I assume you believe is a witty comment is just plain offensive and quite frankly makes you look like an idiot.

Furthermore, compounded on this initial wrongness are the smaller puffs of ignorance following it. I really don't think that "being immortal" is a trait of the RTS Warcraft at all, and even if you mean World of Warcraft I still doubt the truth of that statement. Even if anyone was saying they wanted to be "immortal" picking archer or builder is not a good suggestion because a good archer or builder should spend a fair amount of time active on the frontlines in a situation where they could be taken out.

So I don't think you're to aggravate everyone on the forum and I'm not mad at you or going to ban you or anything, but just a heads up man. Stop talking out of your ass.

 

career kniggits are the biggest babbies

 

did you intentially spelt babies wrong?

also in the current build i feel jab spam is op because in the time that one can slash or double slash, the jabber could already have done 3-4 hearts of damage, besides negating your slash and if you run away chances are that if they jab and you are at 1 heart or less you are dead

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=kniggits
https://www.google.com/search?q=babbies

 

Go back to sleep, Contrary. Everything would've been fine without your rant.

 

lol those sure were a lot of words