Learning Chambering

[Formless]

Hey guys, as a new year resolution I decided to learn how to chamber on purpose 

For some reason this has been one of the few things in warband that I have no idea how to do on demand.  Lets make this the primer chambering thread on the boards.  So please leave your best tips on chambering here and help me out and anyone else who wants to learn how to do it well. 

Suggested topics:

1.)  What is chambering --> for the newbs that do not know what it is.

*****Modified http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jHcZjWw9U  (2:04 <--Reapy explanation on chambers vid.) ****

2.)  How do you do it.
3.)  Best class to use to learn chambering
4.)  Learning advice.
5.)  Who is the best at chambering on N/A and EU servers. (The e-preen portion of the thread  )

Cheers,

[BlackMilk]

5. Khorin

[[ptx]]

1) Already answered
2) Tons of practice + some luck
3) 2h vs 2h is the easiest, it seems
4) Find a buddy to learn it with, just do non-held side-swings till you get it.
5) Awww, better don't. Anyway, i vote STR_Kpybopyk for EU.

[Christo]

Chambering actually is a lot easier these days than ever before.

At least for me, I even killed a few guys with a well timed chamber attack. 

Basically all you have to do, is to release a quick counterattack to face the enemies weapon when it almost hits you, this blocks his attack while yours will still go for the enemy, most don't expect it, so it's a good way to break through defenses.

Best class? I'd put this together with your three: Learning advice.

Find a buddy, go to duel server, get wooden weapons, sticks are very good for this.

And practice while standing still first, overhead and stab are a lot easier than the side swings, but they aren't impossble either.
Also bring heavy armor if you can, makes practices longer, and forgiving.

Also if you duel people, try focusing on not to block or spam them, but to chamber them.
Sure, you might fail sometimes, but it will help you on the long run.

PS: Don't even think about using chamber techniques against people who hold or spam feints all the time. Against those, you have to get them under stress to stop doing holds and do simple attacks while focusing on blocking. From my experience and what I know, chambering holded swings in a real fight is virtually impossible. Sure, it could happen, I don't know. But it's too risky.

But I'm not a real Chamber master. Let one of those talk, might give you a better insight. 

[Formless]

I am sort of getting board playing the same way over and over again.  The way I play is effective but I did lose some zest for this game.  I think learning a new skill like chambering might bring some of the fun back for me.  So thanks for the tips guys.

[Teeth]

This is a link to the video with the correct time already selected http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jHcZjWw9U#t=2m04s

1/2) Base premise is just getting your chambered weapon in front of the enemy's swing. Works best if you look at the enemy's weapon.

4) Experience, you slowly get a feel for it, if I do chambers it's mostly a reflex. Although I do it intentionally too when I expect hiltslashes etc. Another thing that might help is fighting the bots in the singeplayer tutorial. They always do regular attacks and you'll eventually learn to chamber them. Not sure if setting combat speed to lowest at first is a good idea, it might help you learn it gradually, but might also greatly mess up your chamber timing for regular speed.

3) I was a 2h before, could chamber decently. Now I respecced to polearm and can hardly chamber anything. I think this is mostly to just not being used to a new weapon's speed and that it doesnt mean 2h is better for chambering. There is no best class, I recommend you stick with one class and with 1 weapon to get a good feel for it. I do think chambering 2h is easier than polearms for instance. The 2h swing animations are more consistent, polearm chambers (the attack, not chamberblocking) slow and swings very fast.

5) Might be Kpubopyk for EU.

[Christo]

What about the old timers?

I only remember Chimp atm.

Come here, tell some of the older players who might've left.

[Kafein]

Before I sold it, I spent some time on the duel server with a +3 black armor, and a 6/30 2h build (I was level 27 iirc).

I don't know why exactly, but I chambered a lot more attacks, even without changing my playstyle at all. Now that I think of it, it's probably because my slowness caused others to spam and often my (normal) attacks happened to be timed right to chamber their double swings.

Also, being able to survive 8+ swings helps.


Now, what I say is that heavy armor + STR stacking works better for chamberblocks. I'm not saying it's a viable playstyle, considering that any decent footwork is enough to kill you, dodging arrows and bolts is nearly impossible, and you must start your attacks extremely soon after blocking (otherwise you risk being spammed), which forces you to be in a concentration state I personally can't sustain for a very long time (also note that while chambering counters this timing problem, in some extreme cases it won't be enough). Finally, holding and feinting is very risky due to your slowness and the enemy's tendency to spam.

[Teeth]

I have also experienced that being slower makes chambering easier. Might be that your animations take longer to complete and thus the 'chamber window' also takes longer. Not sure though.

[Fluffy_Muffin]

Good practice for chamber blocking are pikemen, guess what direction they are gonna atack?  Btw you can chamber block stabs with your stab but also with your overhead, however you cant chamber block overheads with your stab

[Kafein]

Another advice : no matter what weapon you have in your hands (except ranged ofc. but then please die in a fire), always try to chamber lancers. A lance thrust is probably the slowest attack in the game with usual builds, and is thus extremely predictable and easy to chamber. With a little bit of luck you might even be able to strike back.

[isatis]

5 NA saulcanner also robinlongstride for chambering cav and frugfrug for stone chamber

good practice is: Go in duel with one of your e-friend and challenge him to a chainchamber. (like overhead, chamber, chamber, chamber, chamber etc...)
we lasted between 1 and 2 min with slow wep (trident and flamberge) with speedy wep (mw greatsword) it's humanly impossible to keep up... unless you got some strange mouse and ultragood ping! (for the record I got a bit less than 100 ping in NA 3)

also, yes slow wep are better to practice chamber but beware, you can only chamber on demand (easily) wep with same speed or little dfference.

so for a more natural way to practice, go in duel and get two flamberge ask for flammy duel and hop practice!

after a lot of them, you will have a ''sense'' for chamber and sometime automatically chamber some ppl.

for my e-peen, i'll tell you a happy story. I had my 41/3 maul/plate built (basically always ct and 1 hit after) and I was in a big bad gangbang : jumped into 4 ennemie, killing one by suprise, other want to resist, I start my spamming weapon wise tactic  overhead mania and kill the other. and then in vanilla M&B i should hve died because at the very same time a pikeman and a 2h make two attack from 2 different direction (stab and overhead) BUT we in warband so I spammed used a built wise tactic by hitting repeatitly with overhead with such great(lucky) timing that it happen that I chamber BOTH at the same time! with the chamber I killed 2h and the pikemen soon felt from my migthy spamming hit. my e-epeen was as big as a whale... until I get killed my a backstabbing ninja...

morale of the story: use overhead when gang bang especially when pikeman, and when you slow as a turtle, it may not work but atleast you got some chance!

[Tomas_of_Miles]

Another advice : no matter what weapon you have in your hands (except ranged ofc. but then please die in a fire), always try to chamber lancers. A lance thrust is probably the slowest attack in the game with usual builds, and is thus extremely predictable and easy to chamber. With a little bit of luck you might even be able to strike back.

A noob like myself is able to dehorse lancers thanks to chambering and a +3 long dagger. Always try to chamber cav!

[Malaclypse]

Once you figure it out, it's really easy to do against people who don't feint or hold. I killed a Great Long Axe user in battle the other day with a long dagger after using three successful chambers to close the gap. Pretty hilarious stuff man.

Just practice, preferably with someone who can already pull them off reliably. Every weapon has a different feel to it, so some fine tuning to your timing will have to be done depending on what you're using, but it's actually ridiculously easy, just a wee bit harder than a regular block. I can't believe it took me so long to even really attempt to get better at them.

[[ptx]]

Actually, chamberblocking is the best thing to do against feinters. If your opponent feints, but you try to chamber against that feint attack, you hit him before he hits you (unless he is using a longsword or a katana, doesn't work against those :/)(Or unless you are using a slow ass weapon)