Mauls

[karasu]

I find it funny that the long maul is terrible against anyone with a heavy shield or heavy weapon (great maul), yet the great maul rapes those same things. The long maul weighs 1 less kg than the great maul, and has a longer handle for a harder hit.

  With the long maul you can actually maul through shield walled team mates, from safe distance p.e.

  The same reach allows you to backpedal in safe range while crushingthrough the enemies.

  This is an heavy advantage, which was obviously taken into account by the item balance team.

  I've given already some tips of how to fight against a mauler (at least a decent one).


  If you wanna make comparisons with polestagger, do this mind exercise:
     a) realize that maulers are with luck 3 or 4 at the same time;
     b) also realize that polearm users make most of the time almost 40% of a server (including cav users, also staggers);
     c) obvious conclusion.

  It's simple facts and mathematics. A polearm user hits you once, if it staggers, good luck. Either he'll stunlock you to death, or the rest 40% will, or even the other 60% will take advantage of the stun (most likely).

  A mauler hits you with overhead? You have at least 50% chance roughly of being able to counter first by using the brains and smart footwork + faster swing.

  A mauler by itself is completely useless in most scenarios; a mauler that knows HOW to act, WHERE to act, and how to apply TEAMPLAY and TACTICS, might be your worst nightmare.
When that happens, this happens (nords teamplaying with decent tactics): http://i.imgur.com/OCXbB.jpg

  Also the most formidable mauler isn't the one with tincan suits and pure str builds. Run from those with actuall WPF and medium/low gear. Run... really run!

[karasu]

If I don't have any problem with them, why do you?

Phyrex' Very Short Guide to Maul Defence

Never thrust or overhead.

Spam left and right slashes while watching for Maul side slashes. Should you somehow fail your spam or perhaps do a thrust by mistake, kick-slash him.

As a solo-mauler, aggression and constant W-key spam is a must. Heavy armour and the slow, short weapon requires constant 'up in your face' combat tactics. An easy prey for back-peddling, spam and kick-slashing.

An experienced mauler will try a side slash and see if you block or not. If you do block it, you should, he might try doing it again, but this time do a holded side slash. This will stun your weapon and he'll try an overhead straight away, keep the kick-key ready or simply backpeddle away.

The mauler isn't that awesome at taking out turtles, it's far better at taking out support players. Flamberge, Pikes and all the 2-attack direction polearms, slow polearms, defensive/str-whore players and newbie/clueless players.(Who got none but themselves to blame.)

And of course, throughout this thread, the people who complain wield  the weapons/fit into the categories mentioned above. Amusing. Would be like me complaining at archers shooting me in an open field. Guess what? They're my counter-class, the maul might just be yours.

That's basically what I've said all the time, but I guess people take more attention if there is a "Phyrex" tag attached to it. Placebo effect, etc.

[Ronin]

A mauler crutches and generally takes a butt load of hits. You miss or glance once and you are dead. You use an overhead-dead, thrust-dead. Fighting multiple people? Dead. There is just so many ways to die without you being able to do anything about it. All because of crush through.

As a mauler and two hander myself, this is very true. But there are underestimating your own power against those maulers as well.

-A maul is a very short weapon, can be outranged even with long one handed swords.
-A maul is a very slow weapon plus unbalanced, which forces the mauler to plan carefully of his attacks.
-A maul is a very slow and short weapon plus unbalanced, meaning the mauler will have no chance to spam you. Meaning you can use super-feints without fear of getting a sudden blow.

However, maul is still a bit stronger in my opinion.
-In multi combat, if one of your foes use a maul you are more likely to be dead compared when there's not. But again multi combat is where you shouldn't be the winner after all. Still can be counted as a factor.
-Most of the maulers wear heavy armor, and tend to stick with high STR builds which make them super tough to beat. Try to not let your swings to glance. He's a STR build with a heavy armor after all. Thank god he won't be moving very fast.
-A maul is a very high damage blunt weapon with a knockdown effect. Meaning even if you wear heavy armor, it won't protect you much. Plus if a knockdown occurs, the second blow is enough to finish you off. Even if you still live after the second, in a 1v1 fight a good player would kick you where you rise and struck a third blow to your head. After that, you are truly dead. There is noting you can do to avoid this factor. It is just that maul is a powerful weapon.
-In a siege if the defender team has 3-4 maulers, don't even hope to take the walls. There is not much you can do either, unless some ranged tactics. But oh, there is truly nothing you can do if the defender team has ranged troops as well.

[Gnjus]

When that happens, this happens (nords teamplaying with decent tactics): http://i.imgur.com/OCXbB.jpg

Your screenshot is a lie and thus your whole post should be ignored. Nords do not win rounds with their "teamplay", they mostly hide in the corner and protect Weren while he practices his aiming (he couldn't hit an elephant from 15 yards but he's having his fun i recon). 
Usual scores when Nords are online are 5-0 or 5-1 (due to first unbalanced round that separates them ) prepatch and 4-0 & 4-1 after patch (P.S. 0's & 1's being team with Nords in it). 

[Phew]

If using a short weapon, spam.
If using a long weapon, range.

With my katana, I can spam them whenever they do an overhead and hit first, I only need to block sideswings. Seems fair to me. Both are forced to block. My katana gets stunned most of the time i block aswell.

Totally inapplicable for the Siege situation I described (maulers on top and to the side of ladders). The ladder/castle geometry nullifies your reach and speed by funneling you under their maul.

[rustyspoon]

Totally inapplicable for the Siege situation I described (maulers on top and to the side of ladders). The ladder/castle geometry nullifies your reach and speed by funneling you under their maul.

Get a few heavy shielders to push through while everyone follows behind them. Problem solved. With the attackers faster spawn times if you keep pushing you'll make it through.

[Vexus]

There are so many ways to go through maul guys on siege walls.

Even if the first guy dies there will be 4+ more behind him that will rush attack for the opportunity, if your so afraid of dying in mode where you'll respawn in a few seconds, your opinion doesn't count towards balance.

[karasu]

Don't forget the overwhelming amount of team hits a mauler gets on his back, which usually means their doom.

[Leshma]

When you find yourself closed in anyhow circle around them.

They'll just navigate their overhead into your face.

I don't like mauls although there are ways to deal with them (like backpedaling which is lame). I simply don't like the fact that there is a weapon which can't be blocked, for me biggest advantage of this game compared to other medieval or fantasy games is directional blocking.

[B3RS3RK]

Yeah, but that alone turns boring after some time.The interesting thing about Crushthrough is that you completely have to change your tactic fighting them.Without it it´s just block block block slash slash slash, so boring my mind starts sleeping, but when Crushthrough comes into the equation you have to think more.

This is the Reason why I also would like to keep the polestagger in the game.But unlike crushthrough, I can clearly see why people want Polestagger removed: it´s an unfair advantage, which crushthrough is not since it is limited to very few and special weapons.

[CrazyCracka420]

Maul counters almost everything though. How is it anything like your signature?

No, they don't.  They're really only useful in group situations.  I can spam a maul with my 89 speed long bardiche, so you're argument is invalid.  Get out of overhead range, or hit them before they hit you. They're slow as balls. 

[Diomedes]

A mauler crutches and generally takes a butt load of hits. You miss or glance once and you are dead. You use an overhead-dead, thrust-dead. Fighting multiple people? Dead. There is just so many ways to die without you being able to do anything about it. All because of crush through.

Is your problem seriously that an enemy with basically one attack direction, incredibly short reach, short attack speed, slow movement speed, and entirely predictable tactics may have a way to kill you in rare circumstances?  I think the entire thread echoes this sentiment: the problem is how you're fighting maulers, not the mauls themselves.  If I can one-shot 27 STR maulers with a 1-handed sword then you can do the same.

Only post here if you've something constructive to say.  It's not worthwhile to try and pull other players down because you can't pick your battles.

[Phew]

Get a few heavy shielders to push through while everyone follows behind them. Problem solved. With the attackers faster spawn times if you keep pushing you'll make it through.

Only shield I've seen that blocks Great Mauls with any consistency is Steel Shield; good luck finding even one steel shielder on your team, nonetheless "a few". My +2 Brown Lion has blocked a great maul ONCE. Ever. Even when I had +5 shield skill from shield wall, a great mauler ran right up and crushed through (because I believe crushthrough % is only a function of shield weight, not skill).

I challenge everyone to make a STF mauler, play siege and stand at the top of a ladder on defense (just to the side to avoid archers) and overhead swing repeatedly. Even naked, you will most likely be near the top in kills, even if you've never played warband before. Then tell me it's not a problem. Yes, maulers have some weaknesses in the open field, but they are just too strong on siege defense.

[B3RS3RK]

Well, the obvious solution would be to play battle if you cant handle maulers...

[Phew]

Well, the obvious solution would be to play battle if you cant handle maulers...

Berserk, stop trolling. People that like actually like PLAYING the game (and not alt-tabbing doing something else while waiting for the round to end after they die) play Siege.

Lancers were nerfed because they were over-the-top on Battle, it's not unreasonable to ask that mauls be nerfed because they are over-the-top on siege.