Manual Block - How do I become a jedi master?

[Vibe]

Go to Nditions or Swadian duel server and try to play more defensive (block each attack). It's where I learned how to block.

Either way it just takes time.

[LordRichrich]

Personally I'd go for siege. That way you get loads of lives, you still get gold/exp and you don't lose out on what it's like playing with a team. Worked for me very well. Always nice when some pole/2h breaks your shield and finds you can manual block too

[Sturm Beleren]

I think that siege and battle are so different they seems to me 2 different games. Knowing to have a lot of lives make you fight differently and with less technic. The secret of "supreme art of parrying" is: calm, concentration and soft fingers. Try to pay attention on the strenght you put on that mouse buttons, the less it is, the better you parry.

[Lobster]

Bots are good for learning mouse control, if your mouse control need polish, once your happy with your control then fight players, if your at the standerd where your control and reflex's are fine then dont bother with bots.

The two hander trainer on Nditions is great for that.

[EliteDragon]

My advice to you is to first try manual blocking on bots first. This will give you the basics of manual blocking. Next try with real players who don't know how to feint (basically fake-attacks); this will help you get into a more comfortable zone when fighting under pressure. Lastly, try fighting with players who CAN feint, usually in duel servers, and you should be set.

[Darkenedhunt]

Another good thing for blocking is to keep your mouse straight. If it's slanted then you'll often start doing some up/down or side blocks that you don't need.

[bosco]

Another good thing for blocking is to keep your mouse straight. If it's slanted then you'll often start doing some up/down or side blocks that you don't need.

Tell me about it. I've got a super-sensitive mouse which I bought for TF2 comp. play back in the day, and now even the slightest angle changes my blocks. 

Gotta try moving it as gently as possible!

[Trippin]

I'd consider myself a pretty damn good manual blocker and player in general. I've played since Warband was in beta, and there was a stage where I didn't know how to block at all. To be completely honest with you, I think trying to learn to fight without blocking is very important, only because you can learn a lot from it. It taught me to take full advantage of the range and speed of a weapon as well as using proper footwork to fully utilize, well, the range and speed of a weapon as well as punish others for their weapon choice. Obviously since this is cRPG (I learn on Native and I honestly don't really even play cRPG much), and there are so many different variations of builds and weapons, those kinds of things are less important and more difficult to learn playing cRPG, but they will really help you a lot in the end.

Eventually, I gradually learned the importance of manual blocking and I started to be able to parry blows when I made a mistake, or the other guy was a good blocker. The only real way to learn to become good at it is practice. Start by just focusing on left and right slashes, then when you master defending against those two directions, throw in chop and stab. I'd also recommend trying to train yourself to make less intensive mouse movements when you are blocking AND attacking; that's what took me the longest to get over and what helped me the most. I can't tell you how many times I blocked a hit, but then turned too much and thus couldn't block the next hit.

After you learn to block, start focusing on the mind games. The only way to beat a truly solid player is to do something out of the ordinary in order to beat him. Feinting only works to some extent and only on less experienced players. Learn to do things like hit in one direction multiple times, then feint a stab, but chop (chop seems the be the attack that most lesser players just can't block, as a side note), that's a really basic example. Do things that you know would trip you up. The most risky, yet effective way to kill a good player or a good block is with good footwork and shit. That's where the footwork and shit that I was describing in the first paragraph comes in. If you know the speed and range of your weapon, you can beat a solid blocker by using the speed and range of your weapon to your advantage.

I hope that helped a bit. Just realize that this is a game where you really need to practice to get good. It may seem really simple at first, but there is a ton more depth then you could ever realize at first if you actually want to become good at the game.

[Duerkos]

It happened the same to me, now I can block... not decently but not poorly, still a lot of room for improvement.

I'll suggest this:

-First try on native the tutorial, and fight the novice guy but don't try to kill him, only block him. Do this at first with both of you standing still. This way you'll learn to move the mouse correctly and to know which movements he makes with the sword (my advice: follow his hand, not his sword). When you can block all his blocks or almost (9/10), do the same but moving your character around. It would be more difficult because you will move the mouse because of the camera view. Try blocking until you get better.

-Then go to the nditions duel server (native) and try the naked guy mentioned. It's very good cause you don't die if you lose, you regain all health and can block again. He swings faster than the guy in the tutorial and if you attack he blocks / moves decently.

-Then and only then, I would advise to try some duels. Otherwise more or less skilled people would kill you in one shot or two, and you learn nothing.

Cheers 

PD: I still don't block well in a fight, specially the overhead swing. That's my weakness  .
PD2: What trippin said is interesting, I lowered the sensitiveness of my mouse to play warband.

[Raskolnikov]

I've been playing for a while now, but I still struggle with blocking. Practising against the AI in the single player training grounds and against people in the duel server are good suggestions.

I'd like to add two minor details I've found important.

1. Make sure the third person camera is zoomed as far out as possible (minus key on num pad I think). I realised only recently that you can change this! The levels of zoom are quite small, but at the furthest away setting it prevents the camera from falling behind you and obscuring the combatant in front.

2. Try to keep the camera quite high, not directly behind your characters shoulders. Otherwise when your opponent feints a chop and you go to block, you will drag the camera down and your opponent will be obscured by your shoulders and head! My God, the number of times this has killed me! The penalty is that some of you blows might go a little low, but I think it's worth it to have better awareness of what your opponent is doing. Watch the good players on youtube videos: they always seem to have the camera quite high.

And as someone else said, learn to fight with small mouse movements. Again, you want to keep your opponent in view; large movements will throw the camera around and make spotting incoming blows difficult.

[McNoodles]

I had my mouse set to 5800 dpi and sucked hardcore at blocking. I would always end up blocking down by accident. Turned my dpi down to 800 and now its soo much easier. may just be placebo, but it seems to help a lot.

[Devilize]

consider a master apprentice relationship with someone willing to train you in the details and concepts to the combat mechanics and physics of the game.

[Torp]

well, the bot cloking only works if you suck.
I used to try fighting some bots when i had only played a few days, and the first week, it really helped me getting the mouse movement right.
But when you reach that point, bots are useless.

There are no specific techniques on how to get good at blocking, cause there are only 3 ways to get better:
Practice
Practice
Practice

atleast that's what i think

[Kung Fu Jesus]

I think I am hopeless. I went on the native bot server. My ping there sucks though. Anyway, I can't even block the novice bot more than 2-3 times. I activate block as soon as I see the direction of the attack. Doesn't matter. I am still maybe half a second too slow. Maybe I'm just too old for this shit.

[corto]

No - its just a thing of practice...

try to get a feeling for your blocks, and choose a weapon that is good for blocking. i prefer 1 handed swords like simple sword. polearms are a bit different in the moves needed with the mouse i think..

if ure willing to learn, just say so and we can meet at the crpg duell server with low ping.

i am damn tired, playin a horsearcher and so u wont find a more messed build in the whole game if it comes to melee ;)