By Zan
Due to unfortunate circumstances, I will have more time on hand than I should. As such I shall write a guide to hopefully be followed by people to aid them in hurting other people(Only ingame, do not attempt at home). I will do my best to keep proper grammar, which is not saying much. If questions be had, PM me. This guide will only cover my basic philosophy that I go through in my mind as I stab people in the kidney. This guide is also not to be confused with the regular Norse Horde Doctrine, Guide to Being a Viking Warrior. That is a much more specific, and possibly horribly outdated by now work of the past which you probably don't have access to anyways.
Note: Updates suspended until university is under control.
Note: Constructive Criticism is always welcome. If your reply is applicable to a section I write, it may be added. Separate topic related information will be placed in a sub-section on the bottom of my guide. Credit will always be given.
Step 1: Focus
When you have faced off with your opponent and your swords are equally set, it is essential that you be constantly intent on stabbing his face with the tip of your sword. If you can make him do this, you will have various advantages for victory. You should make thorough efforts in this. In the midst of the fight. If you are intent on making your opponent flinch, you will have already obtained the victory. For this reason, you should not forget about stabbing at your opponent's face. Among the discliplines of the martial arts, this is a principle you should practice
A la Musashi.
It is essentially what you should be thinking about when fighting someone. This does not mean that you should get tunnel vision. One of the things you will learn reading my guide is to deliver damage to others, not kills. Let the 2h heroes who enjoy bragging and such get the kills. You are here to hurt things, and survive, and then hurt things more because you didn't die early.
One of the added bonuses of constantly concentrating on stabbing someone in the face is your increased reaction time. You are not thinking any more, "I should right swing, then feint to a left swing!" or "I should do a hold!", or "Man, this guy is a noob spammer, let me block. Left right up down left." Once you are used to concentrating, all those things will just happen. Normally.
Step 2: Thinking
"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious."
Sun Tzu
There is a name we all know. I think. Anyways, if you read the previous step, you just freed yourself from a lot of possible thinking in a fight. This however does not extend to the period in which you are running around between fights. Running between fights is where most, if not all of the thinking and planning will happen. By this, I mean choose your battles. Yes, I know you probably want to go skewer someone on your new +2 longsword of glory, but you should think about the worth of the fight before jumping in.
In detail, don't charge a group of 9 enemies who are fighting 2 teammates. The chances of those teammates dying at the exact moment of your arrival is very high. Stick to players you recognize are skilled, if you don't recognize anyone, stick to a shielder that looks to be in halfway decent armor. They make good distractions / cannon fodder.
Try and stick with a team as best you can, and if you can't, get them feet moving to a group of people. Not only do they lessen the chances of you biting an arrow or bolt, but they increase the chances of beating someone. I don't think I could touch Saulcanner on my best day. However if I had about 2 or 3 competent players with me it might be different.
At the mention of Saulcanner is another quick topic. Learn to recognize certain names and armor combinations on the field. Someone like San of Chaos is easily distinguishable on the field, and most of us NA players know how deadly he is. The benefit of this is in the phase where you are picking a fight, you can better weigh your options. Do I help 3 teammates kill a squad of random noobs, or do I help 3 teammates kill a recently dehorsed San?
In short, know your enemy and choose your battles.
(If you memorize someones armor combination and it is not who believe they were, I am not to be held responsible if you get horribly murdered on approach.)
Step 3: Knowledge is Power
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Sun Tzu
Seriously, this guy(Sun Tzu) knows his stuff. Now, how do you apply his writings to cRPG? Well, earlier I said to start recognizing who you are fighting right? Well, now play this against them even more. Learn how Mr. Red Armor with 2 handed sword is a spammer, or Mr. Yellow Tunic has a hard time blocking overheads, or even that Blue Waffle the Axe User(not a real player) will be unable to block a hold for whatever reason. This helps immensely when fighting people you recognize. It allows you to counter their fighting style easier than having to learn in the heat of battle. Hell, it might save your life if you find you can't block feints and the person you are fighting feints a tornado your way. Rather than engaging, you can now safely relocate.
Another thing to learn of both yourself and the enemy, are weapons. In order of priority, the special abilities of the weapon(Unbalanced, Shield Breaking, CRUSHTHROUGH), the length of the weapon, and then finally the speed of the weapon. Damage is not important, you shouldn't be getting hit anyways. If you play on NA, most weapons will 1 or 2 hit you regardless do to the absurd amount of power strike people use. Speed also is not TOO important, but it helps to know that fighting axe is slow, a military hammer is slow, a maul is slow, a pike is slow etc.
The main important thing to learn as quickly as possible is the length of a weapon. If you have a longer weapon, feel free to hold that S key and swing. If he has a longer weapon, get in his face and don't let him get away. Also, ignore the whiners about you S keying. It IS aggravating when done to you, but that is the chance you are willing to take when you choose a short weapon like a steel pick or war hammer. When you get comfortable at gauging weapon lengths, feel free to dodge.
Also, longest weapon will almost always get first strike in a fight. So block first, then move in. This doesn't always apply, but if you are a newer player pretend that it does. You won't live long if you get hit every time you reach a new fighter.
Step 4: Productivity
No quote as of now. However, this section is a fairly short piece dedicated to reiterating something I've mentioned in the previous sections.
Be productive to your team if you want to win. Keep moving from fight to fight and do your best not to get hurt. Don't waste time dueling someone because you aren't doing anything (DO waste time dueling 8 different people if you can survive long enough. This wastes THEIR time much more than it wastes yours). Now if you aren't dueling people, you aren't really fighting one might think. Completely wrong, you should ALWAYS be in the thick of combat if not right on the edges. There are many a good duelist out there, and if you are reading this you most likely are not one of those. Don't get caught up on their near perfect efficiency of plucking out your teeth and forcing them into your eyes, its bad for you. Skirt in and out of combat and hit those that are not fighting or focused on you.
Having read this guide and are implementing it with great success, but now someone decides to focus you down in combat. What do?. He is to you but another possible target in the combat. You are going to give that person intently following and attack you the same priority, if not less, then the others in combat. Learn the range of his weapon and keep that distance between you as you continue to attack his unsuspecting teammates. You WANT him to swing, because that means you can get him to teamwound. Again, do not duel him/her. Avoid them while continuing your attacks on others. (You are now wasting their time while making use of your own. Cool huh?)
