difficulties with my 1h/shield char

[justme]

why nordic champion sword cost more in comparison with knightley arming sword, where nordic have same spec like arming, except that nordic have +1 to swing and -3 to thrust? is this because  nordic was nerfed in this patch?

[zagibu]

I don't know how it is now, but before patch, knightly arming sword only had two levels of heirloom. Maybe that has something to do with it, but mostly I think it's because of the NC nerf.

[justme]

if so, nerf is than fail...

[kinngrimm]

+1 for this thread as it has incredible tips in it,
also after the last patch i had to adjust in several ways or lets say i am still in the process of adjustment.

Reasons:

My main weapon was the Site-Sword:  for all occasions, just loved it, still i think it is a weapon not too bad but now there are several others which can do better depending on playstyle. Myself as high agi/ath i can go in and out of a fight pretty good, so the weapon length isn't all that important but would give me some smoother moves. I now use Steel Pick, not that much style in my eyes but not too slow with good damage, but a little bit short and i miss the stab attack  .


Cav Protection was Bamboo Spear: i have tears in my eyes that i cant use it anymore, because of the 2 slots it needs and i choose Huscarl because of bigger Hitbox over other shields bcz of ranged stuff. Also it isn't sheatable, for me and probably for others this weapon is dead.
That said there are 2 options 1 slot polearm Quarterstaff if you got a 2 slot shield or if you got a 1 slot shield 2 slot Awlpike.
If i had a wish free, i'd like a 1 slot spear-like polearm with a length between 170-20 and light damage. In 25 generations i used the bamboo spear i perhaps killed 5 guys with it on horseback, but it was excellent to stop horses and then switch to another weapon to finish them, well no more.

The hitbox of Huscarl was reduced aswell as the damage of the broad one handed battle axe. Both i intend to use anyways.

solong and let me know what 1h weapon you loomed after respec and why?

the 3 weapons and my shield got balanced not to my liking

[Paroxysm]

Why has no one mentioned probably the most important thing in playing a shielder?

To all you people saying that you have to hear the sound of the strike hitting the shield to counter-attack: you are wrong. If you wait for the sound you'll get spammed to death, no question about it. Even with a 0 ping if you wait for the sound of the strike hitting the shield to start your attack your opponent will get a second strike in before you do.

Take your character and hold down the block button. Then let go. Now notice that when you let go of your block button your shield does not start lowering immediately, about a third to half a second goes by before the shield begins lowering. This is important as you you will STILL block a strike in the window between you letting go of the block button and the shield lowering. THIS IS HOW YOU ATTACK BACK FAST ENOUGH.

You must let go of your block button before the sound of the hit. It takes getting a feel for it, but the best visual aid would to practice letting go of the block button as his weapon is arcing towards you. If you do it right even the fastest 2H spammer will not be able to attack you twice in a row without you striking back.

Are the people talking about hearing the sound perpetually dying to 2handers or something? Because when I first played a shielder I heard the same thing (wait for the sound!) and tried that and got spam murdered constantly. Then I learned to start dropping block before the sound and it's made a world of difference.

[bosco]

Mhh, doesn't that get you killed when fighting a good feinter though?

[Paroxysm]

well yeah you can't be on autopilot vs someone who can feint but whats the alternative? if you wait for the block sound to attack you'll get hit by the followup anyways

[Shinimas]

Why has no one mentioned probably the most important thing in playing a shielder?

To all you people saying that you have to hear the sound of the strike hitting the shield to counter-attack: you are wrong. If you wait for the sound you'll get spammed to death, no question about it. Even with a 0 ping if you wait for the sound of the strike hitting the shield to start your attack your opponent will get a second strike in before you do.

Take your character and hold down the block button. Then let go. Now notice that when you let go of your block button your shield does not start lowering immediately, about a third to half a second goes by before the shield begins lowering. This is important as you you will STILL block a strike in the window between you letting go of the block button and the shield lowering. THIS IS HOW YOU ATTACK BACK FAST ENOUGH.

In my experience it's exactly the opposite. Animation is still here, but you're already vulnerable. That's why double left feint works so well against most shieldsmen.

[Kafein]

Never forget that even as a one hander, you can use the length of your weapon. With 7 ath you can probably run back and forth to land unexpected attacks on 2 handers.

[kinngrimm]

Listening for the sound is mainly a anti-feint not a anti-spam tactic.

Spamming is attacking without blocking so if you here the sound and close to him, you are in the ideal situation able to hit the Spammer.

Not ideal would be a backpedelling spammer, there you need to close in and athletics helps, as long he hasn't got a shield breaker you can take a little time to let him come close to you where you don't make pressure that way he feels save and looses sometimes the sence of distance which he needs to stay away from you.

Also not ideal are Spammers which make jump actions or turn arround stabbings, here also is patience the key, there only that many things a spammer is able to do.

Besides the save approach of hearing the sound blocking,

1. You can try to tab block similar to some of the 2h/polearm users, problem is you have clearly to look out for the animation and due to lag, unlucky terrain or feint spam this is really dangerous. But it gives you more maneuverability and a faster attack if you are able to judge if his next attack would hit you or miss and you just close in after his miss and counter while he is finishing his animation, he wouldn't even be able to block.

2. The lowering the shield when you guess an attack hits you shortly after can work but is as you said hard to time as the time margin is really short and here also feinting kills you, but yes as a tactical aproach if the duel gets too long and you have tried several other things which didn't work.

[VVarlord]

Should have gone for the military pick tbh kinn steel pick is way to short.

[Spawny]

Should have gone for the military pick tbh kinn steel pick is way to short.

I've done well with a steel pick and 4 athletics. It depends on who you fight. When going against phyrex or bjord with a steel pick, you can forget about it.
Overall the military pick is pretty good and a tad bit better than the steel pick.

[VVarlord]

I've done well with a steel pick and 4 athletics. It depends on who you fight. When going against phyrex or bjord with a steel pick, you can forget about it.
Overall the military pick is pretty good and a tad bit better than the steel pick.

Made mine Deadly and with 7 athletics and 5 ps its awesome.


Edit: This time round instead of putting wpf into xbow and 1hand its all in 1hand giving me 164 which makes for a meeeean pick.

[Radix]

Dunno if someone mentioned it already but remember that left to right swing is the quickest, and often the only way to stop a spammer.

[Spawny]

Made mine Deadly and with 7 athletics and 5 ps its awesome.


Edit: This time round instead of putting wpf into xbow and 1hand its all in 1hand giving me 164 which makes for a meeeean pick.

I haven''t heirloomed mine, but I'm going 9 PS this gen Should be good enough to kill anything I hit in 1 or 2 hits.