I don't understand blocking.

[Kligan]

I only played for 2.5 hours so far, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. That's exactly what I would like to hear.

But I don't undestand blocking in this game.
I get the mechanics, yes - you have to aim to the direction you're being hit from to block it.

What I don't udnerstand is - why? Why bother with blocking when there doesn't appear to be any stagger mechanics or some other penalty for the attacker for hitting the shield like in other games.
Moreover, my character seems to only have half a brain, because he doesn't know how to use both hands simultaneously. Even worse - he has to think before using the other hand. Which means there's a significant downtime between rising the shield, lowerign the shield and when I can attack with the other hand again.

So, theoretically, if I encounter another player, and all they do is spam left clicks, if I try to block it, I might be ablo to mitigate couple of hits, but it doesn't provide me with any window of opportunity to counter attack. And when I'll try to lower the shield and attack myself, I'm just giving the opponent free hits while I wait for my character to remember how to use the other hand.

What am I missing here?

[Arch]

You are not missing anything. Blocking in PvP needs some work, it isnt fantastic in its current state. There is a small delay before your opponent can start their next attack but it isn't meaningful, typically whoever swings and gets the first hit is the winner in most scenarios so it can be handy to be the first one to hit but you're inevitably going to trade blows until someone dies. The combat in general doesn't have much nuance unfortunately.

Sometimes if you take the blocking perks on fighter you can block, counter attack, block if someone hesitates and doesn't go full ham. But its difficult as hell to block anything if you arent using a heater...

[Γρενδηλ]

It's about timing. You get a feeling for the animations of the enemies and when to hit em.
When they attack run away or block, simple as it is. It helps to survive.
It's all minimalistic and instinctive, no senseless kitschy sensory overload.

[Modragor]

Originally posted by Γρενδηλ:

It's about timing. You get a feeling for the animations of the enemies and when to hit em.
When they attack run away or block, simple as it is. It helps to survive.
It's all minimalistic and instinctive, no senseless kitschy sensory overload.

I played Mount & Blade Warband PvP a lot back in the days and the fighting system was much, much better. Click left mouse button and drag your mouse in the direction you want, the weapon follows, click right button and drag your mouse and your weapon blocks in that direction.

The fighting system in Dark and Darker is a little too undercomplex for a real fight feeling in my opinion. Also the enemy can hit directly through your shield, when he is too close, this isn´t realistic. As far as I have seen, most experienced players prefer to sidestep as block doesn´t work really well.

[♢︎♢︎♢︎♢]

This game would have benefitted from chivalry/mordhau type of combat system immensely, right now it's a joke and probably always will be

[Rikuto01]

Originally posted by Kligan:

I only played for 2.5 hours so far, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. That's exactly what I would like to hear.

But I don't undestand blocking in this game.
I get the mechanics, yes - you have to aim to the direction you're being hit from to block it.

What I don't udnerstand is - why? Why bother with blocking when there doesn't appear to be any stagger mechanics or some other penalty for the attacker for hitting the shield like in other games.
Moreover, my character seems to only have half a brain, because he doesn't know how to use both hands simultaneously. Even worse - he has to think before using the other hand. Which means there's a significant downtime between rising the shield, lowerign the shield and when I can attack with the other hand again.

So, theoretically, if I encounter another player, and all they do is spam left clicks, if I try to block it, I might be ablo to mitigate couple of hits, but it doesn't provide me with any window of opportunity to counter attack. And when I'll try to lower the shield and attack myself, I'm just giving the opponent free hits while I wait for my character to remember how to use the other hand.

What am I missing here?

It has to do with impact power vs impact resistance. Certain shields absorb impact better than others, and certain weapons have more impact to them. If you have more impact resistance than your opponent has impact power, you will be at an advantage after you block. If the opposite is true, the block will save your life but you'll likely have to scramble to avoid the followup.

Read about it here.

https://darkanddarker.wiki.spellsandguns.com/Impact_Power

[Holy Athena]

Originally posted by Rikuto01:

Originally posted by Kligan:

I only played for 2.5 hours so far, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. That's exactly what I would like to hear.

But I don't undestand blocking in this game.
I get the mechanics, yes - you have to aim to the direction you're being hit from to block it.

What I don't udnerstand is - why? Why bother with blocking when there doesn't appear to be any stagger mechanics or some other penalty for the attacker for hitting the shield like in other games.
Moreover, my character seems to only have half a brain, because he doesn't know how to use both hands simultaneously. Even worse - he has to think before using the other hand. Which means there's a significant downtime between rising the shield, lowerign the shield and when I can attack with the other hand again.

So, theoretically, if I encounter another player, and all they do is spam left clicks, if I try to block it, I might be ablo to mitigate couple of hits, but it doesn't provide me with any window of opportunity to counter attack. And when I'll try to lower the shield and attack myself, I'm just giving the opponent free hits while I wait for my character to remember how to use the other hand.

What am I missing here?

It has to do with impact power vs impact resistance. Certain shields absorb impact better than others, and certain weapons have more impact to them. If you have more impact resistance than your opponent has impact power, you will be at an advantage after you block. If the opposite is true, the block will save your life but you'll likely have to scramble to avoid the followup.

Read about it here.

https://darkanddarker.wiki.spellsandguns.com/Impact_Power

While this is true, its pointless mechanic, unless you have all the fighter shield perks which makes this mechanic actually worth playing around.

No matter what shield you have, unless its the buckler, you'll be recoiled more than your attack by a large margin because you dared to block.

That's why only new players use shields, and every experienced player knows its a noob trap, and dodging, and keeping distance is all that matters, while abusing MS.

[Uzmari]

blocking has always been a little jank, it's honestly really hard to tell the angle people will be hitting you at. you may think you're blocking but they could be stabbing you in the ribs

[Kligan]

Can someone please explain to me how was that not blocked?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjb2ojB4Ir0

The guy just kept jumping and striking with the same swing. And I couldn't block it once, even though every time I was blocking from the direction the swing was coming.
You can clearly see on the replay that he hit my shield, but still did damage to me.

This is especially weird considering how tight the hitboxes are in this game - you can literally duck or jump some swings.

What is this crap? :\

[Handbanana]

Originally posted by Kligan:

Can someone please explain to me how was that not blocked?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjb2ojB4Ir0

The guy just kept jumping and striking with the same swing. And I couldn't block it once, even though every time I was blocking from the direction the swing was coming.
You can clearly see on the replay that he hit my shield, but still did damage to me.

This is especially weird considering how tight the hitboxes are in this game - you can literally duck or jump some swings.

What is this crap? :\

You have to aim your shield up to block a downward swing. If it hits your body at any point it counts as a hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbOCyJ6fQEE Watch this video and you will get a bit of an idea how it works. Other than that it will just be practice. Also your pov is not very accurate. You have to aim a lot higher than you might actually think.

[Kligan]

Originally posted by Handbanana:

You have to aim your shield up to block a downward swing. If it hits your body at any point it counts as a hit.

But you can literally see him hitting my shield. I was aiming up.

[Handbanana]

Originally posted by Kligan:

Originally posted by Handbanana:

You have to aim your shield up to block a downward swing. If it hits your body at any point it counts as a hit.

But you can literally see him hitting my shield. I was aiming up.

Not enough. Also its hard to tell from the death cam but your actual block animation could have been half a second late as well. Desync on death cam isn't 100% accurate. Slowed it down to 0.25 and it kinda looks like the hit happens before your shield is fully up.

[CyanCatMan]

Originally posted by Kligan:

But you can literally see him hitting my shield. I was aiming up.

Replays are flawed data.
And the dude seemed to literally jump over your shield.