Man At Arms op in Duel

[garthbartin]

Just played against 5 maas in a row in duel mode. They just back up and back up and back up and back up and the second you go on the agressive they jump in after your swing and kill you. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's impossible to get in range because they move too fast, and if you swing out of range they gap close you and ♥♥♥♥ you up instantly. Needs a serious duel-mode specific nerf. Maybe nerf backing up speed so that they can't keep out of range?

[Andeddu]

A good man at arms can pretty much take out anyone, I agree; they should be nerfed.

[Anon]

game is fine

[Ankkah]

Naw. Use a shield as a Knight and you counter most of them. That damn thing still throws me off.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Feint, stab, wait for the dash after your feint and watch them run into the stab.

Feint, wait for the charge, kick.

Sidestep as they dash.

Learn to predict the dodges, and thus when is a good moment to attack.

As a knight or a vanguard, you only need to hit them twice, or once with some weapons, whereas they need to land three or four hits to kill you. You also have a range advantage.

Also, a man-at-arms cannot back up faster than other classes can advance.

What you're struggling with is player skill, not the class itself. There are plenty of bad MAAs out there- if the class was truly OP, everyone who picked them would dominate.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Originally posted by Andeddu:

A good man at arms can pretty much take out anyone, I agree; they should be nerfed.

As can a good archer, knight or vanguard. Anyone who knows their chosen class well enough will beat someone who doesn't.

I don't struggle beating MAAs (apart from the really good ones) as an archer, and an archer has all the disadvantages of MAA with less damage, less speed and no dodge.

[CuddleBundles]

Originally posted by Mr Eyl:

Feint, stab, wait for the dash after your feint and watch them run into the stab.

Feint, wait for the charge, kick.

Sidestep as they dash.

Learn to predict the dodges, and thus when is a good moment to attack.

As a knight or a vanguard, you only need to hit them twice, or once with some weapons, whereas they need to land three or four hits to kill you. You also have a range advantage.

Also, a man-at-arms cannot back up faster than other classes can advance.

What you're struggling with is player skill, not the class itself. There are plenty of bad MAAs out there- if the class was truly OP, everyone who picked them would dominate.

If I ever run into you while in duel mode, Mistah Eyl....
I'm going to run away.

[Captain Crowbar]

You don't have to be good with MAA anymore. Some 1 handed weapons reach through shields so you can't block them. MAA + left click = win.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Originally posted by Captain Crowbar:

You don't have to be good with MAA anymore. Some 1 handed weapons reach through shields so you can't block them. MAA + left click = win.

They don't reach through shields- they reach round them. The same applies to two-handed weapons.

When you're facehugging, swings and overheads can cause the hitbox of your weapon to go round the shield's hitbox.
It's a deliberate design feature, meant to counterbalance the shield's partial immunity to feints and speedier recovery compared to parrying.

If this keeps happening to you, either back up, aim your block better (difficult), or be more aggressive.

The MAA's best friend is an overly defensive opponent.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Originally posted by CuddleBundles:

If I ever run into you while in duel mode, Mistah Eyl....
I'm going to run away.

Or shank me until I fall over in bitesize chunks.

By the way, in honour of the new patch, my heavy crossbow has been renamed 'Lulabelle'.

[Mr.Joel]

I have no problems with my knight using the sword of war...

[RAZIEL]

Here are 3 tricks that work well:
1. Combos slash+stab or overhead+stab. Ur first swing mises, Maa goes forward, catches ur stab..... PROFIT
2. Kick or shield bash. This one is more risky, but if u time ur kick well and he gets pushed bk close in and overhead the bastard.
3. Ir u have long weapon, lure him to swing at u then step bk and hit. Only works if Maa is not trying to facehug u. If he does use 2 or 1.

[garthbartin]

I've actually tried any of the recommendations before posting this topic and they don't seem to work. Feinting an attack I would say is he worst of possible suggestions unless you have a highspeed weapon yourself. An MAA can dash in and cancel your wind up before you can hit him. Same applies for combo stabbing, or, if the MAA is even smarter, he sees you comboing and waits til your combo is over in which case you're even more ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Sidestap when they dash is probably the best recommendation, but difficult to accomplish. Knight with shield is also good but it's difficult to block him because of the speed of his attacks and the ease at which he circles you.

Also, the MAA definitely takes skill. Bad MAAs are probably the easiest thing to kill except for maybe bad archers. The problem is, with at least some skill, an MAA can dominate duels with a magnitude disproportionate to his skill.

An MAA most definitely backs up faster than any class moves forwad (exluding sprinting). His dash back gives him incredible speed.

Perhaps one of the best things that could be done is give the MAA's shield an agility nerf such as making a dash cost significantly more stamina if peformed with a shield out.

I will not argue that the MAA is easy, he most certainly isn't. It's just that a good MAA will generally dominate a good player of any other class.

[Judeo-communism]

I can safely say MaAs are OP. They're designed to have a significant advantage over knights and vanguards in a 1vs1 scenario. Their draw back is to be weaker in bigger battles, meaning the only way to beat an MaA consistently is to play archer, another MaA, or come at him with multiple resources. This makes them OP IMO.

They're able to control so much space and choose when to engage. I would like to see them having slower footwork (since they already get dodge, they don't deserve dodge AND fast footwork), unable to attack or parry during dodge animation (starting a wind up then dodging would cancel the attack), adding a cool down to their ability to attack, parry, or dodge after dodging (so they're vulnerable after dodging), and adding a period where they can't dodge after an attack or missed parry. This would force dodge to be much more defensive with their dodges and require more skill without being so forgiving. You wouldn't be able to dodge forward with a swing any more. You wouldn't be able to get feinted, miss your parry, and get out of jail free with a dodge. And most importantly, this would force the MaA to be aggressive with footwork and not just stare at you for 10 minutes waiting for you to get bored and swing first.

The only class better than MaAs is archer.

[Judeo-communism]

Originally posted by Caelistas:

I NEVER play with MAA and i don't find them OP, sometimes annoying yes but i've gotten very good at dodging them and exploiting my range as vanguard. Particallary with my halberd i know exactly how to pwn them.

Halberd just got nerfed to the point where it's impossible to beat a good MaA with it. If you are, you're playing bad MaAs and therefore don't have a right to call the opinions of those that do play good MaAs wrong. I pwn bad MaAs all day, too. I even pwn some good ones.

[garthbartin]

It's certainly an opinion, but a well argued and intelligent one. You probably are, in fact, playing against bad MAAS.