Best martial art? Should I even bother with weapons?

[(Farkon) 2m_anylootboxes]

What's the best MA? Should I even bother with weapons since MA seems so much cooler?

[Erk]

Unarmed martial arts are not as good as weapons in melee, but they're good. Martial arts and weapons aren't exclusive though, you can have both. I don't know where the meta is at right now but I've always been partial to silat, as it lets me hit zombies with sticks and I like to hit zombies with sticks.

[(Farkon) 2m_anylootboxes]

Originally posted by Erk:

Unarmed martial arts are not as good as weapons in melee, but they're good. Martial arts and weapons aren't exclusive though, you can have both. I don't know where the meta is at right now but I've always been partial to silat, as it lets me hit zombies with sticks and I like to hit zombies with sticks.

Sticking it too them eh? I sorta remember weapon martial arts, but that was over 5 years ago since I played.

[Nr. Draca47]

Some zombies shouldnt be touched, that means a melee weapon with range like spear is preferred. Or you can have a ranged weapon or magic (from Magicalysm mod) for those situations.

[Erk]

For zombies best kept further than arm's length I strongly recommend a gun or a bow, myself. And bows require quite a bit of skill to master.

[coyo7e]

Krav Maga is good, because you can use it while wielding guns as well as some common and quality weapons.

Kicking-based MAs are good, because you can get free attacks and bonus blocks while wielding weapons.

Sojutsu is good because it uses spears, which are a long-running "Favorite" of many players.

Brawling is good, because you turned it on as soon as you started your character, for the extra blocking and stuff, right? ...Right?

Eskrima and Silat are good, because you can do tons of damage with commonly found weapons.

Barbaran Montante is good, because big swords and stuff are fun.

Biojutsu is good, especially if you have arm and leg plating CBMs installed.

But most unarmed martial arts by themselves aren't that good. Many weapons such as tiger claws and punch daggers, were removed from working alongside most martial arts. You also have to wear gloves and not hold any items, and many types of gloves get damaged pretty quickly because they don't have the "well built" flag. Ultimately, you won't be able to do squat against stronger opponents, and many of them are complicated and require very specific types of movement or setup to excel, such as fighting against a wall, or having to disengage and move away and then back toward enemies, which is sort of not going to happen when a couples zombies grab you.

Pure unarmed Martial Arts is cute and fun, and there is a mod to add a bunch of fantasy martial arts so you can live out your dragonball/avatar fantasies, but they'll mostly get you killed and cut you off from using weapons, which lets face it, are simply better most of the time.

This is the only page on the wiki that I regularly refer to (everything else on the wiki is years out of date and some of the advice on its "guides" is purely bad ideas): http://cddawiki.chezzo.com/cdda_wiki/index.php/Martial_arts


Ultimately, you can learn every martial art in the game and switch between them using the '_' key liberally, many dojos have 2-5 manuals for various martial arts. And as I mentioned, you should always turn on Brawling as soon as you begin a character since it gives free blocks and stuff as soon as you get the right skills up. Be sure to use "F2" in the martial arts menu to examine a learned MA closer in-game, and check what weapons it works with, etc.

[Economically Viable Jason]

Is Catch Wrestling Savate Boxing and Hema included?

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

Eskrima might be best pick for newb as its covers a lot weapons , from who alot will be used early and mid game , and one of better weapons (machete and survivor machette also uses it)

and while it lacks a bit damage compared to others , it is fastest weapon stance , covers a lot common weapons , and often causes stun/knockdown , who can be great for fighting enemies who otherwise would overpower you

its great newb friendly one

but you can check also list here https://cddawiki.chezzo.com/cdda_wiki/index.php/Martial_arts

paired up with other things who make your character faster (traits , mutations) it can be quite fun stance where you can dispatch horde of zombies(if your character gets high skills and good weapon)

[Zourin]

Hand to hand types are often the worst of the lot, but are still a valuable fallback weapon and shouldn't be ignored. Martial Arts that revolve around a weapon often fare better, such as Karate (quarterstaff), Krav Maga (knives), and more melee-centric picks like Fior de Batallia (spelling is waaay off, but it's great with spears). Direct hand-to-hand skills are good defensively, but without an offense, you're simply delaying being eaten over actually surviving. This can be draining on your stamina, and stamina keeps you safe!!!

It's worthwhile to build your offensive skills in layers, building ranged skills which will keep you safe and away from the fatal pain spiral, melee for when things get close, and unarmed in case your melee weapon breaks or is stolen from you (Yes! It happens!)

[zeeb]

Any weapon with Reach is best.
Then just find out which Reach weapon is the fastest and you're safe against any monster that isn't faster than you.

Martial arts will always be risky, no matter what.
If you really want to use it though, I'd recommend Taekwondo.

But I do recommend you instead get to level throwing, which is superior to all alternatives.
Except if you manage to break into a Military Base, because those stockpiles of ammo will last you a long time. When you're down to about 500 rounds or something, just get a car and start scouting for the next one.

Military Bases are good to use as your home base as well if you manage to clear it out, since it takes a lot to break through the walls and doors. I think anything short of a Hulk won't be able to, but might be wrong on that. It also has an insane stockpile of conserved foods, basic medical supplies and survival kits, so you'll have no problem living there. It just gets kinda boring because when you've taken it over and geared up, you're practically at the top of the food chain again.

Just have to plug the openings in the walls, collect all the burried mines outside and relocate them to choke points, make some defenses and game over, you win.

This is why the military base start is the strongest start, because you start inside the storage room where all the food is located, then you just need to kill the few zombies that lingers around in there, craft lockpicks to get to and inside the armory using the underground passage. Afterwards you can start clearing out the whole base, you'll have more than enough ammo.

[Caba da Muleste da Paçoca]

if you ever learn Ninjutsu and wield a tempered nodachi to hit for 130+ damage on a critical hit you'll see, but all martial arts and melee arts are good depending on how they are used

[Ragnaman]

Originally posted by 2m_anyloo̐̔͞tboxes (Farkon):

What's the best MA? Should I even bother with weapons since MA seems so much cooler?

Depends what you get your hands on, early quarterstaff is king. Some enemies you dont want to be in melee with tho so a reach weapon or a bow or a gun is always useful.

Just roll with what you like, altho quarterstaff is still stupid strong (because of its many innate passives).

[Opossum Boy]

There’s a lot of value in Martial Arts. ALWAYS turn on brawling when you get it (I think as soon as you have a single point in melee you’ve got it), as it can add some minor bonuses with some weapons.

Krav Maga and Taekwondo tend to work with most weapons you’d be holding, and do not require any special inputs to get the most out of them. Almost every other style requires you to “set up” the attacks by waiting or moving at the right time, or to limit yourself to specific weapons or possibly be unarmed. I’d check that Wiki link and see what you think about the specific styles.

I personally really like Judo as a defensive option; you can counter grabs with a powerful stun and beat the enemy to death with essentially any other weapon, or pull out a pistol if you need to.

[Agrocr0c]

Judo. When grabbed you can be bitten. With Judo you can escape all grabs and even reverse them.

[Violence Enjoyer]

Judo is the best martial art. I like to combo it with either eskrima or krav maga. Lead a zombie into a tile with high move cost, make them fall to the ground with judo, than unholster a knife and switch to eskrima or krav and go to town on them. If no high cost tile is available then just run 1 tile away, pull your wep out, and run 1 tile back. EZ strat