Blocking tips

[Grizz_FMJ]

Anyone got some tips on blocking better ? Without a shield I am absolutely garbage at blocking .

[GIJoe597]

Well there is an option to autoblock, Do not use it so do not know if it works for weapon only. Unless you are playing MP.

[RJboxer]

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

Anyone got some tips on blocking better ? Without a shield I am absolutely garbage at blocking .

MP or SP?

The way the game works, there is a Stagger mechanic. And it is OP.

So IMO blocking for SP is very overrated..

If you do a tourny (where is only place it really matters) u block.. enemy hits shield. By time u swing, he is already hitting u again.. and now u staggered. Nothing changed except your shield took a tiny bit of damage.

For tournys I just Step-defend. I.e. move forward and when he starts swing move back or to side etc.. MUCH better than block since Now I can swing, and be "faster".

Lots of cheat moders talk about "nah, no stagger" or people who put a ton of points in combat (bad choice IMO) about how "fast" they swing because their skills is 225 or whatever.

For me, Stepping is FAR more important than blocking. This way u can time your hit to beat his.. and stagger HIM before he staggers you.

On the walls of defense, u should be shooting. Forget shield
On attacking of walls in siege offense. U should be shooting, forget shield

On Open field battle if u want kills.. and thus, higher character level.. u should be on horse. U can get way way more kills that way. No shield. (polearm).

On openfield battle if u want to Roleplay, or have a different combat style, U will be on foot. But still IMO no shield. Since you dont die from 1 v 1. you get killed from being in the scrum, and 4-10 dudes hitting and staggering you. Shield doesnt help.

Some experts here might love shield.. and they use it perfectly (im not perfect, but better than average). and say its "great".

I'd say it is not great COMPARED to just timing your shot, or stepping forward/back.

Conclusion: Many experienced people dont block as much as you might think.

MP.. that is a whole different story, those dudes NEED to block and do all kinds of trickery.. They are experts for sure.

EDIT: oh.. and to SPECIFICALLY answer your OP... Blocking is the same as timing. you BLOCK at the right moment against opponents swing. That is only trick I can tell ya. that or Block while Circling (movement) the opponent. And since it is all about timing.. might as well just MOVE.. forget the block.. and swing and win. Just my opininon

[ShadowFox]

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

Well there is an option to autoblock, Do not use it so do not know if it works for weapon only. Unless you are playing MP.

I use autoblock, it works for weapons and shields and I love it lol it is super cheesy but its how I played warband and I like it. Only works for single player though

[Grizz_FMJ]

Originally posted by RJboxer:

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

Anyone got some tips on blocking better ? Without a shield I am absolutely garbage at blocking .

MP or SP?

The way the game works, there is a Stagger mechanic. And it is OP.

So IMO blocking for SP is very overrated..

If you do a tourny (where is only place it really matters) u block.. enemy hits shield. By time u swing, he is already hitting u again.. and now u staggered. Nothing changed except your shield took a tiny bit of damage.

For tournys I just Step-defend. I.e. move forward and when he starts swing move back or to side etc.. MUCH better than block since Now I can swing, and be "faster".

Lots of cheat moders talk about "nah, no stagger" or people who put a ton of points in combat (bad choice IMO) about how "fast" they swing because their skills is 225 or whatever.

For me, Stepping is FAR more important than blocking. This way u can time your hit to beat his.. and stagger HIM before he staggers you.

On the walls of defense, u should be shooting. Forget shield
On attacking of walls in siege offense. U should be shooting, forget shield

On Open field battle if u want kills.. and thus, higher character level.. u should be on horse. U can get way way more kills that way. No shield. (polearm).

On openfield battle if u want to Roleplay, or have a different combat style, U will be on foot. But still IMO no shield. Since you dont die from 1 v 1. you get killed from being in the scrum, and 4-10 dudes hitting and staggering you. Shield doesnt help.

Some experts here might love shield.. and they use it perfectly (im not perfect, but better than average). and say its "great".

I'd say it is not great COMPARED to just timing your shot, or stepping forward/back.

Conclusion: Many experienced people dont block as much as you might think.

MP.. that is a whole different story, those dudes NEED to block and do all kinds of trickery.. They are experts for sure.

EDIT: oh.. and to SPECIFICALLY answer your OP... Blocking is the same as timing. you BLOCK at the right moment against opponents swing. That is only trick I can tell ya. that or Block while Circling (movement) the opponent. And since it is all about timing.. might as well just MOVE.. forget the block.. and swing and win. Just my opininon

Okay I will try stepping more. With no shield I am complete dog crap at blocking lol. I don't play MP so no worries for me there !

[Grizz_FMJ]

Originally posted by ShadowFox:

Originally posted by GIJoe597:

Well there is an option to autoblock, Do not use it so do not know if it works for weapon only. Unless you are playing MP.

I use autoblock, it works for weapons and shields and I love it lol it is super cheesy but its how I played warband and I like it. Only works for single player though

lol nahhh breh. I ain't trying to cheese it !!

[Annihilator]

Is normal :) at start me and my brother is really bad too. With some duels you learn in few weeks :) if you play 2 hour for day.

[justfaded]

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

Originally posted by ShadowFox:

I use autoblock, it works for weapons and shields and I love it lol it is super cheesy but its how I played warband and I like it. Only works for single player though

lol nahhh breh. I ain't trying to cheese it !!

I admire playing with highest difficulty but there really aren't that many opportunities to apply your combat skill in single-player. You can get good at manual blocking but where are you going to use it? Tournaments and alley fights? You won't be fighting 1v1 in most sieges and even alley fights are more about back pedaling or circling to kite the ai.

Tournaments are easy no matter what you do and the other guy is
right about movement. Even with very little athletics skills, in a 1v1 with AI, you can just keep sidestepping and you will get free hits while the ai misses.

So really no reason to learn to block manually in sp unless you want to do for a sense of accomplishment but even in that case, you won't have many opportunities to apply your trained up relflexes.

[ankh]

just calm down when u dont have a shield, the window to block is actually pretty large

[Grizz_FMJ]

Originally posted by justfaded:

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

lol nahhh breh. I ain't trying to cheese it !!

I admire playing with highest difficulty but there really aren't that many opportunities to apply your combat skill in single-player. You can get good at manual blocking but where are you going to use it? Tournaments and alley fights? You won't be fighting 1v1 in most sieges and even alley fights are more about back pedaling or circling to kite the ai.

Tournaments are easy no matter what you do and the other guy is
right about movement. Even with very little athletics skills, in a 1v1 with AI, you can just keep sidestepping and you will get free hits while the ai misses.

So really no reason to learn to block manually in sp unless you want to do for a sense of accomplishment but even in that case, you won't have many opportunities to apply your trained up relflexes.

play with the battle ai mod and its wayyyy harder lol. tournaments are way more difficult with that mod !

[Grizz_FMJ]

Originally posted by ankh:

just calm down when u dont have a shield, the window to block is actually pretty large

I played with shield so long I think that is why I am so bad. With a shield I am nasty..but it is a lot easier with a shield :p

[dust1]

I’ve been playing mnb for about 12 years and basically you just need to start a game and set some of it to really difficult and just go to struggle street until you finally learn, you soon learn how they angle there weapon how to block their hits and yeah there’s all sorts of methods etc for beating bots, I use to play mnb for the mp only and I got so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good basically the best set up was full naked for max mobility and a wicked weapon can’t remember which and just block party fake block bring out an attack boom dead jumping onwards to the next fool who can’t keep up with your attack cancel hit land it was basically first to parry wins so learn to cancel the attack by blocking like feinting and that draws them out and land a hit etc

[Grizz_FMJ]

Originally posted by The Daqining:

I’ve been playing mnb for about 12 years and basically you just need to start a game and set some of it to really difficult and just go to struggle street until you finally learn, you soon learn how they angle there weapon how to block their hits and yeah there’s all sorts of methods etc for beating bots, I use to play mnb for the mp only and I got so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good basically the best set up was full naked for max mobility and a wicked weapon can’t remember which and just block party fake block bring out an attack boom dead jumping onwards to the next fool who can’t keep up with your attack cancel hit land it was basically first to parry wins so learn to cancel the attack by blocking like feinting and that draws them out and land a hit etc

whoa how the hell do you feint in this game lol ?!?


edit: oh nvm I re-read what you said ..so swing then block before the swing actually reps out ?

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

Anyone got some tips on blocking better ? Without a shield I am absolutely garbage at blocking .

For manual blocking, the advice I give is for the player to try to hit the enemy's weapon with their blocking shield... IOW - Don't treat it like you're putting up a wall or a" shield," but like you're trying to hit the weapon with your blocking "attack." You'll eventually find the "sweet spot" in your timing and be able to predict attacks a bit better, as well.

Circle-Strafing is the universal "I WIN" button against individual AI units. It always has been. (Strafe to the right, with your shield on your left, and circle the opponent, landing swings against them that they can't easily block while being better able to block, yourself. /win) It's solid cheese...

If you're working on single-combat, do not neglect athletics/combat movement perks. With those, you can outmaneuver many individual targets on foot. Without them, most tiered melee units are going to be more maneuverable than you on foot and your blocking skill isn't going to matter much in a field battle, anyway.

And, lastly, if you find it frustrating, don't worry about it in SP. Put on auto-block/whatever and just have fun. There's no law that says you have to play the game in a way that is unfun for you. :)

[Grizz_FMJ]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

Anyone got some tips on blocking better ? Without a shield I am absolutely garbage at blocking .

For manual blocking, the advice I give is for the player to try to hit the enemy's weapon with their blocking shield... IOW - Don't treat it like you're putting up a wall or a" shield," but like you're trying to hit the weapon with your blocking "attack." You'll eventually find the "sweet spot" in your timing and be able to predict attacks a bit better, as well.

Circle-Strafing is the universal "I WIN" button against individual AI units. It always has been. (Strafe to the right, with your shield on your left, and circle the opponent, landing swings against them that they can't easily block while being better able to block, yourself. /win) It's solid cheese...

If you're working on single-combat, do not neglect athletics/combat movement perks. With those, you can outmaneuver many individual targets on foot. Without them, most tiered melee units are going to be more maneuverable than you on foot and your blocking skill isn't going to matter much in a field battle, anyway.

And, lastly, if you find it frustrating, don't worry about it in SP. Put on auto-block/whatever and just have fun. There's no law that says you have to play the game in a way that is unfun for you. :)

Awesome advice man thank you ! I will try the strafe right thing lol. I think I need to upgrade my dudes athletics more because he kinda slow..

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Grizz_FMJ:

...
Awesome advice man thank you ! I will try the strafe right thing lol. I think I need to upgrade my dudes athletics more because he kinda slow..

For early-game melee combat complaints, most new players don't realize that the skills they're using are not of the same quality as the skills of a more well-developed character.

So, they will pick up a sword and rush off to a Tournament and have relatively bad results not just based on their unfamiliarity with the game or melee combat in it, but not realizing that their "noob" character is at a significant disadvantage to begin with.

So, it's a common thing that actually gets solved for, provided one levels up appropriate skills, as the player progresses their character.

Virtually ever combatant-like character in the game has better combat stats than any starting player-character. :)

And, yes, he will be kinda slow for awhile... You'll notice improvements there as you progress relevant skills. In the end, you really don't have much to worry about as far as getting used to and doing fairly well in melee combat. You're just starting off with a character that is going to end up with much better stats and better handling capability by the time you get really serious about melee combat. Player skill can help, of course, but you can't really get a ton of that if your character spends most of its time on a battlefield staring at the sky...

PS: Try to complete all the Training events at all levels. You can also use Arenas/Tournaments for some relatively risk-free training. Don't think you'll be able to rush into melee combat in field battles right away to get some training at first. Suit up and get some protection and a few needed perks before challenging high-tier units, else they'll slice you up. :)