Enemy Fatigue - What does it do?

[Maraxus]

Hey guys, so I had some questions about the way Fatigue plays into combat in the remaster, at least the enemy's fatigue. I'm doing a mage/monk playthrough wearing clothing only, and if I'm going to be up close, I need all the advantages I can get.

So in the original, fatigue damage could give you all sorts of bonuses like reduced enemy damage or straight knockouts with enough.

Now I know that you can still do knock outs by applying (non-hand-to-hand) fatigue damage that reduces the enemy's fatigue below zero, but why else should I bother? Do they do less damage? Take more? Struggle to block? Exactly what to I get out of attacking enemy fatigue directly rather than just going for health.

Thanks!

[LeftIsBest-James]

It will do silly things, like make enemies 'prone'/'fall-over' and stay there until fatigue recovers. Effectively physically-defenceless and unable to move or get up.

[Maraxus]

Originally posted by LeftIsBest-James:

I'm not sure it's worth it.
It will do silly things, like make enemies 'prone'/'fall-over' and stay there until fatigue recovers.

I saw some funny tricks where you can use a high duration fatigue drain on a KO'd enemy to keep them locked in the ragdoll state, which is pretty useful.

[76561198009276343]

I'm doing hand-to-hand, and I rarely see them do much except they can't power attack without fatigue. I've yet to make someone fall down from punching them. They'll hunch over a lot, but it doesn't mean they can't fight back. You just kinda interrupt them a little. Absorbing Fatigue sometimes causes them to drop to the ground, but other than that it seems pointless to simply damage their fatigue. As far as struggling to block; yeah, a little bit. After a certain point there's little they can do to stop my onslaught.

[Maraxus]

Originally posted by Pronnu:

I'm doing hand-to-hand, and I rarely see them do much except they can't power attack without fatigue. I've yet to make someone fall down from punching them. They'll hunch over a lot, but it doesn't mean they can't fight back. You just kinda interrupt them a little. Absorbing Fatigue sometimes causes them to drop to the ground, but other than that it seems pointless to simply damage their fatigue. As far as struggling to block; yeah, a little bit. After a certain point there's little they can do to stop my onslaught.

My understanding is you have to hit them with fatigue damage (from a non-fist source) when they're at zero and they *should* fall over.

What kind of utility have you found for blocking? I hope it becomes less useless as the block skill increases

[76561198009276343]

Originally posted by Maraxus:

Originally posted by Pronnu:

I'm doing hand-to-hand, and I rarely see them do much except they can't power attack without fatigue. I've yet to make someone fall down from punching them. They'll hunch over a lot, but it doesn't mean they can't fight back. You just kinda interrupt them a little. Absorbing Fatigue sometimes causes them to drop to the ground, but other than that it seems pointless to simply damage their fatigue. As far as struggling to block; yeah, a little bit. After a certain point there's little they can do to stop my onslaught.

My understanding is you have to hit them with fatigue damage (from a non-fist source) when they're at zero and they *should* fall over.

What kind of utility have you found for blocking? I hope it becomes less useless as the block skill increases

Very little. You can't shield bash with your bare hands, and can't use a shield in conjunction with hand-to-hand (something that Skyrim managed to improve upon!), but blocking will cause them to reel, which opens them up for a counter-attack. But you could just as easily just pummel them into submission in that time frame instead of waiting for the AI to attack you. Blocking at the right moment is also useful, but only for the opening. By the time you're punching them enough to wreck their fatigue, blocking becomes less important.
My block is almost level 50, but I just don't use it enough to level it. Like I've said; in the time it takes to block, I can just punch them a lot and put them into the state where they become almost helpless.

[cheetah1546]

Think of it like a stun meter in Street Fighter