The power of defense

[Bluezman]

Ok, I just had a nice eye opener.

 

I am no newbie and I play the game since it came out. I am still at the point where I am adapting to 1.04 but I am starting to like it very much.

 

Tonight, I played on an FFA server (Bespin map) and there weren't too many people there. It was basically duels on the pad and some guys chatting.

 

So there was that one guy I was dueling. He basically did nothing but keeping the attack button pressed in yellow stance and run into me. (Ok, he had a few other tactics, like dfa and red side sweep but very rarely).

 

The first few duels, I kept losing to this guy. I thought, well that's impossible!!! It is just the most noob behaviour you can imagine!!! I mean he just kept hacking like a berserk and ran straight into me!!

 

So I kept trying, always running back to the pad after respawn and challenge him for a duel again. I lost about 5 times in a row and now started to get REALLY angry. I was completely freaking out!!! There MUST be a counter to that!! He has no skill!!!! LOL :D :D

 

So I thought I need to change my tactic. Before, I tried reaching him from the distance with wide range red stance sidesweeps. Or I tried a yellow finisher when he ran into me, or a lunge move.

 

Then all of a sudden, it struck me: standing still and doing nothing should do the trick because blocking obviously is quite high in 1.04!!

 

And guess what: it worked perfectly!!! I just stood still in yellow or red stance, he ran into me and I parried perfectly. So I just stood still and timed one strike that hit him always. It was a real nice style, calm and patient and efficient to the bone.

 

I then was able to kill him again and again. I went from 100/25 to 100/10 and he was dead. It was just amazing.

 

He was really pissed and even said "You pussy, you keep defending!!!!" I told him that I figured out a counter to his tactic and now I am winning and that he should find a counter himself. He kept trying but I beat him to the point where it started to get humiliating for him. He then started to play more defensively, too and the duels became more intense. I may say that I still kept winning but it seemed that I was playing a lot longer than him and finally won because of my experience (?). At the end we both agreed to have learned a nice lesson about saber defense. And we parted as friends

 

You may shrug and say "what's his point!?"

 

My point is, even though I am playing for quite some time now, I was struck by how dramatically this change was. Sometimes there is a very easy counter to things. I was stunned by the power of defense and I find this is very Jedi-like: defense, be calm, be patient, wait for your opponent to do the first move.

 

Just wanted to share this one with you...

[Myst]

Of course, he didn't think of doing any special moves, otherwise they would have penetrated your defense easily.

 

I can see what you mean. Defense is sometimes better, especially versus saber throws.

 

But a quick combination attack with swings will get through any defense. This is done by holding down the attack button.

 

Myst

[Twins of Doom]

you are lucky he didn't use lunge;)

 

 

in 1.03 i tried what it said in Artifex's guide (light stance and medium stance swings are always blocked by heavy stance)

a very stupid mistake it was because i ended up dead every time because of a unique move

even if they didn't use unique moves it would still break through, knock my saber aside, and get a couple hits

 

 

i learned that defense is good but it should not be your only choice

sometimes you should be the one pushing the attack also

[thehomicidalegg]

yellow stance normal can knock your saber away but i raerly seen lightstance normal fo that, maybe once or twice when both saber are deflected.

[Darth Kaan]

I played today on a server that had saberdamagescale set up to 3. I took a break from Red stance and went to yellow for a while and I was getting as many one hit kills with it as I do with red. This seemed rather odd.

 

Just curious...did the server your fights with the yellow stancer occured on have the saberdamagescale set up above the default setting?

 

 

Kaan

[Bluezman]

Just curious...did the server your fights with the yellow stancer occured on have the saberdamagescale set up above the default setting?

I am not sure but I believe it was a pure 1.04 server right from the box. It also didn't have custom maps and/or custom skins and it felt pretty much like plain 1.04.

 

you are lucky he didn't use lunge

I know. But if he had used lunge, I'd have my counter ready for that. The thing was, I do have counters for all kinds of kinky attacks, I just never bothered about a counter for such a stupid tactic! That was the funny thing about it.

[LoneJedi]

Well if he was rushing u and swinging, you could have just backpedalled and threw your sabre, or rolled away and got a shot in.

[Darth Kaan]

I have noticed when playing Yellow stance on the servers with saberdamagescale set up to 3 or 4 is just as deadly as red stance as far as single hit kills. So that gives an advantage since it is still faster than red and easier to chain moves.

 

Has anyone else noticed this or has playing red stance improved my timing with yellow?

[Neko Lain]

As some guy said "dont wait for the **** storm, be the **** storm"

[Dark_ZONE]

Originally posted by Twins of Doom

you are lucky he didn't use lunge;)

 

 

 

Depends . . Does An air Lunge still work in 1.04??

Because unless you script a ground Lunge it is very easily sidesteped and countered . . .

I may be wrong because I refuse to play on 1.04 servers until I hear more positive things about it . . I stick to 1.03 servers.

[Myst]

That's why you should not put saber damage more than 2x damage.

 

 

Yellow already does 30 damage, 60 overhead swing.

Red does 40-50 dmg, 80-100 overhead.

Blue does 24dmg, 48 overhead.

 

Myst

[BigMexican]

you cant "just backpedal away" because backpedal speeds are reduced in 1.04. should have just kicked him back to get some space between you, then DFA'd if he was knocked down, or an overhead heavy swing if not (hoping that he'd just run blindly back into combat)

[Bluezman]

Originally posted by LoneJedi

Well if he was rushing u and swinging, you could have just backpedalled and threw your sabre, or rolled away and got a shot in.

It was a saber only FFA game in a private duel. Since it was set up correctly, throw was disabled.

 

Originally posted by BigMexican

should have just kicked him back to get some space between you, then DFA'd if he was knocked down, or an overhead heavy swing if not (hoping that he'd just run blindly back into combat)

Yeah, kicking also is a good idea. I just didn't want to start a kick war and I thought that there must be a way to do it with the saber. I don't consider kicking cheap, but saber defense is a bit more elegant IMO...

 

Originally posted by DARK_ZONE

Depends . . Does An air Lunge still work in 1.04??

Because unless you script a ground Lunge it is very easily sidesteped and countered . . .

I may be wrong because I refuse to play on 1.04 servers until I hear more positive things about it . . I stick to 1.03 servers.)

No, air lunges don't work anymore. However, let me tell you that I begin to love 1.04. (Just so that you hear positive things about it ) At first I felt I couldn't kill anyone and people are heavily relying on DFA in the FFA games and spam it all over the place. Now that I have some experience with 1.04, I begin to love it. No ass fighting, no backsweep-1-hit-kill-whores, it actually reall comes down to saber combat.