observations on 1.04

[Etherael]

Hmm, Ok, now after being forced to play 1.04 for an extended period of time finally because the only 1.03 server in Australia is packed with hapless scrubs that votekick me on sight and as soon as I start kicking their ass under another name, simply votekick me again regardless of the fact that they don't know it's me, I've come to some interesting observations on the play mechanics and typical tactics.

 

In 1.02 you had people spamming DFA and being countered in the off moments with backstab, lunges, or <insert force here>

 

In 1.03 DFA'ing anyone of skill was basically suicide as you couldn't adjust your aim in flight so all they would do is get beside you and backslash you, the typical newb would run around backward swinging wildly through a saber melee hoping to get a backslash lucky kill, and the only effective counter to backslash was kick, kicking a backslasher would knock them down and they would immediately spring back up and be locked in place (if you were near them when they sprung up, you would most likely be killed, but they were reasonably fair game in the frozen state). Force pull could knock people off their feet at close range as long as they were not absorbing and they were moving, in any direction, or if they had a lower level pull than you.

 

In 1.04, Backstab is next to useless, a full backstab will take approximately 25 points of damage off your opponent, and as a consequence is barely ever used, we're back to 1.02 DFA spamming as very few people know how to effectively punish this technique, on the force side, everyone appears to spam Lightning *and* constantly whinge about people that spam lightning, and although absorb remains as effective as ever in countering this strategy, fewer and fewer people seem to want to play as a light jedi.

 

Another interesting thing I noticed in the force level was Pull, in the changelog to 1.04, it said that a bug was fixed where pull may have been unblockable by someone with an equal level of pull to you. This was never true in 1.03, pull was always blockable by an equal level of pull, you just had to make sure your fingers were not on the directional keys whilst countering the pull up close if you were in motion at the time. However, in 1.04, I've noticed that you seem to be able to knock people down with pull 100% of the time regardless of whether they're moving or not *if* you pull them from behind, to test this, roll past, quickly flip your fov to face their back, and pull up close, pretty much no matter what, as long as they didn't turn fast enough to be facing you, they will fall.

 

Saberwise aside from the most apparent backstab nerfing goodness and the end of all the yawwhoring which I can't say I'm sad to see go, the blue stance lunge move was also prevented from working in the air, this did two things, it made it apparently impossible to not telegraph a blue stance lunge whilst running forward because on pressing crouch you will go into a roll (to get around this, a quick +moveleft +attack, and then immediate crouch +forward + attack will put you into a lunge nearly as fast as jump + lunge used to) and it has stopped us from cushioning falls from obscene heights (to get around this, to a certain degree only, as you fall, the exact moment you touch the ground, tap the jump key, this appears to work only intermittently but does absorb all damage if pulled off correctly)

 

Due to the fact that now all the Saber Specials with the exception of the yellow finisher have now been nerfed in some way, Specials are really not all that useful anymore except in situational circumstances, an intelligent person will easily own a special spammer 90% of the time by simple judicious use of standard strikes.

 

One of the best moves I have found are the heavy stance combos combined with kicks, both in punishing DFA spamming (which is a popular tactic) and in general offensive play.

 

Scenario 1: pack of DFA spammers going at each other wildly, wait for the DFA, go to side, execute a red stance attack +moveleft +forward and you will lay down the fastest red stance attack available, easily enough to punish any DFA'er close to you with a nasty wallop of damage, 2-3 of these and it's lights out for the spammer. if your target is slow, or you are quick, you can also chain a heavy axe attack (+forward +attack) on the end of your diagonal attack for an extra, larger piece of damage, also, your legs still work while your saber is in action, so when you know they're about to walk away, finish it with a kick, if you knock them down and follow up with another diagonal heavy, it's six feet under pushing up daisies for our heroic DFA spammer.

 

Scenario 2: Offensively, this can be employed by rapidly closing the distance with rolls and finishing with pulls and kicks, if you can get behind them, pull them over, if you pull them over, a diag left heavy slash combo with an axe overhead + kick has a good chance of putting them back down, at which point, game over for your hapless foe.

 

Lastly, in light of the constant lightning spamming and general desire for everyone to be a dark jedi and max lightning and grip due to grip no longer generally being a fatal mistake to make on a talented player, I'd recommend using Light side with maxed absorb and mind trick (remember, a kick does not cancel your mind trick, so you can repeatedly kick hapless seeingless players without being seen, and when you finally knock them down, finish the job with your regular diag + overhead + kick finisher, if they don't just die from being pumelled by kicks from an unseen agressor), the typical dark jedi nowadays is so busy maxing offensive powers that seeing comes in a distant last, especially on jedi knight level servers as opposed to jedi master level, even in the case where mind trick may not be useful against one opponent, it will nearly certainly be useful against the rest in any given situation, this also makes you impervious to the very popular new tactic of multiple jedi spamming lightning into crowds of DFA spammers, with obvious advantages.

 

Any comments, flames, kudos appreciated, and here's hoping that in 1.05 they will finally make this the perfect game that it came *so damned close* to being in 1.03

 

Cheers

Etherael

[jakka]

hi etherael

 

(that was constructive wasn't it)

[Harkonnen]

Hi

 

Very good post in deed.

 

Im trying hard to make that pull from behind but my opponent just doesnt fall down...

 

With pull on max or not..... even with freezed opponents....

 

Damn. If i could make that out, i would greatly increase my CTF skills. And i have a champ next month so.... why cant i make it happendddddddddddddddddddddddddddd?