Thread about Fighting Tactics as Theatric

[Chamaeleonx]

Starting this thread to talk about Fighting Tactics for Theatrics.

I want to know what different styles and tactics other Theatric players use and in what situation, against which enemy. So basicly a basic round up over everything that could be interessting for new tactics.
For me, im running a "strange" setup as im calling it, for me it seems to work at the moment. Most of the time im beating guys with a higher Level then me, currently im at 88% Winning-rate.
(Im not particular sure if i should reveal everything, i dont want to get assaulted and my score broken by top guys from my higher brackets >.< ).

The results im getting show that a good tactic wins this game, so i would like to hear what others use =).

Greetings, Chamaeleonx

[oedi]

if you want to get a feel about how i run my theatrics read this http://forum.pitofwar.com/showthread.php?332-Theatrics-Gladiator-Guide-by-Oedi

[Chamaeleonx]

I red this guide so far and some things arent like i would use them. But thank you for showing it to me again =).
So far im suprised that i reach a new bracket after 1 or 2 days, even if its getting slower now.

[Dainoji]

If you read Oedi's guide and most things aren't what you would do then you are in for a rude awakening once you hit the Juggernaut and latter brackets. Oedi is pretty much the unofficial theatrics maestro and one of the oldest vets in the game. Wins are easy in the early stages but once you start going up against managers who know what they are doing it's a whole new game. I of course encourage you to experiment maybe you'll find something new, but you won't go wrong following his guide.

[Chamaeleonx]

I just experienced that, Rage with 2-handed weapon....:
I got him half life, then he uses this stupid Kill shot and 1 shots me -.-.
I won the other 10 fights of today thou :/.

Im Juggernaut already (in the middle i guess), besides a few looses early on i have always been winning, so far.
Suprisingly i got so high with my low gladiator.. . Dont know what im doing right, but i hope it doesnt end here xD.

Funny, both my glads are over 90% (95%) Winning, my stable too o.O.

Maybe some additional tips against some hard guys (like these Kill Shot guys)?

Maybe i will tell you guys how it went in the Juggernaut class, currently im quite low in rank.

Still, my enemys are always 3 levels or higher then me xD. Some fights were like "This guys is totally going to crush me." after i looked at his stats. But then he didnt even land one, hard hit and i killed him x:.
But honestly there were some fights that were really close, reading the report, i always hoped that i get a good, red painted hit (so, bleeding, debuffs in general).

Besides that i run low Equip.... .

Greetings Chamaeleonx

[Chamaeleonx]

Can someone give me an advice for these boring defender wars?
Really boring if they never attack and they just stand there with Kris and shield, waiting for me to pass out. I just fought one of these guys and he NEVER attacked..., its so boring. Cant the crowd punish these guys harder (20dmg isnt much .-. )?
I was level 17 and he was level 22, but even thou, my first loose from passing out.
More then boring.., never hitting, seems to have no weapon mastery and just standing there -.-. I passed out after he was half life thou :/. So maybe at the same level.

[Chamaeleonx]

Loosing my Winning % because of such guys is just annoying and boring. Just notthing happend, only 3 create Distance, i lost with full life =.=.

Im wondering why i cant avoid him then? He isnt in the List -.-.

[Dainoji]

The fight strategy screen will make or break a gladiator. Design a strategy that takes into account that you might fight a tank and trigger accordingly. Some managers choose to tank the tank, others choose to pummel them, there are various ways of dealing with them, find one that works for your glad.

[Alba Kebab]

I always enjoy going all out attack on a tank and bring him down with a barrage of hits. :)

[Chamaeleonx]

I have 3 rows and no trigger that let me decide if i go all out on a tank or not, besides handling stupid "One-Shot rages/Wars"... .
I tried different tactics and i dont see how Tired level or health level will work against a tank -.-. Sure, i can do something if they are stunned or on the ground, but until that happens... .
So there is no trigger for choosing to go all out on a tank or 2-hand guy. I find these 2-hand guys totally unfair on top, complete fight passive and suddenly they 1-shot you with 300 damage over your health. As if something like that could really happen or is logical, as if a gladiator wont see such a big hit coming.
Its funny, i fought against a rage with a green weapon (~95 dps), lower strengh and overall stats then me, 3 levels higher. He does notthing the whole fight, gets half life, no strategy change and suddenly he 1 Shots me. Sorry that is complete Bullshit! Besides that he hit me on my 32 Armor head and does 100 damage over my whole life.
So something is just not right there.

I want an option where i can choose how my gladiator reacts if my enemy uses a specific fight style. But i dont have that so i can hardly do anything against this. I fought the my way up and now i will only loose because the good things come on a higher level? I find that stupid, sorry. Looks like you are forced to loose because you get the important triggers only after a certain level.

I just dont understand why i loose. Before nobody scratched me and now a guy, that before would have loose to me 1 shots me, seriously?!

For me that is not a tactic to stay passive the whole fight, getting beat up hard and suddenly 1 shot the enemy fight a green weapon.

Well i will try some other changes on activity and bloodlust -.-.

Maybe i can get a real tipp to beat those unfair fightstyles.

[Chamaeleonx]

What is the best way to increase your damage as Theatric?
Some fights i see so many "gray" hits with minor damage. The fights before it wasnt like that. So im wondering how i can increase my damage?
I wont skill weaponmastery for now, because i have a low chance upgrading it..., i dont want to loose my points because the administrators dont count the points you got so far =.=

[oedi]

What is the best way to increase your damage as Theatric?
youll do most damage per hit with maces and high strength. Brute force, feint, and strenght of the crowd will help you land blows. They either reduce your opponents defense or increase your offense. Both are useful when the damage is calculated. Gray hits indicate that your opponent got high defense/armor rating.
For better your chances to take out the tanks ill suggest youll put some point into gratious violence and let them bleed out.


I wont skill weaponmastery for now, because i have a low chance upgrading it..., i dont want to loose my points because the administrators dont count the points you got so far =.=
I think youre confusing training points and skill points, once youve got a skill point its irrelevant how many training points you used to get it. Im pretty sure that when the skill balancing pass happens youll either get to redistribute all your skill points, or move skill points from the affected skills over to new skills. Either way its impossible to lose training points. Anyway if im wrong weapon skills wont be affected, just a selected few more specialized skills. So training your weapon skill is totally safe.

[Chamaeleonx]

Are you really sure? Because i used a lot points in Weapon training, almost at 8 so far. If they reset that and i will only get 10 points per 1 Skillpoint back i will be very angry, because i just find it stupid to leave out a number, counting the Trainingpoints.

Feint? I skilled Gratiuous Violence and Brute Force up to 2 so far, because i thought i get more dmg. They wil only bleed if i hit them hard enough :/.
I layed out my skillplan in another thread so i wont use strengh of the crowd or feint.
Can i use Create Distance in an quite offensive build? Would it trigger or get used?

I appreciate very advice, i dont want to loose any more fights, my precious statistic is in danger >_<. My stable already dropped from the 90% Winning Dx.
Let us put the jokes aside, at least i want a positiv Win/Loose Rating. Mostly i loose when i get attacked thou.. . If i want to avoid them, they arent in the list... .

[Dainoji]

You are worrying WAY to much about the rebalancing. Pretend you never heard about it and make decisions like it isn't going to happen. Like Oedi, I have 100% confidence that when it happens we will be able to reskill our guys in a way that is fair. Will it be perfect? Maybe, maybe not but I'm sure it will be good enough. EXPECT your win/loss ratio to keep dropping, the higher you get in the ranking the more losses you will get as you will be fighting managers who know what they are doing. To put things in perspective, the TOP gladiators in the game are around a 60% win ratio.

Create distance is a defensive skill and won't proc very often if you are using an offensive fighting style.

[Chamaeleonx]

Then i dont understand what im doing wrong if i loose to guys that are so much worse then my even worse gladiator and still beat me with a furry of 2-hand attacks while i only do yellow hits on them while they wear light armor (value of ~10) and are a level lower then me.. . So i really dont understand that. It doesnt look to be Kill Shot so.. :/. Maybe Berserker, but i dont know this one.
Some fights like against a war without weapon and only a shield that just stands there are so terribly boring, they should punish them earlier -.-. Just standing there and never hitting anything or doing anything while use up 1 Endurance per round is really lame.. .

Sure im worrying about the rebalancing, i put so many points in Weapon mastery, being around a chance of 25%... . So of course i dont want to loose 20 or more Talentpoints because i would only get 10 each Skillpoint back.

A question, when do i get trigger that give me more then health and Endurance events? :/
Because i mostly loose caused by fightingstyles i cant counter yet, due to level and triggers. For example, i cant go all out if my opponent is just defensive or switch to Counterattack if the enemy uses a specific weapon or attacks first or whatever there might be.
Im currently 19 :/. My enemys are always 23 and above .-. .


But im grateful for all these answers! =)

[Alba Kebab]

I seriously don't understand why you are worried about skill rebalancing, it will almost never affect you as you are a new glad still doing skills in tier 1/tier 2. It's the lvl50 glads who already have 100 maxed skills that has to worry about changing their strategies, not you.

Simply going "slash/lunge/bash" without parrying or counter attack is what I mean by going all out attack, and you will get more triggers as you level up if you can't find one to deal with passive glads yet.

[sevenseas]

it's the name of the game guys...with all due respect, the best players figure a way out of tank battles and, and 2h rage kill shots. Tactics, tactics, tactics. Nothing is unfair. The only thing stupid about this game is how we keep spending money on it....most games you pay for one time...not this one.....how much do you think the top guys have spent on their stables.....perhaps more than is logical.

[Chamaeleonx]

Im sure, so most skills become almost useless, like aiming for specific serious injuries. Most guys will use the automatic heal sevice for trophies so you wont find a gladiator with an injury.
Well, i use the mentions strategies with a slight change. I just find it strange to get one shot in full medium armor from a rage :/. So its quite frustrating.

For now i got back to win some fights, aiming to suprass juggernaut hopefully soon.

But thanks for your concern, i will try some things to get better =). Excuse my flaming please.

Still i find tanks lame as hell and 1 Shot Rages lame too. xD

[oedi]

The only thing stupid about this game is how we keep spending money on it....most games you pay for one time...not this one.....
Thats not totally true, infact most new games got micro payments as their source of income, and many old ones incorporate a model for micro payments. Its not my favorite model for a company to make a steady income, I prefer a monthly fee instead but since this is a favorite game I continue to play and pay.


how much do you think the top guys have spent on their stables.....perhaps more than is logical.
As with anything else you buy or consider buying, if you feel you get value for your money you will buy or continue to pay. Value for money is of course a individual feeling, and will vary a lot from person to person. We got both ends of the scale playing this game. Some have bought every skill and stat to be ready to compete at once, and others never consider buying thropies because they got all the time in the world to get to the top or dont think its important to get what they need from the game.

[sevenseas]

sure...i was just pointing out that it doesn't make much sense to complain about losing...If it gets hard...try harder:cool:

[Alba Kebab]

All skills have their use, but picking skills for the wrong reasons or with the wrong setup make them useless.
Aiming for serious injuries is useful if YOU can create them, and not hope to get lucky and find an opponent injured by someone else. Most glads do not have auto heal, you are simply overestimating how many glads will get seriously injured, and out of that how many are willing to leave their injuries on indefinitely just for you.
If you can't create any serious injuries yourself, then it's not the skill's fault you can't use it enough.

[Kreegan]

Called Shot is VERY powerful and even abused to an extent (by the Theatrics who rely on Knockout). Aiming for the same spot every time increases the chance that your gladiator will inflict a serious injury on that spot and then exploit it with his next attacks.
There are useless skills though. Battle Prowess for example is so situational that you're unlikely to see benefits from it more than once in every 100 fights. Combat Instincts is slightly better but still pretty weak, especially for such a high tier skill (what's even worse is that Rage's Last Stand puts together Battle Prowess, Combat Instincts and Grim Determination and does a better job than these three skills combined). You won't see many situations where Second Winds comes into play, as well as Show Off. Crippling Might makes sense if combined with Devastating Power and Called Shot but otherwise it's just too "luck-based". Athleticism is a skill purely dedicated to ensuring that your gladiator will hit the target but even if you max it out, he will still miss occasionally (frankly Rages and Theatricses who don't have it don't seem to miss much more often than a War who has it on 10). Hope these flaws will be addressed when the balancing update is released.

[Chamaeleonx]

Well, i always heal my injuries because its not that expensive and if you pay 150 gold every week for that one trophy you can keep up the automatic healing 90% of the time ( 7 days a week, 7 days time).

I like Called Shot, especially it fits a Theatric really good.

I guess i will try to combinate Second Wind with Last Stand and see how it works and how much it triggers. So far i saw, you can trigger attacks with only 1 Talent Point spent into it. Same goes for Show Off, i will try them, because its my first gladiator.

Im in Juggernaut with one and my first glad is in Champion so far.

I saw Tina Returner the other day and some guys from the forums with their stables O:.

Oh, i got lucky, i got 2 Knock Out's so far without skilling it xD.

[Alba Kebab]

Knockout can happen without skilling it, it's just pretty rare, the skill simply improves that rare occurrence.

[Garlic88]

I understand counter attack fight strategy is a defensive strat, so how does it compare to parry-slash? I have heard counterattack gives you a big initiative boost to help you hit back after each hit you take, rather than delivering all your attacks after all your enemy's. So is it superior to parry-slash in every way, or does parry-slash give a better parry chance? Cheers

[Narol]

I believe that parry-slash give a bigger def bonus but counterattack give more attacks compared to it...

[Alba Kebab]

Half your attacks go into parrying attempts when on parry-something, counter attack gives you all your attacks - sometimes it can even seem like more attacks if you had delayed attacks.
That's all I know.

[tex burns]

--Post-Update--

This looks like the best place to ask these questions. I'm running a strength theatrics with axes/maces whose less than stellar chi/presence scores I think are really going to hurt someday. Champions Bracket.

I know that how often your "Active" skills activate, depends on your current strategy. But is there a small penalty on active skills just for crossing trees?

Also, most skills have 2-3 attributes associated with them. Are the second/third skills listed less influential than the first one, or the same? Any idea how big the differences are?

Also, any idea how much a lvl 10 Iron Jaw decreases stun affects of War Cry?

If I missed an old post of these questions, just let me know. Thanks

[Alba Kebab]

There's no penalty for cross classing.
I don't think anyone but Nate knows just exactly how much each attribute influence that skill, the first listed usually seem to be the most important, but I don't have the hard answers.
How well you perform a skill will depend on how good your related stats are, not just what rank you have.

[tex burns]

Thanks for the info Alba.

[Team Kaos]

Just to add to it a bit more. Intelligence also plays a role in how often a gladiator activates his skills during the fight. higher the Int. the better chances that he will use his skills more often.

[Pit Lord]

Can anyone tell which fighting styles are available for the rage and war? I'm running only theatrics and I'm not sure what warriors and rages have available at level 50 :D .

[Cynaidh]

Rage get: slash, bash, lunge, berserk, kill shot

Berserk - more attacks per round, seem to hit harder, eats up your endurance FAST
Kill Shot - less attacks per round, hit harder, supposed to be good vs defensive glads

Warriors get: slash, bash, lunge, parry-slash, parry-bash, parry-lunge, tank

Tank - large buff to your glad, they take much less damage per hit, you have next to no offense at all.

[Pit Lord]

Thanks for the quick replay. Did some training fights against Thunder Lips. Seems like very high variance.