Signature Move - Blind

[Team Kaos]

It surely seems the Signature Move of Blinding a gladiator does not work to well. I have numerous fights where the blind effect has been used and it basically does nothing, the opposing gladiator blocks attacks unhindered and can lay the smackdown without a missing a step.

Anyone else seeing the same thing or does the blind effect actually do something negative to the opposing fighter?

[Blackwill]

Yep. Blind and Stun appear to be ineffective. See my post on "Parry Styles".

Disarm is also mostly ineffective, as the Enforcer or Crowd are always quick to toss down a new weapon, and there seems to be an entire Armoury's worth of weapons lying about the Arena floor which can be grabbed up at a moments notice (including an ample supply of Old Fists...) It's a miracle the gladiators don't trip, there's so much crap lying about...

Of the Signature Moves, only Sweep seems to have any real effect, and only then to trigger the "Opponent is On The Ground" battle order. I haven't seen any appreciable reduction in attack activity or damage level from a prone fighter.

I have, in fact, given up on devoting skill points to Signature Move in favor of a simple aim to the Head and a prayer for the random Knockout.

[Team Kaos]

Disarm is also mostly ineffective, as the Enforcer or Crowd are always quick to toss down a new weapon, and there seems to be an entire Armoury's worth of weapons lying about the Arena floor which can be grabbed up at a moments notice (including an ample supply of Old Fists...) It's a miracle the gladiators don't trip, there's so much crap lying about...

Of the Signature Moves, only Sweep seems to have any real effect, and only then to trigger the "Opponent is On The Ground" battle order. I haven't seen any appreciable reduction in attack activity or damage level from a prone fighter

I've actually been seeing a little bit more advantage to disarming an opponent as it is becoming more difficult for them to pick up weapons after dropping them, or maybe it's just my gladiators becoming more aggressive at that point. And when they are are picking weapons up more often they are grabbing unsuitable weapons or just basic longswords or flails which cause little to no damage.

I don't get many sweep attempts with my fighters but a bunch of blinds that don't seem to stop much of anything. I'm thinking maybe it has to do with the head gear that the opponent is wearing, a full helm would indeed be tough to get through while a helmet or similiar would leave the eyes fully exposed. I'll be watching this more closely to see if it has any effect.

[Jaradakar]

Blackwill you're wrong. Disarm WINS you fights and it is very very dirty. If it's not being effective for you, perhaps you need to train signature move to be higher. My fighter has won his last 3 fights all due to disarm (he's in Juggernaut rank).

As I've explained in another post, Disarm will not win you every fight, there are random factors. Sometimes they'll pick up their weapon off the floor right away. Sometimes it takes a few rounds. Sometimes they pick up a grey weapon instead of the shinny purple they had in hand. Other times the weapon they get they have no skill at.

I have yet to see much blind or stun in action, but I can only assume that like disarm it's not something that will work every time. Also the attack has to hit so it's possible it's dependent on say your current weapon skill.

As far as sweep goes, if it puts you prone there are other skills (War tree) that increase the damage you do to prone targets. In general you take more damage if you're prone, I'm not sure if that's just due to the war skill or if it has an inherited bonus. All I know is that it sucks to be prone and you don't want it to happen.

[Team Kaos]

As I've explained in another post, Disarm will not win you every fight, there are random factors. Sometimes they'll pick up their weapon off the floor right away. Sometimes it takes a few rounds. Sometimes they pick up a grey weapon instead of the shinny purple they had in hand. Other times the weapon they get they have no skill at.

Not every fight, but is a huge advantage if you can hold onto yours and knock your opponents out. Fight over!

From what I have seen, a fighters ability to pick up a dropped weapon comes down to their activity level and his opponents activity level. If they are slightly active and the opponent's is high, it only makes sense that he would have a hard time grabbing hold of something while the other fighter is coming at them like Clubber Lang.
But if his weapon is on the ground and he's running like a chicken and his opponent is not as active it give him time to reach down and grab his weapon.

All comes down to whether you want to waste a trigger to go active like a raped ape when you drop your weapon or hope you have some friendly fans watching.
Or you can just default a high activity levels across the board and hope you don't pass out.

See there are options, didn't say they were pretty but the best strategy is for your slave to hold onto his weapon as if it were his c*@&.

[Dainoji]

Stun, Disarm and Sweep are hands down game changers. If my guys get disarmed it almost always means they'll lose and vice versa. Same hold true for sweep. If I drop a guy I start murdering him from that point and if I'm on the ground I get murdered. Stunning a guy can be a huge advantage, the second you stun him he no longer attacks and all attacks done to him are bigger and that is devastating. I don't see guys getting blinded often, maybe once or twice ever so couldn't say if it is effective or not. If you are relying on one skill to win you a fight though you might want to re-think your strategy.

[Blackwill]

@Jaradakar: No, I'm not wrong. I guess I'm just not seeing these effects. I've been disarmed AND disarmed my opponents, and have seen little or no difference in the potential outcome of the fight due to the "momentary" loss of a weapon, until very, very recently as Kaos alluded to. In the past few fights, I have actually seen, for the first time, Epic level weapons knocked away and NOT immediately replaced with the same weapon from the crowd, the Enforcer, or someone's granny in the stands who had one hidden up her skirt "for close encounters". Perhaps Nate made a small change in the code, but I have only seen these things in tha past few fights...never before.

[Jaradakar]

Or as Team Kaos pointed out if you're not changing your strategy based on a Disarm, then maybe you are less likely to capitalize on it. My gladiator does, his activity level goes way up and I have great results with disarm, maybe that's the key.

Overall what I'm trying to get at seeing as my experiences have been the exact opposite of yours, it either suggest that either the spectrum of results are that wide or perhaps you're not doing things you should (like having a strategy line that will take advantage of the situation). I also have 5 in signature move, I suspect the higher it is the better your chances at success are.