KO Skill

[crow]

Well I have had many a theatrics with this skill and some without it. I have also had some with it, then unskilled it. To me it seems that glads with it don't seem to be as good of fighters than those with the skill. Sure they will get there share of KO's, but alot of these guys will tend to have records that hover at 50% or less. I guess the only thing I can figure is that the KO skill is taking away from another skill that can be more useful during the fight, instead of hoping for a quick fight ender. Anyone else notice the same? I know Caine had some of the best KO artists around and Oedi has Azmael who seems to rely on this alot. I have Endeavor and he tends to be reliant on it at times.
Just wanted to get y'alls opinion on this, I'm not sold one way or the other yet.

[oedi]

KO is the easiest way to win against the arena challenges. Azmael is my only gladiator to win against all of them, Oedi my second gladiator with KO(and my very first gladiator) is in the middle of tier 6 while some of my very best gladiators has been stuck on apocalypse for 6 months and more.
As a tool to win in the regular arena im not so sure its useful. In my experience most KO`s happen in fights you would`ve won anyway.
In essence KO give you a small chance to win a fight you othervise always would loose at the cost of loosing some(more) of all the other fights.
In my opinion almost any other skill would give you a better W/L ratio.

[Kreegan]

I on the other hand consider this skill to be a legitimate cheat and one of the worst designed skills in the game overall (second only to Last Stand). Why should there be a skill that grands you instand victory, no matter how your gladiator fares in the fight? You might say that this doesn't happen all the time (my only Theatrics scores a KO once in every 7-8 fights) but it still happens often enough and could be pretty frustrating for the losing gladiator. Your guy totally dominates the fight, having lost no more than 20% of his health against the Theatrics opponent while the latter is nearly dead and out of a sudden the Theatrics "hits the sweet spot", usually dealing a mosquito bite damage, and wins. Or knocks out the opponent with his very first successful strike, finishing the combat in 3-4 seconds. Where's the fun in that?

[Dainoji]

A fighting game without knockouts would be like a basketball game without a ball. The skill works as advertised and is balanced very well in my opinion. It doesn't lead to a unbeatable gladiator and I don't think it's wasted trains either. It's an auxiliary skill with the ability to pull your fat from the fryer or seal the deal in grand fashion.

Where's the fun in that?

Here are 15 reasons where the fun is!


And a whole lot more great reasons knockouts are in the game!

[Kreegan]

So KO is in the game because of videos in youtube?
The skill essentially does the same thing as a skill that deals infinitely large amount of damage to the hit gladiator (always more than his/her maximum health), only without a chance to kill him/her. I suppose if it was formulated that way, you wouldn't like it. Or would you?
In my opinion there should be no "instant win" skills like KO (and no skills without a proper counter like Last Stand) because they are no-brainers and make the fights more boring. It doesn't really take a genius to train Called Shot and KO and aim for the head all the time - this guarantees at least 15-20% success rate no matter how good your gladiator is otherwise. KO can be kept in the game without the respective Theatrics skill though because it triggers rarely and doesn't look like a cheat.