Arena Enforcer

[Team Kaos]

What's up with the new change with the enforcer handing out so much punishment. The last couple days now Parrying at even 7 activity unleashes the Enforcer. I get the beat down on the tanking turtles, but even parrying now brings the hammer down.

The defensive war is nearly extinct as it is, now a war is caught with his pants down against a tired low activity theatrics.

Lets not make it a near automatic win for the bleeder theatrics and beserking rages to finish the defensive wars.

After all it is what they are trained to do, parry and block with little attack. To be so heavily penalized for it is just cruel.

[Nate]

Hi Kaos,

Nothing has changed with the fight engine in many, many, many moons, probably more than six months ago. If a gladiator is not making enough attacks in a given period of time the Enforcer will encourange you to do so. If you are parrying but are very tired and thus not attacking, think of a way to trigger into something else or set up your strategies so that condition doesn't happen. There are numerous ways to do this. I always do a detailed balancing pass every so often so next time the detailed pass is at the top of the todo list if anything stands out as being off I'll take care of it. It is possible that the tactic of running your opponent out of energy is lagging behind some of the other win conditions and if so we'll address it.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Team Kaos]

Good to know Nate, just seems a couple of glads that parry have been taking a hefty amount of damage while parrying lately.
in fact i have even sped them up and added additional stamina to them to attempt to combat the enforcer getting involved.
The last thing i want to do is completly change strats to O minded.
I see no reason for the enforcer to get involved while parrying at med activity and the opponent swinging at least once per round.
Just something i have not encountered in a very long time.

[Kreegan]

The problem with the defensive Wars is not that the Enforcer punishes inactivity too often but that they are once again in a position where their armour doesn't offer nearly as much protection as they need to remain competitive against the current mainstream builds. It's rather silly to have a Tower shield, all the defensive skills including Armoured Fortress maxed, to run a strategy with parries and occasionally tank and still receive 200-300 damage per hit from a Theatrics or War dual-wielding bladed weapons (not even hammers or heavy axes). In my opinion that's mainly because low-level skills like Called Shot and Devastating Power effectively ignore the heavy armour so going deep down the War tree for something different than Create Distance and Light as a Feather is pretty meaningless.

[Dainoji]

Not sure who you are fighting, but anytime I have a blades vs heavy armor fight those blades don't fare so well and that is with many of the skills you mentioned.

[Kreegan]

Here's a fight from yesterday 100/100 War with 10/10 Armoured Fortress, Intercepting Guard and Battle Hardened vs a Theatrics with a falcion and a cestus (Barrier vs. Prodigal Son):







If the images are not showing up, here are the links:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/2ehe.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/96/wnlx.png/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/17/rxf.png/

All of these are regular hits, no activated abilities (which score similar damage), vs heavy armour (Barrier is wearing full heavy).
Additionally, I have plenty of fights each day where Theatrics gladiators armed with knives score several criticals above 100 damage per fight vs. heavy armour.

[Alba Kebab]

A sabre is not a puny knife...

[riggen]

I believe Kreegan was stating that he had experienced fights other than the one he posted (In which his opponent wielded a saber) in which opponents with knives would score crits that dealt over 100 damage, as well as the unreasonable bleeding we're all used to by now.

More to the point, I'm currently attempting a defensive 2h warrior build. I've failed to stand up to bleeders with a decent shield-tank and was advised to go on the offensive. Going on the offensive should be easier with a big-ass weapon I hope. Wondering how it will stand up versus bleedy theatrics...

[Dainoji]

as well as the unreasonable bleeding we're all used to by now.

There is nothing unreasonable about it. It's a part of the game just like anything else and a main feature of an entire specialty. Is rampage also "unreasonable"? How about DFA? What about the "silly" damage a 2H rage glad can deal in one hit without any activated abilities? Ever been on the receiving end of a 1800 damage bomb from Ahnold? Ever had Belca jump on your sorry ass a few times in a fight? Every class has numerous skills that make life tough for the opponent. I'm sure if you added up the damage dealt from a rampage hit or a couple DFA it would be comparable to the bleeding inflicted by a Theatrics glad. Rage gets it in one hit, War needs about 2 DFAs and Theatrics builds it up slowly over numerous rounds in which any number of things could happen ending the match before the opponent bleeds out. If you are having a hard time wrapping your head around how bleeding wounds can happen though heavy armor think of it as a result of masterful skill and training on the gladiator's part. Perhaps as part of the Gratuitous Violence skill gladiators are taught about all the weaknesses of armor and in addition about anatomy, pressure points, the locations of major arteries. It doesn't take much to spill a lot of blood if you know where to cut or poke. Use your imagination. We're building gods and heroes here, it's not a stretch to think they are capable of superhuman feats.

[Dainoji]

All of these are regular hits, no activated abilities (which score similar damage), vs heavy armour (Barrier is wearing full heavy).
Additionally, I have plenty of fights each day where Theatrics gladiators armed with knives score several criticals above 100 damage per fight vs. heavy armour.

Sure it happens, but I can assure you gray and white hits happen a lot more. Seems you want heavy armor to reduce all weapons to negligible hits which not only would be overpowering, it would be boring. Start stacking defense along with your heavy armor, it's not a strategy just for defensive theatrics. It's a two step combo for defensive theatrics glads to bleed you out while maintaining their defense just as it is a two step combo to wear heavy armor and stack defense to run the opponent out of energy albeit I'll concede this is actually harder to do than bleeding someone out since there are many ways the opponent can control their energy expenditure.