Skill: Knockout

[Hammock]

My gladiator:

Level 26 Theatrics
Called Shot - 5
Knockout - 6

Currently my Fight Strategy is Middle Activity Level, Middle Blood Lust, and only aiming for the Head. This has been my Strategy for over a week now.

So far I've not seen Knockout do anything at all.

I can see a few possibilities...
- I'm doing something wrong.
- I'm very unlucky.
- This High level skill is not working as intended.
- This High level skill is working as intended but in my opinion not worth the point or effort to take.

-Lance

[Warmonger]

I don't know. I haven't really seen any knockouts with my theatrics either with the same skills but it hasn't been long enough since he got them for me to judge well.

[Team Kaos]

Knockout does work but it is not as potent as we would like it to be. If your comparing it skills like barreling attack, signature move or others on the same level like rampage, or hamstring which are active and play large rolls in bouts nearly every fight...Knockout and Finishing Blow are nowhere in the same stratosphere when it comes to being on the same roll percentage as he others.

I do see more knockouts from my top guys and kills but they are not even close in matching skill to skill effectiveness as to what a rage and war get from Last Stand or War Cry from what see in matches.
As I have always said...the Theatric guys get shafted hard.

[oedi]

in my opinion those 2 skills together with finishing blow are either broken or just very poor. none of my theatrics warriors have ever won a fight with any of those skills as far as i can tell.

[crow]

A couple of my theatrics boys have just recently unlocked this skill (knockout) and I have already seen it pay dividends. I have mainly seen it in the tavern fights, but it did save one of my boys butts in the arena this morning.
Remember this skill ends a fight, so there is no way the game is going use this at a high percentage of the time. Also your guy not only has to score a hit to the head, but it has to be a critical hit also. This skill to me just improves the chances of landing the knockout blow. It might not happen all the time but it is nice to know your boy is out there with it in his back pocket ready to use!!

[Nate]

As Crow has pointed out, some of the skills are game changers and can not and will never go off with a large frequency. This is by design. When balancing the skills hundreds of thousands of fight simulation are run to dial in the desired frequency. So for example (and this is only an example) let's say at level 5 Finishing Blow is meant to award a 10% increase in kills, after all the sims are run that gladiator will have 10% more kills on average at the end of his career than a gladiator without that skill. Same is true for knockout and any other game changer type skills. These numbers can then be further modified by your gladiator's attributes, gear, luck, etc.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Hammock]

Thanks for all the replies everyone..

And I understand the the fact that this skill can't go off every fight, since it is a game ender.. but I will say that it doesn't go off enough to be worth the points...
Maybe if it did more... Like it has a better chance to stun on a head shot, and also added to the chance to knock out....

I think I'm going to file this skill under:
"- This High level skill is working as intended but in my opinion not worth the point or effort to take."

Thanks,
-Lance

[Jaradakar]

Thanks for all the replies everyone..

And I understand the the fact that this skill can't go off every fight, since it is a game ender.. but I will say that it doesn't go off enough to be worth the points...
Maybe if it did more... Like it has a better chance to stun on a head shot, and also added to the chance to knock out....

I think I'm going to file this skill under:
"- This High level skill is working as intended but in my opinion not worth the point or effort to take."

Thanks,
-Lance

I've got the same skills as your gladiator (5 in called shot and 6 in Knock out). For ~2 weeks now I've been mostly aiming at the head and have not seen 1 knock out result. It seems like the base percentage chance to have this happen is like 1% and then the skill modifies that to be slightly higher.

Overall for how high of tier skill it is, I have to agree it does not seem to be worth putting points in. IMO it should do more, increase chance to stun with head hits is a good idea (and I was thinking the exact same thing).

That or the skill should be redesigned as I personally think it's okay to have the rare instance of a game changer in the game, it keeps things exciting and is something to talk about when it happens. But linking a high level tier skill to barely modify it puts design in a hard place. Make it actually worth while (game changer) means it's too good. Making it too small (as I believe it currently is) makes it not worth investing points in it.

I'd rather the skill be changed to something else in that case.

[Hammock]

Minor Update:

So ~20-30 fights of always aiming for the head with a knockout of 6... I'm happy to report that this morning I did finally score a knockout.

But yea, I'm still thinking it needs something else to make this skill worth the points and strategy line changes...

-L

[Team Kaos]

some of the skills are game changers and can not and will never go off with a large frequency. This is by design.

That's understandable, but getting stunned can be a match ender many times also especially vs a singled handed weapon. Single handed weapons dish out so much damge that at times all it takes is 2 or 3 hits to end a match anyway.
Even getting stunned early vs a fast weapon is pretty much a lose.

Signature Move at times rolls out a stun effect that lasts 2 rounds. I don't think anyone can survive being stunned 2 rounds vs any opponent.

I think what is happening is, those that have theatric fighters are feeling the "Anger Rising" inside as I did (although mine was directed at the obscene Total Parry tactic). When fighting Rage fighters now, Rage fighters will get the first swing in 99.9% of the time and then roll off Barreling Attacks, Sunder, Rampage and higher up the Shock and Awe Skills while laying down massive blasts due to the other Rage skills, while a theatric fighter is trying to rope-a-dope and get off as many bee stings as possible before getting laid out with a ball and chain while crossing their fingers that a knockout appears. And if they do survive a pair of 300+ hits they are disappointed to see that their 6 skill points in finishing move didn't really finish the monster off.