Defensive Theatrics.

[weaw]

@weaw, you can also consider Bloody Spectacle - that's extra Attack Power and bleeding.

Yes. Thanks for advice. I'll try it again. But not right now. I have a young Theatrics. His size is 94. He has good Str, Prs and Agi too. I think, Bloody Spectacle can be a good "defensive" option for him. But before i'll try to use Death from Above + War Cry and, perhaps, Adrenaline Rush.

[Team Kaos]

Having quite a few Theatrics within my stables, a few of them defensive and a couple with very unorthodox builds, it always seems for a defensive that it boils down to whether they can handle the 2H wielding War and it's DFA skill. Unlike the Rage with its Rampage that can do glorious damage, its a bit easier to defend against a Rage. DFA is amazingly difficult to avoid for the defensive Theatric. A Theatric can tire out and bleed a Rage while rope a doping during the match.
The War usually has stamina to spare and doesn't tire as fast and the heavy armor can withstand softer parry attacks reducing blood loss substantially.

Axes and Maces will penetrate the heavy armour a bit better but again a few DFA and its over. This weapon choice also limits the Theatrics against other faster builds defensively. I have seen some success by making an aimed attempt at knocking the 2H weapon from its hands. With a little luck the war either goes weaponless or picks up an unskilled weapon.

As with every build in the game, there is always another that can counter it, but by countering a specific build you open the fighter to be at a disadvantage vs 1 or more other builds.

A defensive Theatric skilled with the following can be highly effective against DFA
Aimed Blow
Sig Move
Crowd Pleaser
Armor Movement
Strngth of Crowd
Hamstring
Surprise Ending and reaching into the Rage tree for Barreling Attack. DFA doesnt seem to trigger much when the war is rolling around on the ground.

Again, its not always wise to build against a specific build, yes you may win the majority of bouts against that specific build but the result is not always the best overall when having to fight all the others builds.

[weaw]

Team Kaos,
I think, the best way to keep a War (and not only) disarmed, proned or blinded is not the Barreling Attack, but a Signature Moves + Whip + Entangle combination.
A whip is the fast weapon. So, it works good for the SM skill. It works itself due the Entangle skill. Also, it helps to stack bleeding due to the number of attacks.
But yes, an off-handed whip makes a Theatrics less defensive in a some sense.

Thanks, Kreegan. Useful ideas and info.

[Stormcloak]

Weaw,
Your glad Dierdre is running dual whips, and Entangle. With the disarms have you (or anyone else) ever pulled off your opponent's shield or offhand item? I've only ever noticed the main weapon impacted with disarms. If you can pull off an opponent's shield that would be a way to take away some of a tank's strength.

[weaw]

I've never seen a removing of off-handed weapon (including shield) through disarming...
For both skills. Entangle and Signature Moves.

But i think the real problem for Theatrics is not a Wars shield. But the tons of endurance and damage absorption/deflection (A shield has some relation to these, but not dominant).
I don't believe that a Theatrics has some chances to defeat a good tank using just a damage. Even if he got 2-4 skills of the Rage part of skill tree. And even if he wields good damaging weapon like falchion or trident. And even if a tank wields an off-handed weapon instead of shield.
I see no more ways here, only bleeding, only knockout (it works very bad on tanks and generally unpredictable), and only some accurate work on stamina (which was described by Kreegan).
For stamina method may help a net. I've already tried to use net and going to try it again (Until i accidentally not fell in the Blood Gods brackets and was not eaten there :).

[Kuljem]

Lots of interesting posts, thank you all.
I do have few more questions related to topic.

What would be better; gv or harmstring? And would it be ok to have both at lvl 5?

Next, i think feint is a smaller version of dfa, and they both hit harder, even against tanks, am i right?

Also, anybody tried iron jaw with dunder?
And what would you suggest iron jaw or grim?
(for defensive theatric ofc)

Thanks all.

[Kreegan]

Most skills aren't incredibly efficient below level 8. If you plan to use Blades or Exotics, you need both Gratuitous Violence and Hamstring at level 10 - there's no reason why you wouldn't pick these skills, they are both very good.

Feint isn't exactly like Death from Above. It works quite well against defense-stacking fighters but isn't very good against armour. Death from Above penetrates defenses quite well too but can also punch through armour nicely if the gladiator is big enough. Feint triggers more often though and possibly has higher Attack Power bonus.

I'd say avoid Iron Jaw on any build, you'll probably be disappointed. Grim Determination is a good choice for a defensive gladiator but will eat skill points which you may need if you want to go to the bottom of the Theatrics tree. If you're aiming at a hybrid, it's at least worth trying it.

[Kuljem]

Why does Strenght of the Crowd activates almost always while Surprise Ending rarely?
I use defensive strategy and even boost more chi (for SE) then str (for sotc) and still. Sotc activates in every match, but SE rarely. Sometimes in 2-3 matches in a row, then dissapears for few matches. Sometimes it activates 2 times in same match..

I really don't know how to make it activate more, can anyone make suggestion? Thanks.

[Ogornomus]

SotC activates more reliably because it gives a little bonus. So it has to be reliable. SE activates rarely because it can turn around matches easily. It's strenght is compensated by its unreliable nature. Also it wouldn't be a surprise if it'd proc regularly

Basicly skills have a different chance to prock. SotC goes of reliable even on offensive builds.

[Kreegan]

Surprise Ending could be really devastating, ask all those Rages who got their Rampages back in their faces. You can see it 10 times in 4-5 matches, you can see it once in 10 matches, it depends on the RNG rolls. The skill probably has some fixed minimal chance to trigger on every attach of the opponent + a few extra percent from the attributes where the chance also varies depending on the fighting style (works more often with defensive styles) and there is 1 round of "cooldown". It's not a skill to completely rely on for the performance of your fighter but it can certainly win you some close or nearly impossible fights. And it's hell of a fun to use.