Complete Guide To Melee Combat On Foot - Bannerlord

welcome to the complete melee combat guide for bannerlord in this video we will take an in-depth look at how all aspects of melee combat work i've broken this video up into two sections beginner and advanced there are timestamps in the description for your convenience and without further ado let's get started the most important part of melee combat in bannerlord is blocking if you don't learn how to block then your offensive skills are limited to how many hits you can take we start by learning how to block with the shield there are four positions in which you can block up down left and right we must have our shield up to intercept an incoming blow shields are much more forgiving with blocking as even blocking in the wrong direction will mostly prevent the hit although our shield will take extra damage blocking in the same direction as the incoming attack will cause minimal damage to our shield once our shield takes enough damage and is destroyed or we don't bring one into battle with us we must rely on our weapon to block this is much more difficult as the vast majority of the time we must match the direction of the incoming attack to intercept the blow there are two types of successful blocks one is prepared well ahead of time and the other just barely in time to intercept here are some examples of a prepared block the incoming damage is prevented but we don't benefit further if we start our block just before their strike lands we will get a perfect block which has a different sound creates a spark where the weapons collide and pushes the enemy's weapon away making their next action slightly delayed this slight delay is usually enough time to land a free hit on the enemy we can also block left and right swings even if we're blocking in the wrong direction this can come in handy when you're being swarmed by a mob the final way we can defend ourselves is to dodge an attack the easiest attacks to dodge are overhead strikes and thrusts since we just need to move slightly left or right if you time your movement just right you can also dodge left and right swings let the enemies start their swing then quickly back up and away from their swinging side of the attack the most important lesson to learn with dodging is with projectiles the enemy calculates where we are going to be based on our current movement speed so in order to dodge we must change directions once they release their projectile when up against a large volume of projectiles i find it's best to move in an s pattern serpentine now for the fun stuff offense melee combat in bannerlord consists of a few key stats attack speed damage amount damage type weapon length and handling let's first look at attack speed for four different weapons we start the testing with the smallest dagger with 125 attack speed then the bearded axe with 98 attack speed the volge with 76 and finally the monavaleon with 59 the dagger is extremely fast although it sacrifices damage and length for the speed notice only 25 drop in attack speed is a significant drop in time to complete the same 5 attacks there is a trade-off between weapon length being able to reach an opponent and attack speed the longer the weapon is the slower it will swing by the time we get to the massive monopoly on pole arm we are crawling along finally we will look at three different damage types there are equations for how these work exactly but that's beyond the scope of this guide so we will look at some quick tips to keep in mind cut damage is reduced by armor the most so these weapons do best against low armored troops this damage is a result of swinging weapons pierce damage is only partially produced by armor so these weapons are decent against both armored and low tier troops this damage is a result of thrusting weapons blunt damage is only slightly reduced by armor making this the best damage type to go against high tier armored troops the damage output is often less than cut damage making it not as effective against low tier troops this damage comes from blunted weapons like maces and hammers while we're here let's briefly cover what all these symbols mean on each weapon this symbol means the weapon uses the one-handed skill these are for the two-handed skill and these are for polearm this signifies the weapon can be used in civilian settings such as gang fights and prison breaks this symbol means the weapon cannot be used with a shield this one means that attacks will do extra damage to shields and this means the weapon is too large to be used while on horseback this one means this pike can be used with a spear brace function and this one is for horseback meaning we can use the couch lance much like blocking there are four different types of melee attacks up attack or overhead swing a down attack or a thrusting stab and left and right attacks which are both swinging attacks finally let's look at handling this stat determines how effective our weapon is at different points in our attack animation a higher handling means we don't have to be as accurate with our swing to deliver maximum damage testing here we can see that attacking on the extreme edge of our swing delivers about half of what an attack does that's delivered straight on the two-handed axe is unique in that it can hit more than one opponent with a single swing this makes the two-handed axe particularly good against masses of enemies if you do enough damage you can even down two opponents with a single blow another cool thing about using a two-handed axe is the crush through swingable pole arms are also capable of this some overhead swing attacks will have enough force to break through a block with a weapon this isn't possible against the shield they must be using their weapon to block the damage is reduced some but the blow is still significant getting this to work is rng based so keep swinging until it happens dealing with archers as a melee combatant can be a real pain so let's look at my favorite strategy for handling them all we need is a shield we make sure we keep our defense up at all times we get close enough so that one or two of them switch to melee mode and attack us this should give us enough time to dispatch them one by one if they start to bunch up circle off to the left or the right making sure that no more than one of them is attacking us at once don't worry if the shield's destroyed we don't need it once we're in melee combat with them anyways another difficult scenario is dealing with cavalry if we have a pole arm or pike then our job is easy there are two methods take out the rider directly or attack the horse attacking the horse is the slower of the two options but much safer as it's nearly impossible to take damage once you stab the poor horse if we opt to take out the rider directly we need to make sure we time our attack to come out before the enemies this just takes time and practice if we don't have a spear then our task is significantly harder blocking incoming cavalry is actually easy since the majority of them will have only a thrusting spear limiting our blocks to up and down only i find the best strategy is to use a solid object that the cavalry will get stuck on let them run into it and strike the horse or the writer down the final way to deal with cavalry while on foot is the spear brace it's pretty straightforward have a spear that is capable of bracing press x to enable the brace and stick the pointy end towards the enemy as they approach we can either target the rider or the horse but again there are trade-offs targeting the horse is the safest since it's hard to miss targeting the rider is the fastest way but if we miss we take a full speed spear to the face all of this information is useless if we can't use it in a real fight and the best way to become proficient is to deliberately practice the training field can be a decent place to start but i find it to be either too slow against the shielded enemy or too hard against a veteran two-handed i prefer to catch a small group of looters down three out of the four with bow and arrow and then catch the last guy solo i will then create a save file so that i can reload this one versus one as many times as i want be sure to take all of the weapons and shields that you want to train with beforehand so you can swap with them with each new load i also like to repeat this process for harder situations like three versus one against looters allowing me to practice being ganged up on before we jump into the advanced section let's look at a few more mechanics that might be of help holding alt will highlight weapons shields and ammunition that are on the floor allowing us to pick up replacements for that battle pressing g once will drop the current weapon in hand or holding g down will allow us to select which equipment we wish to throw on the floor making room for something more valuable to pick up some weapons have two modes to use such as javelins equip the javelin and press x to switch from throwing mode to spear mode press x again to switch back the same can be done for certain swords that can be used as both a one-handed and a two-handed sword we can pick up more than one shield in battle giving us some protection from the rear as well as having another shield in reserve in case the primary one is destroyed if you want to put your shield on your back in order to use two-handed mode for your current weapon simply scroll the mouse wheel down to bring the shield back out mouse wheel down again i would like to start this section by saying that bannerlord melee combat is hard it took me hundreds of hours to understand what i was doing and even now i still get downed all the time here is a shortened montage taken from the videos used to make this guide [Music] things looked easy in a video that's been edited but in reality it takes a lot of dying to get the right footage so don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away as well the most frustrating part of melee combat in bannerlord has to be fighting while outnumbered it's easy to get swarmed making blocking and attacking impossible the best strategy against a large group of enemies is to circle around the outside to either the left or the right by doing this we use the front enemy as a body block against the others behind him allowing us to get hits off and deal with blocking one person at a time it's often beneficial to start an attack facing away from the enemies then quickly turn towards them as our attack crosses the midway point by doing this we can maintain our distance turning only enough to land damage but then continue our retreat away from danger stunning the enemy is vital in banner lord without them we could spend several minutes fighting a single opponent who blocks everything there are three types of stuns shield bash pommel and weapon strikes and kicks shield bashing is the safest and easiest stun to land while holding block we move close to the enemy and press e if we land the shield bash we will do a tiny amount of damage and push the enemy back stunning them temporarily sometimes the stun is long enough to land a strike but not always more importantly it interrupts the defender from defending and attacking we don't have to have the enemy lined up to initiate the bash we simply need to be facing them shortly after to land it properly this is helpful when we are fighting multiple opponents and need to start the bash while running away turning at the last second to land a quick bash pommel and weapon strikes work the exact same way as a shield bash does except it is done without a shield this move is ineffective against an opponent with a shield up so be careful not to give the enemy a free hit in return kicks are by far the best stuns to land but they are also extremely difficult to use in the heat of battle they are effective against both shielded and non-shielded opponents my favorite use of the kick is with the two-handed weapon and against an opponent with their shield up we can start an overhead strike then kick our opponent and as soon as it lands we release the overhead strike for a guaranteed hit be very careful though as a missed kick is almost a death sentence high risk and high reward blocking arrows with a two-handed sword is more of a meme than a mechanic but the best way to do it is to hold the block out and pray the arrow hits your sword i don't recommend it chained attacks are fun to see in action and even more fun to use we can use a chain strike with any swinging attack so thrusts will not work for this to trigger the chained attack we have to start our second swing just before the first swing finishes the easiest way to start is chaining attacks from the same direction so up and up left and left or right and right you can chain as many attacks as you like there is no limit once we feel more comfortable with the same direction chains we can try to mix in different directions my favorite is to swing from the side and follow through with an overhead strike now that we are familiar with this mechanic let's try it in a real fight it's a thing of beauty next up the faint attack we start by attacking from any direction then initiate a block to interrupt the attack and attack again this will often cause the opponent to block from the wrong direction or stop blocking altogether because we cancel or attack momentarily this move is all about timing if we do it too soon the enemy will not stop their block if we do it too late we will follow through with the attack and it will be easily blocked we must find that sweet spot and cancel it just before we can't pull the attack back often times it makes the most sense to change the direction for the second attack be careful when trying this out against an opponent with a fast attack speed as they can easily interrupt her faint with an attack of their own which will land before our second attack does my favorite move in the whole game of bannerlord is the chamber block it also happens to be the most difficult to pull off the premise of the chamber block reminds me of a chess move one that both defends our interests and attacks the enemy at the same time we use the beginning of our swing to block the incoming attack from the enemy and follow through with a strike of our own these attacks are nearly impossible for our opponent to block for starters chamber blocking is easiest from the left or the right side the timing will be different for each weapon opponent and attack speed so it's a better strategy to get a feel for when to start rather than memorizing specific positions of the enemy my preference is to chamber from the right side so we begin by blocking all attacks and waiting for the enemy to attack from our right side as soon as we see him wind up for the strike we begin our attack from the right side and hope to intercept his sword and complete the chamber if we miss we need to begin blocking everything again until we get our composure back and try again focusing only on that one side once we chamber a few attacks in a row we can comfortably move to the next phase mass chamber from here on we will no longer be using any blocks and try to chamber every single attack this is by far the best way to learn how to chamber from any direction the problem is we will miss about 90 or more and end up hitting the opponent eventually knocking him out and forcing us to waste time restarting instead we attempt a chamber with each attack and use our block to cancel the attack every time this is the same mechanic we use to faint attacks so this is perfect practice for that at the same time yay efficiency even when we successfully chamber we can cancel the attack preserving the hp of the enemy and allowing us to keep practicing i find overhead chamber blocking to be the most difficult to pull off and then thrust chamber and finally either side [Music] the final step is to test this in a real battle i recommend starting small one looter will suffice for the final section we will go over combat in the civilian setting there isn't anything particularly difficult here but i wanted to include it as a challenge to you if you're comfortable with everything in this guide then you should be able to clear gangs from a city by yourself without help from companions or troops this is not only a great way to practice our combat safely but we can earn xp in athletics and melee skills as well as charm from relationship game it makes doing prison breaks a breeze afterwards don't forget to stab that like button it really helps me a bunch we are currently in the middle of a highly edited world conquest speed run so if you're interested in checking that series out click the video right here thanks for watching and i'll see you on the next one [Music]

Channel: Strat Gaming Guides

Views: 400,286

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Id: m6Xq48Ok6oY

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021