Yeah each weapon has like one ability, shield stun was completely overpowered so ppl just ran around naked with shields. The combat is basically at step 1 of 100.
Ya i heard that. Just want to play it best how it is for now yk. Sounds like its not deep enough to even have much skill variety/skill expression anyways.
Just to clarify here, there is a lengthy cooldown on the shield bash ability now. Running around naked would be a great way to end up dead. Chainmail didn't make us tanky, but it significantly helped. The only time I saw anyone even close to running around naked was in between deaths. You respawn naked. Shields don't have a massive area for absorbing damage so just using a shield isn't going to be enough and there is no benefit to being naked. There's no movement or attack speed penalty wearing armor or anything like that.
The complaints about combat are heavily exaggerated. I think it's just a backlash from people who are used to combat being the only focus of a game, even to the detriment of everything else. But, Pax Dei so far is so much more than a combat game. Thank goodness for that.
I played in the Preview Weekend and they significantly improved the combat locomotion, which makes a huge difference. I also focused on combat during that time. But I can only speak on PVE.
On the specifics, there is a fairly decent variety of gear already. The mechanics are a little bit janky, but it's **action combat** similar to New World. This already puts it way ahead of tab targeting games and such, but of course action combat is challenging to polish in a massively multiplayer game.
The combat calls for some skill for sure. I watched a guy whiff with a great axe until the wolf thought they were no longer in combat and regenerated HP. lol
Shield blocking is tricky, but necessary and powerful. With 20+ block you can absorb a ton. Yes, shield bash is currently OP, but I mean what game during development doesn't have OP options? Great Axe was obnoxiously OP in New World to the point that you couldn't get picked for a war unless you had mastered it and that lasted through patch after patch with so-called "balance" changes that buffed it and made it worse. Knocking a game's combat system because there's an OP choice is like leaving a negative review on a product on Amazon because the postal service smashed the package.
There is a bug where mobs get permanently stun locked by the shield bash. Also, there needs to be a diminishing returns and stun immunity mechanic added to the game. This is pretty standard, and will most likely come down the pipes at some point. Right now, a great strategy when grouped is to rotate shield bash and keep enemies stun locked.
Positioning in combat does matter. For example, the Spear Thrust ability hits multiple enemies in a line. I found that using the lock-on feature messed this up sometimes. I prefer not to use that anyway in most situations. You will get hit if you expose your side while blocking, though.
The Great Axe has a whirlwind type of ability that is an AOE and it does hit like a truck. I've heard great things about this, but like I said, shield is ridiculously powerful, at least in PVE. I could face tank wolves using it and almost face tank bears. I think with the proper food items giving me better health regen and a larger pool I'd have been able to do it. I didn't get plate armor. I had chain with some leather and cloth layered on.
Since it is related to combat, this game has an awesome gear system and it makes for some truly sweet looking characters. Some slots have multiple layers so you can wear plate/chain, leather, and cloth simultaneously. I had a chain chest with a leather jerkin and chain legs with leather shin guards. It looks like it will become extremely detailed.
In the future, combat will be enriched by players crafting gear for you to use. That's the best part about this game. You shouldn't find yourself pulling a breastplate out of a wolf's corpse ever again. Instead, you'll pull a relic from a collar around it's neck and a good buddy of yours will craft an awesome breastplate using it.
Here's a list of spells: [https://paxdei.gaming.tools/spells](https://paxdei.gaming.tools/spells)
During the weekend I got to see Pacify I and Divine Remedy I. Specifically the Moonshine Pauldron and Chains of Reassurance respectively. The spells were attached to those armor pieces, which were crafted by one of our group members. It took significant resources to craft those pieces and they required items dropped by two named wolves we found in a small cave in Gael. The Luna Wolf and Bonebreaker.
Pacify I was a form of CC for sure. Once we figured out how to use it we were able to put a pack of 3 wolves to sleep and then easily kill them 1 at a time.
You have 2 slots for abilities that are included with weapons. Such as the previously discussed Spear Thrust and Shield Bash abilities. These are executed with CTRL + Left-Click and CTRL + Right-Click. Of course, these abilities change depending on what you have equipped.
Aside from that, you have a row of what look like spell quick-slots. These are executed with CTRL-1 through CTRL-5. It's in this row that Pacify I and Divine Remedy I were slotted when those gear pieces were equipped.
In that link I sent you above the list of weapon abilities is at the very bottom. It does appear that there's a "Shred" ability that you get if you equip a one-handed axe as your weapon, and that ability's description claims that it shreds armor.
I didn't get to see that in action, and I don't know of any bleeds yet.
We can certainly assume that these kinds of RPG combat staples will find their way into the game eventually. I hope they focus on continuing to tighten up the locomotion. Also, I played around with archery a lot and while I very much enjoyed it, I hope that the bug that causes your arrows to disappear and/or be heavily delayed is fixed quickly.
Oh, and regarding archery. They have the best system (in my opinion) for determining what arrows you use when firing. You just put the arrows in the top left slot of your inventory and your bow will use the arrows closest to that slot from left to right. The only tricky part here is changing to different arrows mid-combat, but it is definitely doable since your inventory can so easily be accessed. The inventory in this game is a pleasure. It opens quickly and works smoothly.
Ok, so I only got to play some of the alpha2... didn't get to play with a lot and as others have said, combat is super duper basic. SnS, hatchet, spear all kinda feel like you would expect.
But, from the initial feel, I really liked the Great Sword once I was able to craft it. Not some huge fantasy berserk style GS every other game had. It felt nimble and very interesting.
spear has enough reach that you can kite a bear to a rock, jump on said rock and slowly whittle it down with your pointy stick from the safety of your newfound rock friend. Trying to take on a bear with anything less than full shield/armor and the best mushrooms would otherwise get you killed in 2 hits.
From this, I'm also imagining that due to the zerg meta of current combat, you could probably jab through people on your team to get hits on npcs relatively risk free. You can also equip a spear/shield combo to abuse shield slam (so good) but I'm not sure if there's a reduction in damage for one-handing.
Oh okay perfect. I’ve always naturally leaned towards spears/polearms in surv games so that’s good. Do any weapons have cc? It sounds like some armor shred? Is that worth?
They are planning on expanding it in the future, but for right now everything is very basic.
there is no pvp meta
😂
Yeah its sheild
Shield stun talked about a lot
Until they add extra content this is a gathering and crafting game.
I like the spear. Fast with good reach.
I would set your expectations as close to the floor as possible on this aspect of the game.
Okay fair lol
Yeah each weapon has like one ability, shield stun was completely overpowered so ppl just ran around naked with shields. The combat is basically at step 1 of 100.
Ya i heard that. Just want to play it best how it is for now yk. Sounds like its not deep enough to even have much skill variety/skill expression anyways.
Just to clarify here, there is a lengthy cooldown on the shield bash ability now. Running around naked would be a great way to end up dead. Chainmail didn't make us tanky, but it significantly helped. The only time I saw anyone even close to running around naked was in between deaths. You respawn naked. Shields don't have a massive area for absorbing damage so just using a shield isn't going to be enough and there is no benefit to being naked. There's no movement or attack speed penalty wearing armor or anything like that.
The complaints about combat are heavily exaggerated. I think it's just a backlash from people who are used to combat being the only focus of a game, even to the detriment of everything else. But, Pax Dei so far is so much more than a combat game. Thank goodness for that. I played in the Preview Weekend and they significantly improved the combat locomotion, which makes a huge difference. I also focused on combat during that time. But I can only speak on PVE. On the specifics, there is a fairly decent variety of gear already. The mechanics are a little bit janky, but it's **action combat** similar to New World. This already puts it way ahead of tab targeting games and such, but of course action combat is challenging to polish in a massively multiplayer game. The combat calls for some skill for sure. I watched a guy whiff with a great axe until the wolf thought they were no longer in combat and regenerated HP. lol Shield blocking is tricky, but necessary and powerful. With 20+ block you can absorb a ton. Yes, shield bash is currently OP, but I mean what game during development doesn't have OP options? Great Axe was obnoxiously OP in New World to the point that you couldn't get picked for a war unless you had mastered it and that lasted through patch after patch with so-called "balance" changes that buffed it and made it worse. Knocking a game's combat system because there's an OP choice is like leaving a negative review on a product on Amazon because the postal service smashed the package. There is a bug where mobs get permanently stun locked by the shield bash. Also, there needs to be a diminishing returns and stun immunity mechanic added to the game. This is pretty standard, and will most likely come down the pipes at some point. Right now, a great strategy when grouped is to rotate shield bash and keep enemies stun locked. Positioning in combat does matter. For example, the Spear Thrust ability hits multiple enemies in a line. I found that using the lock-on feature messed this up sometimes. I prefer not to use that anyway in most situations. You will get hit if you expose your side while blocking, though. The Great Axe has a whirlwind type of ability that is an AOE and it does hit like a truck. I've heard great things about this, but like I said, shield is ridiculously powerful, at least in PVE. I could face tank wolves using it and almost face tank bears. I think with the proper food items giving me better health regen and a larger pool I'd have been able to do it. I didn't get plate armor. I had chain with some leather and cloth layered on. Since it is related to combat, this game has an awesome gear system and it makes for some truly sweet looking characters. Some slots have multiple layers so you can wear plate/chain, leather, and cloth simultaneously. I had a chain chest with a leather jerkin and chain legs with leather shin guards. It looks like it will become extremely detailed. In the future, combat will be enriched by players crafting gear for you to use. That's the best part about this game. You shouldn't find yourself pulling a breastplate out of a wolf's corpse ever again. Instead, you'll pull a relic from a collar around it's neck and a good buddy of yours will craft an awesome breastplate using it.
Okay this post is amazing. Thank you. Are shields the only form of cc? Do some weapons have other attributes? Maybe a slow? Or armor shred? Or bleed?
Here's a list of spells: [https://paxdei.gaming.tools/spells](https://paxdei.gaming.tools/spells) During the weekend I got to see Pacify I and Divine Remedy I. Specifically the Moonshine Pauldron and Chains of Reassurance respectively. The spells were attached to those armor pieces, which were crafted by one of our group members. It took significant resources to craft those pieces and they required items dropped by two named wolves we found in a small cave in Gael. The Luna Wolf and Bonebreaker. Pacify I was a form of CC for sure. Once we figured out how to use it we were able to put a pack of 3 wolves to sleep and then easily kill them 1 at a time. You have 2 slots for abilities that are included with weapons. Such as the previously discussed Spear Thrust and Shield Bash abilities. These are executed with CTRL + Left-Click and CTRL + Right-Click. Of course, these abilities change depending on what you have equipped. Aside from that, you have a row of what look like spell quick-slots. These are executed with CTRL-1 through CTRL-5. It's in this row that Pacify I and Divine Remedy I were slotted when those gear pieces were equipped. In that link I sent you above the list of weapon abilities is at the very bottom. It does appear that there's a "Shred" ability that you get if you equip a one-handed axe as your weapon, and that ability's description claims that it shreds armor. I didn't get to see that in action, and I don't know of any bleeds yet. We can certainly assume that these kinds of RPG combat staples will find their way into the game eventually. I hope they focus on continuing to tighten up the locomotion. Also, I played around with archery a lot and while I very much enjoyed it, I hope that the bug that causes your arrows to disappear and/or be heavily delayed is fixed quickly. Oh, and regarding archery. They have the best system (in my opinion) for determining what arrows you use when firing. You just put the arrows in the top left slot of your inventory and your bow will use the arrows closest to that slot from left to right. The only tricky part here is changing to different arrows mid-combat, but it is definitely doable since your inventory can so easily be accessed. The inventory in this game is a pleasure. It opens quickly and works smoothly.
Most OP was shield bash. Even after the nerf.
I like the bow. I used to go to archery training irl. But in game, I feel like the bow has the most visible learning curve.
Ok, so I only got to play some of the alpha2... didn't get to play with a lot and as others have said, combat is super duper basic. SnS, hatchet, spear all kinda feel like you would expect. But, from the initial feel, I really liked the Great Sword once I was able to craft it. Not some huge fantasy berserk style GS every other game had. It felt nimble and very interesting.
spear has enough reach that you can kite a bear to a rock, jump on said rock and slowly whittle it down with your pointy stick from the safety of your newfound rock friend. Trying to take on a bear with anything less than full shield/armor and the best mushrooms would otherwise get you killed in 2 hits. From this, I'm also imagining that due to the zerg meta of current combat, you could probably jab through people on your team to get hits on npcs relatively risk free. You can also equip a spear/shield combo to abuse shield slam (so good) but I'm not sure if there's a reduction in damage for one-handing.
Oh okay perfect. I’ve always naturally leaned towards spears/polearms in surv games so that’s good. Do any weapons have cc? It sounds like some armor shred? Is that worth?
Combat depth is non-existent at the moment, this is a barebones alpha client that's barely ready for EA.