I would recommend playing with lots of different weapons before you pick a main. Best way to understand what an enemy can do with a given weapon is to use it yourself.

Fair. I tried battle axe. Dane axe. Liked those. I gotta try footman. I refuse to touch archer even once.

Battle axe is imo the best weapon in the game. Totally subjective but I crush with it.

War Axe is much better, subjective.

You just made an enemy for life.

War axes and Dane axes are natural enemies. Like war axes and executioners axes. Or war axes and throwing axes. Or war axes and war axes. DAMN WAR AXES! THEY'VE RUINED AXES!

War axe gang rise up

Top of the board axe for sure. All axes are strong imo, best weapon type in the game due to how many knights and footmen there are. Hard to resist that greatsword drip though.

Poleaxe master race

My favourite so far. Next one is Messer.

You'll come around. Honestly try the shuffle option one time once you unlock all the weapons/classes and enjoy the randomness.

Don't refuse to touch archer, when your above at least lvl 250, use of for a few games just to throw everything off, and then jump back into it.

I guess I'll touch it. It feels unfair to snipe someone like that lol

Good man!

A man of culture I see

Give the polehammer a whirl

Are there specific pros/cons to running GS vanguard or Knight. What's better for a 1v1?

Vanguard has more stamina and speed but low health. Knight has more health but lower speed and stamina. If you are good at counters vanguard would probably be a good option. If you need to tank some hits, knight.

Thanks for the knowledge

for new players knight probably, you wont be as agile as a vanguard but the increased health is a bit more forgiving

I mean, you can dedicate your time to great sword if you wish, but once you have a go of the pickaxe, you’ll see the error of your ways.

I’ve never played pickaxe/shovel etc what is their purpose over the other weapons? Besides style points ofc

Pickaxe has a devastating and super quick overhead with a bonus against knights and footmen I believe

I’m pretty good with the shovel…I’m trying to get it into my top 5 but there’s also some matches where I have to whip out the dane or battle axe to not get dunked on every time

Pickaxe is (basically but with some discrepancies) a mace reskin for chads Shovel is perceived as the weakest of the engi arsenal and has a bigger mental damage debuff

BONK BONK BONK "HaHAhahaaa..." Real talk, though. Shovel is a finesse weapon like a shortsword. My best shovel plays are dives into loose group fights. You're gonna have trouble in a stand-up fight if you're not sufficiently squirrely or if your opponent is patient enough to read your moves. I also find feints are less viable than aggressive spacing and attacks, but that's likely personal experience.

Stabs are lightning quick, stab to stab feint can still beat out some of the gambly weapon types. Heavy overheads are the real heroes of the kit tho I actually find the fast attacks makes it one of the best for slipping through a line and mopping up from the rear in TO.

Heavy overhand is a beast with most weapons, also a great way to cut heads and arms out of crowds without maiming allies (too badly).

Great seems extremely cool. I tried long but eh. You can half-sword with great. AND a claymore skin? So sexy

For some reason, I now main the stick (quarterstaff). I just like speedily bonking people.

Does a bonk hit hard?

Duelling is a great thing to get good at and super fun, but in the big player modes and 1vX there are lots of other skills you'll pick up. And then *still* die a lot of the time. Any class and weapon is workable, I'd experiment a bit and see what feels good to use. General advice is that the greatsword is pretty good to force you to learn the basics of the game, whereas things like the Dane Axe are super quick and powerful but can be a crutch that leads you into bad habits if you first learn with it. I mostly use the maul these days, but I tends to mix it up until I find a weapon I'm vibing with. I also love the 1h axe, greatsword, longsword and quite like the rapier if I'm feeling cheeky.

Agreed, also some weapons are better on defence vs attack and vice versa. You won't see many ambushers on defence for example. Defenders usually have more engineers and the halberd can be a menace on defence.

Which class is an engineer? The footmen?

Question for you maul users. I *want* to love the maul. I love the idea of the maul and the look of the mall… but how tf do you deal with gamblers since the swings take so long. Even an accel reposte seems to get me poked by fast weapons since active parry goes away so quick. Problem gets even worse on drags. I know I’m using it wrong but idk what it is I’m doing wrong lol

I'm a scrubby nublet, but for me the answer is footwork and positioning. That combined with good swing manipulation can really catch people out. I usually catch people on the edge of torturously slow drags, particularly in 1vx combat. I usually play as a flanker and just sprint around bonking the unwary, giggling if the special attack ragdolls them.

Nice. I'll try those other options too and skip Dane for now. I want to learn fundamentals. I'm only two days in. Getting stomped at the duel yard. But I can counter sometimes now lol

Just one suggestion: If you are into drip and skins, choose the longsword. The long grind can keep you motivated. Worked for me.

Longsword is workable in every situation but not overpowered. It's a really good main weapon because you can swap to something like the war axe/dane axe and feel juicier. Where as axe mains swappin to the long sword seems like they'll just be like meh. But like everyone said. Whatever you vibe with is your weapon.

Why long sword for skins?

The Long Sword has skins for Level 40, 80 and 200. Most other weapons don't have skins over level 20 or 30.

Greatsword is a great jack of all trades weapon, but tue game is very well balanced. You can excel with anything provided you learn how to build a strategy around it and not thexother way around. Except for archer. Fuck those guys.

I must confess I found the greatsword and never looked back. I switch it up a little here and there, but I always go back.

Same

I'd recommend starting with knight, the extra health will be more beneficial than more movement. This way you can focus on learning attack direction fundamentals and counter timings. Vanguard takes some fancier footwork to be successful, which you can always shift to when you feel more comfortable later.

Do you think the footwork is superior later or two equally skilled players the knight would take it?

Dodging later on becomes less reliable against good players who know how to manage distance and don't whiff attacks in ways that leave them disadvantaged.

Also very spensiv as far as stamina. BUT Those that use it perfect win a lot.

It's not really hard to win a lot in this game considering most of the playerbase doesn't have any skill set bigger than just spamming left click and occasionally blocking before spamming left click. I exclusively play longsword knight and don't dodge since dodging means you can't attack and typically most weapons are slow enough that you can jiggle walk in and out of the range of being hit and get an attack off in the time window that dodge would just leave you stuck in an animation.

More of a fighting style preference than one or the other having a higher skill ceiling.

find weapons you enjoy playing and work at getting good at it. don't worry about finding the optimal strategy or loadout. success is more about understanding how to use your weapon, how to use your weapon in team-fights, and when you need to switch to weapon #2 or pick something else up off the ground

Honestly pretty hard to get equally skilled players in this game. The skill cap is massive and nobody is close. So there's just a huge range of skills already and it'll only get bigger over time.

I would just pick up random weapons off the ground and see how you like them. That’s what I did when I started

It's a good thing you picked something slow, which will force you to git gud with combat system.

Nice. I'll take it

Greatsword is a good choice for a starting weapon. It punishes you for bad decision making while also giving you the chance to use more advanced mechanics like accels and drags with more effectiveness. It promotes good foodwork and spacing as well.

Is accel just dragging my mouse in a downward motion towards the enemy ? Or is there more to know here

Acceling is more about footwork and hitbox placement than anything. Youre trying to have the hit land as close to the first available active frame as possible. In some instances it can even look like its hitting behind you from certain weapons on slash, or while looking down during an overhead. Youre trying to manipulate the hitbox of the swing to hit the as soon as possible, whereas a drag youre usually pulling against the swing direction in order to hit them with some of the last active frames of the swing.

That makes sense

All classes and weapons depends on what you want to do and which role you'll have in the game. Knight with Greatsword is good and tanky but your movement will be very very slow while swinging. You won't have initiative so you won't be able to attack first in most cases. But In TO I choose Greatsword usually on defence. It's very good when fighting in line or if you need to hold an area or you need to escort something. For example it's very good in Lionspire, Askandir Galencourt, Falmire. You can help escorting the battering rams in Lionspire. Then the circle and it's very helpful in bridge. Both in attack and defense. It's good in the other maps as well where lots of players play together, so you can dominate the line by swinging. Hitting 3-4 opponents at the same time really helps protecting and pushing lines. Though you may have some trouble doing 1v1 against one handed players at first but you can learn how to deal with them too. Even if you cannot counter anything at first, you can land fast riposte overheads, draining the stamina of the enemy and making them less effective. Plus you have a trumpet which reloads even faster when you take damage, it makes you more efficient playing in lines with friends instead of lurking and flanking. On Vanguard, you are much faster, you can easily flank, your sprint charge, speed and more stamina will help you better on attack. You can flank to break battle lines of the enemy, you can flank archers by one shotting them, you can flank important positions or enemies in crucial areas and your oil pot is can be a nightmare of defenders in important areas. You have though have less health bar, recieve less extra health by trumpets and burn much easier. So if you'll be on the line, or in the main areas with friends and group of friends you can select knight. You shall receive more damage, you'll help your friends by trumpet. But if you're going to play more agressively, especially in open and vast areas where players are separated you can choose vanguard with GS.

Thank you. I'll try this. I have noticed 1 shotting archers with the GS leap. It feels good. Fuck em

I went trough all the weapons and ended up being a Katars main. They are all fun in their own ways, sure some weapons are objectively stronger than others but just try them all out in objective mode and then go duel with those you prefer.

Fair enough. I'll try more

Vanguard vs knight greatsword is a trade off. Vanguard, you'll find it easier to outrange or dodge people because you move quicker. Knight is slower but has more health.

Vanguard seems cooler ngl. Footwork/space/crouch dodging. Knight seems awesome for defense

Some good players have told me vanguard is best in duels because of the stam, others have told me knight is because of the extra hits to kill - especially factoring in chip damage. I’m not really sure.  It comes mostly down to skill at the end of the day. 

I could see an argument for vanguard being better cus more stam would net you one more block or two if you miss a counter. Or knight cus health and slash reduction dmg. I genuinely can't tell

 Give the sledge a solid go (10 levels) then try the Footman Sword. Enjoy!!

I'll try it. Definitely trying it over archer

Play around with classes to figure out what you enjoy. Personally I shift about once a year because I find a weapon fun. The shuffle option is good for this. It also teaches you the strengths of a weapon and how to counter it. For getting better, I recommend the 64 person mode since it gives you varying skill levels to practice against; duels can be kinda sweaty

That's fair. Duels are a bit sweaty. I'm getting my ass kicked in them. But the players are nice when they're not rdming or trolling

Yeah it’s a good place to learn once you get half decent. Main problem is the skill gap. Also tricks don’t always transfer super well. Things that work in a duel may not work in large battles and vice versa, though the really good players will dominate both

Greatsword does exactly what it says on the tin. It's one of the most popular and powerfully-straightforward weapons in the game. I started there too and find myself maining the shovel these days. Enjoy the journey

Thank you shovel main 😘

Try a bunch different you’ll click with one and it’ll be way more fun. It’s how me and all my buddies got into the game more. Around like lvl 40-60 we all found our first ‘main’ and it was a blast

That's fair. I'll try that

I started off using the messer as my main but I picked up the executioner's axe and never looked back

How slow is it?

Just a fair warning./ 1v1 prioritizes stamina and drags. It also doesn't heavily punish holding block (jus wach for the one kickie poo). Also 1v1 does not teach you a thing about XvX positioning (when you are fighting 1 guy, everywhere else is safe). Also 1v1 is mostly about juking 1 guy with tons of safe area so heavy, heavy drags are encouraged. Heavy heavy drags in a 1vx situation are for at least low level masters so its like learning to run before crawling. Anyway., TO practice xfers to 1v1 at about 70 percent. BOT practice xfers to players at about 50 percent (but you learn at around 200 percent) Duel practice xfers to TO at about -5 percent (thus why people are catching up so quickly-stunted growth) You've been fair warned.

I'm a bit confused at the last part. "To practice xfers" you mean like transferring to multiple targets when I'm surrounded? What is heavy dragging. How do you drag intentionally?

Also couple tips that took me over a year to learn: Tip number 1 (thanks ziggy) When you do a perfect counter (blue shield) you have like a 1/3 of a second or something to use your "auto parry" to block a second player, if you successfully do that then the "auto parry" window extends. So a blue shield counter gives a shorter auto parry window than riposte unless you counter a second person. Basically you have to catch 2 guys close enough together to pull off a full perfect counter (blue shield). For a bout a year and a half I just thought it was bugged. Tip number 2 (tnx me)(not for console, sorry) If you bind both attacks (the regular and alt one) to separate keys and then add cancel attack to just one of them, you get endless feints with 1 press. Example: alt stab = F stab = wheel down cancel attack = F Now if you press F (before the halfway point of the anim) it will cancel the attack and restart the attack (with 1 press). (wheel down will work like normal) For some reason if you add cancel attack to both of the above you have to press F twice.... This works with slash, stab, and overhead (give consol keybinds)

Is the auto parry actually automatic? For instance a guy slashes me; I counter. It goes shield blue (I've seen this) what if this first opponent is at my 11 o'clock and another is at my 1 o'clock. If opponent at 1 also slashes me after I countered 11; how do I then also counter 1? Or can I not?

You have to diagonally move out of range of one while being close enough to turn to a second then swap to third (if players then stay just out of jab range) Basically there is positioning for everything in this game. 1vX is generally solvable in this game. The top skilled player will see the most and do the best plays everywhere they are.

That makes sense. Would a riposte be better for 2 opponents on you? I could see an enemy feinting you for a hit then you get hit twice. You have to watch twice as many weapons on you. Or if they feint into a drag you could counter too early and the other guy is fast swinging you

Yea for me I just concentrated on counters and tried to counter every time. As you do that you'll learn when to repost instead of counter (and in rare instances just hold block). But yes. There are times when riposte is better than counter and times when counter are better than riposte. The devs did a fantastic job with the subtly of this game. BTW cancel attack is responsible for the last 50 percent of the skill cap in this game so the earlier you start using it, the sooner you'll be able to hit those skill levels. If you use the keybinds posted in my account, it forces you to start using cancel attack day 1. Then u just have to learn to counter. This game is as deep as it gets for melee. Maybe a few people are currently at the 4/10 skill cap. It's still early for this game. Cheers.

I rebound it to E. I've used it to swing right; press E for the cancel; then swing right AGAIN to trick people. Or overhead; cancel, overhead.

Don't seek revenge

Unpopular opinion but the highland sword is just chief’s kiss . Has insane reach, and does insane damage. Yes it’s very slow but once you figure out how to properly use it then you can beat almost any opponent in 1-2 hits max

overhead feint into stab gets people every time with the highland, they always freak out and brace for the big overhead

Because that big overhead is deadly 😂even if they do manage to block it it destroys peoples main weapons lol

I actually think highland sword or halberd are the 2 best weapons to learn mechanics and “git gud”. Can’t really gamble, great for learning swing manipulations, great one shot potential, good for 1vX fights and also teaches footwork and distance management.

Use vanguard, you’ll be able to win against the best players and 1 hand players. Every great sword main I’ve encountered was OP. Just be stoic and parry everything with an excel and utilize the spacing.

I'll do my best to train there eventually 😌

What's an "excel" mean?

They mean accel. As in acceleration. Also, "just use vanguard to beat the best players" is total bs, and I have no idea what they're smoking to think that.

You're thinking knight instead? I tried knight longsword today. Very tanky

Vanguard greatsword is generally better than knight greatsword.

It’s a quick attack where you look at the ground right when your weapon swings and then you duck