How does your native clan practice?

[Lord Rich]

The main thing is having players who will take personal responsibility for improving themselves, scheduled trainings or scrims will do pretty much zero to actively improve individual skill and that's the baseline for everything else.

On top of skill you have teamwork, that can be improved somewhat by playing on battle servers as a team although this tends to help the infantry less. I think infantry need some dedicated practice at individually fighting with a shield and also group style and 2v1's. We have used private TDM in the past to good effect but it requires people to play properly and not muck about to have results.

On top of teamwork you have tactics. That really comes down to the individuals aptitude for it and I don't think it can be learned that easily without at least some prior motivation or ability. Copying what other teams do successfully is a good idea though if you are drawing a blank and being willing to change your assumptions quickly is also important. Training matches are the only place where you can really practice tactics, if your approach doesn't work immediately, try to see why and if there is a way to fix it, good strategies are rarely developed in isolation and often take a fair bit of beating out to get right.

The most important thing overall though comes back to that individual skill bit. You aren't going to make a player good by getting them to come to lots of trainings. They have to be willing to improve themselves by themselves if necessary. Assuming you can fairly field a team of players who are individually motivated though, as a clan I would simply recommend:

• Playing together a lot on battle and duel
• Doing shield duels regularly (just between individuals, doesn't have to be a training or whatever)
• Once every few weeks having a private TDM session for infantry group cohesion
• One or two training matches a week to verify and test tactics as well as check on team performance

 

[Reapy]

...but it requires people to play properly and not muck about to have results.

I think that is a key thing I've seen over the years with people who get really good and those that tend to hit a certain level and stay there. I always noticed any skill jumps I had for myself came on the back of playing ****ty for a week while focusing in on something I wanted to learn above general success. Some people can't seem to understand not trying for the win or a high score, but deciding to work on a skill for a little while and dieing for it.

When I wanted to learn chambering I spent a few nights trying to do nothing but it, going something like 2 and 45 in tdm's for a long while. The result was being one of the few people early on to use chambering in the game while playing 'regularly' while a lot of people dismissed it.  The only thing I had done was decide to learn it and practice it, once other players started doing the same they grew and surpassed me easily, but it was only the attitude adjustment to focus in on improving that needed the change.

I have zero scrim experience, but I have noticed that at a certain competency levels with people's individual skill, you get a lot of teamwork for free. I goof around in TDM mostly which has a huge range of skill levels, and one thing you notice is that the people that don't quite get the game yet just get in the way. With better players, teamwork emerges without any communication. You both just act in a way that makes the most sense for the game mechanics. The better the player, the more clever the teamwork.

I wonder how much that carries through though, like you could take a bunch of good strangers and put them together vs a tight team of lesser skill, who would come out first?

 

[Lord Rich]

...

I wonder how much that carries through though, like you could take a bunch of good strangers and put them together vs a tight team of lesser skill, who would come out first?

Really depends if you have any good leaders in the former and if they have any players who are loose cannons. If the former team is made of a team who are competent in generally working with others and they have at least one player who can lead and knows tactics, they will probably win. Methods of play aren't so different between teams that you wouldn't be able to work together.

If those conditions aren't met then the team that is weaker in individual skill may well end up winning because of tactics.

 

[Mr.X]

I was bored so I decided to draw from how BkS trains. Hopefully this helps. I also realize X is going to come in here and try to refute everything I say but w/e...

k.

Individual skill should come first. Without it you can't pull off teamplay properly.
However, individual skill comes mainly through knowledge and then practice.

Here's what you should do (imo);

1. Theory, know what you should be trying to achieve.
2. Keep playing, and everytime you die, think why you died. (this part is important)
3. Once you know why you died, change something and repeat.

other tips:

1. Shamelessly copy anyone that's better than you, or when you see someone play with a new style. Analyze what he's doing and why it's working. Figure out a counter to it and learn what he was doing, then think about how you can mix the best elements of his style to yours.
Example: Cleric gets owned by Contys. Cleric copies him, takes the best parts of his style and adds them to his own.
Result: Cleric is str0nker than before he got owned by Contys. Before that, Contys copied his style from other players.

隐藏: If you're interested in who i have copied over the years:

R3ad, Novic, Warmonger, Irishman (inf), Vivar, Trebron (cav), Serkan, Red War (archer) (only counting the main influences)

2. Don't be afraid to play tdm or dm. It can be very useful for practicing cav, archer and throwing. Just throw until you run out of things to throw and respawn, repeat. + can be fun to troll like that =D

3. Learn to use javelins. Ask Paulo or Toi if interested in how it feels to get javspammed.

隐藏: POWER OF JAVS!!1!111

Pretty much this. Also a  lot of what AZAN said. TMW doesn't do this as often any more, but we used to just practice group fighting all infantry for an hour or so. Then add a cav or something and repeat.

Oh! And TMW makes fun of me for this sometimes, but I believe its important as a student of the body and all that jazz. I warm up my hands/wrists before playing for long periods of time. I really should do it more. But like if TMW has an hour of ingame training and then a match all prepared, I have light yoga type stuff (but mostly focusing on the hands and wrists) prepared as a warband routine.

I haven't read all the individual skill stuff people wrote here, but I totally agree that individual skill really does come first in almost all situations. I think people tend to ignore things like proper posture and safe hand position and stuff like that in these games, but I personally find them extremely helpful.

 

[Lagstro]

I think people tend to ignore things like proper posture and safe hand position and stuff like that in these games, but I personally find them extremely helpful.

^ Yes. Being well seated, and handling your mouse in a comfortable, effective way really helps with increasing your reaction speed. Also.. since we are talking about pre-game techniques, it has recently become a new wK tradition (similar to BkS not wearing helmets I suppose)  to take a gigantic pre-game power **** whenever a match is about to start. Our record so far is having 6 members taking a gigantic crap at the same time. True team effort right there if you ask me. (I believe this was achieved right before the wK vs Balion match. I'd say the effectiveness of this technique is quite clear  )

 

[Reapy]

As someone who gets next to no sleep with kids or just from staying up late, and maybe nearing my mid 30's, I noticed a significant difference in my playing when I had enough sleep the night before. I could be feeling fine and awake, but in reality my reaction times were just slower by a bit and I couldn't really keep up, or even maintain focus through the 'boring' sections of playing, where as having had a full nights sleep really did make a difference in my energy level. I wonder if you could duplicate it by just having a red bull or something right before you play though.

At one point I remember I tried to do 10 pushups every time I lost a duel, all that ended up was me getting increasingly ****ty as I got more tired, which made me lose, which caused more pushups, which made me tired... yeah didn't really work to well. Though My problem has always been my attention span, so I was trying to do things to give myself more energy and attention while playing, so it is really just finding your weakness and trying to work on it.

One last thing someone told me was that it is more useful to learn any skill by doing it 5 - 10 minutes a day, rather than say 2x a week in large blocks... by encountering it every day your brain tends to rank it as important and things tend to stick more often than infrequent long training sessions would do.

 

[Vissy]

To continue on what Reapy said, our brain processes information during sleep and even during the next day. If you've spent a considerable deal of effort trying to improve yourself, it's important to have breaks and 'recharge' yourself again. I don't mean 1 hour breaks when you go watch the Simpsons or anything, I mean you won't play for a day or two and then come back to check on it.

 

[Reapy]

I recall watching a random netflix documentary about sleep, really interesting, and like Das Knecht said our dreams are really our brain processing all the input we've taken in. Since watching it and being aware of it, you can really see the effects of it when looking for it. When I came off the like year or so long warband hiatus a bit ago it was almost starting from zero.

I spent a few hours trying to build back some blocking reaction time and was getting nowhere, but after sleeping it off and coming back the next day the difference was noticeable. The same when I tried a month or so to play a guitar, I couldn't bend my fingers into the G chord for the life of me, I was like ok, well it says human beings can put their fingers this way, I should be able to do this! I couldn't even bend my fingers correctly when using my other hand to shape them, horrible. But after trying a while then quitting, next day I could start to move them into position.

It is a really interesting thing to know about ourselves and is all the more neater to be aware of it and notice it happening.

 

[WilySly]

a new wK tradition...to take a gigantic pre-game power **** whenever a match is about to start. Our record so far is having 6 members taking a gigantic crap at the same time. I'd say the effectiveness of this technique is quite clear

There goes our competitive edge 

 

[Snoop]

Evidently you may be better off asking people through PMs, Snoop.  Great insight from Harn however.

I agree.

3. Learn to use javelins. Ask Paulo or Toi if interested in how it feels to get javspammed.

隐藏: POWER OF JAVS!!1!111

I've always been afraid to use javs because they are so inaccurate.

I have light yoga type stuff (but mostly focusing on the hands and wrists) prepared as a warband routine.

Yeah, sometimes it's hard to get laid.

At one point I remember I tried to do 10 pushups every time I lost a duel, all that ended up was me getting increasingly ****ty as I got more tired, which made me lose, which caused more pushups, which made me tired... yeah didn't really work to well.

I have a similar story. Whenever I lose a duel, I slap myself in the face 10 times with a slice of bologna, throw it on the ground, jump stomp it ten times and then make a sammich. It's always a win.

 

[KoA John]

a new wK tradition...to take a gigantic pre-game power **** whenever a match is about to start. Our record so far is having 6 members taking a gigantic crap at the same time. I'd say the effectiveness of this technique is quite clear

There goes our competitive edge 

It went right down the toilet

 

[sotamursu123]

3. Learn to use javelins. Ask Paulo or Toi if interested in how it feels to get javspammed.

隐藏: POWER OF JAVS!!1!111

I've always been afraid to use javs because they are so inaccurate.

It's mainly about teamplay and knowing WHEN to throw and what to aim for. Kind of same as playing archer except you don't need to be accurate.

 

[CoolMB]

As a person who frequently goes to practices........oh wait, that's not me. Carry on.

 

[ClockWise]

I've always been afraid to use javs because they are so inaccurate.

Javs are a wonderful tool. Have 4 or 5 people throwing them and even if individually they generally can't hit a thing, grouped together and helped to understand the who/what/when/where/why of using javs, those same inaccurate javs can become a huge plus and the people doing the throwing increase both in skill and confidence wit teh throwin wepz.

 

[xls]

Some of wK's archers (mainly Robert, Ranger, and I, even though Ranger isn't with us anymore) train by what we call archer duels, in which we meet up on the field, turn around, and start walking away from each other until we reach a specified distance. We then turn to face each other, we jump in the air ~ simultaneously, and once we hit the ground, the archer duel begins and we start shooting at each other until one of us dies.

I remember being part of this once just before I leave the US. I was very tired and playing really bad, but I'm gonna admit that archer dueling is one my weakest points, as Lag and Robert proved it that day.

隐藏

Getting headshot every now and then

It was a wonderful way of practicing for archers. +1 for this Snoop.

 

[Snoop]

I've always been afraid to use javs because they are so inaccurate.

Javs are a wonderful tool. Have 4 or 5 people throwing them and even if individually they generally can't hit a thing, grouped together and helped to understand the who/what/when/where/why of using javs, those same inaccurate javs can become a huge plus and the people doing the throwing increase both in skill and confidence wit teh throwin wepz.

3. Learn to use javelins. Ask Paulo or Toi if interested in how it feels to get javspammed.

隐藏: POWER OF JAVS!!1!111

I've always been afraid to use javs because they are so inaccurate.

It's mainly about teamplay and knowing WHEN to throw and what to aim for. Kind of same as playing archer except you don't need to be accurate.

I'm fairly proficient with javs. The early post was a bit of sarcasm on my part. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMMBMbYro1k

 

[Maynd]

Teamwork OP

 

[Orion]

My native clan (Forum Elite Warriors, [FEW]) practices in a couple of ways.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, we practice by aggressively typing on two keyboards at once for a minimum of 4 hours straight and with a speed of at least 80 words per minute per hand. The acceptable tolerance for typos is <1%. We all sit in voip with our mics on and swear at each other to make sure we're properly aggravated, to ensure that our posts meet a minimum standard of acerbic-ness. Each member must submit no less than ten pages of scathingly arrogant criticisms of other members of the clan per week, or they'll be penalized. The penalty involves going into this section of the forums and getting into fiery arguments at every available opportunity.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we all huddle together in a voip channel and berate other members of the community for their faulty theorycrafting and lack of understanding of the meta, and for being assholes. There must be at least two hypocritical statements made per member each day, or we're not being prickish enough.

For Casual Fridays, we laugh at the logical failings in YouTube comments.

Whenever we have free time in the week or on weekends, we may actually post on the forums.

 

[Snoop]

Now I know how Nevino feels. 

 

[Orion]

You can join our vetting clan (Wall Of Text [WOT?]) to see if you have what it takes to get upped into FEW.