To Kill a Blocking Nerd

[Aranarth]

I had never heard of Mount and Blade until several days ago when I saw it advertised on Steam. I decided to pick it up a couple of days back, and I am having a bit of trouble defending myself against a certain melee tactic. I was wondering if someone might be able to give me some advice on how to handle it.

The situation is when someone with a fast two-handed axe simply swings left-to-right-to-left as quickly as possible. The swings come so fast that all it seems that I can do is block until my shield breaks, and then the next swing hits and kills me before any action can be taken.

I've tried to do all sorts of things to break out of the barrage of attacks, but they come so fast that I just get hit before I accomplish anything if I try to swing back or to kick. Since they're using two-handers, they tend to be faster walking than me and I can't back away fast enough to get out of reach. Getting in closer hasn't allowed me to get in an attack without being struck in the wind up animation.

How do you handle this? When I have a two-hander myself, it's possible for me to block and strike back. When I have a shield, I just seem to get stuck hiding behind it until it breaks.


For all of the TL;DR crowd: The person was not feitning or trying to block. It was just constant left, right, left swings. Please don't keep responding telling me that I need to learn to deal with feinting and blocking in order to handle this person who does not feint or block. Thanks.

 

[Feragorn]

block with a onehand weapon, then GTFO.

 

[CMarshall]

If you can land a manual block once your shield breaks, then hit your enemy and break up his attack. Go on the offensive. The best way to work on your manual blocking would probably be the tutorial.. turn all the settings up to hardest - Full damage/Fastest speed / Manual block and do the sparring practice a thousand times. I find that against 2 handers, manual blocking will get you out of trouble with the least effort.

 

[Eluqqa]

Training. There's no magic tactic, but you're bound to get better. If you have a onehander, you can hit them faster than they can hit you. People will often feint, some will even trash about their weapons uncontrollably before landing a hit. If you can fend off the reflex to block when they feint, you can get them there.

 

[Almalexia]

Or just pack some darts. Nothing is more infuriating to your typical two-hander wielder that getting a dart embedded in their face before they get a chance to strike.

 

[socks]

Go to a DM server with no shield and practice blocking.

 

[Drekor]

Kick, chamber block or some fancy footwork can all have you avoiding the attacks... you just need to time them right.

 

[Teladis]

Ya I might get flamed but I really don't like some of the things that people do in muti player.



Fake swing to block is one. If you do a swing it should swing stopping a sword let alone a 2 hander in mid swing to block is not only retarded but makes the whole parry system pointless.

 

[behrditz]

Use a parry.  From your point of view, if their weapon is coming from your left, swing to the left as it is coming in.  That will block the hit, and continue your swing for damage.

 

[Evilfish]

Kinda annoying the 2h speed. Everyone is just packing a 2h lately and pounding that mouse like it's a fine ass. The only use for a shield is to stop range damage. Wish I could play vs melee with a shield. But guess I'll have to join the masses till they do something about 2h weapons or 1h.

 

[Mastrshake9XI]

I've been in the same situation plenty of times and it can be very frustrating. One would think that blocking with a shield and then attacking with a FASTER one-hander right after would solve this but its not the case. Their attacks are always faster than yours after you block which is ridiculous. Something has to change because right now shield users are at a disadvantage against two handers.

 

[HTAPAWASO]

You should be able to get a strike in before your shield breaks.

It's about slightly pre-empting what will happen, and having quick reflexes.

Just get used to the rhythm of their attack, and launch yours as close to the sound of your shield being hit as possible.
Of course this is the very reason feinting works - so keep your wits about you and prepare to jam the block button down again real quick if they go for a feint.


Another thing to remember is choosing the right attack direction.
The earlier in the animation you hit them, the quicker your swing is.
If they're standing to your right, use a right-to-left swing, and vice versa.
Overheads will generally be slower, and stabs quicker, but stabs are more likely to glance off and get you killed if you use it improperly (or you might miss altogether).



Also remember that the practical range difference between a 1h sword and most 2hs really isn't that big.
It's perfectly possible to dart out of range of their swing, and then move back in and hit them with your own.
Some of them don't expect it because they don't realise it's possible.

 

[Archonsod]

Chamber block. The thing about those big two handers is they telegraph the attack well ahead of time, and usually when someone is simply spamming swings they're in a predictable pattern so they're relatively easy to chamber once you know when in their strike to do it.

 

[JoG]

There is no such thing as fast two-handed axe. Over.

 

[darkhorse]

Here is a tactic that will sometimes work: if you see a 2-her coming for you, feign a retreat, turning around and running from them. Chances are when they see this they will throw caution to the wind and chase after you will a killing strike chambered. Just before they reach you, reverse directions and spin around as you slash. I've killed a surprising number of people like this, and I am mediocre at best when it comes to melee.

 

[Emyrion]

If you want to be REALLY fancy, you can just get close. If you're too close, and start circling around him his attacks will bounce off you half the time, due to extreme negative speed bonuses. They'll do negligible to no damage

Not a recommended strategy, but I have used it effectively on a number of occasions. Works better once you already have tier 3 or higher armor.

 

[Night Ninja]

Fake swing to block is one. If you do a swing it should swing stopping a sword let alone a 2 hander in mid swing to block is not only retarded but makes the whole parry system pointless.

It's called feinting. Learn to play. And yes, it's done very easily IRL as well.

 

[Ekardt]

Here is a tactic that will sometimes work: if you see a 2-her coming for you, feign a retreat, turning around and running from them. Chances are when they see this they will throw caution to the wind and chase after you will a killing strike chambered. Just before they reach you, reverse directions and spin around as you slash. I've killed a surprising number of people like this, and I am mediocre at best when it comes to melee.

**** this is the most annoying ass bull**** in the entire game. I hate it so much.

 

[robbyg]

I cant really add anything that hasnt been said already.

I think it's the same for everyone when they first play multiplayer, whether u played the original or not (although im sure it helps somewhat).

Go to 22nd Duel Server or the Einharjar Duel server(passworded but check the Einharjar Duel Server Thread to see the password and read the server rules).

You can fight as 1hand/shield or 2 hander vs mostly 2 handers as u like and im sure, like myself, your ratio will be really bad to start but now i can do pretty well in duel servers.

Teamdeathmatch servers helps too or any server with a fast respawn time and just dont be afraid to get stuck in.

The main tactic i use as a nord vs a 2 handed swadian maniac is as follows:

If they arent aware of you yet then use throwing axes - heavy if you can afford them (i buy heavy throwing axes at the expense of a good shield/armour lately). A few hours in a duel server having a throwing axe duel was enough to get me fairly proficient at using them and ive had some really good/awesome kills using them.

The reason i say get the most expensive is it sux when you land a hit but they dont die so maximise your kill potential by using the best.

Apart from that i use footwork. I stay out of range and wait for my opportunity. They will get frustrated and move in too close and then, as soon as you hear their weapon strike your shield u do the fastest attack you can and if/when u land the hit it's usually easy to finish them off because the spammers usually fail at blocking.

Conversely if you're not great at blocking yourself then a good 2 hander will just attack attack attack and land hit after hit so it's useful to practice manual blocking/duelling  if you ever want to play on manual block servers.

 

[Aranarth]

Training. There's no magic tactic, but you're bound to get better. If you have a onehander, you can hit them faster than they can hit you. People will often feint, some will even trash about their weapons uncontrollably before landing a hit. If you can fend off the reflex to block when they feint, you can get them there.

I am seeing a lot of advice like this, but this isn't the specific situation I was talking about.

There is no feinting. That gives you time to react. It's when they swing left-to-right-to-left as quickly as possible. Blocking with the weapon after the shield breaks doesn't work. Breaking the shield causes you to stumble a little bit as a sort of stun, and I am getting hit before I can recover from that. That's how fast the swings are coming.

There isn't time to get a swing in between. I just get hit on the wind up and don't get a chance to start swinging.

Of course there are javelins and such to hit them at range, but once they've closed in this isn't an option and I am basically stuck. No time to switch weapons with them on top of you.