Combat Guide

From Savage 2 Strategy Wiki

Translations: /de DEUTSCH

Contents 1 Combat in Savage 2 1.1 Melee 1.1.1 Situations for Melee Combat 1.1.2 Melee Combat Overview 1.2 Range 1.2.1 Situations for Ranged Combat 1.3 Prioritizing Enemy Targets 1.3.1 Either Faction 1.3.2 As Human/Against Beast 1.3.3 As Beast/Against Human

Combat in Savage 2

The majority of the combat in Savage 2 strikes a very strong balance between melee and ranged combat, with many, many opportunities for each method - often in the same encounter. Proper use of both combat methods is far more efficient than skilled-yet-exclusive use of either, and thus it's important to learn where each method comes into play and how best to switch between them.

This guide will primarily focus on the five main action classes for each side, and thus the main discussion of the uses for siege and hellbourne units will be contained elsewhere.

Melee

Melee combat involves fighting up close to enemy players and structures - using sword, axe, hammer, staff, and claw (melee weapons) to strike at targets that are relatively close to you - at a distance considered to be "melee range". Generally melee range is within striking distance of a melee weapon, as well as a short distance out which is mostly used for maneuvering purposes (dodging, charging, strafing, etc.). Melee combat has the highest density of damage and risk - allowing a player to deal an extraordinary amount of damage in a very short time period, but also leaving that player a lot more vulnerable to damage and ultimately death.

Melee combat also benefits significantly from having a close-knit group of teammates fighting a less than or equal amount of enemy players. Your group can overwhelm enemy players up close and significantly reduce damage taken in melee range (by eliminating enemy players quickly and reducing their ability to retaliate), as well as provide a solid mass of meat (the high combined health of your group) to absorb the ligher and less damaging ranged weaponry.

Situations for Melee Combat

• Attacking buildings.
• You're close to the enemy and they have their ranged weapon out (melee pretty much always out-damages range).
• You can catch up to an enemy revenant - revenants have very low melee damage and it's pretty easy to take them down up close.
• When behind an enemy player and close to them - almost all of the classes in the game (barring behemoths) can't block or stun you from behind, and you deal 15% more damage to the rear of targets regardless of which class you are.
• When attacking a behemoth - their high armor and health regeneration allows them to ignore all but the heaviest ranged attacks.
• When a teammate or group of teammates is moving to melee range and you're either attacking a tower/spire or have superior numbers.
• Focus on one enemy at a time. A unit that is on 25% health does just as much damage as a unit on 100%, so don't flip between enemies, focus on one till it's dead.
• Conversely, killing off nearby enemies may be preferable to chasing an enemy who you are unable to kill.

Melee Combat Overview

Melee combat in Savage 2 is divided into a few different moves that each of the primary combat classes can execute. They are as follows:

• Attack
• Block
• Jump Attack
• Dodge
• Charge

(Regular/Normal) Attack is the foundation of the melee system and allows you to deal damage to enemy players and structures using your chosen class's melee weapon. Melee attacks deal significantly more damage than ranged weapons, and are a cheap, unlimited-use way to deal damage. Each unit's melee attacks are broken up into a chain of attacks (3-4 swings), referred to as a "flurry". There is a brief period after a flurry where a unit cannot attack or block.

• Melee attacks cost a small amount of stamina to execute.
• Successfully attacking an enemy structure will temporarily slow you, giving enemy units a chance to catch up to and engage you.
• Successfully damaging an enemy player, gadget, or NPC with a melee attack will recover stamina and slightly replenish the block meter (more on the block meter below).
• Melee attacks can be blocked.

Block is a primary way of defending against a melee attack. By turning towards an enemy and holding the block key (C or middle mouse button by default), you can block an enemy attack, preventing them from damaging you. Block, while held, can defend against multiple melee attacks, including from multiple enemies if they are roughly in front of you. Blocking enemy players' melee attacks depletes the block meter, which a measure of your ability to resist enemy melee attacks. Once the meter is depleted, you will be stunned for a short period of time and unable to defend yourself against enemy attacks. The block meter refills at a moderate pace when you are not blocking, and can also be replenished by successfully attacking enemies with melee attacks (this does not apply to melee abilities such as venomous strike or double swing).

Each of the player classes' melee attacks has a varying impact on the block meter (and thus a varying ability to overpower a block). Lighter units' attacks deal less damage to the block meter, while heavier units deal more damage per attack. Generally, one melee flurry plus one attack will break a player's block and stun them. Hellbourne generally have a much strong block, able to withstand far more hits before being stunned. Hellbourne melee attacks have a much stronger impact on a player's block meter - to where players can generally only barely block one malphas melee attack before being stunned.

• Holding block slowly depletes the block meter, and if it runs out, you will be stunned. If you continue to hold the block key, you will be repeatedly stunned.
• Enemy players who are blocked will have their movement speed temporarily slowed.
• Enemy players who are blocked will have their melee attack speed temporarily slowed. This effect can be stacked, so that multiple attacks from a single enemy player will significantly slow them.
• Successfully blocking an enemy player will temporarily boost your melee attack speed. This effect can be stacked, so that successfully blocking multiple enemy melee attacks can significantly increase your melee attack speed for a short period of time.

Jump Attack is a variation of a regular attack performed by jumping and then attacking. Jump attack deals more damage to enemies than regular melee attacks, and will also push back any enemies that it hits. While jump attack can be blocked, it has a heavier impact on the block meter than a normal attack, making it a great tool for breaking an enemy block. Jump attack requires significantly more stamina than a regular attack (especially considering the investment required to jump), and has a wind-up animation before it connects. The wind-up makes jump attack much harder to land than a regular attack.

• Because jump attack has a heavier impact on an enemy block than a regular attack, it can be used to break an enemy block through brute force with less concern about the melee and movement speed buffs and debuffs that would be applied when using regular attacks.
• Successfully jump attacking an enemy player will recover some stamina.
• Jump attack can be used to push enemies away from certain positions, including off of tall objects and cliffs.

Dodge' is used to quickly move to the sides or back, allowing you to more easily position yourself and avoid enemy attacks. Dodge consumes a small amount of a meter used for both charging and dodging. Players can generally dodge a few times before being forced to wait for the meter to refill. Dodge acts more as a quick movement to the sides or back rather than a hop, and can be controlled as such. By turning your view quickly in mid-dodge, you can curve a side dodge into a quick arcing strafe. In close melee combat, an arcing dodge can allow you to quickly get around an enemy and attack them without having to worry about being attacked or blocked.

Charge is a fast rush forward which allows player to quickly reach a destination much faster than with any other form of movement. Charge is primarily used in melee combat to quickly engage an enemy. Players can turn while charging, allowing them to quickly change their direction and curve around objects in the way. While charging, you consume some of a meter used for both charging and dodging.

• A player can abort a charge at any time, allowing them to perform what has been referred to as a "short charge". Short-charging is an excellent maneuver for quickly closing to an enemy player from just outside melee range.
• Charge is much more efficient than dodge for simple travel purposes.

Range

Ranged combat involves fighting from a distance, utilizing a variety of weapons and spells to fire projectiles and magical effects at enemies. This combat method is the majority of the first person shooter portion of Savage 2, and is the method that players who are new to Savage 2 will be most familiar with. The weapons and spells used in ranged combat provide the first available opportunity to damage enemies, and is great for softening them up in preparation for melee combat. Ranged combat (aside from siege weapons, which will be discussed separately) has the lowest density of damage and risk and affords the player the longest survival time and battlefield presence at the expense of a lower overall impact on the enemy.

Prolonged ranged combat benefits most from being in a group which is relatively well dispersed so as to keep the line of sight to enemy targets open. This minimizes the effect of enemy ranged weapons and maximizes the travel time for enemy players as they attempt to attack you and your teammates. Conversely, ranged combat also benefits from having larger groups of densely-packed enemy players, so as to minimize wasted ammunition and mana and maximize the effectiveness of the blast radius of certain weapons and spells.

Situations for Ranged Combat

• Attacking buildings when unable to get within melee range.
• Attacking buildings and players while moving to melee range (especially while rushing towers).
• When it's too risky to engage an enemy player or group of enemy players at melee range and the risk reduces the certainty of doing significant damage at melee range (a rare situation).
• When ducking out of melee combat to take a breather/re-orient yourself. Helps to maximize damage while reducing risk and allowing you to assess and then exploit better melee opportunities.
• When unable to catch up to enemy players for melee attacks.
• When weaker enemies are in an enemy group's back ranks and eliminating those players will reduce risk more significantly than engaging closer enemies.

Prioritizing Enemy Targets

Choosing the proper targets in battles is extremely important. The enemy team is only as strong as their foundation members - such as support and players who will either rally their team or just significantly damage yours. Eliminating those key targets allows you to both crack open the enemy defense and cripple their team, providing your team a sure path to victory. The enemy team will naturally be pushing for similar key targets, and thus many games will be a tug of war of trying to eliminate targets of opportunity and trying to prevent the enemy from doing the same.

Either Faction

• In group battles composed of primarily non-siege and non-hellbourne units, healers will be a priority target, as they help to maintain enemy player health as well as revive fallen units. These units are also often the easiest to eliminate, as they rely on their teammates to defend themselves.
• Any weak enemies who can be quickly eliminated and are not near to a healer. Eliminating those players is often easiest, will net you a soul, and prevent them from doing further damage. Killing them near a healer may result in that player being revived, transforming a player who is about to die and may be cautious to a player who has half of their health and may decide to push and attack.
• When defending your base against hellbourne, revenants should be a prime target, as they deal so little damage against players up close that you can often trade hits and kill them off.
• When defending your base against hellbourne, malphai should be eliminated as quickly as possible to minimize the damage they can do to your base, and the amount of soul harvesting that they can do by attacking players. Malphai generally fall quickly to group attacks from all sides. Players should avoid bunching up in tight groups, and instead try to surround the malphas to maximize damage while minimizing the amount of souls that the malphas can regenerate health with.
• Any enemy players that you can safely get behind should be eliminated as quickly as possible.
• Enemy players that you can easily approach who aren't capable of fighting back (due to stuns, lag, the cickle NPC's freeze spell, etc.).
• Any siege units that you can approach, doubly so if they're within striking distance of your base. These units have the potential to do the most damage to your base and cause you to lose.
• Enemy commander worker units (such a journeymen and saplings) that you can approach at mid to low risk. Each that you kill costs the enemy commander a significant amount of gold to replace.

As Human/Against Beast

• Hunters have no ranged attacks, so try to stay at a distance and harass them before moving in for the kill. Be wary of the Hunter's ability to close the distance, though: it can effectively charge twice in a row with its ability. If the Hunter activates Wing Spin during melee combat, block twice and then hit them as hard as you can. If you are low on health, simply retreat instead; you will be able to outrun the Hunter while they wing spin.
• Behemoth melee attacks will kill most units in a single hit, so it's important to keep away from them, and only attack them at melee range between attacks. Activate the Dodge ability to avoid the Tree Trunk about 0.5 seconds before the actual strike of the trunk is expected; activating it too soon will give the Behemoth time to angle his attack to hit you despite your maneuvering. Expect follow-up quick attacks from the Behemoth if his slow attack fails.

As Beast/Against Human

• The Chaplain's Sun Shield will heal the Chaplain if you attack him while this is enabled. If a Chaplain uses this ability, the best course of action is to pick another target nearby. If the Chaplain is the only unit around, simply wait for his Sun Shield to fall, then attack him from behind as soon as it drops.
• The Savage is considerably weaker at sustained ranged combat than the Shape Shifter, for instance. If a Savage is willing to engage you in long range (40+ meters) combat, side-step his Repeater and Sub-Machine Gun fire, and trade shots with your replenishable Mana based attacks. If he runs, pursue him and continue your assault.
• To stop the Catapult from advancing on your base as a means of avoiding melee attacks, stand directly in its forward moving path. This will temporarily "bump" the catapult and slow it down, and you can continue attacking it all the while.
• Never attack a Builder's Shield Emitter if he deploys it next to one of his own Arrow or Cannon towers. This is actually a crippling move that makes things significantly harder for his own team: the tower will be unable to attack through the shield emitter. An exception to this guideline, however, would be if the builder's Shield Generator is also shielding the Garrison, and your team has tempests attempting to siege their Garrison (or the shielded tower).
• Use the Ensnare ability of the Conjurer and Shaman to stop the movements of an overly-mobile Marksman. While unable to move, one of your teammates (or you) can attack this fragile unit from behind, dealing 15% more damage and giving you the advantage.
• Many players will activate the Savage's Double Swing and/or Critical Strike abilities early on in the combat sequence. As a result, activate your Block briefly as soon as you enter melee range with a Savage. If you block these skills, the Savage's effectiveness will be lessened significantly. You can also expect an enemy to activate these skills immediately after a full Flurry. If you do get hit with Double Swing, your immediate response should be to attack back the instant you recover from being stunned. The player will likely expect you to block to prevent further damage, but you can take the opportunity to trade blows.
• Human Siege requires the Builder to repair it. Always check for nearby Builders before engaging enemy siege; you can destroy the siege much faster if you kill the Builders first. If you position your attacks properly against a repairing Builder, you can even damage the siege unit while you kill the Builder.
• Protect Beast siege units by staying as far away as possible with a Shaman. You want to be barely within targeting range for your heal ability; this minimizes the chance that enemy players targeting the siege unit will notice you. If enemy melee units threaten you, use Dodge repeatedly to avoid enemy players and get in as many heals as you can before your likely death.