Kamuk's scouted the 3 bandit camps in the area. Only one was run by a weapon master (who he avoided), the other two had leaders of a much lower stature. Aside from the two lower end bosses, Kamuk's mostly been occupied with the bandit patrols issuing from each camp. It was all good work as his
Shield User skill advanced deep into the territory between
Professional (level 9) and Accomplished (lvl 10). His masterwork apple wood shield eventually developed signs of wear after these encounters.
Back in town, Kamuk heads toward the keep. The leather of choice in these parts is longfin mako shark. It's nice to see that most shops have stock. The shop Kamuk visits is run by a human pikeman.
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That's just kind of nifty. A fellow of dual trade.
The lag near the keep is low for once. The keep itself is populated with the usual denizens of varying name.
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Of course, the true destination of this visit is below the 1st level of the keep. Plenty of goblin bandits here.
The first 4-6 he works with the iron pick. Miner does train up toughness which has been lagging due to the fact that Kamuk only wears leather leggings, leather helm and leather armor, so Armor skill, which also trains toughness during every combat move, has advanced very slowly.
Kamuk plays marksdwarf agains the other the other goblins. His better agility and his level 10 marksdwarf skill allow him to work through the delay after firing a bit faster. You can play a no cheese ranged game only when your character has a high enough range weapon/archery skill to lessen the firing delay, and when using the precaution of a shield (also with a very high skill stat). Narratively/roleplay-wise only the crossbow makes sense with a shield.
Crossbow fire is to ground them and perhaps get them to drop their weapons, before Kamuk switches to iron pick melee. Occasionally there's the odd archer's duel.
All good work to get in as by the time Kamuk encounters their leader, a goblin priestess pikemaster, he's reached
level 11 in both Shield User and Marksdwarf. (click thumbnail to expand)
She's encased in masterwork armor.
The combat sequence Kamuk's been using for most of the run is a countergrabber's game. He waits to see the opponent's attack and then manually blocks to draw the opponent into recovery, so as to set up the grab attack. Here this sequence is most useful as his level 10 wrestling skill can use the advantage of recovery's debuff/nerfed defensive roll on what's likely to be the opponent's level 11 Dodger skill. Once the opponent has been grabbed, Kamuk either uses the take down (faster) or the throw (can stun). Once the opponent has been grounded, he strikes the foot or leg with whatever weapon, keeping them there:
1. Wait for attack.
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2. Block to draw into recovery to set up grab.
(Apparently I never saved the block shot showing her recovery stage -_-)
3. Grab then takedown. Kamuk opts for the faster choice first. He'd go for the longer tick count of a throw if he felt he needed the stun effect. But that would be the case if he was undershooting and fighting from lower stats, as opposed to here where both he and the pikemaster are on equal footing:
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4. Leg/foot shot.
EDIT: Just a little interesting point to flesh out. The leg/foot attack here should be done when you see the opponent standing up. This costs a tick. My character only uses quick attack which normally costs 4 ticks (2 to prepare and 2 for recovery). The stand up drops the tick cost to 3, which means the only attacks that can come through are their quick attack, grab attack, wild attack (all three are 2 to prepare), standard attack which is 3 to prepare. It's also better to throw to stun if the opponent is a shield user to prep for the leg/foot shot as their dodge/block/parry will be debuffed.(click thumbnail to expand)
The final exchange is a good one. Normally if you're essentially min-maxing a fight you'd never auto-block or counter an attack with one of your own when you can apply
a manual block to get the very best defensive roll, just out of safety and efficiency, and to get the opponent into recovery prior to launching your attack. But to give her her due, Kamuk opts to stand and trade. He responds to her incoming attack with an attack of his own:
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Later during the last clean up fight, the masterwork apple wood shield comes to its end. It breaks without being struck. I guess the tick count meter for its life just ran out:
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Topic: What's going on in your adventure? (Read 2139532 times)