Combat
One of the (many) unique features of Requiem is its handling of combat. Here, each hand has its own swing timer. For instance, if no weapon is equipped, you will be wrestling as if each hand was its own weapon. Similarly, you can have a different weapon equipped in each hand. The skill Stratagems: Off Hand Tactics offers bonuses to this fighting style.
The various weapons skills (Axes, Fencing and so on) will progressively increase the damage dealt while using such weapons, but both Tactics and Two-Handed Tactics (or simply 2H Tactics from now on) rule whether an attack connects or not. The breakdown of this system is as follows:
Tactics: reflects the accuracy when wielding one-handed weapons and the ability to evade attacks made with them. The higher this score, the more a character will connect and the less they'll be hit by an opponent armed with a one-handed weapon;
2H Tactics: analogous to the above, but with a two-handed weapon. Currently, the majority of PvM foes and player characters favor two-handed weapons, so this skill is particularly desirable to fend off attacks in general (even if someone would get this skill purely for defensive purposes).
Special Weapon Moves (SWMs)
Every weapon allows the character who wields it to perform a few special moves, which are meant to provide some sort of advantage through the expenditure of Stamina points. A mininum of 15 points is required to activate these maneuvers, and chaining special moves in quick succession will demand more of them since the character becomes fatigued after succesfully landing each one.
For reference purposes, these movements were categorized in three main types:
Standard SWMs: maneuvers shared by many weapons, quite common between the weapon classes;
Exclusive SWMs: maneuvers only a certain weapon class possesses;
Two-Handed SWMs: moves available only for Two-Handed weapons.
Standard SWMs
Disarm: the opponent has their main weapon disarmed for 3 - 5.5 seconds, with a 50% chance to deliver 1 damage to its durability. The weapon is moved to their pack, rendering them unable to re-equip it during the Disarm duration.
Dismount: dismounts the opponent on a successful strike. NOTE: THis SWM has no current use in Requiem.
Double Strike: delivers a second attack immediately following the first.
Feint: on a successful Feint, the opponent will suffer a 20 to 50% penalty on their swing speed for 6 seconds, depending on the attacker's highest score between Stratagems: Parrying and Stratagems: Raging.
Exclusive SWMs
Archery
Double Shot: sends two arrows or bolts at the opponent instead of one.
Crippling Shot: inflicts 5-15 damage over 3 seconds (based on Anatomy skill), crippling the target and making them unable to run.
Dazing Shot: besides lowering the target's defense slightly, has a chance (based on the attacker's Anatomy skill) to force the character out of war mode and forget who they were attacking.
Moving Shot: allows the next shot to be fired when moving under a -15 accuracy penalty.
Poisoned Shot: allows a character to hastily poison an arrow or a bolt by using a lesser poison potion in their pack. Upon a successful hit, the target will suffer normal combat damage in addition to a guaranteed poison application. There is a 50% chance that the poison potion will be consumed upon a successful hit.
Axes
Blood Lust: Blood Lust will strike the target for an additional 50% attack, converting a small percentage of the damage dealt as hit points back to the user for 6 seconds.
Frenzied Whirlwind: allows a single warrior to damage multiple adjacent targets in a single attack. The primary combat target will suffer a Bleed debuff equivalent to 25% of the normal attack for 5 seconds, while adjacent enemies will suffer 75% of the damage as a damage-over-time effect for the duration of 3 seconds. The character performing this special move will become hobbled for 2 seconds.
Whirlwind: damages multiples opponents, but doesn't cause damage to party members, allies or innocents. The damage bonus is calculated as ((# of opponents * Axes skill) * (# of opponents * Axes skill ) / 3600). This bonus damage is capped at 100 for each opponent.
Fencing
Armor Pierce: upon landing Armor Pierce, 50% of the damage dealt is added, with the possibility of damaging the target's armor.
Infectious Strike: guarantees poison delivery after successful hit. Ignores normal Alchemy skill checks if poison is applied to the weapon at the cost of double the durability damage. Also, the more Alchemy skill the character has, the higher the chance to ignore the deduction of a poison charge (capped at 50% at 120 skill).
Nerve Strike: delivers direct damage and has a chance to paralyze the target for a short time. It's based on Fencing skill (if used as main weapon) or Off-Hand skill (if secondary weapon). The paralysis chance scales from 50% at 50 skill to 90% at 120. Direct damage bonus: ((Skill - 50) *3/14) + (0-10).
Firearms
Incendiary Shot: deals 50% normal combat damage, but sets the target ablaze for 10 seconds and prevents spellcasting for a short time.
Run and Gun: allows the marksman to fire their weapon while on the move, ignoring normal aiming and reloading times. However, the shot is fired with a 25% accuracy penalty.
Macing
Armor Ignore: on a successful Armor Ignore hit, the next attack bypasses the opponents's physical resistance (to a maximum of 35 damage dealt through this method).
Concussion Blow: after landing a successful Concussion Blow, the next attack will cause between 10 and 30 extra damage according to the following formula: ((enemy's mana)% - (enemy's HP)%) / 4 + 10.
Crushing Blow: upon executing a successful Crushing Blow, the next hit will benefit from a 50% damage increase.
Off-Hand
Concentrated Defenses: delivers a normal attack and then places the character into a defensive stance for 6 seconds. Defensive bonus: [1.5 * [Off-Hand skill] /10] DCI.
Polearms
Hamstring: deals 50% of normal attack damage and forces the opponent to hobble for 3 to 5 seconds.
Rallying Cry: deals 75% of normal combat damage to an opponent, while your character and all friendlies will receive a swing speed bonus between 20 and 50% (depending on the attacker's Polearms skill) for 25 seconds.
Pole Trip: deals 25% of normal attack damage to an opponent and trips them, leaving them prone for 4 to 6 seconds. Opponents wearing medium armor have 30% less chance to be tripped, while this bonus rises to 60% for heavily armored foes.
Swords
Bleed Attack: inflicts 15-31 damage over 10 seconds, and this damage is not affected by armor and can only be countered by healing or the use of bandages.
Mortal Strike: renders it impossible to initiate healing of damage on the target for a few seconds, lasting for 6 seconds against other player characters and 12 seconds against NPCs. They can still cure poison and staunch bleeding.
Paralyzing Blow: stuns the target, making them unable to move, attack or cast spells for a short duration. This effect lasts for 3 seconds against other players and 6 seconds against NPCs. Any sort of damage suffered by the paralyzed target will nullify this state.
Throwing
Arcing Throw: the thrown projectile will arc to a second target after hitting the first, provided they are also in combat with the attacker when this special move is triggered.
Infused Throw: the projectile will be infused with extra energy, causing more damage and temporarily stunning the target.
Sundering Throw: disarms an opponent's off-hand weapons and items, placing a cooldown before they can be re-equipped.
Wrestling
Adrenal Surge: upon dealing a successful Adrenal Surge hit, the opponent will be dealt normal combat damage and the attacker will benefit from a swing speed boost between 15 and 30% for 10 seconds depending on their Wrestling skill.
Eye Rake: deals 60% of normal combat damage on an opponent and either blinds them (if the target is another player character) or paralyzes them (if it's an NPC) for 3 seconds. In any case, it'll also lower their Defense Chance Increase (DCI) for a percentage equal to (Attacker's Wrestling skill /15).
Pacification: deals 60% of combat damage to an opponent and disarms them of their primary weapon for 5 seconds. Additionally, they will be unable to regenerate Stamina for 2.5 seconds.
Peronial Punch: deals 50% of normal combat damage on a successful hit and induces a hobble state on the opponent that lasts for 6 seconds. There is a 25% penalty to hobble a target wearing leg armor.
Throat Punch: deals 75% of the normal combat damage to an opponent and squelches them, blocking spellcasting for 4 seconds. NPCs take an extra 75% of the damage dealt upon this hit. Moreover, the target will suffer between 3 and 5 Stamina damage ticks for (Wrestling/15 - 1) to (Wrestling/15 + 2) for each tick. Wearing a gorget can help protect against throat punches: 20% with a light armor's gorget, 40% for a medium's and 60% for the heaviest type.
Two-Handed SWMs
Cavalry Tactics: involves mounted combat modifiers. NOTE: This SWM has no use currently in Requiem.
Defense Mastery: upon a successful hit, puts the character in a defensive stance with Physical Resist bonus of [50% * 2H Tactics - [50/70]] for 5 seconds, and grants a penalty to the character's damage output during that window.
Leveraging Thrust: two-handed attack that extends the reach of the attacker, initially dealing half the damage and knocking the opponent back. For the next 6 seconds, the weapon will have its reach increased by 1 tile.
Sunder: on a successful Sunder, the attacker disarms an enemy's off-hand weapon or shield for a short period of time, preventing them from re-equipping it for the effect's duration.
