Moves, movements and attacks
Related to attacks:There are three main directions of attacks: Left, centre, and right.
Left is often referred to as a side swing, where the attack is directed to the left side (facing) of the opponent. This usually causes the attack to create a difference in timing, causing a second or two delay in time between start of swing and hit.
Often the attack is aimed at the end or just past the end of the opponents musket while he's blocking and slightly swung over - however, the attack may be aimed at any distance away from the opponent, and as long as the attack hits properly it will create a delay.
Centre attacks are, surprisingly, the least commonly found at higher tiers of melee. Often seen with newer players, this attack is straight and hits in the middle of the opponent's body or block. This attack is often the easiest to chamber, as there is no hold in it, unless done purposely.
This attack, if thrown in at correct times, can actually cause problems with defensive timing, especially with higher skilled players, as this attack is very low skill and will not be expected.
Attacks swung to the
right of the player hitbox are the hardest to accurately land, as the nature of the bayonet and player meta creates a tendency to hit the player on the left side of their body. Without careful practice and mouse movement, the attack will either miss to the left or to the right.
The side of the hitbox that the right swing attacks is harder to hit, but that disadvantage is traded by the fact that the right swing attack attacks faster than the other two swings, having the shorter distance to travel.
Related to movement:While it may be impossible to fully categorize and break down movement, there are three main types of movement: aggressive movement, defensive movement, and lateral movement.
Aggressive movement, commonly known as w keying or face hugging, involves moving in such a way that it brings the player model closer to the opponent.
Aggressive forward movement can often create an instant and temporary psychological advantage and cause your opponent to either panic block, move away, or panic spam.
However, aggressive movement coupled with holds or spams can often leave you exposed to lateral movements like sidesteps or hook swings.
Defensive Movement, sometimes referred to as s-keying, involves retreating to a safe distance from the enemy.
Defensive movement can save your life. Often there are situations where being in close enough distance to the enemy is not in your advantage, and defensive movement gives you the opportunity to slow the fight down into your favor.
However, defensive movement in most cases takes away your ability to kill the opponent, and gives him the opportunity to refresh, making it a double edged sword.
Lateral Movement, often called sidesteps or a-d keying, involves moving your character model to one side or the other, creating a different view of your and the enemy’s hitboxes.
Side Stepping is the process of moving quickly to your opponent's side to cause his attack to miss, leaving his side open and vulnerable.
However, side stepping and other lateral movements happen after the opponent has already attacked, and not getting a sufficient distance away gives you a significant timing disadvantage with your block or chamber timing.
In the opinion of the writer, it becomes difficult to create a list or description of advanced moves from scratch, only from demonstration. Therefore, i’ll breakdown a couple rounds of a duel between BillTheButcher and Maple from 2016, showing the moves and thought process of the duelists. Video can be found here:
(Mute if you don't like J Cole, and yes, I fixed the audio)
The video is not the full duel: at the start it is 2-2.
1. The first move my Bill at 0.01 is a standard centre up attack combined with forward movement in an attempt to make the attack too fast to block.
However, Maple counters with a up-stun block, instantly transferring to a kick. The kick misses.
2. Bill moves backwards slightly and holds an up attack, while Maple moves out of range and does nothing.
3. Bill then moves closer, still holding the attack, and fients once. Maple blocks and moves out of range.
4. At 0.12, Bill continues to hold, and Maple spins and stuns himself against the fence. This creates an opening for Bill, and he moves in for the attack.
Maple uses lateral movement and an up-stun block, freezing Bill. He then gets in a fast down stab, stunning Bill, and kicks him, as Bill has moved himself too close, finishing Bill with an up left side swing.
5. The next duel starts at 0.40, with both Bill and Maple holding up attacks just out of range.
6. At 0.48, Maple advances at Bill holding an up block, limiting the space in between them.
Understanding that his bait tactic worked last time, he spins around and even crouches, hoping to bait Bill into attacking his stun block.
7. At 1.12, Bill attacks his block, gets stunned, and then Maple does a fast down attack, stunning Bill again. Maple then repeats his kick to up left side swing again, getting the kill.
8. At 2.10, after some sporadic engagement, Bill holds an up block within range of a down right side stab from Maple, who uses lateral movement to get within range.
9. At 2.20, Maple uses the same lateral movement to get within range of an up right side swing, using Bill’s lateral movement against him.
10. At 2.51, Maple attempts the same stun block down stab kick up side swing sequence, but Bill engaged at a farther distance and avoid the stun.
11. At 3.03, Maple attempts to close the distance and do a fient, but Bill uses lateral movement in the form of a sidestep to attack Maple’s unprotected side.
12. At 3.21, Maple attempts to engage Bill in a down fient chamber war, but Bill chooses to use defensive and lateral movement to not engage, swinging an up stab around Maple before he can react and killing him.
13. Skipping to 5.38, Maple starts throwing bucking fients that change his attack direction and make it hard to predict where and what attack he will finish. He does these fients on Bill’s left side (this is the most common fient area.)
14. At 5.40, seeing that Maple is in the process of fienting, Bill attempts to use lateral movement to attack Maple’s unprotected side. However, Maple catches this down attack with a chamber and moves forward to stun Bill, getting the hit.
15. At 5.42, he throws a left side swing, hoping to delay the attack just long enough so that Bill drops his block.
16. At 6.26, after some sporadic engagement, Bill uses a fast lateral movement combined with a fast right to left up attack to attack Maple’s side.
Maple responds by blocking down, seeing Bill’s next attack.
17. Bill uses a long left to right down hold swing stab and Maple releases too early, giving Bill the kill.
18. At 6.59, Bill uses an up attack from range with a hook hold at the end. This attack appears to be straight on but is, at the last moment, jiggled in a hook shape, creating a split second hold that Maple mistimes.
19. Starting at 8.34, Maple uses a series of down fients, mimicking left to right side swings. At 8.37, Maple releases the attack and the timing of the side swing hits a retreating Bill.
20. At 9.27, Bill uses lateral movement and a right to left up attack to hit Maples unprotected side.
21. At 10.40, Maple throws a kick which immobilizes him. Bill responds with lateral movement to get around to Maple’s unprotected back and hits him with a right to left up attack.
22. At 11.37, Maple uses a down fient coupled with a series of dolphins against a retreating Bill. Bill releases his block, believing to be out of range, and Maple releases the fient and uses aggressive movement and a centre stab to get the kill.
The second and final duel to breakdown is the quarter finals of an EU duel tournament, being Xeon vs Alexandre_Mormon of the 17e, whom I cannot identify (highlighting the absurdity of historical names quite well, I think). It can be found here:
1. At 18.24, Xeon attempts at left to right side swing stab. This stab was textbook and Xeon executed it perfectly, finishing on the right side of the opponent, shown in this screengrab.
https://gyazo.com/03e14a9b53005424aa78f9c13e76ab9d2. At 18.25, Alexandre tries the same stab, left to right side sweep motion. This attack is also textbook, and finishes in the same place. However, Xeon used left lateral movement and blocked the stab while moving to the opponent's side.
This movement reaction placed Xeon in the perfect position, close enough to force a panicked reaction but far enough to avoid a glance. At 18.27, he does a left to right up side swing that Alexandre sideblocks.
3. At 18.34, Xeon pulls off an incredibly hard down swing. He starts the motion as a left side swing, but in one quick motion drags the attack through the space between the duelists and performs a right to left side swing. These two holds are in one single down attack. It can be visualised as a sideways Z motion. Alexandre dropped his block due to the trickiness of the attack.
4. At 18.53, Xeon does an incredibly fast series of movements that results in a kill. Alexandre throws a down attack, which, in the span of 1 second, Xeon chambers, kicks, and kills him with the stun chamber. This is insane. Xeon manages to time the kick perfectly just after getting the chamber and just has to carry the chamber into the stunned Alexandre.
5. At 19,06, Xeon uses a left side swing, but varies the hold length by using attack height instead of placement. He swings to the left of Alexandre but aims his attack at a 45 degree angle towards the ground, at the last second swinging it up. This delay caused by usage of vertical attack movement causes Alexandre to drop his block. This attack hold can be done ranging up as well, something that was introduced to NA by RitZ.
6. At 19.24, Xeon uses a dolphin style hold aimed down and left of Alexandre. He does one dolphin wiggle and then carries his attack to the right and up, finishing in Alexandre’s midsection. The combination of a dolphin, which delays the attack, and the vertical attack movement causes Alexandre to drop his block early.
At 19.57, Xeon uses a turkish kick to block Alexandre’s attack, kick stun him, and uses a nice down attack to kill him.
Thanks to Maple for linking me this video! Thanks also to Puppy for consulting on different moves!
