ArcheAge Chronicles features action-based combat, so you will need to learn how to dodge, parry, block, manage stamina, and use different attacks to defeat enemies. The combat system has several mechanics that might feel confusing when you first start playing. Understanding how they work will make your fights much easier. Here’s a breakdown of all the important combat mechanics you should know.
How Stamina Works
Your endurance is indicated by the white bar that sits right under your health bar. Virtually every activity that you engage in while fighting uses up endurance points (EP). These activities include attacking, dodging, running, swimming, and parrying. There are some actions, like drinking potions or eating consumables, that do not cost you EPs. But they will temporarily pause your EP regeneration.
How Stagger And Knockback Work
Not all attacks can interrupt the enemy’s actions. The skill descriptions will inform you if the attack will cause a stagger or knockback. Stagger causes interruption for a short duration, whereas knockback not only interrupts but also stuns the enemy for a bit. These interruptions are different in duration. For example, stagger interruption is shorter than knockback.
If you parry a melee attack, it will cause a knockback as well as a long stun. Interrupting an enemy’s guard will cause a knockback as well as an even longer interrupt. Some attacks can go through your block or parry.
They can be identified by a red glow on the enemy or their weapon right before the attack is performed. However, there are abilities with immunity to staggering, and in this case, the enemy will be unable to be interrupted even with guard-breaking attacks.
There are no visual indicators to help you with this, and you will have to memorise them yourself. However, you can parry any ranged attack except guard-breaking ones. In this case, the attack projectile will bounce back at the attacker.
How Blocking And Parrying Work
Blocking and parrying are conditional upon the weapon used. It’s not possible to parry and block with every weapon. At the moment, the ability to parry is available only for the weapons of the Dual Hatchets of the Ranger and the Long Sword of the Warrior, while blocking is possible with the Wave Sword of the Mage and the Axe of the Berserker. Parrying is especially useful when fighting with melee monsters as it knocks back and stuns them.
How Animation Cancelling Works
You can interrupt most attack and action animations through dodge, block, and parry actions. This comes in handy when you are executing an action and you have to dodge a sudden attack coming your way. Knowing how to interrupt animations will make your fighting feel fast and fluid. It also ensures that your enemies and players cannot take advantage of your action.
How Knockdown Works
ArcheAge Chronicles contains knockdown mechanics, which leave you open to attacks if you have received too many stuns in a short amount of time. When this occurs, your player goes down, making them unable to do anything. The other player will be able to close in on you and use the interact button to perform a finisher on your character.
You will have very little time to do this execution, and certain attacks can be cancelled into this execution as well. If your character and the enemy character are open to the knockdown, you will be able to see it from their health bar, as there will be a white border surrounding it.
All Afflictions And Status Effects
Afflictions are elemental status effects that build up as you attack enemies. ArcheAge Chronicles currently has six types of afflictions:
- Freeze: An elemental status effect that can interrupt enemies.
- Shock: Builds up an effect that can leave enemies unable to act.
- Burn: Applies a fire-based status effect.
- Poison: Inflicts a poison status effect.
- Stun: Temporarily stops the target from performing actions.
- Bleed: Applies a bleeding status effect.
Affliction build-ups can be easily followed through the triangle sign on your screen. The four mentioned ailments function in the same way by disrupting your enemy regardless of their stagger immunities. It is important not to get confused between the stunned and knockdown mechanics, as when your character gets stunned, it will kneel just like in case of being knocked down. The only difference is that it would be impossible to perform the finishing move on the stunned enemy.
How Shields Work
Some of the abilities will provide you with a shield for your character. You may detect it by the presence of the white bar that pops up after your health bar. The shield absorbs the damage that you take, although it does not remain forever. There is a different shield lifetime and decay time for each of the abilities.
How Equipment Weight Works
Your equipment weight determines how much stamina you consume when performing different actions. You can check your maximum equipment load under the Character tab. There are three weight categories:
- Light: Reduces stamina consumption for all actions that use SP.
- Medium: Uses the normal amount of stamina, with 100% SP consumption.
- Heavy: Activates when your equipment weight exceeds your maximum equipment load. It significantly increases stamina consumption for all actions.
Try to stay within your maximum equipment load to avoid wasting stamina during combat.
Weapon Durability
Durability of weapons is yet another factor that requires your attention. Should your weapon break while you are engaged in combat, it will fly out of your hands, leaving you helpless. You will not be able to either dodge or take any action other than changing your weapon or repairing it. Make sure you pay attention to the durability of your weapon before entering any hard fight.
