Defensive moves in fencing?

[jeannie]

I'm not very good at the fencing moves, and I can't quite figure out when I should be using a defensive move like jump or duck or parry instead of attqcking. ONCE in a while a 'taunt'.

Part of my problem is I don't quite understand how long it takes for my 'move' once I've hit the chosen key. So I wind up hitting the 4 key a lot to just keep doing thrusts.

Any help or hints, anyone?

 

[Longasc]

if he attacks low, jump... if he attacks high, duck -> you always get the advantage because you can counter-attack immediately while he is still dizzy.

But hitting the normal parry button is a good solution if you cannot tell the difference. Taunt only works after a failed enemy attack, so you need to jump/duck or parry at least before, otherwise you expose yourself to a possible enemy attack.

 

[Rhye]

Press 4 all the times.

 

[Shabbaman]

Part of my problem is I don't quite understand how long it takes for my 'move' once I've hit the chosen key.

I really haven't got an idea of what you're talking about. If I press a key, the action is made immediately, unless the character is still performing a previous action. If this doesn't sound familiar in any way, I'd say that you might want to dramatically lower graphics settings in order to increase performance.

Fencing is pretty easy. Always choose the rapier, since this is the fastest sword. The easiest way of winning a duel is through a passive stance: react on your opponent, and nothing else. As soon as your opponent moves for any action, thrust (4). The high and low attacks are both slower than the thrust, so you'll score. If he made a thrust as well, then both moves even each other. Nothing lost then.
If you're not fast enough with your response (because your character was still recovering for instance), you need to block your opponents action. Parry (5) blocks all actions, but after a time you'll start recognizing what kind of attack is coming. Like Longasc said, if you can counter with the proper duck or jump, you get a huge advantage. Aside from the advantage, blocking high or low attacks with a parry pushes you back a little, so it is in fact a small loss.

 

[jeannie]

Thanks for the suggestions. One thing I found is that I've been pressing the keys on the numeric keypad too often (so much that my index finger hurt), so it was difficult to see what was happening when I pressed one of the keys. I'm still not very good with ducking and jumping, but I HAVE found that when I've lost the advantage badly and don't seem to be having much success with offensive moves, if I use the 5 key to parry, my opponent will taunt me, so my next offensive move will probably work.

 

[Swiss Bezerker]

When u play 5th level u have to follow ure opponent.Block his move with the apropriate block then slash.As soon as I see my opponent move,I jump.If it turns out to be a thrust I press 5 with no penelty for jumping and if he chops I duck and even though u r still in a jump,it misses u.Works like a charm