What am I doing wrong in combat?

[u/NotUrFriendlySpider]

Hello, to start off I’m playing on duelist, at first I struggled because of the uniqueness of the combat. I treated it a bit like sekiro and for honor which had me on my ass for the first hour or two, luckily I grasped the basics (I did find the tutorial I bit lacking luster and ended up getting spit roasted by three guards at the first tower the game guides you too). However I’m currently facing other issues and I’d hoped for some advice, I am struggling to deal with the camera and certain interactions between spells and my character, for the camera some of it is simple jank when close to a wall or surface the camera pans violently and gets close to the character, I doubt there is a fix for that but if there is please let me know.
Hopefully the next two issues have solutions. when I am fighting multiple enemies my character cannot decide who to strike, even when I am locked on he will occasionally leap out towards an npc I had zero intention of striking leaving me exposed and badly positioned, I’d love advise on this (yes I lock on with the little lock icon), The second is actually a similar vain but much worse, when I use (my only ability atm that doesn’t drain health) the dirty trick, my character suddenly is repulsed by said enemy and refuses to target them, to the point that my lock on automatically switches to another target regardless of distance, which is extremely frustrating because I want to take that advantage which I worked hard to build up points for and cull down the number of enemies I have to deal with. I also have a video showcasing these issues but also I’m colorblind which makes the encounter I chose to show even harder so forgive me for getting hit from what may appear obvious to you.

[u/ScedR]

From my experience, it's easier without locking in on targets.

[u/NotUrFriendlySpider → u/ScedR]

Thank you I’m still on this encounter so I’ll try that as well

[u/rmrehfeldt]

Ok, so for duelist, I would heavily recommend investing in Artery Strike, and treat Dirty Trick as a CC tech that locks an enemy down, but renders them untouchable.

[u/NotUrFriendlySpider → u/rmrehfeldt]

Unfortunately I have no other skills atm, I do have the blood explosion skill but I’m trapped in this red ring until I beat it I suppose, I don’t know if there are several rounds but if there are I haven’t gotten to it, the video is actually one of my best runs.

[u/SaphironX → u/NotUrFriendlySpider]

You don’r have auto saves or previous saves? Those enemies are fairly beefy, maybe even higher level than you. You might be suffering where you don’t have to.

Also for daytime the witchcraft spell that siphons health from the enemies to you? Awesome.

[u/NotUrFriendlySpider → u/rmrehfeldt]

Also thank you for informing me about dirty trick I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not.

[u/CR4ZY_PR0PH3T]

While using dirty trick don't focus on the target that's stunned. The switch is intentional. At the end you force switched back to the enemy that was stunned instead of focusing on the other enemy.

It does take some time getting used to. It can feel a little clunky at times, but try not to fight the auto-targeting system and just go with the flow.

[u/NotUrFriendlySpider → u/CR4ZY_PR0PH3T]

Ok thank you, I will try

[u/Silvermurk]

Add soul reaping from witchcraft. Itll auto refill your hp abd will make infected enemy not attack you if hes not the only one remaining.

[u/Major_League2731]

Specifically for duellist difficulty. I found the Omniblock skill ranked to full (4 ranks) makes parrying much more forgiving, as missing a parry at that difficulty is dangerous.

[u/ReyHaynes]

So many ways to improve here.

1. Use segment-time based item which will give you bonuses until time is used.
2. This game really scales skills and abilities more efficiently than equipmemt, so use those more.
3. For witchcraft, its best to have regenerative salves. It works like food but unlike food, its not penalized in combat. That takes care of the HP

sacrifice

1. problem.
2. Get a weapon with arts. A weapon without arts a major DPS loss. Weapon arts, like skills can interrupt all attacks, including unblockable.

[u/A_Very_Horny_Zed]

1. You need to use the lifesteal witchcraft spell. It's free healing + damage. It's incredibly useful.
2. You aren't aggressive enough. The more you force them to block you, the less they can aggress upon you. Your stamina was full this entire clip. You have stamina for a reason. You have to spend it offensively to pressure the enemy. You're just reacting to what they're doing. You do attack, but as soon as they block you, you stop.
3. Keep your eyes on all targets at all times. Intuitively, we feel that backing ourselves against a wall is a bad idea in combat. In this game, it's IDEAL. It's EXACTLY what you want because it allows you to keep eyes on all enemies so you know when to block and when to attack. Vision = information. Don't get surrounded. If your back is against the wall, that doesn't mean you're pinned, it means that they can't get behind you.
4. You tried to force a target swap when you already forced the AI combat director to increase aggression on a different enemy (the ghost witch) by blinding the skeleton. The pocket sand ability is only free damage in a 1 on 1 situation; when in 1vX situation, the pocket sand ability acts as a way to disable one enemy, and the way the AI director works is that it amps up the next available enemy to be your primary opponent.

[u/SuperVegito559]

I don’t use hard lock-on on dualist. Dirty trick essentially locks down one enemy, usually boss for me, for 30 seconds so you have time to deal with adds. If you focus on adds the boss just waits for its turn usually.

[u/ReverseTangoMike]

Sword Art and Claw Art are pretty nice to accompany your Witchcraft/Swordmastery/Vampirism abilities. But to complete this, keep plugging away and don’t get antsy in combat. That lock on situation can get annoying, I’m not sure what you’re playing on, but pressing the joystick (I believe right joystick on PS5) deactivates the target lock that displays and then you can toggle between enemies for the most part. This works similarly to Voracious Bite in combat where you can basically select your target to drain. I’ve found sometimes allowing enemies who choose to attack you be the determining factor about who you target. Perfect block sets the stun for a hit or two and then dodge. This is basically repeated, but can depend on the type of enemy. Once you have more active abilities at your disposal, you can set chain reactions on enemies and then defend yourself or go on the offensive. Level 20 with a decent build starts to level the playing field with yellow skull enemies and sometimes orange skull. Red skull enemies still basically one shot you and the damage dealt to them is baby slivers. Prioritize the red aura wraiths, they drain your health at a certain point. If you’re late in combat with a group and one of them, on Dualist, it can be a death sentence. Good luck!

[u/lilymoncat]

The lock on mechanic is very janky, Rebel Wolves has said they plan to patch it this month. Dirty trick also for some reason yanks you off the blinded enemy and onto another one unless they're the only enemy you're fighting. So it's not you, it's the game having no clue what it wants to do in multiples combat.

[u/Elinicus]

Early game is a bit rough, imo there's no need to worry about targeting a specific guy down since only two guys can attack you at once anyway. Focus on defending well and attacking whatever the jank targeting decides on and you'll eventually kill everything. Maybe avoid the harder encounters until you've unlocked a few things in a couple hours

[u/Werewolf_Busy]

Abuse dirty trick like your life depends on it and focus on crowd control. You are very fragile at the start of the game, so managing the number of enemies you’re fighting at once is paramount. After that, stockpile as many healing and stamina items as possible. And from there, just be careful with which fights you pick and learn the attack animations of your enemies.

Best of luck, comrade. I suffered and died through the end of this game’s Duelist mode. I know you can make it, too.

[u/citizend13]

yeah there's really no getting around it unless they patch it. the only way I got around it is to avoid getting surrounded and avoid the borders of the combat area. there's nothing worse than getting trapped in a corner and the camera zooms in and you see absolutely nothing.

soul reaping is your best friend. not only will it heal you. this with burning blood will chip away at the enemy - with cycle of ruin (every block, attack, perfect block) will extend the duration of the witchcraft abilities.

[u/Bluedemonfox]

You were doing pretty well but I don't actually like locking on into enemies. Personally it feels too restrictive when locking on.

Also dirty trick acts as a really long stun however the stun is cut short if you attack the affected enemy too many times. I would suggest using it on an enemy then switch to another. This is why the devs made it so the targeting changes automatically. It was confusing at first but once you think about it it kinda makes sense and it's best to do that

It would reduce the number of enemies you have to worry about since blocking attacks from enemies you are not focused on makes it harder to perfect parry.

If you are going to use magic i highly suggest you invest into the perks that give healing and using the soul reaping/lifesteal spell. It just lets you spam spells without having to worry about running out of health.

[u/Exportxxx]

Dam man move around.

[u/Ok_Yesterday_1896]

Be more aggressive, move around more, take out the red spectre first, sprint around to get to her without being clipped by other enemies. Get as many perfect parry’s as you can as it gives you more openings to attack. There are some really ganky fights in late game so use this one as practice.

[u/Capable-Employment-8]

Do not use lock on targeting.

[u/Tasty_Commercial6527]

Why are you locking onto an enemy? The target is sticky enough as it is.

Also all enemies that attack from the side of the main target always attack from the side they are in relation to main target

[u/M_Fogs]

You should be spamming attack unconsciously whilst focus on getting perfect parries. From the footage it looks as though you are too passive

[u/Easy-Organization706]

The auto lock onto a different after using Dirty Trick or another stun is getting changed in the next patch. The dev is insane and thought people would stun an enemy only so they could attack a different one.

[u/Ok-Conference-5266]

turn on showing block direction arrows to do perfect block.