XAVIER'S Bloodpit Guide

This was posted by Nev on the previous Pitt forum:



The following information courtesy of Xavier as originally posted on PITT


STYLES


This style description is courtesy of a great amount of examination in the PITT, and myself identifying very early on unique lines that identify strategies so I could gage what my opponent was running.

Some opening Notes:
'anxiously awaits' lines - These lines appear only some strategies, and then only when they are at a 6 activity or less. I believe these lines hurt the opponent’s endurance much like the parry lines, and this is useful when trying to manage the opponents’ endurance.

Counter styles - Each style counters or is countered by several other styles, I don't got into detail here expect when relevant as a major advantage/drawback.

Styles:

Wall of Steel - One of the most popular styles, it features several noticeable bonuses:
* Greatly Increased Attack Rate
* Decent dodge defenses
* High charge bonus (nice for spear wielders)
* Style counter matrix good against other popular styles by large
* Decent intimidate chance
Drawbacks:
* High endurance Burn
* High armor fumble rate when stats aren't prepared for it
* Does not have the 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Very vulnerable to one of the popular styles

Lunge - Another popular style, but shied away from due to damage penalties early on by most, it has the following benefits:
* Greatly increased attack rate
* Moderate endurance burn for the high attack rate
* High dodge bonus
* Counters a two of the most popular styles incredibly well
Drawbacks:
* Does not have 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Slight damage penalty

Slash - Not a popular style, rarely used except for special cases/warriors, has the following benefits:
* Special slash feature that does more damage
Drawbacks:
* Poor defenses
* Greatly reduced attack rate
* Does not have 'anxiously awaits' feature

Bash - This used to be a popular style but is now only moderately used. It has the following benefits:
* Good damage bump
* Counters one of the most popular styles moderately well, and counters a specialty style too devastating effect.
Drawbacks:
* Countered by two very popular styles
* Does not have 'anxiously awaits' feature
* High endurance burn

Engage & Withdraw - Another style that used to be popular but now seeing only moderate use, it has the following benefits:
* Very high dodge
* Counters a specialty style to devastating effect
* Has 'anxiously awaits' feature
* With right armor/activity, can gain back endurance
Drawbacks:
* Countered by one of the most popular styles in the PITT.

Calculated Attack - A specialty style that is almost never used stand alone, it has the following advantages:
* Has 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Has special 'hits accurate area' ability
* Counters one of the most popular styles in the pit
* With correct act level/armor, can gain back endurance
Drawbacks:
* Lower hit success rate than other styles
* Greatly reduced attack rate
*Is countered by another most popular style in the pit.

Martial Combat - A specialty style that is often used for the warriors life, it has the following advantages:
* Special sweep rate
* Special brawl attacks with separate damage chart
* Counters commonly used specialty style in the early game
* Lowish endurance burn
Disadvantages:
* Requires dedicated special skill set
* Weapon selection, skills, and stats prevent easy use of other styles
* limited weapon selection
* Lacks 'anxiously awaits' feature

Total Kill - A specialty style that is used early on then rarely after that. It has the following advantages:
* Bonus to attack rate
* High bonus to damage
* Intimidate chance against *all* styles
* Special 'berserk' lines, purpose not clear
Drawbacks:
* Lacks 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Lacks strategic statements (only style that doesn't get 'circles around grave', etc), these statements probably represent a skill use so their absence is notable.
* Regardless of defense skills, only has ~5% chance to parry or dodge
* Very high endurance burn

Decoy - A specialty style rarely used in the PITT, It has the following advantages:
* negates protect area save chance
Drawbacks:
* Lower attack rate
* Performs poorly against most popular styles.

Parry - A commonly used style that’s most useful feature is burning the endurance off your opponents. Advantages:
* Regardless of activity, has a burn endurance chance on the opponent
* Counters or is neutral to almost all popular styles
* Partial deflect ability that negates damage
* Gains endurance in most cases
Drawbacks:
* Very low attack rate
* Very low damage

Defend - Arguably the worst style, its use is almost nil or niche. Its advantages are:
* Nominal increase in disarm and sweep
* has 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Gains endurance in most cases
Drawbacks:
* Very low attack rate
* Very low damage rate
* Counters suite appears to be particularly bad, or the style just may suck that much.

Counterstrike - one of the most popular styles in the pit. Its advantage are:
* Special counter strike when you parry (no defense allowed, doesn't work when your on the ground)
* Does well against the popular styles of the PITT.
* Most people run relatively high activity, a low activity counterstrike can often outdo someone who is at style advantage but high activity.
* Has 'anxiously awaits' feature
Drawback:
]* Low inherit attack rate (counters compensate greatly for this)
* Low parry/dodge bonus (requires skills and low activity level to be effective)
* Very high endurance burn

Sure Strike - Very infrequently used style. It's advantage are:
* Highest hit % of any style
* Has 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Gains back endurance most the time
Drawbacks:
* Low attack rate
* Mixed damage performance (seems either really high, or really low)

Strike - Very commonly used style, particularly useful for getting endurance back while maintaining a decent offense. Advantages are:
* Has 'anxiously awaits' feature
* Counter or has decent performance against several popular styles
* Gains endurance back in most configurations
Drawbacks:
* Is countered badly by several popular styles.

Opportunity Throw - Almost sees no use, is a completely niche style. I have the least information about this style. Advantages are:
* Special throw attack that has its own damage chart
Drawbacks:
* Once your weapons are thrown, you have to switch to MC or another style.

WEAPONS

Weapon Types:
The to hit location lines (flails at so and so's left arm) are grouped by weapon type. Certain lines are shared among weapon types. Others are exclusive. This is how I was able to group weapons like the Cestus in the spear category. This may simply be flavor text and logical grouping, but for whatever reason they are distinct.



Blades - Stiletto, Knife, Dagger, Short Sword, Sword Breaker, Epee, Scythe, Broadsword, Bastard Sword, Great Sword. In general blades seem to favor Dex as a stat.
Axes - Hatchet, Fransisca, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Small Pick, Military Pick, Great Pick. In general axes seem to do well with dex/str being high.
Hammers - Open Fist (outside of mc), Hammer, Quarterstaff, Mace, Morningstar, War Hammer, Maul. Strength and size seem to benefit hammers well.
Spears - Cestus, Javelin, Boar Spear, Trident, Long Spear, Poleaxe, Halberd. Spears seem to work well for people of moderate size and Dex and high Str.
Flails - Flail, Bladed Flail, War Flail, Battle Flail, Ball n Chain. Flails damage is mostly tied to size.
Shields - Buckler, Target Shield, Tower Shield
Net - the net
Unknown - Scimitar, Long Sword, Pick Axe, Great Staff (I studied this before these weapons existed)
Brawl - Kicks are distinct from open fist attacks.

There are a few weapons out there that punch through armor. These weapons do more damage against Scale, chain, half-plate, and plate than they do against others. They are:
Stiletto, Scythe, Small Pick, Military Pick, Great Pick, and Pick Axe

There are weapons that can be used with the Martial Combat style. They are:
Stiletto, dagger, knife, quarterstaff, net, Great Staff (I may be missing some here)

Charge Attacks:
All spears (save the Cestus) can throw the special charge attack, which is based off the charge skill. This attack misses more often than other attacks but does good damage when it hits.

Flail around shields:
The flails can bypass shield blocks

Shield Blocks:
Seem distinct from parries, but still allow counterstrikes.

You can reference the weapons guides on the Pitt to get the weight, throwing and handedness of any given weapon. This guide goes over my own observations of known style/race combos and effectiveness.

A big note is this: Weapons favor styles, races, and characters differently. I've had several clones of stats and race that have liked weapons differently, so it is important to experiment with weapons and styles, we are all stuck right now gravitating towards a few powerful combos, but I would bet money more exist out there.



Stiletto - Very high attack rate, good in the hands of weak warriors against heavier armor, but ultimately does for too little damage to be good after a while. Halflings seem to like this weapon.
Knife - Attack rate is underwhelming for the size. I have seen only a handful of effective opponents with the knife, it is underwhelming for the most part.
Dagger - Very high attack rate, good in the hands of elves, but like all smaller weapons it does too little damage at the high end to be effective.
Short Sword - One of the ultimate weapons, in the hands of almost any warrior using the popular styles the short sword can wreak havoc. Seems particularly effective with small size, high str/dex Halflings, elves, and just about anyone else. Dual shorty elves running wall of steel are a tried and true cookie cutter design that still holds well to this day. The Pocket Rocket ™ Halfling using a single short sword is another good design.
Epee - Good attack rate, seems decent at disarm, but has the same problem as other lighter weapons over time. Can be effective in the first 50 fights when played right.
Broadsword - Meh. That pretty much sums it up. Not a bad weapon, not a good weapon, just a meh weapon. Attack rate is nothing to write home about. Seems to like high dexterities and elves.
Bastard Sword - High attack rate for a heavy weapon, good with the slash tactic, and likes a decent amount of the popular styles, it suffers from what appears to be a critical lack of consistent high damage hits for its size. Half-elves seem fond of this weapon.
Great Sword - I've seen this weapon in the hands of Half-Orcs do incredible things. I have been unable to reproduce its effects, its stat requirements are pretty sick, but if you can make this weapon work its well worth it.
Hatchet - Falls into the category of light weapons that do great due to high attack rate early on but fail to deliver later in life. Halflings seem to like the hatchet.
Fransisca - Seems consistently meh in all but the hands of dwarves, who seem to be able to rock with it more often than not.
Battle Axe- On its face damage wise this weapon isn't bad, but its attack rate is a tick too slow to be super effective. Good in the hands of warriors who are counter-striking or otherwise not relying on a high attack rate to win.
Great Axe - Haven't seen this used to good effect.
Small Pick - Again, another light weapon that below 50 fights is great and starts to peter out pretty significantly. Seen its best performance among humans and Halflings.
Military Pick - A human favorite for sure, Mil picks are very effective in the higher fights once people have graduated to wearing scale and above. Well worth waiting for, works in a variety of popular styles well.
Hammer - My personal jury is out whether the hammer is viable in the later fights, its performance, damage, and attack rate are all above average. I've seen some Halflings and humans go off with the hammer
Mace - I have seen unbelievable inconsistency with the mace. It's the epee of the hammer family.
Morningstar - One of the great weapons, it seems to have a consistent high damage once its minimums are met. I've seen every race work well with it.
War Hammer - A Half-Orc favorite, the war hammer is a good weapon in the right hands. It requires a 20+ strength to truly 'sing'.
Maul - To slow to be effective and lacks the defenses to boot.
Boar Spear - Arguably the best weapon in the game, it can be used in lunge, waste, and strike very effectively, can be thrown at the end of the day, or used with a shield. It has a great attack rate and good damage to boot. Haven't seen a race dislike this one yet.
Long Spear - This weapon is good in the hands of Half-elves and some Half-Orcs, it has a lot of the same advantages as the boar spear once your weapon skill gets you to 7 APM. Its damage has more kick than the Boarspear.
Pole Axe- A Half-Elf favorite, the poleaxe does really well for that race, and fails for others outside the bonus range. Whether it is the extra APM helves seem to get with it or some other bonus, other races just don't tend to do as well with it.
Halberd - A tough weapon to use, but there have been certain Half-Orcs that devastate their opponents with the Halberd. Well worth using if you can make it work.
Flail - A unique weapon in that most its damage effect appears to be based on Size (unlike the other flails which are also effected by strength). Elves like flails, but generally the rest of the races do well with the flail. I haven't seen a flail at the top, so jury is out on if it can be competitive there.
Bladed Flail - Halflings and Half-Orcs love the bladed flail, it does great damage against lighter armor and then has a HUGE drop-off against scale+ making it difficult as a top tier weapon.
War Flail - One of the best weapons in the game, particularly in the hands of Half-Orcs. It was once truly legendary but it has since been nerfed a bit.
Battle Flail - A favorite of half-elves that get an extra attack with it, the battle flail's overall attack rate is too low when compared with its damage rate to be as effective as its faster cousin the war flail.
Quarterstaff - A Halfling favorite, this is truly underwhelming in the current pit.
Open Hand - Oddly enough it works great in strike as well as MC, but its damage is so anemic that outside of the brawl skill you can't last long with the open hand.
Buckler - Seems to be a fairly weak shield, not really worth using.
Target Shield - A current 'sweet spot' shield for dwarves.
Tower Shield - Once legendary, its been nerfed down a bit. Half-Orcs seem to favor it over the target shield.
Cestus - outside of being used in MC, an underwhelming weapon. I have seen the odd half-elf MC'er using this and getting silly damage with it.
Trident - Once a lot better than it was, it seems to get good results with both dwarves and half-elves, but compared to the boar spear it no longer is competitive.
Net - A specialty weapon that I've seen success with Dwarves in, it works well with Sure Strike and wall of steel and throws a frustrating entangle attack. Its performance is hit and miss.
Scythe - Sings in the hands of elves, this armor punching blade can also use slash effectively and can be truly devastating in the hands of almost any warrior save Half-Orcs which for some reason don't perform up to the other races (might be their low attack rate).
Great Pick - In the hands of the right Half-Orc or Dwarf, you have an unstoppable killing machine. Just don't fight anyone in CB or leather, its like hitting your opponent with a whiffle bat.
Javelin - A really great weapon in the 50 fights or less range, has many of the benefits of the boar spear with a higher attack rate. Halflings and elves both like the javelin.
Ball & Chain - Never got a good warrior rolling with this one, I have seen it do wicked damage.
Sword breaker - The lack of blade use in the PITT decreases the value of this blade. I've seen it on a few freak warriors do well, but in general I haven't gotten it to work
Long Sword - New, and I don't know enough about it to comment.
Pick Axe - New, and I don't know enough about it to comment.
Great Staff - New, and I don't know enough about it to comment.
Scimitar - New, and I don't know enough about it to comment.

Stats - Races - Skills

STATS


Note: For base aspects of the PITT, most things are comparing your stat against your opponent’s stat. So dodge for example takes your dexterity subtracting your opponent’s dexterity as a bonus. Most of these are squared in some manner, so the bigger the difference, the more pronounced in what you see.

Strength - The primary determiner of damage. Strength greater than your opponents gives you a bonus to parry. Has a major effect on weapon minimums and carrying capacity. Has a minor effect on endurance and hit points.

Dexterity - Base dexterity increases the number of attacks/actions you have per minute. A dexterity that is greater than your opponents gives you a bonus to both Dodge and Aiming. Dexterity is also the stat that determines your armor fumble chance using a style.

Constitution - The primary determiner of your stat training ability (probably differential with your own stat, higher is harder to train). The main factor in determining your endurance. Minor factor in determining hit points and carrying capacity.

Intelligence - The primary determiner of your skill learning ability. Also increases the number of attacks/actions you have per minute.

Presence - (all from keeper, so this info is rock solid) Main factor in determining if you succeed in challenging/avoiding. Main factor in determining if a fight is stopped when you're dying. When a fight is stopped, winner is declared by who has greater hit points + presence. Chance to successfully intimidate someone is based on differential presence with your opponent.
(My own notes) - It appears that presence has a small beneficial effect on training stats and skills.

Size - Size is the most important stat for hit points. Your base hit points are somewhere near Sizex3. In addition to that, size affects carrying capacity and weapon minimums. Has a minor effect to damage, appears to be relevant when a weapon is used two handed (even if weapon is only 1 handed, lack of offhand still gives the bonus). Unlike other stats, Small size actually holds some advantages. You get a dodge bonus when your size is smaller than your opponent. You also get an aim bonus when your size is smaller than your opponent.

RACE
Note: All races have 1 favored enemy, and 1 enemy they do poorly against. This creates a vicious circle in the race relations. I'm not going to say which are which, discovering this is part of the fun for a new player and relatively easy to do. Races favor certain weapons, I don't bother going into that here, more appropriate for a weapons section.

Humans - Stat train better and take fewer perms than any other race. Aside from that, average.

Dwarves - Dwarves get a parry bonus, a dodge penalty, an increased armor carrying capacity, and slight bonus to damage and hit points. They also get a bonus using shields. They have a slight penalty to attack rate.

Elves - Elves get a slight dodge bonus and a slight penalty to hit points. Elves get a slight bonus when wielding 2 weapons. They also have a bonus to attack rate.

Half Elves -Half-elves are mostly average. They do seem to get a slight bonus to wielding bigger weapons.

Half-Orcs - Massive damage bonus, big attack rate penalty, slight dodge and parry penalties, big hit point bonus.

Halflings - Big dodge bonus, major damage penalty, big action rate bonus, and a penalty to parrying. In some cases using an offhand weapon totally fubars a Halfling for reasons I never figured out. Also appear to get a decent bonus to MC.


SKILLS
Note: There really is no 'to hit' skill. Certain skills can negate defenses actively like a lunge through the parry, but one trend that is loud and clear is the older a warrior gets, the more dodges/parries occur, indicating that no trained skill actually helps you on the raw 'to hit' number.

Weapon Skill - Increases rate of attack with a weapon and damage with a weapon. May also help when parrying offhand with it (not sure on that one).

Charge - Increases your chance of throwing 'intimidates'. Adds a special attack when using a spear that does a great amount of damage. This may also help with chances of certain style specific abilities.

Lunge - Increases the lunge attack abilities effectiveness and damages. Can negate a parry occasionally. This may also help with chances of certain style specific abilities. This may also help protect you against initiative thefts.

Dodge - Helps determine your chance to dodge (surprise!)

Parry - Helps determine your chance to parry (surprise!)

Initiative - Increases your actions per minute. Gives you a chance at initiative thefts where you can steal full actions.

Feint - Decreases the amount of damage you take on strikes (to minor extent). Gives you a chance to feint and negate a defense. This may also help with chances of certain style specific abilities.

Martial Combat - Effects your MC damage and MC sweeps. Also helps you stand after being swept.

Throw - Helps in the accuracy of throwing. Aside from that, not sure, maybe also the damage as per Stimpy.

Sweep - Helps your warrior sweep (surprise!). Sweeps do cause damage, but the damage doesn't seem to be related to the sweep skill value. This is hard to tell without differentiating damage statements when a sweep occurs.

Disarm - Helps your warrior disarm (surprise!).


Activity Levels
Activity Levels in the Pitt have several ranging effects. But interestingly enough, the most important aspect of an activity level isn't PURELY the number, but the difference between your activity level, and your opponents.

Here are a list of effects and how I believe they are determined:
Note: A bonus is probably some equation that is a square with a divisor, so the bigger the difference, the greater the effect.

Parry bonus: You get a parry bonus (or penalty) related to how much LESS your activity is to your opponent.
Dodge bonus: you get a dodge bonus (or penalty) related to how much MORE your activity is to your opponent.
Bonus actions: Higher activity = faster attack rate
Bonus damage: Lower activity = higher damage (I'm a little dubious of this one, it may be purely endurance related)
Endurance Burn: Your rate of endurance burn is related primarily to style, but activity level adds in.
Endurance Drain: Below a 6 activity, some styles will drain the endurance off your foe.
How many points LESS you are than your opponent

MJ's rebuttal:

Rebuttal/Addendum as originally posted by MJ


WOS:
- Increases parry chance not dodge (the dodge increase is probably just because of the high activity levels used)
- I think Lunge and E&W have bigger charge bonus than WoS
- It has a damage penalty, you will do a lot more hits, but less damage per hit

Lunge:
- Attack rate isn't that high, lunge works kind of like a rhythm thing, you hit you are more likely to attack again... however if you get caught early in the fight you might never find that rhythm. The idea of high attack rate is because with long weapons you tend to get the initial attack and you can develop a nice rhythm from there and good skills (init and others)
- I also don't think damage is penalized, but it does require more skills to work.

Decoy:
- Decoy has a great feature, it can actually prevent an enemy from being able to parry. This can be nasty against certain types.

Counterstrike:
- Are you sure you can't defend the counter? I can't remember exactly, but I though if you had a 2nd weapon or shield you could actually defend.
- I don't think Counterstrike burns endurance that quickly, but then I always used it with low activity and my guys had very high CON.

Strike:
- Like Duke said, when people get "proficient" in more advanced styles, Strikers tend to get creamed

---
- High activity can make you clumsy.
- High activity can cause issues with the armor (you see them in the fights)
- I do agree with lower activity meaning more damage.
- High activity seems to help intimidate (might be wrong)
- High activity makes you take more dmg, more likely to be permed, more likely to die, most people drop activity on heavy injured trigger