Fighting: A matter of life and death

The combat system relies equally on the advancement of fighting skills and equipment. The quality of weapons and armor has an effect on attack and defense, but the proper use of a character’s skill set is equally important.
For normal attacks, it is important to master skills for weapons — such as two-handed swords, bows or staffs — because skills are directly responsible for the accuracy of a weapon.

Using a weapon inflicts primarily physical damage to your enemies, and spells of mages and priests deal magical damage. Mages have control over fire and wind, and priests can call on Narfas, the god of springwater, to give them control over water.

Skills

The core of the combat system consists of the many different attacking skills, which give each character class its own distinctive strength. Combat is not just beating down an opponent’s vitality with brute force; it’s also fine-tuning skills and being observant and clever. Roots or chains of light can be used to buy time or retreat from a hopeless fight, bleeding wounds are painful and can be a dangerous problem or a useful weapon, and items that blind, stun or poison enemies exist because of sinister crafters.

Many fighting skills depend on other skills and demand constant attention and quick reaction. Warriors can use opening attacks to position their enemies so that special follow-up attacks are possible, but they need to be able to quickly identify which attack they should use. Knights can place Glowing Seals, which have various effects that depend on the follow-up skill used. And mages can protect themselves by using Electrostatic Charges before hurling those same charges to attack their enemies.

Masters of elements also should watch out for any resistance an enemy may have against magic. A spotted weakness can be used to turn a fight around very quickly.

Combos

It is important to keep an eye on the interaction of elements. Every attack is assigned to a hidden element, and certain combinations of elements have magical effects. They are quite inconspicuous for short combinations, but longer combos are more spectacular. The mixture of elements on an enemy target is essential, and groups of adventurers can work together to generate more damage and special effects, ranging from fear to fields of flames. But first, you must discover which combinations have which, if any, effects.