Game Mechanics

Important game mechanics that every new player needs to know.

Melee

 * Left click attacks with your current weapon. For melee this means you will begin a series of varying attacks, for example Kerillian's Sword and Dagger combo has 4 parts: Slash, slash, stab, slash. Pausing or blocking will reset the combo from the beginning, so if you learn your weapon's combo you can deliberately reset it in order to use the first attack, if you wish.
 * Holding left click will allow you to perform a 'heavy attack.' This varies from weapon to weapon, and sometimes multiple heavy attacks in a row can be different. For example, Kerillian's Sword and Dagger's first heavy attack is a slash with both weapons, but the second one is a downward stab. On top of this there are two weapons in the game, pickaxe and rapier, which have 2 levels of charge. These are stronger than the first charge level.
 * Holding right click will allow you to Block with your melee weapon, allowing you to avoid taking damage. You have a limited pool of Stamina, denoted by the grey Shield symbols that appear when holding right click. These are expended when you are struck by an enemy, or when you Push. Stamina recovers over time, unless you use multiple dodges in a row, which reset the stamina recovery time. Blocking a heavy attack will remove all of your Stamina and Stagger you, causing you to be momentarily stunned. Blocking works against attacks from any side. Each weapon has a blue symbol on its description which shows the arc that you can block for normal Stamina costs. Attacks from outside that range cost double.
 * Blocking right before an attack is called Parrying. Parried attacks stagger the enemy who dealt it. The window for parrying is small- holding right click will not allow you to parry all attacks.
 * Left clicking while blocking will Push an enemy in front of you at the cost of Stamina. Different weapons are better at pushing, for example a Shield will usually give more distance than a lighter weapon such as the Rapier. If you hold left click your push will be followed up with an attack, but this leaves you open to attacks from enemies. Pushing diverts enemy aggro to you, and can be used to pull enemies off of allies.

Ranged

 * Left clicking with a ranged weapon will allow you to simply fire the gun, crossbow, or bow. Rapid clicking with these weapons will usually allow you to fire more shots quickly. Drakefire Guns and Bright Wizard Staffs are a little different, but the principle is the same.
 * Holding right click with a ranged weapon will sometimes allow you to "aim down sights," on Ranger Veteran and Waystalker this activates a zooming effect. Aimed shots deal more damage and are usually easier to hit. Use this for sniping Special enemies or common enemies at range.

Abilities

 * Each Career has its own Ability they can activate by pressing F. These have a variety of effects and are highly situational. Each ability has a different Cooldown which is visualized by the purple bar above your health in the bottom-center of the screen. Concentration Potions cause this bar to fill rapidly, allowing the player to use their ability again much sooner.
 * Each Career has several Passive abilities which grant various boons to the player.
 * You can check your passive and career abilites in your talent tab in the keep or when you press tab in-game it shows at the top of your screen.

Items

 * Items spawn in the world and are usually random. They can appear on the ground, in chests, or in crates. items are not placed in random spots, but have certain spawn points. The spawn points do not always have an item though, so which item spawns can differ per game.
 * Healing Draughts and Medical Supplies are used to recover hit points. Draughts are consumed quickly, but Medical Supplies heal for more.
 * Strength Potions give a player increased damage for a short duration. Speed Potions give a player increased movement and attack speed for a short duration. Concentration Potions cool an ability down quickly.
 * Bombs cause a large amount of AoE damage nearly instantly, while Incendiary Bombs create fire in a large area that burns for a few seconds, injuring enemies.

Health

 * When your HP reaches 0 you fall down and begin to 'bleed out.' Enemies can still attack you during this phase and can speed up your demise. An ally can pick you up to get you back in the game, and it is recommended that they hold right click to block at the start of the reviving animation as this will help prevent interruption from attacking enemies until you have all your stamina consumed (See melee blocking).
 * After standing back up from prone you will have white Temporary HP. This will slowly tick away until you are one hit away from dropping again. It will never tick away to 0. Healing will bring you back to normal. Because of this it is always best to let someone with Temporary HP only heal before others.
 * When a player falls down from too much damage they gain a Wound. Healing removes all Wounds.
 * If you earn too many Wounds, you will be at risk of dying. The amount of wounds required to die varies by difficulty. If you die, your allies can rescue you later in the game, where you will have half ammo and low HP. If the last player drops while his allies are dead or prone, the team is defeated and must start the level again.


 * The amount of times you can drop without healing differs per difficulty. Recruit lets you go down four times, Veteran twice, and Champion and Legend only once.

Stamina/Shields
Weapons provide different amounts of Stamina, which is used for Blocking and Pushing. Stamina grants 1/2 shield per 1.0 Stamina. Blocking an attack or Pushing within your 'block angle' costs a 1/2 shield. Blocking or Pushing outside of this angle costs double. Blocking a heavy attack costs all of your shields.


 * Due to a bug in the pre-release beta, Weapons display half their actual Stamina beside the block-angle guide. For example, a spear says 3 when it really means 6, or more precisely- 3 shields.

Tutorials
These two combat tutorials were made for VT1 but largely still apply in VT2!



Combat Mechanic Topics

 * Stamina -- The resources used for blocking and parrying
 * Dodging -- A movement mechanic that allows the player to quickly avoid attacks
 * Cleave -- Striking multiple enemies with one blow
 * Stagger -- Being knocked back slightly, a short stun
 * Headshots -- Headshots deal additional damage
 * Criticals -- Critical Hits deal additional damage
 * Armor and Shields -- Armoured and Shielded enemies can block damage
 * Blocking -- block angles, stamina consumption, etc.
 * Parrying -- blocking an attack as it occurs