Basic Combat Guide

Combat in Age of Wushu is based on the strict logic of real-world martial arts, and has been compared to the classic game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors." Moves types are divided into Overt Attacks (Rock), Feints (Scissors), and Parries (Paper).



Overt Moves or “Rock” are straight attacks. These are stronger than other attacks because they have one purpose, damage. Whether a “basic attack” with your weapon/fists, or a special skill, Overt Moves are the foundation of combat.


- The majority of damage skills are overt moves.
- They are the main skills which you use to deal damage to your opponents.
- They will break the armor of feint skills and overpower them.
- If your opponent is using a parry stance, the damage will be reduced by a certain percentage starting at 50%, but can be increased or reduced through gear and skills.


The “Paper” that covers the rock are Parry moves. You can Parry a player normally, which only minimizes the damage done to you. The more practiced martial artists will be able to deal more damage than a simple Parry can handle. Enter Parry Skills. Each Parry behaves differently when a player successfully parries an attack. Some examples of Parry effects are retaliation damage back to the attacking player or their equipment, and debuffs to the player (slower movement, longer skill cooldowns, etc). Choosing a Parry that fits the rest of your play style is just as important as the attacks you choose. While you can keep Parrying, an Overt Move can lower your Parry endurance over time and breakthrough your Parry. Opponents can also perform a simple feint and cut through your Parry.


- Parry stance reduces the damage received from any overt move. The percentage damage reduction is governed by two of your stats, depending on the type of attacking move: external attacksor internal attacks
- You can maintain your Parry stance as long as you hold down the Parry key (Default: Right mouse button)
- Parrying will reduce movement speed by 70%, but you can still move around and jump while Parrying
- A Parry can be easily broken with any Feint Move. If that happens, you cannot Parry again for a certain amount of time
- Your Parry Endurance will be depleted gradually as you take blows from an opponent, the strength and recovery speed of your Parry is dependent on your stats
- Parrying is a good way to fill your Rage, which is required to cast Rage Moves


Feints cut through parries, leaving your opponent stunned, possibly weakened, and ready for a devastating follow-up attacks. Feints are lighter attacks that are intended to break-open defenses with a sudden move and are not advised to go toe to toe with the stronger, more direct Overt Moves.


- Feint skills are Parry breaking moves which are used to break and cancel an enemy's parry stance
- An enemy will receive 100% damage after their parry has been broken, and are unable to parry for a certain amount of time
- Feint Moves are easily broken by any Overt Move


Skills are also set in their own attributes including: Yin, Yang, Hard, Soft, and Tai Chi. These attributes dictate where the skill can excel, in cultivation or combat scenarios. Try matching skills of the same attribute together and activate a similar Internal Skill to gain the full effect of the attacks.



In addition to the three basic sets are chi moves. Chi Moves enhance your own power or weaken the enemy. They donot directly attack an enemy as much as create debuffs. While channeling Chi move a player is left open to attacks, so be wise when using them because not only are you vulnerable, but being struck will cancel your chi move.


When fighting you build up Rage which can be used to activate a powerful attack on your foes. A player's Rage Meter is located below the Internal Force and Health bars. When you collect a pool of Rage, a fireball will appear. These fireballs can be obtained faster depending on multiple scenarios:



- Each attack builds a little bit of fire
- Attacking multiple enemies at once
- Taking damage
- Absorbing damage by Parrying
When you have sufficient Rage built up, your Rage skill will become available and alert you with a glow that it is ready to be unleashed. Beware though, a player can still parry these attacks and their extreme damage.




Some skills are better suited for aerial combat. With these martial arts, players have the ability to move swiftly and lightly at superhuman speeds. They are able to perform gravity defying moves such as gliding across water, running up walls, and holding themselves aloft while exchanging blows.




Each skill has an individual cooldown (CD) time. After you use/cast a skill, it will enter its CD. However, there is also another type of CD called Shared CD.

- When any skill is cast all other skills in the same skill set will enter a shared CD of 1 sec

- When any skill is cast, all other skills in other skill sets will enter a shared CD of 7 sec

- The shared CD restriction prevents the continous comboing of skills from different skill sets, this restriction does not stop you from using parry stances at any time


These types of skills require players to click on a target before using/casting.

- If there are any obstacles between you andyour target, the ranged skill will not be cast, even if you are locked onto your target

- If your target moves out of range, you canstill cast/use your ranged skill, but they will take no damage unless it is an Approach Skill. This means that your opponent can dodge your skills if they move quickly enough

Approach skills are a special class of targeting skills.

- Players can pre-load one of these skills into the queue after they have locked onto a target that is currently out of range. The range not only refers to the range of the skill itself, but how far you can dash with your flying skills

- When in range the player will dash towards the target and execute the move

- Only one approach skill can be queued at a time

- Approach skills will be removed from the queue if any other skills are activated

- These skills are not guaranteed to always work, if your opponent moves out of the target zone they can dodge your approach skill

NON-TARGETTING SKILLS

Non targetting skills can be used/cast even if you do not have any target selected. They are generally Area of Effect (AoE) attacks that expand in 360 degrees from your character.


Area-defining skills are a special class of non-targetting skills. After clicking on the skill drag your mouse to the location that you'd like it to target.



- There are no such thing as "Classes" or "Jobs", your character can learn every single skill in the game, although some skills are extremely rare and hard to come by

- Joining a school can give you easy access to the skills of that school, though you can also learn skills from other schools by participating in daily "Script Stealing" events, or buying them from other players

- There are other skills which do not belong to any school and can only be obtained through challenges, such as clearing dungeons/instances, or extremely rare Random Encounters

- Each is typically a number in a series of "Skill Sets", each school currently has three skill sets

- Each skill set has their own characteristics, for example some are better in a PvE situation than a PvP one

- Each skill set comes with a parry skill, feint, overt move, and chi move. Each of them has a unique effect. For example the parry stance of Single Sword allows you to slow an attacking opponent. The parry stance of Twin Sword triggers a buff that increases energy regen. The parry stance of Kicking skill set triggers a buff that increases Kicking Skill damage.