ArcheAge Darkrunner Combat Guide

ArcheAge Darkrunner Combat Guide by endah

Hello again. I made a guide not long ago where i had planned to encorporate the technical aspects of combat, comboing, and situational awareness – However i ended up actually playing AA too much and cut that guide short. It is still very relevant, but it covers everything (i think) you need to know PRE combat.
This guide hopefully gives you insight into my brain, and my take on how to succeed as a melee in general, but more specifically, as a runner in the darkness.

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The Opening
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The most important part about the actual combat for a Darkrunner is the opening. Whether it be swapping to a kill target, ganking some braindead farmer, or high stakes stream v stream Qing, your opening momentum usually decides a win or loss.

NOTE This is all subject to variation. I cant stress that enough. The more you play against a specific group, player, the more they adapt. Which means what? YOU need to adapt. Become a mix-up artist. Think of yourself as a DJ of darkrunner tricks, never ending scratches and hiccups to keep your enemy on his toes.

(1 week old edit) After posting countless matchups, i realized that i literally couldnt cover everything in 1 guide – so im going to simply walk through some generic setups i have, and highlight who/who it isnt effective against.

Im going to link my usual build here, as well as my (current as of August 1s) experimental build
Usual build: http://archeagedatabase.net/us/calc/15320
Experimental build: http://archeagedatabase.net/us/calc/29746

Key
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Sleep – Leech (auramancy)
Toggle – on use effect from honor nodachi
Shout – Terrifying Roar (battle rage)
Backstab – Precision Strike (battle rage)
Smite – Shadow Smite (shadowplay)

1. God-tier setup: > Sleep > Toggle > Shout > Overwhelm > Smite > Backstab > Charge > TripSlash (animation cancel) TripSlash > TS. This is the ideal gank/1v1 setup on any non-witch non-auramancy kill target. It is as follows (assuming no hunters mark).

This is a video clip of it in the works, on an auramancy target that just didnt react fast enough to the stun.
http://www.twitch.tv/endahlol/c/4801276

This a quick animation canceling guide:
http://www.twitch.tv/endahlol/c/4813794

I play agaisnt cpt.crunch a lot, so its not so much his lack of reaction but the mixups in prior games. Ive dueled him at least 70+ times, and im constantly trying wonky openings just to keep him guessing O:

This is probably the highest damage output + highest control duration possible. Its a full “true” combo meaning when the first trip begins, if youre timing is solid, you can hold the trip lock for 4.5+seconds without your opponent having a window to react.

2. Reverse triplock: (Sleep) > Charge > Tripslash > Backstab > Tripslash (animation cancel) > Overwhelm > Smite

This is an opening i like trying out on auramancy / battlerage aura targets just to bait out stun break. Essentially, aura kill targets instinctively mash stun immunity when they get opened on, when in reality this is a (root) charge to trip, so you GIVE them the window to blow stun immunity for no reason, trip them, then have the opportunity to stun later given theyre trinket is down. (Note: Animation canceling is not always an ideal addition, nor is sleep always necessary/possible)

3. Spell kite opening: (Mark) > (Bow auto attacks) > TS > Blink > step shout > Overwhelm > Smite > backflip > Charge > TripSlash

This is the ultra noob friendly guide to playing v most mediocre Wizards, in group play/ganks/solo Q. Your objective in this matchup is to avoid being fear>slept>meteored>deaded. SO in order to do that, you need to poke down shield with any damage available, while keeping distance / inning and outting yourself as fast as possible. HENCE the TS > blink or Trip > Flips. Remember kids, flip the fear. FTF. EF TEE FF

3. Primevil/stone/bastion opening: (mark) > reverse flip > TS > shout > (MIRROR THEIR SPACE) > charge > overwhelm > smite > backstab

This is also over simplified, but usually allows you to sustain pressure on any primevil that isnt god tier.
Ideally, you will want to kite out their free runner, by baiting it with your own. Because a prime with free > a dr with free in an infight believe it or not, because of their stock evasion. So kite out cds, then try to vary around this opening guide and you will see some success if the prime isnt godtier (shout out to xusik).

NOTE What i mean by mirror their space is, if they blink YOU blink, if they step to themselves you step to yourself.

http://www.twitch.tv/endahlol/c/4835221
Quick match v jaylong that demonstrates the above techniques with a bit more textbook applications.

http://www.twitch.tv/endahlol/c/4826900
2:1 in a decent series v xusik (top prime NA imo). Its always sloppy v xusik but this gives you a general idea as to how to adapt your play based on the prime’s aggression.

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The Sustain
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This is typically what seperates the best darkrunners in the game, from the ratrunners. How to sustain relevance in any matchup or group fight while staying alive.
This part of the matchup/gank/group fight is also largely dependent on who your kill target is, and who his/her teamates are.
For the sake of simplicity ill break this down into some simple categories.

Heavy tanks: This is one of the hardest sustain games for our class boys. The sheer RNG of block/parry make this matchup nearly impossible agaisnt any smart tank. And especially hard in group play when they have support that can peel any vulnerability. If the tank has any witch in it, 9/10 youre going to lose this if theyre anywhere above semi decent. Our two weakest matchups in a pure 1v1 scenario are witch/defense. When a class has both of those try your hardest but have a tissue handy for the tears after your loss. SoHexblades/shadowknights/nightblades are going to be the impossible matchups, whileblighters/abolishers/paladins are slightly less impossible.

This sustain involves 2 elements: momentum and spacing. Create momentum with hard openings (double trips) then mix up your spacing so that the tank cannot reverse momentum in his favor. Welcome to DR children, we cant run at people with blockade up and fear immunity and call it a day. If you think this class is overpowered (well 1, youre a fucking moron) but most importantly, you havent played any smart player 1v1. Tanks put us in check fast no chess doe. Here is a fairly good example of momentum/spacing vs a pretty well geared tank piloted by a pretty smart player:
http://www.twitch.tv/endahlol/c/4822930

more soon