Savage combat terminology/glossary?

[Enliven]

We need it, I'm tired of people who use term "freeswing" and generally misuse the terms. This is mainly because there aren't any universally agreed definitions on combat moves, therefore I would like the community to clarify those and add to wiki.

Thanks to all contributors, you can find authors responsible for definitions down the topic.

Leap

Leap is special ability of the beast race fighter and medic classes, a powerful low-ground jump with the momentum remaining after the performance.You have 8 directions to choose from, and a weak air-control in possible during the leap with both the movement buttons and mouse aiming. Performing jump after leap uses the remaining momentum and extends the leap by about two and a half times, but render unit slower and more vulnerable. leap takes stamina to replenish and can't be interrupted by other leap, however, holding leap button will pull a leap instantly after previous leap was fully executed.


Bounce

Bouncing - A set of moves that involves pressing jump right after leap, therefore maintaining large movement momentum and effectively extending leap 2.5 times at the cost of half leap stamina. When the beast attack is blocked, bounce is used to get out of the humans player's range. On ex2 duel servers, coil was introduced as a weapon to humans to combat this. If playing right, beast with bounce will always stay out of melee range regardless of opponent's actions.


Bunnyhop

Bunny-hopping is a way to preserve speed momentum by repeatedly pressing jump button when you're midair and not realeasing until you've made the jump. Works best right after you've leaped - as a beast, extending your leap by 300%, and when you're going downhill - with raising speed - for both humans and beasts.


Block

Block is a special ability of human race fighter and medic classes, 180 degree damage shield. Blocks out most of both melee and ranged damage, with a slight decrease in damage pierce after level 6. Block stops you from moving, however, it doesn't hinder the momentum if the unit does not touch the ground. This can be exploited by performing "bunnyhop" series. Unlike parry, block doesn't stop damage completely, but stuns the opponent for a short time, which is enough to execute a hit, but not enough to get a reblock. (This, however, is possible if you are using savage or nomad or if the opponent has missed or delayed his return hit so that his hit combo was reset). Block doesn't take stamina and has a maximum time of last. As it doesn't have a cooldown, it can be used multiple times by rapidly clicking block button, achieving ~80% (~50% in ex2) blocking success in the given direction. This tactic is often called blockspam, but it's outdated and generally unused anymore.


Spinblock

Spinblock - Executing a block while spinning in hope that a successful block will be achieved.


Block Cancels

Block Cancelling: As a human, using the block to end the melee sequence faster than it normally should. For example, as a Nomad, you can do three quick swings and before the fourth and final one, you use block to go back to your resting position, avoiding the delay that comes after the fourth swing.


Fake

Fake: A move that can be used in both offense and defense. It consists of a direct indication of attack, often involving leaping towards opponent for beasts and changing movement direction for humans, both finishing with an attack (However, in certain cases only the attempt to attack is being performed).

Fakes are extremely useful for keeping mobile human opponent slowed down, or even rendering him static. Skilled human fighters often use fakes as a teaser for an enemy, provoking him to make a leap (read:waste stamina) either towards them or away.


Crowd control

Crowd control: For humans: ability to successfully maneuver among a mass of enemies, using just blocked enemies as obstacles. For beasts: ability to bring havoc to their enemies by effectively staying extremely mobile on the battlefield, using enemies only as rabid fuel, generally trying to kill as much enemies as possible by avoiding locking to single enemy.


Lock

Lock: The other games usually call it "tunnel effect", but it is a bit different in Savage. Basically, locking occurs when a player is determined to kill other player, often ignoring all the obstacles. Happens very often among new players. Basically, if you focus on a single opponent too much, you will ultimately become weakened for surprise attacks, not to mention summoner strikes. Veteran players can see "locked" duelers on the battlefield and exploit that by getting to their side or back.


Freeswing

Preambulae: I personally don't like this term, but overon explained what people mean by it quite well.

Freeswing:(abbrev. fs)  The act of a human player swinging at an enemy without having first blocked an incoming attack to create a safe opening from which to do so.  This tactic can be very helpful for relatively new human players against an enemy that is getting around many blocks.  If well-timed, one can take advantage of the fact that beasts cannot block without suffering much extra risk; however, it often results in retaliatory damage and is easily avoided by most experienced beast players.  Thus, while being a valuable maneuver in the human play book, it is generally frowned upon as a primary offensive strategy, indicative of deficient blocking skill.

[AlphaFtw]

Well, if you want to take savage seriously, g/l.

[OzzO]

heh, free swing is when a beastperson is too stupid to actually hit the human without getting blocked and then get hit by the humanperson.

gr. OzzO

[tanks]

Spinblock - Executing a block while spinning in hope that a succesful block will be achieved.

Bounceing - Common in ex2, when the beast attack is blocked, however the leap is continued out of the humans players range. On ex2 duel servers, coil was introduced as a weapon to humans to combat this.

Copy ma def on freeswinging if ya want

[a simple facade]

Swingthrough: When a hit does not register with the hit box, thereby making the "hit" act as if didn't happen.

Block Canceling: As a human, using the block to end the melee sequence faster than it normally should. For example, as a Nomad, you can do three quick swings and before the fourth and final one, you use block to go back to your resting position, avoiding the delay that comes after the fourth swing.

[Django]

Any chance one of you guys can copy this onto the wiki?

[darkbread]

heh, free swing is when a beastperson is too stupid to actually hit the human without getting blocked and then get hit by the humanperson.

[XabHippA]

i'd add to the swingthrough: ANIMATION tells you your swing goes through the enemy, but savage is a weird game so you actually have to aim at the enemy hitbox in order to hit the enemy... or something like that...
bla

[tanks]

I blame SEP

Oh and block cancelling is great for building and mineing. Little tip for ya'll!

[SyKot]

My definition of freeswing:
It happens when a player (usually human) attacks the enemy not bothering if he is going to be hit or no in the process.

[Vinther]

I "blockspam"

[Shamoke]

Those aren't related to melee, but I dont' remember seeing those terms anywhere, so I drop them here... 


Behe-Train : Many people going all together to crush the human base with a behemoth. This is a very team-oriented tactic, and isn't successful every time.
Best done with shamans shielding front behemoths while saccers-blazers clear the path with a few preds distracting the rest.

Chain-Sac! : People trying to sacrifice on a same building (marked by the commander or an officer). Deadly even against a shielded building. This can easily break any human fortress, if done properly.
Even if the concept is simple, it still requires a lot of teamplay, as you don't usually see beasts waiting for each other in order to sacrifice all together.

To me, it's even more amazing to see 20 chain-saccers than a Behe train.

Chaplainergizer: careless chaplains used as stamina-replenisher by Farming Preds.

Farming Preds: Predators focusing on kills rather on homewrecking.

Shamoke's like: Any excellent player.

[Django]

EvO Sux

[Groentjuh]

EvO Sux

@Django: OzzO thinks you are not telling the truth! so he reported your post!

[born_to_be_noobish]

Leap and block is already on the wiki. Leap even has a nice instruction video.

If you encounter newbs or noobs who dont know what leap or block is, tell them to RTFW  and give them the link to the wiki. If they cant find the melee info section of the wiki on their own, savage is not a game for them.

The wiki has a glossary section but it's nearly completely empty, i think.

I ll start working on a S1 moves category and a S1 terminology category.