I do not understand the melee combat. I thought I did but don't...

[syakila]

Need help. At first I was thinking I understood how the melee combat works but after reading the forums I am confused and it could be why I am not doing well.

See I have set my sheilds to all sides and I do not mess with them when I am fighting they are defaulted to all sides. Okay here is what I see when I am fighting white fancy brackets on one side or two sides of a mob so I hit the side that has no white fancy bracket. Then I use my combos and I suppose the combo hits on the side indicated 3(UR) meaning the mob is hit on the UR or does it mean that after I hit the combo I have to follow up with the 3 button on my keyboard for the upper right hit.

I also notice while fighting a yellow fancy bracket pops up occasionally on one side of the mob and at that point am I to use a combo that hits on the side of the yellow bracket or do I use a normal attack that hits that side.

I also am confused with combos people say uses 4 attacks.So am I to use the combo button then follow it with an UR,mid,UR and UL. So that means for my combo to work I have to use the combo and then use four other buttons in rapid succession for the combo to work ? So I have to memorize that sequence then ? I am so confused.

[Qraven]

Here are the 3 basic attack directions:
Upper Left (UL) - Diagonal up/left arrow
Middle (Mid) - Straight up arrow
Upper Right (UR) - Diagonal up/right arrow

Through leveling, melee based classes will get 2 additional directions:
Lower Left (LL) - Diagonal down/left arrow
Lower Right (LR) - Diagonal down/right arrow



How combos work:
Each melee combo will have a widget on the icon for the attack directions they land. An (UL) combo will have a gray widget on the top left corner of the icon, a (Mid) combo will have in the top center, and so on. These are useful for knowing which direction the combo will hit (so you can use the combo which attacks the mob's weak side).

**Each combo has a normal attack or series of normal attacks before firing**

The best thing to do, is test this out in a town zone, when not attacking a target. You can actually preform all of your combos without actually fighting a target.

Let's use the Sweep combo as an example. It is an (UR) combo every melee class gets at level 2. While standing in town, press your Sweep button, you will notice that your avatar swings his/her weapon (the normal swing is always from the UR, no matter which combo you use). Simply hitting any combo button (save a few select combos, such as slam) does a normal (UR) swing. You will now see a combo box display on your screen with an (UR) arrow. This box will stay up for 4 seconds. You have 4 seconds to hit the (UR) arrow to trigger the Sweep combo. When you complete the combo, in this case by pressing a single (UR) arrow, you will preform the sweep.

Here is what your avatar does when doing the Sweep combo:
Hit the combo button: Your avatar does a normal (UR) attack
Hit the UR button: The combo begins and your avatar does the Sweep attack



Combos with a series of attacks:
Now for a more complex combo. Lets say you have a combo which does 4 attacks and requires you to hit (Mid), (UR), (UR) to activate it. Here is what your avatar does when you hit the buttons.

Hit the combo button: Your avatar does a normal (UR) attack
Hit the Mid button: Your avatar does a normal (Mid) attack
Hit the UR button: Your avatar does a normal (UR) attack
Hit the UR button: The combo begins and your avatar does 4 attacks

You will notice that the LAST attack in the sequence is never preformed. The last attack is overridden by the combo.

When doing complex combos, if any swing lands which isn't in the sequence, then the combo is canceled.