Gamer's Health

Swordsman | Archer | Blacksmith | Mage | Ninja

Blacksmith Basic Strategy

I spoke above about being a reactive versus proactive attacker. Playing a blacksmith is in most cases a reactive game, because you REALLY don't want to miss your hits. Let's take a moment to define reactive and proactive as meant in this guide before proceeding.

Proactive: Attacking first;Allowing your opponent to respond to your action
Reactive: Attacking last; Responding to the actions of your opponent

Looking above, you can see what is the safer bet. With the Blacksmith, your attacks are very slow so you must make sure they connect. Your delays are long, so when they do not connect, you are wide open. An impatient proactive Blacksmith will be defeated every time by a patient reactive Blacksmith. The same goes for other classes, running up to attack a ninja, swordsman, mage, or archer will get your attack block/dodged, and you pounded or cast on. There will be times when you attack first and you can do so without risk, if you follow the golden rule of Blacksmith offense:

IMPORTANT: Swing only once if you are playing proactively!

That's right, swinging once is the golden rule. When you are chasing or opening up a fight, NEVER swing twice unless you KNOW you have your enemy with your first hit. If you swing once, your delay is marginal and you can get right back to moving or blocking, but if you swing twice, then you commit yourself and many players are proficient at killing a blacksmith by dodging the two big swings and then positioning to respond. Again, remember only to swing twice when you KNOW you will connect both hits. (in other words, when you are playing reactively or have chased someone into a corner or against a wall). Keep in mind you will be playing proactively only when you are chasing. Swinging once while chasing will hereby be referred to in this guide as the One-swing Strategy.

Melee:

The basic strategy of the blacksmith is a mix between offense and defense. Most of the time you will be running around with your pinky resting on block. You will have to learn to time your blocks and be good at blocking on a moments notice. An enemy who just attacked a blocking blacksmith is an enemy in trouble Swordsman and Ninja will be your common melee opponents. They both swing faster than you (and the swordsman hurts more than you), so blocking and reactively attacking is your bread and butter in melee. Never run up to a competant melee player and start swinging, if you do catch one off guard, try the jumping hammer smash as your opener. With practice you can knock them down, take off a good chunk of life, and let them know you're there and ready to fight. Make sure to step back after the jumping smash to avoid their wakeup attack.

Ranged:

Pick your targets carefully, which will mostly be ranged attackers harassing the melee. One of your most powerful moves against a ranged attacker is the jumping hammer smash. This works remarkably well on any class that has to stop for a second or two. (mage to cast, archer to shoot bow). Depending on your opponent, your approach will differ slightly, but that will be covered in specific class strategies below. Against ranged, the jumping hammer smash is your bread and butter.

Throwing Axes:

Your throwing axes are one of the strongest ranged attacks in the game, however it severely lacks distance and accuracy. Most of the time, if you are close enough to hit with an axe, when you factor in time to switch to axe and switch back to hammer, you could have approached and done more damage with melee. Axes are best used in co-op missions or against summons, particularly the minotaur and the dragon. Infrequently however, you will see an opponent standing still, but you know you are out of the range of a melee attack. Throwing axes do considerably high damage so you may find them handy when a sitting duck is just out of hammer reach.

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