2.5 Stagger Changes Bugged Humanoid Stagger & Knockdown

Conan Exiles PC Discussion PC Bug Reports
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Game mode: Single-player
Type of issue: Bug
Mods?: No
Edition: Steam

Bug Description:

First let me provide a link to a feedback thread where a number of us have assumed this bug was an intended part of the 2.5 update: Impossible to execute combo on camp thralls due to Stagger update 2.5

Now, the bug itself: Humanoids (including undead) cannot be staggered anymore unless they’re in an idle stance, so out-of-combat-idle or holding-weapons-idle. This means animations such as the stagger animation itself will make those enemies stagger immune when your weapon hits them. Naturally, attack animations also make them stagger immune, so no enemies can be stunned out of their attack combo anymore, not until the end of it.

This also seems to make enemies immune to knockdown from the 4th attack in the sword and sledgehammer combos. You can only knockdown enemies who are in an idle animation now, and that’s almost impossible to pull off practically. I can only sometimes pull that off with the sledgehammer right now because its slow-hitting attacks connect after the stagger animation ends for every attack, but connecting all 4 attacks “just right” is hard to do.

Expected Behavior:

Pretty straightforward: Every enemy animation should not make them stagger immune. In particular, the stagger animation should not make an enemy stagger immune.

Steps to Reproduce:

This is observed through combat against humanoid enemies, so attacking a large NPC camp solo is enough to observe this. I highly recommend fast-hitting weapons, because 2-handed hammers attack so slowly it’s still possible to stagger-lock enemies semi-reliably (but nowhere near as reliably as one would expect).

One final note: This bug took days of combat to figure out its specifics, going from “something definitely feels wrong” to “what’s going on, a brief stagger immunity timer?” to finally “oh so it’s animation dependent” slowly over time. This bug report isn’t being made just because I encountered the issue at one or two camps, with only one or two weapons. I’ve fought many camps and dungeons, I’ve used so many different weapons, I’ve been carefully observing the problem for hours since the 2.5 release.

Little edit: I want to note I’m trying to clear the wine cellar dungeon right now despite the stagger problems, and the first named NPC I encountered was impossible with the legendary weapons I brought along. I had to pick up a pair of steel daggers from one of the chests in there to replace my legendary weapons so I could bleed him to death. Ironically even with the big bleed nerf (not to mention, level 30 weapon replacing level 60 weapon) it’s still the only safe way to kill these guys right now thanks to the bug xP

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On testlive tonight, I have observed that hitting an enemy with a swords 1st light attack (a la Firespark81) seems to keep the enemy stumbling. I don’t know if this will help you or not but thought I would throw it out there.

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It would work so long as you time it to make sure each hit connects after their stagger ends. Definitely just a workaround, because we shouldn’t have to spam a single attack in a 4-attack chain to defeat NPCs. Unfortunately it’s dangerous to use against more than 1 enemy.

I’ve been working on ways to fight despite the stagger bug, and I’ve come up with some more options myself:

  1. Dagger attacks to the back. The stagger animation when you attack someone’s back is VERY brief, brief enough that every dagger strike can trigger it. Unfortunately Conan Exile’s Advanced AI (lul) is very talented at turning to face the player no matter the circumstances, no matter how ridiculous it looks, so be ready to be surprised with a sword in your gut suddenly.

  2. Use thralls/pets to fight. You’ll want one that can kill quickly of course. Speaking from experience, a tanky pet (like a gorilla) will die to hard-hitting enemies before you can kill those enemies since you’ll have to duck back repeatedly to heal. You want a pet that can do the killing for you right now.

  3. Run from partisan (2-handed spear) users. No, really, if you’re approached by people wielding a spear you’re better off just running away. Not only do their attacks have long reach, the attack is wide as a truck despite how skinny that spear looks. Add to that the amazing lazy susan footwork of CEAI, and their secret weapon: partisan users get a different stagger animation that lets them almost immediately attack after being staggered! These guys are the HMGs of the Exiled Lands thanks to this bug.

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I have definitely noticed this “issue” since upgradign to 2.5 on PS4. Makes combat not very fun anymore. Feels like the humanoids are cheating. I get staggered on their combos, but they don’t. Just plain wrong.

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I’ve had a similar situation that they ignore any staggering situation and dodging is too punishing.

@Community

The patch discussion thread closed the day 2.5.1 landed, too. So we can’t discuss the issue there.

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Blocking is not really optional … almost feels like a must. WIth a 1 hand weapon. Because dodge just takes too much stamina.

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And at the very least anything with daggers should NOT have this immunity if they decide to keep it, i mean the dagger npc has a backflip, let them use that instead of reduced stagger, never hated dagger npcs more in a game then this one😂 lol

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Indeed. 1 on 1 sure, but unless it’s an exile camp with 2 thralls, taking on bases now is impossible. At least solo, since i usually aggro more than 1 in camp. I’ll have to get a good thrall i think before I can do that.

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From the three or so hours I tested on Xbox last night this bug wasn’t present there. All the weapons I tried had normal stagger effects.

I tried a mace, a war axe, a two handed sword, and duel axes. My thrall was using a battle axe with the new animations and she was also staggering opponents

So I’m even more sure than before that this is not working as intended on PC currently.

It would be nice if we could get a confirmation that it’s a bug and being looked into

I did see one person on PS say they were experiencing it, so they might have also gotten the bug

Edited to add: I was also consistently knocking foes down using the mace or mace and shield as well

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That was me on PS4. No problem before the patch yesterday.
Normal stagger effects.

Post-patch, enemies have very little stagger. You get in 1 or 2 hits but when trying to finish the combo, then they reply in kind with their combos and your’re stunlocked in their animation. so far I have only managed to win 1 on 1 and it’s usually 2 hits, back out, 2 hits back out … and so on. if there’s more than 1 enemy, I run away. Impossible because not only is the one you’re targetting immune to stagger, his buddies do as well and It’s death garanteed.

I had no problem a few days ago. I upgraded PS4 with SSD and reinstalled the game from library (which apparently did not have the patch, seeing as I had to download it)
Then the issue started, after the patch.

SO I uninstalled, and re-installed from the PS Store. That seems to have the update on it. Same issue.

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I was playing today/last night and noticed (for me) that the axes seemed to work fine, it’s the (updated) short sword stagger that seems to be really bugged.

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Fingered crossed they get rid of this crap fast, obvious knockdown attack don’t even knock anything down anymore, i honestly wanna know what genius at fun come was like “duuuur enemy’s need more stagger resistances”

because that is the exact person that should not have their opinion heard on the funcom team, this updated stagger is the worst thing ever and the one who pushed it should be ashamed of themselves for punishing the player base for no reason like this, thanks dude you made fighting even more of an unfair chore

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Hey there,
Quick update: This issue is resolved in 2.6, which will be the next one to hit Testlive. We still don’t have an ETA we can share about its release date.

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By issue do you mean the entire stagger change for the update is being put back to before orrrrr? Sorry just asking for clarity :blush:

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Wait for the 2.6 patchnotes for the exact details :slight_smile:

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Fiiiiiine if i have to😝
image

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That sounds closer to ‘revamping stagger on weapons’ then ‘fixed’.

Hmm…

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i just to want check that skeletons and spectres are not included in this humanoid list, are they? Because those guys already have insane stagger resistance as is😝

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