Has ancient pike always been OP? 64 DMG with bladesmith and kit. It’s more damage than star metal and dragon bone while only costing steel. And there’s no downside like dragonbones extra stam usage
The sword I use 78 with 28 penetration and some other boost I forget what - cripple maybe…
The Axe I use is 96 with 28 penetration and 3 points to Strength.
64 is high for a pike but pretty average overall. Star medal weapons are generally pretty weak in the overall scheme of things.
With the Axe I mentioned I can just barely one-hit a deer. To kill a regular old “fiend” I need 10 heavy swings two of them being finishing blows.
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Predatory blade does over 102 with kit and has 9% armor penetration, but only if you do light attacks. If you do heavy attacks it only does 1 damage. If you use a blunted kit on it then heavy attacks can be used to knock out thralls.
@TeleTesselator what kind of axe are you using?
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Wolf Brothers…
Where in Siptah can I find the Predatory blade you speak of? Me wants!
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It is dropped by the Brute in the Unnamed City in the Exiled Lands.
Dang it!!! Yet another missing weapon in Siptah huh? I’m starting to hate this map because of this BS… Grrr…
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I am pretty sure that you could get predatory blade from one of the T4 surges. I feel that IoS has enough op gear already 
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Each map has it’s own items and metas. Siptah has all the eldarium gear that isn’t available for exiled so it’s only fair both maps have exclusives
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After the Siptah dlc full release, ancient lemurian weapons, took a really good buff. War axe, pike and daggers were the new pvp weapons of exile lands. It is true that a pike with such an outcome is a really dangerous weapon in pvp, especially when the pike is stunning the enemy for awhile and the stamina loss is average . It is not coincidence that 99% of pvp fights had pikes.
It had to be done I guess because Siptah weapons were op enough so exile lands should have an answer to this. But animation cancel followed and feroxic daggers became the new meta, so the company again reduce the bleeding time to balance the situation and have some benefits to the hammer. Then the animation changes to some weapons gave different prospectives and possibilities to the pvp combat.
Unfortunately I don’t pvp anymore and even when I did I was just training my team mates. Back then you could avoid a fight and since my build was never pvp, I was avoiding the fight. Not to mention that most of the times I was ambushed by many. If it was just one, I was bringing him to really low hp and he was running, I didn’t cared to kill someone and steal his (pathetic) loot, all I wanted was to protect mine. My return to base was always full inventory 
.
So yes ancient lemurian pike is a bit op, but it has reasons, good reasons.
@TeleTesselator, predatory has only light attack, so the dmg outcome is… funcy.
The 2h axe of the great ones consume so much stamina as all the Grey weapons witch makes them… Role play weapons. So far the feroxic weapons are the most balanced for me since the stamina you loose is reasonable.
Loosing stamina on fights is 60% lost the fight and died on pve and 90% on pvp. Stamina is one of the strongest key on fights, so using weapons that consume a lot is risky.
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Interesting, thank you! All info I knew nothing of, consciously. I just play with whatever I have. It seems the game used to be easier and has become more difficult (over the last 14 or 15 months) but that might also be due to the fact that I’m playing solo now as opposed to with two personal friends most of the time. I just kinda suck at difficult combat and am in hopes of acquiring some weapon 
that lay waste to even the most difficult enemies - playing solo - even if I die once or twice. But this business of trying and failing 100% against an enemy like The Judge etc. doesn’t make the game much fun. So for me it’s either find something more powerful, hope funcom implements a system that detects solo play and adjusts, or be content remaking my base over and over.
On Predatory, I wouldn’t mind only light attacks… as long as I can win some of the harder battles I’m good with whatever playstyle I need to adapt. Currently that style is to get my follower to kite the boss while I hack from the back and then run away drinking health potions when he turns around. This works with Vault dwellers but for about 50% of the overland bosses it just means my T4 thrall gets killed and I die repeatedly. I’m in the process of trying to tune my character better but I’m not at all hopeful. Trying different setups on the Testlive has dashed any of those hopes so far. The PVE game on officials just doesn’t seem set up or balanced for solo play - unless you’re content hiding in your house most of the time or just repeatedly killing the same vault dwellers over and over with a weak boss once in awhile. 
Edit
And I’ll add that it doesn’t help AT ALL that Funcom has made the animations so damned sticky… feels like playing in a pool of black strap molasses. UG!
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While I agree that many elements of the game are not tuned for solo players, it can all be done. For me, I still think the biggest thing that helped combat really click for me was when I was trying to deliberately get myself damaged (was using the Nemedian to fix items - not important) - the key point was that I spent a while going unarmed against weaker enemies like crocs, shalebacks, hyenas etc and just focusing on taking a hit when I wanted to and avoiding all other attacks while I healed up - when you’re not trying to fight back, it makes it much easier to focus on dodging, general maneuvering, and watching the enemies’ animations. That doesn’t mean that I’m suggesting it’s easy, or something that everyone will learn (or want to put the time into), but it does get easier. Humanoids, especially in groups, are of course the worst, because they have such a variety of attacks that it can be very hard to read - weaker humans and basic skeletons (because they are more limited in their attacks) can be decent practice for the tougher ones, but I suspect the numbers game will always make it tough.
For the Judge/Arena Champion - there is another tactic you could try - park the thrall somewhere out of the way (because they will more likely cause a distraction and make the enemy move unexpectedly) - and then kite them around shooting them in the legs with Set arrows. Manage your stamina carefully and the cripple (from shooting the legs) should help keep them away from you while the poison does its job. (TBH, you don’t even need points in accuracy for this tactic - though the added damage will probably speed things up.)
All that said - it is also worth taking into account that I play on singleplayer, not servers, so responsiveness may be slightly different etc. But in theory, all this should hold true on servers as well. Hopefully there’s something in here that can help (believe me, I’ve gone through the frustration I’m sensing from you, and I’m not dismissing it 
)
Edit: Oh - also - fist fighting grey apes is good practice - they’re slow and predictable
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Tried that. I can get about 3 arrows in him and then hit hits me for 80% of my health and criple me at the same time and then I die. I think I could take him if the animations weren’t so sticky! Seriously… Having the character pause for a full 2.5 seconds after a final swing or continue on swinging at the air for two or sometimes three more strikes, is ludacris! Yeah, like playing in molasses… In molasses with a broken mouse even - LOL
Meanwhile I can’t seem to have the same advantage they do. Sure apes are simple to kill. They are so predictable! All weaponless animals are. It’s the bosses with weapons that are the killers. And as mentioned - really only the top 50% of them.
Edit
Meanwhile people are trying to tell me that the pike is OP. Ummm… yeeeeah… uh-huh, OK. Maybe OP against Bambi or something. 
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Yeah, the problems definitely begin once he hits you - being a spear guy he can often get another couple of hits in because of the stagger, and that’s all he needs. He shouldn’t be catching you in the first place, but:
That sounds like the source of all the problems, and has the potential to make any tactic fail. I must admit, I don’t have an answer for that - it doesn’t seem to be something in the base code (because I’m not experiencing the same on singleplayer), maybe a complication added by having to connect to a server? (Though - shouldn’t be something that happens in server play games). I do get the ‘extra swing’ sometimes - I’ve been paying more attention recently (since we last discussed that point) and I’m certain I’m not over-clicking, but I think if I press the mouse button for slightly too long I get a second attack trigger. I wonder if maybe something equivalent happens where a slight delay in transfer of info to/from the server gets treated as a longer button push? But that still doesn’t cover the sticky animations. I do detect a slight change in recent months where it feels like I pause slightly longer than previously at the end of a heavy axe combo (interestingly - while I can’t recover so quick to launch a fresh heavy attack, I often find that a light attack will start more quickly from that situation). I wonder if somehow again the server connection is emphasising that same effect to the point of it being a problem?
They certainly are - what I was getting at is that they can be useful practice timing dodges and ensuring you don’t get hit. But, it’s becoming far more clear that is not the issue you’re dealing with - it doesn’t matter how much practice you get if lag (for want of a better term) is going to negate your decision making.
Yeah - they’re always the most tough to deal with - but it sounds like without a solution to the ‘stickyness’ issue, there’s not much of a solution I can suggest. Judge/Arena Champion are dman tough fights without the added complications - I wouldn’t want to have to deal with them while combat is being messed up. Sorry I wasn’t able to be of any help 
(I mean, I assume your ping is fine etc - you know far more about these things than I do, so I’m figuring you went through that sort of stuff already… It really does seem to be a Funcom/server host problem.)
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Sorry for the temp hijack @MSTRHazza !!! It’s kind of related tho, in that it’s my reasoning for thinking that there’s NOT a single “OP” weapon currently in the game anywhere. 
Could be…
No, I dunno more… My ping ranges between 50 and 80 about 99% of the time. Rarely and occasionally it hits 240 though and kicks me. I assume that’s some kind hop issue or some congestion happening at one of the connection nodes. No idea tho… It’s rare as I say - about once every 6 weeks. In the same breath, I used to play on a dedicated server in Finland from Japan and my ping was always between 240 and 320 somewhere - and it didn’t affect anything to do with PVE combat. At least not until that rubberbanding issue became so severe after about the 10th update we experienced.
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@TeleTesselator
I believe the greatest time for using predatory blade is when your build is full encumbrance, you just need the second perk of strength. Light attacks over encumbered cost less stamina and it gives you a fight back advantage. So the damage outcome counts a lot in this difficult situation. At least these were the only times that I really used this sword. Arena champion is truly a fight for champions so no matter your technique your confidence will be always your best weapon in fights like this, it must be a flawless fight. If you want to ensure your fight you can always use shield, since turning slowly around the champion and having knowledge of the mace hit animation, it is extremely safe to avoid hits. I use shield and the festering one, plus Spinas. When the champion focus the thrall I am stacking poison to her, when it focus on me I avoid the heavy hits and block the light ones, so my Spinas hitting her ruthlessly with his blade. So poisoning from me and Spinas hits is all it needs to go down. But, beware of lags, before you start this fight you must be sure that nothing will go wrong. I ve seen people slaying The champion solo by stacking hits, or using smart mechanics like @DanQuixote
did, impossible is nothing .
Ps. I am just a regular player, nothing special, I ve met extraordinary fighters in this game, I am not one of them, not even close.
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Oh forgot I made this thread. But I think you guys are mistaken. I know ancient lemuriam is decent. But I’m talking about just “ancient” it’s a lvl 50 weapon that costs only normal steel and shaped wood 
it’s damage seems higher than it should for its tier
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I’m good, thanks for the consideration tho! That’s pretty cool!
Do not use full combos. Instead with 1h axe use first attack, + maybe 2nd. then dodge roll backwards and restam.
You want a 4 vit and 4 grit, with a 3 enc (reduces crip effect).
If you want to use the last attack of ax, start way before in range and try to time 3rd attack to hit him first, followed by the knockdown 4th. Once he is on ground you may be able to full combo. 6 hits, and them back off to restam.
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Thanks for that! And okay, but if we all have to avoid using those things in order to win or not die, then why are they even there? That’s kinda my point… They probably shouldn’t even be there. And if they must be then trim them down a bit or allow some sort of cancelling mechanic - like every other popular game on the planet.
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I think biggcane is making those recommendations specifically in reference to the Judge - I can certainly say that full axe combos work fine in most situations - but he has delved far deeper into the combat than I have. So there is still value to those parts of the combo that he is recommending avoiding, it’s just good to avoid them when fighting against a dangerous spear fighter. (And I might have to give this suggestion a try against the half-child of Dagon - though I have a feeling he doesn’t knock down, so I may have to avoid that bit.)
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