Fighting - A Matter of Life and Death
The combat system relies on the advancement of fighting skills as much as on good equipment. The quality of weapons and armour has an impact on attack as well as defense, but the proper use of characters' skill sets is equally important. For normal attacks it is important to master the weapon skills such as two-handed swords, bows or staffs, because they are directly responsible for the accuracy with that weapon. You will have difficulties with a weapon you are not accustomed to.
While you are inflicting primarily physical damage on your enemies when using a weapon, spells of mages and priests deal magical damage. This is due to the mage having control over the elements fire and wind, while the priest can call upon Narfas, the divine envoy of spring water, who gives her followers control over the element water.
Skills
The core of the combat system consists of the many different attacking skills, which give each character class its own distinctive strength. Combat is not only about beating down the opponent's vitality with brute force, expert adventurers use special effects to win a fight. Roots or chains of light can tactically be used to buy time or to retreat from a hopeless fight. Bleeding wounds are not only painful, but can become a dangerous problem and there are sinister professions specializing in blinding, stunning and poisoning enemies.
A lot of fighting skills depend on another and demand constant attention and fast reaction. Warriors can use opening attacks to position their enemies in a way, where special follow up attacks are possible. However you need to realize which attacking possibility has opened up quickly. Knights can place Light Seals that can release certain effects depending on which skills they are followed up with and mages can first protect themselves with Electrostatic Charges before they hurl those charges as an attack spell against their enemies.
Such masters of the elements should also watch out for any resistance an enemy may have against the base element of their magic. A weakness recognized quickly enough can be utilised to turn a fight around very quickly.
Combos
It is important in any case to keep an eye on the interaction of the elements. Every attack is assigned to a hidden element and certain sequences of elements have magical effects. They are quite inconspicuous for short combinations, but the longer the sequence is the more spectacular they become. The mixture of elements on the target is essential and groups of adventurers can work together tactically to generate extra damage and special effects ranging from fear to fields of flames. But first they have to find out which combinations have an effect at all.
