When I fought in the tournament, the lords and high-level soldiers felt like bosses. Even if I landed a clean hit to the head, I’d only deal around 2 to 10 damage. Because of their extreme heavy armor and high one-handed weapon skill, they could absorb the damage and hit back much harder. I’d land 3 damage, and they'd return 20 in a single strike.

The biggest problem was that I couldn’t stagger them due to their extremely heavy armor. Meanwhile, they could stagger me because of their superior one-handed skill. We were both wearing heavy armor, but their higher weapon skill made the difference — I couldn’t interrupt their attacks, but they could interrupt mine. You can guess how that ends: even when they made a mistake and I blocked and countered first, my hit wouldn't stun them, and they’d follow up with a stronger blow that usually ended the fight. In this situation, blocking is almost useless. Even a perfect block won't save you if you can’t stun the opponent — you’ll just get overwhelmed and killed.

Now, if you're using a two-handed weapon, things change completely. Two-handers can easily stagger or stun enemies, even if your two-handed skill isn’t especially high. So when fighting these high-level opponents, using a two-handed weapon gives you a real chance. If you're stuck with a one-handed weapon, though — you're basically screwed.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, let me tell you: block mechanics won’t save you. The key is to stun your opponent. One of the only reliable ways to do that is to aim for the head — anything else, and you’re probably going to lose.

I remember a fight with Warkon, the leader of the Blood Dragons. Damn, that battle was intense. I must have landed 40 or 50 hits, and the duel lasted nearly 30 minutes. We both dealt less than 10 damage to each other in total. Neither of us could finish the other off. It was brutal.

TThe key to surviving these fights is wearing extremely heavy armor — it absorbs most of the incoming damage and, more importantly, prevents you from being staggered. Without it, you're vulnerable to being interrupted or knocked back with every hit.

Next, you need a high level in one-handed skill. Without it, your strikes will barely scratch the enemy — often dealing just 1 damage per hit.

Then a decent block tech that even you shield is broken, you could block most strike from you enemy.

And finally — the most critical point — always aim for the head to stagger them. Striking the head is your only and best chance to stagger your opponent. Hits to other parts of the body just won’t cut it, especially against heavy armored enemies. When you find even slash head cannot stagger enemies, try to stick their heads and move forward at same time, to create a higher relative speed and that would help.

Originally posted by Panzer grenadier:

When I fought in the tournament, the lords and high-level soldiers felt like bosses. Even if I landed a clean hit to the head, I’d only deal around 2 to 10 damage. Because of their extreme heavy armor and high one-handed weapon skill, they could absorb the damage and hit back much harder. I’d land 3 damage, and they'd return 20 in a single strike.

The biggest problem was that I couldn’t stagger them due to their extremely heavy armor. Meanwhile, they could stagger me because of their superior one-handed skill. We were both wearing heavy armor, but their higher weapon skill made the difference — I couldn’t interrupt their attacks, but they could interrupt mine. You can guess how that ends: even when they made a mistake and I blocked and countered first, my hit wouldn't stun them, and they’d follow up with a stronger blow that usually ended the fight. In this situation, blocking is almost useless. Even a perfect block won't save you if you can’t stun the opponent — you’ll just get overwhelmed and killed.

Now, if you're using a two-handed weapon, things change completely. Two-handers can easily stagger or stun enemies, even if your two-handed skill isn’t especially high. So when fighting these high-level opponents, using a two-handed weapon gives you a real chance. If you're stuck with a one-handed weapon, though — you're basically screwed.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, let me tell you: block mechanics won’t save you. The key is to stun your opponent. One of the only reliable ways to do that is to aim for the head — anything else, and you’re probably going to lose.

I remember a fight with Warkon, the leader of the Blood Dragons. Damn, that battle was intense. I must have landed 40 or 50 hits, and the duel lasted nearly 30 minutes. We both dealt less than 10 damage to each other in total. Neither of us could finish the other off. It was brutal.

Thank you for your reply and advice! I fully agree that two-handed weapons gives you much higher chance to down enemy lord or hero. And it seems that 2h weapons in Old Realms are much better if you craft them by yourself and if you craft them from Old Realms mod, not vanilla crafting.
When my character entered service of Serpent of Mousillon - he gave my character 2h sword. It was good but still I landed around 2-10 damage per hit. When I upgraded my crafting skills and crafted 2h sword by myself and crafted it from Old Realms mod(not vanilla 2h but Old Realms one) - my character now can really down enemy lords and heroes. So it's all on lvl up, attributes, points, armour and of course good 2h weapons. Good heavy armour and 2h weapon(I prefer sword all the time) is the real recipe to win

Originally posted by Smiling Knight:

Originally posted by Panzer grenadier:

When I fought in the tournament, the lords and high-level soldiers felt like bosses. Even if I landed a clean hit to the head, I’d only deal around 2 to 10 damage. Because of their extreme heavy armor and high one-handed weapon skill, they could absorb the damage and hit back much harder. I’d land 3 damage, and they'd return 20 in a single strike.

The biggest problem was that I couldn’t stagger them due to their extremely heavy armor. Meanwhile, they could stagger me because of their superior one-handed skill. We were both wearing heavy armor, but their higher weapon skill made the difference — I couldn’t interrupt their attacks, but they could interrupt mine. You can guess how that ends: even when they made a mistake and I blocked and countered first, my hit wouldn't stun them, and they’d follow up with a stronger blow that usually ended the fight. In this situation, blocking is almost useless. Even a perfect block won't save you if you can’t stun the opponent — you’ll just get overwhelmed and killed.

Now, if you're using a two-handed weapon, things change completely. Two-handers can easily stagger or stun enemies, even if your two-handed skill isn’t especially high. So when fighting these high-level opponents, using a two-handed weapon gives you a real chance. If you're stuck with a one-handed weapon, though — you're basically screwed.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, let me tell you: block mechanics won’t save you. The key is to stun your opponent. One of the only reliable ways to do that is to aim for the head — anything else, and you’re probably going to lose.

I remember a fight with Warkon, the leader of the Blood Dragons. Damn, that battle was intense. I must have landed 40 or 50 hits, and the duel lasted nearly 30 minutes. We both dealt less than 10 damage to each other in total. Neither of us could finish the other off. It was brutal.

Thank you for your reply and advice! I fully agree that two-handed weapons gives you much higher chance to down enemy lord or hero. And it seems that 2h weapons in Old Realms are much better if you craft them by yourself and if you craft them from Old Realms mod, not vanilla crafting.
When my character entered service of Serpent of Mousillon - he gave my character 2h sword. It was good but still I landed around 2-10 damage per hit. When I upgraded my crafting skills and crafted 2h sword by myself and crafted it from Old Realms mod(not vanilla 2h but Old Realms one) - my character now can really down enemy lords and heroes. So it's all on lvl up, attributes, points, armour and of course good 2h weapons. Good heavy armour and 2h weapon(I prefer sword all the time) is the real recipe to win:knightsarmour::knightsmelee:

If you hope knock off your enemy in battlefield, of course lance is one of efficient weapon, just couch and gallop your steed, or the halberd.

Skills are also important, if you invest in lance / 2h you can kill nearly everyone in 1 hit