Foot Knight Aura + THP Questions

I have a few questions: I heard FK protective presence aura is too small to ever be worth it. Is that still the case?
Based on the above information, I have chosen to go with “comrades in arms”, which merely mentions the “closest ally”. Is that infinite range? There is always gonna be 1 ally who is “closest” to you, even when far away, after all, unless they have all died.

And last but not least, when using a warhammer (or exe sword), which THP talent should I go for? Staggering/Damaging multiple enemies is both very easy with the two handed hammer, but I’ve been hard pressed to find out which one is better, probably on account of my lacking skill.

Inspiring blow - is it ever worth it? What is “nearby”?

I really don’t understand why fatshark doesn’t give an easy way to estimate ranges, leaving me a million questions on this classes basic functionalities.

Also general footknight tips would be appreciated! As a closing note, I play legendary only, and my favourite kruber weapons are the greathammer and the exe sword! :slight_smile:

Whether the aura is really too small to be worth it is debateable. But remember that you also get the bonus, so just pick the one you personally prefer and try to stick close to your teammates when you can. Consider the buff to them just a nifty bonus, but not the main function of the talent. Its effect isn’t very spectacular for them anyways. What the range of Comrades in Arms exactly is I couldn’t say, but it’s not a bad talent to have from a selfish point of view either so just go with it if you like it.

As for THP: I think for the 2H Hammer and the Executioner both THP on cleave wins out. For the 2H Hammer it might be close though.

I always felt Inspiring Blow was less useful than the other two options on that row.

As for general Footknighting tips: I pretty much exclusively play Footknight with a shield, so I couldn’t advise you all too well about hammer or sword builds. If you’d like info about shield builds I’d be happy to go more into depth. @Stop_Hitting_Me is really into Footknight as well so he could maybe give some additional tips.

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Rock of the Reikland area is big enough for supporting teammates and 20% block cost reduction is a nice bonus. I am using it with shield.
Comrades in arms is good for boosting and protecting your ranged teammate (you need to be very close, basically fending off attacks on them). Also, 10% of power together with 7% power will allow you to reach some ranged breakpoints on a handgun (20% power against chaos/infantry + 10% power +7% power allow you to one-body-shot maulers).
That’s bloody teamwork is worst talent of the line due to it’s low range. You will have one ally in that range most of the time. There is also damage reduction shenanigans, but I do not want delve into it.

THP from stagger is 2-3 times better for the warhammer.
Not really using exec sword, but considering it’s similarity to the greatsword, THP from the cleave will be better choice.

Inspiring Blow - you will not see the difference, just pick Counter-Punch.

My build with the warhammer

That post of yours is actually made me do some extensive testing and to revise it.

Trinket: stamina recovery + curse resistance (shrapnel)
Charm: power vs chaos + attack speed (decanter)
Necklace: health + block cost reduction (natural bond)
Handgun: power vs infantry + power vs skaven (Conservative shooter)
Warhammer: power vs chaos + attack speed (Parry)

Talents:
Back Off, Ugly - THP from stagger.
Crowd Clearer - 15% atk speed bonus for 3 seconds after push/push-attack.
Enchanced Power and Comrades in Arms for ranged breakpoints
Counter-punch - for free push-attacks.
Bull of Ostland! - good attack speed bonus.

10% atk speed is necessary to use heavy weapons with maximum efficiency
20% power against chaos+infantry and skaven+infantry is necessary to one-body-shot all specials
Natural bond is the choice for more experienced players, you may find other traits more suitable for you.

Interesting thing about Bulwark and Enchanced Power, that both of this talents give you close to the same melee damage. The difference is that with first you will boost your ally damage, and your ranged damage with second. Mainstay have a highest melee ouput of these three talents and allow you to reach 2nd stagger level from the first hit with heavy weapons like warhammer, but you will not be able to reach any breakpoints with it, so you will not see the difference. I wonder what idea Fatshark have in mind for it.

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Stagger THP for the Two-Handed Hammer, cleave THP for the Executioner Sword. I used to think thp on cleave was better for the Two-Handed Hammer but after some testing I was incorrect, thp on cleave has some niche benefits but stagger is better overall for it.

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Only thing I’m not sure about is you recommendation for natural bond. Boon or barkskin seem a lot better for FK to me…

EDIT:
Mainstay is top choice for mace & shield on FK, by the way. And I feel Bulwark is outperformed by enhanced power on a hammer or sword build by a lot, especially since enhanced power buffs your first strike (Executioner overheads!), your ranged attacks, your stagger / cleave, and your damage against monsters and chaos warriors, while your teammates usually can’t benefit from Bulwark reliably.

Forget about it, tested on modded realm against the horde of fanatics, Exec sword can’t cleave through them and stops half the way, so stagger is twice better for THP. That is strange though, I am not sure that was the thing before.

About Boon of Shallya, I receiving enough THP without it.
About Barkskin. Me and people I playing with never understood why so many people love it so much. It helps against dots and specials and if you caught more than one hit in row. Good team rarely have problems with specials, and how many times you take two hits in row? From my expirence, not that often. If you not receiving many damage you can regenerate it over time. Best case there will be 4th member of the team with Healers Touch and Heal share talent. I usually have Ironbreaker bot with that talent.

It’s not as much Boon or Barkskin giving you a spectacular advantage, but more that Natural Bond gives FK so little. Like you said he’s usually doing well enough topping himself up with THP, so whether or not your 32nd hitpoint is green or grey is a bit moot, to give an example. It’s not much of a buff at all… While Boon is simply useful, and Barkskin really helps against gas, flamerats, assasssins, gunners, and storms (and even leeches), as well as being able to make a difference between getting downed or not in an unlucky horde or berserker situation. And Boon & Barkskin don’t even come with a disadvantage. My opinion might be colored a little by always playing a shield that rakes in THP really well, though.

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Inspiring blow effectively knocks half a second off the entire team’s ult cooldown every time you stagger an elite. It won’t benefit you much personally but I think it’s a decent choice if you wanna help your team spam ults more. I’d say It’s Hero Time is the most impactful option on that row, since it lets you spam your Ult off cooldown and still reliably have it in a lot of situations you’d want it, including any kind of disable (even Chaos Spawn grabs) as well as rushing downed teammates.

Regarding 2 handed Hammer thp talents, while stagger definitely wins on Cata, it’s likely that this is less true as you go down difficulties. Just wanted to add that addendum.

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Its good on a handful of careers like slayer, zealot or otherwise fairly durable melee specialists who do their job the best while at the frontline and ready to trade hits.

Also helps that it´s the best for surviving specials too.

But for a squishy it wont save you from dying in 2 hits anyway and for a proper tank like IB/FK you usually have shields&control weapons that let you avoid taking enough hits for that to ever be a thing.

Boon of Shallya meanwhile is just good on everyone because more healing and THP is never bad.

Natural bond meanwhile is good if you take chip damage but not so much if you have problems in melee or get blown up every so often by something.