Advancement Test Hall/Combo: Pummel

< Advancement Test Hall

Description

Use Pummel to defeat as many monsters as you can within the time limit. A higher score will result from the use of this skill to mount and deal damage to an enemy that has been knocked down. Performing said damage by tapping on the hotkey consecutively will also contribute to a higher score. As the test rank increases, stronger monsters will appear and you will need a higher score to pass the test.

Equipment

• Advancement Outfit
• Beginner Spiked Knuckle

Points

• 200 Points: Defeat an enemy with Pummel
• (Damage/20) Points: Hit over 1000 total damage with a Pummel volley
• (Damage/10) Points: Hit over 5000 total damage with a Pummel volley
• 120 Points: Successfully dealt additional hits with Pummel
  • +80 Points: Successfully landed Pummel's final hit

Test Spawn Patterns

• Dan 1
• Dan 2
• Dan 3

Waves

• Wave 1: 3 Goblin Hunters & 1 Cyclops (Blue), repeating

Waves

• Wave 1: 3 Goblin Hunters & 1 Cyclops (Blue), repeating

Waves

• Wave 1: 3 Goblin Hunters & 1 Cyclops (Blue), repeating

General Tips

• Your Fighter and Close Combat ranks will carry over into the test, so having higher ranks would be useful.
• Defeating an enemy by any means will reset all fighter cooldowns.
  • Since the cooldowns for Charging Strike, Spinning Uppercut, and Pummel are 20 seconds, 25 seconds, and 30 seconds it is always better to defeat an enemy without Pummel to reset the cooldown of Pummel.
• Since the second- and third-stage combos require a target before use (unlike Charging Strike, which can be loaded and then used on an enemy), the player may sometimes inadvertently perform a Normal Attack if they're close enough to the newly-selected enemy, and yet not be close enough to activate the desired skill, namely Pummel.
  • This is especially frequent and disadvantageous on the Cyclops, which not only has a much larger hitbox, but also possesses Auto Defense.
  • A way around this is while an attack animation is finishing on one enemy, to click on/select the next, so that there is already a new target.
    • Note that this itself can be problematic, if the current foe being attacked doesn't die; Windmill may be used as a follow-up attack, with the added benefit of not changing targets, if activated by clicking the ground.
• Critical Pummel damage is important, because high damage attacks provide crucial bonus points.
  • Attacks will reward bonus points, specifically the attack's damage divided by 20, so long as Pummel deals 1000 damage.
    • Attacks above 5000 damage will reward the attack's damage divided by 10 instead.
  • Each of the three volleys is considered a separate attack and their damage is the sum of all punches during that volley.
  • Racial bonuses awarded by Combo Mastery make this test easiest for Giants and hardest for Elves.
• Using Pummel as often as possible is suggested to pass this Advancement Test.
  • It is easy and recommend to use Charging Strike and Spinning Uppercut to chain into Pummel; the former allows for quickly covering distances, the latter seems faster to execute than Somersault Kick (and can also weaken a foe before the use of Pummel, for additional damage), and both can also achieve Dan ranks for additional damage.
    • An example of use would be one skill each of a full combo on the Goblin Hunters, and then an entire combo on the Cyclops (Blue) each wave.
      • However, high ranks/Dans of these other Fighter skills can actually be detrimental to this strategy; the first two stages may kill the Cyclops (especially if critical hits occur), before being able to use Pummel.
      • Additionally, there is currently a bug where if the initial hit(s) of Pummel kill the last enemy in a wave, the character is locked for the full duration of the skill, while the next wave of enemies spawn and can aggro.
        • Neither attempts to "cancel skill", nor performance in the F2 quick-time-event affect the duration of this lock, but an aggro'd enemy attacking the player will free them from the lock.
      • As such, it might be preferable with higher-ranked skills to merely spam Charging Strike on the Goblins, then use Spinning Uppercut and Pummel on the Cyclops.
        • Depending on the player's racial bonuses and luck with criticals, enemy aggro, and the Cyclops's inherent stun resistance, it might even be better to use only Pummel on the Cyclops, to ensure that all of the skill's hits land.
          • This will also have the advantage of guaranteeing that the player doesn't get the locked-animation bug.
• Players can disable names and chat using Ctrl+N to improve visibility of enemy skills.