Normal Attack

Normal attack. The one you start the game out with. Probably the least used attack over the course of an assassins life, yet it will most likely be the most confusing attack to explain. For all classes using a single weapon, the normal attack actually uses two different animations. It uses the A1 and A2 animations. It chooses between the two based on the size of the target as listed in the text files and with a bit of randomness thrown in. The size of the target may not necessarily match what you see. For instance, flying monsters are listed in the larger than human group even though many of them are small in size. The three groups of monster sizes are:

1. Smaller than human

2. Human sized

3. Larger than human.

The rules for which attack is used are pretty simple. If the target is size 1, the A1 animation is used. If the target is size 3, the A2 animation is used. If the target is size 2, the game randomly chooses between the A1 and A2 animations.

For other character classes, this is no problem as the A1 and A2 animations are the same length. For assassins using claws or barehands, they are not the same length. It's only for using claws and barehands that they are different. For all other weapon types, the two animations are the same length. Seeing as how Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike, and Phoenix Strike use the A1 animation, I can just refer you to the pages on those attacks for the animation info, EIAS, and BoS/IAS tables for use with normal attacks using the other weapon types.

One handed swinging and one handed thrusting/throwing weapons

Two handed swords and spear class weapons

Staves, polearms, two handed maces and two handed axes

Other than the claws and bare hands, that just leaves us with bows and crossbows.

Bows and crossbows always use the A1 attack animation. There is no A2 attack animation for these two weapon types. Even if you are using a Widowmaker bow and have access to Guided Arrow, you still will be using the A1 animation and the speed breakpoints will be the same.

The animation parameters for a bow are:

AnimationSpeed: 256

DrawnFrames: 16

Base: 100

You can find EIAS and BoS/IAS tables for bows here. 9 fpa is the fastest an assassin can shoot a bow.

The animation parameters for a crossbow are:

AnimationSpeed: 256

DrawnFrames: 21

Base: 100

You can find EIAS and BoS/IAS tables for crossbows here. 11 fpa is the fastest an assassin can shoot a crossbow.

Now, we need to deal with single claw, dual claws and bare hands. For now, lets leave the dual claw setups alone and focus on single claw and barehanded weapon types.

The A1 and A2 attack animations are different for these weapon types. In both cases, the A2 animation is 1 frame longer than the A2 animation. This means that we will need to figure an average speed of both animations at given EIAS levels. The attack speed you actually get in any given amount of time will probably vary from this, but unless you actually figure the speed as you go for every monster you fight, this is as close as we can come to determining at what speed you'll attack.

Here are the parameters for the barhanded weapon type with a normal attack:

At 0 EIAS, the A1 attack would take 10 frames and the A2 attack would take 11 frames. So, in the EIAS chart, the fpa for 0 EIAS is 10.5 frames or the average of the speed of both attacks at that EIAS value. This doesn't mean that your individual attacks are going to take 10.5 frames. Game speed frames cannot be broken up. Any given attack at that EIAS value will take either 10 or 11 frames. The 10.5 number is just a way to account for the overall speed.

You can find EIAS and BoS/IAS tables for barehanded normal attacks here. 6 fpa is the fastest these attacks can go.

With a single claw, the attack speeds will be figured the exact same way. The parameters for single claw setups using normal attack are:

You can find EIAS and BoS/IAS tables for single claw normal attacks here. 7.5 fpa is the fastest these attacks will go.

Now we can address dual claw setups. Dual claw setups take all that we have talked about so far and then add a couple of twists. The first twist is the addition of a third animation. The primary claw still uses the A1 and A2 animations. The secondary claw uses another animation, the S4 animation. This means that we have to average the A1 and A2 animation speeds for the primary claw and then average that result with the speed of the secondary claw to find the average speed of the setup as a whole. For instance, let's say the A1 animation has a speed of 7 frames, the A2 animation has a speed of 8 frames and the S4 animation has a speed of 8 frames. We'd start by averaging the A1 and A2 animations to find out the speed of our primary claw. In this case, the average is 7.5 frames. Now, we average that with the speed of the S4 animation, which is being used by our secondary claw. In this case, the S4 animation is 8 frames. The average of 7.5 and 8 is 7.75. So, we'd list our normal attack speed at 7.75 fpa. Once again, any single hit could be either 7 or 8 frames, this is just an average for the attacks as a whole, not any specific strike.

The other twist that dual claw setups throw at us involves figuring the WSM of each to use with each animation. If I haven't lost some people yet, I would think that I'm about to do so. In the first version of this document, I reported that with a dual claw setup using normal attack, each claw uses it's own WSM to figure it's speed. That's not true. The claw in the inventory-left position uses the average of the two claws' WSMs. The claw in the inventory-right postion uses the average of the two claws' WSMs plus the difference between the two claws' WSMs. Exactly the means we use to figure the WSM of dual claw setups based on which side the primary claw is on. It's just that with the normal attack we have to use both means at the same time. I warned you it would get confusing. How about an example to help clarify it?

Let's say we have a runic talon(WSM -30) equipped inventory-left and a warfist(WSM 10) equipped inventory-right. We equipped the runic talon first and it's the primary claw, thus it will be using the A1 and A2 animations. The warfist, as secondary, will use the S4 animation. The runic talon, being in the inventory-left slot, will use the average of the two WSMs for figuring it's speed, so -10. The warfist, being in the inventory-right slot, will use the average plus the difference for figuring it's speed, so 30. As you can see, with this setup, we will strike exceedingly slow with half of our hits as the warfist is using a WSM of 30.

Why don't we try it again and equip the runic talon first and in the inventory-right slot making it primary and using the A1 and A2 animations.. The warfist will be in the inventory-left slot and will once again be secondary, using the S4 animation. The warfist, being in the inventory-left slot will use the average of the two WSMs, or -20. The runic talon, being in the inventory-right slot will use the average of the two WSMs plus the difference, or -50. Now that's a much faster setup. We are, however, taking advantage of the bug involved with equipping the inventory-right claw first and so will have to reset our claw order after every time that we weapon switch.

Only the IAS on equipment and the particular claw each attack uses will be counted in that claw's attack speed.

When using a dual wield setup and normal attack, your assassin will be much more affected by the issues with WSMs and equipping order. You've been warned.

The animation parameters for dual claw normal attacks are:

You can find EIAS and BoS/IAS tables for dual claw normal attacks here. 7.75 fpa is the fastest these attacks will go.