The Importance of Initiative

[stevebarracuda]

Let's see. So Improved Initiative or initiative at all for that matter...matters best for:

- first strike melee encounters, where a disabling Feat is in play (such as Knockdown).
- first strike arcane encounters, where the first disabling spell to "hit" can matter.
- does not matter for Range attacks.
- does not matter for attacks from stealth.
- must be a disabling-type of attack for it to matter, or the Engine finishes the round no matter what.


If you disengage an encounter, run about, then re-engage, is Initiative rolled again in this Engine? Yes, I can test that out later, but I'm thinking at the moment, not gaming.

[Ivan38Rus]

...perhaps because attacks tend to get delayed. Magical attacks needs to travel to their target, typically 3 seconds, so if the opposing mages fire a spell at more or less the same time intitiative won't do anything.

Same thing for fighters. Initiative may get you the first hit, but it doesnt really matter. The opposing fighter will finish his attacks a split second later, even if he is dead. Most players have probably experienced the hilarious situation where two opponents both end up dead, one of them giving a deathblow even as he's falling to the ground. Its beacuse there is a delay.

Its useful with abilities that clears an opponents attack queue, like knockdown, but other than that it doesnt seem that helpful.

Attacks get delayed because of animation phases, but it doesn't apply to the opening attacks which are, most often, outcome defining. Not to mention that if you happen to miss one of those openning strikes, it will trigger enemy's dodge animation, which will delay their attack sequence another second further... oh and if you have the speed, you can disengage before they roll for attack and run for a lil bit for round timer to reset and attack sequence to begin anew (although dat's cheap and doesn't work reliably)
Improved Initiative is a nice little edge to have (especially from an item) for melee characters who rely on offense and can win most PvP encounters with three first strikes...

[Thorsson]

Arcane attacks - doesn't matter because who fires first wins and that does not depend on initiative. I could go on.

But go ahead, waste a Feat. See if I care.

[Ivan38Rus]

So dark mature and edgy