Crippling Strike

Skill · Thief level 20 · (critical)

(28% per practice)

Requires: bloodletting stab

Speed: very slow

Usage

• cripple <target>

Over the course of their careers, thieves learn to fight a variety of foes. They can learn to explicitly target the weak spots of a enemy's anatomy and cripple them. The thief learns how to strike with precision to disable or injure the joints and limbs of opponents, lowering their stamina and hampering their ability to fight back.

A thief with sufficient experience can execute a crippling strike with relative ease. Armor is bypassed by a crippling strike, seeing how the attack specifically targets an enemy's joint, which has weak protection as a general rule.

Any sort of weapon with a solid striking end can be used for a crippling strike, such as swords, daggers, maces and whips. The skill relies more on the thief's fighting prowess and judgement than any special technique. Feinted opponents are easier to cripple, and creatures that are bleeding take extra damage.

Crippling strikes work best against creatures with a discernable anatomy. The movement damage only occurs against living targets, since an unliving foe cannot feel pain. Blobs are especially resistant to this skill, and groups of enemies such as herds, flocks or packs cannot be crippled.

Skill tree

• bloodletting stab
  • crippling strike

Group: Thief melee fighting skills

Notes

• Crippling strike fully bypasses the target's armor as such hitroll is not used to determine armor penetration
• Feint will allow you to use crippling strike more frequently
• Crippling strike uses a large amount of movement and incurs huge lag as it's effectively an in-combat backstab. As such it could be dangerous to use when facing dangerous targets toe-to-toe.
• This skill can be used in cross class combos with Battle Tactics