Scuba Guides source note. This lesson is based on the older Scuba Guides and the supplied source archive. It is an independent community clarity rewrite, not an official GunZ publication; mechanics are not verified for the current Steam/remaster client.
Lesson content
Here’s some good tried and true practice thoughts you can utilize to make yourself better at gladiator, while also challenging yourself to try new things.
Disabling Keys
“Want to get better at gladiator? Disable your S Key” - Despite it being shit talk, it actually is quite true. Quite a few of the best gladiators (myself included) have been through this step - but not to stop ourselves from backpeddling. By disabling a key or two, you force yourself into learning new angles and patterns out of necessity to win the fight. Taken to the extremes, you can disable all but one key, and learn how to fight with just that direction.
It’ll royally screw with your brain, but learning how to fully utilize every direction will help you big time overall and make your playstyle more seamless.
Pattern Practice
A past time for most gladiators is to simply butterfly on nothing while sometimes spin randomly. This is good filler practice when you’re bored and waiting for the next fight outside of duels if you have excess energy. Just pick a pattern you want to practice your mechanics on, and go to town.
Single Move Practice
An extension of the Disabling keys method, limit yourself to JUST one move. Not so great at ground slash? Do nothing BUT ground slash. Need to learn the timing of Sword Launch? Nows the time to hammer that muscle memory. Don’t expect to win doing this. The trade off is that when you seriously practice this you’ll learn exactly what limits each move has and the best timings to use them.
Void Block Practice
It’s a great idea to hammer in your Void Block and learn how to animation lock it. You can do this by taking a replay of yourself, or just have a bored friend watch you and tell you when you’re doing it right. I’ve also heard of some people learning it by setting up a metronome application to a specific BPM (The number is lost on me). The best visual way to learn this is to block as soon as you see your sword dip down to the furthest point it’ll go before starting to return to the default position.