Revision as of 19:25, 29 July 2020

A GUIDE TO KNIFE FIGHTING (under construction)

Small blades and cold-blooded murder

A few words from the author: Although this guide was written by a max-level Knife Fighting enthusiast and can be presumed to be authoritative, no one player is perfect: suggestions for corrections or additions to this guide are welcome. -SJ

“

Knife sucks, don't use it!
...
Ok maybe it's pretty cool!

— SausageJavelins

“

With but a small knife, I can kill anything.

— Bahdba

Introduction

Personal Experience

I have been playing Project: Gorgon since February 2017, and used the Knife Fighting skill as primary nearly the entire time (paired with Psychology as secondary). Knife always struck me as an attractive option, perhaps because the "sneaky" play style, required to properly utilize some of Knife's abilities and mods, suited my taste. It's a skill that requires a bit more planning and improvisational tweaking than others, unlike skills where simply mashing buttons in rotation is sufficient to wipe the area of mobs. Knife requires you to think about your next move a bit more than your average melee skill because of the wide-ranging abilities available: Do I heal or use a DPS ability? Does this mob require an evasion or vulnerability debuff? Is the target outside melee range? Does the mob have enough health to make DoT viable?

For me, having flexible options for a skill is more important than overall damage or other super-specialization perks. Knife Fighting is able to provide that "jack-of-all-trades experience" without making unwelcome compromises.

A bit of History

As of early 2017, Knife was in a bit of a low period. It was extremely unpopular, lacking damage at higher levels and weaker than most others skills at combat support. Throwing knives existed, but the cost of using them was exorbitantly high because of the number of metal slabs required to make an ample sum of throwing knives.

May 25th of 2018 brought much relief with equipment mod improvements and ability tweaks, significantly increasing Knife Fighting's damage and overall usefulness overnight. Knife now occupied the off-hand slot in the form of Dirks, whereas main-hand knives were relabeled as Daggers. A new dual-wield only ability was added, although you could still use all the other abilities with only a Dirk or Dagger in hand.

Skill Strengths

Skill Drawbacks

Acquiring

(talk about Bahdba in Serb as initial Knife trainer, oath to Winter Queen)

Bahdba and the Oath

Combat Roles

(talk about how Knife supports tank builds or does DPS depending on abilities)

Support Abilities

Damage Abilities

Damage Types

(talk about poison and trauma supplementing pierce and slash, how those affect gameplay later on)

Poison

Trauma

Piercing and Slashing

Tips and Tricks

(talk about what worked best, "temporary retreat" focus-removal technique, "sneaking" up on mobs allowing full damage, grouping vs. solo play)

What Works, What Doesn't

"Run away!" Tactic

"Sneaking" Mechanic

Grouping vs. Solo

Misc. Info

(talk about anything that doesn't fit well in the other categories)

Dirks

Dual-Wielding

Known Bugs, Oddities