Combat

Basics

Draw your weapon either by attempting to attack or use an ability or by pressing the wield key, which by default is ⌨️ T.

🖱️ M1 (left click) is the basic, stamina-free attack. It is used to regenerate stamina in combat. The basic attack for all the weapon types are as follows:

• Sword - Triple Strike: Hold 🖱️ M1 perform a three-hit combo ending in a stab. This attack can scale with combo.
• Hammer - Single Strike: A powerful hit that easily crowd-controls single targets.
• Axe - Double Strike: A horizontal swing followed by a concussing overhead blow when unlocked.
• Sceptre - Lifesteal Beam: A beam of magic that deals damage from foes and returns a portion of it as health.
• Bow - Arrow Shot: Aim and shoot from afar. Hold down M1 to fire repeating shots.
• Staff - Fireball: An arcing projectile. Unlocking its explosion gives it an AOE, but direct hits still deal the most damage.

🖱️ M2 (right click) is a skill that is unlocked by default. It varies with each weapon type, and usually costs stamina.

Other skills, when unlocked with skill points, go in the first slot of the hotbar. This replaces any item previously attached to it, so it is recommended to keep the 1 key free for an eventual skill unlock.

Health and Stamina

Obviously, when a player or NPC reaches zero health, they die. There are many ways to prevent this.

Consumables, those being food and potions, can be crafted or gathered. Food (and beverages) heal the player over time. You can consume a second item during the first's buff duration, which "pushes back" the first so you receive the benefits of the second. Potions give a burst of health after a short pause, and will not replace a food buff.

The Sceptre is currently the only weapon that heals players directly. However, its healing requires combat to occur.

It's recommended to always have high-yield food/drink (such as Apple Sticks and Sunflower Iced Tea) and some potions in the hotbar at all times, especially if attempting a dungeon.

Max health can be upgraded with General Combat skill points.

Stamina is used for activating skills, rolling, climbing, and activating the glider in midair. It regenerates naturally after a short delay and accelerates its regeneration as it remains unused. Hitting with basic attacks also returns stamina, and the amount can be upgraded via skill trees.

Stamina management is important in combat. If you don't have enough stamina, you may not be able to roll out of the way of an attack on time, you may leap off a ledge and fail to pull out your glider, etc. Currently, there are no items nor abilities that grant stamina directly, either. It's either wait for it to regenerate or take the offensive.

Poise

Poise governs stuns and interrupts during combat. Humanoids have an initial poise of 100. When your character is hit, you will likely take some poise damage as well as regular health damage. If your poise falls low enough, you will be put into a poise state. The four poise states are `Interrupted`, `Stunned`, `Staggered`, and `Knocked Down`. When you are dropped down into a poise state, you will suffer a stun with time duration and movement limiting effect corresponding to the poise state. Whenever you hit a poise state, your poise is reset to its maximum value. The poise state cutoffs may change, but are currently at 70%, 50%, 40%, and 20% of an entity's maximum poise. You can take advantage of this by whittling down poise to just above the first poise state before hitting with a strong attack to drop your target to a lower poise state and stun them for a longer period. Unlike health, poise passively regenerates.

Combo

Each separate hit from your weapon adds to the combo counter. Different weapons use combo differently depending on what upgrades you take. In general, your offensive capabilities (e.g. attack damage, speed) increase with the combo counter. The sceptre uses combo to heal with its M2 skill.

Status Effects

Currently, the only status effect in the game is Bleeding, which has a chance to activate when you are damaged by any melee attack. It drains health for a period of time; the amount of health lost each tick is dictated by the strength of the attack that triggered the bleed.

Dodging

M3 (middle click) activates a roll in the direction of movement. At first, rolling serves as a self-positioning maneuver. However, with upgrades, it can grant invincibility frames and keep space between the player and the enemy extremely effectively.

Rolling quickly becomes important in combat as you learn to predict and dodge enemy attacks. Its stamina cost can be swiftly refunded with well-aimed follow-ups. Therefore, it is recommended to take a couple upgrades in the dodge roll early in the playthrough.

Sneaking

Pressing Shift will cause you to crouch down. Walking from this position is called sneaking. While sneaking, you can roll or draw your weapon while remaining stealthed. Things you cannot do while sneaking (which will automatically make you stand up) include: jumping, swimming, and becoming airborne for any length of time.

Sneaking will limit the detection range of hostile NPCs. You cannot sneak right up to them, but you can maneuver across a dungeon floor with relative ease. Stealth is a valuable tool to have both when exploring the wilderness and running a dungeon.

Combat rating

Players and NPCs have a combat rating that measures how effective they are in combat. An icon next to their name indicates the range in which they fall, using the same colors as the item quality. For players, the highest attainable level is Epic.

Combat rating colors
Low	Combat rating between 0 and 43
Common	Combat rating between 43 and 60
Moderate	Combat rating between 60 and 80
High	Combat rating between 80 and 100
Epic	Combat rating between 100 and 790
Legendary	Combat rating between 790 and 1220
Artifact	Combat rating between 1220 and 2000

Source: https://gitlab.com/veloren/veloren/-/blob/e6620c21dba3309576eed9ab5cdaf0dfd2f42f5e/voxygen/src/hud/mod.rs#L2966