Pankration Command Strategy Updated!

[Asdra]

Below are the commands given when you enter the command platform. After alot of experimentation, and following this thread, its been found that not only do the commands control your tp attacks, they also effect your pets temperment, which determines your pets range of tp attacks, as well as how it performs when you're not there. How the commands effect your pet is divided into 2 Categorys.

Tame to Wild range:
You're on your own!
Think, and think again!
Watch your opponent, then attack!
Less thinking, more striking!
Don't think, Kill!

Defensive to Aggressive range:
Guard! Block! Parry! Hold!
Back off a bit!
Give 'em a little more bite!
Show no mercy!!!

They run in the range from most tame to most wild for the top set, and most defensive to most aggressive for the second set. Each command while seemingly similar, effect each mob type differently.

Show no mercy is simple mindlessly attack and use tp when your pet gets it. Nothing special. Also changes your pets temperment to Very Aggressive.

Antlion: Mandibular Bite, occasionally Venom Spray
Crawler: Poison Breath
Mandragoran: Headbutt
Rabbit: Whirl Claws
Diremite: Double Claw
Marlboro: Rumored Bad Breath *confirmation needed*
Puk: Crosswind
Wyvern: Fang Rush/Tail Crush


Give 'Em a little more bite! seems to make your pet hold tp, and when the enemy attempts a tp attack, run to its side and get in a free high damage side attack similar to sneak attack, and if it has it, attempt a ws from the side (seen some crazy damage head butts and needleshots from the side). This also seems to rape very large enemys who don't turn, like Wivres and Dahaks. It also brings your brings your temperment to Somewhat Aggressive.

Antlion: Sandpit
Crawler: Cocoon
Mandragoran: Wild Oats, Scream

Back off a bit! seems to make your pet attempt to turn around and run out of the range of enemy tp attacks, which is awesome if you're fighting something with a short range attack, but obviously doesn't help against stuff like Back Swish with a long range. It also brings your pets temperment to Somewhat Defensive.

Antlion: Sandpit
Crawler: Cocoon.
Wyvern: Dread Shriek/Dispelling Wind

Guard! Block! Parry! Hold! in my experience, forces your mob to do a different set of defensive moves than Think, and Think again!. It seems to force your pet to do defensive tp attacks, such as stun or sleep moves if your pet has them. It also brings your pets temperment to Defensive.

Antlion: Sandpit
Crawler: Sticky Thread
Doom Toad: Whip Tongue
Crab: Scissor Guard
Puk: Obfuscate
Wyvern: Dread Shriek/Dispelling Wind

Don't Think! Kill! Haven't really determined yet how this is different from Show No Mercy, except that this command changes your Pets temperment to Very Wild.

Antlion: Mandibular Bite
Rabbit: Whirl Claws

Less thinking, more striking! isn't really determined yet. Moves your pets temperment to Somewhat Wild.

Watch your opponent, then attack! seems to make your pet hold its tp and attempt to use a sleep/stun move to prevent an enemy ws from even happening, similar to Guard! Block! Parry! Hold!. It also moves your temperment to Somewhat Tame.
Mandragoran: Wild Oats, Scream

Think, and think again! also isn't really determined well yet. Changes your pets temperment to Tame.

Crab: Metallic Body

You're on your own!. I have no idea

I'm also trying to compile a list now of what each command forces each mob type to do, so I'd appreciate posts that determine what each command does with each of the mob types as we discover them

[Seki]

My level 20 Apkallu vs a friends level 19 Apkallu.

Mine has innate speed bonus and HP +15%, add. ice dmg. +25, attack bonus, and monk traits.

His had monk traits, stoneskin, innate speed +50, war sub and add. ice dmg. +25.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...918_022255.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...918_022305.jpg

He said he used "Don't think... kill!" right before it used beak lunge.

Then, mine used Yawn and I ordered it to "Give it a little more bite!"

Yes, that's 232 damage crit from a single fist. Now, I believe mobs that are asleep take double damage from melee. I also had extra damage from "Give it a little more bite!", I believe. Did he have a defense down effect from "don't think, kill!"

232 is a lot from a single fist. I think the planets have to align for this to happen. My Apkallu did absolutely nothing before my friend used Beak Lunge, and then after that he got destroyed.

[Lujei]

I keep my Evil Weapon on "Watch your opponent, then attack!" By doing this, it seems to consistently stun as many enemy monster TP attacks as possible with Whirl of Rage.

[Seki]

Hmm. I'll remember that. I hope that causes my Hyper Hexer to use Yawn more often. It's fairly badass with the added double damage effect on the next round.

[rath]

The commands you give also change your mobs temperment. Show no mercy will make you an aggresive pet.

[Asdra]

Mobs take 2-3x damage when asleep, similar to the damage done from the side or behind. I had a match once where my chigoe was hitting a ghost for 15ish a hit, the ghost went to do ectosmash, my chigoe ran around, ghost teleported for the move, and my pet ended up totally behind it somehow. The next attack did 112 damage.

Also to note, I haven't paid attention with sleep, but attacks from the side also double enspell damage. Seen some nasty 70-80 damage enspells from the side too.

Gonna edit the OP too.

[Khamsin]

The double damage while asleep thing is pretty weird. They should add that feature to the mobs outside of Pankration. lol

[BRP]

Someone was telling that "Show no mercy" made the antlion(pit type) always use manibule bite or whatever. I'll have to do more testing.

I have the feeling that temperament is what controls your monster's AI(what commands it gives yourself) should you no be there or should it not listen to you.

[Lamente]

Well, I just found out one thing... Spamming a command is bad. Once you pick a behavior for the mob, it will stick with it until you give it another one. Before this last battle, I've been spamming "Guard! Block! Parry! Hold!" at my crab. This most recent one, I just did it once at the start, and made sure it said he was following me orders. The whole fight, he spammed the hell out of cure (5x in a row), used defensive WS, etc. Before, he would cure once or twice if I was lucky, sometimes never.

So, in short, only use commands if you really want to change strategy. Your monster will use your strategy indefinitely until you change it (as far as I can tell). Spamming the same command is detrimental because it resets what I suppose are hidden timers for spells/WS.

[Doc]

I like this strategy for my mandy ("Very defensive" atm) when I am up against an aggressive opponent: I start off by doing "Back off a bit!" It will not rush to use any TP moves as far as I can tell. The opponent will use a TP move first which my mandy will attempt to run away from. Before they meet up again I do "Show no mercy!!!" and when they come back together he will immediately do Head Butt (otherwise it would do Scream while under defensive command). Then I switch back to "Back off a bit!" and repeat the whole thing. Awesome for mobs whose TP move can be successfully avoided when your pet runs away.

[Lyramion]

I just selected "you are on your own" and my wyvern ran away.... then just stopepd attacking... no melee hits... I selected other ocmmands nothing happened - very bad bug. I was lucky tho since the enemy wasnt high I was able to win on timeout.


I use "Guard Parry Hold" on my wyvern to trigger windwall (using evasion bonus and 15% evasion) - then letting it go wild on show no mercy

[Jaybar]

My Wivre is Very Wild and Very Aggressive. His discipline is very low (Upgraded from extremely). The only command that seemed to work for him was "You're on your own."

It makes somewhat sense: Being wild = self-decisions. Low Discipline = Don't listen to that pansy on the tubes.

I think spamming that command on unbalanced fights just to increase your discipline would be a great idea (Only if your Pet hates you).

[Asdra]

Been watching and I've seen JPs using blm type mobs like ghosts and weapons, and hitting a command to make them spam cast drain every 5 seconds. Does anyone here use a mage type mob that they can use to test this?

[Doc]

Again it's probably defensive behavior from the mob. My friends BLM worm is defensive and defensive commands make it spam Drain on the opponent.

[Plow]

I think the drain thing has to do with what its most powerful spells currently are.


Posted in another thread about it, but one of Sylph's heavy hitters is an imp, and just before it got into the -gaII's, it would spam drain to the point where damaging it was pointless because it would drain it back 1 second later. Once it got into the -gaII's it's switched to sleep nuking everything, even when it gets low on life.

[Thistle]

Give 'Em a little more bite! seems to make your pet hold tp, and when the enemy attempts a tp attack, run to its side and get in a free high damage side attack similar to sneak attack

My level 22 DRK/WAR Qutrub refuses to do that. He listens to my commands the first time (every time, he's not refused a command in 3-4 levels), and I see lots of other mobs running to the side, I wonder why mine won't.

Yesterday I saw a really "smart" mob fighting. Imp vs Hecteyes. Every time the Hecteyes was about to WS, the Imp would cast bind and then fly away. The flying away part could be explained through the command, but casting bind was really cool.

And on an unrelated note, anyone know if a Qutrub will accept main job: MNK? Qutrub + DRK = so little defense he dies every time he bumps into a wall.

[Plow]

Give 'Em a little more bite! seems to make your pet hold tp, and when the enemy attempts a tp attack, run to its side and get in a free high damage side attack similar to sneak attack

My level 22 DRK/WAR Qutrub refuses to do that. He listens to my commands the first time (every time, he's not refused a command in 3-4 levels), and I see lots of other mobs running to the side, I wonder why mine won't.

Yesterday I saw a really "smart" mob fighting. Imp vs Hecteyes. Every time the Hecteyes was about to WS, the Imp would cast bind and then fly away. The flying away part could be explained through the command, but casting bind was really cool.

And on an unrelated note, anyone know if a Qutrub will accept main job: MNK? Qutrub + DRK = so little defense he dies every time he bumps into a wall.

They have naturally retardedly high hp, as they get higher they get better. I've seen some very effective qutrub.

[Khamsin]

Give 'Em a little more bite! seems to make your pet hold tp, and when the enemy attempts a tp attack, run to its side and get in a free high damage side attack similar to sneak attack

My level 22 DRK/WAR Qutrub refuses to do that. He listens to my commands the first time (every time, he's not refused a command in 3-4 levels), and I see lots of other mobs running to the side, I wonder why mine won't.

Yesterday I saw a really "smart" mob fighting. Imp vs Hecteyes. Every time the Hecteyes was about to WS, the Imp would cast bind and then fly away. The flying away part could be explained through the command, but casting bind was really cool.

And on an unrelated note, anyone know if a Qutrub will accept main job: MNK? Qutrub + DRK = so little defense he dies every time he bumps into a wall.

They have naturally retardedly high hp, as they get higher they get better. I've seen some very effective qutrub.

But they also take double damage, don't they?

[Meloria]

I don't know how the magic casting works. I watched a fight between a pot and a mandy yesterday. The pot casted stone, water, blizzard, rasp, water, water. Blizzard hit for 50 damage, water and stone were below 15 damage. The pot lost, but not by much. Had it casted another blizzard instead of 2 waters it would have won.

[Thistle]

They have naturally retardedly high hp, as they get higher they get better. I've seen some very effective qutrub.

But they also take double damage, don't they?

As far as I can tell, they do. Even things 3-4 levels lower than me hit me for 100-200 per swing, yet I only hit for 40-60. Very annoying.

Edit: Case in point. I just battled a mandy, same level as me.

I hit for: 39, 49, 31, 39
He hit for: 108, 92, 118, 78

Not to mention the mandy's greater attack speed...