Combat

Combat in Shroud of the Avatar combines weapon attacks, active skills and spells, a configurable Deck, and a ten-slot Combat Bar. A new adventurer can begin with the default controls, while deck building, targeting, defenses, party support, and specializations provide plenty of room to grow.

Concept art for the Combat Sigil.

The game renamed the cards placed on the Combat Bar from glyphs to runes in Release 154. Older instructions and many established SotAwiki page titles still use glyph, so this article uses rune for the current interface and identifies the older term where it helps readers find related pages.

Quick start

1. Press Z to enter combat stance and ready the equipped weapon. Combat spells also require combat stance.
2. Face or select a hostile target. Tab cycles enemy targets with the default bindings.
3. Use the equipped weapon and activate runes from the Combat Bar with their assigned keys or the pointer.
4. Watch health and Focus. Focus pays for active abilities, jumping, combat rolls, and other strenuous actions.
5. Leave combat stance when the danger has passed. Many conversations, equipment changes, travel actions, and ordinary interactions work best outside combat.

Default keys can be changed under Options → Controls. A player's own bindings take precedence over any key named on the wiki.

Combat stance and weapon attacks

Pressing Z toggles between passive and combat stances with the default controls. Passive stance sheaths the weapon and supports peaceful interaction. Combat stance readies the weapon, enables combat runes, and allows attacks. Being attacked can pull the character into combat even when the encounter was not invited—New Britannia is occasionally impolite that way.

Two weapon-attack modes are available. The default Toggle Attack binding, T, switches between them:

Mode	Behavior	Important distinction
Auto-Attack	Repeatedly attacks a valid enemy in front of the character while it remains in weapon range.	The flashing red sword on the Combat Bar identifies the mode; attacks cannot be charged.
Free Attack	Attacks with the equipped weapon when the player presses the attack control and aims toward a valid target.	Holding and releasing the attack control can charge a weapon attack. The available charge depends on the weapon.

Free Attack may need to be unlocked through an adventuring trainer. The current Player Instructions identify it as an optional advanced technique taught by most adventurer and master trainers.

Targeting

Combat supports both aim-based targeting and a selected soft lock. A hostile creature in attack range is highlighted, while the reticle or nameplate helps show what the character is prepared to hit.

With default controls, Tab assigns or cycles enemy targets. An enemy can also be soft-locked by centering the reticle or pointer over it and double-selecting it. Attacks prioritize that target while it remains valid, in range, and generally in front of the character. Escape clears the soft lock.

Friendly targets matter too. Holding Shift while selecting a friendly character can establish a friendly soft lock. Party frames and the F1–F8 target bindings provide faster access to the player and party members, which is especially useful for healing, cleansing, and buffs.

Targeting is not a promise that every attack will connect. Range, facing, line of sight, movement, avoidance, and the particular skill still determine what happens.

Runes, decks, and bars

An active adventuring skill is represented by a combat rune—the item historically called a Combat Glyph. Learned runes and eligible consumables can be arranged in a Deck and used from the Combat Bar. Passive innate skills do not occupy a bar slot.

Arrangement	What the player gets	Tradeoff
Locked rune	A chosen skill stays in a predictable slot and returns there after its cooldown.	It does not participate in the same dynamic dealing and combining behavior as an unlocked rune.
Unlocked rune	Copies are dealt from the deck into eligible open slots and can be stacked or combined when supported.	Availability and position can change during combat.
Mixed deck	Predictable locked actions and dynamic slots share one bar.	Requires enough planning to keep the dynamic hand useful.

Matching unlocked runes can be stacked, and compatible different runes can form combos. The separate Utility Bar remains available outside combat for eligible non-combat skills and items. See Combat Bar, Deck, Glyph, and Combat Glyph for the existing detailed pages; those titles retain the older vocabulary for continuity.

Damage, defense, and recovery

Combat results depend on the attacker, target, active effects, equipment, skill levels, and the type of attack. The wiki's mechanic pages should be treated as explanations rather than a substitute for the values shown by the current client.

Topic	Starting point	What it covers
Damage	Damage types	Physical and magical damage families and links to their individual effects
Armor mitigation	Damage Resistance, Maximum Damage Resistance, and Damage Avoidance	Recorded resistance, its percentage ceiling, and chance-based glancing blows; exact formulas require current verification
Health and healing	Health (Attribute), Healing Modifier, and Life Magic	Surviving damage, restoring health, and effects that strengthen or weaken healing
Focus	Focus and Focus Regeneration	The resource consumed by runes and several combat movements
Magic	Attunement and Magic Resistance	School power, resistance, reagents, and fizzle considerations
Defeat	Death and Resurrection	Ghost state, ankhs, resurrection skills, and returning to the fight

This hub deliberately does not repeat the wiki's older resistance, avoidance, or critical-hit formulas. Those mechanics can change independently and should be checked against current client values before numerical examples are promoted as present rules.

Vigor and longer fights

At Adventure Level 80, Vigor adds a long-fight endurance meter beneath health and focus. Sustained qualifying combat drains it, reducing the Vigor-supported portions of health regeneration, focus regeneration, weapon critical chance, and spell critical chance. Towns, time logged out, Bard performances, and certain Bard support restore it. PvP-area combat does not consume Vigor.

Vigor is chiefly relevant to prolonged encounters and repeated difficult fights. It does not appear below Adventure Level 80, so a new character does not need to solve that system before learning the basics.

Parties, pets, and PvP

Parties coordinate adventurers for travel, combat, support, and shared activities, but SotAwiki does not yet have a verified general party guide. Party (Multiplayer) documents only the Party matchmaking preference in Options and carries a focused verification request for that setting's current behavior.

Summons and tamed pets can contribute attacks, defenses, and support according to their skill family and commands. They remain separate combatants with their own health and effects rather than extra runes on the player's bar.

Player vs Player Combat covers the current consensual framework for duels, PvP scenes, arenas, parties, guild wars, and open-PvP status. Its focused verification request identifies the controls, rewards, death consequences, and flag rules that still need current-client confirmation. PvP combat also has system exceptions—including Vigor not draining in PvP areas—that do not necessarily apply to ordinary encounters.

What returning players should know

• Combat cards are now called runes in the current game; older wiki pages and instructions may still call them glyphs.
• Vigor begins at Adventure Level 80 and changes the rhythm of long encounters rather than ordinary early play.
• The current client and personal key bindings are authoritative for control names and keys.
• The main combat loop remains straightforward: enter combat stance, select or face a target, use weapon attacks and runes, watch health and Focus, then recover and adjust the deck when needed.

See also

• Adventuring Skills
• Combat Bar
• Deck
• Damage types
• Death and Resurrection
• Vigor
• Player vs Player Combat