Note: All of this is spoken with survival in mind outside of LD competitions.

Upon my continued play of the Spiral Knights campaign and arcades, I have learned that timing on many accounts is essential with lag apart from it. Understanding how to handle the timing and placement of enemies, projectiles, and other harmful entities may determine a player's survival. More importantly, the most useful action I have learned while dealing with enemies is the manipulation of that placement. Specifically kiting, slowing, freezing, and displacing enemies have been where I have had my share of fun.

For starters, when fighting in the arenas, I notice that it is easy to get surrounded if the player is careless. On occasions with respects to my fellow players, I take advantage of the enemies' trail to apply some sort of resistance which is normally some means of knocking them back if not a mear shield bump. Either way, I can see luring a slue of enemies (kiting) to be beneficial if there is an efficient way to deal with them. The sad thing is, allies can be lured to their deaths as well.

Stunning enemies allows me to borrow a few seconds to either escape their reach or toy with their lives if I so chose (sounds evil I know). Regardless, everyone who can take notice is able to benefit from this, dependant upon which type of enemy is stunned. And as I have learned, stunning turrets is not always the best idea. This is something that I have yet to invest heavily in only because I do not always have a suitable means to do that at any tier; the operative word is "yet". ;:-]

Freezing enemies works best to get out of sticky situations or subdue enemies. But comerades can work against this very effect. I should know. I've done it too when lumbers or enemies of the like were frozen FOR A REASON and here I go with one to two shots (like I always do to keep from having to reload-and-stall) and I ruin it for the bunch of us. Other times I know better and divert my attention elsewhere, leaving our would-be pursuers to stue until that frost thaws out. Unless there's a vaporizor in effect at the time, someone ruins it by pecking at the subdued enemy. That is, unless they are out for a kill shot.

Displacing enemies has to be among my favorite actions to take when dealing with them. While I can essentially plant blast bombs and keep myself out of the path to which they will be knocked back, or spam a pulsar in a direction that is akin to visability, my favorite way to employ this is with the calibur series swords. With the lack of any ASI adjustment as of yet, I have to endure the length of the charge time before I clear a space out that was previously inhabited by slimes big or small. It is satisfying upon impact and twice as so if I am going for a kill-shot with a cornered beast, combining the charged hit with one to two additional hits before I shield cancel and leave.

The broad, slow, and heavy blades (same thing I know) seem to do that job less effectively but more frequently, ensuring safety from slow-and-small approaching enemies. My only gripe with such a weapon's knockback is that its charge's execution allows for vulnerability to enemy attacks that weren't accounted for upon recovery. But that is to be expected and antiicpated upon use.

My only upset with knocking enemies back is that, while it may grant the player distance from certain dangers, if an ally happened to run into what the player was trying to avoid, that could cost a life at most; think of sending a lumber or a slime to a friend RIGHT before it attacks. While I have had to watch out for just that, I've also been suspect of such instances where I was merely out for the satisfaction of the assault (gamewise) and contribution to the progress through clockworks (at least I think I'm telling the truth there). With a difference in effectiveness, shield bumps seem to harbor the same risks and rewards without applying actual damage. It is quicker to execute but it is limited in pacing; I have yet to witness shield bumping in rapid succession from one player alone.

With all of this said, applying these behaviors to enemy movement often makes the gameplay for me eventful, especially when I am purposely playing with weapons that would not gaurantee me an easy kill. The only conflict I can foresee, however, is when allies do not work with such efforts in mind. I have been a victim of this. I have also been a suspect of this as well. Either way a lot of laughs, mysterious deaths, and triumphs are all due in part to that bit of manipulation when I'm involved (so I should think).

So how do you believe that you contribute to allied gameplay?