Movement and dodging

Facing and movement

You move with WASD and aim with the mouse, independently. Your character always faces where you aim, and attacks, staff shots and spells go along the aim — never along your movement.

Moving away from your aim is a little slower: full speed forward, slightly slower strafing, slowest walking backwards. The change is smooth, never stepped.

The dodge

Press Space with a direction to dodge — diagonals included; with no direction, you dodge along your aim. A dodge is a short, grounded step with a brief foot-plant after it. It costs stamina (more with heavier load) and has a short cooldown. You cannot dodge without enough stamina, and you cannot dodge while guarding with a shield.

What a dodge can avoid

A well-timed dodge makes discrete, timed hits miss: weapon blows, arrows and bolts, shield bashes, creature strikes, and single-target spells such as projectiles, instants and cones. It shows as Evade.

It cannot avoid damage over time (burning, bleeding), area spells, fields and ground-targeted effects, or persistent world effects such as currents, wind and roots — nor anything you dodge into and stay inside.

Dodging and attacking

You cannot start a new attack mid-dodge (a tap is buffered). A heavy attack already winding up is committed — you cannot dodge out of it. Lighter wind-ups are cancelled by a dodge, and a held charge, draw or frenzy is dropped.