Ballistic Knife: Most underrated high round weapon?

[Edward Richtofen]

Hi everyone,

I've recently been on a zombie tear and have absolutely fallen head over heels for the ballistic knife. We all know its tremendous reviving ability when PaP'ed but I would like to talk about its effect on movement and dodging.

Here are some things I've noticed:

1) Sidestep dodge almost never results in a hit, even on tight staircases and more than one zombie.

2) Tight gaps which normally result in two hits, now result in one or zero. Gaps that normally resulted in one hit (even with smg/pistol) now result in 0 hits probably 95% of the time.

3) Sprint jump seems to have a far better range. On the stairs in the lobby of kino, you can cutback, sprint jump, and easily clear all the zombies on the stairs as long as the normal zombies arent too far up the staircase. With an smg/pistol (I believe the smg is slightly faster than the pistol) I was frequently getting stuck on the heads of the zombies. (I wouldn't advise this strategy just used it to test ability with the ballistic knife.)

4) Screen shake seems absolutely ridiculous. Even horribly botched screen shakes seemed to work 1/2 the time. When done correctly though it is extremely fast and smooth. I noticed getting through seemingly unpassable gaps with a much higher percentage, and taking far fewer hits on semi-botched shakes. In particular, I noticed that screen shaking in general was much easier with the ballistic knife.

Because of these reasons I think that the ballistic knife may be one of the best weapons for high round training. I've noticed far fewer hits in every situation and this translated to fewer downs. Not only this but the gameplays tend to be extremely intense as you can pull off absolutely ridiculous looking dodges.

I put the ballistic knife over the upgraded crossbow now and have been replacing Mustang and Sally with it, once M&S stop saving your life so good.

I even noticed myself using it over the thundergun in tight circles, I just make sure that the thunder is one Y press away.

So now I ask you, what has your experience been with the ballistic knife in high round training? Do you agree, disagree, or think that there's a more underrated high round weapon?

[MysteryMachineX]

I think it's reviving ability is great. As for its lightweight ability... Eh.

If you are a good enough player to dodge Zombies in amazing ways most cannot, I honestly think you'll be just as well off with one as without one. If you aren't, then it's not going to make you into a pro like you see on youtube. In fact, amateurs or even advanced players will probably put themselves in harm's way more often than not if they try to do fancy stuff by getting overconfident with the Ballistic Knife.

[Edward Richtofen]

I did notice that one of my biggest problems was that I was putting myself in more risky situations due to overconfidence. However it wasn't hard to correct this and run in general just as I would run with any gun and not rely on added movement speed.

In particular it seemed to make the biggest difference in those 50/50 bad break situations. For instance you get a bad gap, take 2/3 hits turn the corner and have a zombie in front of you. Now you are dodging for your life, unless you have a clearing weapon or are in an area you can cutback.

Turning that 2-3 hit gap into a 0-1 hit gap, makes all the difference.

I do agree though that it won't make you a pro dodger or even any better if you are not already good at dodging in general. I try to keep making the same play that I would normally, as in picking my gaps, deciding to cutback, or trying a last ditch evasive maneuver. And it was in the bad luck or mistake situations where I noticed that the added maneuverability was life saving.

That being said if you already make frequent bad decisions then the knife won't make much difference.

[Ehjookayted]

     First of all, only one person gets to dodge with the ballistic knife, as there is only one per map. That already eliminates it from being a team gun with the way you described. Secondly, it possesses no killing power for the zombies when it would be most effective (on the run, as you described very well). Now I'd like you to picture this. While running with your teammate, you dodge all the zombies, but you can't kill them. That leaves all the zombies for your teammate to deal with, and as a result, he has a higher chance of downing, and if he does down, it will be death by proxy (your actions killed your teammate).

     It is my belief that the two weapons are meant to exist simultaneously, the combination of them creating the ultimate medic. Yes, use the knife to dodge, to allow yourself opportunities to squeeze through gaps where there previously were none. But do not use it to your advantage, and your advantage alone (unless in solo, of course). The aim in co-op is for each player's setup to benefit the other members of the team and the Lawton-Krauss combo does just that.

[tab][/tab]I digress. Great thread nonetheless.

Ehj~

[Edward Richtofen]

Thanks for your input Ehjookayted!

You actually make a very good point and it in turn made me rethink my own points. In particular I think my idea of using the knife over the crossbow was silly and a mistake as you pointed out. Using them together is definitely the right move.

I'm curious as to what your set-ups would be for two players on a map like SNN or Verruckt?

I recently had a round 40 run on SNN with 2. My teammate had the Wunderwaffe and I ended up getting the ballistic knife and an stg and just trapped zombies by the stg.

I was running into some trouble in the mid-20's and had some bad downs. Once I pulled the ballistic knife I only had one down (the last down) in rounds 32-40. I think many players in that situation would go for a Ray Gun. I found the knife far superior.