Talk:Knockdown Damage/@comment-24634511-20150526222812/@comment-23878607-20150528224320

I think that the problem of quantifying a secondary 'debilitation' attack that's invisible in damage calculations is really difficult.

What knockdown and stagger do is break the guard of the enemy, and the way it's influcted is that it's a successive attack that builds up. Then, once the enemy's guard is broken, the attacker gets a bonus to damage because the enemy's out of battle stance.

This mechanic is hinted at in the Assassin augment Preemption, plus pawns will comment that first strike gains an advantage and they advise that you don't let yourself get caught unaware-- with your weapons undrawn.