Goat

Two Nubian Ibex dueling each other

## Profile

The guild that goats belong to, Caprinae, is the guild that developed some of the best equipment in the game, Including some best-in-slot headgear. They're excellent one-on-one duelists, often being able to defeat opponents that would squash them if not for their special abilities and excellent PvP techniques. First, their special abilities. Now, not all of these are directly combat related.

## Special Abilities

Not all are attack-based but still effective. For example, they have proficient climbing ability. Speccing into climbing skill tree mainly requires you to pick abilities like hooks, claws, cling-pads or prehensile limbs. Caprines have none of this but managed to spec into high level climbing abilities without wasting any evolution points on the classic climbing perks.

### Mountain Climber

Their hooves are perfect for digging into mountainsides and their slender form allows them to balance in places that other players would have no way of getting to. Now, this doesn't mean that they're completely safe from fall damage. Climbing as a movement option in the mountain servers will always be risky but caprines definitely have the best mid-weight mammal build for the job. Their special hooves negate the mobility penalty that other players, such as the ones hunting them so as long as they stay alert and don't get ambushed, they should have no trouble evading other ground-based predator builds.

### Horizontal Eyes

Another ability they have when it comes to predator evasion is their eyes. Goats opted for a horizontal pupil which gives them a much wider field of view, letting them see enemies that are approaching from behind. Their eyes also have the ability to rotate in their head so that they can maintain surveillance even when they tilt their head down to graze.

### Cranial Cushion

Caprines have an extremely powerful defensive ability called the **[Cranial Cushion]**. This ability gives them near total immunity to blunt force damage as long as they block the incoming attack with their head. Attacks that would one-shot most players can be shrugged off by caprines, allowing them to fend off more powerful builds and sometimes even outright win duels with them. However, they're still completely vulnerable from the sides. So, if your opponent manages to cross you up and get around your defense, you're quite vulnerable. This also leaves you highly vulnerable to team strategies as it's impossible to block attacks from two different directions at once. It also does eventually run out. Overall, super useful passive ability to have and definitely elevates their viability in the current meta a bit.

### Skull Bash

But what really gets them into high tier is their signature move: **[Skull bash]**. Most herbivore mains stick with the standard **[Charge]** attack to deal damage. Some also specced into **[Kick]** which is really good since a lot of the smaller rushdown players tends to focus their attacks on the hindquarters. But for maximum damage against a single target, caprine's special technique is necessary. You have to briefly switch with the upright stance for initiating the attack so obviously, it has a lot of starterplay. But if you land the hit,  it could be absolutely devastating.

## Tier Placement

Caprines average around B tier with a few low tier and a few high tier builds. For example, the fainting sheep is placed into F tier due to fainting being the one of the worst defensive moves in the game. Domestic sheeps are also rated as F tier due to its absolutely abysmal intelligence that they could even defeated by bramble bushes. As for high tier caprines, first, there is the mountain goat which has the highest mobility of any build in the mountain server. Next, there is the big horned sheep which has the highest power stat than any caprine and is the one known for pioneering the [Skull Bash] technique. Third, there is the Ibex. Another excellent duelist build that trades a little bit of power for increased range on its horn hit box. Finally, there is the Muskox, which is a build that trades Mobility, for Power, Defense, and Health. A mid to late game player can even take on a Polar Bear, one of the most powerful builds in the game.