This guide plans to encapsulate a fair bit of information about specials in Pirates, Vikings and Knights II.
This guide will include:

• A list of each special
  
• How to use each special effectively
  
• Detecting enemies who have specials
  
• Faking specials

Enjoy the guide! If you have any queries, feel free to ask me in the comments or add me on Steam.
*AUTHOR'S NOTE: This guide does not cover specials post-2.6.

Specials are, basically, the most powerful (or ultimate) attacks each class can use. In the HUD, there is a special meter adjacent to the health and armour gauges. One fills the meter up by doing damage, and when it is full, it will start sparkling and a whooshing sound will play - the special is ready.
To use your special, press F or mouse 3 (press down on the mouse wheel).
R$ules about specials
The damage needed to fill the bar varies for each class. For most specials, the player needs to swap to a certain weapon to perform it. For example, you need to switch to the two handed sword to perform the Heavy Knight's special. You can fill up your special bar and perform a special more than once in a life. However, when the bar is full, the damage you do will not count towards your next special. To empty the bar again, use your special. The damage you do from your special also does not count towards your next one.
All non-explosive specials ignore parries and shield blocks. If you do not know what they are, check out my other guide: How to Parry and Block

Pirates
Skirmisher
The Skirmisher does a lunge with his cutlass that deals a large amount of damage and has a very large amount of knockback. The lunge lasts for about 3 seconds.
Switch to your cutlass to perform this special
Captain
The Captain loads a cannonball into his blunderbuss that he can fire to do area of effect damage. The cannonball explodes on impact with terrain or players. If you have your special loaded, you can still switch to other weapons and attack with them without firing the special.
*NOTE* When you are loading your special, you are vulnerable. You can also be hurt and killed by the explosion of your cannonball. You can still load the special if your gun is loaded with bullets.
Switch to your blunderbuss to perform this special
Sharpshooter
For the Sharpshooter's special, he takes out his powder horn and can throw it like a grenade, that explodes on impact. Unlike a normal explosion, his grenade can stun enemies.
*NOTE* After a few seconds without being thrown, the horn will blow up in your face and you will die. So throw it away before that happens!
Switch to your rifle to perform this special

Vikings
Berserker
The Berserker's special is unique to other ones, because you do not need to switch to a certain weapon to use it, and it is more of a powerup. Use your special and you will go berserk for 15 seconds. Your speed, health, attack speed and attack damage all increase when you're berserked. A Berserking Berserker is faster than a Skirmisher.
*NOTE* Your health increase by 50 points when you're berserked. If you're under 50 health points and your berserk runs out, you will die.
Huscarl
The Huscarl's special is a charge with his shield. Unlike the Skirmisher's lunge, you can steer when you're charging. The charge does insane amounts of knockback and lasts about 4 seconds.
Switch to your sword and shield to perform this special
Gestir
For the Gestir's special, he charges with his spear. This is similar to the Huscarl's special, but it has far less knockback, turning speed is reduced and it does more damage.
If you hit a wall during your special, it will cancel.
Switch to your spear to perform this special

Knights
Heavy Knight
When you're Heavy Knight, you do a 360 degree spin attack with your two handed sword. It does a lot of damage and has high knockback. The special lasts for about 2 and a half seconds.
However, during and a bit of time after your special, you will be still, and can be shot by ranged weapons.
Switch to your two handed sword to perform this special
Archer
The Archer's special is a triple flaming arrow shot. Each flaming arrow does a considerable amount of damage (A bit more than a fully charged arrow from the bow) and the shots rebound and spread over distance, like a shotgun. When you're aiming, your movement speed is slowed.
Switch to your bow and arrow to perform this special

That covers up the specials.

Each special should be treated differently. For example, it would be a bad idea to waste the captain's cannonball on one person (Unless you were about to die or something), it should be used to attack multiple people; That's why it has splash damage. Most specials don't have splash damage, the exceptions being the Sharpshooter's horn and the Captain's cannonball. They are supposed to inflict damage to a group of people. The others have their damage focused, but are far more damaging, intended to kill the enemy(s) targeted.
You should use specials this way if you're intending to get the most kills.
Pirates
Skirmisher
The Skirmisher's lunge would be kill people with half or less health, excluding Archers and Gestirs (Assuming you want to kill them). As you may have found or not, it is quite difficult to lunge at an enemy that is moving quite erracticly. A way to make sure this doesn't happen (And to maximise damage to the person) is to attack the person in a closed space (Bridges, corridors etc) or when they're running away from you in a straight line.
Captain
The Captain's special is intended to do damage to a group of people, similar to the keg. You have to load your special first, so it couldn't be used if you were e.g. being chased on low health and didn't have the cannonball loaded. I reccommend that you should load the special as soon as you can; after you have filled the bar, go to a quiet area and load it.
Sharpshooter
The Sharpshooter's special is similar to The Captain's; It is supposed to do damage to a group of people. But unlike the Captain's special, you don't need to load it. Since it explodes after you hold it for a while (6 seconds roughly), you should only pull it out when you know where you're going to throw it. You can hold down the mouse to charge the throw.

Vikings
Berserker
Using the berserker special is more of a powerup that a special attack. Use it to massacre people. You can also use it if you're very low on health and you need to escape (Your life is more important than your special, you know).
Huscarl
The Huscarl's charge has insanely high knockback, so use it to knock people into lava or off edges. Because of the high knockback, you won't do enough damage to kill most people (They get knocked back before you can hurt them more), so go for archers, sharpshooters and skirmishers on Just a Flesh Wound or lower to guarantee a kill. If you need to kill a heavier enemy, try to knock them off something to kill them with falling. To make up the small damage, when you're charging you will be blocking (If that is good enough).
Gestir
The Gestir's spear charge is similar to the Huscarl's shield charge, but it has far less knockback, slower steering and if you hit a wall, it will cancel it. It seems really bad now, but it is actually very good. Because of the minimal knockback, you can do massive amounts of damage to people, maybe even killing a weak class on full health and armour. You should charge at someone who is running away from you or not moving left or right, otherwise they will get pushed out of the way and you will not do maximum damage.

Knights
Heavy Knight
The Heavy Knight's 360 spin attack is great at killing or badly hurting multiple people who are crowding you. It could also be a good idea to kill parry-♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Archer
The Archer's 3 flaming arrows are great for killing 1 or 2 people at medium range. They sort of act like a shotgun, spreading as they travel further. When you have your special equipped, you move slowly, so make sure to know where you're going to shoot before you use it.
The arrows travel through teammates, so it doesn't matter if you fire into a crowd with your friendly Heavy Knights fighting there.

That was how you use specials effectively. If you have any queries about this section or would like to contribute, share your opinions/ideas in the comments section.

If you get specialed, you will probably die or lose most, if not half of your health. Learning to detect enemies that have specials could be the difference between life and death. Here are some telltale symptoms of people that might have specials.

• People acting offensively (e.g. chasing enemies) on low health
  
• People switching to their special weapon
  
• People aligning themselves with enemies so their specials will be effective
  
• People with melee weapons as their special weapons will probably not charge any attacks with the weapon
  
• You have just seen them do a lot of damage
  
• They are on low health in general (If someone is on low health they have probably gotten into a few scuffles and done some damage)

Each class would act differently if they had a special, because they all have different ones.
Class specific special detection:

Pirates
Skirmisher
A Skirmisher would align himselves with an enemy, so that he is a few meters away from them, facing them, and has his cutlass out.
Captain
The Captain would go to a quiet area to load his special. The loading of his special is different to normal loading, because he can move around slowly whilst reloading his special, it has slightly shorter duration than a normal reload, and he has different voice commands, such as:
"Get a load of this!"
"I've got somethin' special for ya!"
"This oughta do the trick!"
When the Captain has his special loaded, you will see flame spurting from the end of the blunderbuss, even if it is on his back. There is not really a warning if the Captain is going to shoot, unless he is around a crowd of people or about to get killed by someone.
Sharpshooter
One of the signs the Sharpshooter is going to special is if he has his rifle out and it is not loaded. Usually before equipping the horn, a Sharpshooter will back up a bit so they don't take any explosion damage.

Vikings
Berserker
Most Berserkers use their specials if they are on low health and/or need to escape.
Huscarl
Huscarls usually keep their shields out for a bit before specialing, so they can get a good shot at it. Right before, they will get closer to an enemy(s) then special. However, some experienced Huscarls know that they will be predictable if they have their shield equipped for a while, so they whip it out at the last second to surprise people. They would only use their special in a flat area so enemies can't jump onto obstacles to avoid being hit.
Gestir
Gestirs would only use their special in a flat area with no obstacles, otherwise they might hit them or the enemy(s) could jump up onto the obstacle to avoid being hit. They will probably be a few meters away from an enemy before they special.

Knights
Heavy Knight
A Heavy Knight would get nice and close to you if they were trying to special you, but they won't charge any hits.
If an enemy Heavy Knight is approaching you but not charging their weapon, get the hell out of there because they have a special.
Archer
An Archer would like to kill as many people as they can with their special so they would fire into a crowd or fire at a weak person.

Those are all the symptoms classes may show if they possess a special.

If you're in a tight spot, you can fake that you have a special by following the symptoms of your class, listed above. Experienced players will think that you have a special and will probably back away. This is a good way to get away from someone if you're going to die.

That clears it up for detecting people with specials.

That is all there is to know about specials. Actually, here is a video by Denshin about specials, that could give you some more information.











That is all there is to know about specials. Thanks for reading this guide!
Now put this into good use!