Ok I've been contemplating getting a piercing sword because I like the fact that it can tear through fiends (mostly those healing butterflies) and has the plus of doing damage to beasts as well.
The issue I'm having, is I'm not sure which is the best path, mostly because I don't know much about the flourish alchemy paths at all. The first thing I'd like to know is, With the flamberg and rigadoon paths, do their status effects trigger ONLY with the charged attack, or do they have a small chance of effecting on the third swing of each combo. Secondly, The charge attack, the Wiki describes The flourish has as lunging attacks, but that doesn't really help, I'd like to know how effective and powerful they are compared to the snarble's Ranged attack, which seems like it could be useful for groups of enemies coming at you.
It mostly boils down to this: If the flamberg and rigadoon inflict status without the need of charge, I'll go with them. If not, I'll go with the pure damage fencing swords, but I'm not sure if the Final Flourish's charge is more helpful than the Thorn blades.
Any input would be appreciated, I just don't wanna waste energy to find out I could have gone a more effective path for my play style.
Flamberge and Rigadoon do inflict status without charging, but they do less base damage than the Flourish or Snarble Barb. I'm pretty happy with my Fierce Flamberge so far, but I also intend to work up the Snarble Barb line.
Snarble Barb has, in my opinion, a better charge attack than flourish, which is the only difference in the lines.