what are the advantages and disadvantages with swords? List situations.
Finishing a combo?
Wed, 05/30/2012 - 10:45
Wed, 05/30/2012 - 11:00
#2
The final hit on most swords, although leaving you open, flinches enemies often. In some situations where the slightly higher damage is all you need to kill an enemy, you can defeat an enemy in one hit rather than two normal hits.
Typically, however, the last hit won't flinch enemies unless the other hits in the combo have already connected. Heavier weapons may have some exceptions to this, like Troikas and Sealed Swords, occasionally Rocket Hammers as well.
That's the gist of it, anyways. There's all sorts of tricks to make full combos more viable and effective, so give the swordie guides a look if you want.
This is a big topic. A smattering of the kinds of things that can come up:
On a heavy sword with lots of knockback, landing the second stroke of the combo without getting munched can be difficult. For example, against slimes I actually find it more difficult to land the second stroke, when I have big ASI (which is always nowadays). The reason is that the slime's rebound takes a certain amount of time, and my swings are so fast that I miss unless I'm careful.
A slick tactic with swords is to purposely start your combo too early, when you are too far away from the monster to hit it, but just close enough that the *last* stroke of the combo connects. In effect, you're landing single strokes on the monster, but they're the *last* strokes of the combo (which typically have bigger damage, bigger knockback, and more disruption) rather than the first strokes.
When using piercing swords against fiends, it is often wise to use just the first stroke, which is fast, wide, and long. Mix this stroke with shielding and dodging. Depending on how many fiends are aggroed on you, completing the combo can be suicidal.
I could go on like this, and others could as well. If you haven't done so already, read the Techniques section of the Swordmaster Guide.