Spiral Knights - Optimising sword DPS - partial combos vs single attacks

Optimising sword DPS - partial combos vs single attacks

8 replies [Last post]

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 06:38

Krakob

If you want to send as many hits towards your enemy as possible, you'll want to avoid using your sword's finisher but there are still choices to make. I find the two most useful techniques when using three hit swords to be these:

First attack > second attack > shield cancel > first attack > shield cancel > switch > switch back > repeat
First attack > shield cancel > first attack > shield cancel > first attack > shield cancel > switch > switch back > repeat

So which one wins? I find both to have pros. The former feels faster at least with toothpicks but on the other hand, said weapons have greater range on the first hit.
The first option is probably easier to do as well, as there's a bit less input and most notably, less shield cancelling.

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 06:40

Bitsbee

Charge Attack>Shield>Repeat

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 06:42

Krakob

Well that's just silly. Charge attacks aren't even useful with some swords and although charge attacks might excel in DPS at many points (especially if using Brandishes), both charge attacks and regular hits have their place in combat. Besides, if all you want to do is charge your sword, I don't think there's any point in shield cancelling it unless you're using using a heavy one and you shield charge.

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 07:06

Bitsbee

Well, if you want a serious answer, I tend to go with 1st Attack>2nd Attack>Shield>1st Attack>2nd Attack>3rd Attack>Charge Attack>Shield>Repeat. Sometimes add a Dash &/or Shield Bash in there once in a while.

I use a Combuster every time. It's the only Sword I have that I can literally go into any Level & defeat hordes of Monsters, including Beasts/Gremlins.

The other 5* Swords I have are either just there because I need them for specific occasions or they've become obsolete:

Furious Flamberge Lvl1
Barbarous Thorn Blade Lvl10
Gran Faust Lvl1
Obsidian Edge Lvl1
Voltedge Lvl10
Warmaster Rocket Hammer Lvl10

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 07:29

Straight-Line

But each weapon has different

But each weapon has different intervals between each attack when you don't have asi. It's not "fixed" like in other MMO games.

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 07:48

Krakob

@Bitsbee
Then you aren't dishing out attacks at maximal speed. IF you did, you'd get stuck after using your first attack the second time unless you perform a switch.

@Straight Line
While that's true, many swords are essentially the same in their combos and vary only in the speed of it (as well as charge and damage and other things). I don't know if that means the proportions between the duration of attacks is the same, though.
That is, let's say FoV's first hit takes 1.5 times the amount of time it takes with a Combuster. My guess is that the second hit would take 1.5 times the amount of time it takes with Combuster's second hit but I don't know.

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 08:09

Momofuku

With brandishes, sometimes I like to do 1st > SC > 1st > Finisher. This removes the impulse from the 2nd hit, and the finisher usually causes a knockdown. I find this more reliable than 1st > 2nd > Finisher since I find myself whiffing the finisher if I perform the combo too quickly, where the finisher swings just out of range of the enemy that got pushed back from 2nd hit.

Doing first hits only is probably the safer choice since you retain more mobility between attacks -- for brandishes, the 2nd hit has a wider hit area than 1st, so that's an advantage as well. I will generally explore 2nd and Finisher options if I can continue the combo into a crowd to gain extra hits.

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 08:13

Bitsbee

Maximum Speed, Shmaximum Shpeed.

Sat, 02/15/2014 - 08:14

Sandwich-Potato

With a Brandish, I do Charge>2nd hit>3rd hit. For some reason, I never get hit while doing this except with Fiends occasionally until I learned what a Snarble Barb was.

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Optimising sword DPS - partial combos vs single attacks