Post by Xarious on Aug 21, 2016 13:08:41 GMT -5
So... It's about time to start adding a little information about the multisabers. I'm going to divide this into three parts. Part One will be the basic attacks, Part Two will be focused around more advanced techniques, and Part Three will be the application of both basics and advanced.
*Before I begin, thank you to FL for the videos I will be using during this explanation*
Part One: Multisaber basics
We'll first start with the three basic combination attacks.
The first is the Saber Dance. This is an alternating A-D-A-D-A-D attack in front of you. It is generally referred to as fanning when using a single saber. You need to hold attack and chain the A-D strikes repeatedly, which means it does require a bit of learning with timing the A and D motions so you don't do spins, but rather, keep the saber in front of you. It's not an impenetrable wall, but it will block a majority of things that hit it, and tear through a lot of defenses.
Next up is, what I tend to refer to as just a forward dance, but LemonLime gives the formal name of Rush. This is the same concept exactly, except it's WA-WD instead. This isn't all too useful, and becomes rather obsolete with time, but it is good to know and understand for first time learners.
Lastly, we have a vertical version of the saberdance that is commonly referred to as the Hurricane. This is a tricky combination of opposing diagonal keys. It can be done with WA-SD or WD-AS.
While all of these are shown in dual sabers, they also apply in the same way to a staff.
Part Two: Multisaber advanced
Now that all the basic attacks are out of the way, lets cover the more advanced attacks.
The first is called a Switch by its common name, however I have, at times, heard it be referred to as flash, but this is a less-common name to my knowledge. This is the idea that switching to medium or fast (depending on if you has duals or staff) where you have a single saber stance, and then switching back to staff/dual at the beginning of a strike will do significantly more damage because of the way it registers when it hits. This is extremely weak against other multisabers (so only advised vs a single saber) and requires exceptional timing. On 1.00, it can also be even harder do to the Sabergun Effect. In order for this to work, you pretty much have to land the strike point-blank, which means it is normally very hard to do in combat (hence being an advanced skill). Here's an example with duals:
The second advanced tactic is called an A-Strike Delay. I say that, because there are different types of delays that will be explained elsewhere in the database, but for the purposes of this lesson, this is the only delay you can really effectively do with duals or staff. The concept is simple: You strike once in any direction (usually easier with an A or D strike) and then you let go until your saber reaches the "reset" stage. This is the very near-end of your strike, where it effectively does no damage. Once it reaches that, you can then strike again with a A-strike, which will be a delayed hit.
Normally, if you are still holding attack, or press attack a second time when the mid-strike occurs, it will chain the attacks together. In this case, we want to wait until after the opportunity for it to chain has passed, because we do not want the strike to chain. We want it to be two individual strikes. However, by starting the A-strike before the previous strike can fully finish, it cuts off the very beginning of the A-strike, which makes it immediately enter the "mid-strike" phase, that often will pass right through your opponents blocks. This is best used against any style other than strong style, as your delay will not be able to break a strong style hit. You'll just be suiciding if you try to beat a poke with that. However, it does make the attack faster, which is good for changing timings.
Also good to note: Remember I said "any direction" a moment ago? What I really mean there is, the first strike doesn't matter. Any first-strike of your choosing works. This also means that you can delay off of other delays.
In this video, Xucphra is doing an A-strike, then moving with D (but not attacking) and then doing another A-strike to create a delay.
If you have trouble seeing the delay with staff/duals (it is very hard to notice) try first using fast style, holding shift+A, and attempting to, one click at a time, create a delay. It is much easier to see the difference in fast style between a regular full strike, and a delayed strike, because the length of the attack will be cut in half. Once you understand what to look for, try it with staff (staff is cleaner looking) and then with duals. Once you can tell what is a delay and what isn't, then you can practice adding footwork to it and so on.
Part Three: Application
Keep in mind that none of these were intended to be spammed, and merely spamming any of these will not win you a fight. Attacking slows you by a small amount, which means a majority of the time, you will not want to attack unless you're either preparing a delay, or you're planning to make contact with the hit. This means things like the saberdance are only useful at point-blank.
Often times you can make use of combining these together. For example, since an A-Delay passes through the block of another staff or dual sabers, you can A-Delay to bypass the block, and then chain it into a fan while you are there to create a lethal attack. (*Note that the delay has to make contact and successfully penetrate the opponent's guard before you can chain it and expect to do any damage).
For those of you who still primarily use single saber, A-Delays work exactly the same way in fast/medium styles. For staffers/dual users, you can use medium/fast, do a switch, and then still use that switch to create an A-Delay. Just think about all the different ways you can combine pieces of these to throw off your opponent.
Questions, comments, needless ranting? Post and give some feedback!
*Before I begin, thank you to FL for the videos I will be using during this explanation*
Part One: Multisaber basics
We'll first start with the three basic combination attacks.
The first is the Saber Dance. This is an alternating A-D-A-D-A-D attack in front of you. It is generally referred to as fanning when using a single saber. You need to hold attack and chain the A-D strikes repeatedly, which means it does require a bit of learning with timing the A and D motions so you don't do spins, but rather, keep the saber in front of you. It's not an impenetrable wall, but it will block a majority of things that hit it, and tear through a lot of defenses.
Next up is, what I tend to refer to as just a forward dance, but LemonLime gives the formal name of Rush. This is the same concept exactly, except it's WA-WD instead. This isn't all too useful, and becomes rather obsolete with time, but it is good to know and understand for first time learners.
Lastly, we have a vertical version of the saberdance that is commonly referred to as the Hurricane. This is a tricky combination of opposing diagonal keys. It can be done with WA-SD or WD-AS.
While all of these are shown in dual sabers, they also apply in the same way to a staff.
Part Two: Multisaber advanced
Now that all the basic attacks are out of the way, lets cover the more advanced attacks.
The first is called a Switch by its common name, however I have, at times, heard it be referred to as flash, but this is a less-common name to my knowledge. This is the idea that switching to medium or fast (depending on if you has duals or staff) where you have a single saber stance, and then switching back to staff/dual at the beginning of a strike will do significantly more damage because of the way it registers when it hits. This is extremely weak against other multisabers (so only advised vs a single saber) and requires exceptional timing. On 1.00, it can also be even harder do to the Sabergun Effect. In order for this to work, you pretty much have to land the strike point-blank, which means it is normally very hard to do in combat (hence being an advanced skill). Here's an example with duals:
The second advanced tactic is called an A-Strike Delay. I say that, because there are different types of delays that will be explained elsewhere in the database, but for the purposes of this lesson, this is the only delay you can really effectively do with duals or staff. The concept is simple: You strike once in any direction (usually easier with an A or D strike) and then you let go until your saber reaches the "reset" stage. This is the very near-end of your strike, where it effectively does no damage. Once it reaches that, you can then strike again with a A-strike, which will be a delayed hit.
Normally, if you are still holding attack, or press attack a second time when the mid-strike occurs, it will chain the attacks together. In this case, we want to wait until after the opportunity for it to chain has passed, because we do not want the strike to chain. We want it to be two individual strikes. However, by starting the A-strike before the previous strike can fully finish, it cuts off the very beginning of the A-strike, which makes it immediately enter the "mid-strike" phase, that often will pass right through your opponents blocks. This is best used against any style other than strong style, as your delay will not be able to break a strong style hit. You'll just be suiciding if you try to beat a poke with that. However, it does make the attack faster, which is good for changing timings.
Also good to note: Remember I said "any direction" a moment ago? What I really mean there is, the first strike doesn't matter. Any first-strike of your choosing works. This also means that you can delay off of other delays.
In this video, Xucphra is doing an A-strike, then moving with D (but not attacking) and then doing another A-strike to create a delay.
If you have trouble seeing the delay with staff/duals (it is very hard to notice) try first using fast style, holding shift+A, and attempting to, one click at a time, create a delay. It is much easier to see the difference in fast style between a regular full strike, and a delayed strike, because the length of the attack will be cut in half. Once you understand what to look for, try it with staff (staff is cleaner looking) and then with duals. Once you can tell what is a delay and what isn't, then you can practice adding footwork to it and so on.
Part Three: Application
Keep in mind that none of these were intended to be spammed, and merely spamming any of these will not win you a fight. Attacking slows you by a small amount, which means a majority of the time, you will not want to attack unless you're either preparing a delay, or you're planning to make contact with the hit. This means things like the saberdance are only useful at point-blank.
Often times you can make use of combining these together. For example, since an A-Delay passes through the block of another staff or dual sabers, you can A-Delay to bypass the block, and then chain it into a fan while you are there to create a lethal attack. (*Note that the delay has to make contact and successfully penetrate the opponent's guard before you can chain it and expect to do any damage).
For those of you who still primarily use single saber, A-Delays work exactly the same way in fast/medium styles. For staffers/dual users, you can use medium/fast, do a switch, and then still use that switch to create an A-Delay. Just think about all the different ways you can combine pieces of these to throw off your opponent.
Questions, comments, needless ranting? Post and give some feedback!