Combat Stances, stats, etc.

[RedCor]

So, lets discuss stances usability. Beat game once, missed Nightmare Gemini, and wanna make another run. I faund spear outstanding because of range and jump attack. (correct me, if i wrong) Any other good choises. (starter, or totem) Any reason to push one stat, like blue one?

[Asxpot]

Slash stance is pretty good. Makes it easy to hit multiple opponents, and skirt around more enemies at once.

[𝕎𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕫]

I started with boxing stance, switched to slash later and even later on I maxed out spear and shadow... most of the time I tend to use the spear stance because of range.
Best special, in my opinion, are projectile, drop kick and clone punch... before I used multi strike, spin kick and rising punch but these don't go well with my prefered stances.

Atm I'm lvl. 57 and my stats are...:

Attributes:
• Power: 60
  
• Endurance: 38
  
• Aggressiveness: 35
  
• Constitution: 38

Right from the start I spend the most points in power, second in constitution and endurance, the "rest" always goes into aggressiveness... worked for me because I just had a few fights that needed two or three attempts to beat them.
My combat stats:

• Stamina Guard: 1,817
  
• Attack Bar: 1,495
  
• Damage Resistance: 4,403
  
• Stun Résistance: 3,086

Combat Stance:
• Spear Stance - Dmg: 4,15; Stun: 2,834
  
• Shadow Stance - Dmg: 4,317; Stun: 2,931

Special Attack:
• Drop Kick - Dmg: 4,354; Stun: 2,953
  
• Projectile - Dmg: 3,93; Stun: 2,705
  
• Clone Punch - Dmg: 4,087; Stun: 2,797

[Cahalith]

In addition to what's been said already, I'll also point out that the Spear Stance's heavy attack (holding down primary attack) is great for cheesing slow enemies because of its range.

The Rising Punch special attack is pretty good because you can trigger it really quickly to potentially interrupt enemies.

[Saint Scylla]

I'm going with a full Power build using the Mammoth Stance and (so far) the Spin Kick.

It deals a lot of damage and has a pretty good stun chance, which mitigates the poor pace of the Mammoth basic attacks. I keep interrupting or knocking down enemies.

[Tamr]

I started with Boxing stance and then quickly switched to Mammoth Stance and adopted a glass cannon build. I went mainly power with a bit in aggressiveness and endurance to help with attack bar generation and parrying.

Mammoth is slow, but the dash attack (flying kick) covers a lot of distance and hits like a truck. I then quickly cancel it into a Spin Kick for the optimal opening combo.

Most trash are dead by this point and more difficult enemies are staggered/knocked down. This allows me to then either follow up with a heavy attack (the double hand slam, needs a lot of wind up, but also hits hard) or alternatively dodge out of any harm/reposition and chip away with projectiles...and rinse and repeat hehe.

I ended up finishing the game like this at lvl52 with the following stats:

Main Attributes (+Metal Armor Set):

• Power: 90 +5
  
• Endurance: 26 +2
  
• Aggressiveness: 25
  
• Constitution: 15 +11

General Combat Stats:

• Stamina Guard: 1.575
  
• Attack Bar: 1.371
  
• Damage Resistance: 2.503
  
• Stun Resistance: 1.861

Combat Stance:

• Mammoth Stance (fully upgraded) - dmg: 5.711; stun: 3.746
  
• Shadow Stance - dmg: 4.726; stun: 3.17

Special Attack:

• Teleport
  
• Spin Kick (fully upgraded) - dmg: 5.478; stun: 3.609
  
• Projectile - dmg: 3,436; stun: 2,417

[Unused]

I started Boxing, felt it was a nice balanced stance. Ended up maxing Crab Stance and Shadow Stance by the time I finished the game, using those two exclusively.

Crab stance felt like a great control option, a lot of stun potential and seems to grab and pull enemies close. VERY heavy damage combo finisher and heavy attacks, felt like a truck.

Shadow stance is fast and it has amazing range on its heavy attack. The stun potential felt surprising high considering how spammy it can be. Easily the best sprint attack in the whole game, with lots of distance and a strong double kick.

As for special attacks, I used Drop Kick, Projectile and Spin Kick.

Drop Kick is just a damage powerhouse that seems to generate a lot of stun, but it's very short range.

Projectile is one I recommend everyone have equipped just because it opens up many more options in large fights when you have to back away and re-approach the situation,

Spin Kick has some depth to it. It closes gaps, ducks under certain attacks and generates a large amount of stun. It's a great all around move, but because it closes gaps it's also going to put you into danger if you're not careful, especially when fighting multiple opponents.

Now, I don't pay attention to stat values so I'm just speaking from how they felt to use, not actual numbers.

[RedCor]

BTW, can be usefull for bugfixes: Before Outcast there is some kinda bossfight on beach, so i faund that spamming projectile can somehow launch this creature to the air... Yup - hes just fly away and lands somewhere, so i launch him on the rock, and he died by out of the ring timer i think...

[I have no Golem and I must Golem]

Corwid stance just clears house, has great timings. Great backdash+attack, great jumping attack, but rather bad left/right dash attack and running attack.

[Wese]

Originally posted by RedCor:

So, lets discuss stances usability. Beat game once, missed Nightmare Gemini, and wanna make another run. I faund spear outstanding because of range and jump attack. (correct me, if i wrong) Any other good choises. (starter, or totem) Any reason to push one stat, like blue one?

I'm just gonna give you my perspective from my current playtrough and what worked really well up until now. I started out with spear stance, since range seems to be really powerful in many fighting games and is often underrated.

I can say it's very efficient, tough not as flashy let's say as something like lightning stance (my second stance atm). Passive 50% damage block from stamina really encourages an in and out kind of gameplay, if you wanna play it safe and not rely on parry as much.
For that, spear stance feels excellent, you can keep a very comfortable distance.

so with a ranged focused stance, my idea was to pair it with something single target high damage close quarter, at my progression level mammoth stance and lightning stance seemed to go well with that.

For Stats, I primarily focused on Power (I think probably the most important stat just for pure damage output with those stances). I kept endurance at the same level, since the 50% damage reflect seems very strong to me, as long as you keep an eye out for your stamina from time to time. I also kept endurnace at the same level, since keeping up with protection seems like a good idea. Only stat I ditched heavily, only on lvl 2 rn or 4 while rest is it 12 currently is aggressiveness.
Filling up Bar quicker seems neglible compared to other stats benefits, and with many stances I could get a secondary damage benefit that was equal (Endurance).
Special moves sidekick and multistrike, multikick

[Explicitly Offensive Cuneiform]

Originally posted by Silas Eventide:

I started Boxing, felt it was a nice balanced stance. Ended up maxing Crab Stance and Shadow Stance by the time I finished the game, using those two exclusively.

Crab stance felt like a great control option, a lot of stun potential and seems to grab and pull enemies close. VERY heavy damage combo finisher and heavy attacks, felt like a truck.

Shadow stance is fast and it has amazing range on its heavy attack. The stun potential felt surprising high considering how spammy it can be. Easily the best sprint attack in the whole game, with lots of distance and a strong double kick.

As for special attacks, I used Drop Kick, Projectile and Spin Kick.

Drop Kick is just a damage powerhouse that seems to generate a lot of stun, but it's very short range.

Projectile is one I recommend everyone have equipped just because it opens up many more options in large fights when you have to back away and re-approach the situation,

Spin Kick has some depth to it. It closes gaps, ducks under certain attacks and generates a large amount of stun. It's a great all around move, but because it closes gaps it's also going to put you into danger if you're not careful, especially when fighting multiple opponents.

Now, I don't pay attention to stat values so I'm just speaking from how they felt to use, not actual numbers.

Where is crab stance? i want to give that a try.
Never mind, i can't believe i overlooked it.

I use a mix between boxing an lightning. If i recall correctly lightning is near where the grandpa died and that one thorn guardian. I have noticed that lightning has a stunlock if you keep spaming it.

[Kohryujin]

Originally posted by Rabbi the Reformed:

Corwid stance just clears house, has great timings. Great backdash+attack, great jumping attack, but rather bad left/right dash attack and running attack.

There is a Corwid stance? ...Did I miss a stance totem somewhere?! If you or anyone else happens to know where the particular totem is with this stance It'd be much appreciated.

[Wese]

Here I have some Footage how I like to use Spearstance and Lighningstance. Spear I prefer for multiple opponents to keep a safe distance.
To Lightning I switch mostly in 1v1 or on bigger opponents when I get close

Spear: https://youtu.be/LNv_rQGGXFk
Lightning: https://youtu.be/6_ImQl6rFtg

[Pure Psycho]

I started with spear as well and found it to have the most utility of all the stances I used. Excellent range, it's fast enough to not leave you vulnerable, and it's 3 hit combo leads into the spin kick seamlessly. It scales mostly off power, but gets enough from endurance and aggression to encourage putting points there. It's biggest downside is that same utility, it's not very flashy and doesn't have a lot of "cool factor".

Corwid is in the top 3 as well, it's a drunken master-esque stance that is very chaotic in it's move-set while still feeling fluid and tight. Its back-dodge attack is probably the best of all the stances - big distance closer with high damage and stun as well as an animation that is naturally dodgy and allows you to slide in under enemies' attacks. Plus, it's the stance that gives Pseudo the strongest pimp-hand in the land.

Shadow was the overall winner for me, I actually got it before heading to the mountains by refusing to give up when I got to the fight that was obviously telling me to come back later.
Not only does it have a big "cool factor", it's damage and stun output is extremely high. The move-sets are very "in your face" and lend themselves to a highly aggressive playstyle while having good distance-closers with it's sprint and forward dodge attack. It's biggest flaw is it's high stun, I would often stagger enemies out of range before I could land a big finisher.

I played around with lightning a bit, and I think it's going to be my main style when I do a second playthrough. I really like the focus on fast, dodgy moves and combos that all seem to flow really well into one another.

Crab is interesting I like the look of it, but I never ended up using it much as it felt like a mixture of Corwid/Spear and I had already invested heavily into both.

Mammoth seems to fill the same niche as the White Demon style from Jade Empire - Its your raw power stance that doesn't lend itself to fancy footwork or tactics. You get in whatever is in your way's face and you smash it until it stops being in your way. I didn't use this style other than to test it, too straightforward and boring for me. I imagine though, that with a High Power/Constitution build you could Hulk your way through most of the game with it.

[Codename 47]

Why are there two stances selected? You can’t switch between the two in combat right?

[Jur the Orc]

Originally posted by Codename 47:

Why are there two stances selected? You can’t switch between the two in combat right?

Yes you can. You can check your Controls in the options menu to see how you do it.
I believe it's done by pressing left and right on the D-pad.
Switching can be done mid-combo too.