Any reason to not use water flow?

[saturnv5]

So there's 3 talisman methods as I understand. The default starting one, water flow, and full control. Water flow uses 2 Qi and is set-and-forget.

Is it ever worth using full control over water flow? If I have lots of Qi, couldn't I just use water flow multiple times instead of holding down with full control?

[Rubyeyed]

You can't stack talismans on an enemy with water flow. Still, this is the one I use because enemies later on don't give you many opportunities for detonation and a lot of Qi is getting wasted by just waiting for an opening. imo it's better to just slap a talisman on a boss often without wait than to wait for a proper window.

Also, final upgrade makes water flow cost 1 Qi.

[dot5prod]

Waterflow is effective against enemies in the research center and some bosses that don't allow time to charge Qi. However, a 5 Qi full control blast deals more damage in boss fights, especially when used with the stun arrow, compared to Waterflow, which requires multiple small hits. In a lot of the boss fights, when the time is right to use the talisman, it's nice to get that burst damage instead of spamming waterflow.

Most bosses can be done without even attacking. Just parrying and a 5 Qi full control at the right time.

[Loiya]

Use Water Flow if you're using jades that make your sword attacks consume qi to power themselves up
Use Full Control if you want high burst damage potential as well as the ability to cash in internal damage faster than Water Flow can
Use Qi Blast if you want to use the bow more than 5 times per boss (I personally pair it w/ Shadow Hunter arrows for consistent damage vs. the faster bosses)

[Sir_Sam_Vimes]

The description of enhanced full control has the words "massive damage" in it. That's the reason.

[Seisachtheia]

Originally posted by Loiya:

Use Water Flow if you're using jades that make your sword attacks consume qi to power themselves up
Use Full Control if you want high burst damage potential as well as the ability to cash in internal damage faster than Water Flow can
Use Qi Blast if you want to use the bow more than 5 times per boss (I personally pair it w/ Shadow Hunter arrows for consistent damage vs. the faster bosses)

This. Once you unlock all three enhanced styles you have three different playstyle options with jade combinations that will allow you to tackle bosses in different ways. I tended toward Water Flow for most of my general playtime because it allows you to keep up the "pace" of combat. I used Full Control for high health enemies that have big openings. Qi Blast was used for slug fights (like the final boss) where I needed resource generation for the bow (a tool that I think a lot of people who complain about the difficulty of the game underutilize)

[Shiro]

Water Flow is great in exploration since 1 talisman explosion is usually all you need, and you can freely dodge other enemies or add sword damage while it charges. However, in most boss fights, you gain much more qi than you can spend with WF alone. Can combine it with jades that also use qi, tho – but that costs extra jades.

Unupgraded full control can detonate faster at its lowest charge, upgraded also deals more max damage. An obvious good choice for any boss.

Upgraded qi blast is for your bow, so it depends on how much you use the bow.

[superdrocher98]

I think it's a matter of personal taste. Personally, I chose Full Control because I could find a point where I needed to spend Qi on enemies. + Full control can be used at any time, and also quickly use the required amount of Qi. knocking down an enemy also sounds good, but you need to spend 5 Qi there, which doesn’t always work.

[saturnv5]

Thanks for all the responses folks. I think I need to spend some more time with each talisman style to figure out what suits me best.

[Shiro]

You can swap styles for different fights too, remember that. Think it's even possible midbattle.

[rhyz.presser]

Can confirm that you can swap midfight. I've done that a couple of times.

[saturnv5]

Oh interesting. Would be great if the Devs added a shortcut to switch Tasliman mode without having to go into the menu. Maybe DPad down?

[rhyz.presser]

I was thinking the exact same thing. That's the only button that is not being used for anything and it makes sense to be able to do so. We can already quick swap arrows after all.

[Mumkey Jones]

I personally think water flow is the worst one since you can't use it with only one qi stack and you can't take advantage of having a higher number of stacks. Its just to limiting. And you can mitigate your talisman blast being interrupted with the other types by using the Jade that makes it uninterruptible

[plump pickle]

I only use the 5 Qi blast one when I know the enemies' moveset. Other than that, it's 95% water flow. All it requires is 1 qi and you can just swing your sword at the same time :)

[cagethelonewolf]

You need to parry and immediately use water flow, you can't place one without parring like qi strike