How to deal with brandistock?

[Vroom vroom]

Their knockback is beyond broken if you ask me. Especially when I play as a knight I never get a good opportunity to deal damage and even then the best case scenario is a forced hittrade considering an accelerated Brandi horizontal swing seems to be about as fast as it gets.

Then there's the tryhards who main this anti-fun stick and will drag their horizontal swing so that it doesn't even look like an attack until it's too late. Then they mix that up with a few dragged "overhead" swings.
I can't tell the difference between that. This weapon is as fast as a dagger at one point and as slow as a greatsword a second later.

I can deal with (some) feints. I can deal with drags. I can deal with most reverse overheads in this game as long as it's not some dumb polearm reverse overhead feint.

But I can't for the life of me figure out how to deal with brandistock users and their insane knockback. I can't riposte because if I do I'll look like an idiot stabbing air after parrying their attack that blew me out of range.
I don't even know whether drags, feints or whatever is effective against them because I literally do not get the chance to do a proper attack against these guys. Even average casual completely rek me with this weapon.

[Glassfan •҉]

hmmm

Well I dont seem to have too much trouble with brandi users --> and I will admit getting poked to death by them and quad feinted to my doom at times. IMO, standing at the end of their range is not the best situation to be in. They'll continue to use knockback and your defensiveness to put on a slow drag show in front of you.

The brandi is fairly slow. Let them miss and time your step in stabs to take advantage of their recovery time right after they miss an attack. You can catch them this way. I also advocate getting close to them, using whatever tactics your comfortable with when up close (feints, kicks, accels, etc)-- but being mindful of "feeding them a parry" that they can whip their fast lmb riposte into your face.

If you have a team mate, let him charge in first and draw the brandi's parry, follow up with a well timed attack. Brandi users can be devastating if they are playing properly --> supporting the stronger melee with their range and staying out of the middle of the scrum.

[Mooi'n Keal]

Facehugging + feinting like a ♥♥♥♥♥ xD

[Captain Cockslap]

Originally posted by RobinW0548:

Facehugging + feinting like a ♥♥♥♥♥ xD

If they start feinting back you're in a whole new world of trouble though.

[Mooi'n Keal]

Originally posted by Captain Capslock:

Originally posted by RobinW0548:

Facehugging + feinting like a ♥♥♥♥♥ xD

If they start feinting back you're in a whole new world of trouble though.

I cri evri tim ;-;

[Kyros]

yea worst kind of player is one using the weird animations with brandi + feinting. It's extremely annoying and really feels lame.

[Lu2]

knockback needs to be reduced.can be big and unreliable. i can sugest you use longsword if you want punish those with riposte

[Mooi'n Keal]

Originally posted by Lu2:

knockback needs to be reduced.can be big and unreliable. i can sugest you use longsword if you want punish those with riposte

zweihander is longer :P

[FCavie]

One of the main advantages of spear weapons like this is their knockback and reach! just like the halberd (or other pole arms) you need to get in a range where you can hit them but they can't hit you. What you can try though is kicking them and some drags.

If not then use the shield, that way the knockback won't be so severe.

[Kyros]

Originally posted by ℱallin'ℭave:

One of the main advantages of spear weapons like this is their knockback and reach!

Originally posted by ℱallin'ℭave:

you need to get in a range where you can hit them but they can't hit you. .

They have the best melee reach in all the game, so if you can hit them, they can hit you anyway.

You're right about the shield though, but sometimes they can get through it. And if you play too much on the defensive they will get you on the stam if they have decent footwork

[Vroom vroom]

Thanks for the replies. I might have to pick up a shield or something and start feinting them. This is about as toxic as it gets for me but hey - they're the ones using brandistock. Nothing wrong with evening the odds.

---

Any misc. tips to cope with knockback? I'll try to roll with a shield from now on in case I encounter a brandistock user but I'd still like to know how to stand a chance with a simple 2handed longsword or something. Perhaps even grand mace, I know it's supposed to be a good "piercing" weapon (thus theoratically being good vs vanguards) but its range is a joke against spear or polearm vanguards.

Or perhaps I'm just looking for a magical fix where there is none.

[Glassfan •҉]

" I might have to pick up a shield or something and start feinting them. This is about as toxic as it gets for me but hey - they're the ones using brandistock. "

Theres nothing wrong with feinting imo -- especially in team fights. I know that some players would prefer that i sit and trade with their maul/gmace/messer -- but sometimes you got to be quick and efficient -- especially when your about to get ganked. So feint, kick, body feint, do what you got to do to get out of harms way and win.

The knock back is a real pain sometimes. Go ahead and face hug them, feint them, feint to parry if you need to and riposte into them. Or foot drag them, fake a reverse and swing your attack around into their side.

[BadBadger]

Archer

[General Income Tax]

A long time ago I figured out that the brandistock can destroy anyone who's unprepared for dramatic speed changes, but that was only in response to the huge influx of speed spam Vanguards or drag spam knights.

Honestly it's not even close to a perfect weapon these days, and all it takes is a few solid fights with a brandi van to know where his attacks are coming from, and at what speed. If you're solid on defence, the only thing I can see giving you trouble is a completely out of the blue jump-stab with a respectable delay. But that's, what, 1/3 of your health gone as a knight?

If you keep your cool (as in not panicking when you take your first hit, a classic noob killer strat) brandi shouldn't be any problem for you. I can't really go into a deeper counter strat for brandi than that, because like with every weapon it takes experience to understand how the weapon works.

A general tip for dealing with any weapon you find particularly "OP" is to try it yourself, and through much trial and error figure out the weakessess of the weapon itself. The pros make it look seamless, but that's /never/ the case.

[Trip]

The turn cap is very limited for the brandistock the best way is to try and bait them to aim at one side then sprint to the other side. If you feel completely secure that they will miss their poke try to get a quick stab in. They also tend to windup their attack at you very early if you turn around they will cancel their attack or miss you both of which drain stamina. Also feint them a lot and when you are running low on stamina try to retreat.

[THANK YOU BROTHER]

X+5 Works every time