Executor Tips?

[Tansorma]

So I've been Solo Playing Executor since I want at least a base level of competency with every character, and man, I just don't get it.

With other character, I'm either Strong enough I can poise through stuff, or stagger a lot of enemies, or do enough damage in 1-2 hits to play defense, or simply Not Be In Their Range.

I feel like Executor doesn't allow me to do that. The Katanas don't do a lot of stagger damage to consistently stun lock bigger enemies or bosses, the animations are long enough I can't just weave like the Dutchess, the parrying, while consistent, feels really slow. Also, I focus on the Arcane side of things, so when I run into an enemy with really high resistances, my DPS is in the trash. I also have a really hard time dealing with enemies that have shields.

Do be clear, I am not saying these are problems with Executor, these are problems I PERSONALLY am having with the character that I'm struggling to over-come. I've seen other people excel with the character, so I know I'm doing something wrong, but I am not sure what.

Any game-play tips would be welcome.

And I know it needs to be said again, these are my own personal problems playing the character. Not a problem with the character itself.

[Tansorma]

"git gud lol"

There, saved you the trouble, feel free to move on.

[Hanzo]

Well I didn't play executor much but I have pretty much same problems as you. Not enough damage to break poise, not enough stamina to manage 2 weapons, damage in general is meh

What I could suggest from my perspective:
1. Status procs. You have lot of ARC, which help you to better apply statuses (frost, poison, bleed, etc). So if you could manage to get some skills that gives you status effect (chilling mist, stomp) it would increase your damage. Your initial weapon does bleed and if you get those skills you could proc both bleed/frost on enemy. And they doing a lot of damage. For example when you go to mine to beat troll your both proc will decrease it hp more than 50%. There is nightlord rune with chilling mist + increase damage when frost + invisible when frost. It good for start

2. If you play solo and good at parry you could try that. Parry does poise break to enemies, so you would break them easier than using katanas. Also skill animation (character skill when you draw the sword) will trigger parry, so you could use it as some safer approach. You sword gets more power more you parry and if you hide it, it still has all those parries stored. Though while you use your stance you cannot run

3. You have a lot of dex. Use bow or any other dex based weapons, which will triggers statuses or has powerful skills

[Kobret]

parry

[Plumber]

Parrying is slow and substantially worse than just rolling or jumping things in some circumstances, especially vs. moves that don't do contact and therefore don't build up stance damage. Think of it as something you CAN pull out of your pocket, not something that you universally should. Both the draw and sheathe animations for the cursed sword also have deflect frames, though they're much shorter than standard deflects. Using your standard weapons and dipping into it to punish more predictable moves feels like the most effective way to play him to me, at least in the scope of time efficiency.

Attacks that are safe to guard counter that don't push you too far away are similar stance damage to charged or jumping R2s on other weapons, meaning you can bully the hell out of any enemy that you've memorized safe openings for and have the attention of. Attacks that push you too far are best suited for L2s instead (they have a delayed deflect window during the windup and before the swing, even the unpowered version). For example, the final boss has some moves that have him dashing around that are safe to go for L2 deflects and simultaneously punish in so doing.

While Executor mostly scales with Dex/Arc, there's nothing wrong with using a weapon actually suited for an enemy type over what you're "supposed" to use. I sometimes hold on to heavy weapons on characters that have no business using them so I can contribute much more via stance damage or consistently flinching the enemy compared to how little I would've if I focused on raw damage output. This is pretty relevant to those pesky enemies that are immune to bleed, frost, or whatever other statuses you get the brunt of your damage from. Sometimes you really do just need a big sledgehammer...

[Gloomsoul, Forlorn Shade]

The Executor doesn't _need_ to be using Katanas strictly -- that's something you can funnel yourself into if you just like Katanas mainly, as a personal preference.
He is excellent with any DEX Armament, any ARC Armament (to an extent even Spells), and, of course, whatever uses both. He can be both a Damage devil with DEX weapons and a Status s... Status... Hm. Ailment abomination. Yeah that works. He can be either, or both. You ideally want both -- you don't want that ARC to go to waste.
Check the Sparring Grounds or the Visual Codex for the Armaments section and simply go through each category -- the game has split all the weapons nicely to allow you to see how each Nightfarer might... fare... well with specific Armament classes, because of how they have streamlined the way they scale off of Stats here (compared to the old Elden Ring, which initially threw people off, including myself).

For being able to weave in attacks outside of the Suncatcher, you want to do his Katana 1HR1s -- his unique moveset with them is quick enough for it. For anything else, it's not really advisable if you actually want to be quick inbetween attacking and deflecting or dodging. You want short animations, and 1HR1s are the pick.

Regarding flinching enemies, I'm not sure myself as my memory has gone hazy, but usually, you might find a type of attack that is enough to flinch some enemies -- if not an Uncharged R2, try a Jumping R1, if not that either then a Jumping R2. If any of those work, you can spam that to abuse flinching.
Alternatively, some types of enemies have additional unique flinching mechanics from Affinites: Fire, for instance, works on most humanoids, and even has the unique "panic" reaction from Miranda Flowers and Fingercreepers. Strike also bypasses Hardness of some enemies (Miners) and in some cases, Damage Negation as well (Crystallians).

For staggering or Stance-Breaking potential, the old golden rule of 2H Charged R2 still applies, as with any weapon. Guard Counter as well (2HGC) -- same value as 2HCR2. However, the default Unsheathe Ash of War with its R2 follow-up deals heavy Stance Damage -- something that was present in Elden Ring already. The thing is... the Executor benefits tremendously from swapping his starting Ash out -- Seppuku (overwritten by Suncatcher, derp), Blood Blade (go upclose so you can double-hit with the weapon AND the projectile), Chilling Mist, Poison Moth Flight, Poisonous Mist...
However, being the Executor, you want your Stance Breaks to come primarily from Deflection and Guard Counters (with the Suncatcher). Mixing the two, and becoming proficient at doing that constantly, allows you to deal monstrous Stance Damage.

Sheathing, unsheathing, and even the special attack with the Suncatcher, all have Deflection frames at their animation starts -- you want to become proficient at using those. You will want to be using your main weapon (let's say a Katana -- you do 1HR1s to weave in attacks quickly + build up Status quite well), and when an attack comes that you want to start your Deflections with, time an Unsheathing Deflection. Depending on the combo, how many attacks, how strong (do they knock you back, does just one knock you back -- like the last hit of the string), you either do timed tap L1s to turn your Guards into Deflections (basically like Sekiro), or do a Sheathing Deflection -- and you go right back to your main weapon. HOWEVER, if the ending attack does not in fact knock you back and you know so, you can instead tap-L1 into Guard Counter, or time an L2 so you Deflect AND hit with the attack (which you will want to be when the Suncatcher is charged, ergo glowing).

The Executor is actually quite the Sekiro homage, but in a way I feel is more difficult: you do not have Posture, but instead the typical Stance or Poise or however you want to call it; you are missing out on Damage by doing just Deflections and Guard Counters and Specials. You want to be weaving in hits yourself. Now a nice detail about attacking with the Suncatcher is that its Stamina cost for attacks is quite low, like generously. But using that to spam attacks with it instead of a normal weapon... does not leave you with results that are as pleasing; speaking of weaving, enemies do not let you do your thing after you've stopped theirs -- this is, in fact, NOT like Sekiro where you're almost like dancing, where you go Deflect > attack > Deflect > attack or something like that, but instead, you kind of have to learn as you go and remember how each enemy attacks and how each attack behaves even when you Deflect it (does it knock you back? Sheathing Deflection or Charged Special to "Nuh-uh" the knockback and punish).

So all of the above actually makes him like the odd one out for being something like Sekiro... in a game that is not Sekiro. He DOES work, but he probably throws some Sekiro players off because... they think he just turns the game into Sekiro, but the game just... does not work like that. So you have to learn and memorize a lot more, and react accordingly in a stricter fashion than you would in Sekiro (because just doing normal Deflection and never Unsheathing, Sheathing or Special Deflections... is not going to take you that far on the skill ceiling; also knockbacks SUCK when you least want them and you CAN prevent them or counter them but you either don't yet know how to, or simply forgot that you could have).

You didn't mention anything like, his Ultimate or whatever, so I won't talk about that.

You mentioned favoring Arcane. So, trying to apply Statuses via Powerstancing, in this game... actually sucks. It is quite lowered. Powerstanced Status only really shines when you have multiple Statuses to stack and proc with both. The main appeal to Powerstance is the increased raw DpS, and the Statuses eventually trigger. But if you want to focus on those Statuses in particular, you definitely want to be using one weapon, and especially abusing fast attacks -- which brings us right back to 1HR1s, especially with the Executor's unique Katana moveset.

Furthermore, I personally find Powerstanced Katanas... slow -- like just the neutral PS L1s are slower than a number of other Powerstanced Armament classes. You might as well just abuse Jumping L1s with them instead, since they're also slow, but stronger, and you get lower-body i-frames that may allow you to just naturally dodge an attack just because you're doing that (even if it might look like it's actually cutting through you but without doing any Damage, it's fine, you're not being haunted by a Yokai soon). So that's one way to deal Damage besides Statuses.

The other way is to use the 2H moveset -- specifically Charged R2s. But you generally should consider prioritizing Deflections and Guard Counters and Specials for Stance Breaks into Ripostes (Backstabs deal less albeit some specific BS animations are more favorable because for one they're quicker and for two you might be able to go back to swinging sooner while the enemy has to start getting up and then turn around to face you and finally continue attacking, unlike some Ripostes).
Speaking of the 2H moveset, in case your enemy "Nuh-uh"s your Status quo, this might be a case where you could just use the Suncatcher for attacking with -- as switching out of it... always puts you into one-handing your weapons. Yeah. Always. There doesn't seem to be a workaround. So you sheathe and suddenly you have to waste precious time first two-handing and THEN doing whatever. Just skip that and go straight to R1-ing or CR2-ing with the Suncatcher -- you will be benefitting from the reduced Stamina consumption with it anyway, and you'll still be ready to go for more Deflections.

As for shielded enemies, there are some tricks:
a) classic circle-strafe into Backstab (some may annoyingly turn too quick from neutral);
b) circle-strafe an attack into Backstab (forward attacks are perfect and usually have poor tracking)
c) hit enemy with Shield up -- they are coded to usually respond to this, either by attacking or, even using a Guard Counter (in both cases, you force an ideal moment for you to start Deflections and continue from there);
d) use a different weapon or Ash of War to deal Damage through Shields -- Piercing Fang, Impaling Thrust (Ashes which bypass Shields), Armaments with innate Shield bypass (Bloodhound's Claws), etc.;
e) use a different weapon, attack type, or Ash of War meant to maximize the likelihood of a Guard Break -- Unarmed (or any Armament with the Ash) for Kick, pretty much all heavier weapons for a hefty 2HCR2, Straight Swords with Square Off on R1 follow-ups from the stance (homage to Dark Souls III's Stance Weapon Skill) etc., or, if you somehow don't have any of this... uh, try Katana 2HCR2 I guess (but don't expect too much);
f) cheese them -- boot them off a high ledge for a kill, use the Lifesteal Fist Ash of War (grab attack that goes through Shields, homage to Darkwraiths for their Dark Hand with the Lifedrain attack all the way back in Dark Souls I and later), use Consumables like Firebombs to just knock them down on their butts (genuinely a huge upgrade from mainline Elden Ring), cause certain other enemies to hit them with friendly fire as they try to hit you, have a Parry tool and bait them into attacking (see C) so you can immediately use Parry for an instant Riposte follow-up, because you're tired of their crap.

[Machii]

Originally posted by Plumber:

Parrying is slow and substantially worse than just rolling or jumping things in some circumstances, especially vs. moves that don't do contact and therefore don't build up stance damage. Think of it as something you CAN pull out of your pocket, not something that you universally should. Both the draw and sheathe animations for the cursed sword also have deflect frames, though they're much shorter than standard deflects. Using your standard weapons and dipping into it to punish more predictable moves feels like the most effective way to play him to me, at least in the scope of time efficiency.

Attacks that are safe to guard counter that don't push you too far away are similar stance damage to charged or jumping R2s on other weapons, meaning you can bully the hell out of any enemy that you've memorized safe openings for and have the attention of. Attacks that push you too far are best suited for L2s instead (they have a delayed deflect window during the windup and before the swing, even the unpowered version). For example, the final boss has some moves that have him dashing around that are safe to go for L2 deflects and simultaneously punish in so doing.

While Executor mostly scales with Dex/Arc, there's nothing wrong with using a weapon actually suited for an enemy type over what you're "supposed" to use. I sometimes hold on to heavy weapons on characters that have no business using them so I can contribute much more via stance damage or consistently flinching the enemy compared to how little I would've if I focused on raw damage output. This is pretty relevant to those pesky enemies that are immune to bleed, frost, or whatever other statuses you get the brunt of your damage from. Sometimes you really do just need a big sledgehammer...

Cursed Sword deflect inflicts stance damage on disjointed and projectile attacks.

[Machii]

Just play Cursed Sword only for a while. Theres no point practicing R1 spam unless thats what you struggle with.

[NightLizard]

Originally posted by Tansorma:

So I've been Solo Playing Executor since I want at least a base level of competency with every character, and man, I just don't get it.

With other character, I'm either Strong enough I can poise through stuff, or stagger a lot of enemies, or do enough damage in 1-2 hits to play defense, or simply Not Be In Their Range.

I feel like Executor doesn't allow me to do that. The Katanas don't do a lot of stagger damage to consistently stun lock bigger enemies or bosses, the animations are long enough I can't just weave like the Dutchess, the parrying, while consistent, feels really slow. Also, I focus on the Arcane side of things, so when I run into an enemy with really high resistances, my DPS is in the trash. I also have a really hard time dealing with enemies that have shields.

Do be clear, I am not saying these are problems with Executor, these are problems I PERSONALLY am having with the character that I'm struggling to over-come. I've seen other people excel with the character, so I know I'm doing something wrong, but I am not sure what.

Any game-play tips would be welcome.

And I know it needs to be said again, these are my own personal problems playing the character. Not a problem with the character itself.

I have more than 100 expeditions as executor, it's my second most played nightfarer.

Actually if you played sekiro this is a lover letter to sekiro's fans.

BUT you pointed out 2 things already, it will come a time where you will notice doing one hand attack with executor is better than 2, dual wield sucks dmg wise and it's slower, which leaves you with the amazing attack of l1-l1-l1-l1, the two Great points of executor is parrying any attack besides grab and doing a lot of poise dmg with cursed sword, it consumes minimal stamina and can parry, if you set up you relics with initial attack increase, you will get 45% dmg to every attack after a parry :)


Beast form is good and bad,if you have healing roar is very effective, to overall stagger dmg, healing of the team and you can use the special attack after 6-8 roars, if you dont use this relic wait for your health to be low, use the crucible and just spam the special attack, extra flask.


Honestly i find executor currently one of classes which i don't need to play as often, due to his strength being out shined by people who can dodge properly, meaning you dont need to revive-parry above dead players as often, at release i rarely died with executor which would make me being able to revive the team without much struggle.

[Plumber]

Originally posted by Machii:

Originally posted by Plumber:

moves that don't do contact and therefore don't build up stance damage.

Cursed Sword deflect inflicts stance damage on disjointed and projectile attacks.

If you have a source for this, I’m interested; it would retroactively validate the dumb things I’ve been trying to do. I’ve never seen an enemy crumple at a distance after blocking things like arrows, fireballs, breath attacks, etc…
This isn’t to be confused with melee-range explosions that don’t visually cause contact but are still tied to the enemy; moreso projectiles and explosions that are separate from the boss. I HAVE gotten stance breaks off of things like Zamor Knight pushes, but have not had any happen with, say, Libra’s targeted rune circles or the falling coins, only his melee attacks.

[causality]

Originally posted by Plumber:

Parrying is slow and substantially worse than just rolling or jumping things in some circumstances, especially vs. moves that don't do contact and therefore don't build up stance damage.

You do understand what a game is, right? Deflecting things that otherwise doesn't make sense is just part of what makes Executor entertaining. Why dodge Heolstor nuke when you can deflect it (nevermind the fact it's safer to deflect than dodge, if you miss the deflect window you still block but if you miss time a dodge you take full damage).

[Gloomsoul, Forlorn Shade]

Originally posted by Plumber:

Originally posted by Machii:

Cursed Sword deflect inflicts stance damage on disjointed and projectile attacks.

If you have a source for this, I’m interested; it would retroactively validate the dumb things I’ve been trying to do. I’ve never seen an enemy crumple at a distance after blocking things like arrows, fireballs, breath attacks, etc…
This isn’t to be confused with melee-range explosions that don’t visually cause contact but are secretly tied to the enemy; moreso projectiles and explosions that are separate from the boss.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nightreign/comments/1m5fg0q/til_you_can_stancebreak_ed_fulghor_from_his_quick/
Deflecting the quickfire bow attack from Sovereign Fulghor broke his Stance. Nothing else was touching him.

[Plumber]

Originally posted by causality:

You do understand what a game is, right?

Instead of berating me for a position I don't have, where a preceding post already implied I do in fact go for parries I shouldn't just because I can, try to keep the topic of the thread in mind. OP was asking for practical advice.

Heolstor nukes are a case where Suncatcher L2s actually are a solid punish option. However, standard deflects put you into so much blockstun that rolling moves like these (if and only if you are capable) often leaves you with a larger window for attacks afterward.
It's still possible to buffer blocks for safety, of course.

Originally posted by Wanderer:

Deflecting the quickfire bow attack from Sovereign Fulghor broke his Stance. Nothing else was touching him.

cool beans, my antics are justified

[Gloomsoul, Forlorn Shade]

Yeah i think the logic that explains this is that Deflection itself is what deals Stance Damage, unlike, say, comparing that to a Guardian with Steel Guard, modified with the Relic Effect that produces shockwaves -- in which case, the Stance Damage just comes from the shockwaves hitting.

The Executor just indimitates his enemies with his Deflection and causes them to reel back.
Just like my Japanese animes.
Also reminds me of parrying ranged attacks in Valheim -- random skeleton archer goes "WHOA" when you parry its arrow.

[Plumber]

looking over the comments in that thread, some posters suggest it's still proximity-based, which would support what I've experienced where it's felt like a waste of time to deflect things from a distance... but still very good knowledge to have

[Machii]

Originally posted by Plumber:

Originally posted by causality:

You do understand what a game is, right?

Instead of berating me for a position I don't have, where a preceding post already implied I do in fact go for parries I shouldn't just because I can, try to keep the topic of the thread in mind. OP was asking for practical advice.

Heolstor nukes are a case where Suncatcher L2s actually are a solid punish option. However, standard deflects put you into so much blockstun that rolling moves like these (if and only if you are capable) often leaves you with a larger window for attacks afterward.
It's still possible to buffer blocks for safety, of course.

Originally posted by Wanderer:

Deflecting the quickfire bow attack from Sovereign Fulghor broke his Stance. Nothing else was touching him.

cool beans, my antics are justified

Every four L1 deflects is a sizeable heal, in addition to stance damage. Its also safer to deflect as it has less recovery frames than roll and uses less stamina. If a boss is focusing you you generally dont want to leave Cursed Sword because more attacks are coming so long as you continue deflecting. If youre just getting caught in a bosses hitbox targeted at someone else rolling is fine.
And the charged L2 SEEMS like it does a lot of stance damage. It often interrupts bosses when used as a counterattack.