Vergil Vs. Berial

[DiabolusUrsus]

Okay, so to be perfectly clear it's not that I'm having any trouble DEFEATING the boss. He's plenty easy to kill, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to deal with his consecutive flame pillar attack. (As a moderately skilled player, not one of those ubers that can just fly around the stages willy-nilly.)

Things I've tried:

Heavy Rain Swords - the stun works on him for a moment, but he just finishes the animation for the attack like normal when it wears off.

Aerial Rave B => Just-timed Judgment Cut => Lunar Phase - Works sometimes, but on higher difficulties he doesn't get stunned out of the attack.

Blistering Swords - Maybe works, but only maybe, depending on how much damage you've been dealing.

Judgment Cut End - Not nearly enough time to charge.

DT Trick Down - Works, provided you have the timing down to teleport back to Berial to avoid the fourth pillar (otherwise you run out of space.) Not ideal, IMO, as it means you NEED to have DT in order to dodge the attack. Sometimes the bastard uses his pillar attack three or four times in a row.

Things I've considered trying but haven't gotten around to yet:

Multiple summoned swords specials. (e.g., Blistering, storm, and heavy rain swords in quick succession.

Round Trip

DT Aerial Lunar Phase

Beast Uppercut / Dragon Breaker

Just-Charged Beowulf Combos

Distortion

So... anybody have anything they use that works consistently? What are Vergil's best options for staggering Berial out of his attacks?

[Hex]

Why not just run? The moment you realize he'll use it, get on the ground, and keep running away.

[DiabolusUrsus]

Originally posted by Hex:

Why not just run? The moment you realize he'll use it, get on the ground, and keep running away.

Because that still isn't 100% reliable, and it completely destroys concentration.

[void]

You can continuously teleport to your embedded summoned sword, you'll take a hit if you're too slow with doing it, but on DMD I was spamming it out of desperation and survived the magma pillars unscathed.

Works for Sanctus during "BURN!" and "I SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH!" too.

[DiabolusUrsus]

Okay, thanks. I'll try that. Still kind of bugs me that the characters who can reliably knock him out of it don't really need to, though.

[Dankey Kang]

Since Vergil is more DT reliant than the others you'll have to save up a bit at least for such cases.
For some reason, in the special edition, his "aoe-recharge-my-shield-nuclear-blast" will stagger you at certain times so that you can't move at all (gay) so I always keep enough DT meter to "table hop" away. Pillars can be dodged the same way. You can also DT-Yamato Stinger back and forth and/or pull yourself to him -> jump away -> repeat.

[DiabolusUrsus]

Well, it's JUST the pillars that I've been having trouble avoiding with him. I know DT is an easy out; I've just been looking for alternatives here and there to expand my options. Thanks for the input!

[Superdude]

Learn his attacks. Learn the timing for when the attacks will touch your hit box. Time the sounds for each attack.

Learn which of vergils attacks don't immediately cancel to dodge, like the third attak air yamato combo(YYY). Once you get that down just use his special to dodge right before you get hit. Just an uber mobile version of royalguard w/o the return damage. If timed right you can infinitely dodge any attack with vergil. He is super op in this game

[Silvermann]

I use siderol. Never had a problem with that.

[DiabolusUrsus]

@Superdude

Believe me, I'm aware of how OP Vergil is... and I knew that I might need to end up practicing the timing on his warp for the i-frames, but I was hoping there was a less, er, cop-out method. I know that as Nero I can buster his face to dissuade him from using the attack, or simply use a level 2+ charge shot, and as Dante I just use Trickster if I don't think I can get off a stun shot with Pandora. It's not even a problem with Lady because she kills him so fast, and I haven't gotten to him with Trish.

I was hoping there was some way I could knock him out of the attack with Vergil to avoid using B B B B B B B so on and so forth.

Thanks for the input though.

@[DAoA] Silvermann

I've tried this, but I usually get caught by a fringe AOE, or Berial uses his annoying lunge attack at the same time. No problem to dodge it alone, but the timing means I end up eating one or the other. I've definitely had this work, though.

[Ceriss]

A just charged judgement cut stuns him. I literally wrecked him on DMD by doing that, he barely got an attack in.

[DiabolusUrsus]

Originally posted by Kyokkai:

A just charged judgement cut stuns him. I literally wrecked him on DMD by doing that, he barely got an attack in.

Doesn't work every time, unless not all judgment cuts are made equal. I've been using the Aerial Rave B just timing and Rapid Slash just timing, and they don't stun him sometimes on Human, Devil Hunter, and Son of Sparda Difficulty. Don't even get me started on whatever the hell Bloody Palace is set to.

This is on full concentration, too.

[Superdude]

Probably need full concentration bar to get the stun to work. There is a huge difference in damage/attacks when your bar is full.

And if you're having a really hard time dodging learn to use the DT down jump that warps you. That along with the improved dodge in DT you can avoid anything if you can learn the move set. Just make sure to set the camera up so you can strafe backwards and not jump. An easier way to try and dodge his attacks is just to keep the fight in his face 90% of the time. Keep yamato on and spam YY attack to jump cancel or force edge forward air stab and keep cancelling that. His melees are easily dodged if you're up in his face and can time your special. When he throws the fire pillars just keep spamming lock on special and canceling out to redo it. Do it fast enough and nothing can hit you. The big explosion is about the only thing you'd need to worry about. I'm still trying to get dodging that down.

I'm still messing around and cheesing so I'm just spamming Force Edge fordward air stab over and over and killing him in no time. Not a lot of style points w/o reflecting a couple attacks first. But I'm still trying to get the dodge down perfectly on turbo, and unlock the rest of my moves

[DiabolusUrsus]

I've been doing almost exactly that. Most of the time just warping to his face and enemy stepping off of it... my standard combo is Yamato Aerial Rave B > Just-timed Judgment Cut > Lunar Phase > Aerial Stinger > Helm Breaker > High Time > Aerial Round Trip > Repeat.

I have full concentration most of the time, and if I take a random hit I'll just walk up to him to restore it. Just-timed Judgment cut STILL doesn't stagger him reliably in my experiences. (And yes, I know the difference between a just-timed one and a standard one.)

I can use the Trick Down DT move already. I'm just looking for alternatives people may have found for those times when the DT bar is empty, especially because Trick Down is the absolute most reliable way to get away from his giant AOE blast. Down, 1, 2, is usually enough to get me clear.