are nail arts viable?

[Protocol; Wired (She/Her)]

They seem to charge so slowly and I cannot tell if they do much extra damage, why use them?

[inappropriately_gendered_fungus]

I'm wondering this as well, it's far too easy for the charge to be canceled when you release the button a milisecond too late and an enemy hits you.

[4thQueen]

The only one that is even remotely useful is Charge Slash, and even then only if you equip Nailmaster's Glory for the faster charge. Useless Nail Arts are prety much my only gripe with the game, they add almost nothing but the aforementioned fast Charge Slash got me through Trial of the Fool, so....

[soullos]

I used them once or twice, thought "well that's kind of cool" then never used them again, forgetting they exist. :P

[Kein Zantezuken]

They are viable sometimes but keep in mind Fury and Fragile Strength do not affect the damage

[CJones]

Originally posted by Kein Zantezuken:

They are viable sometimes but keep in mind Fury and Fragile Strength do not affect the damage

What, Really?! That blows.

Nailmaster's Glory helps, especially for charging the Change Slash, which is very helpful for taking out flying enemies in the Colosseum.

[Wondercrab]

The charge slash is incredibly good since it's almost always worth doing in any situation where you have to spend a couple of seconds avoiding enemies rather than hitting them, which happens all the time. It's invaluable for hit-and-run strategies.

The spinning slash and dash slash both suffer from being slightly finnicky to execute and more nice in their applications by comparison. There are very few situations in which it's useful to be hitting enemies on both sides of you, since most of the time you want to be dodging out of a spot like that rather than lingering in it, and obviously most of the really hard parts of the game (the bosses) only have you fighting one enemy. I can see very skilled players getting some use out of the dash slash over the charge slash, but you generally won't be dodging *into* enemies in a way that lets you hit them with the dash slash consistently. In practice you don't get into many situations where you want to be using both your dash and your charged attack at the same time.

[Kronos]

Charge slah+nailmaster's glory basically makes up most of my endgame.

[CJones]

There are (or perhaps were) some situations where the Dash Slash could reach far enough to flip levers from the wrong side of a door. These may have been patched out, but it was definitely possible in 1.0.0.6

[jabberwok]

I use both versions of charge slash all the time against regular enemies. Especially to one-shot primal aspids, which are otherwise very annoying to fight. The spin move, I never use. It's too situational, so there is never time to charge it when I might actually need it. I think it could be tweaked to be useful, but I'm not sure how. Or I just haven't found the right way yet. It's unfortunate, because Mato is my favorite of the Nailmasters, but I never use what he taught me.

I've never used any of them in the late game boss fights. There just isn't time to charge them. They can be handy in the coliseum, though, and anywhere you have time for them. The dash slash is also good against the big guards in the city, as you can close and hit them before they start blocking.

[Rei Scarlette]

Old topic I know, but since it's up here now anyways, I may as well reply.

Originally posted by jabberwok:

The spin move, I never use. It's too situational, so there is never time to charge it when I might actually need it. I think it could be tweaked to be useful, but I'm not sure how. Or I just haven't found the right way yet.

With the Pure Nail, it is the strongest move in the game if you can connect every hit with it, if you can believe that. Use it any time a boss is in a vulnerable state, for example, when you knock down a boss like False Knight or Failed Champion. It can also protect you from multiple directions at once and also slightly above you, by knocking enemies away if you are surrounded. You can hit bosses like The Collector with it while still moving away to avoid being hit yourself. There are lots of ways of using the move to great effect, but I think that covers some of the basic uses for it. Hopefully that helps.

The move is also particularly useful against both of the final bosses as there are plenty of opportunities to connect the entire move on them.

Originally posted by jabberwok:

I've never used any of them in the late game boss fights. There just isn't time to charge them. They can be handy in the coliseum, though, and anywhere you have time for them. The dash slash is also good against the big guards in the city, as you can close and hit them before they start blocking.

If you want to use Nail Arts on bosses, bring Nailmaster's Glory. It only takes just one slot and most charm setups will have one slot left over anyways due to the slot costs of most of the other useful charms. It is one of the most useful charms in the game especially considering it only takes one slot.

It speeds Nail Arts up to the point where you should never have a problem charging repeatedly even against the fastest enemies - you can even charge in the invincibility time after getting hit. It's actually a bit overpowered in all honesty, regular nail slashes become somewhat irrelevant while using Nailmaster's Glory unless you are also using Fragile Strength to increase your nail damage.

[jabberwok]

Originally posted by Reimilia Scarlet:

Old topic I know, but since it's up here now anyways, I may as well reply.

Originally posted by jabberwok:

The spin move, I never use. It's too situational, so there is never time to charge it when I might actually need it. I think it could be tweaked to be useful, but I'm not sure how. Or I just haven't found the right way yet.

With the Pure Nail, it is the strongest move in the game if you can connect every hit with it, if you can believe that. Use it any time a boss is in a vulnerable state, for example, when you knock down a boss like False Knight or Failed Champion. It can also protect you from multiple directions at once and also slightly above you, by knocking enemies away if you are surrounded. You can hit bosses like The Collector with it while still moving away to avoid being hit yourself. There are lots of ways of using the move to great effect, but I think that covers some of the basic uses for it. Hopefully that helps.

The move is also particularly useful against both of the final bosses as there are plenty of opportunities to connect the entire move on them.

Originally posted by jabberwok:

I've never used any of them in the late game boss fights. There just isn't time to charge them. They can be handy in the coliseum, though, and anywhere you have time for them. The dash slash is also good against the big guards in the city, as you can close and hit them before they start blocking.

If you want to use Nail Arts on bosses, bring Nailmaster's Glory. It only takes just one slot and most charm setups will have one slot left over anyways due to the slot costs of most of the other useful charms. It is one of the most useful charms in the game especially considering it only takes one slot.

It speeds Nail Arts up to the point where you should never have a problem charging repeatedly even against the fastest enemies - you can even charge in the invincibility time after getting hit. It's actually a bit overpowered in all honesty, regular nail slashes become somewhat irrelevant while using Nailmaster's Glory unless you are also using Fragile Strength to increase your nail damage.

Yeah, I forgot that I found the topic through a search when I posted. That helps, though. I used Nailmaster's Glory for a while, then stopped, now I've picked it back up for the coliseum. Will give it a shot against some bosses, too. How do you move while using cyclone? Even while jumping, it feels like my momentum just disappears.

[Rei Scarlette]

Originally posted by jabberwok:

Yeah, I forgot that I found the topic through a search when I posted. That helps, though. I used Nailmaster's Glory for a while, then stopped, now I've picked it back up for the coliseum. Will give it a shot against some bosses, too. How do you move while using cyclone? Even while jumping, it feels like my momentum just disappears.

Sorry, you do definitely slow down a ton while using the move, I guess I should have been more specific on what I meant. When I mentioned "bosses like The Collector" I meant those ones that move around by jumping at your position. You can't move very quickly in the middle of the move, but you can still move yourself over to the side a bit - this allows you to dodge bosses that are jumping towards your position, if you notice you are in a bad spot, and hit them multiple times as they land and stick in place.

You can't move too quickly while doing it, so it's not so good of an idea for the more agile bosses out there. My apologies if I gave off the wrong idea with the previous post.

[Colonel Crossfire]

In certain parts of the game they are nice to have around, however, I don't think are necessarly worth the trouble.

[Nibbie]

For what its worth, the wiki says both the great and dash slashes do 250% the damage of a regular hit, which the spin does 300-700%, depending on how long you go (and assuming all hits land), although fragile strength does not increase the damage of the arts.

[natsu_T]

I actually find the nail arts indispensable now, but on my first couple playthroughs I didn't see much use in them. I don't even use nailmaster's glory all the time; the default charge time is acceptable once you get used to it. Also, I spent an entire playthrough getting used to an alternate control scheme that let's me nail art much easier while platforming (RT for attacks).

Here's a few nice uses for them:

- The charge slash actually has a decent hitbox above your character. It's great for one-shotting fliers in the colosseum.

- The dash slash pretty much hits at the very edge of your screen in an instant. Keep it in mind if an enemy is around that distance for a quick and powerful hit. It tends to go through shields.

- The cyclone is the fastest way to kill armor/shield enemies if you don't mind taking damage. The big red husks in CoT and Stalking Devouts tend to block a hit and then swing in retaliation. If you spam the cyclone, you can actually hit them like 5+ times while taking their 2-hit damage. As long as your nail damage is good you can kill them while only taking 2-3 hits like this. WIth the big reds, you can actually bait their anti-air by jumping and falling into a cyclone, making it even better. Stalking Devouts are best dealt with by using slash and then cyclone when you are sensing they are near death.

A lot of bosses in this game don't even let you hit them more than once or twice per opening. I fail to see how so many people think the Nail Arts aren't viable when they are the most damaging nail attack for these situations.