Cobra Strike terrible or am I doing it wrong?

[KK_Me]

So I went for Cobra Strike since I thought that it's too good with a dodge/counter build. Now that I've unlocked and used the ability I have to say I'm really underwhelmed!
It uses up all your energy in the round that you use it on, doesn't even do 1dmg/s at 4/13/5 and the debuff, contrary to the description, doesn't even stay until the end of the fight!

For what you need to sacrifice to get Cobra Strike I really expected this ability to deliver. Now I kinda feel like I've wasted so much time building for that ability, that I'll probably just fool around making a Sooooo Easy character to lay waste to my enemies. Maybe that'll wash away the bad taste of Cobra Strike.

Or am I doing it wrong?

[Rigolax]

Corba strike works best when you have little strength and a lot of stamina to use it lower your strength to 2 and it won't cost as much energy to use I'd say it's one of the strongest moves in the game.

[cariocavip]

AGI tiger build you got to have 1 or 2 str, max. Yeah, you are doing It wrong. I once had like 24 agi, 1 str, so you don't waste energy dodging. Spiderman agi with super damage reflect abilities.

[madcapbeatitude]

Any Tiger attack with a strength multiplier higher than 1.5 probably isn't meant for an ultra-high agility build. The few punch attacks in the Tiger Tree will do LESS damage than the kicks if your strength isn't at least 3.

Cobra Strike has some crazy formulas. For one, its accurcy constant is VERY low, so it is VERY agility-dependent. However, the agility multiplier is pretty low, so even with a crazy accuracy rating (2 accuracy is a pretty decent benchmrak for being fast AF), you can double it outright and get like 70+ accuracy using the ordinarily VERY inaccurate attack. Extreme accuracy is just as much about low strength/stamina as it is high agility, so for most of a Tiger game you'll juggle 2-3 strength becuase you need the HP and the help landing decent attacks. In late game, your opponent's increasing power makes you need to become increasingly faster not to die, but you gain karate attacks whose damage is always pretty average.

The most powerful attacks available to a maxed-out Tiger are Flip Kick, which is your ultimate cheap damage attack for getting more out of your energy pool. Accurate, respectable base damage of 5+ your energy, and it costs 2 energy at minimum strength so you can fling it around all day. Roundhouse Kick costs an extra point of energy and gets a strength multiplier of 1.5, so it will usually squeeze off one more point of damage then a Flip Kick until your strength gets to around 4. The problem with four strength is it will increase the energy costs of your dodges by a few points each. In late-game, enemies have good stamina and produce lots of energy and attacks. If you tire yourself out dodging, you'll get knocked down/out or at least struggle to do any damage yourself.

Blocking is about making their attacks do negligible HP damage and expend opponent energy while conserving one's own energy. Dodging is about expending lots of energy totally avoiding enemy damage as often as possible, so the Tiger build benefits from high accuracy (high agility, low strength) and low energy costs (low strength) and having enough energy production (stamina) to get by. Balancing stamina with agility is probbly the trickist part of most of the game for tigers, but I find it fun.

Ultimtely, Cobraa Strike costs only 5 energy at min strength which actually feels pretty expensive when you're in speedster mode. At 1 strength and high enough agility (say, double your stamina) to get an accuracy multiplier of 2, you should land Cobra Strike 70% of the time. So if you make it your sole attack, it will do mediocre damge and leech you of a couple dozen energy throughout the round, also attaching damage over time to your opponent for one full round BEYOND the last time you landed it. Ideally, you'll land it often nd close to the closing bell.

Next round, you remove cobra strike from your lineup nd replaace it with a kick better-suited to low-strength playstyles. Flip Kick is the obvious candidate for energy efficiency, but if your opponent is a blocker then the extra point for Roundhouse Kick will more than pay for itself.

In late tiger game I recommend combining both dodge moves with Unstoppable pretty much at all times in order to mitigate the insane volume of higher-damage attacks you have to withstand somehow. My preference is to go in with 1 strength and as much stamina as won't take me below 2.0 accuracy, which by late game should be the full 8-9 allowed by Slave to the Wind. With that, I use cobra strike to poison the opponent while throwing in Mimic to deal and avoid some damage while sving energy.

Second round, I replace Mimic/Cobra Strike with Flip Kick/Penetrating Strike, putting Flip Kick's 6 damage through only 60% of the opponent's armor. If I'm feeling good about my energy pool or the opponent is a blocker, Roundhouse Kick scores about a 7 and deals damage more like aa 10 point attack with Penetrting Strike - still at an energy cost of only three, and all while your opponent spends round two still bleeding from Cobra Strike.