So apart from the infamous Iai 1-shot build, what's the best

[: D]

Moves for each weapon class?

I've checked the equipment and stat builds for the quickdraw, and it's just so unrealistic to try that until real, REAAAAL late-game.

I will say though, I enjoy the Odachi, Sword, Tonfa and Dual Sword weapons. So my question is:

What is the Iai-Quickdraw equivalent for these 3 weapons?

[Leon]

Flowing shadow can do miracles

[Just Aaron]

Lumber chop?

[la_nague]

demon dance

[montengo]

champion of tosa full set

[Fenrir]

for dual blades theres a mid/low stance technique i dont remember the name but u go heavy attack to finish teh combo performing a kick
next upgrade for that move is a slice after the kick last upgrade makes the slice a double slice if u time it right
this ♥♥♥♥ doesnt one shot anyone but makes it impossible to defend against for the ai since the double slice smh goes through teh block 90% of the time
the previous kick plus the slice still take 30- 40 % stamina off the enemy making it a revenant killer for me and an insanely effective move imo dealing dmg to health and ki completely safe
that said it doesnt work on teh big yokai ^since they will just hit u through the attack
so
normally after the 1st hit enemies will block if they arent staggered so u imediately trigger the combo after the 1st hit going like this: light attk > kick >double slice > ki pulse >repeat untill enemy is dead or out fo stamina ( or u too low on stamina ofc)
this thing does wonders against the ice girls that slow u (yuki ona i think is the name) since they get staggered by light mid/low stance attk u can perform the entire light atk chain and finish witzh the combo resulting in massive dmg im lvl 57 rn and that 1 combo takes their entire ki leaving them withn a 3rd of their hp def not a pro strat or anything but its insanely fun to use

[FlintX]

All draw techiniques in the game that you can charge are very powerful. But some weapons doesn't have them, and the ones that have are not as powerful as the single katana. Maybe Odachi can reach the same power level tho, but I dunno. You are not obligated to go for a cheap one hit kill draw build anyways. But even if you do not want that kind of build, Iai is a good skill to have for breaking most enemies defenses and drain their ki faster when you need it.

[Deostades]

Sword: Iai, obviously. Flowing Shadows is an exceptional positioning move, and does decent damage.

Dual Sword: Sword of the Cross, often abbreviated to SotC, is an Iai equivalent, but does two hits of damage. Easy to chain, and Dual Swords have great blocking potential. Not my favorite weapon, unfortunately.

Odachi: The Iai equivalent is Imperative Strike, but it's honestly kinda bad. Long windup, TERRIBLE recharge, and while it's strong, it's not Odachi's strength. Moonlit Snow is great, especially when you are in LW. Dual Moons isn't bad, and is a decent finisher for one of Odachi's real strengths, stance-change-combo-chains. Odachi takes a bit of familiarity and skill to get the most out of, but it's a very fun weapon once you do.

Tonfa: Devastation with a Gunstick Tonfa, hands down. It'll never be as strong as Iai, but it does great damage, has in-built Fire damage, and Tonfa in general are amazing at combo strings and just a great gas to go bombing around with.

Some other weapons:

Axe: Lumber Chop, when you can get it to land, can rival Iai.

Spear: Twisting Spear. With my build, I routinely outdamage my Iai with this move, and it's long range nearly always guarantees that you get it off successfully. My most used move by a hilarious margin.

Tonfa: Reaper. Probably the BEST DPS move in the game, especially in LW. Serpent Strike is pretty good as well, and is the standard spacing closer.

[montengo]

for tonfa closest to iai would be focused strike / tiger bite, but the question in OP makes no sense - I don't see builds around champion of tosa singular mastery.

here's tonfa play - I see no devastation:
https://youtu.be/SLxNm1rJ2no

see no twisting spear:
https://youtu.be/Pdnj6bp-2io

wonder why "best" skills ain't used ;]

[Deostades]

OP asked for burst damage skills like Iai. Those are some of the best burst damage skills for Tonfa and Spear.

As far as Twisting Spear goes, it's a OHKO for virtually every regular enemy even on floor 999 of the Abyss, and starts from outside detection range if you've got a Suppa scroll up. I don't use it in many boss fights, but even there it has it's uses. It can one or two-shot Hino-enma, does respectable damage to Shigepede, and if you catch most of the human bosses off guard can knock them down/set them up for another combo. In that sense, it's an amazing support move in coop, which is how I finished my first 999 run.

Now, for skill that get used more often in boss fights for Spear in my setup, those would be Chidori, Tornado, Water Wheel, Twirl, and occasionally Windmill. Spear's best move are finishers, so the base moveset sees decent use as well.

My favorite combo against Sarutobi, for instance goes something like Twirl - Light Attack - Tornado - Mid Stance Pokes - High attack - Chidori.

The last blow of tornado will usually break his guard for the higher-damage pokes, and I'll swap to Water Wheel instead of Chidori as often as not... but in solo play that's usually enough to take down half his health and set him up for a finisher.

(TL;DR: Topic was on Burst Damage, not on overall movesets)

[montengo]

Don't know Deo, I read the question in OP as what’s best charged skill for each weapon and the reason is ... the subject says “what’s the best moves for each weapon class” and OP then says they think “equipment and stat builds for the quickdraw” are unrealistic until late game, what’s the iai-quickdraw equivalent.

The thing is iai and also SotC are well suited for combat flow with any equipment level – you don’t need to 1-shot kill opponent with these skills, they could be used many times during the fight for out of ki humans and they are very safe to use and could be chained, especially with skipping sheath animation technique.

Now with tonfa for out of ki humans I’d use tiger bite –> ki pulse –> tiger bite –> ki pulse –> final blow and with some human masters / bosses I’d skip ki pulse – few frames delay in my chain could be enough for them to recover. Devastation in my opinion has kinda a pause animation at the end and leaves you vulnerable, making it a finisher or situational skill for when it’s safe, at least for me.

My spear is bad; I want to learn and hope to eventually get better …the thing is, I don’t know if you can cancel twisting spear (release not fully charged twist doesn’t count) to make it a part of combat flow / combo. I saw guys cancel tornado many times so that’s doable but cancel twisting spear? – don’t know, maybe twist away would work – need to test this, might require target lock on to be off. Some days I'm chain running death to bandits with low damage spear.