Tips for learning Charge Blade?

[Lilyvelle]

So me being stubborn I decided to learn this weapon on Tempered Black Diablos since I have a ton of investigations for it, alas playing chicken with it trying to learn the timing for the guard points. Yes I know, timing varies for every monster, animations and what not.

I also tried to see if what would be the best moments to use SAED or the wide one that does the little sparks. I deliberatly did not use Traps or Screamer Pods because I like to live dangerously, but in all seriousness I want to learn the timings instead of just having her permanently incapacitated and just wailing mindlesly until she dies.

So on that note, Charge Blade mains/enthusiasts what would be some general tips for learning this cool weapon. One last question as well, I've seen a lot of players in random SoS not charge the sword and just charge the shield, is it really not worth the extra damage and the free Mind's Eye or am I missing something obvious here.

Thanks!

[Ottomic]

Easiest GP is Y from a guard, especially from a monster you can see coming. But, myself I prefer constantly sliding into its flank. I much more prefer a solid guard and positioning than trying to get GPs to connect. It's nice to have them up, but most of them have animations long enough for them not to be terribly reliable for me.

[Carambar]

I'd say people that you see online not charging the blade are simply unaware that they can. = |

[Voodoo]

For sword charging, depends on the monster and team.
assuming you hit with charge itself which isnt guaranteed you still need to do plenty of sword attacks for it to be worth it as itll take roughly as much time as charging another saed.
Basically use it when you have monster with a phase where you feel you wont be able to land saed regularly though then again youll have problem hitting condensed sword charge.

[Lilyvelle]

Alright, okay so when I was playing chicken with Black Diablos I tried a few things. When shes enraged and is spamming charges I would roll the charge and immediatly start SAED, however SAED would never go off in time, she'd be able to turn around and charge me just before the attack lands, maybe my timings were off every time but I could not for the life of me land an SAED after dodging her charge. At least when she was enraged.

The other thing if I'm under her belly biting her ankles is pretty easy to get your shield charged but my gosh I can't get the sword charge off, she either runs me over with her toe or hip checks, I was only able to do so after she charges away. Since charging the sword is a pretty long chain of animations, from what I gathered it might just be better to do when you get a KO or stagger.

Of course this is different for every monster, but I'm just trying to grasp the the timings on one monster first for the sake of getting that muscle memory. All in all with how mobile and active Black Diablos is I found myself using the wide elemental discharge more often than not, and as Ottomic said, the slide attack to reposition seems to be more efficient than blocking as it just eats through your sharpness.

[Voodoo]

Black diablos is naturally faster than normal diablos and even more so when shes enraged.
If shes enraged bait head or tail swipe dodge and then unleash.

[artiksilver]

Carambar님이 먼저 게시:

I'd say people that you see online not charging the blade are simply unaware that they can. = |

This^

I didn't know I could do that till I got to the Coral Highlands. It's a damn gamechanger.

[Lilyvelle]

Voodoo님이 먼저 게시:

Black diablos is naturally faster than normal diablos and even more so when shes enraged.
If shes enraged bait head or tail swipe dodge and then unleash.

I see, so it's not worth trying to SAED after a charge, but her sweep attacks give you an opening.

[Ashe]

Remember you can charge off of corpses; docile and small creatures are good for this.

Getting a full charge, depositing that and then getting red again will give you enough charge to max out your shields charge and leave you with another full charge at the start of the fight so you can go straight into the big hits without needing to dance around the enemy.

Don't worry too much about getting the sword charge, and if you really wanna go for it, try to land the slam attack with it for a decent smack. Remember that while the sword is charged you get natural minds eye as well so you won't bounce.

Guard points are cool but I've yet to have a moment where a guard point would have been the decider between a fail or a victory. I find it especially silly considering the most accessible guard point's button inputs involve guarding in the first place.

Also, for skills, Artillery and Capacity. Artillery turns your SAED even more monstrous and Capacity lets you store an extra phial; for an extra pop in SAED and a longer shield charge.

[Voodoo]

Lily님이 먼저 게시:

Voodoo님이 먼저 게시:

Black diablos is naturally faster than normal diablos and even more so when shes enraged.
If shes enraged bait head or tail swipe dodge and then unleash.

I see, so it's not worth trying to SAED after a charge, but her sweep attacks give you an opening.

Well what to say black diablos is a ♥♥♥♥♥ and the strongest monster in game to date.

[Stormsong]

I find the sword charge to be well worth using, building up KO damage while just skirmishing is quite lovely; the strike itself also does nice damage.

And yes, if it's a choice between a standing normal block and an evade, I'll take the evade every time.

[Farrel]

Not sure how much help these will be, but they spring to mind.

- Use the shield... Sure, it may waste a little sharpness, but it can save your life and set you up for some easy hits. Move on to guard points when you have a good feel for how fast your movements are.

- Practice the moves to conserve your phials when going for an SAED. If you're gonna wiff it, much better to pack those phials into your shield, or wiff with only one.

- Learn to manage your phials. Ideally, you'll have your shield charged all the time you're in a fight, and a full rack of phials and red charge when the monster moves area.

- If you're bouncing a lot, charge your shield and then use it to charge your sword. You do not need phials in the sword to do this, but your shield needs to be charged. Axe moves that spend charges never bounce, similarly, charged sword moves never bounce either.

Otherwise? It's just like any other weapon, observe your enemy, learn to spot moments when you'll land that big attack.

[Timbermaw]

The main point of using guard points is to counter attack with a SAED or charged axe right after. After you use a guard point (preferably with a charged shield for a bonus +2 guard) you spam A+B (edit: Y + B lul) and you will SAED while the monster is recovering after the attack.

[Lilyvelle]

Thanks everyone, tons of useful information. I do like the micro-management this weapon has, it definetly feels a lot more active than some of the other weapons if that makes sense.

[Xilo The Odd]

Carambar님이 먼저 게시:

I'd say people that you see online not charging the blade are simply unaware that they can. = |

this. i was unaware on console till about the end of low rank. and CB was the only weapon i used.

so here is my general guidelines to being super boss at CB!

whenever possible, charge things up! this one should be obvious to you but keeping phials filled with some backup charge for the next rack of phials is important, this way if something trips you can dish out massive damage with a SAED, followed by a phial charge and sword slam, then get the next phial charge ready and switch back to axe mode.

capacity boost is your friend, do not shy from it that extra phial can be anywhere from 50-100 more damage with the right supporting skills and CB power. Affinity isnt your god as a CB user. not to say its not useful for boosting the SAED axe hits crit chance, but your often better off with straight raw attack boost + enough affinity to counter any neg affinity.

Guard pointing isnt necissarily essential, but it is useful once you get the hang of it. if you dont think you can pull off a full roundslash into the guard point it provides, just block. if its something that moves around a lot, sometimes hanging near a wall to stop their dashing moves helps.

impact and elemental phials are both viable, it depends on what your fighting and how. impact is a good all rounder and is affected by the artillery skill, it stacks stun and some exhaust as well as does damage based on the weapon raw damage (making diablos CB one of the top tier in that regard). meanwhile, an elemental CB is just as damaging when targeting the right parts of monsters, this is where skills like elemental crit and weakness exploit are good for a CB. elemental phials are not boost by arty skill, instead, the proper element skill will boost them, all the way to 5 points in the skill if you got the space, otherwise 3 is often optimal. the trick with element phial CBs is not all parts of a monster are weak to the elements on your CB, and some even change their element weaknesses based on their state so they can be tricky to use, but used right you can deal a lot of damage, and charging your blade with element phials also increases your normal damages hit by far more when striking proper body parts.

other skills to look into if you get the deco for it, Guard up and guard. guard isnt necessary but it can be nice to stack it on top of your red shields natural guard boosting properties. guard up can save you a lot of pain and makes some of your random guard points more relevant since you can block everything, sadly guard up is best gained from a deco, the charm can work but that slot can also be better skills like handicraft or other useful skills.

oh and, welcome to the cool hunters club.

[Sadiii]

For every weapon I've picked up, I've always watched this gentleman's YT guides. Very handy, he goes over basics, the best combos, what to do in different scenarios; overall tremendous help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvlVtfSzO2Y