Finishing Move

[Jivebot]

I was fighting a random enemy and my tentacle attack did this awesome finishing move on it. I have no idea how I did this and have been unable to repeat it. Is it random or is there a trick to it I am missing?

If it matters, that finishing move also triggered a bunch of skills I had equipped to be mastered.

[Just Life]

Did you hit the enemy in the back? If so, that might have been a back attack.

[Tao314zdin]

There are 5 attacks that involve you veil:

combat drain - used only after some of the weapon attacks
charged drain - can be used from neutral but needs to be charged

^this two do not trigger the special animation as far as I remember (after you play for a while you turn it off for good...;)

launch attack - will trigger veil attack if in focused state

^I do not remember if that one triggers animation, most likely not.

backstab - use light attack when behind the enemy. It works best when enemy is in charging-/recovery-state and is standing still, otherwise not very reliable.
parry - triggered by parring enemy attack

^those two both have special animation (but seriously turn that off asap) and is likely what you saw. So to repeat - either use simple light attack from behind enemy or parry their attack.

[Jivebot]

Now that you mention it, yeah I was behind him. I had just dodge-rolled past the enemy and turned to continue attacking. lol. Didn't think I could "Sneak attack" in mid combat.

I didn't realize it was a back attack because every attempt to do a back attack up to that point had failed. Either they detected me and turned around, or I hit the attack button and all that happened was a normal light attack.

So I assume it wasn't the fact that it was a back attack that made all the skills I had equipped trigger masteries? What made that happen?

Also, does back attack work on larger enemies?

[Just Life]

Originally posted by Jivebot:

Now that you mention it, yeah I was behind him. I had just dodge-rolled past the enemy and turned to continue attacking. lol. Didn't think I could "Sneak attack" in mid combat.

I didn't realize it was a back attack because every attempt to do a back attack up to that point had failed. Either they detected me and turned around, or I hit the attack button and all that happened was a normal light attack.

So I assume it wasn't the fact that it was a back attack that made all the skills I had equipped trigger masteries? What made that happen?

Also, does back attack work on larger enemies?

For most big enemy, yes. Back attack works without having to sneak up on something. Line up your character left hand to back of the enemy when you lock on to it to do a back attack. 90% of the time that works.

[Tao314zdin]

Originally posted by Jivebot:

So I assume it wasn't the fact that it was a back attack that made all the skills I had equipped trigger masteries? What made that happen?

Also, does back attack work on larger enemies?

1) It is just a coincidence. I guess backstab gives quite some experience to the skill progress bar especially at low levels, to it is not very surprising that it can fill several meters at once. Also skills of the same category progress with the same speed, so when you equip them at the same time they will fill up at the same time too.

2) Backstab works on every non-stationary enemy except for bosses. There is one kinda-boss that it works on though, but this is the only exception. On bosses you can use parry but it will not trigger the damage part will just stagger them for a short while and will trigger ichor increase (both limit and the current amount)

[Jivebot]

And parrying is jsut hitting the block button right at the moment of contact right?

[Tao314zdin]

Originally posted by Jivebot:

And parrying is jsut hitting the block button right at the moment of contact right?

Nope, there is a special button for that. Check the settings.