Am I missing something about Mortal Draw?

[Kak]

Currently on my first NG+ run and I can't say I understand the hype around Mortal Draw. Everywhere I look online, people say it's a great combat art and you should fit it in where you can because it's uber powerful or whatever, but every time I use it... it doesn't seem to do much damage? Not enough to make me go "wow, I need to use this more" anyway.

There are plenty of other combat arts like Ichimonji, Floating Passage and even more gimmicky ones like Ashina Cross that seem more useful with lower Spirit Emblem costs (or no cost at all in the case of the first two I mentioned).

So is there something I'm missing about Mortal Draw or is it a little overhyped?

[snaps]

Just got it and thought the same tbh. Maybe we missing something but then again, quite a few of the combat arts are a little lacklustre.

[Kak]

Originally posted by Tasteful Thiccness:

Just got it and thought the same tbh. Maybe we missing something but then again, quite a few of the combat arts are a little lacklustre.

Yeah, I kinda wish combat arts were a little more general purpose. Most of them are pretty niche and only work to exploit one or two openings in one or two boss fights.

But Mortal Draw especially I just don't get. I thought it'd do loads of vitality damage to opponents with one of those undying centipedes in them but even that doesn't seem to be a great use for it. I guess it looks cool?

[FTZ35]

Mortal Draw (especially the empowered version) does a ton of posture damage. It is meant to be used with Yashariku's sugar as that combo can end fights very quickly (which is necessary as otherwise you would run out of emblems). However it is only useful if you know the fight precisely as it is very risky to play like that. Then again this is why you see the youtubers and steeamers use that thing often. To show off their skills.
Ashina Cross is ofc a much safer and more cost effective alternative for fast punishes and interrupts. It is probably the best safe combat art on bosses like Owl (all versions) as he has a lot of punishable moves and Isshin (Shura version) because you can interrupt most of his fire moves with it and punish the rest.

[Xaphnir]

You sure enemies aren't blocking it? It damages them through block, but block still reduces the damage.

You might have also just set your expectations too high. It does a lot of damage, but it's hardly an "i win" button if you land it.

Here's a comparison of an unblocked normal attack and an unblocked Mortal Draw:

Normal attack: https://i.imgur.com/2t9JVUQ.jpg
Mortal Draw: https://i.imgur.com/RRl0DjF.jpg

[Artek [General]]

Empowered Mortal Draw is a great way to deal a lot of Vitality damage to enemies who regenerate posture too fast and require vitality damage first.
it does particularly well against enemies who don't block and just eat damage fully.
Or you can setup those hits by tricks, like using Raven's Feather to teleport behind the enemy and strike them in the back. Extra emblems are used, but taking away a great chunk of enemies' health might be worth it.

Personally i found it particularly useful in Great Shinobi and Guardian Ape fights.

Guardian Ape staggers from mortal draw hits, in fact if you land 1st hit you can easily hit
a fully charged second which causes him to stumble back and attempt a grab attack, which you can then punish with a mortal draw again and repeat the loop.
Mortal Draw effectively allows me to skip Guardian Ape's first fight.

As for Great Shinobi i found it great for punishing him for firecrackers move.
> Deflect elbow strike that begins the combo
> Dash backwards to get out of range of both firecrackers and the follow up slash
> Fully charge mortal draw
Great Shinobi is too busy recovering from what might be his best move and eats the strike fully without blocking, receiving a LOT of vitality damage, which shortens the fight greatly. Of course, i can't land a 2nd hit, but i don't really need to.

[Okami42]

Try going into reflection of Headless ape and using yasharikus and divine confetti. Then run up to him and do 3 mid air mortal draws. Should get the first deathblow. That always personally WOWed me in terms of damage. I think its generally very useful as it goes through blocks (as already said above). Everytime an enemy is at the end of an attack animation and has a long recovery, using a midair Mortal draw should do significant damage.

[lian]

Originally posted by FTZ35:

Mortal Draw (especially the empowered version) does a ton of posture damage. this is why you see the youtubers and steeamers use that thing often. To show off their skills.

Which means if you don't understand how powerful it is you have no skills lmao

[sb]

Originally posted by Kak:

Currently on my first NG+ run and I can't say I understand the hype around Mortal Draw.

Study how the amount of health affects the replenishment of stamina. Speedrunners use a red sword at the start of bosses to remove their health bar. Then the stamina is removed by parrying. On the "guardian ape" or "demon of hatred", for example.

Speedrunners won't use bad things, so study it.

[Just Aaron]

It`s an overrated attack. If you are not a speedrunner you won`t see much benefit to Mortal Draw. In fact I`d recommend using something else that is easier and safer to use. Ashina Cross or whatever else you prefer.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Just Aaron:

It`s an overrated attack. If you are not a speedrunner you won`t see much benefit to Mortal Draw. In fact I`d recommend using something else that is easier and safer to use. Ashina Cross or whatever else you prefer.

Well, i'm not a speed runner but i definetely found it to be useful on couple of occasions. Its one of the best choices for punishing Great Shinobi's firecracker spam, the only other art that comes close is Dragon Flash, which is basically the same thing but cheaper.

[Just Aaron]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by Just Aaron:

It`s an overrated attack. If you are not a speedrunner you won`t see much benefit to Mortal Draw. In fact I`d recommend using something else that is easier and safer to use. Ashina Cross or whatever else you prefer.

Well, i'm not a speed runner but i definetely found it to be useful on couple of occasions. Its one of the best choices for punishing Great Shinobi's firecracker spam, the only other art that comes close is Dragon Flash, which is basically the same thing but cheaper.

I find deflecting and normal attacks are all you really need. Prosthetic attacks also work well.
Mortal Draw and many other weapon skills might make the fights a little shorter but I don`t believe they make the game any easier and are not worth using unless you are making youtube videos or trying to convince others that you`re a pro gamer.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Just Aaron:

Originally posted by Artek General:

Well, i'm not a speed runner but i definetely found it to be useful on couple of occasions. Its one of the best choices for punishing Great Shinobi's firecracker spam, the only other art that comes close is Dragon Flash, which is basically the same thing but cheaper.

I find deflecting and normal attacks are all you really need. Prosthetic attacks also work well.
Mortal Draw and many other weapon skills might make the fights a little shorter but I don`t believe they make the game any easier and are not worth using unless you are making youtube videos or trying to convince others that you`re a pro gamer.

Hm, i don't know... Empowered Mortal Draw objectively deals the highest amount of vitality damage in the game, that's gotta be worth something. Yeah, its not a universal skip-it-all trick, but few cases where it works are great time savers.

I don't have the data, but i definetely feel that all my Great Shinobi fights take about 50% longer with any other prosthetic / art combination than the one where i kept mortal drawing him for using firecrackers.

[Just Aaron]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by Just Aaron:

I find deflecting and normal attacks are all you really need. Prosthetic attacks also work well.
Mortal Draw and many other weapon skills might make the fights a little shorter but I don`t believe they make the game any easier and are not worth using unless you are making youtube videos or trying to convince others that you`re a pro gamer.

Hm, i don't know... Empowered Mortal Draw objectively deals the highest amount of vitality damage in the game, that's gotta be worth something. Yeah, its not a universal skip-it-all trick, but few cases where it works are great time savers.

I don't have the data, but i definetely feel that all my Great Shinobi fights take about 50% longer with any other prosthetic / art combination than the one where i kept mortal drawing him for using firecrackers.

Fair enough.

[Kaelus Von Sestiaf]

Keep in mind that mortal draw and empowered mortal draw still hit like a truck when out of spirit emblems. Most combat arts that require spirit emblems just do nothing or next to nothing when out of them, but both versions of mortal draw still stagger like crazy and deal a solid amount of vitality and posture damage. It's a solid punish precisely because you can keep using it over and over.

[peterstevens]

After my initial run I used whirlwind and cross the most.