Judgement Day (A guide to Blade Symphony's Knight Class)

I'm ak3120, if you've seen me in game, you've seen me run around as Pure, Phalanx, Judgement, and sometimes even Ryoku (Quite rarely though, I dislike his m1 winning skills). Beyond that though, I've always had a nack for burly, hard hitting classes. Lucky for you, dear reader, is that Judgement IS one of those bully-type characters. With this guide, I will (hopefully) turn you into a wreckingball security guard samurai knight of death.

Playstyle / Pro's and Con's

In this section I will talk about Judgement's overall playability in terms of playstyle and what you should expect.

Pros and Cons:

+: Hard hitting, fast for their class balanced and heavies.
+: Good at punishing mistakes on the opponent's part.
+: All attack types do good damage for their stance.
+: You are a Bushido Chainmail Mall Cop.

-: Being a Bushido Chainmail Mall Cop, it is hard to recover from some blows.
-: Cannot follow up for prolonged amounts, Must re-engage to continue damaging without the other guy interrupting.

-: Fast attacks Don't have the range of most other classes.

With this in mind, we now know that Judgement is the kind of guy that whaps you once or twice and then leaves you out to dry only to come in with a second beating a little bit later.

Attack Types, and Usage

The most essential part to any class in Blade Symphony is knowing what in jeebus' name their each attack does. This includes speed, any delays, and relative amount of damage it will chunk out of you innocent victim.

As such, we will start out by getting to know how Judgement murders his foes.




1. Fast Attacks
Fast attacks on Judgement are a little iffy. Their range is not the best, and they are nowhere near as spammable as per say, a Ryoku's attacks are (With so many damn boxes in his light stance, blergh). They do have their bonuses. Out of all the classes fast attacks, they do the most damage. You can use this to open up with a nasty charge in and follow it up with a more solid amount of damage, such as your balanced strikes. Also, you can use your fast left as an excellent move for agressive play. This move whenever its fully charged has high amount of range and is the fastest move you have in your moveset. You can use this to make opponents either back off from you, or be hyper agressive and chase them down.

As of the new patch, This fast attack string three has been added:

This attack was a very much needed add to judgement's kit set. Now, you can close distances alarmingly with this attack. Use it to make your opponent think you are out of his range, only to come madly charging in, sword stabbing and all. This is a good follow up attack to almost any string and I would reccomend you use it instead of balanced string three as it will lock you up if you miss, whereas this one covers the same if not more distance, is a bit quicker, and scared the living crud out of your opponents.

2. Balanced Attacks
Balanced Attacks on Judgement are going to be your bread and butter making, swiss cheese cutting, ryoku spam halting, almost everything situation attack. It has a moderate to fast forward strike, as well as a huge area covering side swipe. With the right timing, this stops most opponent dead within their tracks. An added bonus to this, is the balanced attack's full charge.

2a. Fully Charged Balanced Attacks

The added secret ingredient to A Horizontal or Forward Charged Balanced Attack is an extra swipe that most people do not usually see coming. With this you can bait someone into trying to go all-in on you after you miss your first swing, only to be welcomed with a nice tip to the throat on the backswing. This can be a bit risky sometimes, so try not to overdo it as opponents will catch on to this and react accordingly.


NOTE: Judgement's forward going SECOND balanced attack(Shown Above), fully charged, will NOT produce a second "backswing".

Air Attacks:
Your air attack is probably average with everyone elses. There is but one advantage you have with it, however. Whenever you prepare a charged attack, if you jump RIGHT THE MOMENT BEFORE the charge goes off, you will gain a sudden, extra boost of speed mid-air, allowing you to travel further and hit targets that would normally be Unengageable with any other attack. This is hard to land, though, as it requires a constant distance between you and the opponent for the attack to actually hit. Nonetheless, it is an excellent gap closer. Also your air sides can provide a fast slash attack that can be use mainly against most heavy spammers. However this move is quite risky and can result in you getting hit.




Heavy Attacks:


Heavy Attacks are what Judgement is known for. When players think of something they hate, this is No. 1 on their ♥♥♥♥ list. Why? A good judgement will time his heavy attacks to the point where the opponent "oopsie daisies" into them multiple times, Chunking for HUGE amounts of damage each stroke of the blade. A good reason to this is the heavy left or right side attack. This approach allows you to stay mobile while still using a heavy strike. Staying mobile means you can mask your heavy attack by spinning around at times, or with a well placed jump. These are a bit tricky to time, but we will get into that with the countering section. NOTE: After the recent patch, side heavies have been nerfed (See two updated images above). You now can only hit mostly what is in front of you. Do not expect to hit anything behind you now, sadly.

Noteworthy Heavy Attacks:

a. Quick and Painful Crotch Removal:
This Strike, out of all the heavies, is the fastest. This can combo really well from two balanced attacks, or even 2 fast stabs at times. It's speed is comparable to a balanced strike's, and it still packs the punch a normal heavy attack should do. Another heavy attack is your first heavy attack charged up to Tier 2. This heavy attack, like every other heavy is very slow, but it provides decent range and can deal high amounts of damage. I would recommend using this move at your own precaution.

b. The Flying Horizontal Guillotine:

This is the heavy sidestep jump I was talking about previously. What makes it so nasty is that most players do not see the animation of the heavy go off while you are in the air, and by the time you come back down, the attack is already done winding-up, and is headed right for them, leaving them about 1/5th of their hp-bar less. This attack has a variety of roles. You can sometimes open up with it as a gap-closer if you time it properly. You can also jump behind a foe and smack 'em in their ass. Keep in mind, you do not want to spam this either, alternate between it and 2-3 balanced or maybe 1'ish forward or side strikes. ATTENTION: After the current patch, this attack is EXTREMELY ineffective offensively due to the jump distance nerf. Use it defensively now.

♥♥♥♥♥ Slapper 10,000 A.K.A The Mother of All Heavy Attacks:
100% Charged Horizontally Pure Goodness.This is the one gamechanging/breaking attack. If you land this, and don't screw up for the rest of the fight, you win. This monster Eats at the opponent's hp bar faster than he can say OH ♥♥♥♥!
Knowing this, though there is also drawbacks to using this attack. It is EXTREMELY slow to recover after the animation has finished. It can also be easily dodged with a jump followed by a smack in your mouth for even trying such a move on a sane individual. On top of that, it is also slow to wind up. Consider this your high risk/high reward attack. You will usually want to use this when your opponent is recklessly pressing the attack or when you are at a health disadvantage. Usually they start to disregard all your attacks and try to bury you in slash spam to kill you off quick. Unlucky for them, this is the one move that ♥♥♥♥ blocks hard.

Preferable and Effective Sword Types.

Judgment primarily uses three swords: Katanas, Longswords, and Jians.

Longswords (Difficulty to Use : * ) are your best bet if you are new to the game. The block is efficient and easy to land. Plus the damage on the horizontal attacks is valuable as a good bit of your chunking potential comes from side gashes. I Have moved on to the jian as of late, but longsword nonetheless is still going to be a viable option.

Your second option is going to be the Jian (Difficulty to Use: *** ). The Jian opens up more timing windows than your other sword. It also comes with a more riskier right mouse block that allows you to stun an opponent and counter accordingly. This sword is oriented for the aggressive player (aka me, if you've ever seen me fight) as it lets you chain strings together quickly, and the intercept comes in handy if you're good at spotting or predicting incoming strikes. This is not reccomended for newer players because timing is crucial for efficiency, but it really does pay off.

Finally, the Katana (Difficulty to Use: *****) . I personally do not use this, but I have seen what it is capable of doing to some poor folk. Some of Judgement's specific attacks are fast for their type, and this allows you to parry with a stronger stance behind it, granting you the bonus double damage if your attack continues to land on your target, which most of the time will occur. The feint is also REALLY good for baiting a heavy attack and then coming out of it with a normal one when they think you will be animation locked. Also keep note this sword is oriented for the defensive player since feints heavily rely on you baiting your opponent into a parry break, and further forcing this playstyle with the really slow move speed with charge attacks.

As far as the other sword types go, they honestly do not fit well with judgement. Scimitar benefits off of you getting multiple strikes off, which usually never happens. You will NEVER give chase with your combos. Only short bursts with your balance forward and maybe a stab or slash with the fast. Your primary damage output however, is capitalizing on their mistakes and landing a good balanced or heavy strike on them.

Rapiers(Difficulty: ****): A friend convinced me to try foil with judgement's thrusts.... One QUICK ATTACK chunks you for 1/4 OF YOUR HP. NO JOKE! A full combo Is LITERALLY a Katana Horizontal heavy full charge. THIS IS INSANE! One drawback is that Judgement's thrusts are once again, very close range. However, a really good way to get in there and still do damage is the second charged forward fast attack. Not only will it hurt, it also gives you a nice dash to get nice and personal. Once you close the gap, and get those shanks in, your opponent will literally commit virtual suicide after writing his parents a death note asking why he didn't get to be judgement. ALSO your balance one and three attacks whenever they are fully charged they preform two stabs, the 2nd stab on each balance charge, deals massive amounts of damage (Especially your balance three which can chunk about 45% HP). If you find yourself stuck when using fast on foil, try to combo it up with balance charges or attacks. A good combo of this can be a fast 2 tier 2/3 then follow it up with a balance 3 which can give you range/damage. Another good way to open up with foil is your fast left tier 3, which leaves your opponent on their 'downed state', where if your close enough you can perform a fast 2 attack before they have time to intercept/attack.

Strategies versus Specific Foes

This section will hopefully explain how to play specifically against certain characters.

Fighting Versus Phalanx: This is probably going to be one of the most hardest matchups for you. Phalanx does really well at kiting your heavies, while returning quick non counterable blows back at you. Especially when they use a foil. Against this matchup, play defensively. Every time they miss you, either get around them and give em a smack, or if you're still quite not in range yet, bait with a fast attack so they keep pressing what they think is the advantage, only to get bludgeoned by your shiny katana. Also keep aware of his nasty wasty jump side attack. It closes ground and hits really fast. Be prepared to block often against him. Also be aware of his slow forward heavy. Do not follow up attacks unless you're SURE they will hit him, else he can just take a step back, wind this bad boy up, and clunk you on your shiny sexy helmet.

Engagements against Ryoku: Another annoying but more tolerable champion to fight against. The key here is not to get caught by his fast spam. If you do, you will just get slapped around, following him flying back and becoming out of reach again. To counter this, time your balanced forwards to hit just as his attack stops. Another way you can avoid this is by heavy side jumping away and behind him, then tearing him a new booty hole. Also steer clear of his deadly heavy attack. They may be meh by themselves, but they are EXTREMELY fast for a heavy attack, and paired with a good bit of slashes, can keep you down and out.

Pure and You: Pure players currently are hit and miss. Either they will get completely dumpstered by your beautiful technique, or they will just send you crying to the developers begging to nerf her. This is going to be another class you will have to bait attacks and follow up with. If she knows what she's doing, try to avoid her two heavy spin attacks. One lasts fairly long, another a little shorter. Pure also has to take advantage of your clumsiness and quickly close gaps. When fighting against her, be very aware she has a relatively fast gap closer, which consists of a spinny-dash thing followed by a slash. If you can smack her while she's mid flight, you can feel free to combo and keep smacking her until she's either dead or evaded your attack. She does not have that many fast attack engagements like Ryoku or Phalanx.

Versus other Judgements: This matchup will really come down to skill. Bait his attacks, but don't underestimate his reach. When he balance strikes, either jump horizontal heavy, or wait for a time you can run in with a charged balanced or maybe even a fast. Also try not to use charged attacks before he does since if you are close enough he will capitalize on you missing your charge. Of course, this can be counteracted by using a Longsword, but as we all know, can be difficult.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

This guide may not cover everything. Sure, I showed you nasty combos, deadly attack types, but it is also up to YOU to continue to learn and practice against your foes. You will not win most of your engagements starting out. I learned this the hard way. Keep trying, don't be afraid to try new attack types against different tactics the enemy uses. The key to this game is honestly adaptation. Once you see what your rival does to win, and plan out what you can do to block his plan of attack (be it mouse1 spam or timed heavies with lots of horizontal jumps). The greatest teacher is an eternal student. As so, even I learn something new every time I play this game.


Hope this guide helped you out. Feel free to leave criticism and such in the comments. If you ever see me out there, feel free to say hello. I'm usually responsive. Otherwise, see you out in the field!

Other Guides I've Made

If you liked this one, check out my other guides! I am going to do a series that is a bit more noob friendly at introducing the classes than the School of War is. Don't get me wrong, those guys know what they're doing, I simply feel like their teaching methods are a bit off, though.

Phalanx:Check him out here




Pure: (Heavily delayed as I have stopped being active within Blade Symphony's Community)





Ryoku: (Same Scenario as Pure)

[Meepithmancer]

Judgement is completely OP. Way too fast and hard hitting. He's like rhino in warframe.

[Vinyis]

Couldn't agree more, @Daim

[Daim_66]

A very useful guide.

[Wizzard]

Rated up, contained more content than I originally expected.

[Malikbane]

Nice Guide, kudos to you.

[Hank "Suck me Dry, Guy" Hill]

Heavy side attacks though, pretty hard to hit when they slightly jump, im not the best judgement there is, but It was pretty damn hard to kill the ryo using that strategy.

[ak3120]

Not happening with judgement. A lot of your attacks have a HUGE arc. Most of the time they try to jump a little over your balanced attack, it ends up having them getting caught in it and getting juggle'd.

[Hank "Suck me Dry, Guy" Hill]

Well, there is another thing, people can time their jumps to slightly jump over your attack, then hit you.

[ak3120]

How so? Judgement counters stupidply placed fast attacks in general with his long reach and arguably fast balanced forwards. I do not see how fasts are a problem.

[Hank "Suck me Dry, Guy" Hill]

Sadly, longsword leaves you vulnerable to fast attack spam by pretty much every character but yourself.