Combo/Damage Mechanics v2.11

In depth look of the combo style system, weapon movesets, and damage multipliers

Changelog v2.xx

v2.11

• Assist damage up.
  
• Wanderer Raiment kill bonus damage added to general damage. Grants 20 weapon damage at level 3.
  
• Dreadnaught Armor parry bonus added to general damage. Improves damage multiplier by 0.5x.
  
• Deadman's Fury fire damage added to magic damage. Gives a mere 8 flat fire damage at max stacks (~0.5 per stack).
  
• Paladin Armor light burst added to magic damage. 30 flat holy damage at level 3.
  
• Monk's Robe unarmed bonus added to general damage. Improves unarmed damage multipliers by 0.8x.
  
• Focus mode damage bonuses added to general damage. +0.15x to phys damage multipliers, and +15% magic damage.
  
• Preist Tome bonus added to magic damage. +50% spell damage.
  
• Wyatt skills added to his damage section.
  
• Heavy damage upgrade info for purgatory added. Grants +15% damage.
  
• Reina skills added to her damage section.
  
• Reina has a base crit multiplier of 1.65x.
  
• Gilda's Blight Wing damage data added.

v2.10

• Vladyn and Gilda abnormal style tags added.
  
• Note added to finisher tags and light tag. Vladyn and Gilda cannot get the light tag at all.
  
• Banana Fishing damage corrected. Added info about the 0 damage hits, and them benefiting from weapon buffs. Also corrected damage of first hit, which changes with finisher level.
  
• Golden Shell correction, it can release energy with any attack.
  
• Wyatt and Reina golden weapon abnormal style tags added.
  
• Corrected earlier change log note. Golden Talons can apply bleed on all attacks, but the stabs are so fast that sometimes the game doesn't draw the damage numbers for them.
  
• Section limit reached, so change log is now split into 2 sections.

v2.09

• Added damage data for Buster Lion and Phantom Spirits.
  
• Removed prelim notes, as all useful info has been integrated into the guide.

v2.08

• Reina attack and magic data brought up to date.
  
• Unarmed 7th H does nothing.
  
• Divine Decoy massively buffed. Now summons a clone to fight for you, instead of one that just wanders around.
  
• Aegis shares the same glitch as totem beams, making it an excellent nuke to pair with totem.
  
• Centurion Soul (offensive divine magic) damage has been significantly buffed all around.
  
• Totem beams do more damage per soul level.
  
• Golden weapons indeed do divine damage (except Gilda's), however they cannot apply reckoning themselves.

v2.07

• A few more abnormal tag entries to focus finishers.
  
• New style tag: Hurricane Rage.
  
• Renamed Weapon Enchant tag to Hybrid Damage for clarification.
  
• Started focus finisher damage data.

v2.06

• Gilda weapon damage data up.
  
• Gilda magic damage data up.

v2.05

• Wyatt attacks updated. New attacks added, but weren't noteworthy.
  
• Raven +arrow phys buffed to 1.2x, poison enchant nerfed to 0.3x.
  
• Seraphic +combo upgrade has been massively buffed, from 1% per hit to about 2.5%.
  
• Golden Shell info added.
  
• Basic info on poison added.

v2.04

• Lightning magic updated, no noteworthy changes. New air has same multipliers as side.
  
• Void magic updated, all around damage buff.
  
• Fire magic updated, all around damage nerf to compensate for new burn mechanics. Down fire now does more damage on the first pillar instead of less.
  
• New burn mechanics info up.
  
• Bleed info updated. Purgatory and Raven buffed to 20%, Mace buffed to 25%, Executioner Purgatory nerfed to 45%. Backstabs now boost bleed damage. No longer really works with magic weapon (will always apply 1 damage ticks). No longer ignores armor.
  
• Dark magic updated. Down dark buff buffed, stealth nerfed (costs more mana). Otherwise unchanged.
  
• Light magic updated again. Corrected down light buff values, added info about secret buffs to the buff.

v2.03

• Merged Vladyn's magic section with Wyatt's.
  
• Vladyn summon magic data up.
  
• Light magic updated, Grace of Light damage boost was slightly nerfed.

v2.02

• Bolverk bonus is actually weapon damage, and hence will work on magic weapons just like Grace of Light does. (Credit: myhr2)
  
• Shrapnel cannot backstab, and its damage ignores backstab bonus.
  
• Stun damage bonus applies to all damage.
  
• Reina's Golden Talons can inflict a 25% bleed on all attacks except the first 2 stabs.
  
• Added Marauder soul values. (Credit: Bags)
  
• Renamed guide.
  
• Elemental resistance ninja buffed back to around 35%-40%.
  
• Test dummy res ninja buffed to 54.
  
• Added Desperado mechanics.
  
• Chakram H is a bit more dps by way of traveling slightly less distance than Ls. (Credit: Heatwing)

v2.01

• Added info on new double jump style tag.
  
• Corrected style table.
  
• No hitcount hits mechanic removed. Everything adds hitcount now.
  
• Only equip menu combo breaks now.
  
• Wyatt unarmed can now proc magic swords.
  
• Wyatt purgatory 5th/6th H nerfed, is no longer spell/block cancellable at any time and has become rather dangerous to use.
  
• Bleed has been nerfed. More bleed immunes, and no longer bypasses the eyes' shields or final boss's blue life.
  
• Stunned targets now take 1.25x damage (not yet sure if phys only or all damage).
  
• Elemental resistance is nerfed from 30%-40% to 90% damage taken, making single element builds much more viable.
  
• Murderous Raiment buff is additive with affinity bonus, but multiplicative with all other sources.
  
• Test dummy stats added for anyone who wants to do their own damage testing.
  
• Basic info on crit multiplier added, along with Gambler's Rags Hot Streak bonus.
  
• Bolverk attack bonus info added.
  
• Out of date info placed in quote boxes until I figure out how to do click to expand boxes in steam.

v2.00

• DISCLAIMER: some old spells and mechanics may have changed, and some previous sections may now be inaccurate
  
• Vladyn weapon damage data up

Changelog v1.xx

v1.17

• Bleed damage ignores armor, is based off the phys damage you would've dealt if target had no armor. (Credit: Hanabito)

v1.16

• Added Buster Lion to abnormal (doesn't give heavy).
  
• Additional notes for getting Reina's light tag.
  
• Added +combo damage mechanics for Seraphic.

v1.15

• Defense and ruin data added to damage misc.
  
• Elemental weakness info corrected.
  
• Added note to magic swords and affinity damage bonuses.

v1.14

• All magic damage data up!

v1.13

• Added info on spell chains.
  
• Added info on Murderous Raiment buff.
  
• Added ice spell multipliers.
  
• Added Phantom Soul to abnormal.
  
• Moved non style-related abnormalities to damage section.

v1.12

• Added mag based attack multipliers for raven, magic swords, and totem.
  
• Added more info regarding magic weapon upgrades in general.
  
• Added info for purg magic weapon element.
  
• Added multiplier for elemental resistance.

v1.11

• Added mag based attack multipliers for staff and mace.
  
• Added more info regarding staff magic weapon upgrade.

v1.10

• Added first magic section, with elemental weakness, reckoning, burn, and affinity data.
  
• Added note about staff tornado taking the element of weapon buff.

v1.09

• Added freeze shatter and bleed to damage mechanics

v1.08

• Another correction to backstab bonus, it does apply to most spells. Spell hitboxes are just really unpredictable at close range.

v1.07

• Reina damage multipliers up
  
• Raven upgraded arrow damage multiplier added
  
• Raven poison upgrade is a permanent flat damage weapon enchant on arrows. This information has been added to tag notes, abnormal attacks, and its damage table
  
• Correction to backstab bonus, it does apply to weapon enchants

v1.06

• Wyatt damage multipliers up

v1.05

• Added notes about air attacks carrying over to the ground chain for purgatory and staff
  
• Seraphic ground H does not cancel into launcher, and is instead always jump cancellable

v1.04

• Added notes about cancelling purgatory's 4th/5th H to abnormal
  
• I am now convinced hit count is more important than style when calculating combat grade

v1.03

• Correction, only assists can add style without hit count
  
• Notes added to backstab tag regarding spell hitboxes

v1.02

• Confirmed viability of self sufficient great fang kick combos
  
• Added Rage Slam to abnormal (does not give heavy tag)
  
• More notes added to tags (when SC tags are granted, assists can't give you backstab)

v1.01

• Readjusted multiplier chart. Turns out the manual is roughly correct, with the exception of Reaper not existing. There seems to be a rounding error somewhere though
  
• Add note about Reina's extra rank up for focus finisher last hit
  
• Corrections to combo breaking and added tip for using multiple spells
  
• Additional notes and clarification for Wyatt's abnormal attacks (unarmed can't magic sword, raven H = light, seraphic ground H = light tagged but guard breaks like heavy anyways...go figure)

Intro

A lot of misleading information about how combo style actually works, due to vague descriptions in the manual, a lying GUI, and probably cuz everyone's used to the DMC series style system. So, my love of science and mechanics and attempts at optimizing my goibniu runs led me to do some testing to find out how style really works.

Basics: What Style Does

It's main uses are focus generation, exp multiplication, and combat score in boss fights. One of Reina's abilities also increase her damage based on style.

Both the focus and exp bonuses for style have increasing returns, making each style rank up more and more valuable. While the first 6 style ranks give a measely 1-3x exp multiplier and adds mere pixels to focus, god slayer gives a whopping 10x and nearly 1/3 of a Buster Lion.

It should also be noted that the focus is given individually for each style rank up, and are given immediately when the rank up happens. Non-style-rank-up attacks made while a high combo style is already active will not generate additional focus. This is mostly relevant when trying to get good focus return on a focus finisher, which, despite the name, turns out to be most efficient when used early in the combo when the style is lowest.

The second rating for boss fights is combat, and is determined partially by combo style. I'm not entirely sure if it checks the number of combos, duration of combos, or hits landed while style is active, though I'm leaning heavily towards the last one, as Wyatt still has a drastically smaller damage leeway when fighting with purgatory compared to seraphic blades, Reina, and even unenchanted raven quill.

After some Yeti runs with unenchanted dagger/bow vs icebrand purgatory, I am convinced that hit count weighs much heavier than style ranks when calculating combat grade.

Basics: Corrected Style Table

The manual is slightly wrong about the style ranks. Reaper doesn't exist. Otherwise, the multipliers seem to be correct. Ignore the ingame GUI, it outright lies about the exp multiplier past Warlord. This is the proper list:


Note: 3 combo hits are minimum in order to have a combo style. Also, there's a rounding error in the game somewhere when calculating bonus exp, so your actual exp gain may be off by ~1%. The 25 exp ogre in gardens ends up giving 248 with god slayer's 10x, for example.

# Of Rank Ups	Rank Name	Exp Multiplier
0	Novice	1.25x
1	Fighter	1.5x
2	Brawler	1.75x
3	Soldier	2x
4	Warrior	2.25x
5	Knight	2.5x
6	Duelist	3x
7	Destroyer	3.5x
8	Warlord	4x
9	Reaper	5x
10	Legend	6x
11	Stigandr	7x
12	Sword Saint	8x
13	God Hand	9x
14	God Slayer	10x

Advanced: Increasing Style

Style is increased when specific conditions are performed during a combo (hereby referred to as "tags"). Contrary to the manual and popular belief, it has nothing to do with variety, as each tag is checked only ONCE per combo. Getting a high style rank simply involves making sure you've used one of each tag, then you're free to mash one button for the remainder of the combo if you wish.

Before I get into what these tags are, I need to explain attack tags. Every attack in this game has its own set of tags that may or may not be at all relevant to what I've named the tag. This isn't my fault. I named them by the types of attacks they're most commonly associated with (light tags are usually found on light attacks, air tags are usually on aerial attacks, etc). However, some attacks simply have nonsensical tag associations, such as purgatory air heavy having light, heavy, air, and bounce and staff lights having no tags at all. I'll get into these exceptions in more detail later.

List of Known Tags (5/24/2015)

• Light ^1^7
  
• Heavy ^2
  
• Air
  
• Bounce ^3 OR Counter Hit (hitting an enemy while it's in the middle of an attack) ^4
  
• Hybrid Damage (e.g. firebrand, Raven poison arrows, Demon Arm, etc.)
  
• Assist
  
• Backstab (assists can not get this for you) ^5
  
• Parry Attack
  
• SC invincibility through attack (attack MUST touch you, granted immediately)
  
• SC dash through enemy when hits > 3 (don't need to go all the way through, granted on next hit)
  
• SC drop through enemy when hits > 3 (granted on next hit)
  
• Every 10 hits, up to 50
  
• Focus Finisher any hit
  
• Focus Finisher final hit (gives 2 rank ups with Reina)
  
• Double Jump (requires hits > 3, granted on next hit) ^6
  
• Hurricane Rage

^1 Reina's unarmed/totem light tag requires hits > 3 and previous hit to be a heavy or focus finisher. Staff/Mace can only get light tag w/ finisher, and requires any physical attack besides the finisher
^2 Wyatt's unarmed stance heavies each have their own tag, making it the most stylish weapon in the game
^3 There are certain enemy states that prevent bounce from occurring. When this happens, bounce tag won't register, as it's an action performable with certain attacks, rather than an innate tag of said attacks
^4 Though entirely different actions, they occupy the same tag for some reason, and doing both in a combo will only result in one rank up
^5 Backstab tag detection is extremely wonky for spells in close range. Whether you're in front or behind them, it may or may not actually hit them in the back (they'll turn around if it does), and regardless of that...it may or may not actually give you the backstab tag. Save yourself the headache and just grab the tag with an attack
^6 Can be used multiple times for additional rank ups.
^7 As far as I know, Vladyn and Gilda cannot get the light tag at all, even with finishers that normally give it.


Spells don't have any innate tags, but many still contribute to hit count, and have wonky hitboxes that allow you to pick up the backstab tag from the front. Projectile spells are great for picking up the counter hit tag without endangering yourself, and also interrupt most enemy attacks.

Advanced: Abnormal Attacks

Please feel free to correct me or contribute if I've made any mistakes or forgotten any.


Focus Finishers

• generally gives light, heavy, and air tags, in addition to focus specific tags
  
• Rage Slam, Buster Lion, Banana Fishing - does not give heavy
  
• Phantom Soul, Kudir, Plan B - gives nothing
  
• Dragon's Divide - only gives focus and focus last hit
  
• Life Blade - does not give air
  
• Hurricane Rage - does not give heavy, only gives air if you jump during the animation. Gives its own unique extra style tag
  
• Vladyn/Gilda - can not get light from any finisher

Wyatt

Purgatory

• 1st H - light
  
• air H - light, heavy, bounce, air
  
• launcher - light, air

Unarmed

• air H - light, heavy, bounce, air
  
• wing H - heavy, air
  
• wing 3rd L - light, heavy, bounce, air
  
• wolf, lion, and talon H - light, heavy
  
• most style tags in the game

Raven

• has no heavies
  
• H - light
  
• poison arrow upgrade is a permanent weapon enchant on arrows, and will give the weapon enchant tag
  
• backflip uses up an SC charge, and can give SC related tags
  
• 4th/5th L's dash is invincible like SC, but does not give SC related tags

Seraphic

• air H - light, heavy, bounce, air
  
• ground H - light
  
• launcher - light, air
  
• though tagged as light, ground H can still guard break like most heavies

Golden Shell

• air H - light, heavy, bounce, air
  
• ground H - light
  
• though tagged as light, ground H can still guard break like most heavies

Reina

Unarmed

• launcher - heavy, air
  
• 6th H - heavy, air

Totem

• 3rd L - light, air
  
• 4th H - heavy, air

Staff

• has no lights
  
• air H - heavy, air, bounce
  
• launcher - air

Mace

• has no lights
  
• ground H is its only heavy

Golden Talons

• has no lights or heavies
  
• ground H - air
  
• air H - air, bounce

Vladyn

Demon Arm

• innate hybrid damage on all attacks
  
• has no lights
  
• ground H - nothing except hybrid damage
  
• air H - heavy, air, bounce

Peace Breakers

• no tags at all besides air
  
• least style tags in the game

Ruinous Edge

• innate hybrid damage on all attacks
  
• otherwise, no tags at all besides air
  
• picks up backstab tag easily if it hits enemies in the back on the return trip

Esperanda's Long Gun

• has no lights
  
• all H gives hybrid damage
  
• air to ground H - nothing except hybrid damage

Golden Kris

• has no lights
  
• air H - heavy, air only. does NOT give bounce, despite him clearly bouncing

Gilda

All Weapons

• innate hybrid damage on all attacks, unless out of mp or shocked
  
• has no lights, heavies, or bounce
  
• burst gives nothing
  
• regardless of her complete lack of style tags, she is one of the fastest style farmers in the game thanks to the double jump tag, her multiple jumps, and massive hit rate

Master Class: C-C-C-C-Combo Breaker!

If you ever want to break your combo for whatever reason without taking a hit or getting parried, call up the equip menu. The combo timer will continue to tick down but the game will still be paused.

I am unsure whether this is a glitch or intended, as it could have been implemented to prevent you from weapon switching mid combo. If it does get changed, it'd make the tag limitations of different weapons a bypassable mechanic, which is arguably much more game breaking.

Uses of this includes starting up a new combo without allowing enemies to leave hitstun to farm up more focus once you've used all your easy tags, and also resets boss AI changes that are dependant on combo count. Many bosses will start blocking/parrying after a certain number of hits, for example.

You can also use it to break a combo early if you know for sure you can't follow up, and allow your skill cancel to start recharging maybe up to a second earlier.

End

That's about it. I'll leave it up to you to figure out how to best incorporate this into your playstyle, and below is an example of just how effective combo optimization can be:



Tags used:

1. light
   
2. heavy
   
3. air
   
4. counter hit
   
5. parry
   
6. firebrand
   
7. assist
   
8. SC through attack
   
9. SC dash through
   
10. SC drop through
    
11. backstab
    
12. focus hit
    
13. focus final hit

Input was call faolan, low jump H, parry, SC right, rage slam.

As you can see, even though I had just used rage slam, an extremely expensive 100 focus finisher, I already have about 60% my focus meter back. It's actually possible to make great fang kick self sufficient with the right combos and stay in focus pretty much indefinitely.

Sweet dreams and keep it stylish!

Bonus: Damage - General

As you may have noticed, not all lights and heavies are equal. Each attack and spell has its own base damage multiplier. As the name implies, it multiplies with everything.

Doesn't have anything to do with combo style, but didn't want to write a whole new guide for it.


Input is a short description of how to do the attack (1st means 1st attack in the ground chain, 3rd means 3rd, air means pressing the button in the air, etc), while light and heavy generally refers to the button used, though I'm gonna throw launchers and other special inputs in there too. The multipliers go into these columns. If there's a cell missing, there's no attack for that input.

Damage is simply your attack stat * multiplier, then reduced by enemy armor.

Test Dummy - 52 defense, 54 resist, dark aligned
Takes 40% damage from dark class, 100% from neutral, and 200% to light class.
Other good test targets are the feral crab outside library, who has 0 res and takes 100% to all elements, and the ice siren there, who has about 25 armor.

Defense and Ruin - damage*(def-ruin)%
Quite simply, each point of defense reduces respective damage by 1% additively, so 20 is 20% reduction, 80 is 80%, and so on. Ruin simply subtracts from the respective def, so 30 a.ruin vs an 80 armor target results in 50% damage. Def can't be reduced below 0.

Backstab Bonus - 1.5x (2x for Vladyn, 2.5x with Wyatt's Raven)
Normally only applies to the first hit, as most enemies turn around. Only a few enemies like Tagu can be hit with consecutive backstabs. Bonus DOES apply to most spells. However, like backstab tag with spells, the detection is extremely wonky at close range. Some spells like Hellish Descent and Volt Aura can never backstab.

Freeze Shatter Bonus - 1.5x (physical damage only)

Stun Bonus - 1.25x (all damage)

Bleed Damage - variable% * 5 ticks
Lion stance, Purgatory, Raven, Seraphic, Golden Shell - 20%
Mace, Golden Talons - 25%
Executioner Purgatory - 45%
Shrapnel - 75%

• Also known as shred
  
• Applies a 5 tick DoT based on the physical damage dealt on the hit that applies it.
  
• Backstab now DOES increase resultant bleed damage.
  
• Freeze shatter bonus don't increase resultant bleed damage.
  
• Can be applied with magic weapons, but only for 1 damage bleed ticks.
  
• Some enemies are immune to bleed (Tagu's sister, crystals, Leiloden, possibly others).
  
• Unaffected by Reaver (double status ailment effectiveness).
  
• First tick is applied immediately, making it effectively an extra crit multiplier when used in rapid combos.
  
• Generally applied on every crit, except for lion stance bleed, which rolls its own rng. The lion stance heavy applies bleed 100% of the time, regardless of whether it crits or if you even have the shred skill.

Magic Weapon - Replaces all multipliers to 1x mag

Crit Multiplier - 1.5x base (2x for Vladyn, 1.65x for Reina)
Most crit damage bonuses are additive with the base multiplier (+30% from level 3 Wanderer Raiment would result in 1.8x crit multiplier)

Gambler's Rags Hot Streak - +x% crit damage
1: 20%
2: 40%
3: 60%

Wanderer Raiment Kill Bonus Damage (Lv.3) - +20 weapon damage

Dreadnaught Armor Parry Bonus (Lv.3) -
Improves damage multiplier of next attack by 0.5x.

Monk's Robe Unarmed Bonus (all levels) -
Improves damage multiplier of unarmed attacks by 0.8x.

Bolverk - +( 4 * Bolverk.level ) weapon damage
Affected by everything that would normally affect base attack damage, including weapon penalties/bonuses, bonuses from skills/gear/spells, attack multipliers, crit multipliers, etc. Especially effective for builds with low base attack, such as pure agi setups or guns. Works on magic weapons, where it'll scale with anything that increases base magic.

Focus Mode -
Improves physical damage multipliers by 0.15x.
Increases magic damage by 15%.

Damage - Wyatt Attacks

-Master Focus gives 2% damage per point of str for heavy attacks.
-Hidden Strike improves damage multipler by 0.1x per agi.

Purgatory
Magic weapon upgrade causes it to deal damage type and afflictions of equipped up spell.
Heavy attack damage upgrade increases heavy damage by 15%.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x	1.5x
2nd	1x	1.5x
3rd	1x	1.75x
4th	1x	2x	4th H cannot be spell cancelled until sword hits the ground, and cannot be jump cancelled until sheathing animation begins. Can be block cancelled at any time
5th/6th	1x	1.1x*3	5th H cannot be cancelled without SC until after he sheathes the sword, making it effectively the only committed ground attack in the game 6th H is the same as 5th 5th H cannot chain into 6th there is no 6th L
running 1st	1.3x
air	1x	2x	air Ls can carry over to the ground chain if done deep. That is, jumping in with 2 air Ls will cause Wyatt to start on the 3rd L/H when he lands
launcher	1x

Raven
2.5x backstabs, applies to spells too
Poison upgrade adds a mag based poison flat damage weapon enchant to arrows.
4th/5th L's dash is invincible like SC.
Air L has no landing recovery.
Air H has no landing recovery, but height boost from recoil can cause long fall stagger.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
all	1x	0.8x 1.2x (with +arrow upgrade)	# of arrows w/ air H depends on max combo chain (aka basic attack combo)
bubble	lv.0: 0.25x lv.1: 0.5x lv.2: 0.75x lv.3: 1x		mag based cannot backstab 100% affliction chance
poison enchant	lv.1: 0.1x lv.2: 0.2x lv.3: 0.3x		mag based arrows only

Seraphic
Magic weapon upgrade always deals light damage and inflicts silence.
+combo damage upgrade increases damage by roughly 2.5% per hit once hits > 4

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x *2	1.4x	Ground H can never cancel into launcher, and is normally jump cancellable instead. If you ever need to jump away in the middle of a ground chain, just press H immediately before jump, effectively giving seraphic blades the same mobility as dagger and unarmed
2nd/4th	1x *2
3rd	1x *2
air	1.25x *2	2.65x
launcher	1.25x *2

Golden Shell
Gains 1 charge per hit blocked.
Gains 3 charges for parrying.
Parry attack can be SC cancelled before firing to preserve charges.
Slower block recovery than his other weapons.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
ground	1x	1.25x
air	1.1x	1.35x
Energy Release		1: 0.7x 2: 1x*2 3: 1.3x*3	mag based released with any attack pierces until all hits are used up high unlikely to get all 3 hits on normal sized targets

Magic Swords - 0.75x mag
Proc chance is increased by affinity, but not damage.
Neutral caps at 0 affinity, and is available when both sword skills are taken.
Affinity specific damage bonuses such as magic path seraphic and his 10% damage skills don't affect magic swords.
Murderous Raiment buff works and is spent.
Light - silence
Neutral - divine reckoning
Dark - corruption

Damage - Wyatt Unarmed Attacks

Unarmed
Each stance has slightly different lights and passive bonuses.
Air L 1st-3rd have no landing recovery.
Air H cannot guard break.
Can now proc magic swords with unarmed accessories.

Stance Heavies

Input	Heavy	Notes
1st	2x	Wolf - no bonuses?
2nd	1.1x	Wing - minor bonus aerial damage, puts you into aerial state
3rd	2x	Lion - bleed chance on all attacks
4th	2x	Wolf - no bonuses?
5th/6th	(1x *2) + (2x *2)	Talon - large bonus attack speed and armor ruin chains into itself

Wolf

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x
2nd/5th	1x
3rd	1x
4th	1.3x
running 1st	1.3x
air	1x	2x

Wing

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x
2nd	1x
3rd	2.1x		aerial pressing L again goes straight in 4th air L
running 1st	1.3x
air	1.1x	2.1x

Lion

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x
2nd/5th	1x
3rd	1.3x
4th	1.3x
running 1st	1.3x
air	1x	2x

Talon

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x
2nd/5th	1x
3rd	1x
4th	1.3x
running 1st	1.3x
air	1x	2x

Damage - Reina Attacks

Has a higher base crit multiplier than normal, starting at 1.65x.

-Falcon Claw increases aerial damage by 0.8% per agi.
-Iron Fist adds a multiplier improvement based on style. Exact values are unknown, but seems to cap at about 0.35x at godslayer.
-Finisher increases focus finisher damage by 25%.
-Exploit Weakness gives 3% crit damage per agi.

Unarmed

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x	1.25x
2nd	1x	1.5x
3rd	1x	1.5x
4th	1.3x	1.75x
5th	1.3x	1.75x
6th	1x	1x *2	H is aerial
7th		0x	7th H does a backhand animation with no hitbox
air	1x	1.25x	air H has no landing recovery, and even prevents long fall stagger
launcher		1x *2

Totem
Totem gains soul levels every 5 hits or nearby kill. Soul levels increase passive bonuses and beam damage.
Let S = totem soul level

Doing ground chain past 3rd L and 4th H requires you to not do either of those moves, as they put you in the air. They also don't reset your combo chain, leaving you extremely vulnerable if you do not have an extra heavy to dive kick back to the ground.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x	1.5x
2nd	1x	1.75x
3rd	1.3x *2	1.25x	L is aerial
4th	1.3x	1.5x	H is aerial
5th	1x	1.75x
6th	1x	1.25x
7th		1.5x
air	1x	1.25x	air H has no landing recovery, and even prevents long fall stagger
totem toss	1x phys + 0.35x mag		phys component is dealt during flight mag component is dealt on impact with ground in an aoe mag component element depends on side spell cannot backstab can be blocked/parried
totem beam		[(1+2S)*0.05x]*3	mag based element depends on side spell 100% affliction rate if not immune cannot backstab can break guard divine beams are glitched, see below

Divine beam's affliction bonus stacks with itself with each hit from the same beam. Thus, assuming they start afflicted, their affliction damage bonuses can hit 240%, 576%, 1382.4%. With Empower, divine beam hits at 280%, 784%, 2195.2%, which translates to nearly 3.3x mag for the final hit alone, 4.89x total at soul level 1, 17.92x at soul level 5. This more or less makes divine the only beam worth using for damage.

Staff
If magic weapon upgrade is taken, all staff attacks do elemental damage of equipped up spell, including the tornado. Otherwise, tornado will deal elemental damage of active weapon buff (if any). Unlike nearly all other mag attacks, active weapon buffs do boost tornado damage (albeit, with a low multiplier).

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st	1x	1.5x
2nd/6th	1x
3rd	1.3x
4th	1x
5th	1x
air	1x	1.5x	air L has no landing recovery, except when used after launcher air Ls can carry over to ground chain, but only if you land during very specific parts of the animation
launcher	0.5x		staff sucks
tornado		0.25x *2	mag based also multiplies weapon buff

Hammer
Lights can guard break.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
1st/3rd/5th	1.29x	1.29x
2nd/4th	1x		only 2 lights, combo loops after this
air	1.54x	1.54x	air L has no landing recovery air H will not hit if done too low to the ground air H's landing recovery is jump cancellable, allowing for a low knockback high dps infinite combo with the right timing
ground smite	0.5x *X		mag based higher smite level gives more range and hits
air smite	0.5x		mag based higher smite level gives bigger aoe

Golden Talons
Gains charges with crits.
Let C = number of charges

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
all	1x	1.3x
energy release		[(1+C)*0.05x] * C hits	mag based release with H projectiles go through walls basically, every charge makes you fire one ball, and all fired balls do more damage with more charges. therefore, it's always best to release at 10 charges

Damage - Vladyn Attacks

Has higher base backstab and crit multiplier than other chars, starting at 200% and 200%.

Gun damage is based on shot power, and therefore does NOT benefit from most sources of attack damage. The currently known exceptions are: Tunnel Vision, Weighted Bracelets, Goibniu Armor (+% attack damage only, does not benefit from str), Bolverk assist, and Grace of Light spell

-Back Stab skill is additive, improving backstabs to 225%.
-Hard Shells gives an additive crit multi bonus of 1.5% per agi (e.g. from 200% to 215% at 10 agi).
-Shrapnel does 0.25x the phys damage of the proc'ing hit, ignoring backstab bonus (and presumably, also freeze shatter bonus). The shrapnel itself also cannot backstab. The bleed ticks are 75% of shrapnel damage.
-Aim skill improves gun phys multipliers by about 0.15x (e.g. pistol shots deal 1.15x instead of 1x, shotgun does 2.15x instead of 2x, ground sniper does 3.25x instead of 3.1x, etc).
-Quick Draw improves gun phys multipliers by 0.1x per agi.
-Mercenary improves gun phys multipliers by 0.1x per coin.
-Desperado improves shotgun phys multiplier by 0.01x per 2% hp missing (0.5x max).
-All 4 of the above skills stack additively.
-Marauder adds 1 attack per lesser, 2 per greater, and 4 per arch demon spirit.

Hundred Demon Arm
Does bonus void damage.
Void's Embrace improves void damage to 0.4x mag.
Weapon buffs add flat damage on top of the void damage (e.g. level 1 Frost Blade would make the ground L do 1x phys + 0.2x void + 0.3x ice).
Upgrading the demon arm spell soul gives +20% attack bonus each upgrade, additive with Carapace.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
ground	1x 0.2x mag	1.5x 0.2x mag
air	1x 0.2x mag	1.5x 0.2x mag	air L hits twice air L can't be spell canceled, but can cancel into double jump or air H at any time

Peace Breakers

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
all	1x	2x
Blaster		2.2x *3

Ruinous Edge
Deals bonus dark damage.

Input	Phys	Dark Mag	Notes
all	1x	1: 0.2x 2: 0.4x 3: 0.6x 4: 0.8x	can hit a single target up to 4 times per toss H does slightly more dps by traveling less distance

Esperanda's Long Gun
Crit damage bonus is additive.
H does bonus ice damage.
Second number for H is with Blaster skill.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
ground	1x	3.1x 3.23x
air	1.25x	2.6x 2.78x
air to ground		2.4x 2.53x	when landing during aim animation of air H
Ice bonus		1: 0.2x 2: 0.4x 3: 0.6x 4: 0.8x	mag based

Golden Kris
Weapon backstab bonus is additive.

Input	Light	Heavy	Notes
all	1x	1.25x	backstabs with H have a multiplicative 1.2x bonus
magic swords	1: 0.5x 2: 0.75x 3: 1x 4: 1.25x 5: 1.5x	shoots 3 swords	mag based each sword can potentionally hit twice multiplier increases with power stacks cannot backstab

Damage - Gilda Attacks

All attacks do hybrid phys + mag damage. Mag damage component is disabled if she's out of mp or shocked.
Scepter range and Sacred size also increase with weapon level.

Dragon Claw/Scepter/Reaper/Golden Relics

Input	Physical	Magic	Notes
all	0.75x	0.25x	devs got lazy =/ Paladin armor procs on Scepter have extremely long range

Sacred Relic
Paladin Armor procs have a set disc size, and do 2 hits at the full light burst damage bonus.

Input	Physical	Magic	Notes
ground	0.333x*4	0.084x*4
air	0.58x*4	0.084x*4

Burst - 0.25x mag *3

Blight Wing - 0.1x mag *3

Magic Damage - General

I couldn't get exact numbers, as magic multipliers aren't quite as neat as melee. And to complicate things further, the test dummy is dark aligned for some reason...resulting in very small numbers for dark magic, vastly increasing the amount of rounding error.

Multiplier data were from the test dummy, which had 25 resist, with well over 25 s.ruin, reducing it to 0. It takes 200% from light and 40% from dark, and the feral crab right outside library, who has negligible amounts of res (likely 0) and takes 100% from all elements.

NOTE: test dummy stats have since been changed, several times


Element Types - There are 2 main types, light and dark. Damage is around 200%-260% to enemies weak to the element., and 35%-40% to enemies strong vs the element. Neutral spells deal the same damage to all enemies, including ferals.

There are also extreme resistances or weaknesses to specific types, like ice sirens strongly resisting ice and being very weak to fire. Extreme resist results in 10% damage, while extreme weakness results in 400%.

The manawar changes elements during the fight. Also, all of this could be completely wrong and every enemy might just have their own separate modifiers to each element.

Reckoning - 240% divine damage
Probably not intended, as manual says +40%, but as divine spells are still rather mediocre as is even at +140%, I doubt they'll change it. Reina's Empower (increase reckoning damage) boosts it to 280%.
Although most of the golden weapons deal divine damage, they cannot apply reckoning on their own.

Burn - ( 35% * [1 + burn.stacks] ) of fire damage of applying hit * 5 ticks

• Basically, burn ticks will do 35% of the fire damage if they start unafflicted, then 70% with 1 stack, 105% with 2, and so on to a maximum of 210% after 5 stacks.
  
• Backstab bonus doesn't increase resultant burn damage.
  
• First tick is immediate, on first application and on refreshing.
  
• Stronger burns will override weaker burns.
  
• Weak burns can be used to refresh strong burns.
  
• Burning enemies also take an additive extra +25% damage from subsequent fire damage per burn stack, for a maximum of +150% damage after 6 stacks.
  
• Wyatt's Reaver doubles the burn damage, for a maximum of 420% burn ticks.

Poison - ~3% of target max hp * 10 ticks
Around 3% seems to be the normal amount, but some mobs seem to take much more, like Magus. Wyatt's Reaver doubles the tick damage to around 6%-7%.

Affinity Bonus - +4% per point from -10/10 onwards from respective spells
For example, light spells cast with 10 affinity deal 104% damage, at 20 affinity will deal 144% damage, at 25 will deal 164%, and so on. Opposing spells aren't penalized. For example, a dark spell will do 100% damage at -9, 0, 10, or 50. Neutral spells always deal 100%.

Side Spell Chains -
Some side spells gain a combo chain similar to attacks once upgraded, performable by holding the direction down.

Murderous Raiment Buff (all levels) - 1.5x (additive with affinity bonus, but multiplicative otherwise)
Applies to every hit of spell. Spell chains are separate casts, so only the first spell will receive bonus. Weapon buffs will maintain the 1.5x bonus for their whole duration, making it an extremely efficient way to spend the buff.

Deadman's Fury Buff (Lv.3) - 0.5 + ( 0.5 * stacks ) flat fire damage
Caps at a whopping 8 fire damage at 15 stacks.

Paladin Armor Light Burst (Lv.3) - 30 flat holy damage
Inflicts silence.
Counts as a weapon buff, and will not work on anything that weapon buffs don't work on.
Counts for hybrid damage style tag.

Preist Tome - +50% spell damage for light magic

Damage - Generic Magic

Ice

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	0.6x 0.75x	1.08x 1.62x	1.68x 2.94x	1st value is projectile 2nd value is explosion explodes if it hits a frozen target explosion can't backstab
Up	0.3x	0.48x	0.7x
Side	0.4x	0.6x 0.78x *2	0.85x 1.125x *2 1.4x *3	chains
Down	0.8x	1.38x	2.1x	blocks some projectiles midair ice towers are possible if you drop it off an edge and it collides with an enemy midfall. can be used to pick up the temple ancient coin early by standing on an ice tower over a skeleton, and dropping another ice tower on his head as he revives

Fire

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	0.41x	0.75x	1.17x
Up	0.21x	0.34x	0.49x
Side	0.55x	1x 1.5x	1.56x 2.34x 3.12x	chains
Down	0.8x 0.55 *X	1.2x 1x *X	1.6x 1.56x *X	first pillar does more damage can't backstab can't apply burn

Lightning

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	0.8x	1.43x	2.23x	pulls you to enemy
Up	0.3x	0.54x	0.84x	can't backstab procs on every hit you do, including magic
Side	0.8x	1.43x	2.23x	pulls enemy to you long stagger time
Down	1.3x	2.32x	3.62x

Void

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	0.45x	0.85x *2	1.33x *3	homes pierces goes through walls if recast before lasers fire, old orbs disappear without firing
Up	0.6x	0.96x	1.4x	procs on crit can't backstab hits with an additional 30 spell ruin
Side	1x	1.85x	2.9x	can hit several times on fat enemies pierces
Down	0.14x *3	0.21x *4	0.29x *5	homes can't backstab

Damage - Wyatt/Vladyn Magic

Light

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	0.25x *2	0.3x *4	0.35x *8	blocks some projectiles
Up	0.1x *10	0.187x *10	0.285x *10
Side	0.4x *3	0.78x *3 0.96x *3	1.26x *3 1.54x *3 1.82x *3	chains
Down	0.25x 18% (25%) (33%)	0.42x 36% (50%) (66%)	0.64x 54% (75%) (99%)	boosts weapon damage works with magic weapon, but not weapon buffs doesn't work with fighter bandages' bonus doesn't work with Vladyn's Marauder Magister Vestments and Sorcerer Regalia secretly buff the buff portion of this spell 2nd/3rd buff values are with 1 and both of the above items equipped

Dark

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	0.4x *8	0.74x *8	1.12x *8	can't backstab innate life leech
Up	10	9	8	leveling reduces mana cost
Side	0.7x 0.28x *2	1.08x 0.43x *2	1.56x 0.62x *2	first hit does more damage all 3 hits will do the second damage value if the projectile misses and it explodes on a wall/floor
Down	1.05x +20%	1.76x +20%	2.59x +20%	boosts spell damage doesn't work with magic weapons must be cast first to work with weapon buffs doesn't work with raven poison upgrade doesn't work with raven poison bubble works with magic swords stacks additively with other +X% magic sources (Magister Vestments, Sorcerer Regalia, etc)

100 Demon Arm
Upgrading this soul also improves unarmed attack damage by 20% each
Your stats do not affect minion damage, besides minion/assist power
Upgraded minions also have more hp

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	15*2	30*2	45*2	boosts attack and run speed attack speed boost increases with level, but not run speed aoe size increases with level deals void damage Overlord increases minion's move speed
Up	25	50	75	boosts magic by 10% at all levels randomly fires projectiles that deal either dark, fire, or void 100% affliction chance Overlord makes her fire 3 projectiles in a fan
Side	~25?	~50?	~75?	improves attack phys multipliers by 0.1x at all levels additive with all the rest of Vladyn's large repertoire of phys multiplier improvement skills deals physical damage gains armor ruin with level damage estimates assume he has 0 a.ruin at level 1 ground combo attacks twice Overlord makes him attack 3 times can crit for 1.5x damage
Down	10% per	15% per	20% per	heals a percentage of your max hp per minion alive their hp is irrelevant to the amount healed to you

Damage - Reina Magic

Centurion

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air	1x	2.31x		pierces
Up	0.3x	0.58x
Side	0.3x	0.65x		can dash through enemies
Down	0.9x	1.95x

Guardian

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Air				summons a clone to fight for you unaffected by stats lasts longer and does more damage at level 2
Up	0.4x	0.61x
Side	0.1x *3	0.16x *3		can't backstab has the same reckoning stack glitch as totem see totem notes for details
Down	1	1		flat damage extremely long hitstun

Damage - Gilda Magic

Poison

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Ground	0.4x*4	0.6x*4	0.8x*4
Air	0.25x*3	0.4x*6	0.55x*6	+15% affliction chance and spell ruin blocks some projectiles

Dark

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Ground	1.05x +20%	1.76x +20%	2.59x +20%	boosts spell damage doesn't work with her relic attacks stacks additively with other +X% magic sources (Magister Vestments, Sorcerer Regalia, etc)
Air	0.7x 0.28x *2	1.08x 0.43x *2	1.56x 0.62x *2	first hit does more damage all 3 hits will do the second damage value if the projectile misses and it explodes on a wall/floor

Ice

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Ground	0.8x	1.38x*2	2.1x*3	blocks some projectiles
Air	0.6x 0.75x	1.08x*2 1.62x(*2)	1.68x*3 2.94x(*3)	1st value is projectile 2nd value is explosion explodes if it hits a frozen target explosion can't backstab

Fire

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Ground	0.55x	1x*2	1.56x*3
Air	0.41x	0.75x	1.17x

Lightning

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Ground	1.3x 0.3x	2.32x 0.54x	3.62x 0.84x	2nd value is the buff the buff can't backstab procs on every hit you do, including magic
Air	0.8x	1.43x	2.23x	pulls you to enemy

Void

	Lv.1	Lv.2	Lv.3	Notes
Ground	1x 0.6x	1.85x 0.96x	2.9x 1.4x	can hit several times on fat enemies pierces 2nd value is the buff buff procs on crit buff can't backstab buff hits with an additional 30 spell ruin
Air	0.45x	0.85x *2	1.33x *3	homes pierces goes through walls if recast before lasers fire, old orbs disappear without firing autocasts after warping to your ground spell if you have enough mp

Damage - Focus Finishers

Seems like the general formula is something like:
finisher.base.damage * finisher.level * ( 5 + relevant.stats )
If there's more than 1 relevant stat, then they're all added together.
Keep in mind, all finishers stun, so consecutive hits from finishers will do 25% more damage.
Unaffected by your attack/magic.
Can generally backstab.
Generally cannot crit.
Bonus crit damage will be applicable for the ones that can.
Def/res/ruin applies to their appropriate damage types.

let M = finisher.level * ( 5 + relevant.stats )

Dragon's Divide - 4M * 3 hits
Deals magic damage.
Does elemental damage and afflictions of currently equipped soul.
Affliction chance is only rolled once, so either all hits afflict or none.
Be careful using it against Magus, as she can spell steal it.
Uses up the Murderous Raiment buff, but doesn't benefit from it.

Life Blade - 3 * hp.spent
Deals physical damage.

Kudir (Fire) - 15 * ( 1 + fin.level ) * 7 hits per tornado
Deals fire damage and applies burn.
Can't backstab.

Kudir (Void) - 45 * ( 1 + fin.level ) * ~9 hits
Deals void damage and probably applies a redundant stun.
Can't backstab.

Great Fang Kick - 20 * 4 hits + 7M
Deals physical damage, can crit, and benefits from flat damage weapon buffs.
The last hit has a 100% crit rate, unless you're wearing crusader amulet.

Banana Fishing - (12, 25, 38) + 0 * 4 hits + 24M
Last hit deals pure damage, ignoring def, res, and stun damage bonus.
First hit deals void damage, and must hit to trigger the rest of the finisher.
First hit deals set damage that increases with finisher level.
The 0 damage hits benefit from weapon buffs.
Can't backstab,

Rage Slam - 10M
Deals physical damage.
Because it's only 1 hit, it won't automatically benefit from stun damage bonus the way most finishers do.

Hurricane Rage - 1M * 1 hit + [ ( 1.6 * fin.level * rel.stats ) + 5 ] * 6 hits
Deals physical damage, has a 100% crit rate, and benefits from flat damage weapon buffs.
Odd behavior of the main 6 hits probably due to Kyron forgetting a parenthesis.
Despite all 7 hits dealing physical damage and being affected by def/a.ruin, only the first hit actually benefits from crit damage. The other 6 will show the crit animation, but won't deal bonus damage.
You are free to act during the animation, similar to Kudir.
Hurricane size increases with int.
Only the first hit applies the stun, which only lasts through the next 3 hits, therefore the last 3 hits will not get the stun damage bonus.

Buster Lion - (1, 11, 20) + 7.2M
Deals physical damage.
First hit does set damage depending on finisher level.
First hit can crit, but the second cannot.

Phantom Soul - 3 * 3 hits per spirit
Deals void damage and stuns.
Will attack once on summon, then attempt to hug attacking enemies and absorb the hit for you, then counter with stunning void damage, though the damage part is negligible and will almost always be reduced to 1.
Phantoms persist through screen transitions, but have limited lifespan.

Damage - Assists

All values are at level 5, though I'd presume everything scales proportional to level (level 1 assists do 1/5 of level 5).

Atalan - 90 * 5 hits, 7s cd
Physical damage, can crit for 1.5x and apply bleed, 0 armor ruin.
Be careful, can be parried.

Shadoboxxer - ( 115 phys + 25 dark ) * 3 hits, 4s cd
Deals hybrid dark and physical damage, but doesn't seem to be able to apply corruption.
Can crit at 1.5x, but the number animations don't seem to match his actual crits.
0 armor and spell ruin.

Reize - ( 38 + 42 void ) * 4 hits, 10s cd
Deals hybrid void and physical damage, and can stun.

Bolverk - ( 125 + 60 ice ) * 3 hits, 5s cd
Deals hybrid ice and physical damage, and can freeze, but will often shatter the freeze himself.
Grants 20 weapon damage (4 per level) for 5s.

Kantae - 0 * 1 hit, 30s cd
Deals no damage, but hits the whole screen with a focus finisher class stun that ignores immunity.
Applies a 15s silence that does NOT ignore immunity.
Heals for 75 hp.
Provides a defensive buff.

Chap Lan Kin - 300 fire * 1 hit, 20s cd
Stuns grounded enemies when bouncing.
Has at least 30 spell ruin.
100% burn affliction rate.

Brizhal - ( 60 * hits ) * 1 hit, 15s cd
Physical damage, ignores armor.
Capped at 999 damage.

Faolan - 40 *1 hit + 60 * 5+ hits, 6s cd
Physical damage, 0 armor ruin.
Grants 5 mp regen per second (1 per level).
Breaks guard.
First hit from close range does less damage.
Number of hits varies depending on enemy size. Max hits unknown.

Axen - 180 lightning * 1 hit, 8s cd
Lightning damage, low or near 0 spell ruin.
100% shock affliction rate.
Deals double damage if volt aura is on.

[Legitor]

*knowing which attacks are more profitable to weave into a combination

[Legitor]

Thanks for the guide. I hope I can now improve my skills in the game and pass on the last difficulty

[BSG | BeerMoney]

Thanks for the reply ! I was kinda guessing it's been too long but welp, at least i tried haha

[BoswerLK]

Nah, don't remember enough about the game to do it, nor do I have the original spreadsheet I kept the data in anymore. Between the training dummy, 0 res crabs, and low def sirens, I'd assume the multipliers should be accurate enough for the most part.

[BSG | BeerMoney]

I know it's been a long time since there's been activity here, but i wanted to throw the idea out there : would you do the calculations again with a better dummy ?
Like one who does not have scaling dark resist ? Or maybe even one that allows us to do true damages ?

[BoswerLK]

yeah, crit damage is pretty huge. I'd actually have started with 20 agi and worked my way up/down from there. the damage bonus from SC dash is absolutely massive too. the raw crit rate also lets you dps with the bow effectively for enemies who don't block. low jump L H with the bow is one of the highest raw dps outputs in the game. time the H so you land after shooting instead of getting the slow recoil animation

shadowwalk is super op defensively, but generally it's faster to just use a damage buff in the up slot. especially early game, when level 1 magic and natural m.att gain hasn't fallen off in comparison to your phys build yet

[Tief Blau]

Just did a str/agi run, and it did pretty well all things considered. I realized I wasn't using Shadow Walk enough which greatly simplified several boss patterns. That said, I'm having to trial-and-error stuff because strength gain isn't an even amount for me to math out having max strength vs having 5 and 10 agility. Honestly the crit damage modifier seems to be the biggest bonus for hybrid str/agi.

[BoswerLK]

yeah, you pretty much do a short combo into a SC dash behind j H backstab with the bleed broadsword. it gives a lot of armor ruin, crit rate, crit damage, and a large multiplier bonus from that skill in his tree, all of which interact multiplicatively with each other for extreme lategame damage. it'd ignore pretty much all of even gernot's armor and outdps any str build. bleed is also based on the damage of the hit that procs it, so if anything, I'd do a agi/str hybrid and roughly math out the best ratio (or, just trial and error it)

bleed also procs 100% of the time on crit, and the first tick occurs immediately. so even if you're not letting the bleed run, it's like an extra crit multiplier

extra focus time is useful for early game. not for bosses, but for spamming SC dashes to travel quickly. the benefits fall off a bit later once you have a good run speed bonus from agi

[Tief Blau]

And Gernot still takes an eternity to kill when going straight strength. His armor is ridiculously high, that's why I was wondering if dipping a bit in int would be better overall.

[Tief Blau]

Run speed is indeed nice. The only edge I'm noticing with agility over strength is some more armor ruin, and increased focus time. None of the bosses I'm noticing a benefit to having extra duration on focus, since they quickly break out of a combo loop once they hit a certain health percent.

Did agility use to straight up increase damage, or was there some sort of combo where you skill cancel, shadow walk, and make a big crit and bleed from that? Now bleed damage is based on your strength.