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| Phoenix-Hawk |
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| 2. Finishing Moves
| 8/22/2004 00:00:00 PM GMTST |
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Finishing Moves:
There are five ways to release charges, with a normal melee attack or one of the four dragon moves, this will discuss the good and bad points of each.
General Notes:
All charges can only be released once so Dragon Claw always releases on the first swipe (claw in your left weapon slot) only and Dragon Talon always releases on the first kick only.
When releasing charges you get a 50% attack rating bonus per charge released at the time your charges are released so if you had Tiger Strike at charge three and Cobra Strike at charge three that's a 300% attack rating bonus. See the above "Assassin Attack Rating Calculations" post in this thread for more info on this matter.
Normal Attacks:
This means is simple and fast which comes in handy with builds working around the elemental martial arts as it will let you release the charge then get back to charging faster. Points in Claw Mastery would boost your attack rating and damage when using claws.
The down side is that you do not get any added attack rating bonuses other than those from Claw Mastery and the charges you're releasing. Other than kicks this is the only way to release charges if you're not using claws for weapons but if you do that hitting would be harder due to the lack of a skill based attack rating bonuses other than what you get from the fact you're releasing charges.
Dragon Claw:
This would be the finisher of choice for dual claw builds working off of physical damage as it will boost both the damage and attack rating of your claw attacks on top of what you get from Claw Mastery. This skill could also be used as a good standard attack on it's own with two good claws in each hand. For the purpose of releasing charges make sure the claw you want the charges released with is in the left weapon slot. For those using two claws this skill will also ensure you release with the claw you want to which also helps if you want to use that second claw for +skill bonuses.
To use this skill though you need two claws which means no shield, you'd want to put points into Weapon Block and you're blocking won't be as high when standing still as it can be when using a shield with enough dexterity. It will let you do more damage and this skill has a built in attack speed bonus so each swipe will hit more quickly than with normal attacks as well as adds to the damage of each claw and has a good attack rating bonus. There are other benefits and draw backs to using two claws as will be discussed in later posts.
Kick Finishers:
Your kick damage works heavily off of your strength so to get these kicks working for you well you'd need to stuff a lot into strength which could pull points from other stats such as dexterity making charging up harder if you don't have enough in Claw Mastery and/or attack rating bonus items. Claw Mastery will not help your kicks though, just make charging up easier.
Dragon Talon:
This will release one or more good kicks on a single target at a fast rate and has a hefty attack rating bonus to help you connect plus can knock back on the last kick. As it does toss out multiple kicks at a quick rate if physical damage is your thing you can actually skip the Tiger Strike charge up and just keep kicking.
With charge ups though at higher levels this isn't the best choice generally when you want to spit out charges quickly. The only exception would be when dealing with single targets as then you could for instance drop a meteor on them and hit them multiple times with strong kicks.
Dragon Tail:
This skill takes the physical damage you do with a standard kick then turns the noted percentage of that into fire damage over a small area as well as knocks multiple targets back. In Normal and Nightmare with Tiger Strike this kick is great at helping you deal with groups of critters due to the area of effect.
The biggest problem with Dragon Tail though is that when used against fire immunes you'll do basic physical kick damage to one target then on physical immunes you'll do zero physical damage and zero fire damage as a result. It's great in Normal and Nightmare but goes down in usefulness in Hell what with everything being immune to something, but here it's of no real use against two types of immunes, not just one plus almost everything in Hell seems to have some physical damage resistance (from about 10% to 75%) and some in even Normal have physical resistance (about 10% to 50%) which cuts down on your fire damage. Being effected by two resistance/immunity types means while you have the potential to do a good bit of damage that damage level could be heavily reduced by some critters. It also has the smallest attack rating boost of the three kicks so you'll need to always use it to release charge ups (you get a 50% attack rating bonus per charge) or have items that boost your attack rating and/or plenty in dexterity so you can hit more reliably in Hell. If you're careful with this kick though and ensure you use it to release only on critters that are not physical immune or highly resistant to physical damage you can continue to use it into Hell, it just gets rather annoying at times.
Dragon Flight:
Dragon Flight can get you out of a jam and get you over a pack on minor critters so you can attack the bugger raising them from the dead, gets you in close in a hurry and can even get you over obstacles if there's a critter to attack plus brings your merc and shadow for the ride. If you charge up on the minor critters you could then use this to zip over and release all your charges on the boss. It also has a heft attack rating bonus so with this even at skill level one with some +skill items and especially if releasing charges you should be able to hit things pretty well.
Now with more points the damage and attack rating of this skill really go up nicely but it only lets you attack one target and has a "casting" delay. This means you can't use it constantly so it makes for a poor attack skill. Generally you'll only want to put one point in this skill and leave it at that but due to the useful functions of it you'd certainly want one point in it for any melee build.
Last Edit: Jan., 22/2004 |
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