A lot of warriors like to keep their distance from foes, exploiting wm's range to repeatedly beat out monsters. However, the best dps is achieved using smash. Slipping in smashes requires going toe to toe against monsters. At this range, safety is all about playing on the edge of stun times, recovery times, and invincibility frames. Pets are key here.
Mabi has an interesting stun/recovery system. I'll give each state a name. The number in brackets is how you would achieve that hit state using icebolts shot as quickly as possible.
1) Pristine, an enemy hasn't been hit in a while (something >5 seconds). [0 icebolts]
2) Stunned, an enemy was just hit. Cannot act, but can load skills. [1~2 icebolts]
3) Pissed, an enemy was hit a while ago and is now active, mobile, and looking for revenge. "Remembers" that it was hit and will be easier to down.
4) Down, an enemy was knocked away. If it was a crit, or skills like smash, firebolt, thunder, or magnum, they'll be dumped on their back. Aside from visual differences, both knockback and knockdown are the same, and will be referred to as "down". [3 icebolts]
5) Redown, an enemy was bounced. Shorter stun time than down! [4 icebolts]
6) Undown, an enemy was kicked back to its feet. Almost no stun (~100 ms)! [5 icebolts]
A quick overview of stun/recovery transition that veterans should already be intimately familiar with
Generally, hitting an enemy moves it down to a lower state. A pristine enemy that is swiped will become stunned. A stunned enemy sufficiently hit will be downed. Attacks like smash will take a pristine enemy straight to down.
From down, any attack will redown. From redown, any attack will undown. A freshly undowned enemy is prone to being downed (if you immediately attack an undowned enemy you will down it; it is impossible to swipe as any pet attack becomes a ram).
If you don't hit an enemy during their down or redowned states, they will eventually get up, transitioning to pissed. At this point they have some "stun" on them, so they'll be easily downed by a single pet melee, but they'll also be able to kill.
There's some funky stun meter system which measures how much "stun" an enemy has. Just know that if you wait long enough you'll be able to swipe or melee without downing.
General principles
1) Every time you can swipe, you can smash. Swiping is usually the best way to open up for smash.
2) Wm spamming is for nubs. Huge hp loss, immobile, passive, low dmg
3) Redowned enemies recover faster than downed enemies. A distinction has to be made. Most noticeably, after you redown a monster, counter must be used because wm will not follow.
4) Most enemies do not auto-retaliate against those they are not focusing on. Swipes can be guaranteed by cycling pets.
5) Passive skills like counter suck, because nobody wins in a standoff, therefore you lose. If you're in counter and an enemy does not immediately hit you, drop skill and melee. Keep the fight moving so you can get to a smash sooner.
6) Your wm > enemy's defensive wm. Don't back off when they pop a subsecond skill.
Weapon stun speeds
With tactics that ride the edge of stun times, the weapon you use makes all the difference. I never go into battle with anything less than 2 hit slow weapons. 2 hit very slow weapons stun more. Both weapons are applicable to all of the following tactics, although very slow weapons will have more lee way. I'm sure some CQC exists for 3 hit very slow, normal speed and fast speed weapons, but I have no experience with them.
[SIZE="3"]Open-field maneuvers[/SIZE]
Here it's all about closing the distance while exploiting the times when the enemy is vulnerable to land the smash.
*swipe --> smash
- The pet swipe stuns the enemy and kills the enemy's counter or intuition, leaving it open to a smash.
- Inelegant against enemy wm, although smash is landable after enemy stops spinning even if enemy is aggro'd on the player
- A pet's 2 swipe tends to collapse position lag, very useful for awkward situations and laggy people!
- Works against enemies using magic, range, smash, counter, stomp, intuition, defense drop --> melee, wm, and melee
*smash (redown) --> counter
- Any time an enemy is down, it is unable to cancel your smash with melee.
- Be wary of enemies who load counter or wm after being downed. This is safest to perform when the enemy has been wm'd, because you can't skill after being hit by wm.
- Also works following a pet ram. Predict the spot the enemy will be knocked back to and nail the smash before the enemy has time to load a skill.
- Redown stuns the enemy for a shorter time than down. This is critical because wm does not follow smash here. Enemies can and will recover before you fire wm, and whack you some. Counter is the only way to guarantee safety in this position. Most enemies most of the time will not take advantage of their split second recovery advantage, but you can expect to take some hits if you insist on using wm.
- If enemy does not immediately trigger your counter, drop skill and hit it. Melee or swipe --> smash
[video=youtube;KpQPkaK08wk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpQPkaK08wk[/video]
*counter (down) --> swipe --> smash
- Fastest way to nail a smash after a counter
*smash (down) --> ice --> ram (down) --> smash (redown) --> counter + unsummon pet
- Solid opening for when your pet is stale, because the ice protects your pet
- The redowning smash places you inside the enemy. If they don't immediately trigger your counter, drop skill and melee (down) -- > wm
- If counter fires, it will create distance. Easy swipesmash.
*smash (down) --> ice (undown) --> wm (down)
- Works on human-speed critters
- The ice speeds up the enemy's approach; all enemies will try to melee after being undowned by ice.
- It looks cool because the undowning ice is a classic nub fail, but then you spin at the last second.
*counter (down) --> ice (undown) --> wm (down)
- Works on human-speed critters
- The ice speeds up the enemy's approach; all enemies will try to melee after being undowned by ice.
*smash (down) --> swipe --> smash (down)
- Basic way to string smashes together
- Cycle pet out after to guarantee future swipes.
*final hit (single wield 2 hit slow or very slow weapon) (down) --> smash (redown)
- The only thing more pro than a long distance teleport smash is a long distance teleport smash that saves a friend's life.
- Fh sucks otherwise, might as well. :)
[video=youtube;hmZHpLGOMko]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmZHpLGOMko[/video]
*final hit (dual wield 2 hit slow weapon) (stun) --> smash (down)
- During a normal 2xN, you cannot load smash until you're done swinging. Interestingly, dw fh has no such cooldown.
*dual wield 2x1 (undown + down) --> counter/wm
- Really good way to jump in and take a friend's aggro. After your friend knocks back this monster, melee it away from your friend and put up wm. If your 2x1 did not crit, the enemy will always attempt to melee. This guarantees that you will nail the wm. Follow up with swipesmash or whatever, having securely lifted one aggro from your friend.
[video=youtube;e2ABFO-I_1Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ABFO-I_1Y[/video]
I use a pet ram + icebolt to redown the monster. In real battles you might be in the same situation if you wm a monster (down), and then your friend wms the same monster (redown) before it recovers. Run in with your dw melee to start the combo.
[SIZE="3"]Wall combos[/SIZE]
After repeatedly blasting a monster back you'll eventually hit a wall. Or you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that the monster you just smashed is stuck on an invisible wall, wm fodder on a silver platter. Walls keep enemies close. Less chasing and more smashing! Best dps ever. Generally you can't maintain an invisible wall by yourself, so be ready to chase.
Everyone knows about smashmill. The reason more elaborate wall combos are necessary is that in the typical smashmill, smash doesn't follow wm. If you come in with the smash while the enemy is redowned from wm, you'll undown it and it'll kill you. If you wait for the enemy to recover from undown, you allow it to kill you. Smashmill only works against stupid ai, and even then they'll hit you occasionally. And a ninja never gets hit. So, the alternatives!
*smash (down)--> melee (redown) --> wm (undown) --> swipe --> smash (down) --> repeat
- The smash can be replaced with N+1.
*smash (down) --> wm (redown) --> run back --> swipe --> smash (down) --> repeat
- The smash can be replaced with N+1.
- I think this is the best combo against a wall. High dmg, very secure.
- In my experience, most enemies drop focus on your pet after your smashmill, so cycling pets isn't necessary.
*smash (redown) --> counter (down) --> run back --> swipe --> smash (down)
- If you ever smash redown a walled enemy this is the best way to get back to downing smashes.
*smash (finish)
- Everything I've stressed about how undowning an enemy will get you killed goes out the window if the enemy is 1 blow away from death.
- Anytime you think you can kill an enemy with a hit, do it. A dead enemy cannot retaliate against you, no matter how slow your recovery is.
- Using the above combo, you might do, for example, smash --> wm --> swipe --> smash --> wm --> smash (undown), where the last smash is fatal. If it weren't fatal, the smash would undown the enemy and get you beat up.
[SIZE="3"]Dancing with heavy standers[/SIZE]
Heavy stander changes stun and recovery times, making some normally risk-free maneuvers very dangerous to perform.
*smash (down) --> ping! --> wm (redown)
- Thank God this basic combo still works. Smash still stuns long enough for wm to follow, even against a wall.
*counter (down) --> ping! --> wm (redown)
- Yep, also works against a wall.
*swipe --> ping! --> smash
- Cuts the window for perfect play from ~1 second to ~200 ms
- You have to very closely tail your pet to prevent the enemy from killing your pet after the ping.
- Best done when you're coming out of wm, so that you'll be in smash range the moment you come out of wm.
- You could swipe early to guarantee pet death, dumping the enemy in post-combo recovery and leaving them completely open to smash.
*melee/swipe --> ping! --> swipe/melee --> wm
- If you melee an enemy and it pings, quickly swipe it.
- If your pet swipes an enemy and it pings, quickly melee it.
- Keep doing this until the enemy doesn't ping, then wm for space.
*smash (redown) --> ping! --> counter
- FAILS
- Since even counter fails, you have no defense after your smash. Only a friend can save you. Avoid redown smashing heavy standers. Opt for wm instead.
*enemy loading skill --> melee --> ping! --> enemy keeps loading same skill
- Free hit!
- If enemy doesn't ping you get an easy wm.
- Enemies so stupid
*wall: smash (down) --> wm (redown) --> ping! --> swipe --> ping! --> smash
- The ping causes the enemy to recover before you stop spinning. The swipe bangs against ping and your pet dies, leaving the enemy in post combo recovery and completely open for the smash.
- Works even against enemies with splash, your pet should get owned before you stop spinning.
- Very important combo for handling heavy standers
*wall: smash (down) --> wm (redown) --> ping! --> ram (down) --> back up --> wm (down)
- If the enemy doesn't ping on the pet attack, your pet will ram. Best here to back up and wm. If you opt for redowning smash and draw the ping, you will get hit!
[SIZE="3"]The Pet Kick, making the undowning smash work for you[/SIZE]
Assault slash is hands down the funnest move in the warrior's arsenal. Smash, then close the space immediately! No mercy!!!
Guys ever tried smash --> assault slash --> smash? The second smash always follows, but it undowns the enemy, and then somebody gets owned...unless you use pets!
[video=youtube;_HVcb3sjkPw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HVcb3sjkPw[/video]
My second smash undowns, but my pet saves me with its Flying Side Kick of Justice! We can call this a pet kick for short. This maneuver allows you to safely smash a redowned monster. It's a ram, but its circumstances are so different from a typical ram that I feel it deserves its own name.
I've found the best way to consistently pet kick a monster is to place your pet as close to the monster as possible (call it to you), and then queue it to melee that monster. A pet avoids meleeing a monster that is down or redowned. The moment you smash, you undown the monster, throwing it to pissed state and making it a valid target for your pet, which then proceeds to melee the monster until it rams. After a smash undown you have about half a second before you get hit, so it's important to keep the pet close by.
Also important that you position yourself as far from the center of the monster as possible. If you smash in the middle of, say, a giant white bear, you won't have time to fire the wm.
*smash (down) --> assault slash (redown) --> smash (undown) --> kick --> wm (video above)
- Perform the assault slash and 2nd smash asap to generate the proper knockback state.
- Fastest way to string 2 smashes together, this is the gold standard open-field combo
*wm (down) --> friendly wm (redown) --> smash (undown) --> kick --> wm
- You wm a monster and prepare to swipesmash, but then your friend redowns with his wm right before you come in.
- No big deal, just smash (just do it!). You don't have to wait 2 seconds for the enemy to get up just to attempt an awkward ramsmash.
- The following kickmill results in better dps, an interesting property of pet kicks. In response to a smashkick, the enemy will usually attempt to melee (sorta like how you used to precede icecounter with 2 icebolts to lure the metal skeletons away from the big bad golem, back in the day). Wm fodder after every kick.
*wall: smash (down) --> assault slash (redown) --> wm (undown) --> kick --> smash
- Getting fancy with the millkicksmash!
- Against a wall, wm won't follow a kick, so after the AS you should wm.
- Don't queue the kick preemptively, wait for your smash to be almost ready before you kick.
- Counter after smash :( Hopefully your 2nd smash killed it so you won't have to use that lame move.
*smash (down) --> friendly smash (redown) --> [smash (undown) --> kick --> wm --> friendly smash (redown)]
- More dps than the old smash tennis
- Works well with a party member who mindlessly smashes, so while it's more complicated than smash tennis, the hard part is done by one person, so you can do this with uninitiated nubs.
*friendly attack (down) --> wm (redown) --> smash (undown) --> kick --> wm
- Anticipate your friend's melee/smash/wm/firebolt/ice spear/etc. and land the redowning wm when you're right next to the enemy.
- Smash right out of wm for the undown & kickmill.
You can see that smashkickmill allows you to smash without relying on counter, a really crappy move. If the enemy is redowned, smashkickmill. If the enemy is downed, wm to redown, then smashkickmill. If the enemy is pristine, swipesmash. A smash for every situation! Moral of story: all of life's problems can be dealt with hulk smash!!!