What's a good Sword PA compared to Speed Rain for Partisan?

[CultOfPersonality]

I love it but want to try something new.

[Crimson Exile]

Sonic arrow. Most sword pa's are useable compared to partisan.

[iTz PooKiie xx]

wait not this. Sonic Arrow is the only sword PA you need

[D-Inferno]

Sonic Arrow is so awesome that a build with 120 PP is worth considering.

[Crimson Exile]

THis.
Hey what was that ranking interrupt that I saw your name in? Mob killing or TA run?

[iTz PooKiie xx]

Hey what was that ranking interrupt that I saw your name in? Mob killing or TA run?

TA run we got first place

[Crimson Exile]

TA run we got first place
"WE" got first place? It only said you name on the message.

[iTz PooKiie xx]

"WE" got first place? It only said you name on the message.

Party leader's name is always displayed, but me and my team got 1st place.

[TetsuyaHikari]

You silly kids and your Sonic Arrow, lol. I used to use that, then I realized how much better クルーエルスロー (Cruel Throw) and ノヴァストライク (Nova Strike) were, especially with Sword Gear at level 3. Granted, Sonic Arrow is decent for mobs, I'll give you that.

[GoldenFalcon]

You silly kids and your Sonic Arrow, lol.

I use Sonic Aero because it's a laser cannon. Lining up Sonic Aero is only difficult against Dagans, but I use Other Spin for them
Also, against bosses (and in general), Sonic Aero is better because you can do 2 normal slashes and 2 Sonic Aeros in the same time of a Nova Strike (or 3 slashes and a Sonic Aero, for infiniteness)

[TetsuyaHikari]

Also, against bosses (and in general), Sonic Aero is better because you can do 2 normal slashes and 2 Sonic Aeros in the same time of a Nova Strike (or 3 slashes and a Sonic Aero, for infiniteness)

And yet, I'm getting more damage out of a level 3 Sword Gear Nova Strike with less PP. Yep. Sonic Arrow seems legit.

[GoldenFalcon]

And yet, I'm getting more damage out of a level 3 Sword Gear Nova Strike with less PP. Yep. Sonic Arrow seems legit.

More damage? You're kidding.

[TetsuyaHikari]

More damage? You're kidding.

Ummm... no, lol. You do realize Sonic Arrow only gets 248 power at level 10 whereas Nova Strike gets 255, right? Not only that, but Nova Strike has more hits than Sonic Arrow (the last hit of Nova Strike being the deal breaker here). I've never seen a Sonic Arrow deal more damage than a level 3 sword gear Nova Strike :|

I've got a couple of friends that use it on their HU and every time we take down Ragne, I'm doing more damage than they are on its weakpoint with my Nova Strike. Sure, Sonic Arrow is faster, but not really a boss killer. It's more geared towards crowd control.

[CultOfPersonality]

Tried it.. can't use sword. Too damn slow for me.

[darkante]

I like using Sonic Arrow for mobs (if not too fill up the sword gauge bar fast) and Nova Strike/Rising Edge for single targets and smaller groups.

[Cyclon]

Ummm... no, lol. You do realize Sonic Arrow only gets 248 power at level 10 whereas Nova Strike gets 255, right? Not only that, but Nova Strike has more hits than Sonic Arrow (the last hit of Nova Strike being the deal breaker here). I've never seen a Sonic Arrow deal more damage than a level 3 sword gear Nova Strike :|

I've got a couple of friends that use it on their HU and every time we take down Ragne, I'm doing more damage than they are on its weakpoint with my Nova Strike. Sure, Sonic Arrow is faster, but not really a boss killer. It's more geared towards crowd control.
[SPOILER-BOX]Of course charged Nova stike deals more damage than a single Sonic arrow. But that's really only relevant on bosses that expose their weak points for an extended period of time. So really just Vol Dragon when you destroy its tail, and Ragne once a fight when all its legs are broken.
The charge is a problem, since PP is used even if you can't unleash it in the end, and it doesn't refill during the charge either; so is the fact that, as you say, the real damage comes at the very last hit, which forces you to wait through the whole attack, so overall, this PA makes you very vulnerable.

Really, as a charged PA, I tend to use Rising edge more. It deals ~80% of Nova stike's damage but about twice as fast. It also deals the most damage and launches at the first hit, so it's far less risky to use. Apart from that, sonic arrow is undoubtedly better than both of them in most situations, both in terms of dps and of course range.

Cruel throw is your highest single target damage dealer, but of course it doesn't work on bosses. As a grab PA though, it allows you to completely disable a major monster until its death, plus it's pretty straightforward and easy to use, yet like I mentioned above, it deals tons of damage.
St... stun con side(really?)'s damage is very low, but it can be useful for crowd control. Plus, it's your fastest PA. It can be a good thing, considering ennemies tend to take two hits to be stopped during their attack animation, and this PA helps tons with this. Step attack -> this is fast enough that it stops most ennemies in their track, plus you really don't have any other options if your gear is uncharged. I need to further experiment with it to say anything for sure though.

I barely ever used Twister fall so I can't say lots about it. From my understanding though, at level 3 gear, the last hit has huge aoe, plus like we all know it launches, so it probably is an excellent crowd control tool as well.
[/SPOILER-BOX]
Problem is, the game is easy enough right now that hardly any of that matters. So go ahead and spam Sonic arrow like everyone else and you should be fine.

PS: Yeah, thought I might as well give my opinion on every single PA.

[gigawuts]

Tried it.. can't use sword. Too damn slow for me.

Do you have the gear? If not, that's why. The sword without gear is pretty gutted.

[CultOfPersonality]

Is it partisan speed? And what gear?

Does the gear speed up attacks?

[gigawuts]

A lot of your threads have answers already posted somewhere in a thread made specifically for the question you're asking. A list of what sword gear does is in the first post in this thread: http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=196837

[Dycize]

Sonic Arrow is simply the most versatile sword PA, just like Speed Rain for partisans.
It deals its damage up front, has good range, comes out pretty fast for a sword PA and can easily be aimed into a group of mobs. Against bosses, it's pretty much the strong attack button.

Rising Edge/Nova Strike are both very strong with gear due to the almost instant charging, their problem though, is that the charging is still there and can be a break in the flow of the combo. They also leave you more vulnerable due to the longer animation. I prefer Rising Edge though, as it gives a lot more vertical range to hunters, which is pretty nice.

Cruel Throw is a grab so it's a nice breather attack, plus it deals the most damage out of the sword PAs. It's really good at what it does, but against ennemies you can't grab (wether due to size, being a boss, or being in the middle of an uninterruptible attack), it's pretty much useless and you can't cancel the animation, leaving you there doing nothing. I keep it though because as I said, it's really good at what it does.

Stun Con Side (explanation time : in italian "con" means "with", so a proper translation would be "stun with side", guess which part of the sword this attack uses?) is like a faster, more crowd control oriented Cruel Throw. Much less damage, but much faster and the stun component is what seals the deal. I've heard of people using it instead of step attack and it being really good. May be worth testing?

Twister Fall is... I admit I ditched that one since forever. It's pretty fast and the knockup is nice, but the basic range is pretty limited. It probably has more value for PA comboing with Rising Edge, but the problem is that there is currently not enough ennemies against which that combo would be really useful (at least it'd look cool).

And that was my input as a Sword hunter.

[gigawuts]

Twister Fall with three gear bars is godly. I laughed at hunters that used it until I started tinkering with my old sonic arrow/nova strike/rising edge setup, and now that one's just for bosses. For mobs and crowd control it's sonic arrow/twister fall/nova strike. Twister Fall with three bars has the hitbox of a bus.

[Jakosifer]

You silly kids and your Sonic Arrow, lol. I used to use that, then I realized how much better クルーエルスロー (Cruel Throw) and ノヴァストライク (Nova Strike) were, especially with Sword Gear at level 3. Granted, Sonic Arrow is decent for mobs, I'll give you that.

"compared to Speed Rain", the go to spammy PA for Partisans that has great range and control. Nova Strike isnt comparable to any Partisan PA but Slide Shaker. Which it is better than, for both crowds and single targets, but...

[Cyclon]

Stun Con Side (explanation time : in italian "con" means "with", so a proper translation would be "stun with side", guess which part of the sword this attack uses?)
Funny, I could have sworn it was in espanol. Or was it both?:o
But yeah, I know that much. I just think it's a pretty bland name for a PA.

[Gardios]

Both Romance languages, that's why.

[Bael]

I'm a sword user too.
If you don't have sword gear, ANY sword PA is not gonna stack up to the partisan ones.
but if you do, you can create infinite combo chains with it.
for a full damage spec like me, this is awesome.
sonic arrow hits 3 times instead of one on ALL mobs in path. 3x3=9 even more if you invest in more PP. Throw does 700% damage instead of the 500.
Rising is awesome for bosses like ragne and rockbear that have weak parts high up.
and if you ever get trapped in a code rescue, a lvl 3 spin is the S--t!

[TetsuyaHikari]

Cruel Throw is a grab so it's a nice breather attack, plus it deals the most damage out of the sword PAs. It's really good at what it does, but against ennemies you can't grab (wether due to size, being a boss, or being in the middle of an uninterruptible attack), it's pretty much useless and you can't cancel the animation, leaving you there doing nothing. I keep it though because as I said, it's really good at what it does.

Just wanted to clear something up here. Yes, you can actually cancel the animation for Cruel Throw. Cruel Throw consists of two hits. You have two scenarios which can occur:

Scenario A: You grab your opponent (first hit), then throw the opponent (second hit)

Scenario B: Opponent is too large to be grabbed (this one is kind of weird since I have found that I can Cruel Throw a Gu Wanda despite it being so HUGE, yet there will be smaller enemies that can't be caught by this PA) or they are in the middle of their attack animation and you clash. Once clashing, the first hit will be the initial clash. If you haven't been knocked down, the second hit will still come out, only in the form of a projectile (not near as strong as a confirmed knockdown though)

After the first hit during Scenario B, you can guard cancel the animation. Sometimes I find myself having to do this when hunting Fordoran. I will try to grab them, but they are getting ready to lunge, so I quickly cancel the first hit during the clash and guard their attack before being punished. Just something to keep in mind.

[Dycize]

I actually know about guard canceling, but it's not that useful most of the time. I mean, sure, if you get to just guard or simply guard an attack, it's cool, but otherwise, there's not much difference.
The shield darkers being throwable is something I'm thankful for >_> Because once there's more than one, it becomes a terrible experience to melee them, so grabbing one and throwing it elsewhere is oh so useful. Those things make the floating island a very annoying area (those and the Wyndiras. goddamn laser birds sniping you for massive damage).

[FlameOfYagami]

I have TWO sonic arrows set up on my sword that's how awesome it is xD

The last PA is Nova Strike.

So my setup is something like this. Sonic Arrow for everything including bosses and Nova Strike for those moments (mostly on bosses) where you can strike a nice clean blow to them for big damage, such as when Dark Ragne is down you can get a free lvl 3 Nova Strike on it's weak spot it already deals huge damage on it's own but if a ranger is around and puts weak bullet on it it's just silly =P

[TetsuyaHikari]

I actually know about guard canceling, but it's not that useful most of the time. I mean, sure, if you get to just guard or simply guard an attack, it's cool, but otherwise, there's not much difference.

Er... I'd say taking a clean hit and guarding are pretty different, lol. There have been times I've randomly used the Cruel Throw to toss a wolf into a Banther during the emergency mission, but managed to connect with one of the Banther's legs instead. Now if I would have just said, "Ya know what, guard canceling really doesn't make that much of a difference" and just decided not to do it after I saw the first hit clash... I would have been knocked back and taken 100+ damage from his roar.

So yeah... +100 damage or less than 100? Like I said, sounds like a difference to me. Plus, if you get that Just Guard, you can reflect some damage back to the enemy. Sure, it may not be much, but it's better than you taking damage or not guarding at all, right?

*shrugs*

[Dycize]

I actually know about guard canceling, but it's not that useful most of the time. I mean, sure, if you get to just guard or simply guard an attack, it's cool, but otherwise, there's not much difference.
Bolded for bolding needs.
Also I just tend to think too much of "every case ever" and forgot that, most of the time, if you're going to cancel, it's for good reason and not just moving faster (...actually...).
Oh well, not like it's the first time I worded poorly what I meant.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Bolded for bolding needs.
Also I just tend to think too much of "every case ever" and forgot that, most of the time, if you're going to cancel, it's for good reason and not just moving faster (...actually...).
Oh well, not like it's the first time I worded poorly what I meant.

Ah... it did seem a little oddly worded, yeah, lol. I was thinking to myself, "So wait... the only time you should guard cancel is if you're going to get a guard or just guard? But... what else would happen if you guard canceled? Of course you'd guard or just guard", heh.

Seemed a little confusing. Also, there are times I guard cancel not to actually guard, but to cancel the animation so I can start a new combo.

[IndigoNovember]

Hmm, I didn't know you could guard cancel Cruel Throw. Thanks for the heads up.

[GoldenFalcon]

If you tap shift while holding a movement key, a guard cancel lasts a single frame, in which you can dodge 0.05 seconds after tapping shift, if that's your thing