Twin Daggers... Am I doing it wrong?

[Radical Dreamer]

After playing around with the Fighter class for a while, I've discovered that:

1. Double sabers are AWESOME.
2. Knuckles seem a little underwhelming, though that may be because I haven't unlocked the Gear for that weapon yet.
3. I have absolutely no idea how to use Twin Daggers. I either whiff my attacks because of the short range or float around in the air uselessly because my PAs launch me above my target.

How am I supposed to use these things? What PA combos should I be looking at? Are Twin Daggers just supposed to be used against bosses or what?

[Stormwalker]

Twin Daggers have basically two uses:

1). Killing aerial enemies.

For this purpose, basically, you want to open with Raging Waltz. If your Raging Waltz connects and the enemy is not using an ability that gives it super armor, you will carry that enemy upward with you; at this point, you can continue your combo. If the enemy IS using an ability that grants it super armor, it will not be carried upward by your RW and you will have to allow yourself to fall back to the height of the enemy before attacking again. This can be particularly obnoxious with Windira, as their swoop ability has super armor and will carry them out of your range. Usually the best thing to do is just RW again (if you have PP).

2). Striking elevated boss weakpoints that are otherwise difficult for melee to hit.

Here you again want to start with Raging Waltz. Usually, this will carry you above the weakpoint of the enemy, so you will have to allow yourself to fall back to the height of the enemy before continuing to attack. If the boss is very mobile, you will have to Raging Waltz frequently to re-orient yourself on target. If the boss is fairly stationary, you may be able to engage with other PA's while you hover at weakpoint height. Remember that no matter what PA's you have set, you can always reset your combo back to the first PA using Parry; for this reason, I recommend setting RW as your first PA.

Also: Yes, Knuckle Gear is basically mandatory for Knuckles to be good at all.

[SociableTyrannosaur]

Just wanted to second what stormwalker said. That's pretty much it.

[ShinMaruku]

Yup daggers are pretty much booty.

[Syklo]

Make use of your dagger action, that is the twirl, to cancel any aerial manuever and/or parry incoming attacks, such as the moment of raging waltz's impact so you don't need to fall back down.

And if you're up for it : use symphonic drive instead of of raging waltz (Preferably on bosses)

Handy tip when fighting bosses: If you're unable to lock onto the particular point (E.g. from one quartz dragon wing to the other), try using TPS mode.

[Stormwalker]

I've played around with Symphonic Drive quite a bit... it has some interesting properties in certain situations, and I really wanted to make it work for me... but ultimately I kept coming back to the fact that it ends with you out of melee range and therefore is counterproductive to maintaining your combo. RW does decent damage with gear and ends in melee range to the target (or near to it if you overshoot.

Usually I found that the only effective follow-up to Symphonic Drive was either another Symphonic Drive or Raging Waltz... given that, I ended up cutting out the middleman and going straight to RW. From RW, depending on the situation, you can easily move into normal attacks, another RW, Shoot Polka, Scar Fugue, Quick March, Wild Rhapsody, Orchestra, or even Symphonic Drive if you so choose.

Symphonic Drive simply limits your follow-up options too much to be an effective opener, IMO.

[Rien]

You can just press shift when you connect with Symphonic Drive's kick....

[Syklo]

I've played around with Symphonic Drive quite a bit... it has some interesting properties in certain situations, and I really wanted to make it work for me... but ultimately I kept coming back to the fact that it ends with you out of melee range and therefore is counterproductive to maintaining your combo. RW does decent damage with gear and ends in melee range to the target (or near to it if you overshoot.

Usually I found that the only effective follow-up to Symphonic Drive was either another Symphonic Drive or Raging Waltz... given that, I ended up cutting out the middleman and going straight to RW. From RW, depending on the situation, you can easily move into normal attacks, another RW, Shoot Polka, Scar Fugue, Quick March, Wild Rhapsody, Orchestra, or even Symphonic Drive if you so choose.

Symphonic Drive simply limits your follow-up options too much to be an effective opener, IMO.
Realise that the knock-back effect only applies to enemies susceptible to it; it's VERY STRONG (500%+ at lv11+) against bosses and the like.
RW is arguably the perfect opener.


You can just press shift when you connect with Symphonic Drive's kick....
Or before the actual "kick" (2nd hit)

Like i said before...make use of your TD weapon action as it can cancel any aerial maneuver.

[Radical Dreamer]

Eh heh, I completely forgot I made this thread. Thanks for all the tips! I just have one more question, though. I just got the Knuckle Gear, and that really REALLY makes Knuckle weapons a lot better. Is it the same thing for Twin Daggers? I mean, do I need to get the Twin Dagger Gear in order for them to be any good?

[Bellion]

Well, according to the JP Wiki, it is a x1.2 damage modifier with PAs when the Twin Dagger gear is maxed. It's not so bad considering you only have to put 1 point into it. You can access it with 3 points into Brave Stance Up 1 and that is definitely not a waste of SP to access it.

So, how much do you value an extra 20% damage boost on aerial enemies or certain targets? Of course, you won't always have that 20% since you must raise it up and that is pretty simple to do.