This is strange ...

[F-Gattaca]

As myself, Go Vahras are the bane of my existence. They easily tear me apart. I've experienced this same pwnage as a Fortegunner, Guntecher, and Fighgunner; all the tactics I've tried invariably result in getting mauled and sometimes a death or two. Up-close melee with knives, standoff tactics with a rifle, fancy footwork with an SMG ... It's that leaping Gohmon-style attack of theirs.

... So imagine my surprise when Raul DiUragano, a Beast Fortefighter, has no problem fighting Go Vahras.

He's level 35 and just started his first solo run of Duel in the Ruins for the dual purpose of seeing how well he survives as well as leisurely leveling him in between college and the like.

When I first saw that Go Vahras pop up in the A-rank version of this mission I was a bit worried, but ... for some reason, they rarely land blows on him and even when they do it's only 10% of his total HP. Raul has been taking them on with an Ank Bico and has been popping them like bubbles.

It's weird. I'm at a loss to explain the disparity; these guys are 15 levels above Raul and he can easily take them on in a melee situation. I couldn't do it when meleeing, even as a Fighgunner; more often than not, their leaping attack would drop me on the floor, either knocked out or with 50% of my HP gone.

Maybe I'm just seeing things ... or maybe A-rank Go Vahras, even with their level gap between them and Raul, just don't have the same relative stopping power. Or maybe they were nerfed when I wasn't looking and even S/S2-rank Go Vahras are a piece of cake now.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

[XenithFlare]

I have a similar problem; my bud Agent D has somehow ALWAYS been able to do massive damage with his guns, at any level. For example, he once joined me in a Plain's Overlod S run, and decided to see how his lv30 ice shotty bullet fared against De Ragan.

5 hits.

300 a hit.

Now, my ice shotty PA is lv26 (which I figured isn't a HUGE difference), and I somehow only manage to do about 100 a hit. O.o; Utterly perplexing. He didn't have like, this huge ATP-boosting unit equipped, so.. I just don't understand it. XD

[amtalx]

If you are doing 100 damage with a Lvl 26 bullet you just need better equipment. This game is all numbers so there isn't any magic trick to doing more damage. More damage means higher levels, better equipment, or both.

[biggabertha]

My Protranser always used to get swallowed whole by Go Vahras while i was trying to level my Grenade Launcehr bullets on the De Ragan. It wasn't until I could finally use Axes and got a hold of Anga Dugrega that I learnt how useful it is against these nippy fighters.

With an Ank Bico, it's clearly the most accurate axe out at the moment that's really easy to use for both classes that can use them so leveling Anga Dugrega is much easier. I've found that staying in close to Go Vahras and using the full combo of Anga Dugreega keeps up to four of them busy turning around and being flung from one directioin to another. I find a bit more trouble with a larger group of them but Barada Maga and a Zodiaride helps out there.

Maybe Axes are the easiest way to beat these guys easily with very little effort? (If you ever get Anga Dugrega to Lv. 21 that is..)

[F-Gattaca]

Well, that's the thing ... for some reason Go Vahras rarely hit Raul. For me, there's just no escaping them. Yet maybe 60-75% of the time, when a Go Vahra tries to leap at Raul and he's close range ... they'll slide around him; in such a situation getting grazed by a Go Vahra would drop me on the floor, but for Raul he doesn't get hit nearly as often (or for nearly as much).

[XenithFlare]

On 2007-09-11 09:10, amtalx wrote:
If you are doing 100 damage with a Lvl 26 bullet you just need better equipment. This game is all numbers so there isn't any magic trick to doing more damage. More damage means higher levels, better equipment, or both.

Not much is better than a +10 Shigga Bines...

[ljkkjlcm9]

I've always found spiral dance to completely own Go Vahra

THE JACKEL

[panzer_unit]

Yeah, moves with multiple knockbacks pwn Go Vahra. They come running up, get tripped and given their GTFO... then a bunch of their buddies go flying... they get up and run back just as you're ready for the next PA.

Anga Durega, Burning Hit + Rising Strike, and Bogga Danga are all personal favorites against those jerks.

[biggabertha]

On 2007-09-11 09:14, XenithFlare wrote:

On 2007-09-11 09:10, amtalx wrote:
If you are doing 100 damage with a Lvl 26 bullet you just need better equipment. This game is all numbers so there isn't any magic trick to doing more damage. More damage means higher levels, better equipment, or both.

Not much is better than a +10 Shigga Bines...

Oh bugger... Well, the only other things I suppose is race and/or class type. Um... Maybe where you're shooting the De Ragan? Still, an extra 200 damage per bullet is quite... Astounding. Only four levels of difference in PAs? Wow.. That really is perplexing..

On topic: I'd like to try out doublesabers one of these days to find out how well the dances work but I just see a lot of spin and flash when I see others use it, it doesn't seem very appealing to me when I compare it to the no-nonsense Axe PAs which get straight to the point with very little flash (I suppose you can't do much flash with something THAT huge or heavy). Still, if it's useful, I suppose I ought to level and laternative character to try it out.

The Go Vahras seem to slip around your friend? Wow... That's quite cool but the melee strafing is a lot more versatile than the ranged strafing and it's much easier for meleers to quickly get behind an enemy even while strafing than a ranged strafe.


Ahhh... All this talk about melee and ranged wants me to do some testing with my Protranser who can do both!

(Also, didn't Sophia post a video shoing how to dodge Go Vahras and handle them with just the Crossbow? Or do you need a controller/analogue support for that? Sorry, I don't remember..)

[CelestialBlade]

The worst part about them to my Guntecher is their ridiculous hit boxes. Their stupid jump attack can hit me when their claws don't even TOUCH me. As I understand it, AoI is fixing that so that's good, but otherwise they tear me up too. What I have noticed is that if you don't always run, you can mess with their heads. If you think they're going to do the jump attack, run towards them. They do hurt but their AI is pretty easy to fool. Get them to think you're doing one thing, then change it up before they know you've changed your strategy.