Okay, what advantages do Partisans have over Swords?

[Elusive_Llama]

Seeing that Partisans have the short end of the stick when it comes to ATP (fully ground Red Partisan is only 375 ATP...less than a dragon slayer), what exactly is their strength?

I've been using a sword and my partisan, both with a god/battle, and the speeds are nearly identical. It's just that the sword has over 250 more ATP than the partisan.

What gives? Why are partisans so weak? I can understand maybe a 100ATP difference, but 250 ATP is just ridiculous. As another example...the T-J sword has 856 ATP fully ground. The S-rank partisan, the most powerful partisan i know of, has 410 ATP fully ground. Right...

[VulpesMundi]

The partisans are indead alot less useful in this version when compared to previous versions. Their power is rediculously low, even on the special ones. They have slightly better ATA, but when you consider that a Red Sword winds up with 715 ATP at max grind, that 7 ATA advantage on the Red Partisan seems pretty lame. The only real usefulness about the partisans is that they have a better combo and recovery time at the end of the combo. It's possible to actually use a full combo with a partisan and still not get hit, especially with a God/Battle equipped. However, with that lackluster power I find it more convenient to just take the hit at the end of a sword combo (except in C-mode where I usually only use two-hit combos), assuming the enemy wasn't killed by the sheer power of my Red Sword.

[MasterJoel]

Even though they lack power, I like partisans for their slightly quicker speed, higher accuracy, and slightly longer range than a sword... plus they look cooler (to me, anyway)! Plus, I have a red partisan, but to this point, and red swordless...

and they look coolest with short characters. yeah...

[Elusive_Llama]

Red Sword: 711 ATP
Red Partisan: 375 ATP

711 - 375 = 336.

Wow, that's crazy. The Red Sword is almost twice as powerful. I'd sure like to know the reason why partisans were nerfed so badly.

I mean, is it so hard to balance the stats out like this?

Red Sword: 711
Red Partisan: 550

That would have been a difference of 161 ATP, substantial enough to make enough people switch to Red Swords, yet not so much that others might not want to use Red Partisans for their speed, accuracy and reach.

[dj_dan]

Rangers can equip regular Partisans like Berdys, Gungnir etc.

There's one difference.