just guard tip

[soulpimpwizzurd]

sometimes i'll guard too soon and i know i won't be within the timing window of just guard, but this kinda helps.

if you hold w when you press shift, you character spams the guard action, so if you think you missed the window, you can just hold w, let go of shift and press and hold it immediately after letting it go again, right when you think you'll make the timing. it feels kinda uncomfortable because if you hold w you'll move in that direction, but for some reason it makes just guarding easier for me.

not holding w and releasing shift while standing still makes you character do some kind of disabling guard animation. so you can't spam guard unless you hold w which is awkward at first.

if i really want to just guard an attack i'll hold guard a second or two before the attack is performed by an enemy and i'll wait until the window for just guard opens, and do what i just mentioned above. it feels safer and more accurate for me.

[gigawuts]

Hm, I'll try this.

What do people do about blocking during their own attacks when they see something coming their way? A lot of people make it sound like blocking can be done at any instant they need to, but either they're not continuously attacking (so doing less than their max potential damage) or they're doing something I'm not. Do you just let up when you're not sure what the boss is doing, or do you really know all of everything's tells THAT well?

Also, I wish the partisan allowed instant blocking like it allows instant dashing. Now that I'm getting in the habit of blocking it feels unintuitive.

[Crux]

I haven't played around with sword too much, but it supposedly has the best block I dunno if that means speed or absorbtion.

As far as wired Lance goes except during PAs it seems like I can interrupt attacks with a block within 1 or 2 frames of starting the attack though. Are you just holding M1(or whatever button) or are you tapping it with timing for just attacks?

[Sigmund]

Half and half. As a sword, you can cancel your attacks quickly into guard. You mostly want to learn the time gap you have between the boss' attacks and take a defensive stance once they are ready to prowl again.

[NoiseHERO]

Yeah I don't block much...

But I found this out just pressing random buttons...

Then just used how it looked to hump my party members.

Spamming the block could work, half the time? Otherwise just use it to reinforce you timing-I dunno.

[gigawuts]

I haven't played around with sword too much, but it supposedly has the best block I dunno if that means speed or absorbtion.

As far as wired Lance goes except during PAs it seems like I can interrupt attacks with a block within 1 or 2 frames of starting the attack though. Are you just holding M1(or whatever button) or are you tapping it with timing for just attacks?

Always just attacks. I did notice animations seem to be cut shorter with blocking than with dodging, by a considerable amount. I'm not sure if it actually is or if it's my imagination, or if it's the timing is the same and you're invulnerable even when you wouldn't think during a dodge.

Half and half. As a sword, you can cancel your attacks quickly into guard. You mostly want to learn the time gap you have between the boss' attacks and take a defensive stance once they are ready to prowl again.

Yeah, I guess at this point the block is a conscious thing so that ever so slight delay makes the difference. Then there's the cases where all in a split second I hit the button, then I get hit, then I start blocking.

Dodging for me comes intuitively from other games, and it's not even a conscious thing for me half the time to dodge attacks. Now the fun is in unlearning that habit and building reflexes for both, heh.

[IceBlink]

Someone to help you learn just guard is... autoword. You can actually put in a phrase or something to help you know when you just successfully did a just guard. So once you've figured out the timing with the help of that, you can remove it afterwards.

[gigawuts]

Been practicing just guarding on the mammoth boss and good god, this is fun as hell. Great boss to practice on. Just grabbed just counter because of how fun this is.

[soulpimpwizzurd]

Hm, I'll try this.

What do people do about blocking during their own attacks when they see something coming their way? A lot of people make it sound like blocking can be done at any instant they need to, but either they're not continuously attacking (so doing less than their max potential damage) or they're doing something I'm not. Do you just let up when you're not sure what the boss is doing, or do you really know all of everything's tells THAT well?

Also, I wish the partisan allowed instant blocking like it allows instant dashing. Now that I'm getting in the habit of blocking it feels unintuitive.

i use this technique a lot if i'm trying to learn the timing for tells of a boss's attacks. once i get used to the boss i use it less. it depends on the ambiguity of the attack.

by ambiguity i mean this:
rockbear from forest regular arm punch:
not angry- 3 full arm circles then swings
angry- 2 full arm circles and swings twice, with a posssible elbow drop. can do one basic attack between each punch

yeti from tundra regular arm punch:
does some kind of jiggly dance that doesn't allow you to count or see any kind of movement of when it'll attack. jiggly dance just notifies you that it will attack soon, but jiggly dance has no tell of when it will attack immediately after.

i use guard "spam," although i don't spam it, i just refresh my "just guard timing window," when i think i need to, because actually just spamming guard and praying you'll guard it won't work nearly as well as timing it.

on your first response gigawuts, while i'm attacking if i see a boss rearing up, i think about how much time i have left before it'll attack, and how i should coordinate my attacks.

sword attacks pretty slowly so if i see a boss tell i generally know that i can pull off one or two attacks before i need to hold guard. it's a matter of internalizing how fast the weapon you use can attack, and understanding how to sync that with boss tells.

a lot of the time you can cut it pretty close as long as you hold shift after your last attack before the enemy's attack. it'll look glitchy but you'll get the just guard in just in time typically.

btw you got just counter, does it make photon arts just photon arts? or does it only effect the first melee basic attack, like it did in all the previous betas?
---------
mammoth boss is a fun boss to practice just guard on but i think the most fun one at this point is probably gonna be the panther boss of free tundra. it's really tough when both bosses get on to the field though if you're soloing.

on mammoth i just can't help abusing trick rave and attacking his weakspot on his back. so exploitable, trick rave.