Stances

Demodude - Dreamweaver

So I recently made a seeker and in all the guides I've read stances are talked about a lot and about how important they are but its never really explained well what stances are. Can anyone explain that? Would be a huge helpb:victory

Alsiadorra - Sanctuary

Stances: (The Stance -> Associated Skill)

Northern Sky Waltz -> Staggering Strike
PerchBlade Dance -> Stalagstrike
Soulsever Minuet -> Gemini Slash
Duelist's Glee -> Arme Nier　

Sakubatou - Sanctuary

Stances are self buffs that, while active, have a chance to place a status on the opponent whenever you attack them. If you then use their associated skill while they have the status effect on them then they will be debuffed.

For instance you use Northern Sky Waltz (NSW) and start attacking a boss, after 7 hits the boss receives the NSW status effect. You then decide to attack with Staggering Strike, triggering the debuff of -20 attack levels.

You start a boss. Knowing he hits hard you switch to Soulsever Minuet. After 2 hits he receives the Soulsever Minuet effect so you quickly cast a Gemini Strike causing the debuff to become active and debuff the boss for 10 attack and 10 def levels.

Demodude - Dreamweaver

Thank you!!

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

Stances are self buffs that, while active, have a chance to place a status on the opponent whenever you attack them. If you then use their associated skill while they have the status effect on them then they will be debuffed.

For instance you use Northern Sky Waltz (NSW) and start attacking a boss, after 7 hits the boss receives the NSW status effect. You then decide to attack with Staggering Strike, triggering the debuff of -20 attack levels.

You start a boss. Knowing he hits hard you switch to Soulsever Minuet. After 2 hits he receives the Soulsever Minuet effect so you quickly cast a Gemini Strike causing the debuff to become active and debuff the boss for 10 attack and 10 def levels.

Exellent explanation.

When doing big bosses, I like to start off with Soulsever active, fully debuff him, attack a few times until the stance procs, Gemeni, then switch to Northern Sky and continue with normal attacks. Using methods like this, your damage output will be a lot higher than if you just throw a couple of debuffs and then Vortex. Plus it increases the damage out put of the rest of the squad, and it decreases the amount of damage the boss is dealing. In some situations, this effect can be critical to the survival of the squad.

Sakubatou - Sanctuary

SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »

Exellent explanation.

When doing big bosses, I like to start off with Soulsever active, fully debuff him, attack a few times until the stance procs, Gemeni, then switch to Northern Sky and continue with normal attacks. Using methods like this, your damage output will be a lot higher than if you just throw a couple of debuffs and then Vortex. Plus it increases the damage out put of the rest of the squad, and it decreases the amount of damage the boss is dealing. In some situations, this effect can be critical to the survival of the squad.

That's pretty much what I do. If we have a fast squad with organized debuffs (HF, EP, Amp...) I'll just start with NSW (Northern Sky Waltz). I use Sacrificial Slash which self debuffs for -20 defense levels or more, then QpQ it over to the boss. For me its -24 def levels. It also stacks with your stance debuffs, so with NSW its a -44 defense level debuff. The goal is to get Heart Shatter, NSW, and to QpQ your Sacrificial Strike to the boss within a couple second, so use blade affinity to get many attacks in. Combine that with all the other debuffs and its crazy damage and bosses go down fast.

If it looks like a sin will be tanking for a prolonged period of time though I start with Gemini Slash. Gemini Slash has a -10 def level and -10 attack level debuff and lasts 3 minutes. If there is a barb in squad though I wouldn't bother, since Devour offers -15 attack levels against the boss, although it only lasts 4 seconds. It overwrites, which is kind of annoying and means your attack level debuff will usually be overwritten quickly.

If there is no barb in squad then go for it. Spirit Bore (Soulsever's effect) has a 50% chance of procing so its really easy to get on in 1-3 attacks. So I start with Heart Shatter, auto attack 3 times to place Spirit Bore then triple spark, blade affinity, Gemini Slash, Sac Slash-QpQ, then switch to NSW then get about 3 more attacks in on my blade affinity, usually enough to activate NSW. NSW will overwrite Gemini Slashes def level debuff but replace it with a -20 def level debuff. Now you have -10 attack levels from the boss and -20 def levels. The sin takes less damage and gets about 20% more paint heals. Also, with the burst damage caused by using stances, SS=QpQ, Heart Shatter, triple spark, and Blade Affinity with about 5 skills you should hold aggro for a little bit.

SylenThunder - Twilight Temple

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

..If there is a barb in squad though I wouldn't bother, since Devour offers -15 attack levels against the boss, although it only lasts 4 seconds. It overwrites, which is kind of annoying and means your attack level debuff will usually be overwritten quickly. ...

Yes, this I hate quite a lot. Finally finish the debuffing and then a barb will cast devour.