User blog:Seieireppa/Matt's Rage Burst usage tips for all blade types

This is just me going into detail about my battle style for all the different weapon/gun types.

With the exception of the Blood Arts that are italicized, these tips are applicable to GE2 vanilla as well.

Short Blade:  Preferred Blood Arts are Hell Spiral or Astral Dive.

With Hell Spiral, you can break parts easily and stun enemies reliably due to the high damage output. The only risks are the continuous HP drain per hit and the inability to cancel out of it via guard or combo devour. It works well with all short blades and is generally your best option for reliable DPS. Note that, in GE2 vanilla, Hell Spiral can only be used when your HP is below 40%.

Astral Dive can produce among the highest BA damage numbers in the game, rivaling CC Boosted/The End and Evolution, but only works effectively under two conditions:  one, the enemy should have a readily accessible weak spot that can be hit from above (at an angle), and two, you need a short blade that has OO in an element the enemy is weak to. It requires a charge (about 1 second) but leaves you overall less vulnerable and less prone to being one-shotted than Hell Spiral does.

Long Blade:  Preferred Blood Arts are Gale Katana: Iron, Roaring Katana: Gold, Drive Twister, or Falling Petal Katana: Crimson if you're feeling adventurous.

Gale Katana Iron deals a bunch of additional strikes that deal little damage individually, BUT even if you only barely scrape the Aragami's body part, ALL of the strikes still hit. It is an excellent way to keep moving, and it is easily comboable from normal combo > Zero Stance > Gale Katana: Iron without pause. It is also a neat way for fast movement on the field via ZS > triangle, similarly to advance step combos with short blade.

Roaring Katana: Gold requires a charge in a manner not unlike Falling Petal Katana: Crimson, but deals three extremely powerful hits (at level 3+4) upon contact. It is a decent way for Long Blade users to deal high burst damage without committing to a longer combo.

Drive Twister is an interesting BA. The damage multiplier is not that high compared to Roaring Katana: Gold or Falling Petal Katana: Crimson, but the distance and speed of this BA make it incredibly useful as a tactical repositioning tool for hit-and-run tactics. Because it affects the normal triangle attack and is not a ZS BA, you can combo right into it from a square or triangle combo to pursue fleeing enemies. Additionally, it is SUPERB for fast, stamina-free movement on the field.

Falling Petal Katana: Crimson requires a significant charge time and thus is incredibly risky and should never be used against fast or frequently-moving Aragami. Its range is incredibly short (literally only as long as your weapon), so you'll need to be right up against the enemy to use it. However, if you can manage to keep the enemy in place (either by them just not moving away or by inflicting Hold), you can charge this up and let it loose for incredibly high damage numbers. However, be warned that both this and Roaring Katana: Gold replace your Zero Stance animation with unique charging animation, and thus negate Zero Stance's use as a combo cancel tool.

I declined to put Infinite Katana: Azure on this list because, while it is versatile, the numbers it produces aren't high enough to make it worthwhile when compared to blood arts such as those described above.

Buster Blade:  Preferred Blood Arts are Riot Swing, CC•Boosted, or CC•Destruct.

Riot Swing is best for overall reliable DPS. It grants superarmor and nullifies enemy defense partially; as a result, with a decent setup, you should reliably be putting out damage numbers anywhere from 1200-1900 with regular attacks.

CC•Boosted should only be used with a buster blade with the Charge Speed Up skill, as the charge time is simply too great otherwise. However, its damage is among the highest for all BAs, allowing for damage numbers of over 9000 with a good setup and element matchup against the enemy.

CC•Destruct is overall my favorite BB BA. The multiple hits make it easy to level up and increase the likelihood of stunning an enemy or breaking a part if the initial hit does not do so. If you have Charge Speed Up, this is overall the best BA to use for repeated attacks if you're going for a Charge Crush-exclusive build. As a bonus, the pillar of light, the spikes, and subsequent explosions all have vertical range, making it easy to land successive hits on Sariel-family Aragami.

Boost Hammer:  Preferred Blood Art is Tenderizer.

Really, Tenderizer is the only BA you should be using with the boost hammer. While Blaze/Iron Heart might be tempting, your primary mode of attack with the boost hammer should ALWAYS be Boost Rush, and Tenderizer makes it incredibly easy to capitalize on the effectiveness of Boost Rush. It boosts your damage numbers and attack speed to the point where you'll be hitting almost as fast as a short blade square combo.

Charge Spear:  Preferred Blood Arts are Hurricane Type A, Evolution, or Charge Driver.

Hurricane Type A is good for pressuring using repeated combo attacks. It entirely replaces your square combo with an infinite slashing combo that consumes stamina per hit. Effective for the same reasons as Blood-Splattering Dance for the short blade. With this BA, you can chain into it from a Charge Glide, and you can end it with a triangle finisher at levels 3 and 4. Builds that use this BA should focus on attacking an Aragami's legs to inflict Down.

Evolution is tricky to use, but can output the highest damage numbers in the game, hands down (I have seen single hits deal >100k damage even though the display can only show 99999, although this was obviously with a VERY gimmicky setup). Use a good distance from the enemy for maximum damage. It can be tricky to aim if the enemy is one that likes to move a lot, so, for best results, inflict Hold or Down before using.

Charge Driver is good if you'd rather not move around too much. For maximum effectiveness, use a spear that has OO in an element an enemy is weak to. It deals three hits (I've gotten one of 4000 and two of 2000 on average with a good setup) and gives a damage boost on critical hits (which is why I mentioned the OO element stipulation). Probably the best BA to use against the Crimson Orochi if you don't want to cheese it with my anti-CO build.

Variant Scythe:  Preferred Blood Arts are Savage Bite and Mortal Divide/Execution.

Savage Bite is the least risky of these and easiest to use overall. However, its damage is not as high as the others. It is rather versatile, allowing for repositioning at will with dashing and continuing the combo at the end of the dash.

Mortal Divide is my personal favorite BA along with Hell Spiral. Its hits many times at level 4, and the damage is incredibly high (I've output in the area of 10000+ damage with all hits combined). The only downside is the risk of the enemy moving out of the way, but, again, you can freely reposition yourself with dashing and continuing the attack at the end of the dash. If you want even higher numbers, go with Execution, but be aware that it requires incredibly precise timing.