Even the burger kings aren't an issue. I basically just need to get the drop and it's over. So I move in quickly and get them done before they start casting obnoxious glintstone spells. Even if they don't go down, I cancel their cast and get plenty of time to stick a quick finisher before they can react.
The powerstance roll attack is a heavy dual-smash that kind of flings you forward a little, like a quicker jump attack with a forward trajectory instead of an upward one. The powerstance jump itself is just a super-punishing dual-smash. Both have heavy stagger. So you can roll back or to the side and immediately flip towards your target with an aggressive slam attack. Ground pound. It buys you a couple extra frames to react as the enemy is broken out of whatever action they are doing. Powerstance running and standing attacks involve mixes of piercing and swinging. You can split up the stages across enemies by leading into an enemy on one end of the mob and at the same time you are striking them, swing your targeting to the other side of the mob in time for the swinging-slash second phase to smack all of the enemies between the two hard. Keep it going if there's more. You can use that roll attack that transitions to a lunging slam to get the drop on the next nearest combatant. Set up to do more stabbing and swinging. There have been times where I just got the first strike off when I noticed an enemy coming in for a strike from a completely different direction and all I had to do was throw the camera on them and I caught them with the end of the combo and killed them. In a few clean seconds you can wipe out multiple mobs of weak or medium-strength enemies. It's really satisfying to hang back just a little and line up chains of strikes on enemies. The damage on each hit is pretty good with em both keen +16. With the right flow, you can easily control the field on all horizontal axes. I'm absolutely destroying those giant crayfish all around Liurnia. They are a two-hit kill.
I've also got sword dance on the right-hand one. With the first L trigger press, it's just a two part swinging/lunging attack. It gives you two big lunges forward with attacks in between each lunge. Very good as a gap closer, and each hit does a lot of damage and chips down a lot of poise. You can also hit it a second time as that's finishing to get a third punishing downwards slam from over the shoulder. As a bonus, the third optional hit in the combo has hyperarmor for that guaranteed hit through almost any enemy move in the game. So if you have the vigor and negation to tank whatever hit may be coming in that moment, you can use the first two hits in the combo to get in and then all you have to do is start the 3rd and though you'll trade damage, you'll double the total damage done and deal a massive blow to their poise (often enough to set up a crit.) I like to pull off a few regular hit, maybe land a jump attack... to better ensure that the combo starts a crit, letting me stick that crit damage and then heal from the trade while they are recovering behind their iframes.
It's like this grandiose hail mary blitz. You cover a good few meters of distance across the full three attacks, too. It's a great DEX-weapon ash of war that you can get really early and apply with the very first whetstone you find... provided you are speccing into DEX. It's a bit like the Bloodhound Fang's unique multi-move, high agility, distance-cover left-trigger move, only instead of teleports you get regular lunges and hyperarmor with slower, harder-hitting attacks. And if you put it on any decently long weapon, you get a multiplication factor on the fairly great reach that Sword Dance already has. Sometimes, it is enough reach to start the combo completely beyond an enemy's attack radius and if they stagger, replace their combo with yours and basically take over the fight in terms of the damage and control that alone can net you. The first attack can start a good half-meter out your own range and still connect solidly, if you have a pollaxe-length weapon. You can sometimes even go a little further back than that and still have the first hit connect. Or you can just use it for movement and capitalize on the second and third, where more than two thirds of the damage is.
Thus far, no invader-type human enemies have survived the whole combo. It usually knocks them on their ass. The damage and knockback that move has with a heavy weapon like a halberd just overwhelms them. I also like how stylish and graceful it looks. When you have a buff on the end it really looks slick.
Sometimes I swap for an incantation seal on the left hand. Even one of these swordspears is pretty good. They actually have a unique variant of the halberd moveset shared only with Loretta's sickle. Regular light attacks are a quick upwards slash that follows up with a nice, wide slicing swoop. Looks cool and can also be used how I described above. You only get that move when you wield one. The powerstance moveset is all regular halberd. Normal heavy attack is always normal halberd. Overall, it is slightly faster than a normal halberd, though - an advantage that matters less when you powerstance, as you are essentially getting suuuper-wide, extra-heavy, distance-covering attacks in exchange for speed. Swapping to the single lets you be more reactive. And buffed with lightning, it still does major damage. It just lacks the oomph to poise, the knockback. But it can really save your ass, too. Sometimes I switch to the single mid combat just because it gets you into much tighter windows, which you may sometimes need to do very suddenly if they start getting around you with the lumbering powerstance moves. But it's like regardless of what may be coming at you, there is always another option you can switch to on the fly for dealing with it.
I only have an effective 30 DEX at level 67 (base is a measely 25 +5 from a Radagon's Soreseal I swiped before I ever leveled up,) and I'm still breezing through everything in Liurnia. I've taken advantage of these things' huge power to level vigor up to an effective 40. I also have the Scaled Armor and Scaled Grieves to make up for that negation loss. With Godrick Soldier Gauntlets and the Bandit Mask, it all adds up to 62 poise and 15%+ negation on average, in spite of having the soreseal talisman penalty in effect. Most I can wear with just a couple points invested in endurance, and the 5 level endurance boost from the soreseal. I find myself able to tank some hits pretty well - this set even has really good magic negation, though I usually don't take many hits before the damage has piled up on the enemy. Many times, even larger enemies like the crabs and the crayfish don't even get a good chance to land an attack on me before it is over. I put the claw talisman in the other slot, which I think increases jump attack damage by something like 15%. I invested a good few points into FAI, and a smidgen into INT so I could have enough to put lightning or holy buffs on my weapons.
With my physick, I gain enough FAI to use the Golden Vow incant, which is awesome to have for bosses. It gives you a flat 15% damage boost and +10% negation, both flat applied to every type. To put that into perspective, the coveted Magic Scorpion Charm talisman gotten mid-late game towards the end of Seluvis's quest gives what is a pretty great 12% boost to magic damage only, with the addition of a 10% negation PENALTY. So Golden Vow is quite a strong buff, acting like one of those damage percentage talismans, only it affects virtually all attacks, without the defense penalty, in addition to adding the same negation boost a Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman. It's like two of the best general talismans for the cost of a few measly FP. You can even stack it with damage boosts gained through other means like talismans, typed-percentage-boost crystal tears, and items. For instance, you can combine it with the lightning or fire scorpion charm to get whopping combined 27% total damage boost to anything dealing those damage types, whether they be buffs, incantations, certain ashes... And THEN, you could pair-up with the appropriate fire or lighting damage percentage tear matching the percentage talisman, to take it up to fucking 47% boost to your damage. AND you are cancelling the negation loss from that 12% talisman.
I just need to go and get it out towards Mt. Gelmir. This whole thing has been coming together so nicely. I really like this build so far.
'6 and 8 in the morning where I live'
