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The Witcher 2Hardly ever use Strong Attack(10 posts)(10 posts)
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Posted July 20, 2011
I never seem to use strong attack in the game.

I'm always using fast, getting a chain of blows in against the enemies, because it leaves me less open from attacks and everything,

I'm not really seeing the point in strong blows, fast seems so much better, even on the massive slower enemies....can anyone enlighten me on this?
Posted July 20, 2011
Well, I don't know what to tell you. The strong style hits harder, and has a much easier time of bypassing armor. There's not much use for it when fighting unarmored (or otherwise weak) enemies, but whenever you're up against someone wearing an armor (natural or otherwise), you'll notice that the strong style will whittle down their vitality quicker. Like you say, though, it comes with risks due to the slower attacks. It's possible you won't 'need' to use the strong style unless you're also playing on a higher difficulty, I guess; but I've always found situational use for either attack type all the time, but I'm playing on Hard.
Post edited July 20, 2011 by Kindo
Posted July 20, 2011
I think it's pretty obvious that one can finish the game with no hassle by using only the light attack. The only downside being the fact that enemies' vitality will drop slower.

The heavy attack is simply a slower and powerful version of the light one. Powerful sometimes could mean even one-hit kill if crit intervenes, or some roughly 50% of enemies' vitality. The point being a clear superior hit in terms of damage per hit.

I don't see what the enlightenment is all about, tbh. You can play and finish lots of games without using certain skills, spells, weapons... etc.
Posted July 20, 2011
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endtherapture: I never seem to use strong attack in the game.

I'm always using fast, getting a chain of blows in against the enemies, because it leaves me less open from attacks and everything,

I'm not really seeing the point in strong blows, fast seems so much better, even on the massive slower enemies....can anyone enlighten me on this?
Endrega Warrior --> trapped by Yirden --> one, sometimes two strong blows and it's gone.

So no, I don't think the strong attack is generally useless. It's also your first choice when fighting heavily armored foes. It just brings them down much quicker.

Of course if you chose not to use it...well it's up to you. ;)
Posted July 20, 2011
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Highlancer: The point being a clear superior hit in terms of damage per hit.
But also a much bigger chance for the enemy to eat you while you try to hit it. You can initiate a fast swing from several steps away, even a powerful whirl attack. For a strong swing, you need to go toe on toe with the enemy. And due to the forced pause between taking a step and taking a swing, the other one most likely hits you before you have the chance. Because while you press your key over and over, you're already receiving damage. Once they started hitting you, you can only block or roll, but in the end you have damage, they don't. So until they fix the controls, fast attack just is the safer bet, especially on hard difficulty. If you want to use the strong attack, it is indeed advised to trap the enemy first. That is up to personal playing style then.
Posted July 20, 2011
Fast starts a combo and staggers your opponent, then strong attacks finish out the combo and kill your enemy quickly. Very useful against nekkers, but it works against pretty much everything.

It's not useless, just not very good for the first strike because of how slow it is.
Posted July 20, 2011
Let's have a look at this from a 'realistic combat' point-of-view:

Your fast attack is your regular swinging of the sword for the standard combat situation when opponents exchange hits and parries. You take short swings and put little momentum in it, so that you can quickly react to any occuring situation and at the same time try to outmaneuver your opponent/push him into defence/take control of combat. Hits will surely be hurtful, but won't have much effect (especially not against armored targets).

Into the strong attack on the other hand, you put all your strength and gather a lot of momentum by taking a wide swing. This, of course, takes time and the weight/momentum of the sword make it difficult to react quickly. The consequence is that you use your strong attacks when you see a clear opening in your opponent's defence and you're safe for the time your blow will take. These are the blows that will occur only occasionally, but decide the outcome of the fight by doing massive harm, i.e. break bones or leave deep slashes.

Long story short: IMO the mechanic of fast and strong blows is well thought-out, as it resembles my picture of how melee combat works, and the damage is well-balanced with the fast attacks being a bit too strong against armored targets, maybe.
Posted July 20, 2011
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endtherapture: I never seem to use strong attack in the game.

I'm always using fast, getting a chain of blows in against the enemies, because it leaves me less open from attacks and everything,

I'm not really seeing the point in strong blows, fast seems so much better, even on the massive slower enemies....can anyone enlighten me on this?
Play in hard or insane difficulty, i found starting an attack with a quick swing tells me whether I can follow it up with a stronger one most of the time. Especially when the opponents blocks, which one wouldn't want it when the strong move at the first swing knocks back with a. delayed attack, b. knockback from shield.
Posted July 20, 2011
I find that if I nailed down the timing of the attacks, I use strong attacks more often than fast attacks, contrary to most of you :).

Light attack:
- The good: The ability to leap attack a far away opponent. Combo attack is devastating if you catch your enemy off-guard (i.e. you don't get hit/blocked while executing it)
- The so-so: While it is quick half the time, sometimes it's barely faster than strong attack. Note that fast attack takes several form.
- The bad: Auto-target can be rather jumpy. So if you are fighting a mob, there's a decent chance of attacking an unintended target, affecting your flow of combat and even causing unexpected injury/death. This is somewhat circumvented by very careful isolation of enemy.

Strong attack
- The good: 2x un-deducted damage compared to that of light attack. How does this affect the effective damage? Say you have 30 damage (the one shown on character screen), your enemy has 15 armor, so your light attack deals 30-15 = 15 effective damage. If you use strong attack, each hit deals 60-15=45 effective damage. So depending on the enemy's armor, you can get higher than 2x the effective damage.
- The good II: Larger arc of attack. More likely to damage multiple enemies at once.
- The good III: You are rooted at the spot. So the jumpy auto-targetting has far less effect on you.
- The bad: It's generally slow. If you don't get the timing, you are susceptible to injury.

That's why I use strong attack whenever my intended target is within weapon reach. I've been playing on Hard since my first playthrough on Normal.
Posted July 20, 2011
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vAddicatedGamer: I find that if I nailed down the timing of the attacks, I use strong attacks more often than fast attacks, contrary to most of you :).

Light attack:
- The good: The ability to leap attack a far away opponent. Combo attack is devastating if you catch your enemy off-guard (i.e. you don't get hit/blocked while executing it)
- The so-so: While it is quick half the time, sometimes it's barely faster than strong attack. Note that fast attack takes several form.
- The bad: Auto-target can be rather jumpy. So if you are fighting a mob, there's a decent chance of attacking an unintended target, affecting your flow of combat and even causing unexpected injury/death. This is somewhat circumvented by very careful isolation of enemy.

Strong attack
- The good: 2x un-deducted damage compared to that of light attack. How does this affect the effective damage? Say you have 30 damage (the one shown on character screen), your enemy has 15 armor, so your light attack deals 30-15 = 15 effective damage. If you use strong attack, each hit deals 60-15=45 effective damage. So depending on the enemy's armor, you can get higher than 2x the effective damage.
- The good II: Larger arc of attack. More likely to damage multiple enemies at once.
- The good III: You are rooted at the spot. So the jumpy auto-targetting has far less effect on you.
- The bad: It's generally slow. If you don't get the timing, you are susceptible to injury.

That's why I use strong attack whenever my intended target is within weapon reach. I've been playing on Hard since my first playthrough on Normal.
This has been a very educational post. I will now scuttle back to my cave.
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The Witcher 2Hardly ever use Strong Attack(10 posts)(10 posts)
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