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lynn.novice
05-30-2009, 12:29 AM
Triple Attack and Merciless Strike are 2 of, if not the most annoying skills in the game. They are spammable, with extremely fast executing animations and invincibility that ignores all sorts of damage. All these facts makes Shaolin a really cheap class and hated by everyone else.

One thing that really p(word) people off is that they are unable to hit Shaolins after these 2 skills being performed, reasons are that most non-Shaolin players do not know the animation sequences thus not knowing when to counter and as well as having trouble distinguish them, thus failing at their attacks.

This guide should help all Shaolin haters, (and lovers if any) to learn exactly how to deal with them.


The Sequences and Range

Triple Attack

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p366/lyan_2008_photo/tripleCombo.jpg

Triple Attack starts with a regular punch, then followed by another, and finally ends with a forward punch.


Merciless Strike

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p366/lyan_2008_photo/newMerci.jpg

Merciless Strike has its first 3 sequence exactly the same as Triple Attack, then followed by 2 more punches and finally ends with a kick.

Both attacks are Earth elemental.

Their striking range is just about over half of a Mage’s spell.

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p366/lyan_2008_photo/dist.jpg

Take note: most Shaolins combo these skills with dash, which significantly increase their attacking range.


Distinguish and Counter

The moment of Shaolin being vulnerable to all attacks is just when the final animation ends. Do not strike too early, or wait too long to attack, because this will either miss or the Shaolin will be able to move again. When you can accurately time your attack, then you should be able to hit a Shaolin at least 50% of the time.

Now, the most difficult part is to tell the differences between the 2, since Merciless Strike has its first 3 animations exactly the same as Triple Attack, this could easily to mess up the timing. To successfully counter these 2 skills, you have to know their damage output and pay some attention to it.


The following damage output is based on the assumptions below:

all players are properly equipped. This means no piece of regular armor is missing
earth elemental resistance is 0. ie no reduction to the damage
no cash shop items that may affect the damage output.


Then, normally, with Shaolin’s damage buff (all damages are only just an approximation):

Triple Attack: can go as high as in the low 50’s (around 51 damage per hit)
Merciless Strike: in the high 30’s (around 37)


Without Shaolin’s damage buff:


Triple Attack: in the low 40’s (around 41)
Merciless Strike: in the low 30’s. (around 33)


You can easily see that Triple Attack does a significant higher damage output than Merciless Strike.

However, with the fact that most people have elemental resistance and different defenses can cause the damage to differ by a lot and thus, makes them quite difficult to distinguish.

For example, with a high Earth resistance, Triple Attack could go as low as in the 30’s and Merciless Strike could down to a measly 19 or less damage per.


Facts that could have impact to the damage output:


Shaolin’s attack value (buff or no buff or anything that could alter the attack value)
Shaolin’s STR and INT (in non-STD mode)
Target’s DEX (in non-STD mode)
Target’s defence
Target’s earth elemental resistance
cash shop items


All of those could affect the damage output, but of course no-one will have the time to check on everything in a PvP battle. So you really just have to “guess” the damage, it is near impossible to remember the exact damage, but a close approximation is good enough for us. Usually a low 20-30’s would most likely be a Merciless Strike, and a high 30-50 could be a Triple Attack.


Skills for Countering

Do not use a regular attack or any short executing duration skills (like Fire Bolt), unless you are really confident at timing. Try use skills that have a long lasting duration, like Fire Wall, which stays in effect for quite a long time, this could almost guarantee you a hit.

List of good skills to use:


Warrior - Ice Spear, Double Attack
Berserker – Crescent Slash

Mage – Stone Guard
Elementalist– Stone Wave, Fire Wall, Blizzard, Earthquake
Summoner – Meteor

Beastmaster – Cutephant, Tough Bear
Sniper - Arrow Shower

Trapper – Boobby Trap, Poison Cloud

Monk – Blazing Kick
Counter – Dragon Kick

Priest - Thornbush (can hold Shaolins in place but does not stop them from using these 2 skills to escape)
Bishop – Holy Lighting
Dark Priest - Frenzy, Vampire Attack



Extra Note

There is a blind spot in these 2 skills. If a Shaolin is standing right next to his/her target (note: standing next to the target, not dashing into the target) and use these 2 skills, he/she will pass right through, and miss his/her target. This means that Shaolins cannot hit their targets that are right in front of the them during the skill execution.

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p366/lyan_2008_photo/range.jpg


Hopefully this post can help people understand more about these 2 skills and clear the confusions between them.

Any comments, feel free to post.

Enjoy~

lynn.novice
05-30-2009, 12:30 AM
Other suggested skills for countering:

i have a suggestion on the skills to use for priest
thornbush

and for darkpriest vampiric attack lasts a bit longer than other attacks

hope this helps

more suggestions
extreme thrust (or whatever its called)
weakness detection
and also i think the skill that makes the sin jump and throw shurikens
battle charge assasination and sonic slash might be okay too

Funkeymunkey
05-30-2009, 12:43 AM
Good info. I can never figure out whether they're using Triple or Merciless Strike. :(

cozcozcoz
05-30-2009, 03:08 AM
i have a suggestion on the skills to use for priest
thornbush

and for darkpriest vampiric attack lasts a bit longer than other attacks

hope this helps

lynn.novice
05-30-2009, 04:12 AM
Added thanks.

cozcozcoz
05-30-2009, 04:50 AM
more suggestions
extreme thrust (or whatever its called)
weakness detection
and also i think the skill that makes the sin jump and throw shurikens
battle charge assasination and sonic slash might be okay too

deoxys114
05-30-2009, 06:06 AM
Zomg. Thxs so much. I have such a hard time telling which is which. XD

That blind spot will also help knowing.

Thxs so much for the awesome guide!

lynn.novice
05-30-2009, 06:12 AM
Updated suggestions to second post, and np deoxys I'm glad this helped you.

doki_
05-30-2009, 08:27 AM
Lynn =]
iWuv your guides,mate. ^ ^

cozcozcoz
05-30-2009, 11:43 AM
oops batttle charge isnt effective sorry for the mistake ^_^
havent seen assasination yet but i think it would be good

raygeku
05-31-2009, 01:39 AM
We shouldn't have to guess to defeat our opponents.

darkest_mage
06-01-2009, 03:30 AM
still that move goes off way too fast, u are able to avoid a firewall/stone guard/stone pillar by simply starting another combo.... im sure its able to avoid all other moves as well. I play with spammy shaolins all the time so i know this for a fact. Also you forgot to say how much vertical range the move has =/ I sometimes be well into the air and still manage to get popped Still way to hard to overall conter right simply because diffrent people have diffrent jewlry for resistant... someguy might have say... all earth rings, earring, and belt so triple hit may do low dmg and might look like merciless thus throwing off a chance at countering :x nice guide tho, didnt learn anything i hope i would but nice none the less.

darklight6396
06-01-2009, 11:21 PM
Hmm...
The Shaolins always did get me with that move.
Sometimes I can easily counter it
but at other time it is just ti fast and the next thing u know I am dead.

ola_swirl
06-03-2009, 02:32 PM
Gosh, thank you so much! 8D

mage_bow
11-23-2009, 12:11 AM
They way i tell the difference is to me, Merciless strike seems red while Triple attack is normal. but thats just me :P