Clearly I picked the wrong build.
The fact that there's a wrong build really pisses me off.
There isn't.
I'm gonna go ahead and say that dual swords with light armor is a wrong build. Die in one or two hits and horrible range.
Also does this game not have i-frames on the dodge? Ugh.
Yes it does. And that's a valid build. However, feel free to wear heavier armour so long as you remain in the green, if you die too fast heavy armour will help but your dodging will still be fast if you are in the green.
I mean I read through them, no I didn't study each and every skill and open a spreadsheet to determine the perfect build for this particular boss. I thought I was playing a fucking souls-style action RPG here. I'm not trying to read through 50 different individual skills and decipher the best build here.
Sigh... yes it's a Souls-style action-RPG, but it's not a Souls clone, so if you don't want to struggle all the time you should learn the mechanics that are unique to this game instead of plugging your ears going "la-la can't hear you". The skill tree is important. You don't need to analyze and decipher all of them yet, but if you are struggling so bad it can't hurt to take a look and see if there isn't something that could give you an edge, right?
...also I was only concerned with low stance because that's where you supposedly get the good i-frames on the dodge (according to another poster in this thread). Mid/high might as well not exist.
Mid stance on dual kats is awesome. You get a good combo (God of Wind), and a fantastic triangle-parry (though that's unlocked much later IIRC).
High stance is also great. Windstorm is one of the most powerful skills in the game. When I still sucked at the game back in the beta, I still managed to win against a boss a lot of people considered very hard (Twilight mode even) doing nothing but Souls-style rolling in high stance and the Windstorm attack and won on my first try despite doing tons of sloppy mistake (video of me winning despite sucking
here), that's how good that skill is.
For single katana make sure you get the kick combo finisher and/or the Block + Triangle ki attack, as it's good to drain ki and you want to do that often, it's very efficient against Tachibana because you get free critical hits.
I ignored Onmyo completely. I didn't realize this game forced you to use magic. Again, I've been playing it like Souls. It presents itself like Souls. In Souls I ignore magic.
*eye-roll*
No, the game doesn't force you to use magic. But you are saying you are struggling, so people give you tips that could help or give you an edge. How about you stop this passive-aggressive whining?
Ok, so tell me which weapon tree I should focus on then.
1- I don't want to change stances, ever
2- I don't want to use magic, ever
3- I want to dodge around a lot and play this like Bloodborne
4- I need good i-frames on dodge/roll
What should I be using then? 'cuz it ain't dual swords.
Dual swords are fine. So are single katanas. It's all I ever used on this playthrough actually. I do use
some magic (weapon buffs and ki-draining debuffs, mainly) but rarely, hell I often forget I have them. Low-stance katana is so fast it's almost Blades of Mercy like, mid-stance is similar to the Chikage in speed but with more horizontal strikes than vertical (high stance has the slower, more powerful vertical attacks).
That said, #1 is dumb. The stances are a core mechanic of the gameplay. It's like staunchly refusing to use the regain system or the gun in Bloodborne because "that's not in Dark Souls and I want to play this like Dark Souls". Each stance has their advantages and trade-offs.
