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DYNASTY WARRIORS 5 & XTREME LEGENDS
COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FOR CHAOS DIFFICULTY
Created by: Jonathan Leung
Email: jonnay_@hotmail.com
Version 2.07
Start Date: September, 2005
End Date: June, 2006
End Date: Sept, 2006 [XL]
End Date: August, 2007 (Full Weapon Customization)
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Table of Contents
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1.00 - Introduction
2.00 - Copyright
3.00 - Version History
4.00 - Legend
5.00 - General Information and Basics of Chaos Difficulty
5.01 - Changes to Xtreme Legends [XL]
6.00 - General Tips and Strategies of Handling Chaos Difficulty
6.01 - Suggested Items to Equip
6.02 - The Somersault, or Reorientation
6.03 - Eliminate or Avoid Archers
6.04 - Target Majors
6.05 - Attacking Enemies When They are in the Air
6.06 - Keep Your Enemies in Front of You
6.07 - Characters With Two Weapons
6.08 - Steer Clear of Enemy Attack Bases
6.09 - Fighting in Enemy Bases
6.10 - Keep Your Eye on the Detailed Map
6.11 - The Musou Rage
6.12 - The Importance of the Counterattack
6.13 - The Art of True Juggling
6.14 - Manually Increasing Your Attack Range
6.15 - The Non-Playable Spear General
6.16 - A Cheap Method of Defeating Generals with Ease
6.17 - Reasons For Choosing the Ice Orb or Fire Orb
6.18 - Having Your Back Facing a General
6.19 - Taking Advantage of Certain Solid Objects
6.20 - Outside Boundaries
6.21 - Attacks with High Height
6.22 - Unblockable Attacks
6.23 - Disconnected Ground
6.24 - Generals Approaching at a Distance
6.25 - Enemies that do not Flinch
6.26 - Weapon Power
6.27 - Weapon Weight Multiplier
6.28 - The Green Scroll
6.29 - The Disadvantages of Having a Bodyguard
6.30 - Unsuspected and Unwanted Displacement
6.31 - Enemies in Musou Rage
6.32 - Ice Orb Probability
6.33 - The True Way of Musou [XL]
6.34 - The Dragon Arms [XL]
6.35 - Damage-Free Zone
6.36 - Crowd Clearing vs Crowd Control
7.00 - Musou Rage Token and Meat Bun Locations for 5-star Difficulty Stages
7.01 - The Yellow Turban Rebellion (Yellow Turban Forces)
7.02 - The Battle of Chi Bi (Allied Forces)
7.03 - Conquest of Nan Zhong (Nanman Forces)
7.04 - The Siege of He Fei Castle (Wei Forces)
7.05 - The Siege of He Fei Castle (Wu Forces)
7.06 - Battle of Bai Di Castle (Wu Forces)
7.07 - Battle of Bai Di Castle (Shu Forces)
7.08 - Battle of Wu Zhang Plains (Wei Forces)
7.09 - Battle of Wu Zhang Plains (Shu Forces)
7.10 - Struggle for the Book (183AD) [XL]
7.11 - Rescue at Lou Sang Village (184AD) [XL]
7.12 - Ou Xing's Rebellion (187AD) [XL]
7.13 - The Ten Eunuchs' Rebellion (189AD) [XL]
7.14 - Battle of Yan Province (194AD) [XL]
7.15 - Imperial Rescue (195AD) [XL]
7.16 - The Two Qiaos (196AD) [XL]
7.17 - Husbands and Wives (200AD) [XL]
7.18 - Battle of Ji Castle (213AD) [XL]
7.19 - Battle of Jia Meng Gate (214AD) [XL]
7.20 - Battle of Yang Ping Gate (215AD) [XL]
7.21 - Battle of Ru Xu Kou (217AD) [XL]
7.22 - Battle of Han Shui (219AD) [XL]
7.23 - Battle of Mai Castle (219AD) [XL]
7.24 - Battle of Xin Castle (227AD) [XL]
7.25 - Battle of Shi Ting (228AD) [XL]
7.26 - Battle of Mt. Qi (231AD) [XL]
7.27 - Showdown at Nan Zhong (235AD) [XL]
8.00 - Individual Character Analyses for Dynasty Warriors 5
8.01 - Lu Bu
8.02 - Ma Chao
8.03 - Zhuge Liang
8.04 - Zhao Yun
8.05 - Wei Yan
8.06 - Gan Ning
8.07 - Xiahou Dun
8.08 - Pang De
8.09 - Zhang Liao
8.10 - Guan Yu
8.11 - Sima Yi
8.12 - Xu Huang
8.13 - Zuo Ci
8.14 - Ling Tong
8.15 - Meng Huo
8.16 - Pang Tong
8.17 - Zhang He
8.18 - Lu Xun
8.19 - Zhou Yu
8.20 - Xiao Qiao
8.21 - Yue Ying
8.22 - Guan Ping
8.23 - Lu Meng
8.24 - Xing Cai
8.25 - Liu Bei
8.26 - Cao Ren
8.27 - Huang Zhong
8.28 - Da Qiao
8.29 - Sun Shang Xiang
8.30 - Zhou Tai
8.31 - Zhang Fei
8.32 - Jiang Wei
8.33 - Yuan Shao
8.34 - Cao Pi
8.35 - Sun Quan
8.36 - Cao Cao
8.37 - Dong Zhuo
8.38 - Xu Zhu
8.39 - Xiahou Yuan
8.40 - Sun Jian
8.41 - Zhu Rong
8.42 - Zhen Ji
8.43 - Dian Wei
8.44 - Huang Gai
8.45 - Diao Chan
8.46 - Taishi Ci
8.47 - Sun Ce
8.48 - Zhang Jiao
9.00 - Individual Character Analyses for Xtreme Legends [XL]
9.01 - Lu Bu [XL]
9.02 - Zhou Tai [XL]
9.03 - Zhao Yun [XL]
9.04 - Ma Chao [XL]
9.05 - Lu Xun [XL]
9.06 - Wei Yan [XL]
9.07 - Gan Ning [XL]
9.08 - Zhang Liao [XL]
9.09 - Pang De [XL]
9.10 - Da Qiao [XL]
9.11 - Zhuge Liang [XL]
9.12 - Zuo Ci [XL]
9.13 - Ling Tong [XL]
9.14 - Yuan Shao [XL]
9.15 - Sun Quan [XL]
9.16 - Sima Yi [XL]
9.17 - Zhang He [XL]
9.18 - Nu Wa [XL]
9.19 - Liu Bei [XL]
9.20 - Xiahou Dun [XL]
9.21 - Zhang Fei [XL]
9.22 - Jiang Wei [XL]
9.23 - Xing Cai [XL]
9.24 - Lu Meng [XL]
9.25 - Dong Zhuo [XL]
9.26 - Guan Yu [XL]
9.27 - Zhou Yu [XL]
9.28 - Pang Tong [XL]
9.29 - Meng Huo [XL]
9.30 - Xu Huang [XL]
9.31 - Yue Ying [XL]
9.32 - Guan Ping [XL]
9.33 - Xiao Qiao [XL]
9.34 - Sun Jian [XL]
9.35 - Cao Pi [XL]
9.36 - Cao Cao [XL]
9.37 - Cao Ren [XL]
9.38 - Sun Shang Xiang [XL]
9.39 - Zhen Ji [XL]
9.40 - Huang Zhong [XL]
9.41 - Fu Xi [XL]
9.42 - Xiahou Yuan [XL]
9.43 - Taishi Ci [XL]
9.44 - Xu Zhu [XL]
9.45 - Dian Wei [XL]
9.46 - Zhu Rong [XL]
9.47 - Sun Ce [XL]
9.48 - Huang Gai [XL]
9.49 - Diao Chan [XL]
9.50 - Zhang Jiao [XL]
10.00 - Ideal Weapon Customizations (CAW) [XL]
10.01 - Bonus Attribute Chart
10.02 - Zhuge Liang [XL]
10.03 - Lu Bu [XL]
10.04 - Zhou Tai [XL]
10.05 - Zhao Yun [XL]
10.06 - Ma Chao [XL]
10.07 - Sun Jian [XL]
10.08 - Yuan Shao [XL]
10.09 - Pang De [XL]
10.10 - Zhang Liao [XL]
10.11 - Lu Meng [XL]
10.12 - Lu Xun [XL]
10.13 - Ling Tong [XL]
10.14 - Gan Ning [XL]
10.15 - Cao Ren [XL]
10.16 - Zuo Ci [XL]
10.17 - Xu Huang [XL]
10.18 - Liu Bei [XL]
10.19 - Wei Yan [XL]
10.20 - Da Qiao [XL]
10.21 - Xing Cai [XL]
10.22 - Sun Quan [XL]
10.23 - Sima Yi [XL]
10.24 - Zhang He [XL]
10.25 - Nu Wa [XL]
10.26 - Pang Tong [XL]
10.27 - Meng Huo [XL]
10.28 - Zhu Rong [XL]
10.29 - Guan Yu [XL]
10.30 - Xiahou Dun [XL]
10.31 - Zhang Fei [XL]
10.32 - Jiang Wei [XL]
10.33 - Guan Ping [XL]
10.34 - Yue Ying [XL]
10.35 - Cao Cao [XL]
10.36 - Taishi Ci [XL]
10.37 - Dong Zhuo [XL]
10.38 - Xiao Qiao [XL]
10.39 - Zhou Yu [XL]
10.40 - Cao Pi [XL]
10.41 - Sun Shang Xiang [XL]
10.42 - Zhen Ji [XL]
10.43 - Huang Zhong [XL]
10.44 - Diao Chan [XL]
10.45 - Xu Zhu [XL]
10.46 - Fu Xi [XL]
10.47 - Xiahou Yuan [XL]
10.48 - Dian Wei [XL]
10.49 - Zhang Jiao [XL]
10.50 - Huang Gai [XL]
10.51 - Sun Ce [XL]
11.00 - Musou Rage Token and Meat Bun Locations for All Other Stages
12.00 - Video Clip Directory
13.00 - Frequently Asked Questions
14.00 - Just for Fun
14.01 - My Favorite Characters
14.02 - Ten Fastest General Killers
14.03 - Character Normal Attack Ranking
14.04 - Killing Regular Generals in One Hit [XL]
14.05 - Ma Chao's God Tier Placement
14.06 - Dynasty Warriors 5 Musou Strength Ranking
15.00 - Thanks and Credits
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1.00 - Introduction
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
This guide is designed to provide tips for playing on Chaos difficulty. But
rather what I'm aiming for are tips for mastering Chaos difficulty, and
using character to maximum potential. The real beauty in Chaos is that it's
much more realistic, in that you die after several hits. I intend to indulge
everyone to play and learn to love Chaos. Be advised that my methods only
emphasize character maximization. I've had complaints about charge attack
spamming in my videos. So, if you don't like character maximization in Chaos,
abusing the same offensive methods for a character, and tier lists, then kindly
stop reading.
I have omitted the use of healing bodyguards, as Chaos mode would be rendered
not so very chaotic, if whenever you are in low health your bodyguard just
bails you out. Since you are granted invincibility while performing a musou
attack, you have all that time for your bodyguard to heal you. Think of this
FAQ as a more of a challenge to beat it without relying on bodyguards. However,
starting off your first few levels in Chaos with healing bodyguards will surely
help you develop your skills much quicker. Health on the field should be
considered as minor freebies. Also the Tribal Remedy item is encouraged,
because you have to work hard to earn the life.
Only very brief walkthroughs for 5 star difficulty levels will be covered,
but this guide will include strategies/tips and indepth discussion with all
characters. There are nine 5 star difficulty levels in free mode. In musou mode,
there are a total of 13 extra 5 star difficulty levels. These levels are the
last levels of the certain unique musou modes that don't end with any of the 5
star levels that are already available in free mode. For example, Zhao Yun's
musou mode ends at Yi Ling; this is a 5 star level. The difficulty of these
final levels is equivalent to the 5 star levels in free mode. This guide will
contain only the 5 star levels in free mode. Only musou rage locations have
been provided for all stages.
99% of this guide is my work alone, so there should be many things that I may
have missed, and many things that can be contributed. I would be glad to hear,
and greatly look forward to hearing, any useful strategies that I have failed
to mention. If I find the tip/strategy to be useful, I will include it, and
give credit. My intention for this guide, is always, to improve it.
The writing style I will be using in this guide is informal writing. The
language I use is more colloquial, and intended to be treated as more of
a discussion or conversation between me and you, the reader. I'm quite
aware of the informal grammar, and that spammable isn't quite a word.
Many people may find it useful to read all the of character sections, sorted
by character. This is useful to see how each character changes throughout
all three analyses, Dynasty Warriors 5, Xtreme Legends, and then Full
Weapon Customization. Simple use the search tool with CTRL+F, and just
add a "- " before each character's name (with a space after the -)
This is how the titles of each character's subsection is done, so this
will allow for quick navigation.
Lastly, I've discovered a new nickname for me recently. Apparently, I am also
known as Joe Musou. I don't know how this came to exist, but I suppose I don't
mind it.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like to:
- provide better suggestions or tips, or even if you feel you have a better
video clip
- persuade me in making modifications in the tier list
(BEFORE you do so, please take the time to read the introduction of the tier
list where I have my tier list explicitly defined. And PLEASE, if you desire
to swap any two characters, at least have their sections read before-hand,
and have already viewed both their video clips)
- if you have any questions regarding my guide
- if you'd like Dynasty Warriors help outside the realm of Chaos mode
- or if you'd just like to chat about Dynasty Warriors in general
at www.jonnay_@hotmail.com. I will give full credit to providers of tips or
strategies that I find to be useful. Credit is only awarded to the first
provider of the same strategy.
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2.00 - Copyright
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
This guide was composed to be posted on, and only on www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com.
This guide may not be reproduced and posted on any other site without my
written permission.
Violation of copyright is illegal and strictly prohibited.
Copyright 2005-2006 Jonathan Leung
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3.00 - Version History
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
0.90 - First submission of the Guide. About 90% completion.
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0.91 - Added section 6.23 - Unblockable Attacks and Xu Huang's Air Charge
Modifications to the tier list:
Zuo Ci up.
Jiang Wei up.
Sima Yi up.
Huang Zhong down.
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0.92 - Added section 10.0 - Just for Fun
Added section 6.24 - Disconnected Ground
Added more to intro to section 8.0
Updated several characters
Modifications to the tier list:
Guan Yu up.
Yue Ying up.
Xiahou Dun down.
Meng Huo up.
Xiahou Yuan down.
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0.93 - Added section 6.25 - Generals Approaching at a Distance
Added section 6.26 - Enemies that do not Flinch
Completed Sun Quan.
Modifications to the tier list:
Taishi Ci down.
Huang Zhong down.
Dian Wei down.
Sun Jian up.
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0.94 - Updated 6.23 - Unblockable Attacks
Added more to tier list introduction
Updated 6.22 - Attacks with High Height
Modifications to the tier list:
Zuo Ci up.
Zhang He up.
Meng Huo down.
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0.95 - Added requests for video clips, in section 8 - character tips...
A general update in the entire character tips section
Added video clip for proofs for: (Just for Fun section)
Countering counterattacks (DW4)
Continuous musou filling (DW3)
Charge Cancellation (Huang Zhong only)
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0.96 - Updated Zhou Tai
Video Clip additions:
Zhou Tai
Xu Huang
Lu Bu
Jiang Wei
Modifications to the tier list:
Huang Gai up.
Xu Huang up.
Zhang He up.
Updated Using the Bow attack and First charge simultaneously
(Huang Zhong)
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0.97 - Revised 5 fastest general killers to 10 (section 10.0)
Added section 6.27 - Weapon Power
Added section 6.28 - Weapon Weight Multiplier
Added section 6.29 - The Green Scroll
Added section 6.30 - Disadvantages of Having a Bodyguard
Added character summaries
Updated Taishi Ci
Updated Wei Yan
Modifications to the tier list:
Taishi Ci down.
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0.98 - Updated section 6.12 - Importance of the Counterattack
Modifications to the tier list:
Sun Ce down.
Pang De up.
Wei Yan up.
Updated Xu Huang
Updated Zhang Jiao
Updated Da Qiao
Updated Cao Cao
Added Section 6.31 - Unsuspected and Unwanted Displacement
Added Section 6.32 - Enemy Generals in Musou Rage
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0.99 - Added Musou Rage Locations for all maps
All Video Clips, and Character Sections finished
Modifications to the tier list:
Sun Jian down.
Sun Shang Xiang up.
Taishi Ci down.
Sima Yi up.
Pang De up.
Zhou Yu up.
Guan Ping down.
Xiahou Dun up.
Jiang Wei up.
1.00 - 100% completion of the guide
Entire Proofread and Update!
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1.01 - New update: This is just heads up, as I'm planning to make an
Xtreme Legends expansion. The Create-A-Warrior in Edit Mode and Destiny
Mode is what lead me to do this. There are many characters who are
ruined by their fourth weapons, and are much better with a different
weapon altogether, whether it be because of weapon weight or weapon
attribute or both. In Destiny Mode, it is possible to get a third weapon
with 5 attributes on it. On top of that, it is possible to raise the
numerical values of these attributes to the maximum of 20. Thus, it is
possible to create a character with the same moveset with better stats
to suit Chaos Mode more appropriately. This would however sacrifice
the musou rage tokens for ever 100 KO's that you would get with a
fourth weapon. Aside from these new and better possibilities with
Create-A-Warrior (I'll abbreviate it as CAW from here on), there are
some important changes with combat in Xtreme Legends: Characters will
now flinch for longer, musous are slightly extended, some charge attacks
now activate the elemental orbs when they didn't in Dynasty Warriors 5,
and there are a lot of new items. These would result in some changes
with using most of the characters, and a slightly different tier list.
I want to make an Xtreme Legends expansion, with notes on all the
characters, and new sections for the Fu Xi and Nu Wa movesets.
A new Xtreme Legends Tier List will be created. In addition to this,
I will also expand the Musou Rage Locations section, for all the new
stages in Legend Mode, and add the locations of all meat buns for
all the stages.
The stages included in section 7, level walkthroughs, are only 5-star
difficulty stages. Because I now want to include the location of musou
rages and meat buns in non 5-star levels, I have revised these sections,
but only the titles. Section 7 will have the 5-star difficulty stages,
and section 9 will include non 5-star stages. The new stages in Xtreme
Legends are all 5-star difficulty, so they will be in section 7.
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1.10 - There are Xtreme Legends expansions to my guide for each of the sections
and all of these will have a [XL] symbol, in the title of the
section/subsection.
Updated Sun Shang Xiang
Updated Pang De
Added section 5.1 - Changes in Xtreme Legends [XL]
Added section 6.32 - Ice Orb Probability
Added section 6.33 - The True Way of Musou
Added section 6.34 - The Dragon Arms
Completed Musou Rage Token and Meat Bun Locations for 5-star stages
Completed Musou Rage Token and Meat Bun Locations for all other stages
(sections 7, and 11)
My goals for the next update: (by Sept 06)
Several extra subsections for section 6: General Tips and Strategies
New section, section 9 - Character Walkthroughs for Xtreme Legends
Yes. This section will introduce a new tier list.
New section, section 10 - Create-A-Warrior
New section, section 11 - All-Emcompassing Tier List
New section, section 13 - Video Clip Directory
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1.11 - Updated Huang Zhong
Updated Diao Chan
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1.15 - Corrected properties of Power
Corrected Relative Attack Strengths Formula
Revised the Character Normal Attack Ranking
Completed Xtreme Legends Character subsections in section 9
from Lu Bu to Ling Tong
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1.20 - Added Fu Xi into section 9, and the tier list
Completed Xtreme Legends Character subsections in section 9
from Lu Bu to Zhang He
Updated Lu Meng in section 8
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1.30 - Added new subsection, 14.4 - Killing Generals in One Hit
Completed video clips for all characters in Xtreme Legends
please check them out on YouTube (go to section 9 for link)
Finished video clip notes up to
Revised section 6.1 - Suggested Items to Equip (worth a read)
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Feb05/07
1.31 - Haven't updated in a long time.
- Mainly tier list updates this time.
- There are now tons of videos on my YouTube account
- I want to announce addition of Weapon Weight Alternatives for all
characters in both DW5 and XL. The Tier Lists may seem a
little misleading sometimes because people may find it
really tedious to read my long definition. Because some
4th weapons aren't so great, different weight weight
alternatives may often be better. This should be the last
thing I want to add for completion of this guide, and perhaps
some other miscellaneous things for Just for Fun section.
I hope to resume in May, and hope to finish some time in the
Summer.
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Aug04/07
1.85 - Huge update, and overall guide revision
- Corrected Ice Orb Probability
- Ma Chao's God Tier placement theory
- Complete Revision of DW5 Tier List
- Xtreme Legends Analyses finished
- Complete Revision of DW5 XL Tier List
- Included Tier List Discussions for both DW5 and XL Tier Lists
- Included Preview of Full Customization Tier List
- Full Customization section, section 10, analyses left to be completed
and Tier List Discussion
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Aug23/07
2.00 - Full Customization Section complete
- All expansion sections to DW5 are complete
- Version 2.00 of this guide, and finalized version, complete.
- Added section 6.35 - Damage-Free Zone, contributed by Xiahou Jia
- Revised Wei Yan's section - mathematical analysis for deciding between
the Fire Orb and Ice Orb
- The same Fire Orb and Ice Orb analysis for Wei Yan applies to Xiahou Dun
- Included an explanation on how to juggle officers properly with Xu
Zhu's musou
- Diao Chan's safe C3 execution
- More on Cao Pi's Ice Orbs
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Feb20/08
2.05 - Corrected several typo errors
- Included a Musou Damage Ranking, and a link to the video showing this
ranking
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May23/08
2.06 - Revised The Tier List Theory
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May29/08
2.07 - Added Section 6.36 - Crowd Clearing vs Crowd Control
===============================================================================
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4.00 - Legend
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Here is a brief legend explaining the terminology that I'm going to use to
explain things in an easier way.
Attributes - these are all the stats present on items and weapons, as well as
each character's raw stats. The nine attributes in the game are defined
below.
Life - the amount of life, health, or hit points a character has
Musou - a strong special attack that grants invincibility, which is
unique to every character
Attack - overall strength of all attacks
Defense - magnitude of resistance against enemy attacks
Horse - the severity of attacks executed on a horse, and the magnitude
of resistance against enemy attacks while on a horse.
Bow - the severity of an arrow attack, and the magnitude of resistance
against enemy arrows.
Speed - the speed at which a character moves on foot when not
attacking.
Charge - the severity of all attacks executed by pushing the triangle
button.
*Note - the first attack of an evolution is a charge attack
*Note - charge attacks makes the enemy flinch while they are
charging for a musou attack. Because of this specific
flinching property, not all triangle attacks are
charge attacks, and thus do not cause flinching and
are not affected by the Herbal Remedy. ex. Zhen Ji's
normal charge
Fill - the rate at which the musou bar increases
Luck - raises probability of enemies dropping items such as meat buns,
defense x2 for 30 sec, attack x2 for 30 sec, speed x2 for 30
sec, and musou for 10 sec.
*Note - this does not include the musou rage
*Note - the appearance of meat buns on Chao difficulty is
excluded
Normal Attacks - all regular attacks that are executed by pushing the Square
button. This sort of attack is quick but weak, and is unaffected by the
Herbal Remedy item.
Charge Attacks - many special attacks that are executed by pushing the Triangle
button. This sort of attack requires time to charge, which is indicate
by a very brief white flash with a faint sound. It ranges from quick to
slow, and weak to strong. The severity of charge attacks are governed
by the Charge attribute, and may be increased by equiping the Herbal
Remedy Item. Not all attacks executed by the triangle button are
charge attacks.
Charge Attack Notation - I will use the popular short hand notation to
abbreviate charge attacks. Pressing triangle only would be C1,
a character's first charge attack. If S and T stand for square and
triangle, respectively, then SSST would be C4, and SSSSST would be
C6.
Jump Attack - the air attack done by pressing square while in mid-air
Jump Charge - the specific charge attack done by pressing triangle while in
mid-air.
Horse Charge - the charge attack done while on horseback.
Running Attack - the special attack done by pressing square after running for
6 steps
*Note - activating the musou rage resets your steps to 0
Evolution Attacks - the extra 4 attacks added onto to the regular 6 normal
attack string. The moveset ends at 5 normal attacks, and then begins a
new string of 4 evolution attacks, making a total of 9 attacks. Some
unique characters have 10 attacks....or rather 9 attacks but 10
individual strikes, for example Diao Chan.
True Musou - A version of the musou attack where it's fire elemental. The
ending is different and is in most cases better and/or stronger.
Execution Time - the time it takes to execute an attack (usually charge attack)
Recovery Time - the time it takes to recover, and be able to attack again
after executing an attack.
Counter - a counterattack perform by pressing triangle while holding L1, just
as an enemy strikes you.
*Note - a failed counterattack results in a brief studder,
where you will be vulnerable to enemy attack.
Range - how much coverage an attack has. 360 degree strikes have the best
range, while jabbing or vertical attacks have the worst. Keep in mind
range will generally refer to horizontal radial range, and not vertical
range. Height does play a small role in the effectiveness of attacks,
but essentially, it's the horizontal range that is important. If you
want to consider it in Cartesian Coordinates, only x and y are
are important, and not too much for the z.
Reach - how much distance an attack covers. Spear guys like Lu Bu have the most
reach and fan characters like Zhuge Liang have the worst.
Juggling - the act of keeping opponents in the air by continuously attacking
them.
Scatter Attack - any attack that results in enemies flying into other enemies.
This happens when the "enemies that you don't hit" get pushed back, by
the "enemies that you do hit." This would then create a "scattering
effect" where many enemies would be pushed back
*Note - the C4 for most of the characters is a
scattering attack.
*Note - the enemies that are pushed back receive no
damage, and have nothing to do with the attack
attribute.
*Note - your allies cannot be pushed back or scattered, and
therefore are unaffected by scattering attacks.
Flinching - the short period of time when a character is being hit and is
unable to move, jump, block, or attack
*Note - the Arm Guards item nullifies flinching when
performing charge attacks, but note that damage will
still be dealt, unlike what it says on the item
description in the game
*Note - some playable characters are immune to flinching while
they are performing charge attacks even without the
Arm Guards equipped, for example Dian Wei. These
characters can be considered to have default Arm Guards
equipped, therefore equipping Arm Guards on them would
do nothing.
*Note - Characters that have shields are even better, as they
are immune to flinching during their charge attacks,
AND their normal attacks. This means that whenever they
are attacking in any way, when PLANTED on the ground,
(non-aerial attacks) they will never flinch from enemy
normal attacks. Note in particular that only charge
attacks will cause these characters to flinch.
Obviously, they will still receive damage. An example
of this is Xing Cai.
*Note - while in musou rage, all playable characters are immune
to flinching when attacked by normal attacks
Stunning - the act of knocking enemies off balance, but only for a very short
time. Ex. Zhao Yun's C3, or Ma Chao's C3 or C6.
Disorientating - the act of knocking enemies into a dizzy state, where
characters are unable to act for a longer period of time than if they
were to be stunned. Ex. Zuo Ci's C3.
Crowds - When I say crowds, it is normally referred to large groups of enemy
foot soldiers, or peons as some people like to call them.
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5.00 - General Information and Basics of Chaos Difficulty
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With respect to Hard difficulty, the enemy's defense is doubled, and their
attack is quadrupled in Chaos. This is much more challenging than hard mode,
since their attack is quadrupled.
Meat Buns are very scarce. There are only a few meat buns on each map, which
only give you +50 health. The location of these are the same as all the Full
Recovery pickups in all other difficulty levels. These locations will be noted
in the level walkthroughs section.
It seems that there are consistently 3 meat buns in each map, not
including ones that are in supply bases. However, Bai Castle has 4, which is
somewhat bizarre.
Also, I have found that some supply bases harbour two meat buns or more.
This is likely a preset probability. I have seen four meat buns in a
supply base before, but only once in all my experience of playing this game.
I don't have the statistics, but an approximation from pure experience is
somewhere around 5% for two meat buns, while three and four would be likely
under 1% chance.
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5.01 - Changes in Xtreme Legends [XL]
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There are several changes in Xtreme Legends:
The flinching time is slightly extended, and this goes for both you and the
AI. There are probably more cons than pros because of this. Because you will
now flinch for a longer period of time, it is much harder survive in Chaos
Mode. The good thing about this, is that since enemy generals will now flinch
for slightly longer, many charge attacks that have long execution times will
hit successfully, and connect without the general interrupting it. This changes
the strategic ways of using all the characters slightly. But there are some
characters like Xiahou Yuan who are way better because of this change in
Xtreme Legends.
Heavy weapon wielders now gain the property of immunation to flinching. This
is extremely useful in Hard Mode, but of little use in Chaos Mode. Thus,
all characters with heavy weapons will not flinch when executing any attacks of
their own. This goes for all characters. On a side note, the two characters
with shields, Xing Cai and Cao Ren both have this innate ability to be immune
to flinching, regardless of weapon weight.
All stages in Legend Mode have the difficulty of a 5-star stage. The
attack/defense etc properties are the same or very similar. The best way to
prove this is simple; just load your Dynasty Warriors 5 into Xtreme Legends,
by going to Load Original, and play a 5-star stage in Free Mode, on any
difficulty setting. The number of bonus upgrades that you get after completing
the stage is the same as you would get in any stage on that same difficulty,
in Legend Mode. More detail will be covered on these "Bonus Upgrades" in
section 10.
There are many new items added in Xtreme Legends, and the important ones will
be covered in section 6.
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6.00 - General Tips and Strategies for Handling Chaos Difficulty
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This section covers a lot of the basics, useful properties, and general
tips for Chaos Mode.
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6.01 - Suggested Items to Equip
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The main objective of this sub-section is to clarify my view of the
uselessness of equipping the Peacock Amulet, and the Tortoise Amulet. The Tiger
Amulet, Green Scroll, Wind Scroll, and Ginseng are the best choices. I'm
convinced that it's hard for most people to realize and accept this.
My videos also show a clear advantage for having all items devoted to
maximizing offensive power. For the many characters like Zhao Yun or Xu Huang,
who have long reach and wide range, defensive items are almost completely
useless. You have the Tiger Amulet and Green Scroll for maximum attack power;
you have the Wind Scroll to maximize reach; you have the Ginseng for faster
musou filling. A character's musou can be thought of as a defense. Since attack
power is maximized, musou filling become much easier.
In a sense, my proposition can be described by the cliche, "The Best Offense is
the Best Defense."
Here is some indepth logical reasoning to explain the uselessness of
defensive items, namely, the Peacock Amulet, and the Tortoise Amulet.
The biggest reason why these items are close to useless is because of the
fact that meat buns on the field are limited. Limited to a minimum of 3
meat buns. Increasing a character's defense would only allow for that character
to sustain a few more hits, and it's that simple; a "few" is the key word
here. This is testable by the way: Sun Quan with my "ideal" set up, takes
roughly 4 hits from peons to perish. Giving him more life or defense will
increase this to perhaps 8 hits. Keep in mind that these are specifically hits.
If one general along with two elite guards attack you at the same time, you're
a goner. This situation is indeed possible and frequent enough to deserve
to be mentioned.
After reasoning purely with technicalities, some may want and prefer a
realistic example instead: Beginning by first addressing the abstract of
this example, many characters in Xtreme Legends are able to kill regular
generals in simply one full musou, even on Chaos Mode. Being able to do this
is, in itself, a great defense, as you don't even have to engage in a real
fight with the general. Taking Zhao Yun for example, his recommended item
configuration is Tiger Amulet, Green Scroll, Wind Scroll, True Way of Musou,
Way of Musou. A "typical" item configuration which includes the two defensive
items Peacock Amulet and Tortoise Amulet, would likely have these in the place
of Way of Musou, and obviously the Green Scroll. So now, Zhao Yun is able to
sustain more hits, perhaps three times more. But, now he is far from being
able to kill generals in one musou, it takes more effort and larger crowds to
fill his musou, crowd clearing in general becomes much harder, and the
non-360-degree ending of his regular musou will likely leave him in
vulnerable situations.
Here is an even better example: Huang Zhong and Xiahou Yuan can be considered
to have very similar movesets. (Identical 1st, 2nd, and 3rd normal attacks,
C1 is archery, identical C4's, similar C5's that
have similar reach and attack range and able to hit generals regardless of
blocking, a C6 with similar attack range, and very similar musous)
Huang Zhong with his light 4th weapon lies on one extreme end with
one of the lowest attacks, but high defense, and Xiahou Yuan is on the other
end, with very high attack but poor defense (in Dynasty Warriors 5 only).
Thorough experience with both should easily conclude their differences. The
video clips in this guide are good visual backups for this claim.
I do recommend defensive items at times in this guide and it is very
special cases, and it is to achieve what I call a "Special Defense".
Cao Ren is the only character in Dynasty Warriors 5 capable of this sort of
special defense. His 4th weapon is designed purposely to be devoted to
defense. His entire moveset is devoted to defense with protective
attacks and the non-flinching ability. His only problem is that he has
short reach. However, Cao Ren should be consider to have a decent defense
because his high defense stats, can be made useful if he doesn't flinch
from normal attacks. Because he's also attacking, he'll receive slightly
less hits, so he's less prone to a entire chain of continuous slashes.
And if he does get hit, he'll only be scratched.
Additionally, if you insist on a defensive item, the Tribal Remedy is more
useful than the Peacock Amulet and the Tortoise Amulet. The Tribal Remedy
disregards the notion of limited meat buns on the field. Well techincally,
it isn't unlimited, but much more than normal. Going back to Sun Quan's
example, giving him the Tortoise Amulet would allow him to sustain two extra
hits, then acquiring a 300 KO count will approximately equal the Tortoise
Amulet already. Further health after this, explains the usefulness of
the Tribal Remedy.
There is one exception: the Dragon Arms item should also be considered as
a defense item. The Dragon Arms may be extremely useful for some characters.
The difference between the Dragon Arms and the two items Peacock Amulet and
Tortoise Amulet, is that the Dragon Arms reduces the chances of getting hit
by eliminating charge recovery times, and other two increases the number of
times you can get hit before you die.
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6.02 - The Somersault, or Reorientation
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This is a very basic skill. If you are hit into the air, tap L1 as you hit the
ground and you will perform a somersault to quickly flip and reorientate
yourself. If you are knocked high into the air, just keep tapping L1 and you
will do the somersault at the peak position when in the air.
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6.03 - Eliminate or Avoid Archers
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Archers are a real pain if you're fighting in crowds or running from crowds.
Their bow attacks are quite strong on Chaos. The flinch from being hit by an
arrow will cancel your attack while you are attacking, or temporarily stop you
while you are running away from crowds and will allow much time for enemies to
attack you.
A good way to fight smartly in the range of battlefield archers (not archer
towers) is to make use of what I like to call, the ally shielding effect. Non-
piercing attacks, like arrows, will not pierce through anything. This means
that an arrow will stop at the very first thing it strikes, and this means
anything considered opaque in the game. So enemy archers are of no threat at
all, if there is even one thing blocking an arrow's straight-line path to you.
So under circumstances like when fighting massive crowds, you really don't
have to worry too much about those pesky archers. This is useful until you
scatter crowds with attacks or musous.
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6.04 - Target Majors
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Majors are the leaders of the peons which come in groups of fives.
Try to set your targets on these types of peons in large crowds because they
attack way more frequently, and when they do they usually do more hits than
privates. Similarly, this applies to Elite Guards, Gate Captains and
Guard Captains.
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6.05 - Attacking Enemies When They are in the Air
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When you attack enemies while they are in mid-air, in better terminology
juggling them, all damage is cut down by half. Although it is safer to fight
enemies when they are in the air, (since they can't block or fight back) it is
more practical to fight enemies when they are planted on the ground, because
of full damage.
However in some cases it may be more practical to juggle a general, with the
combination of fire, depending on the weapon weight and attacking speed of the
character you are using.
This fact is the reason to avoid certain characters' true musous. For example,
Zhang Liao, or Taishi Ci. They're true musous even though have fire, deal only
half the damage of their regular musous.
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6.06 - Keep Your Enemies in Front of You
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This may seem like common sense, but it is crucial in Chaos as your goal is to
never get hit. Blocking becomes an unavailable option when surrounded. Also
when surrounded, all the people behind you (that are visible on the screen)
cover the people in front of you, so you cannot see them in order to counter
them. This strategy makes stages like Chi Bi very easy, as the links between
all the boats are often narrow enough to keep your enemies in front of you. But
even if in other stages, you can use walls to your advantage, thus limiting
the directions that enemies can come from. A very good strategy is to fight
inside ally bases, like in Wu Zhang Plains of Wei's Side. There are three
defense bases to protect. Standing right at the entrance of a base gives you
extremely good defense, since no enemies will be coming from behind or on your
sides. You may keep doing scattering attacks or projectile attacks, and
quickly rack up kills for getting musou rages.
Even though your enemies are in front of you when you are attack them, having
them out of your view is just as dangerous. Try to make good use of the L1
button to toggle the camera to view the angle from behind you. A good example
for this is attacking generals when they are out of the view of the TV screen
(when the camera isn't toggled behind you). Even though it's apparent to you
that they aren't blocking, it is quite possible that they are charging to
execute a musou attack. You will blinded by this if you can't see them.
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6.07 - Characters With Two Weapons
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Many of the characters with two weapons benefit from increased attack range,
and double damage. It's also a fact that some attacks count as two hits, thus
giving a combo of 2. Generally speaking, learn the unique attacks that involve
the use of both weapons. For attacking range, the best example would be Xiao
Qiao's C4. It covers awesome reach, with a potential range of 360
degrees. Even so, Xiao Qiao's normal attack string has quite compromising
range. The most important aspect of some double weaponed characters is the
increase of damage. Learn these moves and abuse them. The best example is
Taishi Ci, and others include Pang De, Diao Chan, Xiao Qiao, Da Qiao and
Lu Xun. Both Taishi Ci and Diao Chan's jump charge can kill privates in one hit.
Every part of Lu Xun's C3 does a lot of damage. With Xiao Qiao and
Da Qiao, if you successfully hit with both fans (indicated by a +2 in the combo
counter) the damage is indeed doubled. As for Pang De, his C5 deals
massive damage.
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6.08 - Fighting Near Enemy Bases
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Attack bases can deal a lot of damage to you if you are in the range of their
projectiles. The range is actually quite far too, so either fight right along
the outside edges of the base, or inside the base.
Fighting outside defense bases is still a threat, because there are archers on
the corners of the base.
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6.09 - Fighting in Ally Supply Bases
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When the situations are met, fighting inside ally supply bases may give you
full life recovery. One of the 2 gate captains on each side of the base must
be defeated. This opens up the gates to allow enemies in. When enemies are
inside, the guard captain as well as his men will fight. From time to time,
the guard captain will use either attack X2, defense X2, or +200 life. +200
life is what you want here. A good example of this in Bai Di Castle on Shu
Forces. When Gan Ning arrives, and starts to penetrate the area near the
supply base, around the position of Huang Zhong's initial starting position,
the gates are likely to be opened. Luring Gan Ning into the base is an easy
kill, as well as a good chance for full life recovery. Although, I think there
is a limit of how many times this occurs, which I had not yet put time into
figuring out.
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6.10 - Keep Your Eye on the Detailed Map
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Very self-explanatory. It would be quite stupid to be fighting in melee while
toggled on the large field map. Many moves do not have 360 degree range so you
should rely on the map to tell you where your enemies are and how close they
are to you.
Additionally, this detailed map may assist you with some attacks in which
you have no control over the toggling of the camera. Two good examples of this
are Sima Yi's and Gan Ning's musou. Since you can't control the camera in
Sima Yi's musou, just use the detailed map to tell you where to direct his
beams. Many people find it hard to control Gan Ning's musou; I believe the
main reason why it is so hard is because the camera angles are almost never
in the preferred places. On the detailed map, Gan Ning's musou is much easier
to control because you get, in a sense, a bird's eye view. Once you've used
Gan Ning's musou enough times you'll practically have it's speed memorized,
and you can almost completely rely on the detailed map.
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6.11 - The Musou Rage
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The Musou Rage doubles both your attack and defense. A regular Musou
Rage lasts 15 seconds, and when you have the Demon Band equipped, a Musou Rage
will last for 30 seconds. However, a Musou Rage will never end during a musou.
So if the 15 seconds of your musou rage ends when you are in the middle of a
musou, you will still be in Musou Rage, and the Musou Rage will last until your
musou is finished. You will be notified that your Musou Rage will end soon,
by the Musou Token Icon at the bottom left corner of the screen; it will start
spinning faster.
In a Musou Rage, you will be immune to flinching from all normal attacks, and
bow attacks, but you will still flinch if you get hit by charge attacks or
musou attacks.
The characters who benefit most from musou rages are the ones with heavy fourth
weapons. During a musou rage your attacking speed is maximized regardless of
your weapon weight. Since characters with light weapons already attack really
fast, the musou rage upgrades this only a tiny bit. Whereas the attacking speed
of characters with heavy fourth weapons are totally transformed to the speed of
being slightly faster than their attacking speed if they were to be equipped
with a light weapon. This is because the attacking speed when in musou rage for
each character depends on each character's unique attacking speed regardless of
weapon weight. So what I mean is, Ling Tong by default is the fastest attacker,
and Pang De by default is the slowest attacker; when in musou rage, Ling Tong
will always be the fastest attacker, and likewise Pang De will always be the
slowest ranked attacker; thus this is totally independant of weapon weight, and
solely dependant on each character's default attacking speed.
So in the game, there are essentially four different attacking speeds for all
characters:
1. Heavy attacking speed (when equipped with a heavy weapons)
2. Normal attacking speed (when equipped with weapons of medium weight)
3. Light attacking speed (when equipped with light weapons)
4. Musou Rage speed (attacking when in musou rage).
Characters with heavy weapons benefit way more from musou rages also because of
their stronger attacking power. The best example of this is Diao Chan, whom is
very useless in melee combat, but unbelievably destructive when in musou rage.
For the reason that light weapons decrease attacking power, and heavy weapons
increase attacking power, characters with heavy weapons benefit more from musou
rages, because they are so much stronger.
So to elaborate my points, characters with light weapons attack slightly
faster, transitioning only from their light attacking speed to Musou Rage
speed, and have the weakest attacking power relative to all characters;
conversely, characters with heavy weapons attack way faster, transitioning from
Heavy attacking speed to Musou Rage speed, and have the strongest attacking
power relative to all characters.
This may seem like common sense, but try to save musou rages for generals and
large crowds. If you are close to getting the next hundred kills and still have
a musou rage token to spend, try to make good use of the one you are carrying,
to avoid wasting a musou rage. Also, make good use of the musou rage tokens
from crates, or dropped by elite guards. A good time to make use of these
tokens are right at the beginning of battle, or when you have a musou rage
token when you are far from the next 100 kills.
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6.12 - The Importance of the Counterattack
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Not too many people are fond of this great feature, or even understand how to
use it. It is actually incredibly useful as it will grant you an automatic
counterattack that has the scattering effect, and also grants you temporary
invincibility. For those of you who don't know yet, a counterattack is
performed by pressing triangle while holding L1. This is convenient because
you'll be holding L1 anyway when blocking, and all you have to do is read the
enemies' attacks and press triangle accordingly to successfully time and
trigger a counterattack. In situations where you don't have a fully charged
musou bar, and you know you're about to get hit, counterattacking is your only
choice.
The counterattack is tested to be blockable, but can and will be considered
unblockable in this FAQ, because while a counterattack is performed, the AI
interprets it that you are not in blocking state or attacking state, and will
never attempt to block your counterattack. All counterattacks are scattering
attacks. I suppose you can understand so far, the importance of the
counterattack; it nullifies the attack that you counter, nullifies all attacks
directed at you while you are counterattacking (except musou attacks), it is
unblockable, and it has the scattering effect. The main point is that
counterattacks save you from being hit while buying you little time to escape.
Counterattacks however, can be canceled if a general does a musou attack on
you. This means that the counterattack is vulnerable only to enemy general
musous.
Once you have mastered counterattacking, you can counter all normal attacks,
and most charge attacks; however, when blocking suscessive attacks done by an
enemy general, counterattacking in between the general's attack string is only
possible with very few normal attacks, but most charge attacks. Generally, what
governs this is execution time. Since the execution time for charge attacks is
normally much longer than that of normal attacks, charge attacks are generally,
much easier to counterattack. Yes, this means that it is possible to
counter against generals while they are performing a chain of only normal
attacks, and you would therefore interrupt their attack string. Examples of
this are most of the slow characters; so theoretically, Xu Zhu or Pang De would
be the easiest characters to defeat because their slow normal attacks are no
match against you if you have mastered counterattacking. Most, or I think
maybe even all of Xu Zhu's and Pang De's normal attacks are counterable. So
whenever they are attacking you while you are blocking, just randomly choose
any of their hits and counter it. Some not so obvious characters would be Lu
Meng, or Zhang Liao, whose second normal attacks can (believe it or not) be
very easily countered. It is also possible to counter Lu Bu's third, fourth,
fifth, and sixth normal attack. Making him not so much of a mighty warrior
afterall. But on the far side of the other end, Ling Tong would be virtually
uncounterable.
Another useful tip is that you can counter all parts of a musou attack except
ones that are shooting, like Zhuge Liang's. You can counter anyone's final
slash of their musou attack, as long as it's not shooting, or bombing (in Huang
Gai's and Huang Zhong's Case). This becomes a useful strategy in situations
where a general is doing his/her musou, with a large crowd behind him/her.
This way, you'll scatter many of the peons, or maybe even send them all flying
far (depending on which character you are using), leaving the general all
alone directly beside you for some temporary one on one. However, this is safe
only for characters who have fast counterattacks; Ma Chao and Zhang Fei are
very good examples. The speed of the counterattack must be faster than the
time it takes for the enemy general to recover from his/her musou. I'm sure
that you can imagine why Lu Bu's counterattack would not be a good idea for
countering musous.
There are however many things that cannot be counterattacked:
1. Arrows
2. Fireballs (ex. Jiang Wei's true musou)
3. Bombs (ex. Huang Gai's C1 and Huang Zhong's true musou)
4. Beams (ex. Zhuge Liang's musou)
5. Charge Orbs (ex. Zuo Ci's C1)
6. Earthquake Type Charges (ex. Zhang Fei's C1 or C6)
7. Shockwave Type Charges (ex. ending of Zhang Fei's C3, or
the ending of Lu Bu's true musou)
8. Tornado Type Charges (ex. Guan Yu's C5, or the ending
of Guan Yu's true musou)
9. Zhang Jiaos Fire charges cannot be countered.
Another important reason to counterattack, is that some attacks are
unblockable. Good examples of these are Zhou Tai's C6 (when charged
further), and Xu Huang's air charge. On a side note however, I have not yet
witnessed Zhou Tai controlled by the AI doing this move though, but the only
way to avoid it would be to jump away from it, attack him when he is busy
charging, or counterattack him.
For many characters, after their musou is usually a time that generals
want to attack. This is in the case that the ending of the musou gets blocked.
If the character's musou has relatively long recovery, generals will always
attack you right after your musou ends. This is apparent for most of the
characters in the game. While this differs slightly for all characters, this
following tip works well with the majority of them. Usually, when a general
blocks the ending of your musou, he/she will begin attacking right away.
What normally happens is that their first normal attack will always not hit
because you are still invincible from the musou. The second attack however,
will successfully hit, and often, the timing of this attack cannot be blocked.
The game gives earlier priority to counterattacking, than blocking. Often
the only way to get out of this situation is to counterattack. This is very
effective, and very easy to anticipate in the non-playable generals, except
for the ones with spears. This is because they attack much faster. For
playable characters, the same sort of idea applies; characters like Ling Tong
would probably kill you if he blocks the ending of your musou.
Lastly, whenever groups or enemies do a simultaneous jump attack, usually from
all directions, your only choice really is to counterattack, if you do not have
a fully charged musou. This however, requires precise timing.
*Interesting Fact - In Dynasty Warriors 4, it is possible to counter
counterattacks. Yes, this means that you can play in versus
mode with another friend, and keep countering each other until
one messes up. This only works with certain character pair-ups.
Have a look at my counter counterattacks video on YouTube.
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6.13 - The Art of True Juggling
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Although damage is reduced by half when juggling, it may be a good
strategy when done in conjunction with the Fire Orb. I don't know why juggling
seems to be so popular, but keep in mind that attacking generals on foot
will always be faster than juggling them with fire. This applies only to
regular generals though. Generals with high defense, like the enemy
commander, and those overpowered generals like Xing Cai and
Ma Chao in the Battle of Bai Di Castle. This is practically the only time
that juggling with fire is recommended.
Many people are already aware that it is possible to keep a enemy in the air by
continuously using the C2, or the C5. But if this is done
on an enemy general. They are able to escape it, by somersaulting when hit high
into the air. This is due to hitting generals too high. It is possible to
minimize this evade rate of the enemy, and keep them in the air, thus keeping
them on fire. The trick is to not use charge attacks like the C5,
but to use only normal attacks....yes only the square button. All characters
are able to juggle without the use of charge attacks. Fast attacking characters
like Zhen Ji, are able to keep doing four normal attacks against a general in
the air, and keep repeating it. What happens is you hit the enemy
generals high enough to restart hitting them again just as they touch the
ground, but low enough that they are unable to escape it. Even though they do
touch the ground, they bounce a little, which allows a little bit of time to
follow up with continuous attacks.
Evolution attacks are perfect to prolong the time that the enemy general is in
the air. A good tip is to attack an enemy general while they are on foot, and
keep going with the evolution attacks, but stop at the third evolution attack,
thus not completing a full moveset. If you follow this exactly, and the enemy
general is on the ground, the third evolution attack will always knock the
enemy into the air. Since the third evolution attack isn't a charge attack, it
won't activate the Fire Orb to set them on fire, but this tip is useful for the
characters who have a C1 that deploys a fire orb.
Some characters are capable of juggling infinitely many times without the
general ever escaping. Zhen Ji and Guan Yu are capable of doing this.
The only characters that are weak with juggling is Diao Chan with her fourth
weapon, and Pang Tong and Zhang Jiao. Also some characters like Xu Huang
cannot follow up with juggling after the third evolution attack, because of
slow recovery time.
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6.14 - Manually Increasing Your Attack Range
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This is a very minor tip that will decrease the chances of getting hit.
Unlike Dynasty Warriors 4, there is no more lock on, when attacking an enemy;
so you can move freely when attacking, instead of being locked in a straight
line. Use this obviously to your advantage with turning in the direction of
your attack. This works best with characters that attack slowly, or characters
that have successive attacks that go in the same direction. For example, you
can greatly increase Xu Zhu's attack range by turning right during his first
normal attack and then turning left during his second normal attack, and so on.
Taishi Ci is a good example of successive attacks going in the same direction.
His third and fourth normal attacks strike from right to left, so turning left
for both these attacks immensely increases the range. This is for increasing
the range of normal attacks slightly.
Some charge attacks are potentially 360 degrees, like Xiao Qiao's C4
and Dian Wei's C4. It's all about the steering.
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6.15 - The Non-Playable Spear General
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The enemy generals that carry spears, for example, Guan Xing in Wu Zhang
Plains, have a very similar moveset as Ma Chao's. What's important to note is
that their normal jump attack, like Ma Chao's, covers front and back. When
facing these generals, the AI seems to like jumping behind you and doing this
air attack. This attack is hard to counter, and even harder to quickly turn
around and block. The best way to escape it when you see one of these generals
jump into the air is to quickly do your own air attack. Since they do their
jump attack just before they land behind you, there is a lot of time to pull of
a quick jump attack of your own. This is the biggest caution when fighting
spear generals.
Another point that makes these generals harder to fight is that it is harder
to counterattack them after missing them with a musou attack. This is also
covered in the counterattacks section above.
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6.16 - A Cheap Method of Defeating Generals with Ease
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Many of you have probably noticed this already. Generals for some reason, don't
block right when they get up from lying on the ground. I can guarantee, that
if you start attack right when a general is getting up, you'll always
successfully hit him/her. This strategy is deadly, if it is done with the
normal jump attack. Most of the jump attacks are super quick, and hit
enemies off their feet. Also some characters' have the common C1 that causes
a 360 degree quake, that deals very little damage, but lifts
enemies off their feet. Because of this strategy, there is often no need to
juggle a general, even with fire. Most characters will kill generals much
faster on foot, because of full damage. Juggling at half damage along with the
slow depletion of fire, will almost always be slower.
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6.17 - The Reasons For Choosing the Ice Orb or the Fire Orb
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Some of the more mediocre characters who have really good C4's that
have the scattering effect like Sun Ce need to rely on these moves to scatter
the enemy. When equipped with the Ice Orb, Sun Ce's C4 becomes less
safe, because some of the peons won't be hit back because they'll be
frozen. Enemies behind these frozen peons won't be scattered, thus will
be able to freely attack him during his recovery time. Using Sun Ce is
somewhat of a bad example because I have recommended the Ice Orb for him,
because his musou deals double damage against frozen generals. The main point
is that for these sorts of characters, who need to abuse certain scattering
charge attacks, keep in mind that ice will hinder the scattering effect.
The Fire Orb also becomes more useful than the Ice Orb, against generals with
extremely high defense, for example Lu Bu. When Lu Bu is frozen you'll still
be doing very little damage to him, so relying on the fire orb to eat away his
health while juggling him is the better alternative. Since I'm only covering
five star difficulty levels, characters like Ma Chao in the stage Bai Di
Castle, is a good example, of an officer with high defense.
Converse to the above, characters with medium or heavy weapons will
almost definitely be better when equipped with the Ice Orb. You probably
wouldn't ever choose to do half damage by juggling, when you can do full
damage by attacking normally. In this case, since these characters are strong
enough, the damage caused by fire is insufficient to compensate for the other
half, when juggling enemies. So Icing them allows you to kill way faster.
The biggest advantage with equipping the Ice Orb is the fact that damage dealt
while enemies are in mid-air is halved. Many characters' musous or true musous
automatically knock enemies into the air. However, this can be avoided if you
had frozen an enemy general prior to executing your musou attack. This is a
great way to double the damage your musou attack. Some characters like Zhou Yu,
can kill generals in literally under 10 seconds, just by doing a musou
while generals are frozen. Because of the Ice Orb, Gan Ning is able to kill
an enemy officer from full health, in under a second. (refer to section 14)
Also, it is much more convenient when peons are frozen after not scattering
charge attacks. Zhang Liao's C6 without ice will hurl peons outwards.
This obviously isn't a big deal, but most efficiency is gained with the Ice
Orb.
For the reasons stated above, the Ice Orb generally gives you a better edge at
defeating both foot soldiers and generals.
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6.18 - Having Your Back Facing a General
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When fighting generals, if you have your back facing them, they will never
block. This is a huge advantage for some characters.
Characters with very wide range, for example Wei Yan has a first normal
attack as a slash that is almost horizontal that goes from left to right. So
the left blade of his double voulge goes from left to right directly in front
of him, which means that his right blade would travel from his right side to
little bit behind him (Sorry if you can't picture this). This way it is easy
to hit generals when your back is facing them. Another great example are the
two Qiaos. Characters with two weapons, are similar to the Wei Yan example
above. The two Qiaos have some really good range in their normal attacks to
successfully hit generals while having your back facing them. But this is just
a very minor tip with facing away from your enemies. Even though this is subtle
as it would be impractical to ever fight generals without facing them, this
paragraph should be considered more of a proof.
More importantly, many charge attacks require execution times that are quite
long. If the execution time is too long, enemy generals are capable of breaking
your attack string, by blocking, or attacking you during your execution time.
However, you can successfully land these sort of charge attacks, by facing your
back to the general. I'll use Guan Yu as an example to explain this. Guan Yu's
C6 has an execution time that is long enough for a general to block
or to retaliate. But if you turn your back against the general during your
execution time, Guan Yu takes a step forward (which is one step away from the
general if you're back is facing the general). This creates enough distance to
make the charge attack successful, because the general is farther away from
you. Since you aren't facing the general, he/she will never block. Regarding
charge attacks however, this strategy does not work for all characters.
Characters who don't take a step forward, like Cao Pi with his C5,
are very incapable of doing this trick, but still possible.
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6.19 - Taking Advantage of Certain Solid Objects
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Not a very useful tip, but an interesting one. Some objects, like large castle
gates, will set off charge orbs immediately after being deployed.
So if you do a C1 with Cao Pi while facing a castle gate, the
ice projectile will explode right after it's deployed. This is useful since,
you do not have to wait for the projectile to explode.
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6.20 - Outside Boundaries
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This precaution is mainly for the level Chi Bi. If you land an attack that is
outside the boundary of the floor, it will not be performed. For example, if
you do Ling Tong's C4 standing at the very end of a ship, with his
foot landing outside of the ship, the entire charge sequence (the stomp) does
not get executed.
Similarily if you direct any attack towards an outside boundary of a level, it
will get cancelled just as it hits the boundary. For example, Wei Yan's C5 will
end just as it reaches a wall, or the end of the side of a ship.
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6.21 - Attacks with High Height
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Many moves that have relatively high height result in less range than what we
actually see. A good example to describe what I mean by high height, is
considering Guan Yu's C4, and C6. Both their execution times are
close enough to be the same. But you'll notice that when juggling enemies,
his C4 will likely always miss, while his C6 always
successfully hits. This concludes that moves with low height are more
dependable than moves with high height.
Keep in mind that this is the general case when fighting only on flat land.
When fighting on incline slopes, attacks with high height may be better, while
attacks with low height are better on decline slopes.
Attacks with low height if they are too low cannot hit generals on horse.
So attacks with high height are most effective in this case.
To wrap things up, attacks with essentially infinite height are the most
useful. These are charge attacks, as normal attacks are slashes with specific
height. An example is Pang Tong's C6, or his musou.
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6.22 - Unblockable Attacks
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As there are very many attacks that can be considered unblockable when used
against the AI for the reasons that:
(1) The attack (usually charge attack) reaches behind the blocking general.
(2) The execution time of the attack (usually charge attack) is so long that
the AI will think it is save enough to attack, but always fails
because your charge is still faster. (This is somewhat hard to
explain; a good example of this is Pang De's C5. It
always works against generals because of what I've described above.
(3) The attack is simply unblockable. For example, Xu Huang's jump charge.
(4) The attack (normal attacks and charge attacks) has so much reach and range
that generals do not block. For example, Lu Bu's first normal attack
when used against a general at maximum reach, (the tip of the reach).
Zhang Fei's C3, done at a correct distance, where the
general is at the very tip of the shockwave.
Now with that said, since we have tons of moves that the AI cannot block, we
should consider the moves of the AI that we cannot block.
Xu Huang's air charge is unblockable. That's all there is to it. If you are
fighting Xu Huang (perhaps at He Fei Castle) and you see that he jumps into
the air, you better run, musou, or counterattack.
Sima Yi's True Musou ending is unblockable. Yes...it is. Which is very cheap,
because you also cannot counterattack it. Also, if you are too close to him,
(in between his fans and where his lasers come out) you cannot block. This is
exactly the same as if you were Sima Yi and did you musou against a general up
close (and I mean very close) The general would end up sandwiched, and trapped
in his musou.
Not that this attack is unblockable, but Huang Gai's and Huang Zhong's bombs
when thrown behind you cannot be blocked. Even though it is blockable, it is
still worth mentioning.
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6.23 - Disconnected Ground
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Some platforms like small staircases are disconnected to the ground, so if you
are attacking close to the edge of these staircases and are moving towards
the edge, your attacks will be cancelled briefly as you fall to the ground.
In some cases, this can be fatal. Also, when doing a musou, the musou itself
will be cancelled.
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6.24 - Generals Approaching at a Distance
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It takes around 6 steps before you can execute a dash attack. This has
not been tested to be true for the AI, (probably not so hard to test), although
it's probably true, it is not so important to know. The main point is, if
generals are approaching from any distance farther than 7 steps away, they
will want to do a running attack on you. Generally, these are all dangerous, and
probably should be blocked, or may be counterattacked if you can time it
correctly. The only one that is not so dangerous is regular sword generals.
By regular I mean non-playable character, and the type of sword general that
has the attacking pattern similar to Xiahou Yuan's, or Gan Ning's. And not
surprisingly, their running attack is the knee attack, which has very little
reach and range. Probably the most dangerous one is the spear general's.
The dash attack, just like Ma Chao's, is very fast, and covers some good
distance. It's not very hard to memorize these, but just for completeness, here
is a list of regular general dash attacks.
Type of General Attacking Pattern and Dash Attack
Sword (general) Xiahou Yuan
Sword (advisor) Sun Jian
Spear Ma Chao
Halberd Zhang Liao
If you've learned these dash attacks, and you are fighting large crowds, it
may be a good idea to counterattack these. The Sword (advisor) and Halberd
ones are the easier ones.
Most importantly,
Knowing the fact that the AI likes to execute these dash attacks is very useful.
Since generals approaching from a distance will likely do a dash attack, they
will not block. Note that however this is only useful for characters with long
reach. Lu Bu and Zhao Yun can almost always freely attack a general that is
approaching from a distance.
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6.25 - Enemies that do not Flinch
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The explanations and basics for flinching are covered in the legend
(section 4.0).
A character flinches whenever he/she is being hit. A flinch holds for a very
brief amount of time, and during this time, the character cannot perform
any attacks. (except for musou).
Before I begin, keep in mind that all charge attacks (and of course musou
attacks) will cause flinching.
Some characters, or enemies, do not flinch in special cases.
The first case, is as if the character has the Arm Guards item equipped.
This sort of character will not flinch only when performing charge attacks.
This information isn't very useful, because the only characters that are like
this are Dian Wei and Pang De. And the chances of you attacking Dian Wei, in
the Yellow Turban Rebellion, when he is executing a charge attack, is pretty
rare. So this is a very subtle caution, but still good to know.
The second case is immunity when the character is performing any non-aerial
attacks. This means that when this sort of character is doing normal attacks,
or charge attacks, when planted on the ground, will not flinch. This
case is much more important because more characters have this property, and
ignoring this property will likely be a fatal decision. Enemies in defense
bases are like this. This is why you should avoid fighting these guys, unless
you use your musou. But these guys also block more often, so their very
annoying. As for playable characters, Cao Ren, and Xing Cai are like this.
You may have wondered why the hell were they invincible when you were attacking
them, well this is why. Generally, characters with shields have this
property of flinch immunity. The caution for fighting these guys is to either
make sure you attack them first, or wait and attack them during their attack
recovery times. Yes, this is annoying for characters whom have short reach, so
characters with longer reach will have an easier time dealing with Cao Ren,
and Xing Cai. Probably the bigger caution, and disadvantage, is that you can't
just go crazy with attacking when in musou rage. Everyone has this no flinch
property when in musou rage, and thus fights just like Cao Ren, and Xing Cai,
and will not flinch to normal non-aerial attacks. So if you are in musou rage,
and Cao Ren or Xing Cai attacks you while you are attacking, both of you will
not flinch (it's like the "Terminator"), until one of you does a charge attack,
a musou attack, or jumps in the air. So it's very dangerous to attack blindly
against these two characters, as even though you are in musou rage, they will
probably still deal lots of damage to you.
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6.26 - Weapon Power
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Weapon Power is the value displayed under the "POWER" heading in the weapon
attributes screen (either in the CAMP mode, or the preparation screen prior to
beginning a stage). For example, the power of Lu Bu's fourth weapon is 40, and
Xiao Qiao's is 32.
This power value does not work in the same way as the "attack" value. You
may have noticed that swapping from a third weapon to a fourth weapon (while
keeping all other attack variables constant) results in a very little increase
with the attack stat bar. In Lu Bu's case, the resulting power increase would
be from 18 to 40; this is a +22 increase in power. But notice that when you put
on the Tiger Amulet, which is a +20 increase in attack, the result is that
the amount of increase in the attack stat bar created by the Tiger Amulet is
much larger than the amount of increase in the attack stat bar created by
swapping from third to fourth weapons. This first observation proves that the
power value does not work in the same way as the attack value, in that a +20
increase of weapon power is significantly less than a +20 increase in attack.
The simplest way to see how much increase in attack results from power is
to use Lu Bu as an example and look at the stats in the preparation menu
(just before starting a stage)
First: You need to know that for a maxed character, all values are at 40.
To see this visually, take any character with a maxed Defense, that has a
weapon with no extra Defense bonus on it. Making sure that this character
doesn't have the Tortoise Amulet on, the Defense bar at the preparation screen
should be 1/2 full.
Second: With Lu Bu now, go to the preparations screen, and empty all of his
item slots. You should see that the Life and Musou bars are the same, and
slightly less than the Defense bar, and the Defense bar is slightly less than
the Attack bar. This makes perfect sense according to the stats on his fourth
weapon. His Life and Musou are slightly lower than Defense because his weapon
has +19 for both Life and Musou, but +20 for Defense. Looking at the Attack
bar now, there is also a +20 attack on Lu Bu's fourth weapon, thus the slight
increase in the Attack bar compared to the Defense bar, is the result of
the power from his weapon. You can see that this increase is about +3 or +4.
A visual conclusion drawn from this example is that Power is practically
useless: the whopping +40 on Lu Bu's fourth weapon causes a small increase
in the attack bar of about +4.
For damage calculations in this guide, I will need to convert power to
damage, or attack. Seen from the example above, this ratio will be used:
POWER 10:1 ATTACK
Power seems useless if you've looked at the example above with Lu Bu.
There may be other properties of power, but this is all that I have uncovered.
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6.27 - Weapon Weight Multipliers
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Even though I am only going to cover character analyses with all the
characters equipped with their fourth weapons, this section will merely help
those of you who really dislike the weight of a certain character's
fourth weapon.
First of all, I don't recommend using any third weapons, because of the fact
that you get a free musou rage token per 100 KO's, with fourth weapons.
Fourth weapons have 5 attributes to them, when the maximum number of
attributes for a third weapon is only 4. Also, even though the weapon power
is increased significantly, this does not mean an increase in attack. (refer
to section above for an explanation of this; section 6.27)
But you may want to prefer using a different weapon weight if the character's
fourth weapon weight, as well as the 5 attributes suck. Xu Zhu comes to mind.
It may be a good choice to give him a medium weight weapon with an extra attack
bonus of +20. This would greatly enhance his attacking power, as his light
fourth weapon has no extra attack bonus. Also, Fill seems to be the only
useful attribute on his fourth weapon. (I'll show calculations later)
Before I begin, I would say that I conducted my own experiments to uncover
that the weapon weight multiplier is 1.25. But I would also like to admit that
I had read somewhere before, that someone had already experimented with this
and came up with a multiplier of 1.3. Technically, the person who first
found this out deserves the credit to this, but this is a simple discovery
anyway, and would be impossible to credit. So strictly speaking, all I did was
verify the value of this weapon weight multiplier. And since my experiment
returned a value of 1.25, this will be the official weapon weight multiplier
in my guide.
Well there you have it, if all you wanted to know was the value itself, it is
1.25. This means that a heavy weapon is 1.25 times stronger than a medium
weapon, and a medium weapon is 1.25 times stronger than a light weapon.
For details on how this was determined:
I took Huang Gai, who had three third weapons each of different weight. All
three weapons had the same base attack (obviously), and had no extra attack
bonus. This would yield consistent results because only weapon weight is
altered with attacking strength kept constant. The testing was done in the
Yellow Turban Rebellion stage on Yellow Turban Forces. There is a supply base
near the starting position of Sun Jian, where the north side of the base is
free of any people. I isolated the gate captain, and did a full 6-hit normal
attack combo on him. Then I measured the length of health depleted. (Yes. with
a ruler; wierd way of experimenting, nevermind that, it is quite accurate)
Well the uncertainty of the measurements should be only parallax, which would
differ by a few millimeters at most. This would explain the difference between
my 1.25 value and the 1.3 value that I read somewhere, sometime ago.
Just for completeness sake, here's a quick calculation to validate the usage of
third weapons over crappy fourth weapons. We'll go back to Xu Zhu as an
example. This table is a calculation based only on a Xu Zhu with a maxed
attack. Note that only the raw value of a maxed attack (disregarding all attack
bonuses including weapons) is 40.
________________________________________________________________________
Weapon Number 4th 3rd
Weapon Weight Light Medium
Weapon Power +38 +16
Weapon ATK Bonus +0 +20
Maxed ATK Value +40 +40
Tiger Amulet +20 +20
Green Scroll x1.5 x1.5
Weight Multiplier x1.0 x1.25
Damage Calculation [(38/10)+40+20]*1.5 [(16/10)+40+20+20]*1.25*1.5
Resulting Damage 95.7 153.0
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So equipping Xu Zhu with a medium 3rd weapon with an attack bonus of +20
will be quite noticeably stronger (about 1.5 times stronger) than his 4th
weapon. This value of 1.5 times stronger is indeed realistic and very close to
actual results. If you can get a good medium 3rd weapon (likely by the
internal time trick), it is probably well worth sacrificing attacking speed and
all the musou rages that you would normally get with a 4th weapon. My ideal
weapon for Xu Zhu would be:
ATK FILL CHARGE MUSOU SPD
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6.28 - The Green Scroll
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When equipped with the green scroll, your attack is 1.5 times stronger,
but your defense is 2 times weaker.
Even though these two ratios are disproportional, it is well worth the
sacrifice.
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6.29 - The Disadvatages of Having a Bodyguard
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First I should point out the obvious, that having a bodyguard (preferrably an
S/S Fan Bodyguard) has undoubtedly more pros than cons, but here are some
very important disadvantages that should be considered when in Chaos mode.
When you have a bodyguard fighting by your side, he/she will attract random
and often unexpected enemy attacks. You won't really have to worry about the
bodyguard surviving, but you have to worry about suffering collateral damage
from the unpredictable enemy attacks directed at your bodyguard. This will
often create melee confusion which is quite hard to deal with. Generally, it
is much safer to take on the world by yourself.
Secondly, having a bodyguard by your side may cause the game to lag slightly.
You have probably noticed that in 2 Player mode, the loading is terrible, as
sometimes enemies randomly disappear/appear/reappear. This effect is very
apparent when two players are fighting very close to each other in 2 Player
mode. Well having a bodyguard by your side MAY also create this sort of lag
in loading. It is however to a smaller degree than in 2 Player mode, but I
found it very frustrating to die because some random groups of peons appear
behind me because of the terrible loading.
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6.30 - Unsuspected and Unwanted Displacement
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Many of you have probably noticed this already.
Peons, generals, and even horses don't actually stay planted on the ground when
they are supposedly stationary. Here are many example of this: If you
move while holding L1 while on a horse, and move against another horse, that
other horse will move with you. If you play in two players mode, and have one
player be a fast character and the other, a slow character, it is possible for
both characters to run at the same speed, and at the speed of the faster
character, if you have the faster character running behind the slower
character. The result is obvious, that the faster character is pushing the
slower one. This is because interference is allowed between two moving objects
to cause displacement. Now of course, objects like moving rams cannot be
displaced, but if you run against the direction of one, you will forced to
move with the ram.
Anyway, now that you know what I mean about this idea of displacement, it is in
many cases unwanted. You may have noticed that sometimes when blocking against
a general, the general will somehow slide slightly closer toward you, or even
past you, and this allows the general to hit you easily even if you are
blocking. This would usually happen in large crowds, and only when crowds
are approaching. This is simple because, the crowd that is approaching will
push the general closer to you. This effect is obviously very minor, but
this is actually the most frequent reason to why I lose in Chaos - because of
flaws in the loading/technicalities in the game.
This is why it's very hard for Xiao Qiao to juggle officers properly
with her musou in massive crowds.
I suppose it would be good to conclude this with solutions to this stupid
problem. Well, there's really nothing you can do about it. The only solution to
prevent getting hit because of this unwanted displacement is to counterattack.
Something else that is totally different, but still sort of related to this,
is the game's or the system's poor loading. Sometimes peons may appear out of
nowhere in their usual group of fives. This may be fatal, depending on where
they appear, and the character you are using.
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6.31 - Enemy Generals in Musou Rage
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The light orb strategy in this section was provided by SC.
Generals when in musou rage can be real pain to deal with. Normally, the
obvious thing to do would be to run away and wait until the general's musou
rage is finished. However, this is not possible for character's with slow
walking speed, who also do not have a quick charge attack available. An
example of a quick charge would be Dian Wei's C1. His C1,
since it is a charge attack will still cause a general in a musou rage to be
lifted off his feet. However, most slow characters already have this quick
ground stomp as their C1.
For the characters who are fast enough, run away and come back later.
For the slow characters who have the quick ground stomp as their C1
keep using it until the general's musou rage is over.
For other slow characters, your only option is to block, but the generals that
are able to use musou rages, are always playable characters, and playable
characters controlled by the AI are smart enough to sometimes sidestep and
wiggle around you and attack. So blocking is somewhat risky. Another good
option is to counterattack, but again, quite obviously, it is also risky. It
is a good strategy to plan ahead, if you know that there is an officer in the
stage that you are playing will go crazy with a musou rage. (for example,
Ma Chao at Bai Di Castle). Giving your character the Light Orb is very useful.
If you can time your charge attack correctly, you can easily set up a
situation for juggling. Now just juggle away, until the general's musou rage
is over. The reason why I mention that you must time it correctly, is that
it is dangerous to just begin attacking when the general is close in. If you
start attacking and the general in his/her musou rage isn't blocking, you're
in trouble. Since your normal attacks will not cause the general to flinch,
the general is free to, and will very likely, start attacking you instead.
But of course, in the case the general is blocking, then you have all the time
in the world to set up the juggling with your Light Orb.
This strategy is a subtle one, as it doesn't make your defense really any
better, but will allow you to work on the general by juggling, instead of
running way to a safe place and just standing around. But juggling a general
in a musou rage will deal almost negligible damage. Still, this strategy is
useful and very worth mentioning.
Another good strategy of planning ahead for dealing with these generals is to
equip the Way of Musou depending on your character's musou. This is absolutely
perfect for characters who have true musous that hurl the enemy into the air,
like Guan Yu's. After this, juggling the general with fire is a smart way
to turn the tide. This method suffers no special timing; all you need to do is
execute your true musou when you know that the general is not blocking. Since
this method is practically risk-free, it should be the best way to face a
general when the general is in a musou rage.
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6.32 - Ice Orb Probability
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After simple probability tests, with large sample sizes, the probability of
freezing an enemy with the ice orb is 60% chance.
This test was done with Liu Bei's C3, with a sample size of 237.
I tested the possibility of Luck influencing freezing probability while I
did this. With Maximum luck, the stats were 82/132 = 62.1%
With no luck bonuses, the stats were 61/105 = 58.1%
It can be seen that luck plays no role in affecting the Ice Orb.
Combining these two, with a sample size of 237, the Ice Orb probability is
60.3%
This sample size should be reliable enough to conclude that the Ice Orb
freezing probability is 60%.
This number will be used frequently in character analyses, to calculate
the chance to deal One-Musou-KOs against officers.
A good example is Cao Pi. If he were to use his C1 before an approaching crowd,
this C1 will make his C5 successful with very little defensive risk,
and at the same time, the freezing probability is very high. There will be two
chances to freeze then. And we only need one of the two to succeed.
A probability tree diagram can show the probability of the freezing probability
If S stands for Success, and F stands for Failure, then....
(S-0.60) (F-0.40)
/ \ / \
(S-0.60) (F-0.40) (S-0.60) (F-0.40)
| | | |
0.36 0.24 0.24 0.16
it can be seen that the first three branches from the left, are a success in
freezing. So with the C1 timed correctly, Cao Pi has an 84% chance in freezing
and officer, and thus an 84% chance in killing an officer with only one
musou. This is doing a one-musou-KO against more than 4/5 officers.
This tree diagram shows all the possibilities. The only needed calculation
however is to do the probability of failure, and then complement it.
This example is an applicable one, while Cao Cao's C6 isn't really worth
computing because his C6 isn't very safe in large crowds.
But then, doing the same sort of thing, the chance of failure is
0.40^5, which the very unlikely chance of 0.01, meaning that his freezing
probability with his C6 is potentially 99%.
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6.33 - The True Way of Musou [XL]
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The True Way of Musou is a new item in Xtreme Legends. It is probably the
most valuable of the new items. It is a definite recommendation for almost
all characters, and here's why:
The True Way of Musou increases the character's musou damage by half, or in
other words, it is 1.5 times stronger.
The duration of the character's musou is slightly increased. This increase
is one extra repeating loop. A typical character's musou has three parts:
A beginning attack, A chain of repeating attacks, An ending attack. So the
increase is only an extra loop of repeating attacks that make up the middle
chain section.
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6.34 - The Dragon Arms [XL]
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A very unique new item in Xtreme Legends which allows you to jump during
a charge attack. This includes all parts that are considered part of the
specific charge attack, the execution time, the charge attack itself, and
the recovery time; and it is the recovery time that is important here.
Being able to jump during the recovery time of a charge attack is very useful
because it can be used to eliminate the recovery time. But the usefulness of
this item depends on the character's reach and range of his/her air attack,
or the character's type of jump charge, and duration of recovery times of the
most useful charge attacks of that character. The jump attack or jump charge
of the character is very important to serve as a useful charge recovery time
cancellation, because simply jumping out of it doesn't do much, as the time
it takes to jump is too long to be useful. Thus, the way to minimize this
jump-time, is to do a quick air attack. (pressing square as soon as possible
after a jump) Some characters have a very suitable jump charge to get them
to safety, and it can be used to cancel the recovery times of charge attacks.
Only specific charge attacks work with the Dragon Arms. The Dragon Arms works
with any charge attack executed by pressing the triangle button. The only
exception is jump charges. This makes sense anyway, because if jump charges
worked with the Dragon Arms, several characters would be invincible, because
they can abuse their jump charges continuously. The Dragon Arms, however,
does not work with the first evolution attack. I've mentioned before that
the first evolution attack has a lot of similar charge attack properties, but
you cannot jump out of this attack with the Dragon Arms. Although, the very
last evolution attack is compatible with the Dragon Arms. This last attack
satifies very little properties of a charge attack, but it is possible to
jump out of it. There is a slight advantage to this as it would make battle
more fluent, by cancelling the recovery time of the last evolution attack.
Here is an example of how the Dragon Arms can be useful:
Zhou Tai:
Definitely one of the characters that benefit most from the Dragon Arms.
In the Dynasty Warriors 5 tier list, the main reason why he is ranked so lowly
is because of his defensive effort. The Dragon Arms item is very compatible
with Zhou Tai because his jump attack has good reach and range. His C3 is
likely his most useful charge attack; the only flaw in this charge
attack is the long recovery time, and if you fail to fill his musou with it,
escaping without getting hit is almost impossible. Being able to do a
quick jump attack right after his C3 ends is very valuable. Probably
the biggest advantage of giving Zhou Tai the Dragon Arms, is his C1.
Zhou Tai's C1 is similar to that of Lu Bu's and Zhao Yun's,
in that it grants temporary invincibility. This is useful as an escaping
move for Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, and Zhou Tai. This enables Zhou Tai to have
a perfect defense, and is why Zhou Tai is a high tier character in Xtreme
Legends.
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6.35 - Damage-Free Zone
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This subsection discusses what Xiahou Jia, quite a Dynasty Warriors pro,
from the Scholars of Shen Zhou forums, calls, the "Damage-Free Zone".
This concept has made significant changes in my analyses for Xiahou Yuan.
This Damage-Free Zone is most useful for Xiahou Yuan and Huang Zhong.
Since he organized this idea quite nicely in the discussion, I thought it would
be best to copy and paste his explanation here:
---
1. Damage-free zone. Everything that's going on on your minimap but not
onscreen is damage free. Your allies and your enemies recieve absolutely no
damage at all. So that completely eliminates the problem of Commander being
dead or losing important allies like Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao in YTR. The
worst thing one can do in YTR is to kill or even damage Dian Wei, Cheng Pu,
Li Dian and Huang Gai and thus deprive yourself of potential allies. Just face
away from Zhangs and Wei and Wu subs and wait for the brainwashing to take
place. You see, the DF zone is also a "sticky" zone. Not only everything is
damage free but the red and the blue dots tend to stick to each other. If you
fight onscreen you're always the priority target for the AI generals and most
of the time for the bodyguards as well, until somebody else hits the AI and
draws attention. But if you fight offscreen you'll be ignored more often than
not if there are allies closer to the AI.
Another thing about the DF zone is that nothing can hit you from there but
arrows. Only enemies onscreen and archers can hit you in DW5. When you face
away you dramatically reduce the chances of being hit. No long- range attack
can hit you and the number of the enemies onscreen is often reduced to nil.
I will give you another example of the DF zone. I usually refer to it as a
"bow glitch" that is present in all DW games (do you remember the duels in DW4
Wink ). Play any level you want and make sure there are no archers around.
Draw your bow and aim it high at the sky. Well, from now on you're in DF zone
yourself. You can hear the AI attacking you and see that you're totally
surrounded on minimap but you recieve no damage and don't flinch. That's
because you can not be damaged if the enemies are not onscreen and the only
thing on your screen is a nice blue sky. The AI will start using only jump
attacks in order to get on your screen and break through your invincibility.
You can move around while holding L1+R1. I consider the "bow glitch" cheating
and never use it.
Anyway, back to [Xiahou] Yuan. So, everything in DF zone is damage free...
until you turn around (do not reset the camera, only [Xiahou] Yuan must be
onscreen)and start slaughtering them with C1 And as you are well aware the DF
zone is also a "I don't know how to block" zone.
Now I believe that the biggest problem for Chaos players is a "pushing" effect
(you've described it as "displacement" in your FAQ). as it can nullify what
seemed to be a perfect defence. The thing is that the "pushing" effect or
let's call it a "boost" (reminds me of the Boost tactic in DT2) tactic can
happen only onscreen. But if you play [Xiahou] Yuan (as well as Huang Zhong
and some others) you don't need to see your enemies as long as you're
confident with the minimap and terrain.
2. "Gather" tactic. At first glance there's nothing spectacular about it. You
just enter the AI attacking zone and everybody starts to surround you if no
allies are present on the minimap. "Gather" is a set up tactic in DT2 and it
serves the same purpose in DW5. When the AI is all around you it's time for a
"Mislead".
3. "Mislead". Move forward and watch your minimap. The AI will form a column
behind you. Nice column, very nice for Yuan's C1 Make sure that nobody is
behind you onscreen (they must be all offscreen), stop and annihilate them
with C1 if you have a high attack equipment or slow them down and win some
time if you fight without items. Remember to keep the crowd in DF zone.
Otherwise I can guarantee you'll get a nice "boost" in return.
The perfect example of Gather+Mislead+C1 combo is conquering bases. Enter the
base and run to either NW or NE corner, turn around and kill'em all
Ok, running from the likes of Lu Xun is VERY painfull without items
(speed scroll mainly). But that's what the TMF is for. If you're really
unlucky and don't have a musou ready than try to run away in a curve line. It
usually works but it's really hard - I've learnt this trick in DW5E when I was
running for my life from 2 Juggernauts and Lu Bu who were Ultrafast because of
Forced March Tactic.
4. "Flank". My most favourite tactic that I always use against generals. In
case of [Xiahou] Yuan the "Flank" should be used from the right side as the
range of his musou is from right to left. This one is definitely well-known to
you as I remember you saying at GameFaqs board that the Light Orb is not needed
because you can always attack the AI from behind.
5. "Awe". A relatively new thing that i had discovered before I moved to SW2E.
Unfortunately Yuan doesn't profit from it as much as his one-eyed cousin or
any other character who moves alot when attacking. Still it should be
mentioned. It's pretty close actually to the "Light Orb" strategy described in
FAQ. The difference is that you use "Awe" for defence purpose and don't need
any orb as long as your attacking rate is decent and you don't have long
charging times. The point is that the AI generals and bodyguards are easily
forced to block just by swinging your weapon if they are positioned strictly
to the N[orth]. Now the fun is that the AI will not move as long as you do
your combo. It will stop blocking when it's behind you most of the time but it
will never move. So you can easily win some distance if the AI is too close by
forcing it to block your first hit and then using your rest of the evo combo
for retreat. However it doesn't work against regular peons as they never
block, so it should be used carefully.
---
Commentary:
As you can deduce already, this is a very important concept to grasp for
Xiahou Yuan, especially with his 4th weapon equipped. With only a speed 20
configuration with the Speed Scroll equipped, his walking speed is
fast enough to outrun pursuing crowds, but he's only barely faster, so
it does take a while to run until it's safe to execute his C1. It takes even
longer in massive crowds, because of the pushing or unwanted displacement
effect. The main idea is, Xiahou Yuan has pretty much an extreme defense, if
his walking speed is fast enough. The most important thing about the
Damage-Free Zone, is to understand the off-screen advantages. Keep in mind
though that if an officer or any other enemy, is in the middle of executing
an attack, such as a C1, or a musou, turning away from them, obviously doesn't
cancel their "long-range" attack. The idea is, when enemies are offscreen,
they won't be executing these attacks. This makes it much easier for
Huang Zhong and Xiahou Yuan to execute their C1's safely, without distance
calculations or approximations, by the eye.
His awe tactic is also a very important concept to know, even though it's
applications are very limited. The best example for this, that I can think of,
is Pang De's C6. If you purposely miss or hit a blocking officer with his C6,
and steer it away from the blocking officer, you'll notice that the officer
will stay put, blocking the entier time, until his C6 finishes. It's interesting
that the AI does this (but not surprising), as before I noticed this, I
thought (or one would think) the officer would stop blocking and start
running after him to take advantage. Furthermore, I consider this property
a disadvantage for Pang De's C6. If he is not equipped with the Light Orb,
you can easily force an officer to block (as long as they are within 6 or 7
paces). If the AI were to instead, stop blocking directly after his C6
execution to seemingly take advantage, it would be perfect because with
the proper configuration, this would often be a perfect musou setup, after
easy musou filling.
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6.36 - Crowd Clearing vs Crowd Control
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Crowd Clearing is a term that has been widely used since the first Dynasty
Warriors games. Crowd Clearing is defined as the ability to defeat peons
quickly, or the ability to increase the KO count. Characters with good Crowd
Clearing ability then are able to get higher KOs in a shorter time.
Crowd Control is a term that is less frequently used, but it still a widely
recognized term. Crowd Control is defined as the ability to perform well within
a crowd. With the objective of clearing a stage being defeating officers as
quickly as possible, Crowd Control then would be a character's ability to
engage an officer in a massive crowd size. All characters do well against
solitary officers, but differences in character movesets will be seen as crowd
sizes increase. I think this term usually refers to foot soldier peons only,
but this can obviously be revised to include archers, as fighting with archers
nearby is another character quality that is important to consider.
Crowd Control then has little to do with Crowd Clearing. Crowd Clearing is
that one that is important for tier list analysis, as it defines how well a
character can fight an officer when surrounded by massive crowds and the
defensive capabilities of that character when fighting in massive crowds.
Unlike Crowd Clearing, Crowd Control cannot be measured directly. Crowd
Clearing can be measured by KO rate, which is the number of KOs in a certain
amount of time. However, Crowd Control is indirectly measured by observing a
character's performance against officers in a variety of crowd sizes, that
is, all the crowd sizes the game has to offer. This is still an objective
method of comparing characters for tier list analysis, as measuring
offensive speed, relies heavily on Crowd Control, and thus measures Crowd
Control indirectly.
An example:
Xiahou Dun is better than Meng Huo because, he has a stronger musou (but both
are juggling musous), he is better at freezing officers, he is better at
filling musou, but most importantly, he has extremely good Crowd Control,
but bad Crowd Clearing. If you maximize him with a Medium weapon, it'll take
him two musous to kill officers without Ice. Meng Huo is very much the same,
but Meng Huo just can't match Xiahou Dun's offensive speed against officers
simply because of Crowd Clearing with musou. In most scenarios, with Meng Huo,
the officer is left with no peons around, and he has to finish the officer off
slowly with one on one combat. Xiahou Dun can fill his musou safely and quickly
often in just one C3. Xiahou Dun's maximized offense is thus, usually C3 >
Musou > C3 > Musou, against officers in a wide range of crowd sizes.
There is no way for Meng Huo to match this efficiency.
===============================================================================
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7.00 - Musou Rage Token and Meat Bun Locations for 5-star Difficulty Stages
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This small section will briefly cover locations of meat buns and musou rage
tokens.
When I refer to gates, I mean the gates where soldier troops come from, or
get produced rather. These gates are guarded by either allied or enemy
guard captains.
There are usually three meat buns in a stage. There are however, some
exceptions such as Guan Yu's Escape and Bai Di Castle.
Please tell me if I have missed any locations of meat buns, or if there are
any errors.
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7.01 - Yellow Turban Rebellion (Yellow Turban Forces)
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Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Jian Yong
Elite Guard of Li Ru
Elite Guard of Huangfu Song
Crate near the Gate west of the Central Altar (Zhang Bao's Altar)
Meat Bun Locations:
Gate west of Zhang Jiao's Main Camp
Northeast of He Jin's starting position
South of the Western Enemy Supply Base
2 Supply Bases
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7.02 - The Battle of Chi Bi (Allied Forces)
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Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Zhang Liao
Elite Guard of Yu Jin
Elite Guard of Cao Pi
Crate North side of the Boat where Huang Gai appears after the Fire
Attack
Meat Bun Locations:
Gate South of the Eastern Bridge
Gate Southwest of the Western Bridge
South side of the Boat where Huang Gai appears after the Fire Attack
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7.03 - Conquest of Nan Zhong (Nanman Forces)
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Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Wei Yan
Elite Guard of Yan Yan
Elite Guard of Yue Ying
Crate near the Central-Western most Gate
Meat Bun Locations:
Eastern Gate of Meng Huo's Main Camp
Eastern Gate of Zhuge Liang's Main Camp
Gate West of Guan Xing's starting position
1 Supply Base
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7.04 - The Siege of He Fei Castle (Wei Forces)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Zhu Huan
Elite Guard of Xu Sheng
Elite Guard of Lu Xun
Crate near the Central Gate
Meat Bun Locations:
Central Gate
South of Zhou Fang's starting position
North of the Entrance of Sima Yi's starting position
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7.05 - The Siege of He Fei Castle (Wu Forces)
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Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Cao Hong
Elite Guard of Cao Zhen
Elite Guard of Xu Huang
Crate near the Central Gate
Meat Bun Locations:
Central Gate
South of Xiahou Ba's starting position
North of the Entrance that Xu Zhu is guarding
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7.06 - Battle of Bai Di Castle (Wu Forces)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Xing Cai
Elite Guard of Guan Xing
Elite Guard of Gao Xiang
Crate near the Gate west of Huang Zhong's starting position
Meat Bun Locations:
Northeast corner in the Stone Sentinel Maze
Path leading to a dead end, north of Huang Zhong's starting position
Quite a ways west of the southeast corner gate
Gate near Ma Chao's ambush location
4 Supply Bases
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7.07 - Battle of Bai Di Castle (Shu Forces)
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Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Jiang Qin
Elite Guard of Zhou Tai
Elite Guard of Huang Gai
Crate near the Gate southeast of Zhou Tai's starting position
Meat Bun Locations:
Gate west of Lu Xun's starting position
Path leading to a dead end, near Zhou Tai's starting position
Quite a ways west of the southeast corner gate
Northeast corner in the Stone Sentinel Maze
4 Supply Bases
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_____________________________________________
7.08 - Battle of Wu Zhang Plains (Wei Forces)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Guan Suo
Elite Guard of Wei Yan
Elite Guard of Jiang Wei
Crate in the area of the Arbelests
Meat Bun Locations:
Gate where Shu supplies (wood oxen) come from
North of the attack base south of the river
West gate near the river
2 Supply Bases
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________________________________________
7.09 - Battle of Wu Zhang Plains (Shu Forces)
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Cao Rui
Elite Guard of Zhen Ji
Elite Guard of Sima Yi
Crate in the area of the Arbelests
Meat Bun Locations:
Gate where Shu supplies (wood oxen) come from
North of the attack base south of the river
West gate near the river
5 Supply Bases
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________
7.10 - Struggle for the Book (183AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Crate in the center, in the second garrison of the castle *
Meat Bun Locations:
Northeast corner, in the first garrison of the castle
Northwest corner, in the first garrison of the castle
Center, in the first garrison of the castle
* There are no officers that drop musou rage tokens in this stage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________
7.11 - Rescue at Lou Sang Po (184AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Crate near the center of the map *
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the center of the map
South of Zhang Jiao's main camp **
* There are no officers that drop musou rage tokens in this stage
** There are only two meat buns in this stage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________
7.12 - Ou Xing's Rebellion (187AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Zhou Chao
Elite Guard of Zuozi Zhangba
Elite Guard of Guan Hai *
Crate near the western-most gate
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the gate northwest of Ou Xing's Castle
North of Ou Xing's Castle, just outside, near Zuozi Zhangba
Near the gate in the northeast corner of the map
* Guan Hai is a subgeneral under He Yi, who comes as reinforcements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________________
7.13 - The Ten Eunuchs' Rebellion (189AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Crate in the southwest corner of the map *
* There are no meat buns in this stage, and only one musou rage token
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________________________________
7.14 - Battle of Yan Province (194AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Dian Wei / Xu Zhu
Elite Guard of Xun Yu
Elite Guard of Xiahou Dun
Crate north of the center-most base, south of the river
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the gate in the southwest corner of the map
East side of the map, just south of the river
Near the gate, at a "T" intersection, south of the river
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________________________
7.15 - Imperial Rescue (195AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Guo Si
Elite Guard of Li Jue
Elite Guard of Zhang Liao
Crate near the gate in the northeast corner of the map
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the gate slightly west of the center of the map
Near the gate slightly north of the center of the map
Near the gate along the path that Li Jue takes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________
7.16 - The Two Qiaos (196AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Crate near Zuo Ci
Meat Bun Locations:
Near Zhou Tai
Near the gate south of Zhou Tai
Near the northern-most gate, near Zuo Ci
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________
7.17 - Husbands and Wives (200AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
There seems to be no limit to the musou rage tokens dropped by
defeated enemies in this stage, and they are not dropped by
elite guards, but rather, any of the four female characters,
Zhen Ji, Xiao Qiao, Da Qiao, and Yue Ying.
Crate on the path connecting the northern-most fortress and the
western-most fortress
Meat Bun Locations:
There is one meat bun inside each of the three fortresses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________
7.18 - Battle of Ji Castle (213AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Zhang He
Elite Guard of Xiahou Yuan
Elite Guard of Wei Kang
Crate near the gate south of Ji Castle
Meat Bun Locations:
West of Ji Castle, outside
Near the east gate inside Ji Castle *
* There are only two meat buns in this stage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________________________________
7.19 - Battle of Jia Meng Gate (214AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Zhang Wei
Elite Guard of Ma Dai
Elite Guard of Ma Chao
Crate near the gate, close the geographic center of the map
Meat Bun Locations:
Of the two northern-most gates, the meat bun is near the eastern one
Of the two eastern-most gates, the meat bun is near the southern one
Near the geographic center of the map
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________
7.20 - Battle of Yang Ping Gate (215AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Yang Ang
Elite Guard of Yang Song
Elite Guard of Yan Pu
Crate near the main entrance to Zhang Lu's main camp; near Pang De
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the main entrance to Zhang Lu's main camp; near Pang De
In Zhang Lu's main camp, but on top of the garrison
Near the gate, in Cao Cao's main camp
1 supply base
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________
7.21 - Battle of Ru Xu Kou (217AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Xu Huang
Elite Guard of Xiahou Dun
Elite Guard of Yue Jin
Crate on the south side of the central island
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the gate in the southeast corner of the map
Near the gate in the northeast corner of the map
Of the two western-most gates, the meat bun is near the northern one
3 supply bases
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________
7.22 - Battle of Han Shui (219AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Crate in the center of Cao Cao's main camp *
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the river surrounded Cao Cao's main camp, south side
In Cao Cao's main camp, near the northeast corner
In Cao Cao's main camp, near the southwest corner
* For some reason, no elite guards drop musou rage tokens in this stage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________
7.23 - Battle of Mai Castle (219AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Xu Huang
Elite Guard of Lu Meng
Elite Guard of Cao Ren
Crate inside Mai Castle, in the northwest corner
Meat Bun Locations:
Inside Mai Castle, in the northwest corner
Near the gate in the southwest corner of the map
Of the two eastern-most gates, the meat bun is near the southern one
4 supply bases
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________
7.24 - Battle of Xin Castle (227AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Wei Yan
Elite Guard of Ma Chao
Elite Guard of Meng Da
Crate west of the southern-most base
Meat Bun Locations:
West of the southern-most base
South of the northern-most base
Near the supply base
1 supply base
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________
7.25 - Battle of Shi Ting (228AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Cao Xiu
Elite Guard of Cao Zhen
Elite Guard of Sima Yi
Crate north of Sun Quan's supply base
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the northern gate in the open area where Cao Xiu is
Near the gate east of Sun Quan's supply base
Near the western gate in Cao Pi's main camp
3 supply bases
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________
7.26 - Battle of Mt. Qi (231AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Crate in the central open area, in the northwest corner *
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the northern gate in Sima Yi's main camp
West of the eastern-most base
Of the two gates on the northern edge of the map, there is a meat bun
south of the western gate of these two gates
* There are no elite guards that drop musou rages. This adds to make
this stage even harder than it already is.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________________________________
7.27 - Showdown at Nan Zhong (235AD) [XL]
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Musou Rage Token Locations:
Elite Guard of Xu Huang
Elite Guard of Xu Zhu
Elite Guard of Sima Zhao
Crate west of Xu Huang
Meat Bun Locations:
Near the gate in the northwest corner of the map
In Meng Huo's main camp, southwest corner of the map
Near Sima Yi's main camp
1 supply base
===============================================================================
_______________________________________________
8.00 - Individual Character Tips and Strategies
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Each character section will begin with a introduction. In this introduction,
there will be some very general comments on the character.
Next will be recommended items to equip. Then will be my analysis
for using the character effectively in Chaos.
I have organized all the characters by a ranking system from best to worst.
This is of course based on unbaised analysis.
TIER LIST DEFINITION AND TIER LIST THEORY
I should stress that these tier lists are based on character skills, strengths
and weaknesses. These lists were very carefully composed with extensive
experience to analyze all of the characters.
I do encourage emails on tier list discussions,
but it better have points and reasons, that are well thought out. Because of
strong emphasis on defense, tier list trends tend to show a gradual decrease
in defensive potential. Characters with similar defense will tend to in the
same tier, and the ordering within each tier is determined by offensive
speed. This is just the general trend, as some characters with seemingly
equal defense may be divided because of a big, or very noticeable difference
in offense. A very good example of this is Zhuge Liang and Huang Zhong. Both
should be able to be untouched in any stage, because of reliable distanced
combat. However, Zhuge Liang's offense is by far better than Huang Zhong's.
The main point and idea behind tier lists, is that there is a best way to
play each character, and if this is achieved, then making an accurate
tier list is possible. Errors in my tier lists only have two possibilities:
I have either analysed a character incorrectly and my method is not the
best method, or that I have simply misplaced the character in the tier list.
Many people tend to reject tier lists outright, because of imcomplete or
flawed reasons. Please take the time to read and understand my
definition of a Tier List, or Tier List Theory.
(1) Defining the Tier List by Defining the Variables
I wont say that Tier Lists can be perfect, but if you define it carefully, and
put enough work into it, it can be very accurate. Usually, the audience is more
interested in a tier list of maximized characters. This seems to make the most
sense too because it evaluates each character's maximum potential. However,
there may be some special cases where a Tier List involving 4th weapons
(not necessarily maximum potential) is more relevant to the typical reader,
because full weapon customization is difficult to realize. This is apparent
in Dynasty Warriors 5. But, I did take the time to construct a Tier List of
characters with Full Customization of weapons. This is actually, the fairest
way to compare all the characters. The first concept is to define the
variables, and to define them accordingly, to suit the typical audience.
(2) Objectivity vs Subjectivity
The second important concept of Tier List theory, is to evaluate all characters
using objective methods. Only objective analyzes can result in a universal
Tier List, or a factual Tier List (well... as factual as possible). My methods
have revolutionized Tier Lists for these types of games.
Several years ago, Tier List topics/discussions would never end,
simply because such topics were a collection of clashing opinions.
Opinions is the key word here, and it connects
with subjective methods of analysis. There is no way for a Universally
Acceptable Tier List to be made through subjective methods of character
comparison. On the other hand, objective truths MUST exist; each character's
moveset is different, and because of these differences, there has to be
measurable advantages and disadvantages. A factual Tier List then, is a
collection of these objective truths.
(3) Overall Offense, and Overall Defense
A good way to collect these objective
truths is to categorize them. Many people would say, if attack, then Lu Bu is
at the top; if horse combat, then Ma Chao is at the top.
These both fall under offense. And, offense can be measured by offensive
speed. This works nicely with these types of games because the common goal
is to defeat officers in order to complete a stage. The second category then
would be defensive potential, that is, the potential to resist the obstacles
involved in completing a stage. Every measurable aspect of a character's
moveset can be sorted into these two categories.
(4) Consistency Achieved by Maximized Gameplay
The fourth important concept is a simple one.
How many times have you heard the phrase:
"Tier List's are opinion; any character can be good if played by an expert".
Notice that these two lines contradict each other. If any character can be
played well, that is, in the hands of an expert, and if all character movesets
are different, then it logically follows (not directly, but implied) that some
characters have to be better/worse than others. The simple point here is,
a mastered Lu Bu will always be better than a mastered Zhang Jiao.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the end, the goal is to display a tier list of my unbiased evaluation of
all the characters in the game on Chaos difficulty, as close to a factual
and concrete tier list as possible, but is never possible, because of
inevitable debatable opinions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another way to define this tier list:
This tier list I suppose, in some way, can be thought of as a tier list
representing individual skill - like a tier list of who you are best and worst
with. BUT only if you have mastered using all characters, and believe that you
can in no way get any better with any one character. And thus, my claim is that
if 10 people, who believe they have mastered all the characters,
constructed their own individual tier list of who they are best and worst with,
each tier list, or better yet, the average of all 10 tier lists, would be very
very close to my tier lists.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A note on the term Mastered:
I once tried to explain my tier list theories to some people, and one reply
to my idea of mastered characters was, that there is no way to master
a character because we are humans. OK...but seriously, we are capable enough
to come very close, and the ultimate point is, with mastery of all the
characters, one can construct a very accurate tier list. The way I have come
to play the game on Chaos now is very systematic, because of how well I have
anaylzed all the characters and how well I understand the game. Once we all
get good at a game, playing the game becomes a game of foresight, because
you can foresee almost everything that will happen next. When an officer is
approaching, I have to think, is he more than approximately seven paces away,
so will the officer do a running attack, if I'm using Guan Yu, then I get a
free hit, if I'm using Taishi Ci, my reach is too short to risk the danger of
getting hit by a running attack. Do I block first and attack after then?
Are the peons nearby close to the officer? will they make my blocking useless
because they will be able to migrate around and surround me? OK...sorry Taishi
Ci wasn't that great of an example here, because he would want to greet this
sort of situation, or any sort of situation with his C5, but my point has been
made. There are many other possible examples, such as a quick rough calculation
of the current crowd size, and relating to the character's musou filling ability
to determine whether or not you'll be able to fill his/her musou. There really
is a best way to play all the characters, or at least a few alternatives that
are equally good, and from this, it's almost apparent which characters are
better or worse than others. So the argument of opinion proving inaccuracies
in my tier lists will never hold. Any inaccuracies in my tier list would be a
result of either my miscalculation of facts, or a character strategy that I
have missed.
To finish off my tier list definition or theory, I'm sure that a common
question that arises is, what if one character has better defense that another,
but that other character has better offense than the first character.
Because this tier list is for Chaos, defense is by far the most important.
This includes natural moveset defenses, or a consistency in defense by
overwhelming offense. Huang Zhong is one of the best examples of defense. If
he can't be touched, when mastered, then he can't.
He truly has near perfect defense. And I say near perfect because some
characters are capable of better defense than him in Xtreme Legends.
Huang Zhong's only defensive concern is against archers. His archery strategies
don't work well on archers. His moveset forces him to use his musou on archers.
Otherwise, when no archers are within sight, not getting hit is 100%
consistent. An example for the second point is Wei Yan. It may not be much of an
argument for him with his 4th weapon, but with
the proper setup, with a 40 fill, no musou bonus, configuration, and
a medium weight weapon with maximized attack, his C3 will fill on crowds just
over a typical crowd of 5 peons. The recovery time of his C3 shouldn't be
stressed over, in a crowd of less than 5, and then any crowd greater than 5,
will fill his musou. This enables Wei Yan to have an extreme defense, because
of exceptional offense.
The three tier lists my guide thus have a trend of decreasing defensive
potential. Some tiers may show the same or similar defenses; in this case, the
separation of the tiers is governed by clear differences in offense. And that's
quite easy to see. Going back to the Wei Yan example, He deserves a high tier
list ranking; Huang Zhong's offense is no where near as effective as Wei Yan's,
even with the right weapons and items. He belongs in the tier below with many
others. And there appears to be another tier below this one, with characters
having the same defensive capabilities (recall the only weakness is archers),
but even slower and noticeably different offenses. Xiahou Yuan is a candidate
for this tier. This is all in section 10, in the full customization tier list
discussion. I do encourage viewers to read and take a look at that tier list,
because it's the most interesting one, as it allows for full weapon
customization.
And of course, these tier lists apply only to, and strictly to, Chaos
difficulty, 5 star difficulty stages, with characters equipped with their
4th weapons.
Lastly, I have made some clips to attempt to show how I use the characters,
and more importantly, how the character strategies and tips all tie in.
Additionally, these clips should show - or I hope they show -
a gradual transition between all the characters to resemble the order of
the tier list. Notice that in very few of these clips do I finish the level
totally unharmed; it is of course very hard not to get hit. The important point
is not worrying about whether you get hit or not, sometimes it's well worth the
sacrifice to get hit for example in a musou rage, as long as you know that the
damage you take will not kill you.
It is important that you view these clips before inquiring about a tier list
modification. It's important to understand the confirmation that the way I
use characters is the most effective. Seeing things visually is always better,
and most convincing.
All clips have the same conditions for consistency for a fair tier list
comparison. The conditions are Siege of He Fei Castle - Wei Forces - Chaos.
I chose this stage because it has a vast variety of different and important
situations. Crowd sizes range from small to large, and the stage starts
out perfectly with small crowd sizes and ends with large crowd sizes. The
frequency of musou rages illustrates proper usage of when and
where to use a musou rage. There is a good variety of the different types of
non-playable generals. The case of dealing with multiple generals in a
large crowd is also shown at the very end. And lastly, the frequency of archers
is very average. The only things that Siege of He Fei Castle fails to show are
dealing with more than two generals at a time (which is very rare), dealing
with continuous crowds (which isn't much different from a very large
non-continuous crowd), fighting near archer towers, fighting near attack bases.
Sorry, my game has several scratches on it so the music in this level
is sort of messed up. So the music may come on and off. Also, these clips
are likely best viewed in full screen.
At the bottom of each character sub-section, there will be
short notes on the contents of the video clips.
I do not plan on putting these video clips on a website anymore, because the
total size is quite large, which will be quite expensive. just let me know at
www.jonnay_@hotmail.com, and I will be very glad to send it to you.
There are however many tips and strategies mentioned in the character sections
that aren't shown visually in their video clips. If you would like to see
something visually that is presented in the tips and strategies that is not
already in the clips, you may also request a quick separate clip. I do not
mind this, and would probably be glad to do it.
Unlike the Tier List FAQ, my tier list so far has been my work alone. There
has been only a few tier list questions and several contributions. Although,
I'd like to say that I've spent an ineffable amount of
time, and devotion, to making my tier list as accurate and indepth as possible,
but because of the fact that it's entirely my work alone, as well as the rest
of the guide, there are bound to be improvements. There are still some
characters that I am unsure about, that deserve some indepth discussion.
Although I don't get many emails on this...
If you want to email me about a certain character's placement in the tier list,
I would gladly accept it. But please, first have the character section read
before hand, and have the video clips of the character and the neighbooring
characters watched. At least have that much done before sending me any emails.
Thorough Chaos experience with all characters is encouraged. Obviously, it's
hard to argue to raise your favorite character, if you haven't even played
the other characters in Chaos. Also, I have to stress that it must be on
Chaos, as a tier list in Hard Mode is a totally different tier list. There
are many characters, for example Zhu Rong, who are quite good in Hard Mode,
but not so, in Chaos.
Just an interesting note of my opinion: The Xtreme Legends tier list is far
more interesting, and the Full Customization tier list is probably the
most interesting and most fair in terms of comparing movesets, with the
complete freedom of full weapon customization. Some characters such as
Sun Jian and Huang Zhong are ruined by their 4th weapons, while many others
like Zhang Liao, Taishi Ci, Xiahou Yuan, and Jiang Wei are ruined by the
flinching time, which is corrected in Xtreme Legends.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Dynasty Warriors 5 Tier List:
Chaos Mode, 5-star stages, Mastered Characters, Maxed Base Stats
_______________
Lu Bu
_______________
Ma Chao
_______________
Zhuge Liang
Zhao Yun
Wei Yan
Gan Ning
Xiahou Dun
Pang De
Zhang Liao
Guan Yu
Sima Yi
Xu Huang
Zuo Ci
Ling Tong
_______________
Meng Huo
Pang Tong
Zhang He
Lu Xun
Zhou Yu
Xiao Qiao
Yue Ying
Guan Ping
Lu Meng
_______________
Xing Cai
Liu Bei
Cao Ren
_______________
Huang Zhong
_______________
Da Qiao
_______________
Sun Shang Xiang
_______________
Zhou Tai
Zhang Fei
Jiang Wei
Yuan Shao
Cao Pi
Sun Quan
Cao Cao
Dong Zhuo
_______________
Xu Zhu
_______________
Xiahou Yuan
_______________
Sun Jian
_______________
Zhu Rong
Zhen Ji
_______________
Dian Wei
_______________
Huang Gai
_______________
Diao Chan
Taishi Ci
_______________
Sun Ce
_______________
Zhang Jiao
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dynasty Warriors 5
Tier List Discussion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top Tier: Unparalleled Offense; Excellent Defense; Unparalleled Consistency
Lu Bu
Well, not much needs to be said on why Lu Bu is the best in the game. He doesn't
have a set of versatile charge attacks, or more like lack of variety in
his charge attacks. It is because his C3 itself is versatile, and this easily
places him in his own top tier. With very long reach, and ideal protection
with his C3, his musou filling ability is incredible. This makes him very
compatible with a long musou bar. Fill bonuses are also not a need because of
how powerful his C3 is. This would give him more options for items, such as
the Dragon Amulet. Being the only character in the game who can fill his musou
easily in one charge attack, with almost the maximum attainable musou bar
length (only 1 point from being the maximum) in the game, is easily enough to
make him by far the best character in the game. Going back to the note on his
versatile C3, it is also consistently unblockable, when controlled properly.
What more can you ask for? Against regular officers, his C3 guarantees a
filled musou bar in a very large range of crowd sizes, and makes officers
completely vulnerable to the ending of his C3. His consistent offense is
a one-musou-KO per regular officer guaranteed, and if the Ice Orb activates,
then playable officers can be defeated in just one C3 and one true musou.
Lu Bu's offensive and defensive capabilities are unparalleled. Until
Xtreme Legends, Lu Bu is by far the best character in the game on Chaos Mode.
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2nd Tier: Perfect Defense; Excellent Offense
Ma Chao
This is more of theoretical tier. Ma Chao's jump charge enables him to have
a perfect defense. This type of defense is the best in the game for
ground combat, and is different from Huang Zhong's or Zhuge Liang's defense.
Huang Zhong and Zhuge Liang have what I like to call near-perfect defense,
because of distanced combat. They're only weaknesses are archers, and in
stages where archers are abundant, their weakness can be seen. Ma Chao's
jump charge is defensively ideal for even archers. Although Ma Chao's
true overall effectiveness is definitely not far from the characters in the
3rd tier, keep in mind that this is more of a theoretical tier, because only
until Xtreme Legends are there stages with lots and lots of archer crowds.
But in Dynasty Warriors 5 only, Ma Chao's perfect defense advantage, can best
be seen in Wu Zhang Plains. Wu Zhang Plains has a fair number of archer crowds.
Other threats that all other characters cannot deal with (with the exception of
Xiao Qiao) are in this stage, such as multiple juggernauts, and multiple
officers. Ma Chao's musou filling ability, and overall offensive ability isn't
enough to place him with Lu Bu, even though his defense may arguably be better.
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3rd Tier: Very Good Defense; Fast Fill; Two-Musou-KO per Officer
Very Good Defense; Slow Fill; One-Musou-KO per Officer
Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, Guan Yu, Gan Ning, Xiahou Dun, Pang De
Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Zuo Ci, Sima Yi, Ling Tong
This is quite a large tier. All of the characters in this tier have very
good defense. Characters in this tier either have fast fill but needs two
musous to kill officers, or slow fill but needs only one musou per officer.
It turns out that the offensive speed is pretty close between these two types
of offenses. Because there are two types within this one tier, the order is
quite hard to determine, and easily debatable. So keep in mind that the order
isn't too big of a deal. Zhao Yun should be at the top of this tier. He is
able to easily abuse his first five normal attacks, and being able to get away
with not doing charge attacks means a lot for easy musou filling, and general
flexibility. Zhao Yun should be consistently the fastest in offense of his
type, because of his true musou. The way his true musou works is perfect.
This difference can only be seen in large crowds though. When the crowd size
is right, the length of his true musou and the good distance he covers after
the ending is all crucial, for him to have the fastest offense. Because his
musou is so long, and because he moves forward so much after the ending,
he will often have no enemies in front of him after his true musou. This enables
him to turn around and attack safely without threats from behind. And since
his true musou hurls enemies into the air, instead of scattering them,
it's very easy to refill his musou quickly after the first musou. After
his musou refills, the second true musou will defeat the officer. This isn't
much faster than the other characters in this tier, but it's enough to place
him at the very top of this tier. The only character than can do this is
Guan Yu, but he needs much larger crowds sizes to be able to achieve the
same offensive speed, because he's weaker, he needs to use short true musous,
and he's more stationary during his true musou. Being more stationary is
the key here, because he'll often not be able to attack freely after his
true musou because of enemies behind him. Wei Yan's offense can be argued to
parallel that of Zhao Yun's, but it's hard to come to conclusion. Wei Yan's
C3 has incredible musou filling ability, and needs only a small crowd size for
it to work. Thus, Wei Yan's freezing ability is by far better than Zhao Yun's.
Zhao Yun's unblockable C5 can only be done in small crowds. Zhao Yun's C4
can be done in large crowds to freeze officers, but if it fails, then
officers will be scattered. Wei Yan is at least guaranteed a 60% shot at
freezing officers. Zhao Yun has almost 100% consistency for his fast method
mentioned above, but only in large and dense crowd sizes, while Wei Yan has
merely a better chance of freezing officers. I have gotten into heated
arguments on who is better, but it's really hard to decide. In the end, I've
kept Zhao Yun at a higher placement. Think about it this way: Zhao Yun's
offense like I said 100% consistent when given the right crowd size. Wei Yan
has a much better freezing ability, but what does this mean exactly?
The answer is, not much. Against generic officers, I see Zhao Yun as clearly
the better one, because ice or no ice, Wei Yan still needs more than one
musou do finish the job. However, against playable officers, ice will
certainly give him an edge.
Zhuge Liang was particularly hard to rank in this tier.
He's consistently the fastest in stages with smaller crowd sizes. But
in others like Yellow Turban Rebellion, his musou filling phase is more time
consuming, if he has to run away for a long time. Also, if officers are on a
horse, Zhuge Liang often has no method of getting officers off their horses,
safely, other than to waste his musou. Then in this case be becomes a slow as
the characters in the 4th tier. Other disadvantages for Zhuge Liang are
that his musou rage combat isn't changed at all, and his offense returns
a consistently lower KO count. His close combat is still very
dangerous in musou rage combat. The two-musou-KO characters in this tier
are by far better in musou rages because of excellent close combat skills, and
a one-musou-KO offense on officers. Having a relatively lower crowd clearing
potential means less musou rages for Zhuge Liang, but he's not that great in
musou rages anyway.
The characters from Gan Ning to Zhang Liao are all very
close, Gan Ning has a consistently unblockable C6, and when officers are
frozen, it's possible to kill officers in one musou. When his musou is mastered,
he is a consistent two-musou-KO per officer character, but requires some work.
However, the order from Gan Ning to Zhang Liao should be almost apparent.
Gan Ning has the highest potential in killing officers in one musou. Xiahou
Dun should be close behind with his C3. Xiahou Dun is another Wei Yan.
With his safe C3, like Wei Yan's it will guarantee a 60% chance of a one-musou-
KO offense, but this offensive method for Xiahou Dun, requires much larger
crowds sizes. Generally, he'll be doing that half the time, and the other
half, his most ideal offense would be his C6. Pang De however, doesn't have
a chance at killing in one musou. Also, his offense may cause forced musous
at times, because his two most useful charge attacks, his C4, and C6, although
scattering, have slow recovery. Zhang Liao is a similar case. Zhang Liao is
a bit more flexible with normal attacks with faster recovery. But Zhang Liao's
freezing methods aren't as good as Gan Ning's or Xiahou Dun's. Zhang Liao's
C3 can't be used in large crowds. His other option is his C6, but if it fails,
then officers are hit away, and it may mean a wasted musou. If Gan Ning's
C6 fails to freeze, officers are also hit away, but it never means a wasted
musou, because his musou can still be controlled after that to hit officers
when they get up. Unlike Xiahou Dun, Zhang Liao isn't capable of killing
officers in one musou even with ice, because of a shorter musou bar, and
a lower musou frequency. Take your pick on Zhang Liao or Pang De. But Gan
Ning and Xiahou Dun are almost always better than Zhang Liao and Pang De.
Guan Yu and Xu Huang should be ranked closely. Both have light 4th weapons,
which often means actually more than two musous per officer. But Xu Huang
does have ice to help him a little, and always a C3 preceding his true musous.
Guan Yu is a special case with his true musou, and fast normal attacks.
Guan Yu has one of the fastest offenses (haha if measured accurately excluding
musou cry time) in this tier only in massive crowds. In most cases, his
offense is a one of the slowest in this tier. Xu Huang, with his C3 preceding
his short and relatively weaker true musou is almost enough to balance him out
with the characters in this tier like Xiahou Dun and Zhang Liao. The only
noticeable disadvantage in Xu Huang's offensive speed, is that his musou is
too good at crowd clearing. Like Guan Yu's he needs quite a large crowd
to be able to achieve a fast fill and two-musou-KO offense.
Zuo Ci's placement was also a hard one to decide on.
His placement can be anywhere in this tier, depending on the situation. He's
consistently a two-musou-KO character, but the question is the fast fill part.
If crowds aren't massive or surrounding, his C4 is very good at musou filling.
But if crowds close in, he'll either have to run, or attempt to musou fill
with his first five normal attacks, and escape with his jump charge after that
if necessary. He is thus a mix of both types of characters discussed in this
tier. He is often just as fast as Pang De or Zhang Liao, but in massive
crowds, he will be a consistently slower. Geez, imagine what he could do with
attack on his weapon, or even a light weapon with attack on it. With light
attacking speed, his C4 is much easier to execute safely.
Sima Yi is like Zhuge Liang, but placed a bit lower because of inconsistency
with musou filling. It'll often take about two C4's to fill his musou, and
it's not easy to do it. Zhuge Liang's jump charge musou filling is a lot
faster. But Sima Yi is a bit better in musou rages, and can use his jump
charge to hit officers off horses. But then, Sima Yi's C4 may sometimes force
him to waste his musou. This is however, quite rare, and counterattacking is a
possibility.
Ling Tong's offense is very fast. Because of a countinuous ground pounding
charge attack, his freezing ability is incredible. Even if it misses,
he has many more opportunities to freeze. His C4 offense can have very perfect
defense when mastered. Ling Tong's placement at the very bottom of this tier
is another theoretical one. Ling Tong has limitations when fighting massive
crowds, and huge limitations when fighting multiple officers. I'm treating
this as a theoretical placement, because multiple officers don't happen that
often, and musou rages can almost eliminate this limitation. But this
disadvantage still exists, and his solution is to use his jump charge,
which gives rise to a very slow offense. Having almost a planted
officer-oriented musou is very bad against multiple officers. But for Ling Tong
fans, do keep in mind that in a stage with no multiple officers, or
really large crowds, he would be placed above Gan Ning. So I do need to make
clear that there are "hidden" disadvantages for Ling Tong. Anyway, there's no
question about it; Ling Tong is in this tier.
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4th Tier: Very Good Defense; Fast Fill; Three-Musou-KO per Officer
Very Good Defense; Slow Fill; Two-Musou-KO per Officer
Meng Huo, Pang Tong, Zhang He, Lu Xun, Zhou Yu, Xiao Qiao
Yue Ying, Guan Ping, Lu Meng,
Another big tier. The concepts in this tier are similar to the 3rd tier.
Characters who have fast fill and need three musous to kill officers, tend to
be just as fast as characters who have slow fill and need only two musous
to kill officers.
Meng Huo and Pang Tong should almost definitely be at the top of this tier.
They may even deserve their own tier. Meng Huo's most ideal musou filling
is with his jump charge. Even though it's not that damaging, his musou
filling ability is quite good. I suppose both Meng Huo and Pang Tong would
fall into a middle category of Medium Fill; Two-Musou-KO per Officer or
something. Meng Huo's C3 will fill very fast in massive crowds. The problem
with Meng Huo is that he's best in massive crowds. Even a crowd of fifty
peons isn't enough depending on how dense it is. Meng Huo is a very severe
case of Xu Huang, with a musou that is too good at crowd clearing. He will
have to do slow 1-on-1 combat very often, after doing a true musou
because his true musou is just way too powerful against crowds. However, it
should be apparent the there's not much difference between Meng Huo and the
others in the 3rd tier. Forced slow 1-on-1 combat is no big deal at all. The
characters in the 3rd and 4th tier all have very good defense; it's just that
I draw the line at Meng Huo. Pang Tong needs to musou fill primarily with his
C1. He can sneak in his first normal attack quite often when using his
C1. Like Meng Huo it's only a bit slower in offensive speed, with a weak
attack, but a short musou and pretty high fill. Pang Tong needs more than
two musous though to kill officers.
Zhang He is a very special case. He has very fast fill, even with the
Dragon Amulet equipped. Although sometimes, he'll have to run around for
a bit to ensure that his jump charge is safely executed. With the fire orb,
he can kill officers in one musou, but he needs to go through his C3,
which can't be done in massive crowds. But most importantly, his musou rage
combat is the same as his regular combat if the fire orb is equipped,
and it can easily be worse than his regular combat because it's not easy to
juggle officers with his true musou. Like Zhuge Liang, Zhang He benefits very
little in musou rages. He's close to the fast fill, two-musou-KO characters
in the 3rd tier, but because he often has to lead crowds for a bit, after
his first musou, to be able to use his jump charge safely, and because his
musou rage combat is terrible, I've placed him in this tier. But for sure,
Meng Huo, Pang Tong, and Zhang He are only a little bit slower than the
characters in the 3rd tier.
Lu Xun and Zhou Yu come next. Both have a near perfect defense method of
attacking with their jump charges. But musou filling this way is quite slow.
Both jump charges have their own pros and cons. Zhou Yu's extra stomp is
sometimes beneficial, but it's very easy to use his jump charge in a way for
that stomp to often be wasted. Thus Lu Xun's jump charge can be done
more frequently. But then, Zhou Yu's jump charge has a more horizontal slope.
It's hard to come to a conclusion on which is better. Both of them also have
safe close combat methods, but Lu Xun's is by far better. Lu Xun's C3 is very
good for musou filling, and works in a large range of crowd sizes. Zhou Yu has
two very safe close combat methods but both require either massive crowds,
or a partially filled musou. The first is his C4, which consists of four
horizontal slashes, and a chance with the Ice Orb. The second is his running
attack which is very useful in massive crowds.
Xiao Qiao is another special case. Like Ma Chao, she also has a very perfect
defense. But if she were to use this as an offense, it would be incredibly
slow. She needs to resort to her C3, and C4 to be effective. She needs her
C3 to set up for her musou, because her musou can't be done without the
correct distance and alignement. Her C3 will work in smaller crowds. But in
massive crowds, she'll have a limitation with her musou because juggling
officers in massive or dense crowds is very hard, and the glitchy displacements
caused by the dense crowd is almost unpredictable. In these cases, she must
scatter the crowds with her C4. And this is an elegant solution to her
massive crowd musou limitation, because officers will always be the first to get
up, before peons do. Thus Xiao Qiao needs to resort to close combat strategies
to be effective.
Yue Ying and Guan Ping are very close, and should be side by side wherever
they are placed. They both have very fast fill, and easy way to execute
their musous against officers, and need three musous to kill officers.
Yue Ying has a medium weapon and no attack, but Guan Ping has a light weapon
with attack. Thus, their attacking strengths are very close. Both also
have a short musou bar. Guan Ping has two advantages over Yue Ying. He's
able to guarantee a successful musou in large crowds, against officers
regardless of blocking, with his C6. Blocking officers are vulnerable to his
C6 bombing. Secondly, Guan Ping has a higher chance of walking straight up
and behind an officer to start attacking with his normal attacks, because
of faster attacking speed and good attack range in his normal attacks.
The reason why Yue Ying can't do this is because of her third normal attack.
But Yue Ying does have an advantage of being much more flexible because of
fast normal attack recovery, which means less wasted musous. And Guan Ping's
C6 bombing against blocking officers isn't much of an edge, because
against blocking officers, Yue Ying's sixth normal attack or C6 will often
allow her to use her musou after, because of excellent crowd clearing ability.
This means that officers are often temporarily isolated after her sixth normal
attack or C6. Lastly, Guan Ping does have a disadvantage of a risky true musou
ending. This can be controlled, but it's hard in massive crowds. The ordering
of these two is very debatable.
Lu Meng is just slightly slower than Yue Ying and Guan Ping because of much
less flexibility. Without useful charge attacks, his normal attacks will
often make it hard for him to deal with blocking officers, especially in large
crowds. If crowds are too vast or too dense, he'll have lots of wasted musous
too. It is until Xtreme Legends, when the flinching time is extended, where
Lu Meng is able to abuse his normal attacks with full safety without
wasted musous. Lu Meng can be a lot slower than Yue Ying and Guan Ping, but he
takes only two musous to kill officers, if he has the Dragon Amulet equipped.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5th Tier: Very Good Defense; Slow Offense
Xing Cai, Liu Bei, Cao Ren
Another point where I draw the line of offensive speed comparison. This tier
still has very good defense.
At the top of this tier is Xing Cai. Her jump charge can be abused quite easily.
But it's quite a slow method of musou filling, a lot slower than Lu Xun
and Zhou Yu's jump charges. And this is the only reason why she's placed a tier
lower. She has to spend a lot of time to musou fill with her jump
charge in a large range of crowd sizes for an ideal way of musou filling.
Until her musou is partially full, she can enter crowds with her C3 to fill
the rest of her musou. She's thus, more effective against officers in massive
crowds.
Liu Bei is quite similar to Lu Xun and Zhou Yu with the same type of
jump charge. Liu Bei will also kill officers in two musous. But I've placed him
in a tier lower, because his offense is consistently slower.
His jump charge has the steepest slope of its type, and the slash before it
is almost always a disadvantage. Liu Bei will have to run a lot longer than
Zhou Yu and Lu Xun, because of this. And having such a steep slope, it's
musou filling ability is poor. But because of this jump charge, Liu Bei does
deserve this placement in a high defense tier. He also differs from
Lu Xun and Zhou Yu, because he needs to fill more of his musou. Liu Bei's
normal attacks are only safe up until his third one, and with a weaker attack
strength, and no fill bonus on his 4th weapon, his musou filling ability with
close combat requires a more partially filled musou. Otherwise, his offense
with his musou is very good
Cao Ren's C3 is very good for distanced combat whenever it can be done.
But when crowd close in, his close combat is still quite good. While his
normal attacks aren't that defensive, it is the non-flinching property for
his normal attacks, and the high defense granted by his 4th weapon that places
him this high in the tier list. It takes a lot of hits to get him into
red health, and because he won't flinch, he'll only get hit almost with slashes
coming one by one. Because of this, he'll often survive through half a stage
before he'll get into red health, and almost nothing will cause him to go
from yellow health to zero health.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6th Tier: Very Good Defense; Very Slow Offense
Huang Zhong
Huang Zhong deserves his own tier for very slow offense. It takes several C1's
and a few a true musous, for an ideal offense. Having to jump charge often
to use his C1 safely also takes quite some time. Equip the Way of Musou to
minimize the need to jump charge often. Although with one of the weakest
attacks in the game, the Fire Arrows will help him a lot against officers, in
large crowds. One other disadvantage for Huang Zhong is that, his offense in
musou rages, doesn't change.
After Huang Zhong's tier is when characters start to have a unavoidable
defensive flaws. Cao Ren is placed here for a very special case in
defensive potential.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7th Tier: Good Defense; Two-Musou-KO per Officer
Da Qiao
Starting from Da Qiao, is when characters can't really be played without
getting hit. All characters from Huang Zhong and above are very capable of
surviving a stage on Chaos Mode untouched. Da Qiao's short reach is what
causes for hits to be unavoidable at times. But this is a rare case.
Sun Shang Xiang also fits this description, but her offense is by far worse
than Da Qiao's. This tier is very simple. It's only an issue with Da Qiao's
defense. There are holes in her normal attacks just before her sixth normal
attack, after her sixth normal attack, and just before her first evolution
attack. It's easiest to get hit during these relatively laggier transistions.
Getting hit at any other time, simply because of short reach still
exists, but it's very rare. Her offense with the highest attack rating in the
game, allows for a Two-Musou-KO offense per officer, with a juggling musou.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8th Tier: Good Defense; Slow Offense
Sun Shang Xiang
Sun Shang Xiang's placement theory is the same as Da Qiao's. Her defense is
hard to be considered as good as all the characters above her in the tier list.
But getting hit, even though is often inevitable, it is quite rare.
She should be placed in a separate tier lower than Da Qiao because Sun Shang
Xiang's musou juggling potential is terrible. There is a way to juggle officers
with her musou, but it's very hard, and almost impossible to do when crowds
are too dense. This makes her very dependent on the Ice Orb. When officers
are frozen, her musou deals decent damage. Sun Shang Xiang deserves to be
in her own tier below Da Qiao because her offense just can't be compared to
her's.
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9th Tier: Mediocre Defense; Mediocre Offense
Zhou Tai, Zhang Fei, Jiang Wei, Yuan Shao, Cao Pi, Sun Quan,
Cao Cao, Dong Zhuo
This is another big tier, all the characters in this tier, have worse defense
than Da Qiao and Sun Shang Xiang. All of them have unavoidable flaws.
Zhou Tai's flaw is the absense of an abusable charge attack. His C4 is the
safest, but may be risky. He does have other methods of safe musou filling
though, such as stopping after his 4th normal attack, abusing his jump
attack, or even using his C1 if he's surrounded, and his musou is almost filled
because his C1 has invincibility. Even though he has a long musou, his filling
potential is not bad because of a high attack and fill on this 4th weapon.
Zhang Fei should have the best defense in this tier. If you give him the Speed
Scroll it'll help his walking speed a lot. Although it isn't quite enough
to allow him to enter crowds always with his C3. Thus his only flaw is that
he'll sometimes be forced to do his C3 when surrounded. His first normal
attack does have decent range, but his second normal attack doesn't and
his C3 strikes may not cover enough range, when he's surrounded. Zhang Fei
is much better in Xtreme Legends, and does not deserve to be placed as low
as he is now, simply because of longer flinching time. The flinch caused by
his first normal attack is almost enough to ensure safety of the execution of
his C3. But more importantly, the extended flinching time allows him to attack
in a circle during his C3 strikes, and the flinching time makes all the
difference in whether he'll get hit or not. While I consider this an
unavoidable flaw (in massive crowds) in Dynasty Warriors 5, Zhang Fei should
be the most defensive in this tier. But this is arguable, because he and Dong
Zhuo are the only ones that might have trouble being untouched in red health,
while the others are able to just run around and abuse their true musous.
But this of course, is also minor.
Jiang Wei's defense....please refer to his section for an indepth analysis.
There's too much to say about him. The thing that causes Jiang Wei to be a
hard character to use in Chaos, is his 4th weapon with musou, and no fill.
Sure, he has long reach, and decent range in his normal attacks. His C3 can
be risky, but it's very safe if he enters crowds just after the execution.
It's his second normal attack and the execution, when it's easy for him to
get hit. His C3 ending is very good for a safe escape. But even though he has
speed on his 4th weapon, he can't always enter crowds with his C3.
Yuan Shao's C6 is very useful and has very fast recovery time. The only
challenge is executing it safely. His C6 can be abused in small crowd sizes
and everything is simple until he faces massive crowds. He has a long musou
bar with no attack on it. The fill bonus he has helps a lot, but his filling
ability is just on the border, when attempting his first three normal attacks
in massive crowds. After his first three normal attacks is when he'll get
hit easily. When there are massive surrounding crowds, when he cannot get to
his C6 safely, he has a possible solution of purposely stopping after his third
normal attack, and then escaping with his jump charge. Whatever you do with
him, it's not easy to not get hit in massive crowds, but like all others in
this tier, he has only minor, but unavoidable flaws.
From Cao Pi and to Dong Zhuo, all these characters have either safe normal
attacks or a safe way of musou filling, but because of abusable charge attacks,
they often need to force their musous.
Cao Pi and Sun Quan are very similar. Both have a long musou bar, a fill
bonus on their weapon, high attack, and a juggling musou (I've recommended
the Way of Musou on Sun Quan because of a much safer ending, and because it'll
take two musous to kill officers anyway, so Sun Quan benefits a lot
defensively) Cao Pi's C5 is very useful, but because of the long execution
it can't be done in large crowds, or even in small crowds if they aren't
clustered together. His normal attacks however are very protective, like Cao
Cao's. Like Jiang Wei, it's best to memorize the crowd size needed that will
fill his musou in his five or six normal attacks. This isn't quite as hard as
Jiang Wei, because Cao Pi has a much higher fill. But unlike Jiang Wei, Cao
Pi's sixth normal attack isn't very good, and without the extended flinching
time in Xtreme Legends, he can't quite purposely stop after his fifth normal
attack and simply walk away safely. Like other characters in this tier,
Cao Pi will have to force his musou quite often, after filling it. There's
nothing really wrong with having a potentially slow offense against officers,
in massive crowds, because he'll often be making no progress on damaging
officers, due to forced musous. But it's in smaller crowd sizes, when he can't
quite rely on his normal attacks, and will have to resort to his C5.
Sun Quan's normal attacks aren't as safe as Cao Pi's. Cao Pi is at least
somewhat good in defense in massive crowds. Sun Quan's usual charge attack
choice is his C6, which like others in this tier, have some minor unavoidable
flaws. Getting to his C6 has small defensive risks. His filling potential is
not bad; his C6 should fill his musou in larger crowd sizes, and because
it's a scattering attack he'll be wasting less musous than Cao Pi, Cao Cao,
and Dong Zhuo.
Cao Cao's filling ability can be considered the same as Cao Pi's. Both of them
have protective normal attacks. Cao Cao has no fill on his 4th weapon, but
a short musou bar. The rate at which Cao Cao fills his musou is quite close
to Cao Pi's. And similar to Cao Pi, Cao Cao's most useful charge attack is his
C5, which also has a risky execution. There's also not much Cao Cao can do
in massive crowds, other than filling his musou easily with his normal attacks,
and then wasting his musou for defense. Cao Cao is basically a copy of
Cao Pi, in terms of survival methods, and offensive methods, but Cao Cao is
slightly worse, with a shorter musou than Cao Pi, and with the same musou
filling rate as Cao Pi. This just means that Cao Cao will need about three
musous to kill regular officers, when Cao Pi needs only two. Cao Cao's high
freezing chances with his C6 isn't enough to place him above Cao Pi, because
his C6 with it's ridiculously long execution time, is only possible against
officers in small crowds. Cao Pi actually has a very high freezing chance
with his C1 against approaching officers, if timed properly with his C5.
He'll have two chances to freeze, and he only needs one of them to succeed
for double musou damage. The probability is 84%, which is very high.
This freezing method for Cao Pi is easier to access than Cao Cao's C6.
Dong Zhuo is at the bottom of this tier for possibly the worst defense.
His only seemingly useful charge attack isn't quite that useful because getting
to it is impossible in most crowd sizes. However, his 4th weapon has very
high attack, and a short musou, so his musou filling ability isn't too bad.
He would be a lot better if his 4th weapon had fill on it. But since his first
three normal attacks have such good horizontal range, it will fill a lot of
his musou bar. Like Yuan Shao, Dong Zhuo is often able to use his jump charge
safely after his first three normal attacks. And with a 360 degrees jump
charge, his musou is very easy to fill. Dong Zhuo's flaw is that the landing
of his jump charge isn't completely safe, and he's probably the one in this
tier that wastes the most musous because it's very dangerous after his
jump charge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10th Tier: Mediocre Defense; Very Slow Offense
Xu Zhu
Xu Zhu's defense should be as good as any of the characters in the 9th tier.
His C4 fills his musou in a large range of crowd sizes. The flaw is when it
won't fill in smaller crowd sizes, when he can get hit during the recovery
of his C4. He does however have good methods of getting crowd sizes
clustered together. Normally after his C4 crowds will be scattered all over
the place. He can use combinations of his C1 and jump attack to stall the
enemy until crowds get more clustered together, so that his C4 will guarantee
a safe recovery. But relying on a scattering attack all day long means a very
slow offense, (probably the slowest in the game) against officers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11th Tier: Mediocre Defense; Extremely Slow Offense
Xiahou Yuan
Well Xiahou Yuan only has an extremely slow offense, if you compare it to
others who are capable of still quite good defense. If you want to maximize
Xiahou Yuan's defense, by giving him the Speed Scroll, and use primarily
his C1 for distanced combat, he will have quite a slow offense.
Although running for a long time with a speed increase of 20, can allow him
to use his C1 safely, having to run for a long time is a very huge limitation.
Other limitations are unsuitable terrain (even a slight slope in terrain
can ruin his C1), and archer groups. Massive crowds, and the unwanted
displacement, or pushing effect from pursuing crowds, make it very hard
for Xiahou Yuan to fight in. Add in archers to limit his options or directions
to run, and his offense is even slower. Once you have more than two groups
of archers (or even just two groups of archers placed in unfavourable
spots) that are somewhat spread out, Xiahou Yuan has a lot of difficulty
in abusing his C1 safely. Although, it wouldn't be nice to nail him for
limitations, as the average stage isn't nearly this impossible, but the stage
of Mt Qi, in Xtreme Legends does exist. So, these will remain as more a
theoretical flaw in Xiahou Yuan's moveset. Imagine using him with his 4th
weapon in Mt Qi in Xtreme Legends. Mt Qi satisfies all the flaws for Xiahou
Yuan's archery methods, with steep hills, multiple officers, mounted officers,
large number of archer groups, and worst of all, less musou rages, as
there aren't any elite guards that will drop musou rage tokens. With all this
in mind though, there should be a good way of winning this stage, because
he can make use of the attack bases, to limit the number of directions
that peons, officers, and archers can come from.
One last flaw to mention is fast officers on foot. Lu Xun is a good example.
Xiahou Yuan won't be able to run faster than Lu Xun, and he can be a real
problem to face, especially in massive crowds. And this situation is not
too rare to not include it in a tier list analysis. But of course, a musou
rage is a good solution to this problem. There is only going to be one
Lu Xun in a stage. Other candidates would be Ling Tong? or Zuo Ci?
Anyway, the point is, it's all about musou rage planning, and you should have
more than enough musou rages to take care of these flaws.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12th Tier: Below Average Defense
Sun Jian
With such a weak attack, and a long musou, Sun Jian's musou filling ability is
poor. He can't abuse his first four normal attacks safely until Xtreme Legends.
His C5 is often his only choice for a safe offense, and after his C5 is
when he's vulnerable to enemy attack. He is best in massive and dense crowds
when they're large enough to fill his musou with his C5. But in all other
situations he'll have the unavoidable flaw after his C5.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13th Tier: Poor Defense; Short Reach
Zhu Rong, Zhen Ji
These two are quite similar. At a distance Zhu Rong has her useful C3, and
Zhen Ji has a good C1 and jump charge combo. But when these methods can't be
used in large crowd sizes, they have many unavoidable defensive flaws.
Zhu Rong's slow attacking speed and short reach is the problem. Musou filling
is also a lot harder with a long musou bar and a weak attack. She is only
good in small crowds, or massive crowds. Zhu Rong's incredible grounded
musou is what places her above Zhen Ji.
Zhen Ji needs to make the most of her C1 and jump charge combo to safely
sneak in three normal attacks in between for safe and easy musou filling.
Her jump charge is also very useful in small crowds, but gets pretty risky
in large crowd sizes. Zhen Ji has a short musou bar, which makes it much
easier for her to fill her musou, when compared to Zhu Rong. Like Zhu Rong,
Zhen Ji is only good in small or massive crowd sizes. Zhu Rong is placed
higher because she does not need anything preceding her musou in order to
set it up. The initial lag in Zhen Ji's musou means a huge limitation when
facing officers in large crowds. There's also not much Zhen Ji can do in a
crowd size that is not large enough to fill her short musou, but large
enough to threatening, because she doesn't have a useful charge attack.
Although Zhu Rong's C4, and C6, are risky, it's better than having nothing.
Those of you who are good at counterattacking may just as good with Zhen Ji
because it's easy to counterattack after her jump charge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14th Tier: Poor Defense; Short Reach; Slow Walking Speed
Dian Wei
Dian Wei's the only one that fits this description. His defense isn't any
worse than Zhu Rong's or Zhen Ji's, but what makes him deserve his own tier
is that he's unable to keep his enemies in front of him at all times.
He's similar to Zhu Rong and Zhen Ji, in that he has good offensive methods
at a distance with his C5 and C4. But it's much harder to survive with Dian
Wei because of his slow walking speed. Also, Dian Wei has almost no chance
ensuring perfect defense when in red health. On the other hand, Zhu Rong and
Zhen Ji are pretty much set if they happen to get into red health.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15th Tier: Terrible Defense; Distanced Offense Possibilities
Huang Gai
Huang Gai's and defense is worse than Zhu Rong's, Zhen Ji's,
and Dian Wei's. There's no good way of ensuring safety in close combat with
Huang Gai. He has a decent method of offense when enemies are at a distance;
his's C6 is very useful like Yuan Shao's. It's just harder to get to
it, and the recovery isn't as fast. Huang Gai can also use bombing strategies,
but it's obvious he can't keep that up forever. His close combat performance
with how his normal attack string hits, can be compared to Xiahou Yuan's.
This is why before Xiahou Jia introduced me to his safe C1 offense, I had
Xiahou Yuan placed in this tier with Huang Gai. Xiahou Yuan has his C1 for
distanced combat. His jump charge can also be considered a good attack
at a distance when enemies start to close in. Another similarity is that
both of their first two normal attacks have good reach and range, but that the
rest of their normal attacks are not so great. Players who are good at
counterattacking may find it very useful to counterattack after their
second normal attacks. Other similarities include juggling musou, and slow
walking speed, hm...and of course they both use a rod. Having slow walking
speed makes them both very inept when surrounded in massive crowds.
Counterattacking is often the only choice. It's easy to see that they are in
the same tier, that is if Xiahou Yuan didn't have his C1. Even though Huang
Gai has pretty useful charge attacks, and whole collection of unblockable
ones, namely C5, C6 and True Musou, he doesn't have a perfectly safe method
of using them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16th Tier: Terrible Defense
Diao Chan, Taishi Ci
Both Diao Chan and Taishi Ci have terrible defense. If they should be compared
to Huang Gai though, there's no comparison with distanced
combat. Diao Chan does have her C6, and Taishi Ci does have his C5, but they
are not nearly as good or as abusable as Huang Gai's C6 as a
distanced combat method. Taishi Ci's walking speed is very slow, but with
the Speed Scroll, the difference is crucial. Again the ordering for this
tier is hard to decide on. Taishi Ci has a short musou, which means
easier musou filling. His regular musou also does massive damage against
officers. Diao Chan's C3 is her safest method of offense, but she's in no
way better than Taishi Ci in defense. Both of them have a very damaging
jump charge because of two weapons. Diao Chan's can be executed over and over
again more easily than Taishi Ci's but Diao Chan's musou filling ability is
worse than Taishi Ci's. It's very hard to decide the order. I've decided to
place Taishi Ci lower because of his juggling true musou. When in red health
he is less effective than Diao Chan, with a slower walking speed and a weaker
true musou.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17th Tier: Worst Defense
Sun Ce
Sun Ce should deserve his own tier for very bad defense. It's hard to
argue for him to be better or equal to Taishi Ci and Diao Chan.
His problem is a long musou, with no fill, and short reach. Nothing can beat
this in terms of defensive reasoning just at a statistical glance. Dian Wei
has high fill, and his first three normal attacks have good range. Diao Chan
has high fill and a decent C3. Taishi Ci has decent fill with a short musou.
Zhen Ji has high fill with a short musou. Zhu Rong even though with a long
musou has high fill. Of all the short reach characters, Sun Ce has the worst
stats for a good defense. His only upside is fast attacking speed. With such
a low musou filling potential, he needs to always have enemies in front of him
and needs them to be clustered together. His C4 can then be safely executed
for musou filling. When not in red health, Sun Ce is the worst of all the short
reach characters.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18th Tier: Worst Defense; No Red Health Strategy, or Very Poor Red Health
Strategy
Zhang Jiao
Zhang Jiao's defense isn't too bad with his C3. But it's very hard to use his
C3 in large crowds. His planted musou is what makes him the worst defensive
character in the game. It is a planted musou that is officer oriented. This
makes it very dangerous when he has to face multiple officers, or if he happens
to be using his musou on a single blocking officer. The ending of his musou
is very unsafe. And because of this, Zhang Jiao has no way to ensure perfect
defense when in red health, when other character in the game can. All slow
characters can equip a Speed Scroll. The only character that might still have
problems is Dian Wei, but his chances are maximized with the Speed Scroll.
Speed won't do anything for Zhang Jiao, at least with his 4th weapon.
He's not quite the worst when not in red health; Sun Ce probably is.
But because Sun Ce can be considered to have a solution to his terrible defense
by purposely getting into red health, puts him a tier above Zhang Jiao.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
____________
8.01 - Lu Bu
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Can anyone provide me with a decent challenge?"
Lu Bu is one of the best characters if not the best, for beginners because he
is arguably the best character in the game. He is likely the easiest character
to use and to master.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 40
Medium Weight
Horse 20
Defense 20
Attack 20
Musou 19
Life 19
Lu Bu has a pretty stacked weapon if you ask me. Although it should be far from
an ideal one since his moveset is one of the most defensive in the game.
Thus, it would seem to any master of Lu Bu's moveset, that Life and Defense
are wasted. It's leave pretty much Attack and Musou that are useful, and
these two are the most important. Charge would be nice. Never hurts to
have Fill in there, but Lu Bu truly doesn't need it.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Dragon Amulet
Ice Orb
This configuration of items should be the most ideal for offense. It's also
defensively sound, even with no fill bonuses at all, and a very long musou bar.
Even so, his musou filling ability with his C3 is very reliable. In any case
that it isn't his C1 can be relied on for a safe escape. Because of his
compatibility with the Dragon Amulet, doing a C3 + True Musou combo will take
care of any regular officer from full health. Being able to kill an officer
in one string of attacks is very valuable. If the ice orb kicks in, stronger
opponents such as playable characters can be defeated in just one true
musou.
The Ice orb is undoubtedly the best choice, for double musou damage.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Lu Bu is one of the only two characters that are compatible with the shadow
orb. But his awesome normal attack string and second charge and are enough to
kill all peons easily. The shadow orb will merely upgrade this
slightly.
Having the longest reach in the game, Lu Bu's melee combat is second to no one.
His C3 attack is the best in the game. It has very long reach, and practically
360 degree range. The shockwave ending has enough radius to keep him safe
during the short recovery, for most situations. His C3 is his abusable charge
attack for all situations. As mentioned above, doing a full C3 along with a
true musou on regular officers is enough to kill them. A good explanation with
the concept of versatility, and how it makes Lu Bu the best, is that he has
all the qualities of versatility, and they are all focused into one charge
attack. His C3 is abusable because it is protective, highly effective against
generals in crowds, and consistently unblockable. Because it can be easily
controlled to hit blocking opponents, you always have a chance with the ice orb
activating. His C3 being unblockable, makes even more deadly. Because officers
blocking or not, are vulnerable to his C3, and after his C3, they are
vulnerable to his true musou, Lu Bu is the has the best and most consistent
offense in the game. Although it isn't an escaping move, it satisfies all the
conditions of one, because of its wide 360 degree range and fast charge
recovery time.
His C1 is one of the best in the game. Like Zhao Yun's, Lu Bu's C1 is an
invincible charge attack. The two slashes are innate fire elemental, and very
powerful. If done correctly, it is possible to hit an enemy with his first
slash, catch up quickly by moving towards him/her during his second slash, and
then following up to land a successful hit with the stomp. After the stomp you
can continue juggling while your enemy is on fire. This is quite useful on
high defense officers, such as Xing Cai at Bai Di, where juggling with fire
is the best way to go.
His jump charge is another great alternative to escape crowds, but would be
inferior to his C1. Because of his C1, you can forget about counterattacking
altogether. Since it grants all the conditions of a good counterattack.
There is no reason to use any of his other charge attacks because they are
all inferior to his C3.
Since, Lu Bu's reach is so long, if you can time it correctly, so that you hit
generals with the tip of his reach, they will never block it, simply because
his reach is just so long. Get this timing down, and killing a general in a
large crowd from full health, can be done faster than 7 seconds.
(refer to section 14) Furthermore, enemy officers beyond roughly 6-7 paces
away (generally an officer approaching from a distance) will want to do
their running attacks, which means they won't block his first normal attack,
or his C3 strikes. This is why officers tend to just walk straight into his
C3.
Something interesting to mention: contrary to (I'm guessing) popular belief,
with all characters equipped with their fourth weapons, Lu Bu's attack
strength is not the strongest in the game. His attack strength is second
strongest, and is behind Da Qiao's. The results of this mainly have to do with
weapon weight. (refer to section 14)
A minor thing: the best archers (Im guessing) from each alliance are able to
pull out their bows at any time during certain charge attacks. This includes
the execution time and recovery time. These characters are Huang Zhong, Lu Bu,
Xiahou Yuan, and Gan Ning. Each of these characters are able to pull out their
bows at any time during their C1's. This may either cancel the charge attack,
or allow you to shoot an arrow directly after the C1. While this
isn't much of a useful tip, it is only a minor aspect of these characters,
not covered in other guides. Using this to full potential you can hit
generals into the air with a C1, and then aim directly after in the air and use
the bow musou to juggle the general, with fire arrows. This is of course
incredibly hard to do and useful only for Huang Zhong and maybe Xiahou Yuan.
Lastly, only Huang Zhong out of those four characters can pull out his bow
during his C5.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.02 - Ma Chao
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I fight in the name of Justice"
Ok...for this guy there IS no need for tips if you're just gonna ride around on
the Shadow Runner, and continuously slash peons, as if stepping on
millions of ants. I honestly think Koei made him way to cheap on horse. But
personally, it's really dishonorable to fight on horse with Ma Chao...c'mon,
get off the horse and fight like everyone else. Hahaha, but Ma Chao, on his
horse should deserve his own god tier. Well, for the average stage, he isn't
really better than Lu Bu, but for theoretical reasons, he should be in his
own god tier for more absolute defense. Horse combat is really stupid in this
game, since peons take the time to jump and then attack. It doesn't take much
mastery to dodge all these pathetic attacks. But anyway, his uberness can be
realized in later stages, in Xtreme Legends and Empires, where Stone Soldiers
and Phantom Soldiers are abundant.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 38
Medium Weight
Horse 20
Speed 15
Defense 16
Attack 17
Life 15
Not so great of a weapon, even for horse combat. If you want to maximize his
horse combat, give him a heavy weapon, and fill. But for ground combat analysis
which is the only important thing in this guide, everything is wasted
except for Attack. It should be easy to realize that his flawless battle
strategy is to abuse his jump charge for musou filling. His weapon would be
better with a musou bonus, since musou filling is essentially free, and since
he relies a lot more on a true musou than other characters because his musou
strikes aren't very frequent at all. Having a long musou will prolong the
fire depletion damage. Fill and Charge doesn't hurt too.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng/Dragon Amulet
Ice Orb/Light Orb
Whatever you give him for his 5th slot, isn't going to change much.
Giving him a longer musou with the Dragon Amulet does very little, since
his musou strikes aren't very frequent. You're really only getting a little
more fire damage from the Dragon Amulet. Without the Dragon Amulet, it takes
only a little more than two true musous to kill regular officers. The Ice Orb
will help a little bit only because again, the low frequency in his musou
strikes. It still is the best orb to give him, for some temporary double
damage. Light Orb however might be useful to set up for his true musou after
his C6. Of course, his C6 is another one of those consistently unblockable
charge attacks if you use it properly, but after the charge attack, Ma Chao
might be too far away from the officer for his musou strikes to reach.
The choice is up to you.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Even fighting on foot, "This Ma Chao's a Tiger of a Man" as Cao Cao says in
Dynasty Warriors 4.
The best way to go for Ma Chao is obviously his jump charge. His jump charge
gives him a perfect defense, even better defense than Lu Bu. While everyone
else would have more of a weakness against archers, Ma Chao's jump charge
has it all, offense and defense, all in one jump charge attack. If musou
filling seems a bit slow, even with the Ginseng on. Just do his first
four normal attacks, and then jump charge to escape. This should be considered
a fullproof way of musou filling. Approach officers in crowds from the left
side, since his first musou strike is to his right. Execute his true musou
just as you pass the officer. Master this, and officers in crowds are
completely helpless.
His C3 is quite useful against approaching officers. Because of its jabbing
range, it should be used only against approaching crowds. This charge attack
is very damaging, and very useful too to hope for the activation of the
Ice Orb on officers.
His C6 is very similar to Guan Yu, in that his fifth normal attack is also
a vertical strike, and his fourth normal attack, a horizontal one. This makes
it somewhat hard to execute safely, but still, it's a very useful charge
attack. It's a bit inferior to Guan Yu's because of the distance he covers
during the charge attack, because if you face away from the officer, to
maximize the chances of hitting the officer, if the Ice Orb activates, then
he too far from the officer for his musou to benefit much at all from the
ice. Other than that, his C6 like Guan Yu's and many other charge attacks,
should be considered a consistently unblockable charge attack.
For both Ma Chao and Jiang Wei, you should always try to attack a general
close up. Their first normal attack has much more reach than their second
normal attack. So if you attack a general with the very tip of the reach of
their first attack, you are likely to miss with the second. Generals will
attack you in this situation. (usually a jump attack)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________
8.03 - Zhuge Liang
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Just as I planned"
A much better character compared to previous installments of Dynasty
Warriors. The big up is his musou. His musou is greatly, and I mean greatly,
improved. The strength of it is strong enough to take out officers in just one
musou, making Zhuge Liang one of the game's fastest general killers.
Although his close combat skills are one of the worst in the game, they can
all be avoided. Zhuge Liang's distanced combat is all he needs for his defense,
and musou filling, and his musou is all he needs for his offense. Zhuge Liang
was particularly hard to place, in this tier list, mainly because he's the
only one in this tier who is capable of killing officers in just one musou,
which gives him one of the fastest offenses in the game; but there are some
set backs that make him not stand out from the rest, as much. If he is to
confront officers on horse, he might need to waste his musou to get the officer
off the horse, if he jump charge isn't possible. However, with full
customization, in Xtreme Legends, he's capable of killing officers in just
one musou with the officer on the horse! This gives him consistently the
fastest offense in the game, and is enough to place him in Lu Bu's tier.
(Please refer to section 10)
One other thing is, that Zhuge Liang's strategy stays the same in musou rage
combat; he still has to get to a safe place, fill his musou, then use his
musou. All other characters in this tier, as well as some characters in other
tiers, are capable of much more than Zhuge Liang, in musou rage combat. The
presence of archers is also a threat for Zhuge to waste his musou. But all of
these are very minor disadvantages for him. But in regular combat, and the
average stage, his defense and offense are one of the best.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Medium Weight
Charge 18
Fill 15
Bow 15
Defense 18
Musou 20
Not a good weapon at all, although, it's enough to make Zhuge Liang pretty
awesome. Charge and Fill are very useful for faster musou filling with his
jump charge. Bow is essentially a wasted slot, even though Zhuge Liang's
only theoretical weakness in his jump charge is archers. Defense should be
considered a wasted slot, because his distanced combat strategies are good
enough to keep him untouched. Musou is needed, especially without Attack
on the weapon, for him to be able to eliminate officers in one musou.
Because his jump charge speed, is unaffected by weapon weight, Zhuge Liang
is most compatible with a Heavy Weapon. (See section 10 for his ideal weapon)
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Speed Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Orb choice is irrelevant
Speed is the crucial item here. Without speed on his weapon, he needs an
increase of speed of 20, in order for his distanced combat to work. His default
walking speed is not enough to outrun pursuing crowds. The Speed Scroll does
the job. The Way of Musou isn't truly needed. It's just recommended for
the fire, and the ending, to take on stronger officers, such as playable
characters. The Way of Musou also helps in cases where you mess up with his
musou and officers drop to the ground. With his regular musou, against
stronger officers that don't perish after one full musou, the ending often
lags too much and ends up missing. This might cause some problems after the
musou, depending on the distance between Zhuge and the officer. The Way of
Musou is recommended thus, for offensive and defense reasons.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
The one and only general strategy is to musou fill with his jump charge
and take out officers with his true musou. With the Speed Scroll equipped,
he is able to create unlimited chances to execute his jump charge safely.
It doesn't take many jump charges to fill his musou. Master the safety
distance required to execute his jump charge without getting hit, and master
the simple steering of his musou, and you've mastered Zhuge Liang.
There's probably no reason to analyse any of his other moves. They are all
inferior because they resort to close combat. One thing worth mentioning
though, is his C1. If you use his C1, lag for a little bit, and time the
explosion so that it will explode just before Zhuge Liang lands from his
jump charge, then you have a safe landing. But then, if you have enough
distance to spend time using his C1, then you have enough distance to just
use his jump charge safely. The useful of this strategy though, can be seen
when facing approaching officers on horse. If the officer is approaching with
a crowd, but is not in the crowds lead, Zhuge Liang's jump charge won't work.
Use this C1 + jump charge strategy to ensure a safe landing of his jump charge
if the distance is correct, to hit officers on horse. Otherwise, you would
need to waste his musou to get them off.
As mentioned above, Zhuge Liang's musou rage strategy stays the same, and thus
seems to not really benefit at all from a musou rage. His close combat is
still very risky in a musou rage. Most of the characters in musou rage are
capable of achieving better results than him. But this isn't much of a
disadvantage, because afterall, with or without musou rage, his offense is
still going to take out officers quickly.
Because Zhuge Liang is stationary during his jump charge for a good period of
time, his only weakness is archers. This will slow his offense down a bit,
because he will have to waste his musou to take them out, in order for an
ideal defense. But if you think about it, Zhuge Liang's method of offense
does so little in crowd clearing, that you can often make use of the
enemy crowds to shield yourself properly from the straight-sight of archer
crowds. But he's very limited when he has to faced multiple archer crowds,
although obviously, this is only a theoretical limitation because in the
average stage, archers crowds don't come in packs or anything. His archer
weakness can be seen in the later expansion, Xtreme Legends, in the stage
Mt Qi. Otherwise, this weakness is pretty negligible, in defense. But since
we've touched on Mt Qi, if a tier list is made on just the stage Mt Qi,
Zhuge Liang would deserve his own god tier, despite his archer weakness and
cowardly combat against multiple officers. The point is...it still won't take
him long to fill his musou, and he's the only one who can kill officers in
one musou in that stage, consistently.
I want to end Zhuge Liang's section by recommending (especially for Zhuge
Liang fans) to check out his analysis in section 10. He is configured with
a Heavy weapon, and speed on the weapon. This gives him 40 speed, 20 fill,
20 charge, and a significantly higher attack (the highest attainable in the
game actually). This means that one jump charge will often fill his long
musou quickly. And with the new True Way of Musou item, his musou in a musou
rage will take out the enemy commander in one musou. Others, like Gan Ning
are also capable of this, but Zhuge Liang shows much more consistency.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.04 - Zhao Yun
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I challenge you"
Zhao Yun has a lot of versatility in his moveset, except that he doesn't have
a distanced attack. He is very effective at fighting officers in any crowd
size, and has charge attacks that are abusable for both crowds and generals.
He has an unblockable attack, and an attack that grants invincibility. Being
this versatile, the quality of being very easy to use is apparent for Zhao Yun.
Generally, there is nothing that Zhao Yun lacks. The only things he can be
nailed for are, although he is very versatile, his versatility is split into
various charge attacks (unlike Lu Bu who has all the important aspects of
versatility in one charge attack), that his offensive effectiveness is far
from the best. His ability to free officers in crowds is also below average.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 16
Defense 17
Attack 17
Musou 17
Life 17
It's a Fierce Dragon alright. It's quite close to what I would consider
an ideal weapon for him. Nothing really seems to be wasted, except for
Life and Defense, if you're a master of Zhao Yun. But those would only be
swapped for Fill and Speed, two other attributes that Zhao Yun doesn't really
need. The weapon weight is also easily the most compatible.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Dragon Amulet/Ginseng/Herbal Remedy
Ice Orb
Zhao Yun doesn't really benefit much from any fifth item. Do almost anything
you want with this last slot. Ginseng for more fill never hurts, but
he definitely doesn't need it. Herbal Remedy would seem like a better
choice because it's never really wasted, when he does his useful charge
attacks. But using his charge attacks isn't quite his best or most
effective way of offense. Since his normal attacks are so abusable, and thus
musou filling so easy, the Dragon Amulet would be my preference. Although,
if you analyse it's usefulness, it seems to only help against stronger officers
like playable characters. Against regular officers, Dragon Amulet or no
Dragon Amulet, it's gonna take two true musous to kill an officer.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Zhao Yun's normal attacks are his main advantage. Although he has two
vertical strikes, the attacking speed with the medium weapon weight is
fast enough to still make his normal attacks very safe. His third and fifth
normal attacks are practically 360 degrees. The best way to fill his musou
is to just simply use his normal attacks. Like Guan Yu and many others, his
important normal attacks have fast recovery. Stopping after his fifth
normal attack is always safe. Attacking, over again, is almost always possible.
If not, he has his C1 for an escape route. The ideal strategy should be
to musou fill with his normal attacks, and use his true musou against
officers. Since his normal attacks are so protective, he can safely walk
right past officers, if the crowd isn't too massive, and start attacking
the officer from behind. His walking speed is fast enough to make this work.
This allows Zhao Yun to basically, fill his musou while fighting officers in
crowds. There's really no "musou filling" phase with him. Keep in mind though
that this can be risky in larger crowds. Something else that is very nice
for Zhao Yun is that since his true musou hurls peons into the air, if the
crowd size is big enough, he can quickly refill his musou while continuing
to juggle the officer in the process, and finish the officer off after his
musou refills. This is very fast offense, even though it's composed of two
musous, it is still a fast single string of attacks. Everything about his
true musou makes this offense easily possible. Because it's officer-oriented,
peon casualties are relatively minimal, which helps to maximize the peons
hurled into the air after the ending of his true musou. In most crowds, the
distance that he travels during his true musou, is also an advantage. The
distance covered during the ending is also very crucial. Unlike Guan Yu, after
his true musou Zhao Yun will often have the entire crowd behind him, as well
as the officer. This makes it very possible and very safe to just turn
around and attempt refilling his musou. The fact that his officer-oriented
musou will let most of the dead peons drop to the ground is no disadvantage,
because the second true musou will defeat the officer.
Zhao Yun's C4 is probably his best charge attack. Because of 360 degrees
of attack range, it's obviously very protective. Using this charge attack
as an offense though is somewhat inferior to just abusing his normal attacks
because there's no need at all to scatter enemy crowds. His normal attacks
will take care of small crowds. His normal attack and his true musou ending
will take care of massive crowds. His C4 though is probably his best way of
freezing officers in crowds. But again, it's not really necessary, and
in the case of failure, the officer is hit away.
His C6 is a more useless version of his C4. For one thing, it does
not activate the orb, so it is in other words, non-elemental. Execution time as
well as recovery time are pretty much identical. But it's way worse than his
C4 because it doesn't have 360 degree range. It still has scattering
ability. The range of it is mainly to the right side of Zhao Yun, so turning
slightly left may allow you to hit the enemies that you want to hit. It is
also an aerial attack which means that if you get hit you will be susceptible
to enemy juggling. His C6 is inferior in every way to his C4.
Zhao Yun's C5 has very far reach. Since it is directly vertical,
the range isn't so great. But there is an important reason to use his fourth
charge, because it is his only unblockable move. It has so much
range, that it is possible to hit generals when they are blocking. This makes
it a bit easier for Zhao Yun to deal with officers in crowds when they
are blocking. This really adds a nice touch of versatility to his charge
attacks.
His C1, like Lu Bu's has invincibility during the attack. So it's a
great move for escaping. I suppose it can be said his C1 can replace his
counterattack, but unlike Lu Bu, Zhao Yun can be attacked an the end of it,
but the chances are still slim. If you decide to use this move for
escaping, keep your eye on the map, and steer it into a safe area.
It's a good idea to use his jump charge whenever it is safe enough to do so.
It's the stongest of Zhao Yun's attacks without his musou. His jump charge is
even better if you prefer to use the fire orb, since it is perfect to follow
up with his jump charge directly after his C3 or C5. Once
you get the timing down, you can do it whenever an enemy general is just about
to get up. Doing this a few times will kill a regular general quickly. But
even without the fire orb, his air charge can be done in conjunction with
fire, if you do it directly after his true musou.
This pretty much concludes tips for using Zhao Yun. His incredible ability at
crowd clearing and dueling generals and fighting generals in crowds make him a
very strong and balanced character.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.05 - Wei Yan
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Die"
Wei Yan is excellent in fighting officers in large crowds. His attacks
offer very protective range. Comparing Wei Yan to the rest of the characters
in the same tier, he lacks only the reach.
___________________
4th Weapon Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 16
Luck 15
Defense 16
Attack 18
Musou 15
Not a bad weapon. Luck is useless. With a musou bonus and no fill bonus,
means that his C3 will fill his musou in a bigger small range of crowd sizes.
It will fill against a peon crowd of 10 though, and that's what needs to be
memorized. If he were to be configured with no musou bonus, and 40 fill,
his C3 fills his musou in a peon crowd of 5. Negligible difference in most
cases, but still worth noting.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Speed Scroll
Fire Orb/Ice Orb
Wei Yan doesn't need the Speed Scroll, but it seems to be the most useful
fifth item. Having faster walking speed will make it a lot easier for him to
just walk straight up to an officer, especially playable officers, whom are
often surrounded by massive crowds, and start executing his incredible C3,
and then a musou.
Normally, for a character with a juggling musou, I'd recommend the Way of
Musou, but Wei Yan's true musou ending seems to miss sometimes because of
a slight lag. Officers that drop to the ground at this moment will definitely
cause trouble for him when he recovers from the long recovery of his true
musou. Against regular officers, his regular musou, assuming that it's done
always with a C3 preceding it, will take two musous to kill an officer.
Fire + a regular musou isn't quite enough to kill in one musou. So it would
seem that fire is useless, against regular officers. Giving him the Ice Orb
will give him about a 60% chance to be able to deal double musou damage, but
this is only useful against playable officers, as it will enable him to defeat
playable officers in two musous, instead of three. But then, with the Fire
Orb equipped, he secures 100% consistency with defeating playable officers in
two musous. It would seem that the Fire Orb is the better choice. It
probably is. But the actual probability with the Ice Orb against playable
officers is higher than 60%, because of the first two musous (assuming a
possible third), he needs only ice to activate on one of them. So here's
mathematical analysis: If there's roughly a 60% chance in freezing, then there's
40% chance in not freezing. Failing on both the first two C3's is thus a
0.40^2 = 0.16, which means a 16% chance of failure only. Having an 84% chance
in defeating playable officers in two musous is a very high chance. This is
slightly higher than guaranteeing on average 4/5 playable officers defeated
in two musous. Presented with the facts now, it would still seem that the Fire
Orb's 100% consistency in defeating playable officers in two musous, is better
than the Ice Orb's 84%, but here's why I still recommend the Ice Orb, and
why it's my preferred orb to equip. Playable officers often come in massive
crowds, and because his musou isn't the easiest to control, if crowds are
too dense it may be hard to keep track of where the officer is, because
two things, the unwanted displacement idea, and simply because there are too
many peons on the screen. So with the Ice Orb, it is guaranteed that all of
his musou strikes are successful.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Like many characers in this tier, Wei Yan will get by all stages with pretty
much one abusable strategy. As mentioned above, with the Ginseng, his C3 will
fill his musou in a peon crowd of 10. It'll actually fill in less, but since
they usually come in groups of 5, 10 is a good number to set the limit.
Make use of this to calculate at a glance, when officers are approaching,
to see if you will end up with a full musou after a full C3. If so, do it.
If not, it means that the crowd size is pretty small, so you can either
do it anyway, or resort to his C4. Wei Yan's walking speed is fast enough to
just walk right up to officers, if the crowds aren't too dense. Be sure to
approach from the right side, because of the way his first normal attack
swings. This is usually safe in most crowd sizes. After that, you have about a
50% chance of killing the officer in one musou. If the ice does not activate,
simply do this combo again, if the crowd is still large enough. The officer is
now defeated. This really is the ideal strategy for Wei Yan.
His C4 gives him another possibility. Its usefulness is kind of similar to
Zhao Yun's. He will rarely want to use his C4 to scatter crowds, but it is
a choice, for when you don't want to use his C3 and then likely end up
wasting his musou to save him from the recovery time.
It is possible for generals to drop to the ground just before the ending to his
true musou, because it is just too slow. In this case, generals will get up
and begin attacking you during the long recovery time of his true musou, and
often the only solution to this is to counterattack. This is one of Wei Yan's
only disadvantages, but I consider it a pretty serious one.
One small disadvantage is that his third normal attack may sometimes be out of
sync. This is due to his third normal attack covering too much attack range,
and depending on the angle, it may execute sooner than it should. This means
that sometimes his third normal attack will execute earlier than expected, and
the result is that it will clump together with his second normal attack.
Because of this irregular pacing of attacks, this will allow generals enough
time to block or attack you, before he reaches his fourth normal attack.
His C3 sadly isn't quite all-purpose. It's height is too low to hit
officers on horse. Doing a quick musou is the safest way to go here.
Not a big deal since musou filling is so easy with Wei Yan.
His C5 really adds an elegant balance to Wei Yan's character. With
his C5, he is one of the most versatile characters in the game,
as he can also do battle at a distance. This helps a lot in melee confusion
between allies and enemies. He can use this to hit officers from a distance
safely, and lure them to follow you.
His C6 activates the orb from the very beginning. He spins his
double voulge, or whatever, many times and then finishes with a scattering
attack. You can however, stop in the middle of this charge attack, and juggle
your enemies (likely an officer). If you stop at the very end of the spinning
sequence (this is when the enemies are at their peak height) you can start
over, thus continue to juggle your enemies. This works very well if you have
the fire orb equipped. Not much of a useful tip, but a nice note on how
to juggle with his C6.
You may want to take out small groups of peons by simply doing his
air charge. It should be strong enough to dispatch peons in one strike with
the Green Scroll equipped.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.06 - Gan Ning
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"You got no chance against me"
This pirate is one crazy killing machine. His killing power against both
generals and peons, is one of the fastest. While it is definitely not the
best or most efficient it is potentially the fastest. But to be potentially the
fastest, I mean everytime you attempt to freeze a general, it is successful,
and everytime you do his musou you steer it correctly that you hit the general
enough times to kill the general (given that the general is a unplayable
character; other characters like the commander, or playable characters will
take more than one musou). Of course, the success rate of the ice orb isn't
extremely reliable, but I have had games where I've taken out 5 or 6 generals
in a row (at Chi Bi) with one musou per general. So the Ice Orb's success rate
is the reason I use the word "potential". Even so, He can be considered one of
the most efficient characters. With his musou, you can quickly rack up kills.
The nice thing is that he is the fastest at killing generals (without
consistency sadly), and one of the fastest at demolishing crowds.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 38
Light Weight
Charge 15
Luck 18
Speed 15
Attack 19
Musou 15
A medium weight weapon would probably be better for a stronger musou, and
practically the same defensive capabilities. This weapon is still a very
good one. All of the stats except for Luck are useful.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Herbal Remedy
Ginseng
Ice Orb
Pretty self-explanitory. Since his charge attacks have superb reach and range,
the Herbal Remedy will proof useful and the Ginseng will charge his musou very
easily and quickly.
Ice is by far the best choice. You can say goodbye to any frozen officer by
unleashing his musou...steering it correctly, that is.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
While there are many C1's that grant invincibility, for example, Zhao Yun's,
there aren't any OTHER charge attacks that do the same, except for Gan Ning's
C6. This was discovered accidentally, which is not a surprise since the
execution time for it is very quick. But I was playing one day, and I saw two
slashes go right through him during the execution time. And doing further
tests to confirm this, it is true. And come to think of it, I've never gotten
hit during his fifth charge. Being invincible during the execution doesn't
really help too much, but still useful and good to know. It is still possible
to get hit during his C6 though, like right after it executes, and this
is truly a rarity. This happens when an officer does a quick jump attack,
and yes...the timing has to be absolutely dead on.
His musou, needs much practise to master. Since he runs so fast it's quite hard
to control where you're going once to you want to turn around, because the
camera angle won't be where you want it to be. Maybe Koei will make the camera
situated behind him the entire time in future installments...that would be
better. But once you learn and get used to the speed of his musou, you can kill
frozen generals with your eyes close. Learn the area covered when running in
the smallest circle possible. More specifically, learn the distance...or the
diameter of the circle (a spatial memory of the diameter if you will). Once
you have this down, you can manually position a general anywhere on the
circumference of the circle, and kill him/her instantly. This is obviously just
a guideline; more importantly, what this guideline stresses, is to learn and
understand precisely the speed of the musou, and how sharp he can turn. A good
idea is to fight along a wall. This way you don't have to run around in a
circle, and you can ignore all that circle-diameter-circumference crap. Once
generals are along a wall and frozen, they will be practically killed
instantly. Generally, try to save his musou until generals are frozen.
Freezing generals with Gan Ning is very easy to do with his C6, but like
Zhang Liao's C6, if ice doesn't activate, officers are hit away.
Just attempt freezing with his C6 once, and if it fails, you can still use
his musou, and kill officers in just two musous, which makes his offense
(with a discontinuous musou surprisingly) like the characters in his tier.
Please take the time to watch my "How to Use Gan Ning's Musou" video, to
understand visually, how to maximize his musou strikes against officers,
without ice.
If his musou is completely mastered though, just use it even if ice fails to
succeed with his C6. Approach officers with his musou always from the right
side. With the speed and steering mastered, you should be able to get two
"run throughs" on officers. The controlling is much harder than against
frozen officers, because after the first run through, the officer will likely
but on the ground, and this is where you want to run forward for a little
bit to waste time. Officers always get up from the ground after a constant
time, so with all these things mastered, it shouldn't be too hard to always
get two run throughs (I really can't think of a better term to describe er...
a run through :P) against officers that aren't frozen. Then without ice, he
still deserves to be in this tier, because his musou is strong enough to kill
officers from full health in two musous. With a medium weapon and the True
Way of Musou item in Xtreme Legends, it takes only one musou to own regular
officers from full health, and this is without ice. This makes Gan Ning one of
the top tier characters.
Even though Gan Ning has short reach, and he hops during his fourth normal
attack, he's still very defensive. Never enter a crowd with his third normal
attack, and probably not even his fourth normal attack. Enter with his first
normal attack, his C5, or his C6. His C5 is quite useful because of the
fast recovery.
Gan Ning has two attacks that cover full 360 range, both also with very good
reach: his C5, and C6. The main deciding factor to determine which one to use
depends on their differences. His C6 is easier to execute (because of a good
fifth normal attack, and the fact that it grants brief initial invincibility)
but harder to recover from. And conversely, his C5 is harder to execute
(because his fourth normal attack is not so great), but much easier to recover
from because of the faster recovery time. So which one is better?? if you have
his musou charged, using his C6 is the better move, since you then don't have
to worry about recovery time. Also, in large crowds it will likely not be safe
to use his C5. If the crowd is large enough, his C6 can fill his musou. But
without a full musou bar, it's still not a big deal of which one to use, but
these execution and recovery differences should be kept in mind.
His C5 and C6 can be considered as unblockable. Since the reach is quite
good, generals won't block it if distances are correct. The good
thing is that it doesn't matter whether generals are blocking during your
normal attacks or not, this charge will always hit. This makes the battle
pretty hopeless for enemy officers.
His C3 is another great way for freezing generals. It's pretty safe during and
after the charge attack, but only in small crowd sizes.
Another alternative for defeating generals quickly is to follow up with his
jump charge directly after his C5. This quickly shaves off chucks of
life along with fire. But obviously, this is only an option when generals
isolated.
Gan Ning does not need a scattering attack, but his C4 is a
very good scattering charge attack. There is the disadvantage of his third
normal attack which has minimal attack range, so his C4 can't really be used
effectively.
One minor disadvantage is that he hops during his fourth normal attack, and
since the reach isn't very good, if you get hit, you'll be into the air, for
potential enemy juggle. This disadvantage can be ignore however, if you never
present this weakness to the enemy. With Gan Ning, always enter a crowd with
either his first normal attack, or his C5, or C6. The reason is obvious;
If you always have no enemies behind him, his attacking speed is safe enough
to ignore his third and fourth normal attack flaws.
An interesting but useless fact: Gan Ning is one of the four characters
that is able to pull out his bow during his first charge. This will
either cancel execution of his first charge, or allow him to use an
arrow attack directly after his first charge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________
8.07 - Xiahou Dun
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"It's over"
One of my favorite characters to use, simply because of the variety of moves,
and it takes much practise to master him. A fast attacker with a
protective set of normal attacks.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Horse 16
Defense 17
Attack 17
Musou 16
Charge 17
A very good weapon for Xiahou Dun. Fill would have helped him a lot.
In Xtreme Legends, with the configuration of True Way of Musou, maximum
attack, and fill 40, his musou fills in almost any crowd size, with his C3.
Thus, his best offensive strategy would resemble Wei Yan's.
Before the Xtreme Legends expansion however, Xiahou Dun will stick to being
a crappier version of Wei Yan.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Herbal Remedy/Way of Musou/Speed Scroll
Fire Orb/Ice Orb
Even though the ending of his true musou has two parts, I like to stay away
from using it because the first part, the shockwave part is too slow, and
generals sometimes drop to the ground. They stay on the ground during the very
last part of the true musou, and get up directly after. In this situation,
they always start attacking right away, leaving your only option to be
counterattacking. This is however a rare case. For personal reasons, I don't
give him the Way of Musou, because since his attacks are so fast, it just
seems boring and unnatural because the ending of his true musou is so slow;
with is regular musou, battle just seems way cooler, because of the consistent
killing speed. Anyway, his true musou has this rare flaw, and isn't really
needed because it's still going to take him more than one musou, without ice,
to kill officers, even if he has a lot of normal attacks preceding.
The Ginseng helps a lot to make his C3 possible in large crowd sizes.
But still, with fill 20 and a long musou, he'll need a pretty large crowd
size to make his C3 safe. All he needs when facing officers, is a crowd size
that is large enough to fill his long musou with his C3. Lastly, since
he doesn't benefit much at all from the Herbal Remedy or Way of Musou,
some may prefer to equip the Speed Scroll on him. This is very useful when
fighting officers in massive crowds, as having a faster walking speed will
allow him to walk up to officers in these situations safely, to then
abuse his C3.
With the very similar 4th weapon stats as Wei Yan, and similar offensive
methods, Xiahou Dun's elemental orb analysis is the same. Refer to Wei Yan's
section for a discussion on weighing the pros and cons of fire and ice.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
While his reach can be better, all of Xiahou Dun's normal attacks except for
his third one have really good range. It is a lot of times quite safe to stop
after his second or fifth normal attack, to anticipate a counterattack, or to
start over attacking again, like the strategy with using Guan Yu. This is
merely a technical thing, as you would never really have to rely on this
method because his charge attacks are very versatile. As mentioned above
Xiahou Dun can walk into the middle of crowds to attack an officer, and
go through to his C3, if the crowds are big enough to fill his musou.
This makes him as good as Wei Yan, but only in large crowds. But for most
situations, he's another Zhang Liao, who has to waste his third normal attack.
Since his second normal attack slashes from left to right, you would naturally
be turning clockwise to waste his third normal attack. Also, because his
fourth normal attack, fifth normal attack, and first strike of his C6, are
all horizontal slashes from left to right, turning clockwise makes the most of
the range of these attacks. This is very very defensive. Using his C6 this
way, he resembles characters like Zhang Liao in a way, because he has a
separate musou filling phase, and then a musou phase. The same sort of strategy
applies to Xiahou Dun; it's just that Xiahou Dun is faster, more defensive,
and his C6 is better. Like Zhang Liao, if officers are blocking, just use his
C6, and let the officer block it. After blocking it, the officer will be wide
open for a free musou. But if officers aren't blocking, you can fit in the
first strike of his C6, before using his musou. While this isn't much of an
advantage over Zhang Liao's C6 in Dynasty Warriors 5, the advantage can be
seen in Xtreme Legends, where the first strike of his C6 is elemental.
Xiahou Dun's C1 is quite useful against archers. He can quickly take out
archers with just the first part of his C1, while running away from crowds.
The last strike should be rarely used because it requires a safe recovery.
His C1 is also useful to just use the dashing part to quickly get an officer's
face for an easy musou set up. This is especially useful in musou rage
combat. Generally a very useful charge attack.
Use his C4 skillfully for scattering crowds. By skillfully, I mean
trying not to get hit after his third normal attack, which is totally vertical.
His C4 is inferior to his second and fifth. Not because of the
charge attack itself, but because it is hard to execute it safely because
of his terrible third normal attack. With Xiahou Dun, there is still little
need to scatter the enemy. His C1 is a better and safer scattering attack than
his C4 is.
His C6 is one of the coolest looking moves. Note that only the last of the two
parts of his C6 is elemental. This makes it very hard to freeze a general with
it, since the first part of it, will hit his enemies into the air.
It is however, very possible to do it, once mastered. When attacking generals
with his normal attack string, start to swirve off to the left of the officer
after his fourth normal attack, and have his fifth normal attack hit the
general at the very tip of its reach. His fifth normal attack has wide
horizontal range that slashes from left to right, which is why you should
swirve to the left. Hitting the officer at the very end of his fifth normal
attack this way is very crucial for this work, for two important reasons:
swirving off to the left will create enough safety distance so that the
general cannot hit him, because you are purposely missing the general with the
first part of his C6. Secondly, hitting with the very end of his fifth normal
attack will give you more time; since you want to miss with the first part of
his C6, you want as much safety distance and time as possible. Anyway, this
takes some practice, but with it mastered, it is pretty easy to freeze
generals with the second part of his C6. This is just something nice to
know about his C6.
Now, one of the reasons why I love using Xiahou Dun is his C5.
Very many people label this move as completely useless, likely because
it's very easy to miss if you're just using it while attacking in a straight
line. But all you have to do is learn the correct distance required between him
and the officer to make it successful. Once you do, it can very easily be used
in a way for it to be unblockable. This give him another good method to
deal with officers, regardless of blocking. This makes it a better
offensive charge attack against officers, but with a long recovery time,
it has the limitation of requiring a filled musou. This is the only reason
why his C6 is better. But with a filled musou, his C5 is more useful because
of the fact that it can be consistently unblockable. Because his fourth
normal attack is horizontal, and the execution of his C5 is very fast, it
is extremely useful even in large crowds when perfected, to set up for a
free musou against officers, with an ensured 60% chance of freezing. While the
main reason to use his C5 is against blocking officers in crowds, because
this is his only unblockable charge attack, if you want to do it when
officers aren't blocking, you have to purposely swirve off slightly to create
the correct distance to land his C5 properly. Another reason to why many
people would never really spend the time to explore his C5, and thus consider
it useless, is that in Hard Mode, or any easier modes, all his other charge
attacks will get the job done, unblockable attacks aren't as useful as they
are in Chaos Mode.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.08 - Pang De
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"The enemy cringes in fear before Pang De"
Historically Pang De's image matches perfectly with Dian Wei's, with his two
halberds. For some reason, they gave Dian Wei a hand axe. They should have
given him a really long spear or something, as long spears where popular
among the Qiang Tribe...but whatever. Pang De's normal attacks probably has
the best range in the game. Pang De is also one of the two
characters with an innate charge bracer. This means that whenever he is
executing a charge attack, he will not flinch to any normal attacks, but will
flinch only to charge attacks and musou attacks. Note that damage will however,
still be taken.
While there are many clear setbacks for Pang De, the reason why he is
in this tier, is because of his musou. Not only that his true musou
can almost kill generals from full health, he has ways to guarantee
success, and set up for his true musou, despite his slow walking speed
(because of his slow walking speed he can't simply walk up to an officer
and sneak behind him/her and do a musou).
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Light Weight
Luck 15
Horse 17
Defense 15
Attack 16
Life 18
It may be a question for some people, for giving Pang De a good medium weight
weapon. This would make his musou mindblowing. With a perfect medium weight
third weapon with five attributes acquired from Xtreme Legends, his musou
would cause "one-hit KO's" to regular generals easily. So ya...he should
benefit much more from a medium weight 4th weapon instead because of not much
downgrade in attacking speed, but 1.25 times stronger attack. But the flinching
time is a lot shorter in Dynasty Warriors 5, so the attacking speed may be
too slow to be safe, even with his long reach. But Medium Weight should be
better. It's better in Xtreme Legends for sure anyway. Horse is nice for
horse combat, but irrelevant for this tier list. But for ideal defense
he should be fighting on a horse anyway. But for horse combat, a light weapon
is the worst, so even evaluating his 4th weapon for horse combat, is
very inferior to Ma Chao's 4th, and Ma Chao's 4th is already, far from ideal.
So to conclude, Pang De's 4th weapon isn't very good at all. The only useful
stat on his weapon is attack. I have recommended the Dragon Amulet for
a better offense, since his musou filling ability is so good. But, there is
a pretty strict crowd size for this, and with Charge and Fill on his 4th
weapon, this crowd size range for filling his musou would be much larger, and
thus make him a better defensive character.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Dragon Amulet/Ginseng
Light Orb
The Way of Musou is useful for the fire, and the safer ending. The Dragon
Amulet will allow him to deal a bit more damage to officers. He's somewhat
more compatible with this item because his normal attacks are very good for
easy musou filling. With the Ginseng though, in smaller, more scattered crowds,
his musou will fill much faster, and thus give him a better defense. The
choice is up to you. With the Dragon Amulet, it's still going to take Pang De
with his 4th weapon, two musous to take out regular officers. So the benefit
isn't much.
Give Pang De the light orb. This choice is mainly a defensive one. Even though
his musou filling ability is relatively good, his flaws are after his C4, and
C6, his most useful charge attacks, and both these charge attacks have
long recovery, should his C4, or C6, not fill his musou, it's more defensive
to have these charge attacks hit blocking officers. And that's basically
the need to equip this orb. Ice orb will make his true musou weaker, and
there's no real reason to freeze officers anyway. Fire seems to be the second
most useful, but only useful against high defense characters, such as Ma Chao
at Bai Di, or the enemy commander, because Pang De with his light weapon and
slow attacking speed, isn't very good in one on one situations, where his
musou can't be filled. This is where characters like Zhao Yun will ultimately
be better.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Pang De has excellent reach and range. The range in his normal attacks is the
best in the game. Along with the reach, his crowd clearing ability and
musou filling ability is very good. However, he isn't as good defensively
when attacking, as you would expect. Massive crowds become impossible to fight
in with Pang De, without getting hit, because of his slow attacking speed,
even with his light fourth weapon. But this isn't much of a big deal, as this
is only something to worry about in really massive crowds. Besides, his musou
can be used, and musou rages can be saved for situations like these.
His C4 is very good, but the recovery time is very slow. As one of his
two scattering charge attacks, (the other being C6), Pang De has these two
to choose from, which adds more versatility to his offensive methods.
Generally, his C6 is better in many ways. His C6 is much better for musou
filling, but might be a little harder to recover from because you have to
steer it in the right direction. His C4 being planted...or less moving around,
might be better in some situations. These two scattering charge attacks should
be used for musou filling, in small crowds. When facing officers in massive
crowds, wait and enter the crowd with his first normal attack, and proceed
through with his C3. If the crowd is big enough to fill his musou, then this
a perfect method to set up for his true musou after his C3. Otherwise,
he will need to play a defensive game with his C4, and C6.
His jump charge is perfect for situations where he's surrounded, and
needs an escaping move. Since it covers lots of distance you can keep on doing
it until he's in a position to attack safely again. But, obviously, it doesn't
have perfect reliability, but the chances of getting hit is quite slim. There
are two possibilities with escaping with his jump charge. Jumping higher
and executing his jump chare at the peak of his jump is useful when enemies are
very close in. This will minimize the chances of getting hit, just like
how you would control Ma Chao's or Xiao Qiao's jump charge. But this also means
a longer landing. So when you see that it is safe to do his jump charge without
getting hit at the beginning, do it quickly, to minimize chances of getting
hit after the landing.
Officers do not block his jump charge, and since it stuns his enemies, it is
perfect to do a full true musou afterwards.
His C5 deals massive damage. This is one of the charge attacks
that is stronger because he wields two weapons. Too bad it doesn't have very
good reach or range, like Taishi Ci's. So it's useful only when generals are
pretty much isolated. For some reason it's unblockable, or generals just don't
block it. It doesn't cover much range at all, so it's not unblockable
because its range goes behind generals. It is likely because the execution time
is long enough for the AI to decide that it's safe to attack, but short enough
that it always hits them before they attack. A good example of this is
Sun Shang Xiang's C5.
An interesting note: His air attack uses both his halberd, thus it can
return a combo of 2, and cause double damage.
The disadvantages worth considering for Pang De are his slow attacking speed,
and slow walking speed. I had mentioned earlier that it is a disadvantage that
he doesn't have a completely safe charge attack to serve as a finishing move
to a combo, when fighting generals in crowds that are too small to fill his
musou completely. His slow walking speed, is also a minor disadvantage. His
jump charge is very useful for escaping, when in dangerous situations, but
this is not full proof, because you can very easily run into trouble
instead of away from trouble. Also, there is always a risk in being juggled by
the enemy if you rely on an aerial attack to escape, especially Pang De's
because it's relatively slow. His slow attacking speed is one of his bigger
disadvantages. Because of this, larger crowds are hard to fight in because
it's pretty easy to get hit. There is also a range of crowd sizes, that is
dangerous to fight in with Pang De because of his slow attacking speed. These
are the crowd sizes that are too large to fight safely in, but too small, that
it takes almost all his normal attacks to fill his musou. Also, because of his
slow attacking speed, generals can sometimes block in between attacks, if
they aren't angled correctly. This is another reason to give him the light orb.
Although I have presented many disadvantages, they are all quite minor.
He is extremely effective against generals when there are large crowds present.
Pang De should still be considered a high tier character.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_________________
8.09 - Zhang Liao
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Surrender or die"
Zhang Liao might have been placed higher if his musou were
consistent against generals. His musou strikes can often be blocked by
generals because of an out of sync effect. If his musou were consistent
against generals, his ability to fight generals in large crowds would be
a bit better. But the flinching time is corrected in Xtreme Legends, and
his normal musou strikes do connect without failure, and this gives him a
noticeable advantage over Xiahou Dun, or any other character with a juggling
musou.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Fill 15
Luck 15
Horse 18
Attack 17
Life 17
Not too bad of a 4th weapon for Zhang Liao. Fill and Attack are the useful
ones. Charge would have been nice, but not really much of a need.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
One disadvantage is that Zhang Liao's true musou lifts enemies off their feet,
thus it deals half damage. Even though true musous set fire to your enemies,
It's weaker than his regular musou. But I never thought I'd recommend
a juggling musou over a grounded one, when given the choice...
But if you think about it, regular or true musou, both will take two musous
to kill a regular officer, and with his true musou, he runs no risk of the
dangers, his regular musou causes. Go with the Way of Musou. You have the
Ice Orb anyway to hope for some double damage...or should I say the regular
musou damage that he deserves.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
The most important reason to give Zhang Liao the ice orb is to
eliminate what I like to call, the "out of sync" effect. The strikes in Zhang
Liao's musou may sometimes occur earlier than expected, or be out of sync with
the animation. Since some strikes may occur sooner, this will create enough
time for generals to block in between strikes. Another example of this is Taishi
Ci's musou. But outside the realm of musous, some normal attacks may
also be out of sync, like Wei Yan's second and third normal attacks.
The Ice Orb will attempt to make his juggling true musou ground once again.
His C6 is probably the best way to ice, however, if it fails, the officer
will be hurled away. This isn't a big deal obviously; it just means that
his freezing ability is poor. Others that have a very fast unblockable
charge attack like Zhang Fei or Ling Tong have a very high easy time with, and
a high chance of freezing. His C3 is a not bad; just don't do it in large
crowds.
There is one small set back for Zhang Liao when fighting in large crowds. His
third normal attack is very useless, for two important reasons: The reach is
much shorter than his first two normal attacks, so if you were to attack a
general with his first slash at the very tip of its reach, his third normal
attack will likely miss, and the general will be able to attack him. Secondly,
because it's a jabbing strike, it has minimal range, so during this attack is
the perfect time for enemies to hit you. To summarize, it has terrible reach
and range. After getting use to his attack string and his attacking speed, it
actually seems quite safe in considerably large crowds, to use the
"Facing Your Back to the Enemy technique - in section 6.19", except this time
it isn't to ensure successful landing of a charge attack, but to minimize
chances of getting hit. Since each strike, he takes a step forward, it's a
good strategy to turn around during his third normal attack and thus take a
step backward. Since his second normal attack has good range and obviously
good reach, taking this crucial step backwards will buy you enough "safety"
time and distance. This is a very important tip to grasp and exercise, for
Zhang Liao to hope to have a defense good enough to place him in this tier.
His third normal attack is like a missing piece to a perfect puzzle. His other
normal attacks are superb, and all of a sudden in the middle of his
normal attack string, is small poking attack. Lu Meng suffers from this too
obviously, and it is even more valuable to learn this technique, because Lu
Meng has no useful charge attacks to depend on. It is because of this
technique that Lu Meng gets to be placed as high as he is.
His C6 is pretty useful, and it's quite a good finisher after his fifth
normal attack. However, the execution time can be a bit faster. Be sure to
keep a lot of distance, from officers in order to execute his C6 safely.
If you are too close to the officer, it's very easy to get hit during
the execution time.
His jump charge is really useful to keep enemies distanced from you.
The best use for this is to scatter an approaching officer in a large
crowd if the officer isn't in the lead. This strategy makes use of the fact
that officers will get up first, before all the peons do. This will cause
the officer to lead the crowd, for some possible 1-on-1 time. This is very
useful against stronger officers, because now you can attempt his C3 without
much risk of getting hit, and hope for ice. Also a good way to lure enemies
toward you, so you don't have to walk straight into melee confusion between
ally and enemy troops.
Abuse his C1 as you long as you see that the recovery is going to be safe;
it's an excellent musou filler.
His C5 is a pretty useless move to use. I'd say to completely
forget about it. The execution time is too slow to successfully hit generals.
It's still possible to hit a generals with it though, if they are blocking all
your normal attacks. Even though the reach is terrible, the range surrounds
Zhang Liao completely. So you can manuever around the general during the first
four normal attacks, and successfully land his fourth charge. But of course,
this is quite useless, as it's only useful for practically one on one
situations, and other method of offense are better than his C5.
Zhang Liao is very well-rounded. He has very good crowd clearing ability,
and decent ability with fighting generals in large crowds. The biggest
disadvantage is the flaws in his regular musou. However, it seems to do
very little to affect his offense, as both his regular and true musous will
take two, to kill a regular officer. This difference is much bigger in
Xtreme Legends, where with the True Way of Musou item, his short grounded
regular musou is enough to take out a regular officer in just one musou.
Good thing, they fixed up the syncing of his musou strikes, and the
flinching time, to allow for the last strike to never be blocked.
Ideally, Zhang Liao's offense should be his normal attacks, always with
enemies in front of him. This will allow him to always waste his third normal
attack, for a very safe method of fighting. But because of his poor
third normal attack, he can't just walk into the middle of a crowd and attack
like Wei Yan can. This just means that he's less flexible. Against officers in
crowds, if they aren't blocking and his musou was filled after his fifth
normal attack, then musou would obviously come next. If an officer is blocking
and Zhang Liao has a full musou, then use his C6 UP CLOSE, to ensure that the
officer will block it. After his C6 is blocked, there should be a perfect
opening to execute his true musou. But if his musou isn't filled, (this is
where a very quick decision needs to be made) you'll have to back off, and
give the proper distance to allow his C6 to hit officers regardless of blocking.
But in the case that you can foresee his musou filling after his C6, and the
officer is blocking, then the obvious choice to get close to the officer
to force him to block Zhang Liao's C6.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.10 - Guan Yu
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Roar, Blue Dragon"
God of War?
His long execution time for his crowd clearing attacks makes him
somewhat more of a challenging character to use; but as you will see, his
charge attacks are among his most useless attacks. His normal attacks have
very fast recovery time, which allows him to stop in between attacks and
resume attacking again.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 38
Light Weight
Charge 16
Horse 16
Defense 17
Attack 18
Life 18
While it is very agreeable that Guan Yu is very well-suited with a light
fourth weapon, Guan Yu's only real flaw is the weakness in his musou, and this
is caused by his light weight 4th weapon. It's quite close to an ideal weapon
for him. What it's missing is Fill, and its quite a noticeable difference,
and very crucial for his ideal setup in his analysis in Section 10.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb/Light Orb
The Ginseng will help a lot with musou filling, since his attacking strength
is on the weak side. The Way of Musou is essential for both offensive and
defensive purposes.
The Ice Orb is probably the most useful for the double musou damage, but the
length of his musou is a very important thing to consider. If you choose to
give Guan Yu the Ice Orb, you will have to always use his full musou. The
length of his full musou when executed directly after freezing a general, is
just enough to finish right after the general thaws. This is very perfect
timing. Doing a shorter musou however, will result in the ending of his true
musou occuring before the ice thawing. This will set up a dangerous situation,
where the general will attack you directly after Guan Yu's musou, because
the recovery is very long. Thus, there is the very small disadvantage with
giving him the Ice Orb, that you have to use his full musou; this takes away
a little bit of flexibility, and makes it harder to fill his musou safely.
The Light Orb isn't a bad choice, since Guan Yu's most effective and fastest
offense is to keep officers and a large group of peons in the air with his
short true musou. The Ice Orb may ruin this strategy.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Guan Yu's normal attacks have very fast recovery time, and knowing this is the
key to using him properly. The fast recovery time along with his long reach
make it possible to continuously use only normal attacks in crowds. Guan Yu is
not the only character who can do this, but is one of the best characters in
terms of continuously using only normal attacks without getting hit. The trick
is to purposely stop after the normal attacks with wide range. These are his
second and fourth normal attacks. Also, stopping purposely after his first and
second evolution attacks is good too. Because his charge attacks have long
execution and recovery times, his normal attacks are more useful for dealing
with crowds. Because Guan Yu is able to abuse his normal attacks continuously,
it is very easy to fill his musou. Thus, the most effective method for
fighting large crowds, is just to use his normal attacks, and a short true
musou whenever his musou fills up. The real upside of his true musou is that
your enemies get hurled upward, making it possible to follow up with juggling.
Because of this, his musou can simply be refilled almost immediately, with
only his first two normal attacks, or perhaps up to his fourth normal attack.
This works extremely well in massive crowds. Because of this officers in
massive crowds can be dealt with very easily. By continuously doing his normal
attacks and short true musous, generals can be killed when they are in the air
the entire time. This method is very effective, and takes little effort, but
takes some time before the general is killed. So when done correctly, you'll
be hearing "Roar Blue Dragon" every 6 seconds or so. One important thing to
keep in mind is that it is very possible for the officer to drop to the
ground after his first two musou strikes, which is also just before the ending.
This happens because you are hitting the officer with his second strike too
early. In order for the ending of his true musou to hit for full consistency,
you have to hit the officer with his second musou strike as late as possible,
and this can be done simply by turning left or counterclockwise, during his
short true musou. This strategy is awesome because you can deal with generals
no matter how large of a crowd they are with, and the fact is that the larger
the crowd the better. The best way to use this method of offense is to make sure
you always have a clearing after his true musou. Unlike Zhao Yun's true musou,
Guan Yu's true musou ending isn't as ideal as Zhao Yun's. This is exactly
why it is not recommended to start attacking an officer in a crowd with his
normal attacks before using his musou because after his short true musou, it's
likely that he'll be surrounded. In this case, he has two options: he must
either risk juggling the officer (facing only the officer in the process),
musou filling at the same, while being surrounded, or he can attack in a
counterclockwise direction for a much more defensive musou filling effort,
but let the officer drop to the ground. It can be seen that this method is
either risky, or very slow. To make this strategy work properly, you have
enter crowds with his true musou. Enter preferrably with the ending of his
true musou, but this is not a big deal, as it is possible to hit blocking
officers with the ending of his true musou if properly distanced. Control
his musou strikes correctly to ensure that the officer does not drop to the
ground. During the first two musou strikes, move toward the officer, but during
the ending, move away. This method ensures that little or no peons will be
behind him, and allows for very easy musou refilling. When done properly,
Guan Yu has one of the fastest offenses in the game. Although this is in
theory, because a lot time is gone from his true musou warcry. But this method
should take 5 short true musous or something. Even though 2 seconds for a
warcry seems little, 6 officers will have wasted a whole minute. I
initially did time tests to help with ordering the characters in the same tier,
and realized that Guan Yu's completion time was a lot longer. Making the
necessary adjustments, he's definitely one of the fastest, and this should be
easy to see, if you imagine no "Roar Blue Dragon" cries, and imagine only
two musou slashes, 360 whirlwind, two to four normal attacks, repeated
about five times. Just as devastating as any other character, in this tier.
His C3 and C6 are both very useful, but the one disadvantage with them is that
recovery time is very slow. This means that Guan Yu's normal attacks and his
true musou are the best way to go.
Execution time is very fast for his C3, so it is useful to attempt activating
the Ice Orb, but it's only safe in smaller crowds. Since it is quite weak,
just end it off quickly. The ending of his C3 is what we need in a
crowd. Many of you have probably noticed that it doesn't quite cover enough
range on the right side, as its a steep diagonal slash from left to right.
But this slash actually covers roughly 200 degrees. If you turn slightly to
the right prior to this slash, you can shift it so that it will hit more
enemies that are in front of him. It just takes some practise to understand
how to steer it properly.
Guan Yu's C4 is useful only if you enter a crowd with it. It is
almost impossible to do it if you enter a crowd with his first normal attack.
Because, his third normal attack is a jab so it has very unreliable range,
plus the execution time of the actual charge attack is very slow. So it is
very likely that someone is going to hit him everytime you attempt to do this
in large crowds. The charge attack itself is a great move to scatter crowds.
But looking at the big picture, Guan Yu doesn't really need to scatter crowds.
You want massive crowds to be clustered together, but preferrably only in
front of him. The best situation to use his C4 in, is when massive crowds are
present, and the approaching officer is not in the front. This means that the
it's not likely, or not guaranteed, that the officer won't block, if you enter
with normal attacks or his true musou. If you use his C4 to scatter the
approaching crowd, you can make use of the fact that the officer will get up
before the peons will, which may allow you get an initial attack on the officer.
His C6 is much like his C4. His fifth normal attack is exactly vertical, once
again giving him useless range. On top of that, the execution time for the
charge is again very slow. His C6 is more valuable than his C3 though, because
it will hit successfully as a complete combo if done correctly. His C4 however,
will likely be blocked. Secondly, his C6 is able to hit blocking generals, if
his are distanced correctly from the general. This is because of what I like
to call, diverging charge attacks.
There's nothing really great about his C1 or jump charge.
His C1 covers a lot of distance and has pretty good attack range,
but the recovery is slow, and if you get hit, he'll be hit off his feet.
His jump charge is often hard to pull off without getting hit after. It can
be used to juggle, but obviously it is less practical than his normal attacks.
Since his jump charge has long reach, it can be used to hit generals from a
distance without their blocking it.
Generally, when using Guan Yu, like the strategy above, omit his charge
attacks. Try to unlearn the idea of always having to end an attack with a
charge attack. It is almost an unstoppable strategy if you keep repeating only
doing two normal attacks or four normal attacks. Since these two normal attacks
have really long reach, and wide range, you can keep stopping at these attacks,
and starting again. Since the range is so great for the second and fourth
normal attacks, you may also consider countering right after. Because the good
range will hit many in front of him, they will all flinch, making it quite easy
to read their attacks, and therefore easy to execute a counterattack. When I
was more of a beginner in Dynasty Warriors, I always used charge attacks no
matter what. I thought of Guan Yu to be a really crappy character. So this
idea of using only normal attacks is especially useful for Guan Yu.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.11 - Xu Huang
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Witness my strength"
One of the easiest characters to use.
Xu Huang is one of the characters who are destroyed because of a light fourth
weapon. The default attacking speed with a medium weight weapon isn't much
slower than a light. The most useful attacks for Xu Huang are his C3
and his musou. Giving him a medium weight third weapon with maxed
attack stats, greatly enhance his attacking strength and usefulness.
But light or medium, he'll still take about two musous to kill an officer
when attacking the right way. This note is just on his compatibility with
heavier weight weapons, because he doesn't suffer from slow attacking speed.
Gaining only a stronger attack from heavier weapons, he'll only get better.
A Medium 4th weapon would prove to be a lot more useful against playable
officers. Additionally, because Heavy weapon wielders don't flinch during
their normal attacks in Xtreme Legends, Xu Huang is very compatible with a
heavy weapon. If you refer to his section in section 10, his Heavy weight
weapon can take out officers in one true musou, with very good defense at the
same time.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 38
Light Weight
Fill 15
Luck 15
Speed 15
Attack 17
Life 18
As touched on above, Xu Huang benefits most in Dynasty Warriors 5 with
a medium weight weapon. While it doesn't really affect his offense a whole
lot, it's still a better choice, as his defense is not any worse with a
medium weapon. One thing about his medium weight attacking speed though is
that his C6 becomes almost impossible to execute when surrounded by crowds.
This of course changes in Xtreme Legends, but this wouldn't be much of a big
deal in Xtreme Legends anyway, but his C6 with a light weapon is still a risky
charge attack in surrounding crowds.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
High fill make Xu Huang's C3 very abusable. Similar to Wei Yan, Xu Huang is
able to just walk straight up to an officer in large crowds and just use his
C3, and then finish with a true musou. He should be considered as good as
Wei Yan, but his light weapon makes him a lot weaker. Xu Huang's offense
is one of the slowest in this tier, but still, he takes just a little more than
two C3-True Musou combos.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As mentioned above, Xu Huang is very capable of walking right up to an officer
in a crowd, as long as it's big enough to fill his short musou with his C3.
Approach officers from the left side, and walk until you JUST pass the
officer. Going from the left side has two important points: His first normal
attack begins from the right side, and the proper way to use his C3 is to
have the officer positioned correctly on Xu Huang's right side. With officers
positioned on Xu Huang's left side or anywhere behind him, they may be able to
block in between his C3 strikes. But other than these strict positioning
techniques, Xu Huang is very easy to use. One limitation is that Xu Huang needs
large crowds to be able to do this, and pretty large crowds to be able to
do it twice against an officer, for a fast offense. Since officers will get
up before peons will, after scattering everything with his true musou, you
can almost always squeeze in a quick jump charge for a free hit on the officer,
since it would be pointless to do his C3 right away. This will also all
enough time for peons to get up again. You may have to lead peons around a
little bit before doing his C3 again. Many people nail Zhao Yun, Xiahou Dun,
and Wei Yan for their officer-oriented musous, but they actually benefit from
them, at least against officers in large crowds. The problem with Xu Huang's
musou is that it's too good at crowd clearing. This is why he is ultimately
inferior to Wei Yan, in almost every way.
All of Xu Huang's charge attacks have very long recovery. His C4 then
becomes a pretty useful charge attack against smaller crowds, since it's a
very useful scattering attack. Use this charge attack carefully, when
his C3 can't be used because crowds are too small. The long recovery times
of his charge attacks may force him to waste his musou sometimes. This further
shows how his musou is too good at crowd clearing, because if it's wasted,
and crowds are very small, fighting officers may take a very long time.
But in the end, his C4 is very useful because it makes him a lot more versatile.
Without it, he'll have a bit of trouble against small crowds, when his C3
can't be relied on. If crowds are small enough, Xu Huang's second normal
attack has a safe enough recovery to purposely stop after it, and start
attacking again. You may also want to do a C1 after this depending on the
situation, if you need to buy some time for approaching crowds to arrive.
Whatever happens, there are many possibilities for Xu Huang.
His jump charge is very weak with his light 4th weapon, but it is useful
because it is unblockable and quite safe to use. Since this attack is
diagonal, it is possible for enemies to hit him from behind or if he's too
high in the air.
When situations are safe enough, you can hit officers with his C5
if they are blocking. Since his C5 has good reach it is possible to
hit generals from behind even if they are blocking. But the range of Xu Huang's
C5 is only where the blade portion of his axe hits, so the attack range is
very limited like Xiahou Dun's. So since his axe is so long, it will miss if
you are too close to a general when attacking. Generally, there's still
not much use for this charge attack because unlike Xiahou Dun's, it has
slow execution, so even with a fill musou, he can't really make much use of it
in crowds.
Use his C2 if it's possible. Although his C3 is obviously superior, because
of a chance at freezing officers. But with his light weapon, and without the
True Way of Musou item from the Xtreme Legends expansion, he doesn't do much
more damage with ice. If he has a full musou, or if his C2 will fill his musou
it's a good charge attack to use because like Zuo Ci's it has long reach and
wide range. This will often set up for his true musou against officers,
regardless of blocking.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________
8.12 - Zuo Ci
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Here we go"
A character with incredible charge attacks. It's surprising to many people
how low Zuo Ci is ranked in this tier list. There have been very very many
discussion board topics about the best character in the game, and it often
circles around the comparison between Lu Bu and Zuo Ci, and often...it's
Zuo Ci that wins the prize. I didn't understand why first of all to compare
Lu Bu with Zuo Ci, and not Ma Chao, and well, I still don't understand, and
don't see any reason for Zuo Ci to be better than Lu Bu in any way EVEN on
Hard Mode. Don't even start on Chaos Mode, because Zuo Ci's defense with his
4th weapon is no where near Lu Bu's. But lets look at Hard Mode: well...any
Hard Mode tier list really should have offense as it's main topic, while in
a Chaos tier list it would be defense. And well, the tier list FAQ stresses,
that characters are evaluated at a mastered level...as is mine. Thus it should
only make sense that all characters be compatible with the Green Scroll. But
that doesn't seem to be the case in that FAQ....anyway... once offense is
maximize, juggling musous or not, so many characters are able to fill their
musou easily, and kill officers in just one musou, even without the True Way
of Musou item in the Xtreme Legends expansion. So there's really no reason
to place many ppl below Zuo Ci at all. But the idea of Zuo Ci being equal to
Lu Bu in Hard Mode, might be just an evaluation between their movesets only
and without the aid of items. But even so, this doesn't change an "offensive"
ranking much at all, because the ideal offensive items are all very similar,
like the Tiger Amulet, Green Scroll, etc...so there's somewhat of a constant
change with all the characters. Why not then consider Zhao Yun to be equalled
to Zuo Ci? They both have a juggling musou. Zhao Yun is better than Zuo Ci
at running straight into the enemy crowds and behind the officer and start
attacking, because of his reach and attack range of normal attacks. After his
musou fills, his musou will take out officers just as effectively as Zuo Ci,
because both have juggling musous, with frequent strikes. Zuo Ci lacks the
ability to walk straight into enemy crowds like Zhao Yun would do, but he
can still do it. Zuo Ci's ideal way for musou filling would be to fill with
his C4, and then musou against officers. And really, there's nothing that Zuo
Ci has that should place him any higher than Zhao Yun, as well as many other
characters. The method of distanced attacks with Zuo Ci's C4, (keep in mind
that he has no unblockable charge attacks too) would probably take more time
than Zhao Yun's method of offense. Sure Zuo Ci seems quite versatile, with
a nice set of charge attacks, but the "versatility" is separated into
many charge attacks. This is the reasons why I think he doesn't deserve to be
ranked with Lu Bu. But in a Hard Mode tier they probably would be because
offensive speed turns out to be probably the same, but in Chaos Mode...no way.
Lu Bu has ultimate versatility in just one single charge attack, his C3. His
C3 has ideal defense, ideal reach, ideal range of attack, and most versatile of
all, it is consistently unblockable if it is mastered. This means that crowd
sizes don't matter, multiple officers even don't matter. Officers are
vulnerable to his C3, and all it takes is a short C3, break the officer's
guard (if the officer is blocking) and do a musou. The fact that Zuo Ci doesn't
have a consistent unblockable attack, should already place him below
Lu Bu. And this argument works for both situations, with ideal items and
ideal weapons, or just an evaluation of movesets. And wow...Ma Chao on
horse....there's just no comparison, at least in defense.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 40
Medium Weight
Charge 15
Fill 15
Bow 15
Defense 15
Musou 20
A terrible weapon. Hahahahaa, even though Zuo Ci's very capable with this
weapon, it's still a terrible weapon. Sure, it's power 40, but power has
very little influence on attack. His 4th weapon doesn't have attack on
it. With an attack bonus, his true musou might come close to killing an
officer in just one musou, which pretty much elinimates any trouble when
facing an officer. There's not even an offense, if one musou will
take out an officer....as is, with Zhuge Liang. Too bad it is not that case.
I haven't tested him with a medium weapon with attack, but the point is,
it would make him better. Musou, charge, and fill are all useful. Bow is very
useless. Defense is somewhat useless....afterall, he's placed among the
good defense tiers. If he were to have a light weapon with attack on it, the
resulting damage output is still more than a medium weapon with no attack
bonus. Refer to section 14 for more information. And with a light weapon
his C4 executes much faster, therefore much safer. In Xtreme Legends, this is
enough to kill an officer in one true musou: A single true musou with a light
weapon! Anyway, for offense, and well...a slight downgrade in defense, I would
recommend a medium 4th weapon with attack on it, for Zuo Ci, IF it is capable
of killing a regular officer in just one true musou. And even though I haven't
tested it, it should be very close.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Dragon Amulet/Ginseng/Herbal Remedy
Ice Orb
Pretty self explanitory. Zuo Ci's strategy is dominantly distanced attacks.
But still, the Wind Scroll helps for close combat situations which do arise.
he doesn't really need the last two slots, so might as well upgrade his
offense by giving him a true musou at all times. The long ending prolongs the
fire depletion a bit more, which is nice. And since his attack rating is
somewhat low (despite that his musou is by default a very strong and frequent
one) his musou benefit's more from the fire depletion than say...Zhang Liao's
or Xiahou Dun's. Anyway you get the point. He doesn't really need the Ginseng
for faster musou filling....nor does he need the Herbal Remedy for a stronger
C4. But there's nothing better to give him. The Dragon Amulet can be a very
useful 5th item, because unlike with most characers, it makes a difference
against regular officers, but allowing Zuo Ci to kill them in just one true
musou. He's also quite compatible with a maxed out musou bar because of his
good musou filling ability with his C4. The Dragon Amulet is my preference.
Although his C4 can be unreliable at times, it's quite rare for his C4 to
miss a nearby peon, and quite rare to hit by another peon after escaping this
danger with his jump charge.
The Ice Orb is the most useful, for double musou damage. Although, like a lot
of the higher tier characters, it's not gonna help too much. Still, it's the
best choice, as it will prove to be a bit more useful against higher defense
officers.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Similar to Zhang Fei, Zuo Ci is incredibly destructive if you distance yourself
from the enemy; He is better than Zhang Fei if surrounded however because his
normal attacks have a bit better range, and much faster recovery. While Zuo
Ci isn't the close combat type, as his normal attacks aren't quite that
defensive (at least not until the end), it is his fast recovery, particularly
after his fifth normal attack, that allows him to escape afterwards with his
jump charge.
When generals are iced, just quickly walk up to them, and unleash his musou.
The damage dealt is massive, and will likely kill the general or put the
general near death.
Until large groups come a little closer, make use of his C4, and C4. A huge
set-back with his C4 is that the execution time is really long. Well...long
enough to not be consistently abusable. If crowds are too close, make sure
that his third normal attack hits everyone, or at least all the majors that
are in sight, or else he's very likely to get hit. Even though his C4 is
insanely powerful, the slow execution time still makes Zuo Ci not too useful
when crowds get too close. Also a minor downfall is that it's not guaranteed
that it will hit everyone, so any enemies he misses, that are too close, are
likely to attack him. Since the execution time for his C4 is long enough for
generals to escape his attack, you may want to consider facing turning around
and facing his back to the officer upon executing the charge attack. Since
during the execution time Zuo Ci takes a step forward, you would be taking one
step away from the general. The general will always attempt to attack you, but
his charge attack usually unleashes in the nick of time. This method should
work all the time. Additionally, if his C4 is done when very close to a
general, the general will be hit with more than one of his beams. This will
deal enormous damage, BUT, if ice doesn't execute on the FIRST beam, the
officer will be hit away, instead of staying put, disoriented in one spot.
Anyway, that's how his C4 works. His offensive strategy should be to fill his
musou with his C4, as distanced combat. And then, he would use his true musou
against officers, and kill them in hopefully one true musou. He's quite
similar to Zhuge Liang, but that Zhuge Liang should be placed at the top of
this tier for the fastest consistency in offense.
The second method of offense for Zuo Ci should be his normal attacks. With his
fast walking speed, even without speed on his 4th weapon, he should be able to
use his C4 as a method of distanced combat for musou filling, most of the
time. But close combat situations do arise, as I've mentioned before, and his
offensive should change to, doing his five normal attacks, and then purposely
stopping after his fifth normal attack to do his jump charge to escape to a
safe place. In close combat, this is by far the safest offensive method.
His C1 is quite useful in situations when you are surrounded by
large crowds. The best time to use his charge attack is when you see
that the approaching crowd is too close to do his C4 safely, yet far enough that
this charge attack can be used. Because the timed explosion of the ice
projectile is just before the execution of his C4, it makes his C4 much easier
to execute in large crowds. Pressing triangle once with deploy a fire orb,
and pressing it more than once will deploy an ice orb. The fire may be
useful against enemy commanders, or high defense officers. It's quite useful
in one on one battles where he can use his C2 after the fire C1, and
continue with juggling. Try to use his ice orb C2 against approaching officers
in crowds. Not only will it practically ensure safe execution of his C4,
it will also increase his chances of freezing the approaching officer.
You have two chances to freeze, and you only want one. With the tested
probability of 60% freezing with the ice orb, the probability of both the
freezing chances of his C1 and C4 failing is 0.40^2, which
equals 0.16. This means that Zuo Ci will have an 84% chance in freezing an
officer this way, which pretty much means an 84% chances to kill an officer in
one musou.
His C2 might also be useful because unlike many other C2's, Zuo Ci's has very
good reach and wide range. Use this if you can foresee that he will have a
filled musou afterwards. This charge attack is not bad to use before executing
his true musou. If he does have his musou filled, or if he'll fill his musou
with his C2, then it might be preferrably to use this against officers.
If you catch officers when they're not blocking then great. If officers block
it you still have a free shot to use Zuo Ci's true musou after.
This is quite nice as you don't have to go through his C4 which is a less
safe, and with a full musou after his C2, hitting the officer after is
guaranteed. Very versatile.
Zuo Ci's C5 is always a good charge attack at a distance. Although his
C4 might be a better one in terms of musou filling ability, and attack range.
But his C5 is still useful for easier aiming. Some people may have mastered
the angle of Zuo Ci's C4 lasers....but ya...it's not quite as easy as
aiming his C5 in the preferred direction.
His C6 also has very long execution time; this goes for both of the
charge attacks that he does. It's quite useful to take out small groups, but
quite impractical against large ones. Besides, his C4 should be more
than enough for small groups anyway. If you can foresee that you have enough
time to execute this move then do so. It is useful to keep in mind that the
first part of it is innate fire elemental; and only the second part activates
the actual orb you have equipped. So for example, if you have the ice orb
equipped (which you probably should) his fifth charge can be though of as
fire and ice elemental. But compared to his other methods of offense like his
C4, and his five normal attacks, his C6 is very inferior.
His C3 is useful again only when crowds are a bit distance from
him. Also, the range of it is just as you see it, which is only in front. One
thing is, if you are too close to someone, the range doesn't cover enough to
hit them, which means that enemies can be safely sandwiched between you and the
charge attack. His C3 is useful against generals though, in hopes
of activating the ice orb, since all of his other charge attacks have execution
times that are long enough for generals to block or interrupt.
I think his counterattack is cool, because it does 5 hits, but it's not very
reliable. It's one that might miss.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.13 - Sima Yi
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"The mind shall vanquish the sword"
Like Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi's musou is very powerful, and is capable of killing
officers in just one musou.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Medium Weight
Charge 15
Defense 16
Musou 19
Fill 15
Attack 15
The stats on Sima Yi's 4th weapon are very good. All of the offensive
stats are good for Sima Yi's moveset. This weapon would be ideal, if speed
were in the place of defense. All Sima Yi needs is more speed to be able
to outrun crowds, in order to abuse his jump charge for absolute defense.
This would force Sima Yi to equip the Speed Scroll to be placed this
high in the tier list for high defense, and thus waste an item slot.
But it's not that much of a waste. It's more of a waste in Xtreme Legends,
when his last slot should be the True Way of Musou, but even this is not a
big deal, since his true musou is strong enough to kill officers anyway.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Speed Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng/Herbal Remedy
Ice Orb
The Way of Musou is incredibly important because of its unblockable ending.
The attack itself has the quality of being totally unblockable, just like
Xu Huang's air charge etc... Sometimes his musou lasers will cause generals
to move from side to side, it they are too close to him. This will sometimes
give them enough time to block if you allow enough time for them to. Without
his true musou, this can often be fatal, since generals will attack you
right after his musou. Also, his true musou allows him to take on multiple
officers. As mentioned above, Sima Yi needs the Speed Scroll to be able to
run fast enough to abuse his jump charge with safety. This gives him an
extreme defense. With Sima Yi's distanced combat methods of musou filling,
for ideal defense, his normal attacks should always be wasted. This is why
the Wind Scroll isn't recommended, because even if it were, the difference
would change almost nothing. His reach with the Wind Scroll equipped will
still make his normal attacks very risky in crowds.
The Ice Orb will help a slightly, for his musou to deal more damage because
officers will stay in one spot.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Although Sima Yi now has an extreme defense with the Speed Scroll equipped,
his musou filling is somewhat slow, he has to run around and use his jump
charge until it is safe enough for him to use his other attacks.
His true musou will allow him to easily kill generals in large
crowds. If you do his true musou against a general as close as possible, it is
very easy to for a one musou KO. If he is close enough, the general will be
sandwiched between Sima Yi and his Fan. This is very perfect because the
general can't get out, and because he is right where the lasers shoot, all
beams will hit and deal full damage. Each musou attack shoots three beams.
However, it's not at all consistent, because the general will sway from side
to side, so it's hard to always hit with three beams. In the end, it is still
very simple to kill generals in one true musou. Sima Yi is ranked higher than
Zhuge Liang in section 14, as the second fastest general killer. Zhuge Liang's
musou also shoots three beams per attack; it is because of Sima Yi's stronger
attack power, that he is potentially a faster general killer. There is a small
chance that generals will not be trapped in between him and the fan, even if
you are very close to the general. This also adds to the inconsistency. If
generals are not trapped, they will slide backwards slowly as you continue to
hit them with his musou. Because his musou beams alternate from left to right,
generals are usually able to block in between attacks. However, it is
possible to always hit generals with his musou, if you learn how to use his
musou properly. His musou does alternate left and right with three beams
per attack, but there is one beam which is always in the center. Just do his
musou without any peons in sight and you will see this. The pattern should look
like this: \\|
|//
\\|
|// and so on.
Try to use the L1 button to toggle so that the general is in the center of the
screen. After this, it should be simple to steer. When doing his musou
on generals at a distance, try to hit the general by steering his musou
correctly with this strategy; depending on how far away the general is, it
may be wise to purposely stop hitting the general to allow him/her to walk
up closer to you, so that his final hit will successful. This is because if
the general is distanced in a way that, the ending of his musou will miss, but
the general is close enough to be able to walk up and attack him right after
his musou.
The result of Sima Yi's true musou is almost always a defeated officer, and a
large KO count.
Other than his musou, the rest of his efforts should be devoted to refilling
his musou. The best method for musou filling is with his C4. It shouldn't take
too long to fill his musou with this awesome charge attack. Try to steer the
second part to a safe place, or maybe even ignore it altogether if he's
facing a small crowd, where the second part may be useless. If the first
part freezes officers, and he has a filled musou, the second part is perfect
to quickly catch up to the frozen officer for a quick one musou kill.
Use combinations of his jump attack, and jump charge to create opportunities
for his C4. This is the best way to use Sima Yi. After scattering crowds with
his jump charge, it's often safe enough to use his C1 before using his C4.
The timing is perfect for making the execution of his C4 safe. The explosion
of his C1 is also perfectly timed with his C3, although this is useful only
in specific situations.
One small note on his counterattack: if the general is too close to him, the
counterattack may miss entirely. This isn't a big deal since his counterattack
will still have that discharge to get him into a safe place, it just won't
hit the general.
His other moves should generally be avoided, or used leisurely. His C3 and C6
are useful for fighting at a distance. His C6 only takes practise with the
steering. His C5 doesn't have enough reach to be useful.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.14 - Ling Tong
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Is that all you got?"
Ling Tong is ridiculously fast at attacking. I wonder if nunchaku even
existed back then.....sigh. As cheap and dull as Koei has created him, I'd
agree it to be so. Because of ice, his musou, and his C4, generals
can be taken out with ease.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 16
Speed 19
Life 15
Luck 16
Attack 17
Not too bad of a weapon, although a musou bonus would help a lot, then
his fifth item slot should be the Way of Musou. This would help his
offense a lot. This helps even more in Xtreme Legends if you configure him
this way, as his musou will kill officers in just one musou.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Herbal Remedy
Dragon Amulet/Way of Musou
Ice Orb
Ling Tong's quite compatible with the Dragon Amulet because of his easily
musou filling with his C4. The Way of Musou is also not a bad idea.
Equip the ice orb on Ling Tong. Ice gives you the ultimate edge with slaying
generals. With a fast and unblockable C4, and a juggling musou, Ice is
obviously the best choice.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Characters like Lu Bu and Zhao Yun are all safer than Ling Tong
defensively, while attacking. It is very possible to not get hit during his
normal attacks, and his offense of just his C4. But there is a crowd size
limit. In massive crowds, it's very hard to just apply his reckless C4
offense. The only thing to watch out for with his C4, is to never enter a
crowd with the execution of his C4. In most situations, Ling Tong's C4
is very safe. A second defensive (and offense actually) disadvantage is his
inability to handle two officers at once. Most other characters are able to
because of a good musou and/or longer reach. Because Ling Tong's musou lacks
reach and range, and is planted. It is a huge disadvantage if done against
a blocking officer. This is why it's very hard for him to fight against two
officers, because for a proper defense, he will have to rely only on his C4.
His C4 then also presents a lot of problems. The two officers have to be
distanced perfectly in order for his C4 to work. One officer situations are
simple because you only have to calculate one distance; making his C4
consistently unblockable, single officers are simple to take care of.
However, against multiple officers, if the distance isn't right, he'll often
hit one of the officers, and the other one will have blocked it. Other
characters in this situation would use a musou to get out of the danger. This
is obviously not a choice for Ling Tong. But after all this talking, this
disadvantage can be elinimated if you use his jump charge. It's almost as if
Koei gave him this distanced scattering jump charge, with his fast walking
speed, to counter Ling Tong's limits. Whatever happens though, Ling Tong's
defense is still very good; it's just the his offense reduces to a very slow
method when facing multiple officers and massive crowds. Ling Tong has all the
offensive abilities of the characters in his tier. He's the best at freezing
officers in his tier, and would deserve to be the best and fastest offensive
character in most situations. But because of his limitations to further
pressure, like massive crowds and multiple officers, he is placed last in this
tier. Although this is a theoretical placement, his flaws can be seen in more
difficult stages. The Battle of Mt Qi in Xtreme Legends would make these flaws
of his, more apparent. However, these flaws should be considered minor,
because musou rages can eliminate them. Being in this tier, he's either the
fastest offensive character or the slowest, but when he's the slowest, when
he has to adopt the method of using his jump charge to continuously scatter
massive crowds, he is very slow. The other characters in his tier have more
consistency, and most benefit from larger crowds.
With his defensive flaws discussed, we can now turn to his offensive
strategy with his C4...which requires not much strategy or planning at all.
Perfect his C4 to hit blocking officers, and everything should be clear.
When officers are near high health, attempt his C4 until officers are
frozen. Then rely on his musou to finish them off. Ling Tong's just a
faster version of Zhang Fei, and just like Zhang Fei, with a quick and
unblockable charge attack his freezing ability is very impressive.
All jump charges like Ling Tong's, which shoots blades (or whatever), are
useful, but his version has a steeper slope, which means you'd have to jump
high to to shoot far.
Ling Tong's C5 is another possible charge attack in Chaos. It's only better
than his C4 because of the longer reach, but it's obviously only practical
against approaching crowds, and when enemies are only in front of him.
All other moves should probably be avoided. His C1 has the worst
reach and range, but unbelievably quick. Because it's quick and covers a lot
of distance, it can be a useful escaping move, in case you ever make a mistake
with his musou. His C6 requires far too long execution and
recovery times to be practical. Even though, it is innate fire elemental, his
C4 is infinitely more useful.
In Musou Rage, try to use his C4 only. Continuously doing this is enough
to kill officers in the 15 seconds of musou rage granted. Since his true musou
is officer-oriented and has a recovery that wastes a lot of musou rage time.
Continuously abusing his C4 will net you a higher KO count.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.15 - Meng Huo
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I'll smash you all to pieces"
Generally a very easy character to use. Meng Huo's musou is one of the best
crowd clearing musous in the game.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Light Weight
Charge 15
Fill 15
Horse 15
Attack 18
Life 19
Not that great of a weapon. Similar to Xu Huang, Meng Huo has heavy weapon
compatibility, however, only his jump charge can be used with a heavy
weapon. Just like Xu Huang, Meng Huo's light 4th weapon allows him to do his
C6 more safely, but it is still not a fast executing charge attack.
It is in Xtreme Legends, when Meng Huo's C3 can be used with a heavy
weight weapon, because of the non-flinching property. But other than the
weight of this weapon, the stats on it are excellent. A short musou with
fill and charge, makes his jump charge a pretty good musou filling move,
even though it's a weak attack. However, like other light weapon characters,
again such as Xu Huang, a crowd clearing musou with a light weapon can mean
a very slow offense after a first musou is used. Surrounding peons are going
to die in one musou with a light weapon. This means that you're losing 1.25^2
which is 1.56, well roughly 1.5 damage against an officer. Light or Heavy,
Meng Huo's going to find himself with the same crowd conditions after almost
every musou. With a heavy, a lot more damage will be dealt to officers.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way or Musou
Herbal Remedy/Ginseng
Ice Orb / Light Orb
As mentioned above, crowds will often be destroyed after Meng Huo's musou, so
equipping the Way of Musou for some fire depletion is very important, to
deal more damage against officers. His true musou has five extra hits,
which is very useful. Make his last item the Herbal Remedy. Meng Huo's
musou filling strategy should often be with his jump charge. When abusing
a charge attack, the fill caused by the extra damage from the Herbal Remedy
approximately equals the fill increase of equipping the Ginseng. This means
that equipping the Ginseng would mean that Meng Huo's jump charge would deal
less damage, at roughly the same musou filling rate. However, this increase
in damage from the Herbal Remedy would only help slightly when dealing
damage to officers, while musou filling. The Ginseng might be a good idea
afterall, because it will allow Meng Huo to use his first two normal attacks,
and his C3, in a larger range of crowd sizes. This helps a lot if you choose
to equip Meng Huo with the Light Orb. Anyhow, both these choices have
very small benefits.
The Ice Orb is good for double musou damage, but with a light weapon, and
relatively less frequent musou strikes, he's not gaining much more damage.
Meng Huo's freezing ability is also not very impressive. Xu Huang's true musou
is also a weak one with relatively less frequent strikes, but he benefits
a bit more from the Ice Orb because his C3 is a very good method for
freezing officers. Meng Huo on the other hand must rely on either his C3
or C6. With Meng Huo's slow walking speed, he can never hope to walk casually
up to an officer and start attack in the middle of a large peon crowd, like
Xu Huang can. This is why freezing with Meng Huo is quite hard. His C6 can
be unblockable, but the execution time of it is not safe enough in large
crowd sizes. The Light Orb may be a better choice for some people. Although
it is also not that useful, it will allow Meng Huo to use his C3, instead of
abusing his jump charge, for easier and faster filling. If you can foresee
a filled musou after his C3, then the Light Orb will make it much easier
to set officers up for his true musou. However, his jump charge is often
good enough to hit blocking officers already...
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Likely the best situation to fight generals in are the largest crowds possible.
For example, near Liu Bei in the Yellow Turban Rebellion. His musou is possible
of racking up KO's in the 60 range. It is thus, easiest and most
preferable to fight officers in massive crowds. Massive crowds will allow
Meng Huo to fill his musou easily with his C3, and with the Light Orb equipped,
officers are helpless.
Meng Huo's jump charge is a very useful move for safe attacking. The
strength is not very strong, but the reach and range covered is very reliable.
This is also a great move to stun generals, to set up for his true musou.
The landing of his jump charge however, isn't completely safe, but there is
way to make it safe. The idea is to never use his jump charge when he is
surrounded, or when enemies are very close to him. Always enter crowds
with his jump charge. And his C1 will make this possible. It's also easy to get
hit just before the second part of his jump charge. This, can also be
avoided, if after the first stomp, you turn him around and direct his second
stomp in the opposite direction. The most frequent example of getting
hit before his second stomp is against officers on horse. If you just miss
the officer on horse, with his first stomp, and the timing is right, it's
very easy to get hit before Meng Huo's can proceed to the second stomp.
Turning around, eliminates this defensive flaw. If you always enter crowds
with his jump charge, and then turn around to face the opposite direction for
his second stomp, Meng Huo's jump charge is a very ideal move for musou
filling.
His C1 is also a great move to stun generals from a distance. Although
officers do block it, and this depends on when you execute his C1.
Once you've learn how much distance his C1 covers, you can stun
generals at will, by hitting officers at either the very end of his C1, or
at the very beginning. But there are more risks at the beginning. This is
extremely useful because his musou has an initial lag to it, much like Zhen
Ji's. But the most useful aspects of his C1 is that it makes Meng Huo's slow
walking speed almost negligible, and that as mentioned above, it will allow
Meng Huo to always enter crowds with his jump charge, and thus gives him a
very safe method of musou filling.
Being the biggest character in the game (occupying the most space), it's
harder to counterattack with Meng Huo, simply because it's harder to see your
enemies. But similar to the characters Zhao Yun, Zhou Tai, and Lu Bu, there is
a brief (very brief) state of invincibility granted during his C1
attack. Since Meng Huo's C1 can easily get you out of dangerous
situations, counterattacking may be ignored altogether. However, in Meng Huo's
case, the invincibility in Meng Huo's C1 isn't perfect, because it's still
easy to get hit when he JUST starts to run.
His C4 is one of the most useless charge attacks in the
game. Even though the strength and the range is not bad, it has the longest
recovery time in the game. The enemy scattering ability isn't very good either.
His C5 is useful against generals for freezing purposes. It's one
of those charge attacks that are fast enough that the generals can hit you
during the recovery time, but slow enough that they will make an attempt to
hit you. It's also easy to see it too. It's a very safe attack to pull off, but
there's probably a slight chance that a general will hit you.
His C6 covers excellent reach and range. It's too bad that the
execution time is quite long. It seems to work 50% of the time against generals
if you have your back facing them during the execution time. It's just too
slow, and generals can easily hit him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.16 - Pang Tong
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Hey! I defeated an officer"
Pang Tong has a unique C1; it's the only C1 orb that contributes to musou
filling.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Medium Weight
Fill 18
Luck 15
Bow 16
Defense 17
Life 15
He's quite a tank with life, defense, and bow on his 4th weapon. However, they
are all pretty much wasted because Pang Tong's capable of a pretty perfect
defense. The high fill is the only useful stat on this weapon. With no
attack on this weapon, his offense is a bit slow.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Ice Orb
The Ginseng is very nice, for very high fill. With his short musou bar,
musou filling is quite fast with Pang Tong. The Way of Musou is useful for
the extra fire damage. It's also quite nice to sneak in a few attacks after
his true musou.
The Ice Orb is good for double musou damage, however, the increase isn't that
much and he'll have to go through his C3 to freeze officers, which has some
defensive risks.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Pang Tong can be played for defensively, with his C1 and his first normal
attack. None of his charge attacks, other than his C1, can be used safely in
Chaos. The most effective way to use him is to musou fill with his C1 and
his first normal attack, and then use his true musou for offense. With no
attack on his 4th weapon, it'll often take three musous to defeat officers.
It is his jump charge that allows Pang Tong to have an extreme defense. Abuse
his C1 for fast musou filling. Be sure to time his C1 so that he can escape
with his jump charge. But what's better is to try to time it so that he'll have
enough time to sneak in his first normal attack just after his C1. This'll
make his musou filling a bit faster. And this is simply all that is needed
to master Pang Tong in Chaos. None of his other normal attacks and charge
attacks can be used safely in crowds.
His first normal attack can be done over and over in small crowds, because
of it's fast recovery.
His C2 may be useful in massive crowds, if you know it'll fill his musou.
It might be possible to use it after his true musou too, if crowds are
big enough. Then you can do back to back true musous.
His C3 isn't perfectly safe, but getting hit is still kind of rare. If he
has a filled musou, then it's not a bad idea to attempt freezing officers
with it. It's easy to counterattack after his C3, because peons will tend to
want to do a jump attack on him, and they will always attack just before they
land.
Although is jump charge has very little attack range, it may be used for
hitting generals off their horses.
A interesting fact; his fourth normal attack always does double damage. This is
like characters who have two weapons, like the two Qiaos, but different in
that Pang Tong's is 100% efficient.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.17 - Zhang He
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Even more beautiful"
It's weird how Koei created Zhang He. It's almost like they treat him as a
joke character.
historically, he is nothing like he is in the game. Anyway, he's pretty fun to
use. Unlike many characters, his strength lies in his charge attacks.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Fill 15
Speed 19
Attack 16
Musou 18
Charge 15
I evaluate Zhang He's fourth weapon to be the best fourth weapon in the game.
His fourth weapon fits my general ideal perfectly, with all bonus attributes
devoted only to attack. All of these attributes work well with Zhang He's
moveset. A very good fourth weapon.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Dragon Amulet
Ginseng / Demon Band
Fire Orb / Ice Orb
Many people should know by now that Zhang He can't survive well in Chaos
with anything other than his jump charge. The safe and fast musou filling
ability of his jump charge makes him very compatible with the Dragon
Amulet. Equip the Ginseng simply to speed up the process, or you can give him
the Demon Band, because with this Fire Orb setup, he is the only character
in the game that deals less musou damage in musou rage. This Fire Orb setup
for regular combat is important for Zhang He to at least have a chance at
killing officers in one long musou. But since his true musou is juggling,
damage is reduce by half, and in musou rage, his attack would be doubled.
The adjustments would thus cancel out. This means that in musou rage
combat, his musou is going to deal the same amount of damage.
Although, even with his musou control mastered, it may be hard to
use it with full consistency sometimes, for example in massive crowds, or
in narrow places such as a corridor, or even near a wall. Some people
may prefer the Ice Orb, for a chance at dealing heavier damage in
musou rages. Because Zhang He needs to use his C3 perfectly before his regular
musou, and then control his musou perfectly, to be able to kill officers in
just one long musou, it is very hard to come by. Many times with the Fire Orb,
he'll still be forced to take more than one musou to kill officers.
So the Ice Orb is not a bad choice.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
His jump charge should be used in crowds of all sizes. It will
eliminate groups of 5 in a blink. And when done in large crowds, his musou
gauge will pratically fill up. This is why it's generally quite safe to
continuously do this move because you can do his musou right when he lands
to save himself if it is ever dangerous. Although, the need of wasting his
musou is minimal because his jump charge can be mastered so that he won't get
hit. Zhang He's jump charge is by far is the best and safest attack. For
perfect defense, all you have to do is make sure he lands safely. This
naturally forces Zhang He to lead large, or scattered crowds around, until
there's a clear opening for his jump charge. Once crowds are dense, and not
scattered about, he can run straight through a crowd with his fast walking
speed, and do his jump charge at the very end of the crowd, placing peons only
behind him, and nothing in front of him. Try to do his jump charge as low as
possible. And that's all he needs to have a good defense for his high placement.
His jump charge is very good at musou filling, and very abusable. When using
his jump charge against officers, be sure to walk just past them before you
execute his jump charge. The point is to aim his jump charge to execute just
behind officers. The leap forward that he takes makes this very easy to
execute. His jump charge should be a consistently unblockable charge attack
against officers.
Minor disadvantages, or things to watch out for, is fighting on incline
slopes. Even if the ground is slightly inclined, his air charge may be
cancelled because he's are too close to the ground. Of course, you can work
around this by jumping higher before you execute the charge, but it's obviously
much easier just to fight on flat ground.
With Zhang He, it's normally quite hard to deal with generals in large
crowds. The most practical way should be using a full regular musou when
generals aren't blocking. It's hard at first, but it should be easy after some
practise to continuously attack a general with his musou by moving back and
forth, without the general dropping to the ground. Try to pair his long musou
up with the Fire Orb; set fire to a general by his C3. Use his
C3 to do this, because it stuns enemies and will keep them on
the ground. This however, is not easy to do, since Zhang He moves forward a lot
after his C3. The trick is to activate your musou JUST as you set
fire to the general. The timing for this is pretty strict, but of course,
practise is all that is needed.
You may have noticed that Zhang He doesn't really have any moves that are good
for knocking generals off their horses in large crowds. His C1
will often do the job, but he will get hit if you time it incorrectly. His
musou has a height such that it will only sometimes hit generals when they are
on horse.
Not much can be said about all his other moves. Because of the lack of
reach and range, they are inferior to his jump charge.
But just to skim through the rest of his attacks....
C2: very little reach and range, not very useful
C3: the reach and range is still not good enough to be safe. The
recovery time is also long, so it's quite easy to get hit after.
However, this move is a good move to freeze or set fire to generals.
C4: useful only at a distance. This is a great move to get generals
off their horses.
C5: has fast execution time. A good move to attempt to freeze
generals when it is safe enough to, but ultimately inferior to his C3.
C6: even though the range of the attack is wide, the execution time
recovery time are long, so generals can block it, and it's
easy to get hit after. Note that although both of the two parts are
charge attacks, only the first part activates the orb.
Simple conclusion. Use his jump charge in all situations, and
try to kill generals in crowds with a long full regular musou with fire. His
jump charge and musou are extremely effective against generals and large crowds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________
8.18 - Lu Xun
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"This should do it"
Lu Xun would be one of the worst characters in this game if it wasn't for
his jump charge. His jump charge gives him a very defensive method of
offense, and musou filling. And just because of this, he deserves
a high tier just for extreme defense. His offensive is however a bit slow
because of this.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Fill 15
Luck 18
Speed 20
Attack 15
Musou 19
This is a very good 4th weapon for Lu Xun. It would be an ideal one if luck
were replaced with charge.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Herbal Remedy/Wind Scroll
Ice Orb
The reason for recommending the Way of Musou for Lu Xun is the same as
Zhang Liao's. Lu Xun's grounded musou can be blocked easily, in between musou
strikes. With or without his true musou, he'll still take roughly two musous
to kill regular officers. The Ginseng and Herbal Remedy are both useful for
musou filling. Since it's the most ideal to use his C1 for distanced combat,
the Wind Scroll is very useless. It's useful only rare occasions of close
combat.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As commented above, the strikes in his regular musou have irregular timing,
and sometimes this will allow generals to block during his musou. If you
position him slightly to the side of the general, it is possible to
complete his full musou without the general blocking it, but it's very hard
to make it consistent, because of the strict positioning. It's probably not
worth the effort to learn because he'll still take two musous to kill officers,
with his regular musou.
Like Zhou Yu, Lu Xun's ideal musou filling method is abusing his jump charge.
Jump charge, and then true musou, is pretty much enough to cover his analysis.
One charge attack that is really worth praising is his C3. Notice that his C3
seems to do more damage than anything else, or similarly, it seems to be
overpowered. His C3 because of the fact that he wields two weapons, does more
damage. Not only does it deal heavy damage, his defensive potential while
executing it is very good. Sure, he is airbourne, which will allow the enemy
to juggle him, but the chances of getting hit during the entire sequence of
his C3 is quite rare. Unlike other airbourne charge attacks, enemies don't
do a jump attack on him. It is generally safe to use even in large crowds,
and this is because for some reason, peons don't attack him after the recovery.
It's almost as if he goes into a stealth mode when he's in the air or something.
Peons and officers act as if he's invisible during his C3. This makes it very
abusable in small crowds. And in massive crowds, it will be strong enough to
fill his musou completely. His C3 is riskier in larger crowds, but because he
has such fast walking speed, it can still be done with surprisingly good
results. The ending of his C3 is usually too long to hit officers with it. But
it's useful to hit blocking officers with it, because of the distance he
covers.
Both Lu Xun's C4 and C6 are good scattering charge attacks, but in the end,
they are inferior to his jump charge.
His C5 has somewhat poor range. The real advantages of his C5 are its fast
execution and recovery. His C5 is a very good way to freeze officers.
Like Da Qiao or Xiao Qiao, because Lu Xun has two weapons, some of his normal
attacks will deal double damage. However, this is very different from his
C3, as every part of his C3 deals double damage. The ones that deal double
damage are his fourth and fifth normal attacks, as well as the exact same
attacks in his evolution attacks. These however, must be positioned strictly
in the center to be able to deal double damage. This will also return a combo
of two, so seeing the combo counter rise by +2 will indicate a double
damage hit.
This is a very minor note, but keep in mind that Lu Xun's jump attack has very
short reach, but very horzontal range. The horizontal range can sometimes be
used advantageously against officers. Rotating slightly will maximize the
reach of his jump attack.
If you want to use his C1, it's quite useful to make his C4 a lot safer to
execute.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.19 - Zhou Yu
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"You're mine"
A very versatile character. Of all the characters with the same type of air
charge, Zhou Yu's is the best, because of the range, the launch angle
(practically horizontal), and the extra stomp on the ground at the end.
Zhou Yu has one of the faster attacking speeds, and has very good range in
his attacks. His musou attacking speed is also fast and deals good damage, but
the range is mainly suitable for generals.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Charge 17
Defense 15
Musou 18
Bow 16
Attack 16
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Herbal Remedy
Ice Orb
The Herbal Remedy is probably a better choice than the Ginseng. Just like
other characters who abuse charge attacks for musou filling, the extra
charge damage results in roughly the same increase in fill, that is caused
by equipping the Ginseng.
Equip the Ice Orb on Zhou Yu. When enemies are frozen, his musou does twice
the damage. He also has many ways of freezing officers.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Fighting at a distance with his jump charge is the best musou filling strategy,
if it even is a strategy at all. His walking speed is fast enough for him
to abuse his jump charge to no end. If crowds are vast and dense, his running
attack will be enough to fill his long musou, and disorientate officers in the
process. This pretty much concludes Zhou Yu's safe musou filling ability.
Similar to Guan Yu, it is safe (if the you are not in a very large group) to
purposely stop attacking after his third normal attack, and resume attacking
again. This is because of the safety that the reach and range of his third
normal attacks grant, and of course, the quick recovery time from his third
normal attack. Stopping purposely after his third normal attack is also a
great opportunity to antipate a counterattack.
Use his C1 just as you would with all the other characters, by
deploying the orbs as you enter a crowd. One strong combo is to deploy
his C1 fire orb, but allow some time for it to settle. Then do jump charge.
If you time this correctly, to have the fire orb explode directly before
the jump charge, all the privates will likely be dead, leaving the stronger
opponents nearly dead but scattered. This is pretty effect when dealing with
generals in large crowds, as you can set the general on fire and scatter the
general to prolong the fire. Time the fire orb to explode just after his air
charge if you don't want to scatter your enemies. This would deal heavy damage
without scattering the enemy.
Zhou Yu has one of the best counterattacks in the game. The speed is very
quick, but not too quick (some people may think Ma Chao's counterattack is too
quick), the reach is decent, the range is very good, and the recovery time is
fast. It is just like his C6, but with less launching power.
His C3 is not so great, even though it looks like a very protective
move. The speed of it isn't as fast as his normal attacks, so it's no surprise
if you get hit during any part of it, especially during the recovery time.
But, his C3 is a good way to attempt freezing a general in a
moderately sized crowd, since it disorientates, he's got 60% percent chance
in freezing with nothing to lose.
Zhou Yu's C2 is fast both in execution and recovery. With its decent reach
and range, it can be used if his musou if filled, against officers, like
other characters can, such as Zuo Ci or Lu Meng. Even if officers block it,
it should be possible to do his true musou after because officers will tend to
attack.
Zhou Yu's C4 is good because of the triple attack. Only the
first, and third strikes activate orbs. It is obviously impractical in most
cases to do the full three attacks. Also, it won't finish, if you are too far
away from the enemies you are hitting. You actually have to be extremely close
to successfully complete the entire three-hit charge sequence. The thing about
his C4 is learning the good parts of it, and learning when to stop.
Since the first slash is elemental and the execution and recovery times are
fast, with its good range, it is a perfect move to freeze generals while
fighting in large crowds. The recovery time is very fast, so stopping
purposely after this first slash is a not a bad idea, however it's not as
safe as stopping after his third normal attack. If the general is
successfully iced, unleash his musou for massive damage (the effect of his
musou against frozen officers is similar to Xiahou Dun's because of fast
musou attacking speed). If the ice isn't successful, it's easy to anticipate a
counterattack, for those of you who are good at it. His C4 attack is probably
the best reason to equip the Ice Orb.
His C5 is slow enough for generals to block, and the reach is
not so great; should probably stay away from using this move.
His C6 is a good charge attack. Since Zhou Yu's normal attacks
have good reach and range, his C6 is often a very elegant finish
to a perfect combo. However generals are able to block this move because of its
execution time. It is possible to successfully hit generals with it if you
position it very carefully. Notice that the attack starts from left to right,
so try to adjust it so that his left side is as close as
possible to the general, it should work. This is only a tip to upgrade the
chances of success, so it should still be considered a move that the enemy is
always capable of blocking. But even if it were fast enough to execute against
officers, his C6 is not as useful as his other attacks. For ideal defense,
there's no reason to resort to his normal attacks, when you can just use his
jump charge. And with his musou filled, the results of his C6 are useless.
If it doesn't freeze officers, then they will be scattered. With his C4, he's
guaranteed a chance to freeze without scattering officers, if ice fails.
Although his musou is useful only for general killing, it does a very good job.
It's range is very similar to Xiahou Dun's, but it's much better because of
more frequent hits. Because of this, he is able to kill generals very quickly,
with his musou when they are iced. Zhou Yu is among the top ten fastest general
killers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.20 - Xiao Qiao
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Come back later and try again"
Many people hate the fact that the two Qiaos have heavy 4th weapons. I
actually think they are best with heavy weapons. Considering the attributes on
their fourth weapons, and their stats by nature, they are generally more
devoted to defense (and speed). So the upgrade in strength by means of giving
them heavy weapons eliminates this issue of weakness. Secondly, their regular
attacking speed (with medium weapons) is very fast, so when equipped with heavy
weapons, they don't actually attack too slowly, so the downgrading isn't too
extreme. The two Qiao's with their heavy 4th weapons still have very safe
attacking speed. The two Qiaos with heavy final weapons attack faster than
Pang De with his light 4th weapon. Since all of the normal attacks of the
two Qiaos have decent range, trading slower attacking speed for stronger
attacking power is very very practical, thus makes the two Qiaos better.
Additionally, and probably most beneficial, musou attacking speed will always
stay the same; going from a lighter weight weapon to a heavier weight weapon
will always benefit in a 1.2 times stronger musou attack at the same musou
attacking speed. Not so much does this aspect affect Xiao Qiao's musou,
but because of her heavy 4th weapon, Da Qiao's musou deals relatively heavy
damage. I hope this is a good enough argument to persuade heavy weapon haters.
Xiao Qiao's obvious ideal method of musou filling is with her jump charge.
And because her jump charge and her musou are her dominant offensive
attacks, fast attacking speed is often wasted. Xiao Qiao is without a doubt
most compatible with a heavy weapon.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Heavy Weight
Charge 17
Fill 15
Speed 19
Defense 15
Musou 15
Wow, if she had attack instead of defense, this would truly be her ideal
weapon. Charge and fill both contribute to her jump charge. And with her musou
mastered, her long true musou with a stronger attack, is very devastating.
With a weapon like this, in Xtreme Legends, she is yet another one-musou-KO
character, with fast and reliable musou filling. But before Xtreme Legends,
she will have to stick with killing officers in two or more musous.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Herbal Remedy
Light Orb
The Herbal Remedy will help a lot for her jump charge. It is tested that
the extra damage from the Herbal Remedy contributes roughly the same fill
increase, as the Ginseng does. Since Xiao Qiao's most ideal offense is
her jump charge, the Herbal Remedy is very useful. The Way of Musou is very
useful for a stronger musou.
Equip the Light Orb on Xiao Qiao. After musou filling with her jump charge,
Her C3 is make perfect use of the Light Orb to set up nicely for her
true musou.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Xiao Qiao's musou is probably the hardest musou to control in the game. Not
only is its vertical range very minimal, it also can't make sharp turns. This
means that if you miss a general or the general drops to the ground, it's
practically over. Even once you've mastered steering her musou, it is not very
useful against generals anyway because of its weakness. It would seem that
her musou is strong since it has one of the most frequent hits, but her musou
is weak by default. And the high frequency in her musou strikes can't really be
made useful because her musou doesn't work well with the Ice Orb. To use her
musou to maximum potential, use it on officers up against a wall. With a wall
guiding you it is effortless to control it. But in an experts point of view,
this isn't much of an advantage, because since all her musou hits will be
successful, the officer will elevate too high, and with the musou length
she has with her 4th weapon, her full true musou won't work this way. To
master her musou, you must purposely miss with some strikes to maintain a
low height. With this learned, Xiao Qiao in Xtreme Legends with a 3rd weapon
of heavy weight, with attack and musou bonuses on it, is easily capable of
killing officers in just one musou.
Something else that is annoying about her musou is that it starts late, very
much like Zhen Ji's. Because of this, generals will almost always block it.
This is why the Light Orb is recommended. You can set up for her musou
by using her C3 to stun generals. Another good time to do her
musou is directly after her second last evolution attack, the one that hits
enemies into the air. However, if you time it very strictly, it is possible
to connect her musou after her other normal attacks. Her C3 is very perfect
for setting up for her true musou. Her left hand fan hits in front of her with
long reach, and it's the long reach that makes it so perfect. All Xiao Qiao
needs for a perfect setup to her true musou is for officers to be in front of
her, with some distance. Her right hand fan gives her good reach and range
behind her. A very nice and unique charge attack.
The inclusion of her C4 into her C3 + true musou offense allows for Xiao
Qiao to have a very beautiful and systematic offense. Because her musou is
useless if officers aren't directly in front of her at the beginning, it is
often very frustrating when fighting officers in massive crowds. Even a small
crowd of ten peons can ruin the setup for her true musou, if the peons are
all packed, behind the officer, and moving forward. And it's not surprising,
After musou filling with her jump charge, pursuing officers will almost always
have crowds running behind them, and what happens is, peons running behing
officers will cause the them to slide. And one small nudge is enough to ruin
her true musou. Not only does running peons ruin this. Even if she successfully
gets her musou to connect after her C3 in a massive crowd, it's very hard
to juggle an officer with her musou in very dense crowds, because the officer
will likely not stay in a straight or natural line. The surrounding peons will
easily cause the officer to be slightly displaced. Xiao Qiao's C4 is a very
elegant solution to this. It's scattering ability is very good, and because
it can be manually 360 degrees, it's a very safe charge attack. What makes
this such an elegant solution is its awesome scattering ability, and the
fact that officers get up sooner than peons to. After her C4, it's very
easy to follow up quickly with her C3 and then her true musou. Or, if you want,
it's not hard to do all of her normal attacks and stop before the last
evolution attack, before using her musou, to deal the most damage.
There is no better way to use Xiao Qiao. Combining her C4, C3, and true musou
Xiao Qiao has very extreme defense, and not too slow of an offense.
Her C5 like many other heavy weapon wielders, is able to hit
blocking generals. It is because of the same argument, that it has an execution
time which is long enough for the general to stop blocking and attempt to
attack, but short enough that the charge will almost always hit. However,
Xiao Qiao's C5 is just like Diao Chan's, in that it may not always
hit. Other characters like Sun Shang Xiang have a much more reliable C5. This
is more of an interesting fact than a useful move. Her C5 isn't as good before
her true musou because the height it too high.
Xiao Qiao's C6 has very long execution and recovery, and terrible range. The
ending of it is scattering, but also has poor reach and range. There's not
much use for this charge attack.
Instead of using her jump charge and her true musou in musou rages, try to
make use of only her C4. Her jump charge is still a slow way of
attacking, and the ending of her true musou eats away a lot of precious
musou rage time. Her C4 should be safe enough to use continuously
if crowds aren't too big. Take advantage of the scattering, to attack
officers when they get up. Because of the fact that heavy weapon wielders
benefit most from musou rages, generals will die in a matter of seconds with
her normal attacks. Imagine what she can do if her 4th weapon had attack on it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.21 - Yue Ying
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"This will be over soon"
It's wierd that Zhuge Liang's wife emerges to be among the better characters.
Yue Ying is very similar to Guan Yu. Guan Yu attacks faster, and he is a little
stronger (even with a light weapon). Also they both have similar true musous.
Both of their musou attacks have high height, so some enemies, may drop to the
ground. And the ending is the same, except that Yue Ying cannot follow up
with juggling after, and this makes the ultimate difference
between her and Guan Yu. And finally, they are both very capable of
continuously attacking with their normal attacks because of fast recovery
time. Guan Yu is better than her in every way, except for walking speed.
Sorry to say this, Yue Ying fans, but I kinda like how Yue Ying's musou
is relatively weak by default, EVEN with frequent musou strikes. Zhang Fei's
light 4th weapon, even with less musou strikes, at the same musou bar
length, does way more damage in a musou, compared to Yue Ying's musou, with
her 4th weapon. Even if Yue Ying was to have a 3rd weapon with attack
and musou on it, Zhang Fei's musou still beats her's in musou damage.
At the 20th rank, Yue Ying is the first character in the tier list who is
relatively poor in fighting generals in crowds. It's hard to deal with them
if they are blocking, but even when not blocking, it takes some time to
kill generals in large crowds.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 15
Horse 15
Bow 16
Defense 17
Life 16
Wow, what a terrible weapon. All those defensive stats, wont do too much,
if she's not strong enough in small but still intimidating crowds, to fill
her musou. Give her a medium 3rd weapon with attack and fill on it, and her
musou will fill very fast even with a long musou, and no Ginseng.
Her only useful charge attack seems to be her C6, and since it's not even
great at all against officers, the charge bonus on her 4th weapon doesn't
help her very much at all. It would seem then, that her 4th weapon is very
poor.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
As mentioned above, Yue Ying's musou is very weak by default. Without the
aid of fire, her offense is very slow against officers. Her difficulties
with hitting blocking officers doesn't help too. The Ginseng will be helpful
when musou filling with her awesome normal attacks.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Strategies in crowd clearing should be just like Guan Yu. Make good use of her
normal attacks. Typically, stopping at her second normal attack, or her fifth
normal attack is quite safe. Also, counterattacking is quite easy to
anticipate. Her fourth normal attack recovers the fastest, but it would often
seem more practical to just carry on to her fifth normal attack for an extra
attack, and then stop after that. This is very nice as it makes her
musou filling ability very good, even without the Ginseng. The Ginseng will
allow her to fill faster though. Generally, fill her musou with her normal
attacks, and against officers, in most crowd sizes, just go straight for
her C6. It's by far the most useful charge attack. If it hits officers
succesfully (which isn't easy to do) you can use her true musou before
her C6 ends.
If officers are blocking her C6, just catch the officer off guard after her
C6. This is quite a good defensive offense for Yue Ying. The only weakness
is, like the all the other characters in her tier, that her offense is a
slow one.
Even though her normal attacks are very protective, it's still not an ideal
attack string. Because of her third normal attack, it's easy to get hit.
Because her second normal attack ends on her left side, it's quite natural
to waste her third normal attack near her left side. She still has a very
good defense if you waste her third normal attack properly. In Xtreme Legends,
her third normal attack is much less of a flaw, because of the extended
flinching time. I would suppose that she was purposely made with a vertical
third normal attack, to prevent her from being a high tier character.
Because if her third normal attack were to be another horizontal slash,
then she can walk up to officers in massive crowds, and just attack
recklessly with 5 normal attacks, or most of her evolution attacks,
before using her true musou. This would make her offense by far faster.
Like Xu Huang, Yue Ying's musou is a weak one. But because of Xu Huang's
C3, he's capable of this sort of "walking straight into the middle of a crowd"
method, and this is a much better and faster offense because of the extra
damage advantage Xu Huang has with his C3 before all his true musous, and his
better chances with the Ice Orb.
Her C1 lacks good reach, and has limited attack range. Probably impractical in
all situations, since her normal attacks will do a better job. It can
however serve as a safe musou filling method. Use this for fighting leisurely.
Her C3 attack was good to get lots of combos in hard mode...but
likely quite useless in Chaos mode, unless you fighting a general one-on-one.
The damage dealt is not impressive at all. The only useful
time to use this charge attack, is in musou rage combat. Yue Ying's first
two normal attacks should be enough to make her C3 safe, as long as no
threats are behind her. With musou rage attacking speed, her C3 is very fast.
This the quickest way to attempt freezing an officer in a musou rage.
A good C4 for crowd scattering, however the recovery time is pretty
long. Also, it's almost impossible to pull off in a surrounding large crowd,
because of the lack of range in her third normal attack. It's very similar
to Guan Yu's C4, but better, because of faster execution time, and
lower attack height.
Her C5 is one of the many useless ones like Guan Ping's. The area
covered is very small. The major downfall is that it is at a small distance
away, so to land it successfully, you have to pretty much pinpoint it. It's
possible to hit a blocking general with it, but quite hard. And if
it doesn't freeze the blocking general, it'll be hard to follow up with
her true musou, because of its high height.
Sadly, the elemental effect comes in at the end of her C6. It would be a bit
more useful if it came in at the beginning, so that the Ice Orb can be made
useful. The execution time is somewhat long, so turn away from generals when
you execute it, and they will not block it.
Her jump charge is quite good against officers, for one on one combat.
It can be done continuously, which is very useful.
Altogether, Yue Ying's offensive potential is quite slow, because of her weak
attacking strength, and very weak musou strength.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.22 - Guan Ping
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Here I go"
Not as good as his father, but still one of the better
characters. He's the only character in the game that can do his C4
four times in a row. However, out of the few continuous charge attacks,
his C4 is a bit inferior to Cao Cao's C6. Although it's hard to argue this.
Guan Ping's C4 is much easier to execute against officers in crowds, while
Cao Cao's only works against officers in small crowds. But if Guan Ping's
first C4 strike doesn't freeze, then it's very disappointing.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Light Weight
Charge 16
Luck 15
Bow 15
Attack 17
Life 15
Probably not a very good weapon. Guan Ping definitely works well with a
medium weapon in Xtreme Legends, when the flinching time is extended.
I haven't tested his medium weight attacking speed in Dynasty Warriors 5,
but it's slightly faster than Zhang Liao's or Lu Meng's, but with less reach.
if it's defensive enough, it should be a bit better in offense. The charge
bonus is very nice. Lacking a fill bonus on his 4th weapon, although isn't
a bit deal, but having it, would make his defense much better, as it would
allow him to have a filled musou after his C4, or just after his C6.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Herbal Remedy
Way of Musou / Ginseng
Ice Orb
The Ginseng is a good choice for his C6 offensive strategy. It's very nice
that his C6 is innate fire. But there's a limitation without the Way of Musou.
Guan Ping's C6 offense is probably the best against officers in large crowds;
his C6 will work very nicely with the Ginseng, if officers are blocking, but
if they aren't it's a bit hard to hit them with his C6. On the other hand, with
the Way of Musou equipped, you are guaranteed a musou aided with fire depletion,
when using his C6. The Ginseng should be the best defensive choice, because,
with the Way of Musou, Guan Ping's true musou is often limited to only
single officers. When facing multiple officers, it's much too easy for
officers to hit him after his true musou because of its long recovery time,
and it's hard for these types of accidents to not happen. But wow,
his true musou is so handy against peon crowds, for large KO counts.
Definitely equip the Ice Orb on Guan Ping, mainly for his C4. If a
general is successfully frozen all four attacks of his C4 does
full damage, and along with the Herbal Remedy, and the charge bonus on his
fourth weapon, the damage dealt is massive. If this combo is done in musou
rage....well, I suppose you can see where this is going. Also, his musou would
deal double damage when generals are frozen.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As mentioned above, Guan Ping's C4 is quite a valuable move when
paired with the Ice Orb. But it is quite disappointing if it doesn't freeze
and officer on the first strike, because not only is he scattering the officer,
he now has to direct the rest of his C4 strikes to a safe place. And since
the recovery time isn't very impressive, he will often be forced to waste his
musou. Thus, if you continuously use his C4 for an offense, his offense can be
quite slow.
Guan Ping works best in large crowds. If crowds are large enough to fill his
musou with his normal attacks, officers can be taken out with his C6,
which has better consistency than his C4. With the Way of Musou equipped,
if officers aren't blocking, then proceed obviously with the most normal attacks
possible, before doing a full true musou. If officers are blocking, then
his C6 is perfect to set up for his true musou. Execute his true musou right
after his C6 bombing strikes the ground, to avoid getting hit in the air.
Then turn around quickly during his true musou, in order to steer it
corrected to hit the officer on his/her way down. This should be easily possible
but the first two musou strikes or so, will be wasted....not a big deal.
If crowds stay this way, this method is a fast three musou (on average)
offense against officers. Otherwise, use his C4 or C3 in smaller crowds.
Always try to enter crowds with his C3. If he will have filled musou afterwards,
and his C3 was positioned correctly, it should guarantee a true musou, against
the approaching officer regardless of blocking. You'll have a 60% chance
of freezing the officer. It might be wise, if it's safe enough, to refrain
from using his musou, to attempt to sneak in as many C4 strikes as possible.
You can then choose either to do all his C4 strikes in hopes of successful
freezing right after the officer thaws, or to just do his true musou, just
before the officer thaws. Other than this, his C3 isn't useful, because the
rushing sequence is very dangerous in surrounding crowds. This
tip is much more useful in Xtreme Legends, with a more ideal Guan Ping, with
a medium weapon. Enter a crowd with his C3, and freeze an officer with it, and
his musou will kill that officer in just that one, short true musou.
It's too bad he's so weak in Dynasty Warriors 5.
Although I seem to praise his true musou a lot, it is mainly the ending that is
useful. The caution with using his true musou is to make sure that you do not
miss generals with the ending, or the upward slash just prior to the ending.
If you miss, and generals drop to the ground, the timing is usually very
perfect, for generals to get up and attack him. The only solution to this
problem is to counterattack.
Guan Ping's problem is that none of his charge attacks are outright abusable,
but the versatility in his charge attacks does allow for decent flexibility.
It's generally C4, against officers in small crowds, and C6 against
officers in large crowds, and then C3 whenever possible. The only danger
other than the risky ending of his true musou, is crowd situations that leave
Guan Ping with an unfilled musou after his C4. Learn that this happens, when
crowds are either small, or not dense. In any case, this can be avoided.
When crowds are very scattered, you'll have to run around for a while, to
allow for crowds to gather together for easier and safer musou filling.
When played correctly Guan Ping's defense should still be considered, high
tier defense.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.23 - Lu Meng
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"It comes down to this"
Similar to Zhang Liao, Lu Meng has very good reach and range in his normal
attacks, but Zhang Liao is way better. Lu Meng's charge attacks aren't too
impressive. Probably the biggest downfall is his weak attack. In terms of
fighting style, Lu Meng is a bad version of Yue Ying, and Yue Ying is a bad
version of Guan Yu. Both Lu Meng and Yue Ying have medium weight weapons
without attack bonuses; both have third normal attack with terrible range, and
similar range with the rest of their normal attacks. Yue Ying is much better
than Lu Meng because she attacks faster. She also recovers from her normal
attacks much faster than Lu Meng, which enables her to resume attacking (very
much like Guan Yu). Lu Meng is also capable of doing this, but it is generally
much harder with him to abuse his normal attacks. Lastly, her true musou is by
far better, and more useful than Lu Meng's.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 15
Horse 16
Bow 15
Defense 17
Life 17
Wow...same stats as Yue Ying's weapon. If anyone finds it hard to believe that
this weapon is terrible, view my Lu Meng video with attack and fill on his
weapon. In Xtreme Legends, he only needs a short musou to kill officers in
one musou, and with fill 40, his first two normal attacks will often
fill his musou. This means he has an extreme offense, and extreme defense.
There's just nothing good about his 4th weapon.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Dragon Amulet
Ice Orb
The Dragon Amulet is quite an interesting fifth item. His normal attacks should
be safe enough for him to have a long musou. Since his musou filling isn't
good enough with his 4th weapon, it isn't going to get much worse if you
give him a longer musou. With this length of musou, his offense is fast enough
to take out officers in two musous.
Since none of Lu Meng's charge attacks are useful in Chaos Mode, the orb
choice matters not too much. Go with the Ice Orb for a better offense in
musou rages. Since his true musou is juggling, the ice will allow for
double damage.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As mentioned above, Lu Meng is capable of continuously attacking with
his normal attacks. This is very useful since his charge attacks aren't very
good. Although Guan Yu and Yue Ying are much better at this, Lu Meng can still
pull it off. Stopping after his second or fourth normal attack is the safest.
Stopping after his fourth normal attack is especially safe because of its
fast recovery, and very wide horizontal range. Always have enemies in front
of him, and always waste his third normal attack by directing it away from
the crowd, and then resume with his fourth normal attack against the crowd.
It's best to turn in a counterclockwise direction during this process, because
both his second and fourth normal attacks slash from right to left.
And this is all that is needed to know, to maximize Lu Meng's offense and
defense. This gives him the safest method of musou filling.
Lu Meng's C1 is very useful for entering crowds. Since his third
normal attack has minimal reach and range, it is often impossible to pull
off his C4 without getting hit. However, if you deploy the
fire projectile with his C1 directly before attacking, the fire
projectile explodes just as you execute his third normal attack. This strategy
changes his third charge from practically 10% success, to 100% success. No
exaggeration either. The timing is so perfect that the fire projectile acts
as if it were his third normal attack. Also if you are equipped with the ice
orb, you have in a sense, a double elemental attack in his C4. In
any case his C4 doesn't activate the ice, the fire will still be
present. This only a minor tip, as his normal attacks and his musou are still
his best methods for offense. But what his C1 is most useful for, is against
officers, in approaching crowds. Deploy at the right time, walk around for
short moment, and start attack right after it explodes. You can often pair this
safely with his first two normal attacks, followed by a full long regular
musou. The fire depletion is deadly.
His C3 is much slower than Zhang Liao's, but still is a useful
move. His C3 is a lot safer in musou rages. His C3 is probably the best
method to attempt freezing officers, in musou rage combat.
The execution time of his C5 is too slow, and generals are able
to attack him in the process. But it's a good move to use when generals are
blocking. Since he moves forward quite a bit during the execution time, if he
are close enough to a blocking general, it's quite easy to land the charge
attack behind the general. This is a good way and the only way to
hit blocking generals. Although it's not very practical in most crowd sizes.
His C6 is probably an overrated move. Sure, the reach and range is
very good, but the attack is aerial. Like Guan Ping's C6, enemies
will like to do a jump attack on him. The execution and recovery time is also
mediocre. When doing it against a general as part of an attack combo, turn
away from the general as you execute his C6. This way, the general
will not block it. Normally, the execution time is too slow, which allows
generals to block in time. Knowing this is very useful because then, his
C6 is practically his only useful charge to serve as a finishing move
to a safe combo against generals in crowds, but still, it's a very risky
charge attack.
His C2, like Jiang Wei's is really useful, because of the awesome
reach and range, and is probably his most useful charge attack, believe it
or not. The reason for using his C2 is the same as Zuo Ci's and Jiang Wei's.
But it's not as useful as Zuo Ci's and Jiang Wei's. Since Zuo Ci's
and Jiang Wei's musous are both juggling, their C2's will almost guarantee a
free musou attack against officers, if they have a filled musou after the
C2. In Lu Meng's case, he'll be doing a juggling musou if his C1 hits officers,
but then, this almost never happens because the execution time is slow.
So this is a just a theoretical evaluation of his C2. If his light weapon
attacking speed makes his C1 fast enough, then surely, this disadvantage will
be seen. Otherwise, his C2 is very useful if he will have a filled musou
afterwards, because officers will off guard after blocking it.
His musou is not bad. Try to stay in good health, because once
in true musou, it is half damage. If his musou is done incorrectly,
officers will block the ending of it, and this is often a fatal situation.
However, it is possible to make the ending of his musou hit consistently.
The goal is to hit the officer at the very end of the slash before it.
This would naturally place the officer slightly to Lu Meng's right side during
his musou. This is how to make his musou always connect successfully.
The reason that his musou will get blocked if it's not used properly, makes
Lu Meng very incapable of fighting multiple officers. Fighting officers one
by one is no challenge. But he is at a huge disadvantage when facing
multiple officers, without musou rage. Zhang Liao's musou ending is also
unreliable like Lu Meng's. But Zhang Liao has his jump charge which is
invaluable for scattering the enemy.
What makes him such a poor character against generals in large crowds, is
his poor musou, horrible true musou, poor charge attacks, and absense of
an unblockable attack. Similar to Yue Ying, his C5 can be used to
hit blocking generals, but you have to work your way and creep around the
general, from the side. So there is very little consistency in the
unblockability of his C5. Yue Ying's C5 is much easier to execute against
blocking officers in crowds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.24 - Xing Cai
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"See ya later"
I really don't know why KOEI put Zhang Fei's daughter in this game. Maybe they
thought it was absolutely necessary to make more female characters. Even so,
Xing Cai is among my favorite characters. She is the other one of the two
characters who has a shield, which makes her immune to flinching when hit by
normal attacks while she is attacking.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Horse 15
Speed 16
Defense 17
Musou 17
Life 15
Not too bad of a weapon. Xing Cai's jump charge is very abusable, so charge
and fill, and of course attack, would help a lot.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Light Orb/Ice Orb
The Way of Musou, like for most other characters, is useful for a faster
offense against officers.
The Light Orb is useful for to set up for her true musou after her C3.
Although, it's very easy to hit blocking officers with her C3, so the Ice Orb
will be quite useful for double damage. Ice or no ice, it'll take two musous
to kill regular officers anyway, so ice will only help against playable
officers. Light is probably the best choice anyway, because if you aim her
jump charge at officers most of the time when refilling her musou, she'll
do a lot of cumulative damage to them in the process.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
I really hate how KOEI made her last three normal attacks jabbing attacks. They
cover such useless range, that you will probably never use them, and thus
never use her C6. I bet the reason why they gave her a series of
jabs before her C6 is that since she has the ability to absorb
enemy normal attacks (but still take the damage) it would act sort of like
a sacrifice to use her C6. So then, this would suggest that her
C6 is very useful....but I don't see it. Anyway, there's no point
in guessing the reason why she has three jabs in a row in her normal attack
string. Since the sacrifice of taking enemy hits during these 3 jabs is
definitely not worth it in Chaos, this would suggest to never use her C6.
Well, I suppose that, because of it's scattering ability, it could be useful
with greeting crowds, but her C4 does a much better job in an
easier and safer way.
Always make good use of her C5 from a distance to attack enemies
when you can. This is quite a useful way of musou filling. Although, there is
a huge caution to consider for her C5. The execution point is at the tip of
her fork, so enemies that are too close to her will not get hit. Her C5 is
thus, strictly for distanced combat.
The best method of musou filling is with her jump charge. Her jump charge is
safe enough to abuse with almost complete safety. In large crowds, she'll have
to jump just as she lands to avoid getting hit. But as crowds get larger and
larger, she'll be able to fill her musou with her full C3. Like Lu Xun, and
Zhou Yu, this is all that is needed for an ideal offense. Her jump charge is
also very useful for escaping when surrounded.
Her C4 is a great attack for crowd clearing as it has two parts that
cover good range. They are both scattering attacks as well. Only the first
part is elemental. However, the execution time is somewhat slow, making it
easy to get hit if executed in large crowds.
Her C3 is excellent, and easily her best charge attack. She attacks
quite fast, covering good range all around her. She also moves forward a lot
during the charge sequence, which keeps her very safe from enemies
attempting to attack from behind. Also, because of the distance that she
covers, it is easy to creep around blocking generals in the process and hit
them from behind. The major downfall is that the recovery time is slow, so
make sure that she will have a full musou bar after it. Even if you don't
though, I have found that directly after the recovery time is often a very
good opportunity to anticipate a counterattack. Her C3 should be execised in
her musou rage as well, followed by her true musou.
Her C1 isn't so great. Although it disorientates her enemies, the
range isn't enough, and the recovery time is slow. It's also an aerial attack,
so if you get hit, you can be juggled.
Her counterattack is the same thing as the first part of her C4.
As you know already, it's a horizontal slash with good scattering ability,
which makes it an excellent counterattack.
The ending of her true musou covers a lot of distance. Blocking generals will
almost always get hit if they are within the range. It is very possible to
juggle a general after her true musou, but you have to be really quick about
it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.25 - Liu Bei
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"For my brothers!!!!"
Historically, Liu Bei wields two swords. This is probably very well known too.
I really wonder why Koei gave him one, one-handed sword. The image of Lu Xun
fits him quite well....with a mustache maybe. Anyway, Liu Bei has decent range
in his normal attacks, and his charge attacks are very useful. Many of you
have probably noticed the four other characters who are very similar to Liu
Bei. These five characters are Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Sun Jian, Dong Zhou, and
Yuan Shao. The first three normal attacks are identical for all five of these
characters. Their musous are also very similar. I've ranked Liu Bei and Yuan
Shao to be the best of these five characters.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Luck 20
Horse 15
Speed 18
Defense 18
Musou 15
Quite similar to Yuan Shao's 4th weapon. A long musou with low fill, and low
attack is almost never a good thing. Because of Liu Bei's jabbing fourth
normal attack, his offense is quite limited. I recommend for Liu Bei fans
to watch my Bai Di video, where he is configured with a 3rd weapon with attack,
and a short musou. The video includes the True Way of Musou item, from
Xtreme Legends. When configured this way, with fill 40, he can often fill his
musou with just his C3, and his musou will take out regular officers in just
one musou. This makes Liu Bei a very high tier character. But anyway...for
now, he'll stay this way with his 4th weapon.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
Equip Liu Bei with the Way of Musou because of the fire, and the
powerful ending. It's very easy for generals to block just before the ending of
his regular musou, because it's too slow. I've found his true musou to be a
bit safer, but still possible for generals to block. The Ginseng is good
since his 4th weapon does not have a fill bonus.
Equip the Ice Orb on Liu Bei. The main reason is to halt generals after his
charge attacks so that he can do a proper musou on them. Since doing a musou
after his C3, C5, or C6, generals will be knocked into the
air, where his musou damage will be cut in half. With the Ice Orb, there is
a higher probability the generals will be stationary after his charge attacks.
There is still a disadvantage when generals are frozen, because the fire
from his true musou will not deal any damage, so try to make use of the ice
mainly to keep generals planted on the ground, and then try to use his musou
when the ice thaws.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Liu Bei is only placed this high because of his jump charge. Like Lu Xun,
his jump charge gives him an abusable method of musou filling. Although it
is slow, it is very defensive. However, his jump charge is one of the worst
of its kind. The initial strike is often a disadvantage, because it wastes
time. Since you would often want just the second part of his jump charge,
the first part will cause him to have to run a bit more, to create
more distance, so that you can waste his first jump charge strike safely.
In massive crowds, this first strike will prove to be dangerous. Also, the
slope of the projectile launched during the second part of his jump charge
is very steep. This means that its musou filling ability is not as good,
because it will hit less peons, while scattering them.
His C5 itself is very good, but it loses its effectiveness because
of the lack of range in his fourth normal attack. So it's quite hard to pull
off his C5 without getting hit in large crowds. Note that his
C5 is one on those diverging charge attacks with wide range. This
means that it is possible, when correctly distanced, to hit blocking generals.
His C5 is also one of those charge attacks that allow enough time
for generals to block or to attack him, because the execution time is slow.
But if you turn around during the execution time, and have his back facing
the general, it will always work if the distance is correct.
His C6 is likely his best charge attack. There is
nearly no execution time for it. This is useful in massive crowds.
You'll notice that because the execution time is much longer for Yuan Shao's
C6, he lacks the ability to use his C6 in massive crowds,
like the way Liu Bei can. However, the recovery time for Liu Bei's C6
is longer than Yuan Shao's. The recovery time is almost exactly as long as the
time is takes for the enemy to recover from the stun caused by his C6
So this could be somewhat dangerous if he is surrounded without a
filled musou, because the peons not killed by his C6 are ready to attack
right when Liu Bei's recovers.
Liu Bei's C5 and C6, are similar to Gan Ning's. Both are 360 degree attacks.
Both C5's have fast recovery time, but a risky execution, and both C6's
have a very safe execution, but slow recovery time. Thus, the same ideas
apply to Liu Bei, for choosing which one of the two to use.
Liu Bei's set of 360 charge attacks though, are inferior to Gan Ning's.
His C1 is capable of hitting blocking generals from behind, but
is likely impractical to use in most situations. He will be susceptible to
enemy juggling if you get hit.
Liu Bei's ideal offense, is a very slow one, even with a strong grounded
musou, because his most ideal method of musou filling, is a very very slow one.
But his jump charge is still very useful, and is the only thing that places
him this high in the tier list.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.26 - Cao Ren
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"You leave me no choice"
Reasons why Cao Ren is ranked this high are because of his awesome ability
to fight at a distance, and his strong musou. His musou proves to be very
useful even though he has a light fourth weapon. Since the best way of using
Cao Ren in Chaos is to abuse his second charge, I believe Cao Ren would work
muc better with a medium fourth weapon. Both his signature moves, his
second charge and his musou will deal a lot more damage. With these two
moves, he is an average character against crowds and fighting generals.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Light Weight
Fill 15
Bow 15
Defense 18
Attack 15
Life 19
A very interesting weapon, particularly because of his non-flinching property
when attacking. Life, defense, and bow all contribute to a very good defense.
It will take a good several hits to kill him when he's in red health with
high defense, and this is probably the only time I would ever suggest
defensive items. Defensive items on other characters are useless because they
will merely let the character get hit a few more times. But what makes
defensive items useful on Cao Ren that since he is resistant to flinching
when attacking, he'll still be attack while he's being hit, and this
will limit the possibilities of continuous attacks on him. And with all this
put together, with a short musou, and high fill, it is very very easy to
to get into red health safely with him. The point is, there's a very high
chance that he will survive any stage. No other character is capable of
doing this. This should enable Cao Ren a high tier placement, because once
in red health, it would arguable that, when he now has a way of finishing
the stage without ever getting hit.
It is disappointing that his weapon is light weight however. His medium
weight attacking speed isn't much slower than his light weight attacking
speed. He would then have a 1.25 stronger attack.
Another note on his weapon though. If his 4th weapon were to have a speed
bonus on it, then Cao Ren would have a perfect defense. When configured
with speed 40, he is fast enough to outrun crowds to create unlimited
opportunities to use his C3. But because he will need to waste his first two
normal attacks, he will often have to run for a very long time.
Refer to his analysis, in section 10.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Peacock Amulet
Tortoise Amulet
Fire Orb/Ice Orb
The first recommendation of defensive items. The reason is explaned above:
with a high defense, high fill, and a short musou, he will have a very high
chance in taking hits until he gets into red health. With high defense
like this, not many hits will take him from yellow straight down to zero
health. The necessity of the Ginseng is minimal, because his C6 with his
five normal attacks will fill his musou easily, even against a peon crowd of
five.
Equip the Fire Orb or Ice Orb. You don't want to break the guard of blocking
officers with the Light Orb when using his C6. If you allow officers to
block it. You will be able to execute a full musou on them quite easily.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Make use of Cao Ren's C3 for distanced combat, whenever it is possible.
And just his C3 will take care of many situations. For everything else,
resort to his C6. As mentioned above, his C6 will very often end with a filled
musou. Just do a short musou if there's danger after his C6. It is however,
very easy to anticipate a counterattack after his C6, because of the running
speed of his C6 makes it so that peons catch up to him, just after he recovers.
Mastering this will enable him to waste less musous. Large crowds are good for
Cao Ren. After his C6, follow up with his musou. It takes three musous, this
way, to kill regular officers. Not a bad offense. Something that might be
useful, is to attack in a circle. But this won't help very much because none
of his attacks go in the same direction. They always alternate. If many of his
attacks went in the same direction, his defense would be extremely good,
especially with his 4th weapon.
One important thing to note about Cao Ren's musou is that, when used
improperly, it can allow generals to block. This is analogous to Lu Xun's
musou, in that generals can block in between musou strikes because of the i
rregular pacing. When using Cao Ren's musou against generals, circle around
them in a counterclockwise direction. This will ensure full prevention of
generals blocking it. Going clockwise is pretty hard.
Cao Ren's C2 covers very good reach and range. It may be a good idea
to use this in very large crowds to fill his musou, although, it really depends
on how much of his musou is filled, and how big of a crowd he is facing.
Anyhow, his C1 has good musou filling potential, and may be a very
good option when crowds start to close in, when you know that it will fill
his musou.
His jump attack is very useful for when enemies start to surround him. It is
very quick, and the range is very decent. However, it's obvious that it's
usefulness is limited, because it doesn't have long reach.
The reason that I recommend using Cao Ren's counterattack for
scattering the enemy is because his C4 is terrible. The reach of his
C4 is minimal. Cao Ren's counterattack is another very ideal one, like Zhou
Yu's.
And thus, this is a very short analysis for Cao Ren. He truly is an interesting
case, with his 4th weapon. Even though getting hit is often unavoidable,
his non-flinching property is what allows him to be placed this high in the
tier list, for good defense. Watch his health closely, and your trigger finger
for his musou. Once in red health, he's basically set.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________
8.27 - Huang Zhong
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"There's still life in me yet"
Man....this guy gets better and better in each DW installment. His regular
charge attack is upgraded from 1 to 6 volleyshots, and not to mention, it's
piercing. Well, what can I say....his marksmanship was unparalleled afterall.
It's very noticeable in Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4, that he's the only one of
the 5 tiger generals that sucks. But even so, His melee combat is terrible.
The three light weapon wielders who do not have an extra attack bonus on their
weapon, are Sun Jian, Huang Zhong, Xu Zhu, with respective base attacks of 34,
36, 38. A mastered Huang Zhong should have pretty close to flawless defense,
while dealing some pretty good damage mainly with archery. Huang Zhong
would deserve a much higher rank with a better 4th weapon.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Light Weight
Fill 18
Horse 15
Bow 20
Defense 15
Musou 15
Having a light weapon with no attack bonus, Huang Zhong has one of the
weakest attacking strengths in the game. His C1 and musou are so much
stronger with a weapon with attack 20 on it. His offense is very fast in
Xtreme Legends with a light 3rd weapon with attack 20, and the True Way of
Musou item. But other than weak attack strength, fill, musou, and bow are
all useful for Huang Zhong's moveset. The defense is wasted. Huang Zhong's
defense is absolute, with his jump charge. His only flaw is a very slow
offense.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Fire Arrows
Way of Musou
Huang's Bow/Demon Band/Wind Scroll
Ice Orb
The Huang's Bow only slightly upgrades his C1, and his C3. The damage increase
of his C1 when the Huang's Bow is equipped is approximately 5/4, so the
difference is hardly noticeable, but there's nothing better to give him.
The Demon Band might be a good choice, although his strategy remains the
same with jump charges that waste time. When mastered, he should be
able to kill officers easily in one musou rage, even with a such a slow
offense, but it would help against multiple officers. The Wind Scroll is
a still a good choice, even though he's best with distanced combat. It's
not a bad idea to resort to his C5 to freeze officers in small crowd
sizes. The Fire Arrows helps a lot against officers in crowds. Because
his offense should only be distanced attacks, always having fire in his
offense is very useful. It's easy to just follow up after his C1 or C3 for
a fire musou; the inclusion of the Way of Musou isn't for a stronger offense.
It's the ending of his true musou that is useful. It's usefulness however,
can only be seen in massive and continuous crowds. Without his true musou,
he'll be forced to continously use his jump charge, and in some stages, he'll
have to jump charge a lot of times. With the ending of his true musou,
he can jump charge directly after the ending, and if it's done correctly, he
should be able to do a C1 right after this jump charge. This greatly
enhances his offensive speed in massive crowds. He also has a bit more
flexibility, since he doesn't have to go through his C1 or C3 to go a musou
with fire.
The Ice Orb is good for double musou damage, but with his weak 4th weapon,
the damage increase isn't very much at all. Generally...the orb choice is
irrelevant, because of Huang Zhong's distanced combat.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Huang Zhong's fourth weapon is light, and has a base attack of 36. This makes
his normal attacking strength the second weakest in the game.
The two archer characters of the game Xiahou Yuan and Huang Zhong both have
the very unique property of using the bow attack during the execution of
certain charge attacks. Xiahou Yuan and Huang Zhong can both pull out their
bows at any time during their C1. This property can help in a few
ways. First, it can be considered a cancellation of the charge attack the L1
button is pressed during the execution time. Secondly, it is possible to shoot
an arrow at an airbourne enemy directly after hitting him/her up with their
C2. Going further with this, it is possible to juggle a general in
the air with arrows (doing musou when holding L1) after doing their C2.
Obviously, in Chaos mode, these interesting properties can't really be
put to any good use. The point is just to tell you an interesting fact about
these two characters. Also, Xiahou Yuan is capable of doing this with only his
C2, while Huang Zhong can do it with his C2 and C5.
As Huang Zhong is arguably the best distanced fighter, there is one obvious and
distinguishing strategy, which is continually mashing on the triangle button.
With his fourth weapon being light, execution time is very fast, as
well as the time between each volleyshot. Since you will almost always be
fighting at a distance, the Green Scroll greatly accents this usefulness.
When enemies are too close to safely execute his C1, just jump charge
to a safe place to do some more C1. After doing his jump charge a few times,
he should be set for a few more rounds of his C1. If crowd sizes are small,
and officers are too close to do his C1 safely, his C3 can be used. Just do
a quick jump attack after it to hit cancel the officers disoriented state,
or simply do his true musou.
When dueling with enemy generals, whether they are blocking or not, you
can attempt to use his C5. Like Zhao Yun's, it is unblockable if he is
attacking close enough. Without the Wind Scroll on, his close combat
is limited to small crowds, or one on one's. But his C1 is still probably
the fastest offense in a one on one situation.
A slight disadvantage with Huang Zhong's C1 is that there isn't
really a finishing blow. If you do his C1 on a general really close
in, you'll be forced to use his musou, because the general will recover from
his arrows faster than Huang Zhong recovers from his C1. But simple planning
would easily eliminate this flaw, by always ensuring that he has a filled
musou after a C1 if you plan to use it against an officer close in.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.28 - Da Qiao
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Now I'm serious"
Many people hate the fact that the two Qiaos have heavy 4th weapons. I
actually think they are best with heavy weapons. Considering the attributes on
their fourth weapons, and their stats by nature, they are generally more
devoted to defense (and speed). So the upgrade in strength by means of giving
them heavy weapons eliminates this issue of weakness. Secondly, their regular
attacking speed (with medium weapons) is very fast, so when equipped with heavy
weapons, they don't actually attack too slowly, so the downgrading isn't too
extreme. The two Qiao's with their heavy 4th weapons still have very safe
attacking speed. The two Qiaos with heavy final weapons attack faster than
Pang De with his light 4th weapon. Since all of the normal attacks of the
two Qiaos have decent range, trading slower attacking speed for stronger
attacking power is very very practical, thus makes the two Qiaos better.
Additionally, and probably most beneficial, musou attacking speed will always
stay the same; going from a lighter weight weapon to a heavier weight weapon
will always benefit in a 1.2 times stronger musou attack at the same musou
attacking speed. Not so much does this aspect affect Xiao Qiao's musou,
but because of her heavy 4th weapon, Da Qiao's musou deals relatively heavy
damage. I hope this is a good enough argument to persuade heavy weapon haters.
Furthermore, Da Qiao with a lighter weapon will gain nothing in defense.
Her short reach will always make it inevitable, that she will get hit.
In Xtreme Legends, her musou is strong enough to kill regular officers from
full health, in just one musou.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Heavy Weight
Luck 18
Attack 16
Life 15
Defense 15
Musou 19
A very good weapon for Da Qiao. Defensive attributes help a little, because
her normal attacks don't exactly guarantee safety. But the life and defense
bonuses can be seen to be very useful in Xtreme Legends, when heavy weapon
wielders gain the non-flinching property. Thus, in Xtreme Legends, Da Qiao is
another Cao Ren. But in Dynasty Warriors 5, nobody else is capable of Cao
Ren's strategy. Fill would make her a bit more defensive.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Ice Orb
Because the frequency of her musou strikes is low, the fire is more useful
in a true musou like Da Qiao's. The Ginseng will help a lot to fill her
long musou, to make it safer after her sixth normal attack or evolution
attacks.
The Ice Orb is useful for double musou damage. But the advantage isn't very
great.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Being the only heavy weapon wielder with an extra attack bonus on her 4th
weapon, Da Qiao has the strongest normal attacking strength in the game....
which is weird....she is above Xu Zhu, who supposedly possessed incredible
strength, who now has one of the lowest normal attacking power in the game.
Quite ironic if you ask me. Of course, these statistics are with 4th weapons
equipped. (you may refer to section 14.3 for normal attack ranking)
Musou filling is an easy task with Da Qiao... if you don't get hit. What I
mean is that her normal attacks have such good range that musou filling is
very easy simply with her normal attacks; but what she suffers from is
relatively bad reach, and there's really nothing much you can do about it,
because her normal attacks are by far the best and most practical method
of offense when her musou isn't filled. So fight with her normal
attacks for crowd clearing, with your fingers crossed in hopes of not getting
hit. But still, with this said, the chances of getting hit during her normal
attacks are still pretty rare because her maximum reach is only slightly less
than the reach of spear-using-peons, and halberd-using-peons. Thus, it can be
said that fighting against peons wielding swords is the safest....but whatever.
It has little to do with peon reach, because she gets hit ultimately because
of her own short reach. All of her normal attacks have excellent range,
especially her fourth and fifth ones. So it is "usually" safe to attack
blindly in large groups. Her sixth normal attack is perfect for ending off an
attack, as it will often free her into a safe position, thus eliminating the
threat of having a recovery time. Just make sure that you don't jump into
trouble. She is therefore, placed in this tier, for unavoidable hits, but
she still has a good defense.
The strength of her musou is devastating. This is why I'm going to recommend
using her musou whenever you can. It is really strong because of her heavy
weapon. If only she could move, and not be planted on the ground.
The rushing sequence of her C3 has bad reach and range, and is
very slow. Her C3 is probably useful in duelling generals only.
The only reason I can think of for using her C3 is for
canceling a general's guard with the light orb so that you can use her true
musou, or to freeze a general with the Ice Orb so that her musou will deal
massive damage. It's very important to note that the execution time for the
last part of her C3 is somewhat long, and generals are sometimes
able to block this. A good way to avoid getting hit after, if generals do
block it, is to turn around and have her back facing the general during the
execution time. This is crucial as it will create some safety distance between
you and the general; in the case that it does get blocked, there should be
enough room to escape. But in the end, this charge attack is next to useless.
Use it only in musou rages, to attempt freezing officers.
Although her C4 scatters the enemy, the range is only her two sides,
and not directly in front of her. So if you use it in a large crowd, it is
likely that you will hit only the enemies on her two sides, and leave the
enemies directly in front you unharmed, during the entire process of... flying.
It would be wise to learn the exact range covered by her C4, to
fully understand when and how to use it. Although again...it's inferior to
her normal attacks.
Her C2 actually has great range, but sadly, the execution time is
quite slow, and the reach is unreliable. This move is good to quickly rid of
the peons that come in small groups of five.
Her C6 has very very good reach and range, but it doesn't quite
compensate for the slow execution time, and the extremely slow recovery time.
The recovery time is probably just as bad as Meng Huo's C4.
It's generally a bad move to do in large crowds, because she'll likely always
get hit after the charge attack, since the enemy has so much time to walk up
to her and attack while she takes her time to pose after the charge
attack. It is much more practical to just do her sixth normal attack. It
covers very good reach and range, and best of all she jumps forward. The
jumping forward is very useful for escaping.
Her C1 is a good choice if you have enough time for it. The
execution time is ridiculously slow, because of her heavy 4th weapon.
Like all of her other charge attacks, her C5 also has long
execution time. However, the execution time is so long
that blocking generals will stop blocking and attempt to attack, but will
pretty much never succeed in hitting her because the her C5 will
execute in the nick of time. Be aware though, that you have to be close enough
to the general for this to work. It should be noted that this isn't 100%
efficient but still very reliable against blocking officers in small crowd
sizes. It's useful since it will set up for her true musou no matter what,
with a 60% chance of freezing.
One minor tip is, that if you learn the timing for her jump charge, it is
possible to set generals on fire, while they are still on the ground. When
done correctly, the general will wail, and drop to the ground slowly. This
allows enough time to follow up with some fiery juggling. Same tip as with
using Zhang Jiao, you have to time the fire ball to hit the ground, right at
the general's feet. This is generally a slower way of killing generals, but
a much safer way.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________________
8.29 - Sun Shang Xiang
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Who says a woman has to be weak"
Shang Xiang may often be considered not very useful in hard mode, simply
because her offensive performance is quite slow. Many characters are capable of
killing much faster than her. Sun Shang Xiang is however, much more valuable
in Chaos because of her defensive fighting. Some of her charge attacks have
very safe reach and range, that make them very abusable. Her normal attack
string also has very protective attack range. The only thing she is lacking
for defensive fighting is good reach.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Heavy Weight
Luck 19
Bow 15
Speed 19
Defense 17
Life 15
This is a pretty bad 4th weapon, even though the Heavy weight is the best
choice. Heavy is the best for Sun Shang Xiang because her attacking speed
doesn't cause much of a downgrade in her defense at all. Light or Heavy, just
like Da Qiao, her defense is the same. Her heavy weapon compatibility is
even more obvious in Xtreme Legends when it grants the no flinching property.
Since her short reach means getting hit is unavoidable (but rare), the life
and defense bonuses are useful, but still do very little for her defense.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
The Way of Musou is useful for the powerful ending. It's usually most
practical to do a quick musou instead of a full one, because it is hard to
juggle with her musou, because of its high height. The Ginseng is good
for faster fill, but Sun Shang Xiang's C6 gives her a very safe way of musou
filling anyway.
Sun Shang Xiang may be a character who could qualify for the Shadow Orb.
Mainly because of her excellent C6. The orb activates at the very beginning
of the charge attack. First of all, since her C6 doesn't deal heavy damage,
the Shadow Orb will help a lot in killing peons, and since it activates at
the very beginning, her musou gauge will resume filling during the rest of her
C6. And the good thing is that it doesn't matter if her musou gauge
doesn't completely fill up, because the recovery time for her C6 is
very fast, and the reach and range of the charge is very dependable. To top
things off, her walking speed is very fast; thus, she can safely escape after
executing her C6, practically every single time. Now I'm not saying
that you should equip the Shadow Orb on her, but that Sun Shang Xiang is one
of the only characters who works well (or is able to survive) with
the Shadow Orb equipped. But of course, this would mean that your only means
of an offense is her C6, because her other charge attacks have very
long recovery times. Ultimately the Ice Orb is the most practical one to
equip, for the two important reasons of double musou damage and that her
musou is very hard to juggle officers with.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
All of her normal attacks have very good range except for her third one.
Keeping this in mind, try to enter crowds after her third charge.
Her C6 is undoubtedly her most useful. The execution time can be
faster, but it is fast enough to be quite consistently safe. The recovery time
is very fast. Because of this, it is almost always safe enough to run away
after it, and this makes her a good candidate for the Shadow Orb. The execution
time of her C6 is normally long enough for generals to block it. If you turn
away from the general, it will often be successful. This is largely because
the charge attacks begins behind her. Turning her back to officers will allow
it to hit them at the very beginning of the charge attack. The nice thing with
the quick recovery time, is that even if generals do block it, it is possible
to block directly after. Because of its useful reach and range, and its
ability to hit officers easily, her C6 is incredibly useful for dealing with
generals in large crowds.
Her C6 is better than her C3 in every way. Even so, her C3 may still be of
some use. The ending of it has good range, but sadly, the recovery time is
very long. Her C3 is a good idea only if she has a full musou to bail her out.
Sometimes in massive crowds, it may be too hard to get to her C6 because her
third normal attack lacks good range. Resorting to her C3 is often a better
alternative, if she has a partially filled musou.
Her C5 is useful, but only for duelling generals. When
generals aren't blocking, you would use her C6 and attempt
to freeze them. In the case that generals are blocking, just use her C5. Just
like Pang De's and Da Qiao's, the execution time is long enough that officers
stop blocking and attempt to attack, but short enough that it will always
execute in the nick of time, and hit officers first. This is also a good way to
freeze officers, when they are blocking.
Something else that is very useful is her jump charge. While it doesn't grant
as much safety as the projectile air charges, like Zhou Yu's, it is still
quite abusable, for either easy musou filling or a scattering attack. However,
musou filling with her regular attacks is pretty safe already. Even though her
jump charge is a safer way to fill her musou, it is a very slow method of
attacking. Try to maximize the attack range my moving in the desired direction
during the jump charge. Its scattering ability is the main aspect that makes
it such a useful move. It may be good to use it to scatter massive crowds.
All of her other charge attacks are useless and impractical. Her C1
covers obviously impractical range. Her C1 like many others are useless.
her C4 is a very good scattering attack, with good range, but
because her third normal attack has poor range, and the execution time is
super long, it can't really be put to good use at all. However with a medium
weight weapon, her C4 if centered on an officer properly, it will do a combo of
2, and thus double damage. But this is an interesting fact at best. A better
application of this knowledge is to try to steer her counterattack to deal
double damage, since it is exactly the same as her C4.
For Shang Xiang, its all about her C6, and her musou when generals
are frozen. Her C3 may also be used depending on the situation. Her
fast walking speed is a big advantage as well. Because of her abusable
C6 and her terrible musou, saving musous for frozen officers is a very good
idea. Unlike Huang Gai, there isn't much of an elegant solution to make her
musou be able to juggle. There is a way, but it's very hard to control or
replicate the result each time you do her musou. It's possible if she zigzags
from left to right at the right speed, while keeping the officer always in
front of her. It's too hard to explain how to master this, but there is a way
to do it. I have made a video to show how it can be done. Search for it
at the main page, www.youtube.com/dw5chaosmodeguide. In the end, it's a very
unreliable method of juggling. Experiment for yourself.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.30 - Zhou Tai
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"It's over"
Often a very over-rated character. Likely because he's actually really good on
HARD mode. Zhou Tai's not as good anymore, compared to Dynasty Warriors 4. His
reach is shorter, and his C3 has less range.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Fill 16
Attack 17
Life 15
Speed 15
Musou 18
This is a very good 4th weapon for Zhou Tai. The fill bonus is very important.
Even with a musou bonus, with this extra fill, and the Ginseng equipped, his
filling ability should be good enough. The musou bonus is good for a much
faster offense against officers.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Light Orb
Equipping the Fire Orb on Zhou Tai works, although it doesn't work as well
as this configuration. Using the fact that officers like to just walk into
Zhou Tai's C3, he works well with the fire orb, and the exclusion of the
Way of Musou. But this method of offense is very limited, because it will
only work against officer approaching from a distance, or against officers
only in small crowds. And even if we take out the Way of Musou, there really
isn't a fifth item that's useful for Zhou Tai. Hmm....Arm Guards with his C3,
and Fire Orb....possible, but his C3 is no where near as defensive as Zhang
Fei's. This Light Orb and Way of Musou setup will allow Zhou Tai to use his
C3 with a lot less limitations. Also, with a filled musou, he can just walk
up to an officer and use his true musou, instead of always having a C3
with Fire Orb preceding a regular musou.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Zhou Tai has pretty good reach and range in his normal attacks, but it's not
easy to survive in crowds with just his normal attacks because he tends to
move forward too much. Because Zhou Tai also lacks a good set of useful
charge attacks, and stopping after his normal attacks isn't safe enough,
Zhou Tai is incapable of a defense good enough to place him in high tiers.
His C4 is very useful for scattering crowds, but the execution time can be
dangerous. Because of it's long execution time, Zhou Tai's C4 is quite
dangerous against officers in crowds. This limits his offensive methods
severely. If officers aren't blocking, then his C4 will be interrupted, likely
by a quick jump attack. If officer's are blocking, then his C4 will be
blocked, and there's no way around it. This is another reason to give Zhou Tai
the Light Orb, for better defense and flexibility. Lastly, the recovery of his
C4 isn't great either, so forces musous after his C4 will arise.
Even though Zhou Tai has long reach, his normal attacks can't be abused like
Zhao Yun's, Guan Yu's, or Yue Ying's. The best normal attack to attempt this
with would be his fourth normal attack because of its horizontal range.
But it's too bad, that it can't be abused with consistency. However, the fact
that his fourth normal attack has long reach and very wide horizontal range,
can still be used effectively. If you purposely stop after his fourth
normal attack and do his jump attack, Zhou Tai's capable of a pretty
safe offense. Although not ideal, this is the best offensive and defensive
musou filling method for Zhou Tai. This works quite well because his jump
attack also has long reach and wide range. Since his jump attack has much faster
and safer recovery, it can be use in place of his C4. Then, there are three
possibilies for Zhou Tai depending on the situation: He can do a quick
jump attack after his fourth normal attack if he isn't surrounded. In large
crowds however, even if he begins his first normal attack against crowds with
no threats behind him, it's no surprise for him to end up with some peons
behind him after his fourth normal attack is executed. His normal attack can
still be used though; knowing that peons are just beginning to surround him,
he can jump high, and backwards, and then do a jump attack. This method is
also very useful and safe. The third possibility of course would be to waste
his musou for defense. Anyhow, this is by far the best and safest way to
musou fill with Zhou Tai. If there's opening, make a run for it, and then
sneak up quickly on an officer and unleash his true musou.
With a full musou, or close to a full musou, he can use hs C3 as alternative
method with the Light Orb against officers, to set up for his true musou.
Even though his C3 covers less reach and range than it does in Dynasty
Warriors 4, it is still a useful move. It is particularly useful
to enter large crowds with it. Notice that most of the range is on the left-
hand side of Zhou Tai, so it is very effective if you position it so that
most or all enemies are on his left-hand side; very often, the result is
attacking in a counter-clockwise direction while keeping your enemies always
on your left. Also, if you use it to enter a large crowd with against officers,
the they will almost always never block. His C3 is shown nicely in many of
my Zhou Tai videos. This is just like Ma Chao's and Zhang Fei's C3.
I would stay away from ever using his C2 and C5. They both have
unreliable reach and range. Even the execution of his C5 is unreliable
against officers, because it's easy for them to block it. It is possible to
have it connect successfully, if you hit officers with the very end of his
fourth normal attack, but there's no reason to resort to his C5 for any
reason.
His C1 is like Zhao Yun's and Lu Bu's, in that it grants
invincibility during the attack. But the biggest difference is that recovering
from it is quite long, so it's very easy to get hit after doing it.
This charge attack is what transforms Zhou Tai into a top tier character in
Xtreme Legends, because of the Dragon Arms item.
Make good use of his jump attack. The speed is nearly instantaneous if you do
it quick enough, and the range is very wide. Other than using it after his
fourth normal attack, it is very useful for getting out of dangerous
situations. You really have to decide when to use this. If he is surrounded,
it's often very safe to abuse his jump charge continuously until it's safe
enough to start walking again. It's very important to know how and when to use
this move. Otherwise, it's hard to grasp Zhou Tai's high tier list placement.
Once generals are isolated, his jump charge can be used to quickly take them
out. The good thing about it is that it can be done over and over again,
directly one after another.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.31 - Zhang Fei
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I'm through playing"
A character for expert players. Zhang Fei is incredibly destructive if you keep
enough distance from him and his enemies. Zhang Fei has a strong musou by
default, kind of like Zuo Ci. His musou with a light weapon deals a lot more
damage, relative to others, also with light weapons. This is very nice, as it
makes Zhang Fei just as strong as a lot of other characters with medium weapons.
And this is not just because of his stronger musou, his best offensive method
of abusing his C3, results in a pretty continuous 360 degrees charge attack.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 39
Light Weight
Fill 16
Horse 16
Defense 15
Attack 19
Musou 17
Good 4th weapon. Attack ratings are very high. Fill is quite useful, but
Charge might be better, since his musou filling ability is so good with his
C3 already. A Charge increase with a 360 degrees charge attack with long reach,
will contribute a lot of filling potential. Horse is not bad for Zhang Fei if
this tier list included Horse Combat, but even if it did, Zhang Fei's much
faster on ground, with not much downgrade in defense. If fill and horse were
swapped with charge and speed, his 4th weapon would be ideal.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Arm Guards
Ice Orb
Since Zhang Fei is just so slow, some may prefer to equip the Speed Scroll
but a not even a speed increase of 40 is good enough for him to be able to
greet all crowds with just his C3. If this were possible Zhang Fei would have
an extreme defense. So this rules out the possibility of the Speed Scroll.
The Arm Guards is almost a needed item for Zhang Fei to be placed this high.
It is inevitable that he will have to enter crowds with his first normal attack,
and in massive crowds, even if you attack in a circle with his C3 to minimize
chances of getting hit, he still will get hit. Well, if this happens without
the Arm Guards, it's gonna be pretty hopeless afterwards, unless you do a
counterattack. With the Arm Guards equipped, he'll always finish his C3. And
the rare times that he does get hit, they will only be scratches.
Definitely give Zhang Fei the Ice Orb. Double damage seems a lot more apparent
with Zhang Fei, since his musou strikes are quite frequent and his musou
is strong by default. Others like Xu Huang don't benefit from the Ice Orb as
much because Xu Huang's musou is both weaker and less frequent. Since his C3
can be consistently unblockable, it only makes sense to give him the Ice Orb.
He's very similar to Ling Tong then, with his C3, Zhang Fei's offense is a
continuous charge attack with a guaranteed 60% chance of freezing officers.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Zhang Fei's offense should consist only of his C3, for the more effective
results. Try to enter all crowds with his C3. The time it takes for peons
to be stunned, works perfectly with the time it takes for Zhang Fei to do
his first two normal attacks. This means that Zhang Fei can easily waste his
first two normal attacks, as long as crowd sizes aren't that big. This is
perfect because if you do his first two normal attacks after his C3 he'll only
be juggling his enemies. If he turns around after his C3 and wastes his first
two normal attacks, and then turn around again to direct his C3 at the crowds
in front of him, his offense is much faster. However, this can't be done in
massive crowds. After his first C3, you may choose to either to do his C1 IF
this first C3 hits an officer and the officer isn't frozen. This will let
Zhang Fei continue his offense without juggling the officer, and give him
another chance with ice. But otherwise, there are other possibilities such as
using his musou, or if you want to save his musou because the officer hasn't
approached yet, he can just attack with his first two normal attacks. The Arm
Guards will allow for many hits during his C3. Since, his first normal attack
often covers enough range to flinch peons in front of him, his weakness is
mainly during his C3 slashes. But since these slashes cover decent attack
range, even if Zhang Fei is surrounded, attacking in a circle with the Arm
Guards equipped is still very safe. Something else that makes this
offense so incredible is that for some reason officers tend to like to
walk straight into his C3 slashes. This is less of a need since his C3 is
unblockable anyway, but still worth mentioning. Even with this one method of
offense, there are many possibilities. Learn all the possibilities and
apply them all correctly to fit the best situations, and Zhang Fei's defense
is very good. Forcing his C3 in large crowds, and getting hit with the Arm
Guards equipped, should be rare. Even though getting hit like this in
massive crowds is almost unavoidable, musou rages are enough to make this
rare enough for Zhang Fei's defense to be good enough to place him this high
in the tier list.
His C4 is great for scattering crowds, but the recovery time is way
too long. There isn't really a need to scatter the enemy at all, because of
the destructive power he can cause with his second charges.
All his other charge attacks are either useless or inferior to his C3.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.32 - Jiang Wei
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Jiang Wei is here"
Jiang Wei truly is a character for experts. There is no way to guarantee
solid defense, but his defense is not too bad, if that makes any sense.
There are so many possibilities for Jiang Wei, yet none of them are especially
abusive for a good defense.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Luck 15
Speed 15
Attack 16
Musou 18
Life 17
Long musou with no fill is makes his weapon not such a good one. If he were to
have short musou with a fill 40 configuration, then his defense would be
very good.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Ice Orb
The ginseng is almost a must for Jiang Wei. This fill increase of 20 still
isn't close to being enough to make Jiang Wei's defense good.
Equip the Ice Orb for double musou damage. Jiang Wei has his C3 and C5
for freezing officers, although neither of these two charge attacks can be
abused for freezing purposes.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Here are the choices for Jiang Wei: Normal attacks (almost limited to only
his normal attacks) against large crowds. One must memorize the smallest
crowd size that will fill his long musou, in just his six normal attacks,
for this to work. While it's rare to get his during his normal attacks, it's
still possible. This crowd size threshold is a pretty large size, and this is
what makes Jiang Wei a very hard character to use. In smaller crowd sizes
then, he has risks after his sixth normal attack. His normal attacks then
are still not that bad of a choice, but he will often need to counterattack
after his sixth normal attack. His C4 is often a good choice, for scattering
crowds, but the lack of reach and range of his second and third normal attacks,
plus the long execution time of his C4 make this a hard charge attack to
pull off. And like Zhou Tai's C4, it's very limited because it will not
hit officers. So there might be a good reason to give Jiang Wei the Light Orb.
Another possibility is his C3. Again, his C3 is yet another charge attack
that is useful, but never defensively full proof. From the time after his
first normal attack to just before the ending of his C3, it is very easy to
get hit. This is why it's best to enter crowds just after the execution of his
C3. When in a crowd size that is just below the threshold size that fills
his musou in his six normal attacks, Jiang Wei's defense is quite risky, and
his C3 seems to be the best choice.
To make things even more complicated, like Ma Chao's second normal attack,
Jiang Wei's is identical. The reach is much shorter, and if you hit officers
at the very tip of his first normal attack, his second normal attack will miss.
And officers will often do a jump attack on him. This is avoidable, but what
this means is another limitation for Jiang Wei. If an officer is at the lead
of an approaching crowd, he has no choice but wait for a bit, before attacking.
If the crowd size is very vast and dense, then it may be safer to enter the
crowd with his third or fourth normal attack. But then... if you have the time
to waste his first few normal attacks, then you have to time to use his C1.
Always use his C1 against approaching crowds, and his defense is greatly
upgraded. But since his C1 can't always be done, his defense remains risky,
in almost all crowd sizes.
After discussing Jiang Wei's possibilities in the above two paragraphs,
it can be seen that he's very limited when facing officers in any crowd size.
The best scenario is a dense crowd size that is just above that discuss
threshold, and the officer must be approaching from a distance in this
crowd, with no threats from behind. Jiang Wei is thus allowed to use his
C1 for defense, and because officers are approaching from a distance, there
is a good chance that they will not block his normal attacks. However, this is
only a chance, and never guaranteed. But it is still useful to point out
Jiang Wei's easiest scenario.
Here are other useful, but more minor ways to use Jiang Wei. Like Lu Meng,
Jiang Wei's C2 covers a lot of reach and range, but the execution time is slow
so officers will almost always not get hit by it. But because of its
reliable reach and range, it's very easy to hit officers after his C2,
if he has a full musou after it. This method is very useful, is Jiang Wei has
a partially filled musou. Similarly, if Jiang Wei has a partially filled
musou, it's useful to use his C5. If he will have a filled musou after it,
his C5 is good against officers, only in small crowd sizes, because it
will guarantee a setup after for his true musou. And with this, he will have a
60% at activating the Ice Orb. Another possibility when his musou is partially
filled, is to enter a crowd with his C3. Again, if he will end up with a filled
musou after it, it's very easy to time this to hit approaching officers, by
making use of the fact that officers will want to do a running attack, and
the fact that his C3 has long reach.
The last possible offenses to mention, is Jiang Wei's C6 and jump charge.
There's almost no good situations to use his C6 in. Against approaching
crowds, he would often want to use his C1 and normal attacks, but if the
crowd is too small to fill his musou with his normal attacks, then
his C6 is a good choice for a good method of scattering the crowd. His C4
is also possible in this situation, but his C6 is a bit safer, depending
on the distance. This will likely give Jiang Wei a partially filled musou,
which opens up the many possibilities in the above paragraph.
The only other thing to mention, on his C6, is that it can be used against
blocking officers, when crowd sizes are small, if you use the first part
to get behind the blocking officer, and then use the second part to land
a successful hit. But obviously, there's not much use for this tip, because
it requires very small crowds, and results in only one hit on an officer,
with no chance of orb activation. This really sucks. If only his C6 were
elemental, he would have a chance at freezing the officer, and thus a
chance to use his musou for double damage, which will make his C6 a somewhat
useful, yet conditional, unblockable attack. Jiang Wei fans, his C6 is elemental
in Xtreme Legends.
Small groups can be quickly taken out with his jump charge, only if the group is
clustered together, mainly because he is vulnerable from behind; so
large groups can migrate to end up surrounding him. Anyway, it is very
powerful, and the ending stuns enemies. It can be used against large
groups however, if you use his C1 before it, with it timed correctly.
Time it so it hits his enemies near the end of his jump charge. This
prevents enemies from hitting him during your recovery time. If you ever have
a general isolated, you can just repeatedly do this move, and after no more
than 5 times, it should be over. You have to time it perfectly, in a way
for him to land the first hit right after the general recovers from being
stunned. This way, he/she will stand planted on the ground. The timing is
really strict though, because just a split second late will allow generals to
block. This is the fastest way to kill a general without his musou.
To summarize, Jiang Wei should be a very fun character for pro players.
As discussed, he has lots of possibilies, depending on the situation.
And the fun lies in making quick decisions, and the idea that Jiang Wei has
no particular way to guarantee a perfect defense, but that his defense is
still quite good. If you learn all the these best possible choices in all the
possible scenarios, Jiang Wei should still be quite capable in the average
stage on Chaos Mode.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.33 - Yuan Shao
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"You dare incur my wrath?"
Yuan Shao is another one of the 5 similar sword characters: Sun Jian,
Sun Quan, Liu Bei, Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao. He is very similar to Liu Bei, because
of similar 4th weapons.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Fill 15
Horse 15
Bow 15
Defense 18
Musou 17
I can't help but say that any weapon that doesn't have attack on it, is a bad
weapon. Anyway, with a 3rd weapon with attack, and no musou, in Xtreme Legends,
the True Way of Musou will be enough to allow him to kill officers in just
one regular musou, and this is with a configuration of fill 40. Anyway,
refer to section 10 for this ideal setup for Yuan Shao.
A long musou on his 4th weapon isn't a bad idea. Although with a short musou
his defense may be a bit better.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
The Way of Musou is a very important item for Yuan Shao. The ending to his
regular musou will almost always be blocked by generals. The reach and range
is also one of the worst, if not the worst. This is why it is important to
always be able to use his true musou, as it has a much safer and more powerful
ending. The fire also helps quite a bit against generals. Without his true
musou, you will almost always have to rely on counterattacking after his
regular musou to save yourself. Equipping the Ginseng will give him a very
high fill. But he still has relatively lower attack, and a long musou.
He won't benefit much from any orb. The Ice Orb is merely for a chance to
keep officers on the ground after his C6. But even if you don't it's
obviously not a big deal. After freezing officers with his C6, he can maybe
sneak in a few attacks before using his musou.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Always use his C6 against approaching crowds. His normal attacks can sometimes
be too dangerous to do in massive crowds. Another decently safe method of
attacking is to use his jump charge. His jump charge, although similar to
Xing Cai's, can't be abused because the forward distance covered after it
is not enough to make it safe. However, since his normal attacks string
starts to lose safe attack range, after his third normal attack, it's very
useful to stop after this attack to do his jump charge. Aim his jump charge
to a safe area. This offensive method, and his C6, are the most defensive.
But like the other characters in his tier, both these methods never guarantee
a complete defense.
Like Zhao Yun's normal charge, Yuan Shao's also grants invincibility at the
very beginning, but there is a huge difference between the two, in terms of
whether they can be used for safe escaping. For Yuan Shao, the invincibility
lasts for a very brief moment, and it is still very easy to get hit directly
after. If he gets hit, he will be susceptible to enemy juggle. His C1 is
generally not a good method of escaping. Alternatively, his jump charge
is much more useful for escaping. It is similar to Xing Cai's.
His C6 is very the most abusable. It will take out crowds easily
while at the same time, fill his musou. However, it may be quite hard to do
in larger crowds, mainly because of the somewhat long execution time. Yuan
Shao's C6 is more useful than Liu Bei's because it has very fast recovery. The
faster recovery time in Yuan Shao's is more valuable, because after
Liu Bei's C6, he'll often have to force his musou. Just like many other
shockwave charge attacks, his C6 is capable of hitting generals regardless of
their blocking. This is another advantage that Yuan Shao's C6 has
over Liu Bei's. If you miscalculate the correct distance to hit blocking
generals, because of the fast recovery time, Yuan Shao is able to safely run
away or block. Liu Bei's is a total different story. If you miss a blocking
general with his C6, there's really little hope in getting out safely.
Not only is Yuan Shao's C6 better than Liu Bei's, his C5 is
also more useful. One of the reasons is that Liu Bei's fourth normal attack
is a jab, which makes it quite hard to execute his C5 safely.
Secondly, Yuan Shao's C5 has enough range to be able to consistently
hit blocking generals. Liu Bei's C5 is essentially no different than his C6.
Thus, Liu Bei sort of has two identical charge attacks, while Yuan Shao has
two different ones, and both are useful for different situations.
For C3's, Liu Bei's is much better. While both their recovery times
are about the same, Liu Bei's C3 has more range, or more
specifically, more circular range. Yuan Shao's is a bit more horizontal.
It is usually much safer to do Liu Bei's C3 than it is to do Yuan
Shao's. However, Yuan Shao's is still not a bad move.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________
8.34 - Cao Pi
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Why do they even bother"
A fun character to use. Cao Pi is the only one in the game with extra flexible
ice orbs after many of his charge attacks. While these are quite fun to use,
they don't do much in giving Cao Pi an advantage.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Fill 15
Defense 15
Musou 19
Speed 19
Attack 15
Probably one of the best 4th weapons in the game. Although charge might be
better than defense, or speed, since his C5 will benefit a lot from a charge
bonus, but it's not a big deal. The fill bonus with his long musou is
very important.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Ice Orb
Adding a fill 20 onto that fill 15 on his weapon will make his musou filling
ability as good as Cao Cao's. Cao Pi's normal attacks are very safe like
Cao Cao's, and the higher fill that Cao Pi has along with his longer musou
fills just as a well as Cao Cao's normal attacks with his lower fill and
shorter musou. It would seem then that Cao Pi has an advantage over
Cao Cao; with a longer musou, at seemingly the same filling potential, when
maximized, Cao Pi's offense against officers needs only two musous, while
Cao Cao will need three.
The Ice Orb is useful for double musou damage, but it's not easy for Cao Pi
to freeze officers in large crowds.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
First, to execute Cao Pi's extra orbs after his charge attacks, just press
square after the charge attack. This works for his C2, C4, C5, and C6.
Also, if you press triangle after his last evolution attack,
he will deploy a shadow orb. Cao Pi is the only character in the game with
this shadow orb. This shadow orb isn't much of an advantage at all, simply
because having a full musou bar is so important in Chaos. There is very little
need in killing peons instantly anyway. So sacrificing his musou bar usually
isn't worth it. With the extra ice orbs after his charge attacks, use them
leisurely. Even though they are executed directly after his charge attacks,
it's still often too dangerous to use in large crowds.
The ending of his regular musou has more reach and attack range than that of
his true musou. The 360 ending is very good for crowd clearing. While the
ending of his true musou has less range, it is a scattering attack. It is
still probably a better choice to give him the Way of Musou for the fire, to
help with general killing, and not have that nice 360 ending. Other than
having relatively poor reach, and poor strength, Cao Pi's musou is unable to
do sharp turns. So there is less mobility in his musou.
In terms of crowd clearing Cao Pi is very similar to Cao Cao. Both of them have
good reach and very protective attack range in their normal attack strings.
Something that Cao Pi lacks is versatility in his charge attacks. Cao Cao
has much more flexibility in his attacks for crowd clearing, while Cao Pi is
often restricted to one or two charge attacks, and sometimes only his normal
attacks in massive crowds. Like Cao Cao, Cao Pi's normal attacks are very
protective, and good for musou filling, but without an abusable charge attack,
Cao Pi is also often forced to waste his musou.
His C5 has very nice 360 degree reach and range. The only thing to
complain about is the long execution time. It is long enough for
generals to block, or attack him. So it doesn't qualify for an attack that is
effective against generals in crowds. Normally, charge attacks that are too
long can be remedied by turning away from the general. This will often
result in a step away from the general, which creates enough safety distance
to execution the long charge attack successfully against generals. Some of the
many examples are Guan Yu's, Ma Chao's, and Huang Gai's C6. This
strategy however, is very risky with Cao Pi's C5. Simply turning
his back to officers will not do the job. It's still possible to hit officers
with his C5 if you maximize the distance between him and the officer, and
minimize the execution time, by positioning the officer to Cao Pi's right side
(just like Cao Cao would do with his C5).
However, this is still somewhat risky, and it takes a bit of effort to master.
His C5 is ideal for eliminating moderately sized crowds, but that's
about it. Because of its long execution time, it is quite hard to use it
in larger crowds. Unlike most long reach 360 degree charge attacks, Cao Pi's
C5 is hard to use to hit blocking officers. This is yet another limitation
that makes it not very useful against officers in large crowds, and why it's
particularly hard to freeze officers in crowds with Cao Pi. If an officer is
blocking, try to create as much distance as possible, but still allow the
officer to block it. If the distance is enough, it should be safe enough to
continue with the ice orb directly after his C5. This is useful in small
crowd sizes.
His C4 is a bit hard to control. There's also no need to scatter the enemy
with Cao Pi.
His C6 is also a scattering attack, but inferior to his C4 in terms of
scattering ability. Both execution and recovery are long, and the reach and
range are poor. It's generally a terrible charge attack altogether. However,
it can used to hit blocking generals, if done carefully. This is also somewhat
risky, but after some practise, it should have perfect consistency. Take
advantage of the distance covered in his C6. Knowing the charge attack is a
slash from right to left, you want to always be on the blocking general's
right side. If he is attacking close enough to the blocking general, it should
be easy to land his C6 behind the general. This makes his C6 his only
charge attack that is useful against blocking generals, but sadly in small
crowds only. The usefulness of this tip is for a chance to freeze blocking
officers, but his C6 is not a very useful charge attack for this because
it requires him to be close to the blocking officer, small crowds, and a filled
musou. And of course, if ice fails, the officer is hit away, and he'll be
forced to waste his musou yet again.
His other charge attacks are too impractical to ever use in Chaos. His C3 has
less reach and range than his normal attacks, as well as slower attacking
speed. His C3 is probably the fastest way to freeze an officer, but it is only
useful when officers are pretty much isolated. His C2, can be useful if his
C1 is used before hand. Time the explosion of his C1 after his C2, and it will
easily possible for him to continue with the ice orb after his C2.
The ice orb from his C1 should always be used to help against
large crowds. Try to use it whenever there is enough time for it to be
executed safely. His C1 will help a lot against generals that
are approaching in large crowds. Try to time it to explode when officers
approach. If the freezing is successful, unleash his musou for some
good damage. His C1 will also help the execution of his C5
slightly. If the timing is perfect, Cao Pi has a very high chance to freeze
officers. Out of the two chances, you only need one to be successful. The
chance of failure is 0.40^2 which is 0.16. This mean's he has an 84% on
average to freeze officers if he does this C1 and C5 combo.
Once isolated, generals can be quickly killed with his jump charge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.35 - Sun Quan
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I shall show no mercy"
Sun Quan is one of characters that don't have any life or defense bonuses on
his weapon, so there is very little room for error. One mess-up will likely be
fatal. Even so, His normal attacks have good range, and fighting protectively
isn't such a hard thing to do.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Fill 15
Bow 15
Attack 16
Musou 18
Charge 17
One of the better 4th weapons, stats-wise. It seems that the only wasted stat
is Bow. Charge helps a bit for Sun Quan's C6, because of its wide attack range.
Sun Quan would be much better without a musou bonus. With the Ginseng equipped,
he would have a high attack, with fill 35. This enables him to do his C3
in a very large range of crowd sizes, and have a filled musou afterwards.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Ice Orb / Light Orb
First of all, his normal musou does incredible damage. Doing a 7-hit normal
attack combo (all evolution attacks except for the last one), followed by
a full normal musou on a general with full health, will leave the general
in very low health. This is almost a KO in just one quick chain of attacks.
The reason for not completing the full 9 hits is obvious, that the general
will be knocked into the air. But the downfall in his normal
musou is that he will often be left surrounded after it, because of the lack
of range, and no scattering ability of the ending to his musou. On top of that,
the execution time for this attack is also slow enough for generals to block,
which makes it very hard to live after a executing his musou. It's a gamble.
This is why is it a good choice to equip the Way of Musou, even though you will
be dealing half damage. The thunder at the end is very strong, and can be said
to offer ultimate defense after a musou. There is a way to minimize the
chances of the ending of his regular musou to be blocked, by positioning
officers to Sun Quan's right side, because the last strike begins on his
right side, and the strike prior to it, ends on his right side. But with all
this said, doing seven normal attacks before a full regular musou, is never
enough to kill a regular officer from full health. And the fact he can't fit
any more attacks into this combo, still makes him another character
that needs at least two musous to take out officers. With his regular musou,
he'll have to likely use his C6 against officers in crowds either before, or
after this 7-hit + musou combo. This is why Sun Quan should benefit more from
equipping the Way of Musou. Either way, he'll take two musous to kill officers,
and the Way of Musou gives him a very good defense after his musou.
Sadly, his C6 is non-elemental. Since his C6 is his most useful charge attack,
it hard for Sun Quan to benefit from equipping orbs. If you choose the Ice
Orb, then Sun Quan will have a chance at dealing very heavy damage with his
true musou, with the first part dealing double damage, and the last part
dealing half the damage but with fire. The only way to freeze though is
through his C3, is this it not easy to do in large crowds. Although, if his
C3 is done against approaching officers, they will likely walk straight
into it. The only use for the Light Orb is also with his C3. If Sun Quan has a
partially filled musou, and his C3 will fill his musou, then he can go through
his C3, and the ending will guarantee a perfect setup for his true musou.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
There are many attacks that are useful against crowds of peons, but there
isn't much he can do against a general without a full musou bar. This is
because all of his attacks are capable of being either blocked or interrupted,
except for his C3, and this isn't particularly useful because his C3 is
far from an abusable charge attack. Generals will hit him during the execution
time of his C4, and C5, while his C2 and C6, as well as his sixth normal
attack can be blocked. It is possible if you have his back facing officers
when executing his C6. This takes a bit of practise to pull off because it's
somewhat easy to miss. The goal of course is to position things correctly
to allow his C6 to execute as soon as possible by having officers to his
right side, almost behind him. A solution to these disadvantages is to
purposely stop attacking after a normal attack with wide range (probably his
third or fifth normal attack), and either attempt to counterattack, block, or
do a quick jump attack. Keep in mind that the jump attack also has bad range.
This is only useful when facing officers in one on one combat or in small
crowds. Since no charge attack will serve as a consistent finishing move,
Sun Quan is forced to stop after his normal attacks and decide to do something
else.
Crowd clearing should be no problem at all; use combinations of his C4,
C5, and C6. His C6 does not activate elemental orbs, but is a very good
move for musou filling. The range covered is excellent; the scattering
power is excellent. Since his C6 has such awesome scattering ability,
it is a very good idea to greet a large crowd with it. If a general is
approaching along with a massive crowd, try to use his C6 instead of
just unleashing his true musou. His C6 will likely scatter the entire crowd
(depending on how large of a crowd it is). So why would you want to do this
instead of his musou? This is because of the fact that it takes longer for
peons to get up from the ground than generals. This minor tip is useful to
deal less damage against peons with his true musou, since it will take two
musous to kill officers, he'll need the peons to survive (again depending
on the crowd size) for easier musou filling afterwards. But generally,
his C6 should be used for crowd clearing, above all other charge attacks,
because it is the safest. Because it is such an ideal scattering attack,
always try to have peons between officers and him. This will maximize the
safety of this musou filling method.
His C5 is very useful for fighting at a distance. The reach is
similar to Zhao Yun's C5. Because of this reach, it is capable of
hitting generals from behind when they are blocking. The caution is that the
execution time is quite long. And well, the usefulness of this charge attack
is limited because its attack range even with its long reach is only in
front of Sun Quan.
Use his C1 to get generals off their horses. Depending on the
situation, it may be useful to use his C1 right after his C5. Doing this will
launch the enemies into the air once more, to keep the fire burning a bit
longer. If an officer is at the very front of an approaching crowd, it will
be hard to use his C6 safely for musou filling. Use his C1, and time it
properly. His C1 should be able to hit with 100% consistency. After this his
C6 will be much safer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.36 - Cao Cao
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"My ambition cannot be stopped"
I would have liked to see Cao Cao higher in the tier list, just because of
his reputation, but it really can't be helped. His safe normal attacks are
very good for musou filling, but none of his charge attacks are abusable,
and musou filling with his normal attacks means many forced, and wasted musous.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Charge 17
Bow 15
Life 17
Horse 17
Attack 17
Mediocre weapon for Cao's moveset. A short musou is good for a good defense.
If only he had a fill bonus on his 4th weapon. Cao Cao when configured with
fill 40, in section 10, his short C3 will often fill his musou. But he'll
have to live with only the fill from the Ginseng. Charge helps for his C5,
and his C6.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Ice Orb
Everything should be quite self-explanitory. Give him the Ice Orb for
double musou damage. His C5 is very good at freezing officers, and his
C6 even better, but works only in small crowds.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As I've mentioned above, Cao Cao has a very protective normal attack
string. His reach is very dependable, and his range is excellent. Ranked as
one of the highest damaging characters in the game, his offense is a product of
both his damaging attacks, and his fast attacking speed. If the crowds are
not too large, just like Guan Yu, Cao Cao is able to purposely
stop after his fifth normal attack and resume attacking, because of the
excellent range covered, and the fast recovery time. The same thing applies
for his third evolution attack. Stopping after this attack is likely a better
choice than his fifth normal attack. This allows him to take care of smaller
crowd sizes easily. It seems to work perfectly, since crowds that can't fill
his short musou, are small enough for his normal attacks to take care of
easily. Any larger crowd sizes will give him a filled musou.
Cao Cao's C3 is not bad. Although I would evaluate it to be
very inferior to his normal attacks because of the lack of strength. Because of
the way he zigzags, it is often very safe to do his C3, even in
large crowds, but it's not as safe as his normal attacks. Stick to his
normal attacks for better performance in crowd clearing. The reasons to use his
C3 are for an easy way to freeze a general with the Ice Orb. Cao Cao with
a fill 40 configuration makes his C3 much more useful in crowds, because
one short C3 will easily fill his musou. The difference of an extra fill 20
is huge, enough to change to Cao Cao's offense to place him a lot higher in
the tier list. Since doing a short C3 is very safe, and will fill his musou
in a pretty large range of crowd sizes, Cao has a very safe way of freezing
officers in crowds. And in Xtreme Legends, this means almost a guaranteed
60% chance to kill officers in just one musou, with a short musou bar.
But without this extra fill 20, his next best method for freezing officers
in crowds is with his C5, and his C5 is quite risky. Cao Cao's
defense is very good, but what he lacks is a good offense. Sure his, normal
attacks will fill his musou easily, but he will often be forced to waste his
musou after his fifth normal attack, if crowds are too large. And it's hard
to guarantee that officers are caught within his normal attacks. If officers
are blocking in large crowds, his offense is a very slow one. Cao Cao's offense
in massive and continuous crowds, is a lot of forced musous.
His C4 itself is very good; but because of the lack of range
covered by his third normal attack, its effectiveness is greatly diminished.
It's not a bad move altogether, as the range covered in nicely horizontal,
but its long recovery time makes it impractical to do without a filled musou.
Evaluating his C4 by valuing whether Cao Cao needs a scattering
move or not... I would say not. I believe Cao Cao has the ability to take on
any crowd size, without resorting to scatter crowds.
Cao Cao's C5 is likely his most useful charge attack. The range
it covers is very good, but keep in mind that it's not a full 360 degree
coverage, like Cao Pi's. The execution time could be better, since it is long
enough to allow generals to interrupt it by attacking him. Generals would
usually do a quick jump attack to stop it. This can however, be prevented. If
you make good use of the near-horizontal range of his fourth normal attack; you
can slide slightly left to create as much distance as possible from him and the
general to minimize the time between his fourth normal attack and C5. Doing
this accomplishes two things: it creates enough safety distance from the
officer (regardless of blocking actually) and lets his fourth normal attack
hit the officer at the very end of it. Because you have to do this to ensure
that it hits successfully, it is a huge limitation. Lastly, keep in mind that
his C5 has a slight hop to it, so if he is hit at the right time, he will be
swept of his feet.
The closest thing to his C6 is Guan Ping's C4. These types
of charge attacks can be incredibly useful, as they can be executed many times.
Since all five parts of Cao Cao's C6 are charge attacks, they each
deal heavy damage and activate the orb equipped. This is the reason why it is
useful to equip the Ice Orb (or Light Orb) on Cao Cao. If we assume that the
freezing probability is 60%, Cao Cao has a very very high chance of
freezing officers with his C6, because all you need is one of the five
chances to be a success. Since the probability is roughly 60%, it's a higher
chance than hoping to get one head out of five tosses. Please refer to
the Ice Orb Probability section in section 6. But in the end, his C6
is limited to small crowds only, and limited to blocking officers, because
it has a very long execution time. Since it can't be used against officers,
when they aren't blocking, the more ideal probability is more like expecting
to freeze once out of about three chances, if he has to use the first two
strikes to get behind the blocking officer. It still is a high freezing chance,
but his C6 is useless in most situations. Configure him with a light weapon
for a much faster execution time, and faster strikes, and with the Light Orb,
he can be pretty incredible. Perhaps a light weapon with attack, charge,
fill and no musou would be most ideal. This is even more useful in Xtreme
Legends where the flinching time is extended.
It is always an advantage to use his C1 before entering large
crowds. It will help a little bit for safe execution of his C5.
Use his C3 in musou rages. The attacking speed is ridiculously fast. With
high musou filling ability, Cao Cao's guaranteed a chance to freeze officers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.37 - Dong Zhuo
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I'll cut you to pieces"
Just like Sun Quan, Dong Zhuo's musou is very powerful. But unlike all
the other similar five sword characters, Dong Zhuo's charge attacks aren't
very useful in Chaos.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Luck 17
Horse 17
Defense 15
Attack 18
Life 15
Well having high attack and a short musou is very good for Dong Zhuo.
If only fill was also on it....
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Fire Orb/Ice Orb
A fill 40 setup for Dong Zhuo would have been very nice. But still, with
the Ginseng, his filling potential is decent. The Way of Musou is useful
for both offensive and defensive reasons. The ending of his regular musou
may be bad against multiple officers, if the ending of it gets blocked.
Since Dong Zhuo's charge attacks are so poor, no particular orb will
help him very much. Unlike Sun Quan, Dong Zhuo's charge attacks lack
versatility. The obvious one that is somewhat useful is his C6. The others
shouldn't really be used often at all. If we evaluate the two orb choices
fire and ice with this charge attack, it would seem that neither would be
useful. The fire won't last very long. The ice if it works, will negate the
fire damage caused by his true musou. Ice is nice to halt officers, and
other characters with grounded musous like Yuan Shao, can sneak in a few
normal attacks and execute a true musou just before the ice thaws, to make
the most of the situation. But just like Liu Bei, Dong Zhuo can't make much
use of this strategy, because his C6 has long recovery time, so he might be
forced to use his musou after it.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Since Dong Zhuo lacks a good charge attacks, he needs a different way to
musou fill defensively. His jump charge can be thought of as a finishing move
to almost any normal attack, although it is most practical to use it after his
third normal attack. So the solution to Dong Zhuo's useless charge attacks, is
simply to replace them with his jump charge. While it can be done after any
normal attack of Dong Zhuo's, the third attack is likely the best one,
because it has very nice horizontal range, and fast recovery time.
This will allow you to do his jump charge quite easily directly after. It's
also very nice how his first three normal attacks have very horizontal
range. There is however, some risk in getting hit when using his jump charge,
just as he lands, and this of course, will allow the enemy to juggle him. But
this is quite minor. It is because of this, and the possibility that he will
not end up with a filled musou after his jump charge in smaller crowd
sizes, that places him in this tier. The nice thing about his 4th weapon is
the very high attack. Since his first three normal attacks have good
horizontal range, and good reach, it is very easy to fill his musou gauge.
Also, his short musou bar, and the Ginseng, of course, contribute to easy
musou filling. Once you've learn just how easy it is to fill his musou, you
will get a good idea of how large of a crowd, will fill his musou bar with
just his first three normal attacks. Thus, this specific crowd size is the
limiting size for when to not use his jump charge. However, this also means
that the crowd size is quite large and dense, which means he'll probably
have to force his musou after his third normal attack. Once crowd sizes get
too large, the chance of getting hit when doing his jump charge gets quite
high. He'll have to resort to his normal attacks and his powerful grounded
musou for crowd clearing in these cases.
I try to stick with using his C1 to get generals of their horses, but something
else that makes his C1 useful, is to stall an officer when in the lead of
an approaching crowd. This is effective, if Dong Zhuo has a partially filled
musou, or if the crowd is very large or dense. If doing his normal attacks
after his C1, will fill his musou, then when the officer gets up, it's a
very perfect setup for his musou. And of course, the basic usefulness of
this type of weak ground stomping C1, will work well against scattered crowds,
but Dong Zhuo won't need to use it to buy time, or enable crowds to gather
in for easier musou filling, as bad as Sun Ce needs to.
Some comments on the rest of his charge attacks:
C2: like many characters, his C2 isn't of much use. On top of that, he hops.
C3: not a bad charge attack for one-on-one combat. His C3 is a good idea if
you are duelling an officer without a filled musou
C4: Scattering attack with poor reach and range. For Dong Zhuo, what you
really want are large crowds sizes clustered together and coming from
one direction. You should ever need to scatter the enemy.
C5: Poor reach and range. His C5 is just like Zhou Tai's C5. There is no real
way to ensure 100% success; sometimes the charge attack will
successfully hit, sometimes will be blocked, and sometimes you will
get hit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________
8.38 - Xu Zhu
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Look out below"
While it may seem like Xu Zhu has the weakest normal attacking strength...he
is the third weakest. His 4th weapon has a base attack of 38. The three
light weapon wielders who do not have an extra attack bonus on their weapon,
are Sun Jian, Huang Zhong, Xu Zhu, with respective base attacks of 34, 36, 38.
Xu Zhu does however have the slowest (not the worst but slowest) offensive
potential. The small differences in the power ratings are pretty negligible.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 38
Light Weight
Fill 17
Bow 19
Life 20
Luck 15
Defense 19
Like many of the lower tier characters, Xu Zhu's moveset is much better with
a completely different weapon. Even though his attacking speed is slow, his
medium weight attacking speed is just as safe as his light attacking speed,
because his reach is decent, and his normal attacks have very protective range.
But even without attack on his 4th weapon, his filling potential is still
very good, with gives Xu Zhu quite a good defense. High fill with a short musou
is the only good thing that his 4th weapon gives him.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Demon Band
Fire Orb
The Demon Band is a very good choice for Xu Zhu because of his incredibly
slow offense against officers in crowds. It isn't absolutely needed; Xu Zhu
can still be quite effective in musou rage combat without the extended 15
seconds, but it's still useful for him. Thanks to his 4th weapon Xu Zhu doesn't
need to have the Ginseng equipped. If the goal is to have a filled musou
after his C4, his most useful charge attack, then he will not need the Ginseng.
The crowd size it takes to fill his musou is somewhere between 5 and 10. And
facing a peon crowd of five should be effortless.
I really like the Fire Orb on Xu Zhu. When facing officers in massive crowds,
his C4 is often his only move. The fire damage is a lot with when his C4 is
used because officers are hit high into the air and far. The Ice Orb will still
give him double musou damage, but the increase isn't very much because of his
weak attack. Xu Zhu's musou is hard to juggle with, but there are ways
around it, so ice isn't really necessary for this either.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
First, I should point out that Xu Zhu is one of the only characters that I
would ever recommend giving a 3rd weapon to instead. This is mainly because
of the fact that his 4th weapon is of light weight and has no extra attack
bonus. On top of that, his attacking speed is still not fast enough to be
satisfying. Xu Zhu, no matter how well he is used, is consistently the slowest
offensive character in the game. His crowd clearing ability isn't that bad,
but his ability to kill generals, takes a long time compared to all of the
other characters in the game. Another thing to really complain about his 4th
weapon is the lack of useful bonuses; Fill seems the be the only useful bonus
for him. Lastly, his ability to perform in musou rage isn't too great either.
For these reasons, it is probably a good idea to give him a stacked 3rd weapon
of medium or light weight. This choice sacrifices those free musou rage tokens
dropped per 100 KO's, for a much more damaging attack. Here is a numerical
presentation of validating the choice of giving Xu Zhu a 3rd weapon.
(this was my example in the weapon weight section) If you do not know already,
I have derived a formula for approximating attacking strengths. The formula
can be found in section 14.
________________________________________________________________________
Weapon Number 4th 3rd
Weapon Weight Light Medium
Weapon Power +38 +16
Weapon ATK Bonus +0 +20
Maxed ATK Value +40 +40
Tiger Amulet +20 +20
Green Scroll x1.5 x1.5
Weight Multiplier x1.0 x1.25
Damage Calculation [(38/10)+40+20]*1.5 [(16/10)+40+20+20]*1.25*1.5
Resulting Damage 95.7 153.0
________________________________________________________________________
So equipping Xu Zhu with a medium 3rd weapon with an attack bonus of +20
will be quite noticeably stronger (about 1.5 times stronger) than his 4th
weapon. This value of 1.5 times stronger is indeed realistic and very close to
actual results. If you can get a good medium 3rd weapon (likely by the
internal time trick), it is probably well worth sacrificing attacking speed and
all the musou rages that you would normally get with a 4th weapon.
It's like a free Green Scroll without an that extra decrease in defense.
My ideal weapon for Xu Zhu would be:
ATK FILL CHARGE MUSOU (SPD) or (LIFE or DEF)
Because of the much higher attack his filling ability should be a bit better.
His item configuration will have to change, with his fifth slot being Ginseng
for a very high fill. This will allow him to have a longer musou bar.
If you want to compare instead, a stacked light 3rd weapon, the calculation
is the same, just that you would have to take out the weight multiplier in the
formula. Anyway, have fun with this!
The only quality of Xu Zhu that is worth praising is his normal attack string.
The protection that it offers is very useful. It is not the best attack string
in the game, but one of the safest. The fact that Xu Zhu still attacks
kind of slowly with a light weapon, allows him to still easy get hit when
facing large crowds.
Without a fully charged musou, the best way for crowd clearing is his C4.
This is because you really don't want to go any further, if he doesn't
have a charged musou. Other than his C4, there is not another safe
way to end his attack. Ending his attacks in any other way than his C4,
without a charged musou, is like suicide. Always turn away from officers
when using his C4 to minimize the execution time. Doing this, his C4 will
always connect; launching an officer on fire will deplete some good amount of
health. All you have to keep in mind for Xu Zhu's defense is not to do his
C4 in too small of a crowd. It might seem hard to survive easily with Xu Zhu's
C4 because it scatters crowds, and he'll end up facing crowds that aren't
clustered together. The idea is to refrain from attacking, until he can pull
off his C4 with a filled musou afterwards. Normally other characters like Sun
Ce would have to lead crowds for a bit with running. Xu Zhu isn't capable of
running fast, but his jump attack is a solution to all the defensive problems
that his slow running speed presents. His jump attack is pretty much a very
fast 360 degree attack. Probably not 360, but quite close. There are so many
defensive choices he can make with combinations of his C1, jump attack, and
running attack. Xu Zhu when mastered, should have a very very good defense.
A second method for offense could be just his normal attacks, with his true
musou as a finishing move. Since his normal attacks cover good attack range,
this is easy to do. However, this method is less effective and less defensive
than his C4. Also, this method works in larger crowd sizes only. The only
crowd size caution with his normal attacks is kind of an "in between" crowd
size. Small crowds are no problem, even if his normal attacks won't fill his
musou, because he has reliable recovery after his fourth normal attack, so it's
easy to abuse this in small crowds. Larger crowds will make this method work.
It's just a small range of crowd sizes that is in between, where his C4 is
his only move. This method has it's advantages and disadvantages. With his
C4 as an offense, he'll either hit officers with it, hit peons into officers,
or have an officer block it. Either way, it's a safe offense. However,
with this method, if an officer blocks his true musou, then it may be tough to
get out. This is a defensive disadvantage with this method. But if officers
aren't blocking (which is kind of hard to come by), it's best to take this
opportunity to deal as much damage as possible with his true musou.
It's not easy to juggle officers with his musou. There are probably a good
few ways to do it, but here's mine: The problem with juggling officers with
his musou seems to be near the beginning. If you rotate in the counterclockwise
direction, to maximize the frequency of the musou strikes, to begin with,
the officer will be able to be hit to the preferred height. Now, continuing
in this counterclockwise direction makes his musou strikes too frequent,
and officers will always end up dropping to the ground. The trick is to
make only one revolution going in the counterclockwise direction, and then
resume to juggling the officer in a straight line path with the officer
positioned right in front of Xu Zhu.
And that's it. As far as offense goes, that is pretty much all you can do
against large crowds, and fighting generals in large crowds. All of his other
moves are useless.
His C3 is very strong, but useful for only 1-on-1 combat. His C5 is also
very useful in 1-on-1 combat, but only against blocking officers. It's another
hard to control C5 like Xu Huang's, in that you have to pinpoint the small
attack range to hit successfully. This is the only way to juggle officers
with fire.
Since his jump attack is so useful for repelling the enemy when surrounded,
it is much better than his C1. Use his C1 whenever you
see it to be useful. Something that is C1 will allow him to do, is set up
for his true musou. This is very useful for Xu Zhu because he is too slow
to walk and get behind officers to do a musou, without the officer blocking.
Lastly, his running attack, is a good move to do for escaping crowds quickly.
But sadly, this can only be done after taking 6 steps.
There's not much that can be said on his C2 and C6. Don't use
them. His C2 like many others isn't useful. His C6 is only
safe to use for entering large crowds, but there is always a good chance of
getting hit during the landing. This would create a chance for enemy juggling.
The same thing can be said about his jump charge.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________
8.39 - Xiahou Yuan
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"This is gonna hurt"
Another one of those characters who are very good fighting at a distance.
Very similar to Huang Zhong, yet very different. His C1 is shooting
volleys of arrows, and his first three normal attacks are identical to Huang
Zhong's (and of course, Gan Ning's), just slower because of the weapon weight.
His C5, like Huang Zhong's, is capable of hitting generals
regardless of whether they're blocking or not. However, since Xiahou Yuan has
no way of abusing his distanced attacks, his defense is no where near as good
as Huang Zhong's. Check out his speed 40 configuration in section 10. With
the right equipment, his archery can be abused with perfect defense.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 16
Attack 16
Life 17
Bow 19
Musou 17
Another bad weapon. If you read his analysis in section 10, you'll see why.
Having no fill with a long musou bar says enough already.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Fire Arrows
Speed Scroll
Ginseng/Way of Musou
Ice Orb
The exclusion of the Huang's Bow is because his distaced combat can't be
abused...or can't be abused continuously enough to make it worthwhile. Afterall,
even if it could be abused, he's gaining very little extra bow
damage. Speed 40 configuration to be able to run fast enough to
abuse his C1 to no end is very important, however, speed 20 is enough, but
he will have to walk for a very long time. He's still quite ok without very
high speed, but speed 40 configuration allows for an offense that is much
faster. It is then, when the Ice Arrows can be made useful and the Wind Scroll
can be omitted for devotion to archery offense. (refer to Xiahou Yuan's
analysis with full customization in section 10)
With the shockwave ending of his true musou, C1
archery, and a somewhat distanced jump charge, there are lots of
possibilities for Xiahou Yuan before he has to resort to his risky close
combat. His close combat wouldn't really be risky if he had a short musou and
high fill. This just means that he has to be played with a lot of skill,
and a lot of running. Refer to Xiahou Jia's theory of the "Damage-Free Zone"
in Section 6, for an explanation of how to use Xiahou Yuan safely.
The main idea is to run away from pursuing crowds with the camera angle
positioned in a way where all enemies are not on the screen, but still obviously
on the map. There are two good reasons for this: After peons appear off-screen,
he needs only to run a bit more before his C1 execution is safe. In massive
crowds, he would have to run a bit more because of a pushing effect, or
unwanted displacement. And having a long musou bar with no fill isn't very
helpful. This is why Xiahou Yuan is very hard to use in massive crowds.
Equip the Ice Orb for Xiahou Yuan. His C5 can hit officers when they are
blocking, and when iced, his musou does massive damage. Attempting to
freeze officers with his C3 or C6 is also a good choice. But obviously,
without the Wind Scroll equipped, these offensive methods are only safe
when officers are isolated, or in small crowds.
On a side note, Xiahou Yuan is one of only characters who would be suitable
with the Shadow Orb, and the reason is because of his C6. Like Sun Shang Xiang's
C6, the orb activates at the very beginning of Xiahou Yuan's C6. Like Sun
Shang Xiang, Xiahou Yuan's C6 has fast attacking speed, and very good reach and
range. Since the Shadow Orb would be activated at the very beginning of his C6,
the rest of his C6 strikes would resume to filling his musou gauge. And much
like Sun Shang Xiang, Xiahou Yuan's C6 has the scattering effect. The major
difference is that Xiahou Yuan lacks the walking speed to run to a safe place
in the case that his musou gauge doesn't refill completely. The Ice Orb, or
even the Fire Orb is still the most useful and practical, but the Shadow Orb
is possibility.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
As discussed above, Xiahou Yuan's safest offense is to abuse his archery.
The power of each volleyshot of arrows is stronger than Huang Zhong's because
Xiahou Yuan has a much stronger attack, with a medium weight weapon and
attack on it. The disorientation of the last volley minimizes the chances of
enemies hitting him during the recovery time. But it might be more of
a disadvantage, because it's not piercing. Only the front line of an approaching
crowd will get hit with this. This is why it is important to learn to
purposely skip the ending of his C1. Then, his C1 is very similar to Huang
Zhong's. Once enemies get too close to safely pull off
his C1, his jump charge may be a great choice. This move should be used if it
is safe enough to use it. This ground-pounding move, unlike Sun Ce's,
has quite good reach, but only in front of him. However, like Sima Yi's
jump charge, it doesn't work when enemies are too close.
His C6 is very useful as a finishing move after his normal attack. It's
mediocre for damaging crowds, but the execution and recovery times are very
good, and the attack range is awesome. It's very important to master his
C6, by learning whether or not to execute the last strike, and applying it
the current situation. Normally the final strike is preferred, but keep in mind
that if you purposely stop just before it, his recovery will be much faster.
When crowds are dense, the last strike should be executed. But in situations
when scattering the enemy isn't needed, he's better off stopping his C6 before
the last strike. The most important situation to not execute his full C6
is when a blocking officer is right in front of him. The recovery time will
either force him to use his musou, or allow the officer to hit him. But
obviously, his C6, as well as any other close combat methods can't be
made useful (unless he is greeting crowds with them), without the Wind Scroll
equipped. But even with the Wind Scroll equipped, Xiahou Yuan's normal
attacks aren't safe enough, at least not as safe as his distance combat methods.
A small tip for melee combat for those who are good at countering, is
purposely stopping after his second normal attack. This strategy can be
explained exactly like Guan Yu's. Since his second normal attack has good
reach, and 180 degree horizontal range, it is easy to foresee a chance to
execute a counterattack, or just simply attacking again if crowds aren't
too large. If you are good at counterattacking, Xiahou Yuan can be played
much more effectively.
Try to hit blocking officers with his C5. His C5, like Huang Zhong's, is fast
enough that generals can't interrupt it; it is possible to hit generals when
they are blocking if he is attacking close enough to them. This means that his
C5 makes generals virtually vulnerable against him if he's are fighting close
enough to them. If only his normal attacks were safer.
His C3 isn't safe enough to execute in large crowds. It's only useful for
freezing officers when not blocking, but limited to small crowds only.
His C3 itself is very useful, because of the way his strikes work. But they
will only prove useful once he gets a better weapon, with a short musou bar
and very high fill. If you give him the Wind Scroll, his first two normal
attacks are very horizontal, and then, his C3 strikes alternate from left to
right making it very safe to do a shortened C3. And in Xtreme Legends, it
only gets safer with the extended flinching time. Using his C3 with the right
weapon and items equipped, he has a much faster offense. But, we'll
stick to his 4th weapon for now, in this analysis.
The only situation that is difficult to fight in is when groups of enemies
are continuously coming from all directions. Massive crowds in Yellow Turban
Rebellion, may require Xiahou Yuan to do quite a lot of running.
That just about covers the strategies for Xiahou Yuan. Be keen on the timing
with his archery, and learn to ignore his C1 ending.
The two archer characters of the game Xiahou Yuan and Huang Zhong both have
the very unique property of using their bow attack during the execution of
certain charge attacks. Xiahou Yuan and Huang Zhong can both pull out their
bows at any time during their C2's. This property can help in a few
ways. First, it can be considered a cancellation of the charge attack the L1
button is pressed during the execution time. Secondly, it is possible to shoot
an arrow at an airbourne enemy directly after hitting him/her up with their
C2's. Going further with this, it is possible to juggle a general in
the air with arrows (doing musou when holding L1) after doing their C2's.
Obviously, in Chaos mode, these interesting properties can't really be put to
any good use. The point is just to tell you an interesting fact about these
two characters. Also, Xiahou Yuan is capable of doing this with only his
C2, while Huang Zhong can do it with his C2 and C5.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.40 - Sun Jian
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Fear the Tiger of Jiang Dong"
Perhaps the best example of a downgraded character because of the light weapon.
Since his 4th weapon has a base attack of only 34, and no extra attack
bonus, Sun Jian has the weakest normal attacking strength in the game.
The three light weapon wielders who do not have an extra attack bonus on their
weapon, are Sun Jian, Huang Zhong, Xu Zhu, with respective base attacks of
34, 36, 38.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Light Weight
Fill 18
Defense 16
Horse 16
Musou 15
Life 15
It shouldn't be hard to see that this weapon is a terrible one for Sun Jian's
moveset. It's not that Sun Jian completely sucks now, it's just that with
the right weapon, he can be so much better. With a fill 40 configuration, his
first four normal attacks are often enough to fill his musou if he has a short
musou, and if the weapon is medium weight, then he'll be in the 2-musou-KO per
officer tier. With such high fill, his defense is very good too. This would
easily compare him to Guan Yu, or Xiahou Dun, etc.
This weapon isn't completely garbage though. Even though it does have a musou
bonus with a very weak attack, it still has a fill bonus, and quite a high
one too. Horse is neglected for this guide. Since there's almost no way to
avoid getting hit with this weapon, unless you're a counterattacking expert,
Life and Defense help him a lot. But they help only to let him survive a bit
longer. Defensive stats don't actually help his moveset very much defensively.
There is one good think about being a tank though; Sun Jian's walking speed
is fast enough to run from crowds, and with such high defense, he has a
relatively higher chance of safely getting into red health. But because
the ending of his true musou can sometimes be blocked by officers, Sun Jian
doesn't really have a red health strategy.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Herbal Remedy
Light Orb
With the Ginseng, Sun Jian will have a total of fill 38. This is quite a high
musou fill. But since his attack strength is so weak, his 360 degree C5
doesn't always guarantee a filled musou. The Herbal Remedy will help a lot
to contribute to musou filling, when his C5 is used. The omission of the
Way of Musou is because officers tend to block the ending of it. There are
ways to minimize it, but it's not fully consistent. The same thing happens with
his regular musou, but since the ending of his regular musou can be used
for escaping purposes, it's much more defensive than his true musou. However,
the choice is up to you; equipping the Way of Musou as a fifth item is not
too bad of an idea, because with his weak 4th weapon, the extra fire damage
with his long musou can be very useful.
It doesn't matter what orb you give him. It's easy to hit blocking officers
with his C5, so the Light Orb isn't really going to help much. Light will help
in a way, to make his C5 more flexible, so that you don't always have to
calculate the correct distance to make it unblockable. I value this freedom
to use his C5 against blocking officers with perfect consistency, over any of
the benefits from the Fire Orb and Ice Orb. Sun Jian's gains nothing from
the Fire Orb. Hitting officers with his C4, or C6 with fire is very hard to
do, without wasting his musou afterwards for defense. The main reason why
it's so hard to do this is because both have long execution times. With the
Ice Orb, the only useful method of freezing is with his C3, but there's really
no need to freeze officers at all. He has only a 60% of success, and if he
fails, he'll be juggling with his musou, because like his other charge
attacks, the recovery is usually not safe.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
It shouldn't be too hard to realize that his only useful charge attack is his
C5. It has nice 360 range. But even though the recovery time is
decently fast, his C5 doesn't cover quite enough reach to be
consistently safe. Although it has 360 range, it is still very easy to get hit
after it. The most dangerous crowd size to fight in with Sun Jian, are
crowds of moderate size. A size that is too large to safely recover from his
C5, but small enough to not contribute enough to fill his musou completely.
The worst thing is, that there is a large range of crowd sizes that fit this
description. Knowing that Sun Jian's C5 is likely his most useful,
there is still this big flaw in it, and this flaw is caused by his weak light
4th weapon. In some cases, the timing is perfect for a counterattack
directly after his C5, but this happens seldomly. The best situation
to fight officers in are in massive crowds. The good thing about his weapon
being light, is that his C5 can almost always be executed without
getting hit, even in massive crowds. And in massive crowds, it's almost
guaranteed that his musou will be filled. So, officers can easily be defeated
with only his musou. But just imagine if his 4th weapon were to be of
medium weight. If his attacking speed were the same as the other four
similar sword wielders, Sun Quan, Liu Bei, Dong Zhuo, and Yuan Shao, it still
wouldn't be very hard to do his C5 without getting hit. Sun Jian's
first four normal attacks all have nearly horizontal range. If Sun Jian had
a medium 4th weapon, with attack, fill, charge, and no musou, he would be
ranked the highest among the five sword wielders. With full weapon
customization, Sun Jian and Liu Bei are the best of the five similar sword
characters.
To minimize the risks of his C5 recovery, if crowds aren't clustered together,
it may be useful to run around and lead the crowds for a bit, until they
get closer together.
As mentioned above, doing a 7-hit normal attack + full musou combo will deal
the most damage in one continuous combo. Obviously, the damage is no where near
as effective as the other four sword users. However, because of his 4th
weapon being light, it's much easier to do the first 7 hits without getting
hit in surrounding crowds. This is perhaps the only good thing about his
light weapon. It's probably best not to use his full musou, for defensive
purposes. Try to work at gradually depleting an officer's health, in large
crowds with his C5 and short musous. After a few runs, the officer should
have a health that is low enough for Sun Jian to do this 7-hit normal attack +
full musou combo.
His fourth normal attack has very wide horizontal range. Even though its reach
isn't that great, the recovery is quite fast. Stopping after his fourth
normal attack might be a good choice in smaller crowd sizes. It should be
safe enough to purposely stop, and start attacking again. This eliminates
the risky recovery of his C5. But then...in smaller crowd sizes, anything
that his first four normal attacks will work against, his C5 should work
just as well, with very little risks. Anyhow, this is still very useful to
know. It's not abusable, but the usefulness of his first four normal attacks
can be seen in Xtreme Legends, because of the extended flinching time.
I've mentioned that the ending of his true musou can easily be blocked
by generals. Actually, the same is with his regular musou. Generals are
normally able to block the ending of his regular musou. but it's much safer
than his true musou, because in the case that it does get blocked, the ending
of his regular musou can be used for escaping. Because of the good distance
covered, he is usually safe after executing his regular musou.
Sun Jian has quite an ideal counterattack, because it has good range, and the
execution and recovery are both very fast. If you are good at counterattacking,
Sun Jian may not be as challenging as he seems to be. Purposely stopping after
his third or fourth normal attacks is a good opportunity to try to
counterattack. The same thing can be said for the identical evolution attacks.
His C1 is a useful scattering attack, but the recovery is quite long.
It is usually not safe enough to pull it off. You will be hit into the air
if you get hit during his air charge, and thus be juggled by the enemy.
His C3 is similar to Liu Bei's and Yuan Shao's, in terms of
attack range only. His C3 is much less useful because it has
a much longer recovery time.
His C4 obviously doesn't have enough range to be useful. His
C1 and C6 are more effective scattering moves.
While his C6 covers much more range, it is still only safe to use
against dense crowds coming from only one direction.
Not much more can be said. Because of the weakness in his most useful charge
attack, his fourth charge, it is usually not a good idea to use his full musou,
which is a really big disadvantage. Try to keep a full musou bar, and abuse his
C5, and do a quick musou to save yourself after his C5
if it is dangerous. Doing a quick musou will make it easier to refill his
musou. This is the safest way for using Sun Jian, but his offense is very
slow.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.41 - Zhu Rong
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Burn Baby Burn"
The tier list FAQ has Zhu Rong ranked very highly. According to their set
definitions, I would agree it to be so. She does have a versatile set of charge
attacks, and an incredible musou. Her musou with the Green Scroll will likely
kill generals in one go. But since the enemy's defense is tougher in Chaos,
it will take more than one musou to kill a general. It's very agreeable that
Zhu Rong has very exceptional offensive ability, but her defense potential
when attacking is relatively poor. It is because defense isn't much of a
concern in Hard Mode, that she is rated so highly.
All of her useful charge attacks have long execution time too, so there is
no real abusable move, or method of offense.
Her short reach, mediocre attacking strength, and slow attacking speed, make
her a terrible offensive and defensive character when fighting without her
musou.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 34
Medium Weight
Charge 16
Fill 17
Bow 15
Defense 15
Musou 18
A short musou would have made her more defensive, like Zhen Ji.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Speed Scroll/Way of Musou
Light Orb
Although she has a relatively weaker attack and a long musou bar, she has
high fill. Her short reach still makes her a very low tier character in Chaos,
but her filling ability, and her charge attacks, are better than Sun Ce's.
No fill and a long musou bar, like Sun Ce, is the worst possible setup for
any character with short reach and no distanced combat skills. Zhu Rong's
musou is by far better than Sun Ce's too. Since she has such a long musou bar
the Way of Musou is handy for the extra fire damage. But the way the damage
works, she'll take two musous to kill an officer, whether it's true musou or
not. This is indeed less important for a character like Zhu Rong though
because she doesn't have a consistent musou filling phase. Characters like
Xiahou Dun when played to the best would be musou filling with his C3, and
the two musous per officer, and the consistency is pretty high. This is almost
not possible with Zhu Rong. Thus, the advantage of having a true musou
accessible at all times is very little. When Zhu Rong needs to musou fill,
she'll be dealing some damage to officers anyway, during the process, so
equipping the Way of Musou, the fire damage isn't wasted. The Speed Scroll
makes her C3 much easier to do against pursuing crowds, because she is able to
run fast enough. But even without the Speed Scroll, she can still use her
C3 quite safely. The Speed Scroll will only make it a lot easier. Also, her
default walking speed is slow enough to get hit in a lot of cases. Giving
her the Speed Scroll will almost eliminate this danger. Either way, both
items don't have any huge benefits. I like the Speed Scroll a lot more though,
because her safe C3 method of attacking is very valuable, and the Speed
Scroll, is the best defensive choice.
The Light Orb is very useful to set up for her musou. Zhu Rong's musou is
similar Zhang He's, in that when enemies are stunned or disoriented, they will
still be on the ground, during her musou. This is quite valuable. If you
choose not to give Zhu Rong the Way of Musou, the Fire Orb can be a good choice,
but she is very limited with her C3, because she will have to use her C3
often with her first two normal attacks. This obviously makes her C3 risky
because she'll often be surrounded by the time she's executing her C3. The fact
that she hops during the execution doesn't help too. What the Light Orb does
is give her flexibility with the C3.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Something nice about Zhu Rong's musou is the piercing effect (which was not
present in previous Dynasty Warriors installments) and the good reach. It
is however, not a 360 degree musou. The range of her musou is pretty close
to Zhou Tai's, and covers over 180 degrees. The reach of her musou is longer
than Zhou Tai's.
It's a pity that her third normal attack has poor range. Her C4
would be much more useful if she had a better third normal attack. Her C4
itself is very useful, with the double 360 degree attack. After the
charge attack ends, the recovery is quite fast. Her C4 is good for
scattering massive crowds, but likely useful only when greeting crowds, or
when not surrounded. In many cases however, the second time her boomerang
circles around her, is usually more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
Because it's a 360 degree attack, the first time 360 revolution will hit all
enemies already. Even though her C4 has fast recovery, it actually doesn't
because the second part can sort of count as a recovery time. Not that she's
vulnerable during the second revolution, but that it's unnecessary, and
wastes a lot of time. Her C4 isn't useful enough to be abused, until
in Xtreme Legends, with a light weapon. Refer to her analysis in the
Full Customization Section, in Section 10.
Her most useful charge attack should be her C3. It is her most defensive
method of attacking. With the Speed Scroll equipped, she can abuse it much
more frequently, and easily. It is quite a slow musou filling method, but
a very defensive one. Her C3 does have limitations though, even though it is
another one of her charge attacks that has fast recovery time. Very similar to
her C4, even though her C3 has fast recovery, on the boomerang's return,
enemies are given lots of time to approach her, even if enemies are only
front of her. This is only dangerous in large crowds though. And there's a
separate solution to that, with her normal attacks. Generally, her C3 works
in smaller crowd sizes, but still a decent range of sizes. The caution with
deciding whether to do a short or long C3, it determined by the hop before
the last boomerang throw. If you had timed her C3 incorrectly, the execution
time of the last throw can be very dangerous. In this situation, it is safer to
do a longer C3, because the execution is much faster, and she doesn't hop.
However, the large the crowd size, the harder it is to do a long C3. Both
methods have pros and cons. But with a short C3 being the most defensive if you
don't mess up the timing, it's the better choice. Just don't mess up.
When facing crowds that may be too dangerous to use even her C3 safely, her
normal attacks should do. Zhu Rong would have been placed higher if she
didn't have a long musou and a weak attack. But even so, her musou filling
ability is quite good, in massive crowds. The only flaw in her normal attacks
is her third normal attack, but in most cases, once crowds reach that
threshold size that is large enough to fill her musou in five or six normal
attacks, she's very effective. She then has fast fill, and an incredibly
destructive musou. The only downfall of course, is that she'll be almost
always forcing her musou. But this only means, she can't capitalize against
officers. Being able to musou fill in massive crowds with her normal attacks,
and then destroying them with her musou means a large KO count. This is also
a good reason to give her the Speed Scroll over the Way of Musou. It doesn't
allow her to do this, but it gives her a higher chance; she is more able to
walk right up to officers and start attacking, so that she can guarantee
a successful musou after filling it. Keep in mind that the Speed Scroll will
only help because she can get to officers with a much higher chance of
being unharmed in the process. Filling her musou safely is another thing.
But if she has a filled musou, or even partially filled, the Speed Scroll
will help a lot.
Her C5 is usually fast enough so that generals cannot block in
between, but it's one of those charge attacks that generals will sometimes
be able to block. There is a way to sort of, prevent this: you may have noticed
that she can hit blocking generals with her C5 if she is close
enough; but you have to sneak around the general during the execution time.
This is made possible because she moves forward quite a bit during the
execution. So in a sense, her C5 can hit generals regardless of
blocking, but it takes effort to do it, unlike the many other C5
that offer simple unblockability. Her C5 is a good way to juggle
generals with fire. However, because of the long recovery time, this is
likely only possible when generals are almost isolated. This is not necessary
anyway because a better way to juggle generals with fire, is to use her jump
charge. Just like Da Qiao's and Zhang Jiao's, it has to be timed correctly. If
you have the fire hit the ground just before the officer's feet, the officer
will be set on fire, while wailing about and falling to the ground slowly. It
is possible to start the juggling when the officer is in the process of
falling to the ground.
Zhu Rong's C6 is useful for hitting blocking generals but not much else. The
long recovery time makes it useful only in small crowds. If the execution is
safe though, and enemies are only in front of her, it's quite an ideal charge
attack because of how her C6 is positioned in front of her, and how she
discharges backwards. But ya, there's not much use for this charge attack
in large crowds. Her C3 is more useful for a distanced attack in front of her
because it's faster to execute. Her C6 is impossible to abuse, probably
even with speed 40. Her C3 also works well against blocking officers with the
Light Orb. Her C6 on the other hand is limited to only blocking officers.
Similar to Wei Yan's normal attack string, Zhu Rong's fourth and fifth
normal attacks may sometimes be out of sync. At certain angles, her fifth
normal attack will execute earlier than it should, and the result will be
both her fourth and fifth normal attacks clumped together. This is very
dangerous if you plan to do her sixth normal attack on an officer. Because
of her fifth charge executing unexpectedly early, generals will have enough
time to attack her before she can do her sixth attack.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
______________
8.42 - Zhen Ji
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Yet another officer bows before me"
Zhen Ji's musou is one of the best crowd clearing musous in the game, almost
rivalling Pang Tong's and Meng Huo's. She has a unique C6, which is the
only 360 degree charge attack that disorientates. This makes it a bit more
useful against multiple officers, with her planted musou.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Medium Weight
Fill 20
Horse 17
Bow 18
Defense 18
Life 17
With all four defense stats on her 4th weapon, Zhen Ji is the most defense
oriented character. Life and Defense are useful because of Zhen Ji's
challenging moveset, but they only let her get hit several more times.
With fill 20 on her weapon, she is another character with high fill and a
short musou. Zhen Ji would be a lot better with attack on her weapon. With an
attack+20 her jump charge is strong enough to kill peons in one hit.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Way of Musou
Light Orb
Since her jump charge is so useful against crowds, it would seem that giving
her the Herbal Remedy is useful. It turns out however, that her jump charge,
as well as her C1 are not affected by the Herbal Remedy. Ginseng is needed,
and with the maximum of fill 40, she can take on a larger range of crowd
sizes, because of much faster musou filling.
The Ice Orb will give her double damage against frozen officers, but the
safest way to freeze officers is with her C5, and the timing and angle are
pretty strict if you want it to be 100% efficient. She doesn't gain much
more cumulative damage anyway because of the low hit frequency in his musou.
The Light Orb will give make it easier for her C5 to hit officers in crowds,
and set up nicely for her true musou. This is very useful because her
musou has an initial lag to it, which makes it very hard to walk right up
to officers and use it. Although the Light Orb is very useful for her C6
only in Xtreme Legends, it's still nice to cover the theory in her section
here. Because of the extended flinching time, it's much easier to execute
her C6 in crowds, and this is very useful when facing multiple officers,
because it'll set up perfectly for her true musou. But for Dynasty Warriors 5
her C6 with the Light Orb is often only useful in musou rages.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Use her C1 before entering crowds whenever there is enough time.
If you attack directly after executing her C1 it will burst after her third
normal attack. This will sort of act as a fourth attack with good 360 degree
range. After this, is a good time to do her jump charge, or run away. This
combo is very effective against crowds, and most importantly, the safest
effective way of attacking. So the order goes like this: first normal attack,
second normal attack, third normal attack, her C1 bubble thingy bursting, and
then quick jump charge. This will often return a decent KO count in large
crowds, as well as buy her enough time to escape. For those of you who like to
counterattack, it is easy to counterattack after this combo.
Since her jump charge covers good reach and 360 degree range, all peons within
the attack range will get hit at the same time. This makes it easy to see
a chance to counterattack, as many of the peons will often attack her also at
the same time.
Sadly, her jump charge and C1 do not fill her musou. You will have to
rely on her normal attacks to fill her musou. The combo above is effective
for attacking, but not so much for musou filling. Also, the combo isn't
abusable at all. But musou filling still isn't too hard for Zhen Ji, because
her normal attacks are very fast, and have good range. If her jump charge were
to contribute to musou filling, Zhen Ji would have very well been ranked some
15 ranks higher.
Because of the initial lag in her musou, Zhen Ji lacks the ability to fight
generals in large crowds effectively. This is a huge disadvantage for her.
Thus generals are incredibly hard to fight in large crowds, is she
doesn't have the Light Orb equipped. Because of this,
you have to learn the charge attacks that will make her musou possible.
These are her C3, C5, and second last evolution attack.
Out of all these, her C5 is the safest and fastest method. Along
with her fast attacking speed and good attack range, her C5 has
very fast execution time. This makes it quite possible to pull it off against
generals in large crowds. This will easily set up a chance to do her true
musou. Her C3 is another way of doing this, but obviously, it's less
effective and less pratical. It may sometimes be safe enough to do her all of
her normal attacks up to her second last evolution attack, where the general
will be hit into the air, to set up for her true musou. This way you will get
a good 8 hits on the general before her musou. In the end, all these strategies
for dealing with generals in large crowds really only work for smaller crowd
sizes. When there are massive crowds present, because of her short reach,
it is often too dangerous to even lay a finger on the general, until the
crowd dies down.
The best situation to fight in is a crowd size large enough to fill her musou
and there is quite a decent range in crowd sizes because of her high fill
and short musou.
It's very noticeable that all her normal attacks have fast recovery
except for her fifth one. However, because of her poor reach, it's often
impractical to use the strategy of stopping purposely, like Guan Yu. It still
is quite possible, but only in small crowds. Her fast walking speed also helps
with this; sometimes when attacking with Zhen Ji in a surrounding crowd, you
might foresee that her C6 is impossible to execute, because of its
long execution time. This is another disadvantage for Zhen Ji, that she
doesn't have a good charge attack to serve as a good finishing move. The only
finishing move, like many other characters, is her musou. But quite obviously,
in surrounding crowds that are too small to fill her musou completely,
her musou isn't an option. But a good solution to this
problem is to stop attacking and counterattack, or simply stop attacking and
run away or jump away. The fast recovery times and her fast walking speed
allow her to do this quite easily and safely.
Her C6 is almost always too impractical to use. It has long execution
and recovery time, and that's all there is for an explanation on why it isn't
useful. It is useful only in musou rages, when paired with Light Orb. It is
very effective against multiple officers, because it will guarantee a full
true musou on officers, because her musou is planted.
Her C4 is a scattering attack, but because of the minimal
reach and range, it's very hard to use it properly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________
8.43 - Dian Wei
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"Can anyone stop me?"
Dian Wei is one of only two characters with the innate charge bracer. This
means that when performing all charge attacks, he will not flinch to any
normal attacks, but will flinch to charge attacks and musou attacks. Of
course damage will still be taken.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Light Weight
Charge 15
Fill 15
Attack 18
Musou 17
Life 17
An excellent 4th weapon for Dian Wei. A short musou would have been a lot
better for defense. Speed would help a lot either in the place of musou or
life.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Herbal Remedy/Ginseng
Fire Orb/Ice Orb
Musou filling may be hard for Dian Wei, because of his short reach. His true
musou is useful for the good ending. The ending is capable of hitting blocking
generals. The Herbal Remedy assists his charge attacks quite well since they
have lots of reach and range. Equip two of these three items, for his last two
slots. The combination of the Ginseng and Herbal Remedy will help a lot
for musou filling with his C4 when dealing with massive crowds. But this isn't
quite enough to make his musou filling ability good enough for him to have a
long musou bar.
The Fire Orb is useful for his C4, as the Ice Orb will hinder
its scattering potential slightly. Although the Ice Orb is probably more
useful because his musou will deal double damage against frozen generals.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Dian Wei's C5 probably has the most attack range out of all the 360
degree types of charge attacks. The range is mostly in front of him, which
is a good thing. The charge attack itself is excellent, but because his
fourth normal attack is totally vertical, pulling off his C5
safely, even in small crowds, is very hard to do. Also, the execution time is
somewhat long. Because of this, it is best to use his C5 to
greet large crowds, or any approaching enemies. Whenever you have the safety
distance, use his C5. The nice thing about his C5, is
that once you learn how to use it, it can hit both blocking and non-blocking
generals. As a combo, when generals are not blocking, it will connect if you
turn away from generals during the execution. This will usually create
enough safety distance to pull it off. Against blocking generals, just do the
same thing. Keep in mind though that reach is minimal directly behind him.
Instead of facing his back to the general, try to swirve off to the side a bit;
try to hit the blocking general with the reach of his C5 from the side instead
of his back. Anyway, no need to get too technical, all it needs is a little
practise.
His C4 is quite useful, as a standard scattering C4.
The reach and range is very good. The attack is quite long so you can steer
it in any way you like, to cover a potential 360 degrees. However, being such
a long charge attack may sometimes be a disadvange. It is still quite
easy to get hit during the long recovery time. Because it isn't an
instantaneous 360 degree attack, but a controlled 360 attack, it's
quite hard not to get hit during his C4. Because of these
reasons, his C4 is far from being full proof in large crowds.
But still, his C4 is often the only choice against massive crowds.
His C6 is another useful charge attack. It's because of the 360
degree range of his fifth normal attack that makes his C6 so useful.
His C6 does however, have long execution time, which is why I
considered Dian Wei to not have an abusable attack. His C6 is not
quite abusable in large crowds. Because of the long execution and his short
reach, it may be quite hard to pull off in large crowds. A very minor
disadvantage is that his fifth normal attack has somewhat high height,
so there is a huge disadvantage when using his C6 on a decline
slope. It is possible to complete a combo with his C6 on generals
safely, despite its long execution time. This however, isn't as simple as
turning your back to the general. Noticing that his fifth normal attack is a
360 attack going clockwise, you should try to hit the general at the end of
it, as close as possible to the tip of its attack range. Turn with the attack,
going clockwise, and position it in a way to hit the general at the
very end of his fifth normal attack. Doing so will always allow his C6
to execute, literally in the nick of time.
Try to take advantage after Dian Wei's true musou, to follow up with attacks,
if it is safe enough to.
As there is really no abusable attack for Dian Wei, there is always an
efficient way to fight, in all crowd sizes. His C6 does become
inefficient in large crowds, but large crowds should be approached differently
anyway. When fighting massive crowds, his first three normal attacks will
often fill his musou completely. Because Dian Wei has a long musou bar, giving
him the Ginseng is a good idea. With the extra fill bonus on his 4th weapon,
plus the Ginseng, musou filling should be very easy in large crowds. Then, his
normal attacks should be used in larger crowds with his true musou as a
finishing move. Crowds that are too large for his C6 to be possible, will fill
his musou with his normal attacks.
His C3 is probably only useful for one on one combat, or small crowds.
It's a useful charge attack with practically no execution time, for fighting
officers.
The fire in his true musou will help a lot with fighting generals in large
crowds, since Dian Wei lacks the ability to right up and behind officers in
large crowds. If officers are blocking, try to get close, and
hit him/her with the ending of his true musou. If you miss however, it may
be quite hard to deal with the general directly after.
So far it seems like Dian Wei has the versatility, and the effectiveness, to
take on anything. But there are many disadvantages in his attacks that make
him a below average defensive character. The biggest setback is his short
reach. There is always a possibility to getting hit in the middle of his
normal attack string. The fact that his fourth normal attack has totally
vertical range with bad reach is a huge disadvantage. Lastly, there are
potholes in all of his useful charges. It's obviously hard to not get hit
everytime you use his C4. His C5 has the obvious
disadvantages of long execution time and a terrible fourth normal attack.
His C6 also suffers from long execution. Another setback in
Dian Wei's defensive ability, is his slow walking speed. Learn when to use his
C1 effectively, and the disadvantage of his slow walking speed can be
minimized.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.44 - Huang Gai
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"I will crush you"
Huang Gai's quite nice to use for more expert players, because you have risk
going through his normal attacks before executing his later, more useful
charge attacks.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 36
Medium Weight
Charge 15
Luck 16
Defense 17
Attack 17
Life 15
I suppose this isn't a bad weapon. Life and Defense does make him very durable,
but his defensive potential is in no way fixed from having higher defense.
The only truly wasted stat would be luck. A high attack with a short musou is
very good for a character like Huang Gai, but fill on his weapon would make
him a lot better. When configured with fill 40, his first two normal attacks
have a good chance of filling his musou completely. A Speed increase would
be nice too. Sometimes when he's surrounded, and without a fill 40
setup, it's very hard for him to escape, so he's left with the only choice of
using his counterattack.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Way of Musou
Ginseng
Ice Orb
The ending of his true musou is very useful. Since Huang Gai's most useful
charge attack is his C6, and it is best to waste his more vertical normal
attacks, the ending of his musou will make it just slightly easier for this
to be possible, if he has no enemies behind him after his true musou.
Since his C6 can hit blocking officers, the Ice Orb of very useful for
double musou damage.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Huang Gai's bombs and his fourth charge are fire elemental by default. So you
can rely on these if you like to juggle high defense officers with fire.
An obvious way for using Huang Gai effectively is to always have some distance
between him and the enemy. This is just like Zhang Fei, and Zuo Ci. However,
Huang Gai is far from being as good as Zhang Fei or Zuo Ci because he has to
go through his risky third and fourth normal attacks to get to either his
C5 or C6. His fifth normal attack is not bad, but because his third and fourth
normal attacks will tend to allow larger crowds to surround him, Huang Gai will
often want to waste even his fifth normal attack. Huang Gai's offense is awesome
when officers and crowds are approaching from a distance, and the Way of Musou
will let him continue his method of wasting his normal attacks, because of the
wide reach and range covered during the ending.
The execution time and recovery time for his C6 are pretty average,
but fairly dependable. His C6 is the best way to freeze officers, especially
in crowds. It should be considered an unblockable attack. The execution is
normally long enough for generals to interrupt it. But if you create enough
safety distance by turning his back to officers during the execution, his C6
will always succeed. In the case that generals are blocking, simply do the
same thing. Turn away from the blocking general during the execution, or simply
execute his it at the right distance, and the gradual radiance effect of the
charge attack will often successfully hit the general. This makes his C6 his
most useful charge attack by far. Other than saving him from dangerous
situations, his musou should be saved for frozen generals. Just unleash his
full true musou on a frozen general for some easy and massive damage.
His C4 and C5 are his secondary charge attacks. Use his C4 if you foresee it
to be impossible to execute his C6 safely, although his C4 is still very
risky to execute in crowds. Unlike his C6, Huang Gai's C3 doesn't work both
ways for blocking and non-blocking generals. The execution time is too long,
and officers are able to hit him. Since it can't hit officers at all, his
C4 is limited to only peons. His C5 is also not as versatile as his C6.
The execution time is too long for it to be successful, however it works very
well against blocking officers. Because of its wide range in front, it is
essentially unblockable. But generally, his C6 will always do a
better job, since it is potentially unblockable regardless of whether generals
are blocking or not.
Despite its juggling property, his musou is quite strong. Doing it against
frozen enemies thus, does massive damage. Another good reason to save his
musou for frozen generals is that its juggle potential is not very reliable.
Because of its high height, it may be quite hard to keep the enemies you want
in the air, with his musou attacks. But unlike Sun Shang Xiang's musou, Huang
Gai's has a consistent solution to it. The height is lowest at Huang Gai's
left and right sides. So if you position the officer correctly, juggling
should be easy.
His jump attack may prove to be very useful in dangerous situations. When
crowds start to get too close, his jump charge done as quickly as possible,
will often free him from danger. The reach is quite decent. But sadly, it only
works when he's not surrounded.
His C3 is quite powerful, but because it lacks good attacking range
it's likely useful only for one-on-one combat. It's nice that the ending will
hit enemies into the air. This is quite useful if you have the Fire Orb
equipped. But because the Ice Orb is by far a better choice, I have excluded
consideration of the Fire Orb for Huang Gai.
I don't see his bombs to be of much practical use. It's easy to notice that
its actual attack range is much less than it visually seems. The timing for
his jump charge is very strict, and if you miss an officer, by doing it too
late, it's very easy to get hit. His C1 would be very useful if there were more
range to it, because then, with a high speed configuration, he can use
bombing strategies to help waste his risky normal attacks.
There is an alternative setup to consider for Huang Gai. He is able to
equip the Survival Guide for ATKx2 war axes. He'll get them every time he
uses his C1 on himself. Be sure to let him fall and lie completely on the
ground. Doing an L1 somersault will not work. However, this is only an
interesting alternative, because Huang Gai with his 4th weapon cannot be fast
enough on foot to really make this strategy useful when facing large crowds.
His running speed with the Speed Scroll is practically the same as the
running speed of peons. It's hard for him to create enough safety distance
to use his C1 and the Survival Guide effectively. However, this is of course
an evaluation of ground combat only, and thus a limitation by me, this guide,
and the ground combat tier lists. This strategy can work quite well if you
include horse combat. However, some time is wasted if you have to take his
horse to somewhere safe to use his C1. It's more like an ATKx2 for 20 seconds.
And of course, you can't even be scratched because he'll have zero health.
This is a more useful alternative with a speed 40 configuration.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
________________
8.45 - Diao Chan
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
"This is the end"
I like the characters with heavy 4th weapons, but Diao Chan just attacks way
too slow to be compatible with one. However, she has many small aspects that
are easy to overlook. She has very fast walking speed, which is very useful
for defensive reasons, her true musou is very strong, and like
Guan Yu and Zhao Yun's, hurls enemies high into the air, and this allows
for Diao Chan to easily follow up attacking directly after for easy musou
filling. Lastly, she wields two weapons (you may want to refer to section 6.7),
and just like Taishi Ci, her two weapons make her jump charge incredibly strong;
and because it is so damaging, it also has very good musou filling potential.
Diao Chan like Zhu Rong has slow attacking speed with short reach.
__________
4th Weapon
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Power 32
Heavy Weight
Fill 18
Luck 18
Speed 19
Defense 16
Musou 18
This is probably one of the worst 4th weapons in the game. The only useful
stat is fill. All other stats are either useless or even a disadvantage.
Luck, speed, and defense do almost nothing to make her better. Having a long
musou is a disadvantage for a short reach, and slow attacking character
like Diao Chan. The long musou is a huge disadvantage, because of how
useful her jump charge is. She would be able to fill her musou much easier
with a short musou, charge 40, and fill 40. Then with her true musou, she
is quite deadly. But sadly, it's not possible with this 4th weapon.
_________________
Recommended Items
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Ginseng
Herbal Remedy/Demon Band/Way of Musou
Ice Orb
Because Heavy weapon wielders benefit most from musou rages, the Demon Band
may be a good item, depending on the stage. It's mainly her jump charge and
true musou that makes the Demon Band a good choice. Because attack damage is
doubled, her musou filling ability is awesome with her jump charge,
and her true musou will always return a huge KO count. The Demon Band is highly
recommended for stages like the Yellow Turban Rebellion on Yellow Turbans
Forces, for her to capitalize in 30 seconds of musou rage, to get as
many KO's as possible. Otherwise, go with the Herbal Remedy for a higher fill
with her jump charge, or the Way of Musou for a useful true musou.
The Ice Orb is mildly useful for double musou damage. The advantage isn't big
though, because her freezing ability isn't great, and the frequency in her
musou strikes is very low. The Light Orb could be a possibility, but that
also has very little benefits.
________
Analysis
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Diao Chan's C3 is the most protective way of attacking. There is a good
variety of 360 degree strikes. The trick is to enter crowds with her C3,
because of the long execution time, it's very easy to get hit before
executing it. If you always enter crowds with it, the chances of getting hit
are a lot slimmer. Another way to maximize safety with her C3 is to
notice that her second normal attack has only 180 degrees of attack range,
and is only to her right side. Simply shift it, so that she can direct this
attack range in the right direction, by turning to the left, just before it.
Mastering this, makes a huge difference in her defense with her C3.
She can use her jump charge for musou filling in massive crowds, with only
short musous, so she can always have a partially filled musou. But crowds
really do have to be massive. Like Taishi Ci, Diao Chan's only good against
small and massive crowds. The large range of crowd sizes in between are always
challenging.
Diao Chan's speed is what makes her really useful. The last part of her true
musou is very strong, and hits enemies into the air, which is often perfect to
follow up with a jump charge. You can often refill her musou bar instantly
if the group is large enough. This strategy is similar to Guan Yu's. The
fact that enemies are thrown perfectly into the air, will allow her to
continuously refill her musou bar, but sadly, it only works in very dense
and massive crowds. It is really fast, unlike ones like Zhang Fei's. The main
advantage is that the recovery time is very fast. Since her weapon is heavy,
it deals heavy damage. This move is great to use when her musou is about half
way charged. Just jump straight into a large crowd, and her musou should almost
always be filled. It is important to learn how strong it is, therefore, how
much of the musou bar it fills. Another advantage is that even if you mess up,
it's quite possible to escape by doing it again since the recovery time is so
fast. This makes her an incredible effective character in red health.
Her sixth normal attack has very fast recovery. With 360 degrees range, it's
often a very safe attack to use. Walking away, using her jump charge, or
anticipating a counterattack are all good options after it. Although her
C3 is more defensive than her normal attacks, it is still useful to mention
her sixth normal attack.
Now, if you isolate an enemy general, just use her C5.
For some reason, even though the execution time of her C5 is quite
slow, generals don't block it, or attack during the execution.
Also, given that she is close enough, it is unblockable when generals are
blocking. This means that her C5 always hits, just like
Pang De's. It is however different from Huang Zhong's C5 only
because of how enemy generals react to it. Huang Zhong's C5 is
able to hit blocking generals because it's reach is long enough, and it
is ground-pounding. Diao Chan's and Pang De's is, believe it not, unblockable
because of it's slow speed. It's just how the AI functions to react to these
slow charge attacks. Going straight to the point, these charge attacks have
an execution time that is long enough that a general ceases to continue
blocking, and will attempt to begin attacking, but will never succeed.
Pang De's and Sun Shang Xiang's have a very good chance of success to hit
blocking generals with their C5; Diao Chan's still works, but
is much less reliable. But there is something to relieve this lack of
reliability, because Diao Chan has another unblockable charge!! Her C6.
Paired with the Ice Orb, generals are rendered defensively
useless against her when they are isolated. If the general is not blocking
you can end your attack with her C5; use her musou if the ice
is successful. If the general is blocking, her C6 will always
hit, but only if she is close enough to the general; use her musou if
the ice is successful.
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8.46 - Taishi Ci
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"Lets DO this"
One of my favorite characters, and likely the hardest character to use or to
master. The major advantage is the fact that he wields two weapons. This makes
his jump charge, his C4, and his C5 deal massive damage.
These moves make Taishi Ci an incredible offensive character, even though his
4th weapon doesn't have an attack bonus. Imagine if it did. Since his 4th
weapon has life and defense bonuses, he is also quite a tank, but clearly,
he is one of the best examples of how defensive items are useless, because
all they will do is let him get hit more times. It is often a high attack,
and a high fill that mean's ultimate defense, and in some cases, high speed.
He also has minor advantages with his strong horse attack, bow attack, and the
charge bracer effect only during his C3.
Some people may still think that Taishi Ci should be lowered even more. I'll
agree that it is debatable. But his ability to dispatch generals
can match characters like Xiahou Dun, and Wei Yan. But this is obviously, in
the case of the "perfect game" where you are just so great at counterattacking,
and attacking "cleverly" with his charge attacks. Likely never to be a final
decision, I've ranked him here.
Taishi Ci is ranked 4th place in the top ten fastest general killers in
section 14.2. I believe that he could come very close to Zhuge Liang's time
if his 4th weapon had an extra attack bonus.
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4th Weapon
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Power 38
Medium Weight
Charge 15
Horse 15
Bow 15
Defense 18
Life 18
With a weapon like this, is one of the few characters in the game with all
stats devoted to defense. All four of the stats, horse, bow, life and defense
contribute to a stronger defense. But again, it does almost nothing to make
his moveset much more defensive at all. The problem with his weapon is the
absense of attack and fill. With a short musou, his filling ability with
attack and fill would be a lot higher. Still, it's good to have at least charge
on it. Something else that Taishi Ci needs, is a speed. Speed 20 is
good enough. It makes a huge defensive difference, because this speed 20 is
enough to allow him to run away from crowds that have surrounded him. Having
it on his weapon would free him an extra item slot. With attack, charge,
fill, and speed, Taishi Ci would be a much better character.
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Recommended Items
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Tiger Amulet
Green Scroll
Wind Scroll
Speed Scroll
Ginseng
Ice Orb
As mentioned above, the Speed Scroll is needed for a much better defense.
When Taishi Ci is surrounded, it's really hopeless without the Speed Scroll.
People who are good at counterattack can usually survive without speed, for
slow characters, but Taishi Ci's counterattack isn't exactly an ideal one.
The Ginseng will make it a lot easier for him to fill his musou.
The benefit of ice is mainly for his C5. If the ice is successful, he
can easily sneak in a jump charge, and then a full musou. This combo deals
massive damage, because of two double damage charge attacks, and his
incredible musou. His C5 works best because it has long reach, which makes it
easier to do a jump charge after it. The recovery of all his other elemental
charge attacks would often never allow him to use his jump charge after it.
Another important reason to give him the Ice Orb is that it will eliminate
the out of sync effect with his musou strikes. Like Zhang Liao's regular musou,
Taishi Ci's can be a problem because officers can block it quite easily,
especially in large crowds. Ice will help too when using Taishi Ci's
juggling true musou.
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Analysis
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Explained above, Taishi Ci has a one hit KO combo against generals, which
is incredibly valuable. But no matter how valuable it is, he is still ranked
this low in the tier list, because the combo is hard to pull off, and is
not very consistent.
Because of the lack of reliability in his normal attacks, it's really easy
to get hit. Usually this can be solved with a good counterattack, but because
Taishi Ci's counterattack doesn't cover much range, you'll often be left in
an unsafe situation directly after the counterattack. This makes Taishi Ci a
character for expert players.
Taishi Ci is one of those characters that should always avoid his true musou.
In fact, His true musou may be the worst in the game in terms of
the degree of how much it is downgraded compared to his regular musou. First,
enemies are juggled, so damage dealt in true musou is cut down by
half. But secondly, and most importantly, his true musou is by far weaker than
his regular musou. It's the ending of his regular musou that does massive
massive damage, which is what you want. Forget about 360 degree coverage
that deals minimal damage. When he is in low health and thus forced to use
his true musou, his general killing potential is greatly diminished, while
crowd clearing ability is barely increased.
Try to do his full regular musou, because if you do a short one, it will still
eat up the entire musou bar. Try to make the most of it. If his musou is
used for defense, officers will often be blocking. If you can see that the
officer is close enough for you to get around him/her to successfully
use the ending, then do so. If not, then try to use it move around and
have it hit the crowd in a way to scatter peons into the blocking officer.
The only time to use a short regular musou is when officers aren't blocking
in massive crowds, because in massive crowds, it's very easy for officers to
be displaced because crowds are too dense, and this makes it almost
unpredictable, and very hard to use his musou with the officer blocking it
in between musou strikes. It's the ending that deals massive damage anyway.
Like Zuo Ci and Zhang Fei, Taishi Ci's musou is very strong by default.
As mentioned above, his "double weaponed" charge attacks should be abused. His
jump charge and his C5 both have good range, and can kill
privates in one hit. The amount of damage that they cause fill up his musou
gauge quickly. Keep in mind that Taishi Ci is at his best, when enemies are
somewhat distanced from him, because his jump charge and his C5
aren't good options when enemies are too close. In massive crowds however,
you can probably get away with continuously doing his jump charge, followed
by a musou, just as he lands. This is generally quite safe to pull off,
until crowds die down, or until you get your next musou rage token. Generally,
small groups are easy to take care of...large groups are ok, if you keep doing
his air charge; just have to pray that your musou gauge will fill up. What's
dangerous, is troops coming from all different places, but in moderately
sized groups. It's hard to fight with Taishi Ci in groups that are too small
to do the "continuous jump charge" strategy, but too large to really handle with
regular attacks. The rest is up to your strategic attacking, and keen
counterattacking. The major reason why these sort of groups are so hard to
deal with is because Taishi Ci isn't fast enough to fun away from crowds. This
is why he needs the Speed Scroll to waste an item slot. He won't be fast
enough to be able to use his C5 as a distanced attack. Well, speed 40
still won't be enough, even if he had a light weapon. When speed will do for
him is allow him to always be able to attack with enemies only in front of
him, and this means