Attacks & PA's

Cutting Layer used to be pretty versatile until Sega decided we can't have nice things on Halpha and added a year of end lag to the move. So now it's incredibly slow and unsafe without parrying something first. You are free to dodge after the first hit completes and you’re free to do anything after the fifth hit completes. But when hit 7 starts you will be stuck in recoil and lag until the entire animation is finished.

With the recent buffs and nerfs there is little reason to bother using this at all anymore. Balance patch waiting room zzzz

TT gives much more freedom to act than Cutting Layer and will often be used while waiting for enemies to attack. If you're using Wired Lance as your main weapon, this is your first choice for dealing damage. For players using Wired Lance as a sub weapon, it's usually not worth slotting on your palette.

The best DPS is achieved by repeating it after the 3rd hit. I’ll call this TT3 and it will be an important part of the next section. You cannot buffer this to be perfect since the game will accept inputs for anything after the second hit completes. That means you need to pay attention and repeat with good timing (or use macros) when you see the 3rd hit complete.

This comes with a couple of customization options that you can access at the class counter...

👎Type 1: Increases attack speed by 25% and lowers the damage by 20%.

Lowers your DPS and makes it harder to hit your repeat timing so your DPS gets lowered even more. Also wastes your PP faster since you need to cast it more. At least it's fun to play with...? Never recommended.

👍Type 2: Increases the attack range and makes TT always hit at critical distance.

In practice this is free extra damage. You will largely eliminate the need to reposition yourself which will allow you to keep attacking for more damage. TT is Wired Lance's filler DPS and you would be casting this when there is nothing from the enemy to parry. Excellent choice, though it does not do much for people that only use Wired Lance as a sub-weapon.

🤔Type 3: Increases the damage when used with avenger by 10%.

A perplexing choice that may or may not be good. Taking this would give up the benefits of type 2 TT which means you need to position and worry about optimal spacing again. Also you would be casting this PA for every single scenario which may incur some PP problems. It is higher damage, but at a great cost. I'm not too sure yet and I'm continuing to experiment with it.

This comes with a couple of customization options that you can access at the class counter...

🤔 Type 1: Drastically increases the attack range and makes it always hit at critical distance.

This is only useful for mobbing but still worse than tech classes or spamming T3 calibur. Not recommended but you can take it if you want to PSE with wires for whatever reason.

👍 Type 2: Increases the power of weapon action when used immediately after Vane Mixture by 15%.

This stacks with the boosts in the Hunter skill tree and is what makes Vane our main parry ability. Also will allow you to do a certain combo involving side weapon action to increase DPS. More on that in the next section. HIGHLY recommended.

👎 Type 3: Increases the speed that Crossing Feather accumulates by 50% when using Vane Mixture.

Too bad there's still a 30 second cooldown on Crossing Feather so it doesn't matter if you get it any faster. Useless and bad. Never recommended.

Uncharged Hellish Fall gives you straight invincibility during the rise and fall part of the animation, but you'll never use it for that. After the slam you will be at a slightly higher position than before, making it possible to keep slowly gaining height in the air. Unlike TT, the game will not stop you from going higher.

Unfortunately, the height raising aspect is really annoying, it costs a lot of PP, and it's generally worse than Cutting Layer so there's no longer a point to using this anywhere. If I'm really reaching for any sort of purpose, I guess you can use it to back off from a downed enemy before starting your usual combo. Overall garbage move that you will almost never use intentionally.

Can stand in this for 5 whole seconds and only get hit once

It's used as a simple follow-up after an avenger to tack a bit more damage and restore some PP. 

Sounds wicked but there’s some faults…

It’s not possible to phase through objects so if there’s a tree or some other enemy in the way the attack will end there. Since this brings you to the spot you latched onto, it tends to miss often when the target is moving. It's also usually slower than just running to the target normally.

So it’s awful as an attack and as a gap closer. Just treat it as an extra jump.

Your attack begins as a slow spin for the first 8 hits then transitions to a fast spin from hit 9 onwards. Starting from the fast spin, releasing the WA button will cue up a strong claw swipe finisher (stronger than the one from Vane Mixture). You’re forced into the claw swipe after 25 hits if you don’t release the button. Dodging can be done anytime during the lasso but as soon as you commit to the finisher you’re locked in.

Jumping and double jumping is possible during this attack and you’ll have slow fall when descending. That means encore jumping with Bouncer's add-on can slightly increase your DPS (mind that you need to keep mid-range distance.) You’ll have slow fall even if you didn’t take Slow Landing Charge on the skill tree.

But hold your horses before going full cowboy. You want to make sure to never use this without a Wired Anchor Avenger boost. The DPS is pathetic and side WA needs the 1.5x damage boost to compete with other choices.

Crossing Feather itself always hits at critical distance and does not need mid-range BUT it unfortunately moves your character slightly towards a target. This means that you will occasionally need to back up to correct your distance for your next attack.

Don't sleep on the PP restore! Crossing feather is fantastic during enemy downs because it will deal strong DPS and bring back your PP to cast more PA's. You can use it to keep your rotation going without resorting to normals.

In actual combat it can act as a quick way to restore PP. (+15 for each enemy hit).

Now that's a rollercoaster