About the Smash skill

DangerousDitch

I was looking at the Smash skill with the information listed by the wiki. I considered the highest smash multiplier you could get, being a Dan 3 giant with a 2-handed weapon (864%) plus a smash set (+10%). However, with Bash at 460%, the knockback and long animation of smash still loses out except a few cases. I understand that smash has some use with a lance, or to finish a single target. But, what if we could make smash more usable without being more powerful?

My pet idea was if after smashing, you are not rooted in place for the whole animation. Kind of like full swing during windguard, once the strike lands you can move, maybe bash the target once or twice and then use defense, or switch to a second target and windmill both... something that facilitates combat rather than bringing DPS and your character to a halt.
As it stands smash barely does more damage than bashing (if at all), leaves you open to other targets during it, fails on targets with natural instinct (automatically punching if you try to hit them), still requires you to stand and stare at an enemy who cant be knocked down, etc.

Smash has a cooldown, it just barely comes into play with the long animation. What if we made smash a quicker skill, and let the cooldown serve its job of preventing spamming?

lceCream

You're wrong about that. Thames gives 15%
There's also smash reforge, smash reforged acc, combo card
It's one of the heaviest hitting skills in the game, it's practically a judgment blade on a 3 sec cooldown.

Not sure how the 2h bonus stacks though
So (864%+200%+60%)*1.15= 1292.6% * (whatever combo card bonus)
OR (600+260)*1.2 2h bonus * 1.15= 1352.4% *(combo card)

Magnum only does 943% * (combo card)
Only reason why magnum does more dps is way lower cooldown

Yeah a 1.5 or 2 sec cooldown would be great

DangerousDitch

Thanks for the correction on the numbers. And yeah for sure the damage isn't really poor but the sluggish usability makes it hard to justify in a lot of cases. I feel like there's such a big divide between how smash is a staple combat skill, and how most of the time you never need to or rarely benefit from using it at all.

Sherri

When I need to use Smash, I load up counter attack ASAP, especially with other enemies aggro on me.

Marith

Smash has lost a lot of its former glory to bash, yes. That's partly why I believe smash has such a large gain from Danning up.

Frankly, the skill still has significant values. Even if it's not the most DPS centric skill, the secondary debuff (Really only for blunt weapons, though) still makes it nigh indispensable against a target such as the master lich.

I still find smash to fit well within its role. Assuming you don't you kill the initial target, smash lets you throw a mob into a group and assault slash for splash damage on the whole group, etc.