Made a video where I explain my thought process a bit as I do the fight: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z_1A8fLGFgk.htmlsi=CWgYkI9_E2kqHChK
Wow as Katalina player approve very good guide. Thanks for your work already interested in your next guide. P.S give him like and sub, this guide deserve it.
Awww thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Katalina is my favorite so it was hard to balance making it digestible and turning it into a 1 hour rant LOL
3:23 I personally use LW or Freeze. Freeze is good for some specific fight when I am speed running with other people. LW has the same CD as Azure sword so you have the on demain invincible for entire team, it will come in handy when you know when to activate it for the team to freely deal damage while they couldn't. Even against bosses like Pyeta, Black Dragon, White Dragon or Nihil Furycan I usually run LW after I understand their move set with the clear time on open matching around 1 to 3 minutes clear. 09:33 Infinite Ares doesn't exists even with 45 QCD, 20 Cascade and personal sigil if you only use Frozen Blade and Enchanted Lands. You need another skill/tech to maintain it (WR, Azure Sword, stall with defensive skills or Ares Drop). 13:33 You cannot just stop at any mid pact strike, it won't work for the 5th hit of ares pact strike (APS) and it cannot be chained for APS1 because the animation of Ares is very short. You can also go with combo 2 (XXY) instead of combo 1 (XY) if you do APS3 to maintain Ares. I chosed the name Ares Drop because you drop the APS to user the other combo for resetting. 17:22 I think the stone section are now recommended to have 5(4 with terminus) firm stance so you can run 1 firm stance sigil and does not lose ares when the boss goes in to OD. Which negate the skill saving or unoptimal combo to time your push back while aribone for more damage 19:10 You would want Nimble Onslaught always. It is more invincible time for you to safely build Ares, more SBA to help with Katalina SBA slow gain and CD to help out your big move Azure sword and Light Wall. White Dragon bullet hell are 3 free dodge, Black dragon are 4 free dodge, Pyeta fire circle are 3 free dodge, Pyeta Lightning dash are 3 free dodge. And most boss has an opening move that you can dodge and get 1 free activation for Nimble Onslaught. Those add up a lot for your CD and SBA over the fight so you will have them ready. Firm Stane is also one of the better defensive option as many bosses has gravity related move. 1 Firm also allow you to stick to Furycan while it is pushing everyone outside and does tornadoes. It is completely safe and you can just keep attacking for the entire duration which could help to break the OD right after it finishes. And it also help vs black dragon pull which is dangerous. And as said, Firm Stance 20 allow katalina to keep ares throguh OD push back 100% uptime on boss is possible in away. If played correctly you will have azure sword back whenever there is a time window after the boss goes after and do invincible move. But that requires a lot of practice vs every major bosses. Like in Black dragon you Azure starter and throwa gravity bomb you get a free dodge and activate LW and throw a slow bomb at it. Then when it goes away it will be flying up and throw out circle with tonadoes where you nimble onslaught dodge all of them. By the time it come back you Azure and LW again for everyone to dodge the attack and gravity bomb (not 100% guarantee move) and keep hitting then SBA and link time for the death. Same for Pyeta and other bosses. The only time Ares is gone is when they move away for cutscene or invincible stuff which your Azure sword should be ready at the end.
Yeah, all of these are great points. I think lining up lw and azure sword is a great setup into getting your full 10 seconds, and that's definitely something someone could tech in with more experience. I don't think I was insinuating that you can infinite with just the two skills, but if the info was relayed that way, my apologies - you definitely want all 4 attack skills to do it comfortably, although like you mention later, it's not really necessary since you're not going to be hitting a target dummy and your azure sword will likely be available in and out of phases. Running firm 5 to prevent losing ares during OD was something I saw while doing research, but didn't get to try myself, so I didn't include it in the guide. I actually thought it was only for allowing you to hit your sacred winds post OD - didn't think to consider that it would prevent Ares from leaving by reducing that time. Thanks for sharing all the great info
Yeah, I just realized that most of the community calls ares "him" and didn't want to reveal stuff from outside the relink lore. Also yeahhh Vira and Meteora would be some great relink chars
He plays similar to Siegfried. Less mobility but higher damage, you use improved dodge and auto cancel to his finisher. His entire identity is his 10 stack heavy attack and you want to be playing around that mechanic entirely
Honestly the biggest gripe I have with katalina is that stupid guage. WHY does it have 2 "parts"???? It literally has no bearing. LET ME FILL IT FASTER. Why does the game limit my successful combo finishers for NO reason whatsoever. If I do 4 hits and a finisher and manage to land that... I SHOULD GET THE FUCKIN GUAGE FOR IT. PERIOD. Not get stopped by some stupid "middle" part of the guage. IT DOESN'T NEED TO EXIST.
Excellent guide! it's a shame though that you have to go through so many hoops to get her gauge up and maintain Ares. i think of her as a harder Captain
Exactly what I needed. After building a couple of chars I went for Katalina as the next and when I played her I fell in love with her. She is so hard to play but its so statisfying if you manage to play her right. Also I have seen more and more ppl playing Kata online aswell so I guess more and more ppl are trying her out. Since there are very few detailed videos like yours this is really a godsent video and you sir are the hero we needed but don't deserve. Cheers!
Best Katalina guide I have seen. Also two more tips I can give: After the azure sword buff is over, if ares is not on the field the ares gague stays full. So if there is only a short time to attack azure sword can be used to summon ares and perform two full packt strike combos, the next time you are able to attack you can immeadiatly summon ares without building new gague. Also link attacks are super effective for manageing cooldowns. If a link attack is performed during the packt strike combo, the combo will be continued right after the link attack. But if the link attack is used after the finisher of the packt strike combo a new packt stike will be started. This even works when the finisher is canceled by the link attack. Edit: Just remembered another one: using a jump or lunge into heavy attack right after the SBA attack lets you keep ares without using a skill. Have fun playing Katalina everyone.
Thank you for this guide, seriously. I want to understand Katalina more because I adore her style and spirit. This is the kind of guide I've been waiting for to really break her down. Thank you! Time to practice.
God DAMN IT. The Kuru kuru always follows me. Great guide btw! I just got her terminus so I think I will now build her! edit: I was doing my weekly bosses in HSR while watching this and that certaily jumpscared me lol
Im concerned about Katalina and future content. The fact you lose so much value if u dodge or shield when Lucilius proves that new enemies will one shot you if you dont take defensive action.
Apologies if mentioned in the video, as I didn't watch the *entire* thing. But because I've never seen it mentioned anywhere online it seems safe to assume it wasn't. Katalina's 'Innermost Teachings' Mastery node is not giving the 50% Defense it's claiming when Ares gauge is fully filled.. It is only giving 20% Defense. Meaning, of course, she is taking 60% more damage than she should be. And if anyone would be interested in that information, I'd guess someone that's apart of a 53-page guide might be, haha.
Decent Katalina guide. Nailed the most important aspects: 1. Enchanted Lands is king damage with Ares. Use off cd while in Ares. Save for Ares. 2. xy > frozen blade > y finisher x2 fastest way to fill ares. 3. Probably the first guide I've seen that correctly shows her ideal over masteries. (Yea, you aren't gonna hit EL skill dmg cap.) Things I'll add: 1. Winter's Rain is complete garbage. Damage is low and not a whole lotta stun despite the tooltip. Especially when compared to the normal Ares X slash. 2. There's an easier way to Infinite Ares Loop without skills. (You can find the video on my channel.) In a fight that isn't Sir Barrold, the need rarely occurs; however, it is nice to use to increase SBA damage if your party is abusing the game's mechanics to extend boss sandbagging phase. 3. Guardian's Honor procs every time you use a skill to summon Ares when he would normally disappear. This is great for EL since you will be using EL off cd and FB to extend Ares. 4. Finally, Supplementary Damage sigil actually stacks with Katalina's Ares' supplemental damage sigil and gives a flat 20% (like war elemental). Its a lot of investment and grind so don't sweat it too much but yeah. Good guide. Would recommend. 4/5
guardian’s honor could work very well for CC and lightwall build. you can spam XY after azure sword to get around 10-11 combos which is 50% CD before counting cascade etc. btw great vid! also kat is the reason i bought relink in the first place xD ❤
Ive been waiting for someone to make a good Kat guide! I've been playing and maining her since i started the game (i love rapiers and ice spells). I felt like I had a pretty solid understanding of her, and this video proves that, but i wanted more info just to iron things out. Thanks for the vid!
At 10:50 how did you "store" Ares gauge there when you were actively using Ares? He jumped away, you interrupted the Ares infinites yet your gauge was still full when Ares disappeared , how do you do that?
The buff from Azure Sword was still active, preventing him from leaving. After the buff wears off, if ares isn't currently active, it acts as if you have full meter.
0:10 Well, Former i would say, after She discovered Lyria and what the Empire was doing with her, She freed her and fled with her and vowed to protect her! :P She is basically now a fugitive on the run ever since, but considering the Captain and his Crazy Crew, alongside the fact that they have done quite a lot of good in the world, i doubt anybody dares to approach them :P
