Florentine
Offense
Spinning Blades
ATTACK.
Cost: 10 Initiative
AOE 180 degree arc
You gain Adrenaline; this effect stacks up to 3 times.
Adrenaline: +2% offense, +2% damage
All of the Adrenaline attacks are most effective when you chain them three times within the duration of the buff, and then periodically refresh them. The buff lasts for 15 seconds, which gives 6 opportunities to do something other than refresh the buff before you need to use this skill again. Even without the buff, though, it is a significant improvement over both Thrust and Sweep with a very low initiative cost.
Mark
ATTACK.
Cost: 20 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +40%. Target gains Marked.
Marked: -5% dodge, parry
Mark is the fundamental debuff on which all of Florentine's offense skills are built. Targets you are attacking should always be Marked. Marked targets are easier for your allies to hit, as well.
Momentum
BUFF.
Cost: 0 Initiative
Your initiative regeneration rate increases by +3/s for 15s and +1/s thereafter (60s).
Momentum will substantially increase your initiative regeneration, allowing you to use more expensive skills more often, or use a Stance without running out of initiative. Momentum should be kept active as much as possible, and should be reapplied when you finish using an expensive attack or sequence of attacks.
Precise Strike
ATTACK.
Cost: 30 Initiative
Single Target
Damage: +60%. Only usable on a Marked target. +40 accuracy. Marked is removed.
Precise Strike is an almost guaranteed high-damage hit on a Marked target. +40 accuracy will bypass almost any normal defense. Marked is consumed, so you'll need to reapply it afterwards.
Group Momentum
BUFF.
Cost: 30 Initiative
The initiative regeneration rate of you and nearby allies is increased by +1/s (60s).
Use this skill in a group and your allies will love you forever. It doesn't have the burst effectiveness of your own personal Momentum buff, so you should remember to use your own buff as well.
Rending Strike
ATTACK.
Cost: 30 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +40%. If target is Marked, target gains Weakened and Shaken (15s) and Marked is removed. You gain Flowing Attack (Preparation) (12s).
Weakened: -10% damage, -5% parry
Shaken: -10% offense
Flowing Attack (Preparation): +5 accuracy
Rending Strike, while an effective skill on its own, is intended to be paired with the following skill, Dual Fangs. It is one of the only skills to apply two debuffs simultaneously, and is therefore extremely effective even without Dual Fangs. It consumes Marked, which means you will need to reapply it, but see the discussion of Dual Fangs, below.
Dual Fangs
ATTACK.
Cost: 40 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +80%. If target is Weakened or Shaken, target takes 15 health damage for each effect, and Weakened and Shaken are removed. Target gains Marked. If you have Flowing Attack (Preparation), it is removed and you gain +5 accuracy and +5% damage (15s); this effect stacks up to 3 times.
Marked: -5% dodge, parry
Dual Fangs is the companion skill to Rending Strike. By using these two skills in sequence, you can continuously deliver high-damage attacks and debuffs for as long as your initiative holds out. Rending Strike applies the Flowing Attack preparation effect, and Dual Fangs removes that effect and replaces it with Flowing Attack, a significant accuracy and damage buff that stacks. It also reapplies Marked, allowing you to immediately re-use Rending Strike. Each sequence also inflicts 30 points of instant health damage as the Weakened and Shaken debuffs are removed.
Rising Strike
ATTACK.
Cost: 60 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +120%. Dodge and Parry against this attack are only 50% effective.
Rising Strike, like Fencing's Trompement and Dirty Fighting's Overwhelm, substantially bypasses a target's defenses. Unlike those two skills, it is defense-agnostic, bypassing Dodge and Parry equally. This makes it a good general-purpose high accuracy attack against specialized builds that focus on maximizing one of the two defenses.
Defense
Light Footed
BUFF.
Cost: 20 Initiative
You gain Light Footed (600s). This buff is twice as effective for the first 15 seconds.
Light Footed: +30% dodge
Light Footed is the basic Florentine defensive skill. However, Dodge carries a hidden initiative cost; each time you dodge an attack, you lose a small quantity of initiative. Against a large number of opponents, this may cause your initiative to drop precipitously; be careful and use Momentum if necessary to sustain your initiative.
Reversal
ATTACK.
Cost: 20 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +20%. If target has Precision, Intensity or Balanced, target takes 10 health damage for each effect.
Reversal allows you to punish heavily buffed enemies. While the additional damage does not compensate for the benefits they're receiving from Precision, Intensity and Balance, it can even the playing field. Against a coordinated group that's applying all three buffs, it can quickly add up to lethal damage.
Hamstring
ATTACK (TAUNT).
Cost: 20 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +20%. Adds a large amount of hate to target. Target gains Crippled (15s).
Crippled: -50% movement speed
This skill is the Florentine school's Taunt. In a group, if you're acting as the tank, you'll want to use Hamstring frequently to ensure the enemies stay focused on you. The Crippled effect allows you to put distance between yourself and the enemies, and can compensate for an over-eager ally who manages to pull one of the enemies off you.
Regain Footing
RECOVERY.
Cost: 30 Initiative
Only usable if you are Off-Balance. Off-Balance is removed, and you gain +15% parry and dodge (15s).
Regain Footing inverts the penalties from Off-Balance. It is primarily useful in PvP against Florentine and Dirty Fighting enemies, as well as any enemy specializing in gun skills.
Second Wind
RECOVERY.
Cost: 30 Initiative
You instantly gain 25 health and 50 guard.
Second Wind is Florentine's defensive heal. It recovers both health and guard; it is not as large a heal overall as Fencing's guard recovery, nor is it as large an amount of health as Dirty Fighting's health recovery, but it is more flexible than the former and overall more effective than the latter.
Corps-a-Corps
ATTACK.
Cost: 30 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +20%. If target is Crippled, target takes 10 health damage, gains Stunned (6s), and Crippled is removed.
Stunned: Cannot move, attack, use skills, dodge or parry. Any damage inflicted on this target will break the stun.
Stuns allow you to temporarily take one or more targets out of the fight. By combining Hamstring and Corps-a-Corps, you can keep enemies focused on you and mitigate their ability to damage you at the same time.
Fluid Defense
BUFF.
Cost: 40 Initiative
You gain +50% parry and dodge (15s).
Fluid Defense is similar to the major Parry and Dodge buffs of the other schools, but is more general and thus has no special weaknesses. Attacks that bypass dodge or parry will still have a difficult time bypassing Fluid Defense.
Untouchable
BUFF
Cost: 60 Initiative
You gain 30% damage resistance, +20% parry and +10% dodge (180s) but suffer a 40% damage penalty.
Untouchable is the core defensive skill for Florentine. While you are tanking, you should have Untouchable active at all times. Its large damage reduction and defensive bonuses will allow you to survive many enemies hitting you at once. The damage penalty means you'll want an ally to help with the actual killing, of course.
Control
Trip
ATTACK.
Cost: 10 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Target gains Staggered (30s).
Staggered: -1/s initiative recovery rate, -25% movement speed
Trip is an inexpensive snare that allows you to move away from groups of enemies and prevent them from attacking you en masse. In PvP, its initiative recovery rate debuff will significantly impact an enemy's ability to use skills, and the movement speed debuff will make it difficult for an enemy to circle away from your frontal attacks.
Elegant Loop
ATTACK.
Cost: 0 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +20%. You instantly regain 50 initiative.
Even though this skill is only usable every 30 seconds, it still represents a substantial increase in your rate of initiative recovery, allowing you to use more of your high-end skills. When combined with Momentum, it will allow a vastly higher rate of skill use than any other fighting school.
Coup de Grace
ATTACK.
Cost: 20 Initiative
AOE 90 degree arc
Damage: +20%. If target is Staggered, target takes 20 health damage and Staggered is removed.
The bonus damage from this skill is applied directly to Health, bypassing Guard, and the Staggered effect is relatively inexpensive to re-apply.
Flashing Blades
DEBUFF.
Cost: 30 Initiative
AOE 360 degree arc
All targets gain Off-Balance (15s).
Off-Balance: -15% dodge, parry
Flashing Blades affects every enemy within 12 yards of you. The defense penalty from Off-Balance is very substantial and will make enemies far easier to hit and kill, so against large groups of enemies this skill should be used as often as it's available and you have the initiative to spend.
Spring Attack
ATTACK.
Cost: 30 Initiative
AOE 270 degree arc
All targets gain Staggered (15s).
Staggered: -1/s initiative recovery rate, -25% movement speed
A more expensive upgrade to Trip, this skill will allow Staggered to be applied to almost every enemy around you. This makes it excellent for escaping a bad situation and regrouping, or setting up all your enemies for the Coup de Grace skill.
Group Resolve
RECOVERY.
Cost: 30 Initiative
Only usable if you are Weakened. Weakened is removed from you and nearby allies. Each person losing Weakened gains +5% damage and +5% parry (15s).
Particularly effective against Fencing opponents using Appel. Group Resolve is the group version of the Dirty Fighting skill Resolve.
Spinning Slice
ATTACK.
Cost: 40 Initiative
AOE 270 degree arc
Damage: +20%. All targets gain Crippled (15s).
Crippled: -50% movement speed
Spinning Slice is a very effective snare that will catch almost every nearby enemy. It allows you to control many enemies at once in a large melee, maneuvering them (and around them) to keep them from all hitting you at once. Against other players, the large snare will allow you to easily move out of their attack arcs.
Cyclone
ATTACK.
Cost: 60 Initiative
AOE 360 degree arc
Damage: +80%.
Cyclone is a high-damage attack that will hit every single target around you. In combination with Spinning Slice and Spring Attack, this will allow you to move through groups of enemies, attacking them while keeping them from attacking you.
