VG Combat : Creating & exploiting weaknesses

Posted by Draedus in Vanguard News, Vanguard Guides

If you’ve played MMORPG’s for any length of time you’re well aware of the benefit a team mate’s buffs & crowd control abilities bring to an engagement. Vanguard goes a step further - In addition to damage improvement & mitigation buffs and aggro management Sigil introduced a whole new layer to combat strategy by pairing up synergistic cross-class combat weaknesses & exploitations. This means that players of one class can land blows that create a weakness in enemies, which players of another class may be able to exploit. Think of it as setting up the volley ball for your team mates spike.

Check out the complete VG Weaknesses & Exploits chart

Each class has moves that subject their target to a lasting effect such as a Monks ‘Ashen Hand’ ability which can render the target ‘vulnerable’. This is creates a weakness that other classes can exploit. Once the target is effected by a weakness, certain abilities can exploit the weakness - some players can exploit the weaknesses they create, sometimes a weakness can be exploited by another player of a different class. If you have a move that you don’t use very often because it seems to output nominal damage, you may want to review the VG Weakness & Exploits chart carefully, chances are it creates a weakness that a well picked partner can exploit. What would normally be 2 nominally effective moves, by two seperate fighters, now becomes a deadly combination dealing significant damage (set > spike!)

Below is a great example of a fairly powerful duo - a Monk and a Warrior - they share a number of synergistic weakness/exploit opportunities. One possible scenario could go like this… Monk attacks with ‘Ashen Hand’ (creates weakness Vulnerable) > Warrior exploits with ‘Devastating Blow’ (creates weakness Staggered) > Monk exploits using ‘Deadly Adder Hand’ (creating weakness Afflicted) > Warrior exploits using ‘Savage Cut’

	Warrior	Monk
Afflicted	(E) Savage Cut	(C) Deadly Adder Hand
Enraged	(C) Shout of Defiance (C) Taunting Strike	(C) Boundless Fist (E) Six Dragon Strike
Staggered	(C) Devasting Blow (E) Brutal Strike	(C) Staggered Punch (E) Cresecent Kick (E) Deadly Adder Hand
Vulnerable	(E) Devasting Blow (E) Taunting Strike	(C) Ashen Hand

Check out the complete VG Weaknesses & Exploits chart

Effective strategy that includes leveraging the various class abilities, managing aggro and now exploiting weakness can significantly improve your group damage output, and overall combat effectiveness. If you haven’t been giving it much attention to the little icons that pop up under your targets, now you can(and should). Armed with the information from the VG Weakness & Exploits chart and a bit of experimentation & practice you can deal with mobs much more efficently.

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