Garyou VS Tenryu

finally reaching lv 150 with katana I was so ready for more edgy samurai skills.

I watched some youtube clips of katanas, but I wanted to go towards Garyou cuz it looked like something straight from naruto. But people said tenryu is better, so how should I do this?

Right now I took some skill points to garyou but it deals crap dmg. what is the right setup for garyou?

 

Garyou can only reach its full potential when you use specific katana skills that fills the counter you would see under your hp bar also with armor break. It takes a while to set up so it’s not really either or but both you’ll be using. Garyou is just a final move used on tough bosses that has lived your tenryu spam. That’s why you would see most katana users mostly use tenryu

 

-Use tenryu
-Then tenryuu ransei zannou with either magadachi or zantei settetsu.
-do the tenryu till the duration ends
-use zantei to armor break then do smited garyou combo

 

Garyou is good for boss battles lasting 2-3 minutes or more, it needs 10 attacking katana skills as well as kairiki raishin to deal good damage, and inflicting armor break on the boss before Garyou increases the damage even more. Also Garyou is not unsheathe unlike tenryuu, so to increase its damage you would need more atk% and crit damage stats.

 

The game doesn't specify, but what skills strengthen Garyou's power? I know that it stacks up to 10. Also, can I use both for a combo? so does Tenryu also strengthen Garyou's power?

 

Any mononofu skill will add the stack
As for power, Kairiki for pierce and armor break on target to enhance the dmg

 

Needs to be active attacking mononofu skills to be able to add a stack to Garyou, pulse blade, pommel strike, issen, triple thrust, magadachi, zantei, and tenryuu all add to garyou's stack, but meikyo shisui and kairiki are buff skills and will not add to garyous stack

 

Garyou is indeed a good skill, but it'd be better to not relying on it, the conditions that must be met to maximize the potential of Garyou are quite annoying.
You can use Garyou as ur Ultimate Skill (lol), and Tenryu as ur main dps skill. Play normally using tenryu, and then use Garyou when the stack is 10/10.
You don't really have to use Zantei before Garyou especially when u still have Tenryu stack because its gonna be Zannou (doesn't inflict armor break), if you wait the Tenryu stack to runout you gonna lose the momentum and wasted more time. Meanwhile, Kairiki before Garyou is a must because it gives 100% Physical Pierce for Garyou. And also if you're playing in pt and there's an Archer, watch their move, do Garyou when they Snipe (inflict Armor Break).

Oh and if you only use Garyou without Tenryu you gonna put everything on 1 shot, it could get evaded or Guarded.

 

so basically spam tenryu and then if they're alive break-garyou? sounds pretty solid, but what's about tenryu ransei zannou? game doesn't really specify but does it have any other benefits other then reducing the mp?

 

Tenryu gains a stack every time you use it (up to 4), which will increase the skill power of Tenryu.
the problem is that it lasts only 10 seconds and cannot be overwritten, so if you activate it 4 times in succession the proration will act against you and the damage does not increase.
the solution is to use either Magadachi (without parrying an attack) or Zantei, which will expand the duration to 30 seconds. this is just enough to balance proration and actually increase the damage dealt.

doing so, will certainly stack up Garyu. so after Tenryu ends and Zantei can Armor Break again, cast Kaikiri to recover mp and balance proration. then shortly before it ends, parry an attack with Zantei to inflict Armor Break, then unleash Garyu.
Garyu will end Kaikiri, regardless of how much time was left, so it is strongly recommended to use it towards the end of the buff time.
since you need another Zantei before Garyu, 9 stacks is enough preparation.

 

Tenryu should be your main DPS, it's way faster, especially against lower def bosses. Garyou is usually used as additional DPS. Tenryu Ransei: Zannou grants you a short period of invincibility. Its MP cost doesn't get reduced, the only skill that gets its cost reduced is Tenryu itself.

The downside is, you won't be able to inflict armor break with Zantei if it transforms into Zannou.