Non-Tenryu Katana Guide

My first guide... correct me if I'm wrong. Criticism is open. This guide is only composed of what I have known so far. Take it as a rookie's opinion. I won't put too much numbers in since it gives me headache. I'm still not familiar with skill constant and multiplier so i might be wrong in some points.
When making a Tenryu build with a side dish of Garyou, Garyou won't work well damage-wise. You either lose a lot of cdmg and atk% if the build is focused on unsheathe which is not good for Garyou and vice versa. If your looking for tenryu build, then this thread isn't for you to look at. The point is that this build focuses on short range damage, atk% and cdmg. If your asking "oh, how can you deal damage while stacking Garyou?". Just shtssttptstp. A lot of players doesn't see the potential of spamming Magadachi (Tenryu Ransei Zannou) or countering every aoe/single target attack with Zantei with the right timing and a lot of ampr. Advance players can spam Magadachi even faster with GSW but the disadvantage is that the motion speed might be too fast for Zantei to parry an attack. So extra timing and a good reaction time is needed. So yeah... keep spamming Magadachi (Tenryu Ransei Zannou) and Zantei to parry until you get that 10/10 Garyou stack. Magadachi deals a decent damage anyways when it is a Tenryu Ransei Zannou.

Starting with stat...
Since this is a non-Tenryu type, it doesn't matter whether you choose STR>DEX or DEX>STR, for me at least. It will depend on your preference. STR>DEX if u want that juicy cdmg and stab or DEX>STR if you prefer higher atk since katana's weapon attack is relatively low. Putting vitality is ridiculous if Kairiki will only drain that HP for you.

Spoiler: Weapon

• Modestia is overrated... Yes i said it myself (pls don't hate). I can't see why sacrifice atk% and cdmg for a measly 100 cr, 1000 aspd and 10 ampr. You can get that with volgagon and zarth (or the ring xtal i can't remember the name of). And as for 100cr, you can easily get that with full crit equips. But this doesn't mean it is not recommended, I can see why a lot of people liked modestia so much due to its better playing performance. It is also recommended for crit resistant bosses/minibosses. So modestia is a must have at least. Good performance, low damage output for spam Magadachi, Zantei and Garyou type
• 4th anniv katana IX is also recommended, straight to the point, we have dex%, short range damage, cr and p.pierce. Recommended for tough bosses with high p.def. Nevermind the unsheathe, this isn't tenryu.
• Death Samurai Sword III is not that bad, it has 4.5k HP and 100cr. Not to mention its fire element but it's the same point as Modestia unless the enemy is an earth elemental, then it is an advantage.
• Orion's Sword same point with DSS III but change the element to dmg to neutral. Good for neutral bosses/minibosses. (rip npc crystal lamina)

The weapons above are event weapons and only acquirable during events.

• Player made ACD10%CDCR20CR20% is highly recommended for damage output of Garyou, Magadachi and Zantei. You got atk% and cdmg which is needed for non-Tenryu build.

Weapon Xtals:

• Gwaimol STR>DEX (recommended)
• Tyrant machina DEX>STR (recommended)
• Mardula for ampr (recommended)
• Megiston the Champion if your crit sucks
• Neo Maton Sword if you need -aggro

My point is that, for me, damage output is more important than better performance(considering ampr, aspd, crit hits and all that) so player made a10fc20 is what i recommend in this type of build. I mean dealing decent damage is also good performance isn't it?
As for the xtals, either start with gwaimol or tyrant machina depending on your preferred stat. If you wanna go 2 slots, I recommend mardula for its ampr.

Spoiler: Armor

• Assassin garb for low budget. Decent critical rate and not to mention p.pierce
• A>7%CD10%CDCR20 recommended. Not a lot to say about it but yeah... if you have budget then buy it.

Armor Xtals:

• Usami for mp and atk% (recommended)
• Sapphire Roga for HP and a lil bit of weap.atk%
• Pyxtica for cdmg and p.pierce
• Tuscog for atk%

For armor xtals, Usami is the best choice since it has both atk and mp. Why Usami instead of Mom Fluck? Mom fluck gives too much mp. I will explain this later about overall mp. As for Sapphire Roga's HP, i think it's meh. Up to you if you want more HP. If you will only die with one hit because of GSW and get drained with Kairiki, what's the whole point of having 4k HP actually. For 2 slot adventurers garb, go for Usami Tuscog/Pyxtica.

Spoiler: Additional gears

• Full Beard stats are the best
• Ice Cape(non tumble) or Heart Knapsack for atk and p.pierce
• Squirrel tail for crit and p.pierce
• Yashiro Azuki's Dad's Mask has decent attack and aspd
• Devil Circlet(-20cr) if you are using modestia/DSSIII/Orion's sword

Additional Gear Xtals:

• Baphomela for short range damage (recomended)
• Tuscog for atk%
• Wandering Wheel for atk% and aspd
• Yashiro Azuki's Dad compliments full beard stats. It has short range damage, atk% and aspd. (recommended)

Short range damage is highly recommended. As I mentioned earlier, katana's weapon atk is relatively low, short range damage does contribute to the overall damage more than atk% does. I can't prove it with numbers but I've tried comparing it. (If anyone can prove me wrong about this, I will appreciate it)
Start with baphomela for 1 slot add gear and if you're rich enough for 2nd slot, go for yashiro dad.

Spoiler: Special Gear

• Machina Ring, 2 slot of course, 300 mp isn't that bad to have and also it's cheap (recommended)
• Beast Fang Talisman (2 slot) if you want to have more mp and 1 ampr.

Special Gear Xtals

• Tuscog for atk% (recommended)
• Venena for mp, stability and a little bit of atk% (recommended)
• Seele if your critical still sucks
• Volgagon if you want that aspd so bad.

"Oh, why didn't you put dark talisman (power) or hallucination spore?" I don't want to assume that you are rich enough that you can afford 2 slotted rings (except machina ring). What I am trying to say is that 2 slot is highly recommended for this or else your build will suck. BFT 2s is a mid budget ring so I still recommend it. Venena is needed for its mp and tuscog for atk%. Swap tuscog for seele if you suck at critting (it's not a word lol).

Spoiler: Food Buffs

In the order from most importance:
MP at least level 6
Ampr at least level 6
Critical rate at least level 7
HP at least level 6
Weapon attack/STR/DEX/-Aggro any of your choice
For cooking your own food buffs, go for critical rate if most of your characters are critical dependent dps. The most important thing is, have friends or guild. Even trade your food buff to others or ask someone politely if you can add them for their food buff.

Spoiler: Skills

I'm not going to go through all skill trees. I'm only going through the most important ones.
Mononofu Skills:

• Level 10 Bushido, Two-Handed and Kairiki. This is self-explanatory actually, I don't need to elaborate.
• Sukuchi - level 10, why? you ask?, You don't want to waste that 50 ampr of 1st attack or when you dash to chase fast bosses.. You can also step a bit backwards to trigger this everytime you attack.
• Tenryu Ransei level 1, for triggering Tenryu Ransei Zannou
• Magadachi and Zantei Settetsu level 10, you need to make the most damage with this while stacking your garyou.
• Garyou Tensei level 10, this is your ultimate skill. Has physical pierce but low critical rate. Need kairiki before casting this skill. Make sure it is max stacked 10/10 for higher damage output.

Passives and Buffs:

• God Speed Wield (halberd skill) level 10 for aspd and mostion speed. Risky due to -p.resist and -m.resist. For advance players. Know and memorize attack pattern of bosses/minibosses before using this skill. This buff won't disappear when parrying attacks with Magadachi or Zantei.
• Quick Aura, Warcry and Brave Aura level 10.
• MP Up and Critical Up again, self-explanatory.

Bouncing blade can be useless because it can't parry an attack. The mp reduction is good though.
Other compulsory skills are magic impact(lvl 7), finale(lvl 1), decoy shot(lvl 10) and quick draw(lvl 10)
The disadvantage of Tenryu Ransei Zannou is that you won't inflict armor break when countering with Zantei.

Spoiler: Combo

Nothing much to put in here.

• Magic impact > Garyou Tensei (smite) > Finale (smite) - Garyou combo
• Pulse blade > Decoy shot (save) > Finale (smite) - Decoy combo
• Kairiki > Warcry (save) > Finale (smite) - Buff combo

Why short combos? Making longer combos makes you vulnerable to attacks especially if you use GSW. Zantei is better with manual because you need the timing for it.

Spoiler: My Own Personal Build

Stat - STR>DEX

4th Anniv Katana IX @113+S ACD10CDCRCR20 1s (Gwaimol)
Adventurers Garb A7CD10CDCR20 2s (Usami+Tuscog)
Full beard 1s (Baphomela) / Bear hat 1s (Bapho)
Machina Ring (Tuscog+Venena)

Avatar Stats - 7ampr(acc), 4ampr(top), 5cdmg(bot)

Food Buffs - lvl7 cr (+18) (my own) lvl8 ampr(+22) lvl8 mp (+720) lvl8 HP(+3800) lvl8 w.atk (+72)

Total crititical rate: 25 base + 26 weapon +20 armor + 5 crit up +18 food buff + 5 two-handed = 99% , for crit resist bosses + 15 bear hat = 114%

Total MP - 100 base + 100 bushido + 300 mp up + 300 usami + 720 food buff + 500 venena - 200 tuscogs = 1820
*If you use mom fluck (+700mp) instead of usami, you will get 2200+ mp instead but the limit is 2000 so usami is better with 3%atk and 300mp.

Total stab - 255str(+5% in full beard and +6% in gwaimol) 21% + 70% weap stab + 5% two-handed + 2% venena = 98% (100% at lvl cap with str 270+)

I hope this helps as a reference to mid budget build.

About stacking Garyou, spamming tenryu ransei zannou is actually the best to do. Yes it is slow and time taking. My point is that while stacking Garyou, you actually inflict actual damage. Instead of throwing pulse blade or doing long 1mp combos with pathetic damage, why not deal a decent damage while going for that 10/10 stack? You also won't compete with the proration from other tenryu users. Kairiki is also very important for its 50ampr, spamming needs a lot of mp so make use of that and decoy. As for the short combos, I made it like that to make my gameplay simple. I want to move most of the time so that I will have time to cast Magadachi or Zantei when an attack comes to me.
In conclusion, my overall point is that it's good to have a simple gameplay, dealing decent damage and have a good timing. Katana class is not that complicated, only the users made it so. With the long combo, the backstep and triple thrust style, tenryu spamming, proration competition. Tenryu always makes me worry about the 30 seconds time limit and stacking it to 4/4. It makes me panic in some way. That's why I changed to non-Tenryu type with burst damage and simpler gameplay. The only thing I hate about playing with this style is the attack interruptions of other players especially tanks. When you're about to Zantei from aoe attack but tank flinch/tumble/stun... agghhhhhhhghhh. I'm looking at you knux tank. Tell me if any of you katana users can relate to this.

My guide ends here, some points might be inaccurate and vague but I tried my best. Remember that this guide is composed of what I have known so far and my opinions on trivial matters. If any of you have disagreements and criticism, feel free to say it. It may help me in some way.

 

Well, you can still deal a lot of tenryuu damage with an atk% and cdmg build.

 

Hasso Happa, Alongside with Tenryu Ransei are best dps skills, Zantei Settetsu is very situational that cannot even compete to those two (and you cannot relied on Zantei pretty much due to your evasion rate from GSW, if the boss attacks 2/3 times in a row, you are dead). And Garyou Tensei sometimes suck too because of three factors: slow charge time without Tenryu Ransei/ Bouncing Blade/ Hasso Happa, bosses will always graze and the third one is evasion/ guard.

Your Decoy combo seems very long according to the cast time and the cast animation (0.9 + 1.8 = 2.7 seconds)), you should change the save tag to swift tag so the cast animation will be much faster than putting save tag on it.

This skill will always be treated as an opener, not a tool to parry some attacks (much faster than ad-lib / meikyo shisui).

Pulse Blade is the best tool to charge up Garyou Tensei when the boss switched to anti - melee mode aka spikes.

And finally, may sound rude to you but without Tenryu Ransei or at least Hasso Happa lvl 10, not only your damage output will be lowered alot but also you might become the burden of your team too (very low damage output). So try to get Hasso Happa lvl 10 if you still insist of getting Tenryu Ransei (I've experimented a lot of katana builds before, dex - agi was included).

 

Katana has 4 skills to save your day, tenryuu ransei:zannou, zantei settetsu, triple thrust, and backstep. Everyone should learn backstep.

 

I see, I never anticipated that Hasso Happa can do better performance than Tenryu Ransei: Zannou.

Your point of evading during Zantei w/GSW is good but it's for playing safe if evasion didn't trigger. Not for dealing damage all the time. I still have Magadachi (Tenryu Ransei: Zannou) to spam if no attacks coming to me.

For Garyou Tensei not being able to hit, I think it's a good gamble when casting it. It's a side dps that does burst damage, again, not for dealing damage all the time.

Reconsidering to faster decoy combo. Thanks for the idea of charging Garyou with pulse blade while boss goes anti-melee. I've done this before but not while bosses goes anti-melee (I realized that doing pulse blade all the time is a waste of time so I stopped). Lesson learnt for me.

I might get Hasso Happa to Lvl10 considering what you said about better damage output. My point here is that I do simpler gameplay with just spaming Magadachi (Tenryu Ransei: Zannou) in my mind. This is my current playstyle, people have their own. My damage output is decent, not high, and I think it's fun doing one skill spams.

I appreciate your points, it's helpful but I'll stick into my style whether it can be good or not. Having fun playing is a good thing as well.

 

When you said non-tenryu, I remembered this build. I once saw a video about katana user doing normal attack to don yeti for 200k, idk what equips he used though.

 

That's normal attack build... basically, you ruin proration so normal attacks deal more damage.

 

The decoy also packs a punch. Instead of save tag you use smite instead

 

But I guess any kinds of normal attack still lose compared to t4 skills