Phalanx

"Phalanx has a wide array of fencing techniques such as thrusts and lunges. Boasting many straight but long attacks, Phalanx requires a fair bit of precision, but a player who can use his immense reach to their advantage can be very successful in the arena." - Official Description

Breakdown by Weapon
-Rapier-

With Rapiers, most of Phalanx' damage is contained to his fast forwards, which provides excellent damage in a single stance. However, his attacks have a low frame advantage, meaning the combo ability and damage of his fast forwards diminish greatly against skilled players.

Phalanx' parryability with his sides is among the best in the game, allowing him to make the most use of the Rapier's parry traits.

As guard is not useful against anything but fast attacks, players must make use of parrying to defend against higher-stance attacks, leaving him with a potent, but extremely technical, defense. This creates a dynamic where Phalanx is extremely powerful and easy at lower tiers due to his fast stance; at high tiers, however, Rapier Phalanx caters to extremely advanced, technical gameplay, making use of carefully spaced and timed parries as a setup tool to stun the opponent and open them up for a quick fast thrust.

-Longsword-

Longsword Phalanx offers consistent damage output across all attacks. Its high base damage and multihit rate means he is capable of outputting consistently high damage with any attack.

-Katana- A rare and extremely technical setup. Phalanx' middling base damage values mean he won't be able to pull off the most devastating attacks with his 2x damage bonus. However, thanks to the low-locktime and high movement in his attack animations, he can make great use of feint not only to trick his opponent, but to gain additional mobility. Of course, without a defensive blocktech he is left at a disadvantage unless the user is extremely adept at avoiding attacks with movement tools and parries.

-Jian- Jian Phalanx is a viable setup. It requires a large amount of practice in order to time intercepts, which any jian user must make use of. The bonus air damage is also necessary for jian users to keep in mind.

-Scimitar-

Multi-hits rule when using this setup, and the entire goal of a scimitar Phalanx should be to set up situations in which he/she can use an attack with a high multi-hit count. The attacks with the largest multi-hit potential for Phalanx are, in decreasing order: Tier 1 Balanced 2, Tier 2 Fast 2, Tier 2 Light 3.

Gameplay
Playstyle

Fast Stance

F1 -

F2 -

F3 -

F4 -

FL -

FR -

Balanced Stance

B1 -

B2 -

BL -

BR -

Heavy Stance

H1 -

HL -

HR -

Air

A1 -

AL -

AR -

Common Tactics

Basic Combos

Further Reading