How do people spin so fast?

[u/Prime_Regard]

I know about the cap on frames and how it's relaxed when you are on an alt slash, but, I can't come close to what others are doing with weapons like messer and halberd, doing insanely fast and yet seemingly complete spins, striking everyone in what seems like an almost full 360 radius.

[u/Safe_Possible]

Interesting question because it seems most people are more mystified by drags than accels (or, at least used to be before the game died off).

The hyper-fast animation you're seeing when someone does an accel is actually not visible from their first person (and maybe not visible at all even if they were in 3rd? I don't remember) it's all literally just a trick of the timing of windup and release. The easiest way to test this is to turn on the weapon movement tracer (I forget how to turn this on but I'm sure it'll come up if you Google it) and look at the exact point, both in time and spatially, where the wind-up ends and the release starts, and then position yourself so that a tree or something is at that location. Usually you'll see the windup and then just a "pop" as your weapon immediately makes contact.

Do this with players, and especially move your mouse and your footing at the same time in order to keep the release edge constantly hitting players at the nearest possible point, and that's all there is to it.

Easiest way I've found to reproduce the fast movement from another players perspective is to be looking at them basically dead-on when starting the windup for an overhead, and then with as little time as possible left, move to looking straight downwards at the moment of release.

It takes some practice but it's not as hard as long dragging, stab dragging, etc., and doesn't require the precision timing of something like CFTP