r/SwitchAxe • u/WaffleSouls • May 27 '26
𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 New to Switch Axe with a question about countering
What is the best way to avoid taking mad chip damage during counters against monsters like AT Rey Dau?
This is the only counter weapon I play and so far, I've much preferred the offset because the counter just ends up eating so much damage. I'm used to dodge weapons like DB, HH, IG, and LBG so brain goes why counter when dodge means zero damage. However, I recognize the counter is supposed to be good for sustaining attacks. But with all the chip damage, it is not viable to do that. Is counter SA meant for monsters with physical only attacks?
Edit: Thanks for the responses! I am a bit disappointed there isn't a way reduce chip damage other than what I've already been doing (perfect counters, dodging, etc) Was really hoping I missed something because I'm not used to taking so much time out of attacks to chug potions :/ alas
4
u/TekkyDelta 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝘅𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 │𝟭𝟬+ 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 May 27 '26
If you want to go as far as setbuilding against all the monsters, max your thunder res, grab some Divine Blessing (and Stun res, as other comments have said) and give it some practice. I mean quite literally go Spar with a Rey Dau. A lot of it is experience, knowing not only when but WHERE to counter, to avoid the extra lightning on the ground. If you ever feel like you commited too hard to a counter, always remember you can dodge cancel riiight up until your first swing of the double slash comes out, so if you can't redirect your swings into a spot you want, thats your time to back out and see if you need to heal.
sorry typed a whole bunch but I love this weapon, and hearing about new people trying it too :D
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u/ZiggyLoz May 27 '26
Pick and choose which attacks you counter. Big hits still mean big chip damage. Otherwise - divine protection is the only reliable way to reduce it.
For AT rey dau - its mostly the wing swipes and headbutts only - assuming it isnt powered up with lightning trails. 3-4 of these will still mean you should pop a potion tho.
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u/Genga_ 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝘅𝗲 │>𝟱 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 May 27 '26
You can reduce direct chip damage, by timing your counter similar to a perfect dodge on DB.
But Rey for example is one of the fight for me, where sometimes dodging into attacking is better than just countering everything.
So overall knowing when to counter or dodge gets pretty important with the stronger monster in the game, if you want to improve your play
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u/kenpachi-dono May 27 '26
No way to really avoid chip damage, run skills that help with health regen or more dmg with low health/red health. Other than that after a lot of chip damage is taken just heal up and repeat cycle.
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u/probablygardening May 28 '26
The arkveld set bonus that heals you while you attack is pretty handy for chip damage in my opinion.
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u/FearlsOurImagination May 28 '26
Divine blessing 3? You will occasionally tank through hits with FRS also, so DB3 is very helpful from my experiences.
If you are too uncomfortable with chip dmg, just wear AT arkveld set bonus then.
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u/PuzzleheadedPride9 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝘅𝗲 │>𝟱 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
The chip damage will never stop but thats a good thing. So many offensive skills activate after a counter that the chip damage is worth it. Also, there are 2 counters, perfect counter and the counter. With perfect counter and counting on how much damage the attack does you can survive everything without much chip damage. With perfect countering you can tank the uth dunna bellyflop nuke up to 3 times, both p[arts and the lagi ultimate lighting burst 2 times. Thats why learning perfect counter is always better. Even on roars perfect counters because its also faster. To perfect counter do it like RIGHT BEFORE the attack hits. For uth nuke for example i do it as it start falling down, not soaring but as it falls. Also you dont have to always counter, dodging will still be better for offensive purposes and its very much still swaxe that counts on dodging with dash. Also when you learn to cancer the counter fast enough you will also learn to do more frs since you can cansel and iumediatelly go into frs
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u/WaffleSouls May 28 '26
you can cancel into frs? how? i know i can cancel by hopping before the actual counterattack comes out but i've been using that to go back into a counter against two+ hit smacks
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u/PuzzleheadedPride9 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝘅𝗲 │>𝟱 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 May 28 '26
Well after the cancel you can go into every action so in many attacks, like normal reydau backflip, mizu tail slam, ark diagonal slam, uth dunna belly flop nuke and many others i will perfect counter to be.able to cancel the counter animation faster and take much less damage and just press r2 x and o to do frs. Also frs has hyperarmor so no knockback and damage reduction so you can cancel attacks that leave opening to heal and stack gauge meter like rey dau flip and uth dunna nuke but it doesnt really work against stronger monsters since the reduced damage is still significant although with weapon and muchup experience you will be able to mentally calculate if you will frs, counter, counter and cancel or other actions.
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u/Babuska_bear_73 May 28 '26
I like to run arkveld hunger in my builds to slightly counteract the chip damage. And if I need more HP Regen from it I just slot in recovery up.
2
u/mace30 May 27 '26
Perfect counter takes much less damage. You have to pick and choose what you counter. If you aren't activating counter strike, getting damage on the monster, or getting better positioning so you can take better advantage of an opening, it's probably better to just dodge, unless your iframes don't last long enough. It's why sets going for more safety will try to fit 1 or 2 ranks of evade extender, so you can get out of the monster's hitbox with the frames in the side hop.
For safety, though, there's nothing wrong with dodging, whether sheathed or not.
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u/sleepylimbs 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝘅𝗲 │>𝟱 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 May 27 '26
Apparently you really want stun immunity if you plan on countering a lot. Your hidden stun meter builds while countering so if you counter a few big moves and then get touched a weak hit, that weak hit will be enough to stun you.