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I normally do not participate and refrain from posting on these forums, but I feel like I may have to pitch in. We should only give our legitimate personal experiences with the characters we're knowledgeable with and actually play, instead of comparing other characters merely based upon rumors of what other people say about their specific character, and what YOU theorize what YOU think determines the said character is harder to play than the other character. Experience is a better teacher than analysis. We only qualify to give the comparisons of the two different characters IF we have the actual proper knowledge and experience beforehand to even begin to compare the two.
With that being said, for me PERSONALLY, Spear Lann is the hardest in terms of the most difficult character OVERALL to master. I was going to say "OVERALL to play", but I think some people might just correlate "play" with "DPS", which is entirely not the point, just only partially. I say overall, because in order to determine what makes each character more difficult overall than the other are determined by several factors: character vs boss match-up, survivability, optimal combat performance, etc. I'm not saying spear lann is the hardest just because he's my main, and want to make out as if their own character is the hardest just so I can "feel special". I have a good amount of experience with other characters as well. I have several Golden Gods, Glaive Lynn included. She is definitely my second hardest. My plan was to get Golden God for every character, but I lost interest simply due to boredom, not difficulty, even for Twin Sword Vella. So, no Golden God Twin Sword Vella. Few may argue that you can play like a coward in Ein Lach, and that it takes no skill, just patience to get Golden god. Well if that's the case, Spear Lann was and is still the hardest because even though sometimes I did try to play safe, there was some danger to that as well, since you just drag the fight on for a long time. Usually, there are match-ups more heavily favored towards certain characters than others. However for spears, every Ein Lach was a struggle. I got Golden God with spears as a testament to my hard work. I was the only Spear Lann that got Golden God on all spears in the NA and EU region before the +0.13s dodge and 50% Ein Lach boss health reduction, not because I was "good", but as a testament to my hard work ethic. What I'm trying to say is, is that regardless of how difficult your character may be, you can accomplish anything due to a testament of your hard work ethic. Of course, there are characters more easier than others in terms of overall difficulty, but ultimately in the end, it's you, as the player to master your character.
As you can see, everyone has a different opinion on which character is the hardest. Experience is a better teacher than analysis, and your mileage may vary.
Sprint smash is very useful. Absolute fury is useful as well, but more beneficial to Spear Lanns. Absolute fury covers incredible range very quickly. Although the cost of absolute fury is 50 SP, you will still gain 25 SP if the absolute fury connects. It is exactly like regular gliding fury. Sword Lanns rely on a percentage-based crit to get a lightning fury off of absolute fury. Spear Lanns have that option too, but in the event that absolute fury does not crit, they can moonsplitter as a secondary/back-up option. It also lets you bypass the first 3 normal attacks to get to moonsplitter, so you can immediately start chaining combos. Ex. Absolute fury (no crit) -> Moonsplitter -> Gliding Fury -> Lightning Fury.
Sprint smash does the exact same damage as dodge rolling into the boss, except without the benefit of iframes. Dodge rolling or sprint smashing is the fastest way for spear lanns to get a crit. Sprint smash has a slightly longer range than dodge roll, but also a much bigger hitbox. The usefulness of sprint smash comes from the width of the attack's hitbox as it has the ability to graze the boss with the side of your weapon. When you sprint smash the side of the boss, you can gliding fury the same direction to make the boss turn even further before they turn to face you. You sort of juke the boss, if that makes sense.
For sprint smash demonstrations, I'll post a video and list some timestamps on instances where I use sprint smash. Just to give a better perspective on the hitbox of the sprint smash, take note at 16:23. I sprint smash literally away from the boss, but the hit still connects, so I was able to get a gliding fury off of the critical sprint smash. The hitbox of sprint smash will hit behind you as long as you are in contact range of the boss. Also, at 1:09 and 11:20, I used gliding fury as an evasive maneuver since Succubus Queen was about to attack, but take note of the sprint smash hitbox.
Disregard obsession with damage output. It’s more complicated than that, and not your fault. Besides, you always have room for growth as a player to keep getting better, so don’t worry. My friend Atherion explained it perfectly on how you should fight Neamhain with Spear Lann, so I won’t go over the actual fight itself.
Damage differences towards the boss is strongly reliant on character vs. boss matchup, the character itself, and of course the effort and skill of the player as well. I’ll explain.
I thought up of this simple venn diagram that may help you and give you a better perspective regarding boss fights in Vindictus. Incase you don’t know what a venn diagram is, a venn diagram is a diagram of two circles overlapping each other showing their relations of each other.
In the left side of the circle, you have your character, their utilities, speed, etc. In the right side of the circle, you have the boss’ attack patterns. In the middle circle, are all your options you have available to take advantage of the boss. So remember this because it’s very important, just because you have all those skills at your disposal, does not necessarily mean you always have each of those options readily available. Your damage output will always be conflicted due to the boss’ attack patterns, the frequency of their attacks, as well as the specific character you are playing. Neamhain especially, certainly isn’t a sandbag.
If you obsess about damage output, just remember this.
There is a fine line between aggression and recklessness.
