Heathcliff

INFORMATION

FROM:

SWORD ART ONLINE

RACE:

KNIGHTS OF THE BLOOD OATH COMMANDER

WEAPONS:

1HAND SWORD ONLY

MAIN ELEMENT:

ROLE:

ATTACKER
TANK
DEBUFFER

UNLOCK:

Paid DLC in Version 2.01

~SWORD SKILLS~

Show/Hide Rapier Sword Skills

	NAME	SKILL DESCRIPTION
	Carnelian Shield	Rushing attack. Charges forward with the shield bashing targets along path. Has Guard Point. COOLDOWN: 3
	Avenger	Counter attack. Drops into a defensive stands and couners incoming attacks with a vicious shield bash. Only activates upon receiving damage during start-up of attack (Projectiles & magic do not count). If no damage is received, a different attack is performed. COOLDOWN:* 3
	Noble Gust	Rushing attack. Dashes forward and thrusts the sword at a point, damaging enemies in path. COOLDOWN: 3
	Ruler Punishment	Combo attack. Charges forward behind the shield and then performs a single overhead slash. Has Guard Point. COOLDOWN: 10
	Brave Quartet	Combo attack. 4 short range cascading thrusts. COOLDOWN: 10
	Phalanx Roar	Area of Effect attack. Thrusts the sword upward generating a barrier around Heathcliff that damages enemies within its vicinity. COOLDOWN: 10
	Tempest Rush	Area of Effect attack. Performs two heavy horizontal slashes covering a wide area. COOLDOWN: 15
	The Universe	Combo attack. Charges in with the shield and unleashes a length combo ending in a heavy overhead slash. COOLDOWN: 30

~OFFENSIVE MAGIC SKILLS~

Show/Hide Offensive Magic Skills

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	Thunderbolt	Fire small thunder ball. Low chance to paralyze enemy. Power increases with skill level.

~HEALING & BUFFS~

Show/Hide Healing & Buffs

	NAME	DESCRIPTION
	Revive	Allows the user to come back from the dead. One use per cast. Amount recovered is increased with skill level
	Stamina Boost	Decreases amount of Stamina used. Amount recovered is increased with skill level
	Regenerate	Slowly regenerates player HP over a period of time. Amount recovered is increased with skill level.
	Sharpness	Increases Party Attack by 20%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Protection	Increases Party Defense by 17%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Magia	Increases Party Magical Power by 30% (Including Healing Magic). Duration is increased with skill level.
	Quick	Increases Party Movement Speed by 50%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Resist Fire	Increases Party Fire Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Aqua	Increases Party Ice Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Aero	Increases Party Wind Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Soil	Increases Party Earth Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Dark	Increases Party Dark Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Resist Holy	Increases Party Holy Resistance by 33%. Duration increases with skill level.
	Exhaust	Decreases Enemy Attack by 20%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Weakness	Decreases Enemy Defense by 25%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Slow	Decreases Enemy Movement Speed by 50%. Duration is increased with skill level.
	Bind	Inflict Bind status on enemy. Cast time is reduced with skill level.
	Battle Shout	Draw aggro from enemies within range. Effect & range increases with skill level. *Has no effect in online play.

~PASSIVE SKILLS~

Show/Hide Passive Skills

NAME	DESCRIPTION
Accel Fact	Allows the use of Accel Move & Super Jump techniques.
Divine Sword	Heathcliff’s unique fighting style of attacking with both sword and shield.
Increase Physical Defense	Decrease amount of damage received by physical attacks by 10%.
Increase HP	Increases Max HP by 10%.
Increase Fire Resistance	Reduces damage received from Fire based attacks by 20%.
Switch Boost	Increases the power of Switch by 10%.
Increase Ice Resistance	Reduces damage received from Ice based attacks by 20%.
Increase Status Ailment Recovery	Increases the rate of recovery from bad statuses by 20%.
Increase Dark Resistance	Reduces damage received from Dark based attacks by 20%.
Cooldown Time Decrease	Decreases the cooldown time of Sword Skills & Special Moves by 10%.
Increase Earth Resistance	Reduces damage received from Earth based attacks by 20%.
Increase Down Resistance	Increases resistance to DOWN and Stagger status ailments.
Increase Holy Resistance	Reduces damage received from Holy based attacks by 20%.
Skill Connect Boost	Increases power of Skill Connect by 10%.
Increase Wind Resistance	Reduces damage received from Wind based attacks by 20%.
Increase Status Ailment Recovery+	Increases the rate of recovery from bad statuses by 40%.
Increase HP+	Increases Max HP by 30%.
Increase Physical Defense+	Decrease amount of damage received by physical attacks by 20%.
Increase Down Resistance+	Even further increases resistance to DOWN and Stagger status ailments.
[] Stamina Saver	Reduces the cost of stamina based actions by 20%.
[Lv1050] Increase Attack	Increases physical damage dealt by weapons by 10%.
[Lv1100] Boss Blocker	Decreases the damage received from Boss type monsters. (Should be 20%. Possible it could be 30%)
[Lv1200] Increase Rare Drop	Increases the rate of receiving a Rare Drop from an enemy (Most likely by 10%).
Divine Sword Damage Increase	Increases damage of 1Hand Sword by 10%. [Unlocked by Character Level]
Divine Sword Master	A title given to those who have mastered the art of 1Hand Sword. Increases damage of 1Hand Sword by 50%. [Unlocked by Character Level]

~HOW TO PLAY HEATHCLIFF~

This section is written as an more in-depth extension to the AW & SAO Character Overview post and is meant to be used hand in hand with the General Leveling Guide. The purpose of this How-To-Play is to offer players of all levels a skeleton plan which enables them to build their characters up to their full potential. With that being said, it is indeed recommended that you do follow the steps described here.

-Important Skills-

Revive
Stamina Boost
Regenerate
Sharpness
Protection
Magia
Quick
Exhaust
Weakness
Bind
Thunderbolt
All Elemental Resists

-Weapon Selection-

Heathcliff has no major element. But still, if you are able to give him a Max Attack; Half Element Weapon with ~10% Anything or a Half Attack; Max Element Weapon with ~20% Anything, he will become incredibly strong. In most cases, higher base attack is better than elemental attack unless you are willing to switch weapons for each boss weakness.

**For more information on the overall Weapon Building process, consult the Weapon Building Guide.

**For some tips on how to select the appropriate Accessories for your character, consult the Selecting Equipment guide.

-Video of Offensive Skills & Sample Play-

-Using Heathcliff-

Heathcliff is an interesting character. His list of skills is geared towards increasing the defense of the party while at the same time lowering the abilities of bosses. For that reason, he is good at being played as the front line tank with the assistance of Bind and Thunderbolt to incapacitate a boss should things start to get heavy.

When a quest or boss fight starts:

Cast Revive.
Cast Sharpness, Protection, Quick & Magia.
Cast HP & SP Regeneration
Cast The corresponding Elemental Resist to counter the boss’ attacks.
Cast Weakness & Exhaust on the enemies.
Lead the charge in combat.

Remember that when players die in battle, they are revived without any buffs. Recasting buffs when teammates die is a good idea and makes you a wonderful teammate. Of course, in some cases when a player dies non-stop its a waste of time to recast buffs (>.<)

Heathcliff’s lifeblood is Revive. Make sure you keep Revive on at all times. If you die, make casting Revive again your first priority. The cast time is rather lengthy so be sure to keep an eye on your surrounding while casting. Typically, all bosses and mobs should leave you alone once you die so the best time to cast Revive again is at the exact moment you stand up.

Heathcliff has an incredible list of Sword Skills focused on guard point. He is the only character in the game able to continuously attack while ignoring damage. But this isn’t necessarily easy to do because a lot of his moves only have Guard Point during the startup of the attack while he can be hit out of the later half. With a little practice and some good reads on a boss’ attacks, its possible to time each skill in a Skill Connect Combo so that you are able to guard every single attack.

Its also worth highlighting that his Counter Sword Skill might very well be the best in the game. It still does something if he doesn’t receive damage during the skill and it also has full Invulnerability or Guard Point. Since the Counter doesn’t need to receive damage to be an attack, its possible for Heathcliff to Skill Connect from it regardless (Similar to Chrome Disaster’s Counter).

Outside of his high amount of Guard Point skills, Heathcliff also has skills that allow him to travel distance, handle AoE and deal damage. His list of Skills is indeed one of the most balanced list of skills in the game and that’s a testament to his unique fighting style of using both the Sword & Shield to attack and defend simultaneously.

The only thing his list of skills is missing is a swift outlet for damage like Radiant Arc, but what he has is more than enough to make him an solid character that’s enjoyable to play.

When using Heathcliff, be careful of using up all your Guard Point skills in a Skill Connect combo. Don’t combo off of all of them and try to keep at least two open and ready to be used. This means that you should focus on smaller Skill Connect Combos unless you see a huge opening in a boss.

How proficient you are with Heathcliff will come down to how well you can exploit his guard point to avoid damage. Since he has no free access to healing, you have to become able to not take any damage. In a a game like this, not getting hit is a hard task but Heathcliff has all the tools necessary to pull it off.

**Heathcliff’s 1Hand Sword can be changed but his Shield cannot be changed.

-Healing-

Heathcliff does not readily have access to healing. If you take damage with Heathcliff, you will need to rely on Healing Items or the help of a competent healer. But cmon dude. You’re HP isn’t allowed to fall into the yellow when you play Heathcliff. So you don’t need healing, right?

-Controlling Altitude-

Majority of the Bosses in this game do in fact fly. Therefore it is extremely important for characters who cannot fly to know who to maintain a stable altitude where they feel comfortable and are in full control of the situation.

Your 4 main tools for controlling altitude are Square Attacks, Jumps, Super Jumps and Accel Moves.

Since all of the tools used for Vertical Movement consume a considerable amount of Stamina, there are times when you will just have to float in a safe place and use Square Attacks in order to maintain altitude while regenerating Stamina. Square Attacks don’t use any Stamina. So if you ever run out of Stamina, use Square attacks so that you don’t fall all the way to the ground.

Jumps can be used to maintain altitude but be careful. If you use many jumps in quick succession you will rapidly drain your Stamina Gauge and fall right to the ground in failure. For this reason, you should train yourself to use basic jumps only for small adjustments in upward movement as opposed to simply using jumps to maintain altitude.

Super Jumps and Accel Moves are the tools used to cover large amounts of distance. Quite often when you use one of these techniques, you can move a lot more than intended to and be caught off guard that you are now more displaced than you expected to be. This is especially the case with the Super Jump.

When you are in a boss fight and you have fallen considerably far underneath a boss, use the Accel Move in order to get back onto the Boss’ same Altitude level. Note that this will only work if you can still lock on to the boss. Do not use the Super Jump if you can still lock on to the boss unless you are prepared to elevate much higher than the boss. If you cannot lock on to the boss it means that you are really far below a boss and a Super Jump will be needed to put you into lock-on range.

But be careful since using an Accel Move from underneath a Boss puts you directly in front of the boss and you will be vulnerable its attacks.

-BK’s Opinion on Heathcliff-

Damn. This character is awesome. He’s another reason to get serious about leveling 1Hand Swords.

To play him properly, you need to be able to read attacks and react accordingly. That’s not easy to do so I would call him an Advanced Character but man. If you are able to learn him properly, you could straight up never take damage.

Even when you do take damage and die, he has Revive so he can get right back up and fight again.

He’s not that strong in all honesty, but being able to deal a constant stream of damage without breaking a stride makes his DPS higher than you might think.

To truly shine though, he needs to be backed by a competent Healer and Buffer. With those two behind him, he could lead the charge on offense and let other attackers that need the boss to be distracted focus on dealing damage.

I could definitely see some efficient teams built around this character so give him a shot.

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