Talk:Enhanced Response/@comment-24634511-20140810172618/@comment-97.126.176.133-20161204154139

I don't get calling this skill "difficult to activate" and then saying "why not just perfect block?" - the window on enhanced response is far more generous than other counter moves (other than Masterful Kill of course) while perfect blocking is much more difficult to time, and even if you use an augment slot (which I would say is generally more valuable than an Assassin's shield skill slot) on Prescience the narrow is still definitely tighter than Enhanced Response.

With that said, I've actually found a pretty good amount of use for this skill. Earlier on while you're still ranking assassin up you have access to Enhanced Response before the advanced forms of the other counter skills, so while you're working toward those this skill can be much safer than trying to utilize the much narrower window of Clarity, and it's safer to use in groups of enemies - I'd often find even when I successfully landed Clarity while fighting a cluster of melee foes, I'd get knocked out of it because it lacks the AoE stunning power of Clairvoyance. Enhanced Response on the other hand launches you safely out of harm's way, then lets you counter with a heavy jumping attack to knock some enemies down. And it can be a bit unreliable to get the positioning right but it is totally possible to use it to leap over a saurian and lop its tail off.

At higher vocation levels though, it's not particularly great at close range, obviously it makes far more sense to use Clairvoyance or Masterful Kill when you're in melee range. Where Enhanced Response excels is blocking ranged attacks that those moves can't deal with. If a saurian or a hellhound spits at you, you can use this skill to easily nullify the attack and close some distance in the resulting leap forward. Probably my favorite use was when I was fighting Grigori recently on my solo character, using Enhanced Response to block wind buffets from wing flaps and slams and grab right onto his heart to Dire Gouge/Hundred Kisses that fool. Also it's generally of more use against large monsters than Clairvoyance since the latter doesn't get the full move against big foes even if it does land, and even the thrust itself often just misses, but that's a bit of a moot point since Masterful Kill is better for countering large monster melee strikes than either of those.

And one other trick it has up its sleeve is the fact that a successful Enhanced Response can never be guard broken, even if you run out of stamina using it, and in the leap afterward you have time to pause and down some mushrooms before landing and entering the exhausted animation. Careful stamina management or Liquid Vim can negate this, but for aggressive stamina-spenders it is one thing that gives a bit of an edge vs perfect blocking.

One thing that I do wish was different about this skill is that you could change the direction of the leap. For a skill designed to get the user out of danger, it can often wind up thrusting you further into it. When a drake does the fly-up then slam move for instance, what I'd like to do is Enhanced Response the first wind buffet then leap backwards out of the way of the slam, but what instead happens is you just jump right into the danger zone and have to expend the stamina on a second use.

Overall though, this skill definitely has more utility than one might initially think. The main problem honestly isn't the skill itself, it's the competition it has. If you're a master of perfect blocking with a regular shield and you don't make a habit of exhausting your stamina then yeah, against ranged attacks an advanced player can just perfect block for days and this skill becomes pretty pointless. Far and away the vast majority of players simply aren't that perfect at timing though, but that's where its other competition comes into play - Swift Castle. That skill is easier to use, more flexible and versatile, and serves basically the same role Enhanced Response does, with the only real advantage of the latter being the rather situational usage of the leap for a heavy attack or climb. So objectively speaking, if you have to make a choice between the two Swift Castle is the one most likely to serve you best in more situations.

I actually run both on my Assassin's shield though, leaving out Showdown even though that's the "good" choice because spending an age charging up for a paltry 60 seconds of buff is just annoying to me, and being a bit weaker offensively just means I get more meat to sink my teeth into every encounter. The reason I choose the less-optimal Enhanced Response over a powerful buff is simply because it's fun to use. Satisfying well-timed counterattacks are the main mechanic that draws me to the Assassin vocation, as well as Mystic Knight and Fighter, and getting that slow-mo and meaty metal crunch is just satisfying to do, even if all I wind up doing afterward is jumping up and plopping back on the ground. And at the end of the day it's a singleplayer game, there's no competition and there's no need to play the Best or Most Perfectly (save to some extent the online Ur-Dragon, where the optimal choice is "spam away with a stronger ranged vocation" anyway), so what really matters in the end is doing what's most fun and enjoyable for your own playstyle.

SO the tl;dr of this whole huge essay is:

- Enhanced Response is perhaps outclassed in some ways by other skills, but it has more utility than you might think, with use against ranged attacks, large monsters, and groups earlygame

- It's video games, do whatever feels best to you (Even if that means disagreeing with every point I've made here and deciding that for yourself that this skill is useless and you'll never bother equipping it!)