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Darth Vader: Force Guide

Overview:

Darth Vader is a powerful character to play in this game. He has improved hit points. His force powers are choke and throw. He has the ability to float/hover. His saber I would classify as strong, and his dash is powerful.

To begin, Vader moves at a slower walk than the normal pace. To first get use to Vader, you must get use to his pace. If you have played any normal speed hero or villain, Vader will seem slow to you. His dash is faster than normal dash though, which will give you an advantage when chasing an enemy. If you are completely new to Vader, try dashing into bots to get the distance and timing down. At first you will miss a lot. You'll find that as you dash, you want to click your saber just before you reach the enemy, because he does an extra lunge. If you click your saber as you would another character when on top of the enemy, you'll find that you miss.

Now if you think Vader is slow walking, you will find he is even slower while choking. Choke is very valuable to Vader. Once you have an enemy in choke, if they are in saber range, they are dead. Unless there is lag, and you choke for even just one second and start the saber combo, the enemy will die. Occasionally with lag, or higher ping someone can roll out of your swing once you stop choking. The trick to this is: hold choke for more than a second if you have enough power, and begin your swing. The game is built so there is half a second recovery time after choke where the enemy drops to their feet. In this time if you have already begun your saber combo, the character will die.

Because Vader's movement is slower, you'll want to avoid long distance choking. Yes choke has the same range as push, but it is worthless to you at that range. If you are going to long distance choke, you need to do so at a distance where you can dash into them before they recover, otherwise you may get pushed/pulled, or they will roll away. Once you are familiar with the distance of your choke, I would recommend setting your dash to ¾ of that distance max, else your prey may escape.

There is always the advantage of choking someone until your power is drained, and if you are in a safe spot, wait for power to come back. They will generally either run away or come after you, both work to your advantage. If they come after you, you will have refreshed enough power to stop them with another choke. If you are in range: Dash and kill, or saber combo for a finish. If they run, you can either catch up with a dash (they are at half health anyway), or you can stalk them via roof floating. This brings me to my next point, Floating.

For those who don't know, to activate float you hit jump twice. While you are floating or falling, Vader has an extremely powerful downward hit. Put this together with his sprint and you are very lethal at a long distance. Aiming your downward hit takes practice. If you have a target on a roof in the distance, begin by sprinting and hit jump before you leave your platform this will make you soar through the air. As you get to a closer point, you can click your mouse and Vader will begin his downward descent, while in this downward descent you can control it be using the directional keys. If you are straight on, your forward and backward will prove useful. If you feel you will overshoot your target, hold down the backward key and Vader's descent will slightly slow down. You have little time to make these changes because his downward attack is fast.

Another trick to floating is the choke float. Once you are floating you can choke an opponent at the same distance you would. This requires careful aim. When you are floating and the opponent is choking, to finish them off, just click you mouse. You are already pointed at them, and if you are close enough they will not roll out of the attack, because it follows the same principle as ground choking (they have half a second recover time). The choke float is especially useful when you are on the ground below your opponent on the roof. Just slightly float up until you are high enough to do your downward hit.

Vader's saber combo is strong and his single click can interrupt a few of the hero dashes. I find that moving to the side, away from the enemies saber while comboing, is the safest place to be. If a Luke or Yoda is dashing you, sidestep and single click generally stuns them. It's tougher against the others but still can be done. His backslash is harder to time and it does take practice. It seems most effective when you are moving slightly away from them.

I will not spend much time on any of these posts regarding saber throw. This is really just aim and click. I will say however, an opponent tends to dodge it when they see it coming by moving left or right. When you are in a saber throw battle with someone, throw to one side of them. They walk into it half of the time. I have won many fights with saber throw by pre-predicting the way the opponent will flee to.

As everyone knows, against saber throw or saber combos for that matter, block is fickle. I always say it works 5% of the time, when in essence it works about 60%. The trick to blocking seems to be putting it up at the last second. I tend to block more when this happens. Now some sabers go through block no matter what, primarily Maul, Luke, and Aayla, so you want to not have block up when fighting these and get yourself in a defensive position to choke.

I will close each of my posts with a section on how to fight a specific enemy:

Vader vs. Pullers:

The simple fact about pulling is that it has a huge distance. Against a puller it is best to block you from them with an object. Pullers tend to hug open spaces or roofs, so it makes it difficult to just fight them in the open. I have found it most effective to stay behind the domes on the buildings and wait for them to come to you, or if they are below you: choke and drop over and finish them. If they are further and are facing you don't even try the sprint jump, you will get pulled. If the puller is on a roof, get down on the ground and shield yourself from them with the building they are standing on. Then do the float choke and downward hit. This is very effective. Over time, you will still be pulled from behind no matter what, so get use to it.

Vader vs. Pushers:

Pushers are the easiest for Vader to kill besides gunners. Their push has the same range as choke, so if they are close enough to attempt to push you (which you will block) all you have to do is hit choke and go in for the kill. Now power pool may not permit a block fight (ie, you are both blocking to see who runs out first), With Vader make sure you are near a building to hide behind. Pushers tend to chase, so you will build enough power to be able to choke them when they come after you.

Vader vs. Dashers:

Plain and simple, the game makes it so when they get close and you are trying to choke them, they will stop at your front door. You won't be able to stop them from a roof as they are sprinting unless they begin to swing. Once they begin their swing in a dash, choke takes hold. This is just the way it is.

Vader vs. Gunners:

Poor Leia, Han, and Chewie. Choke 'em. If you don't, they will run, jump, flee, roll, shoot, or blow you up. They will complain saying "Pretty sad to choke a gunner." My response to that is simple "Ok next time I'll just let you kill me." If you want to be noble and go no force, so be it, then dash is your best bet with Vader, but if you just want the kill and not to be headshot or blown up, just choke and kill.

As stated previously, these are my own findings, tips and tricks. Some may work well for you and some may not. I have had success with every tip, or else I wouldn't have put them in here. If I have forgotten something, it is most likely that I don't use it, or have found it ineffective.