BF Combat System Things I Have Noticed
Counter seems to be the best reaction in most circumstances, even if you fail the counter. Narrowly Countering (success?) gives me as much damage mitigation as succeeding a dodge or a brace (which seem to give about the same mitigation with a success with a little more damage taken on a failed dodge).
Failed countering is the best failed reaction. I take less damage failing a counter than I do failing a brace or a dodge.
This is presuming 'same power level' on the counter. If someone uses a level 3 attack on you, it'd cost mana to use a level 3 back on them so you might not want to do that. However, if you have no 'counters' on your counter, you can probably get away with using a level 1 to succeed a counter on them for no mana. Failing a counter that's a level 3 does about as much the same damage to you as failing a brace. Succeeding in a level 1 counter against a 3 means you take less damage than if you had braced and you do some damage back! For no mana!
As a side note, every 'reaction' seems to result in a 'narrowly' qualify except for 'failed' or 'critical success'. Narrowly seems to be the standard 'success' measurement.
So the ideal battling method to me seems to be 'check power level, if it's not especially high--counter. If it is, brace. Dodge only if you'll die without a critical success.
0 composure seems in most instances qualifiably worse than high composure. The only time composure is superior is if you have allies with you--this is system intended. However, this presumes that your allies are going to 'Cheer' you and you won't be immediately taunted and lose your cheer. In a sense, the system seems to be doing the opposite as of intended here. A somewhat high composure and a level 6 finisher will probably win you more days simply because of the autogain of morale from succeeding at hitting something. It also means that you'll probably likely take out an opponent with your level 6 finisher after 6ish rounds (it is not hard to succeed at an attack but this isn't a for sure thing). 0 Composure seems more likely to keep you from ever reaching your finisher. A bad guy can give you a round--or two and let you get up to maybe 30-40 morale before taunting you. Possibly tauntquipping you. Either way, you probably won't get into finisher range unless someone immediately cheers you or the combat ends up going a long time, possibly because you taunted back and kept them from using their finisher.
0 composure people are probably best using taunt on themselves to increase the chance of using a finisher.
Antagonists can probably win most fights just by following the edict of A) Not using a finisher and B) Not letting an opponent use a finisher.
Even a level 6 exhausted finisher will do over 30 damage on a successful reaction. Without that I've done up to around 86. Ultimately, you want to use your finisher first before your opponent can use theirs but you only want to use it if it will kill them. I 'narrowly dodged' a finisher and took 70 before but it was probably a high level finisher since I used mine first (it was a boss) but didn't kill it, therefore it could've used a high one that would've probably killed me no matter what I did. In other words, don't use finishers on bosses until it's out of boss hp and keep them taunted.
Failing a reaction does not increase the fail chance, only succeeding. So you might as well just spam your best until you succeed, swap to something else to get the counter back down to 0, then go back to countering.
Failed countering is the best failed reaction. I take less damage failing a counter than I do failing a brace or a dodge.
This is presuming 'same power level' on the counter. If someone uses a level 3 attack on you, it'd cost mana to use a level 3 back on them so you might not want to do that. However, if you have no 'counters' on your counter, you can probably get away with using a level 1 to succeed a counter on them for no mana. Failing a counter that's a level 3 does about as much the same damage to you as failing a brace. Succeeding in a level 1 counter against a 3 means you take less damage than if you had braced and you do some damage back! For no mana!
As a side note, every 'reaction' seems to result in a 'narrowly' qualify except for 'failed' or 'critical success'. Narrowly seems to be the standard 'success' measurement.
So the ideal battling method to me seems to be 'check power level, if it's not especially high--counter. If it is, brace. Dodge only if you'll die without a critical success.
0 composure seems in most instances qualifiably worse than high composure. The only time composure is superior is if you have allies with you--this is system intended. However, this presumes that your allies are going to 'Cheer' you and you won't be immediately taunted and lose your cheer. In a sense, the system seems to be doing the opposite as of intended here. A somewhat high composure and a level 6 finisher will probably win you more days simply because of the autogain of morale from succeeding at hitting something. It also means that you'll probably likely take out an opponent with your level 6 finisher after 6ish rounds (it is not hard to succeed at an attack but this isn't a for sure thing). 0 Composure seems more likely to keep you from ever reaching your finisher. A bad guy can give you a round--or two and let you get up to maybe 30-40 morale before taunting you. Possibly tauntquipping you. Either way, you probably won't get into finisher range unless someone immediately cheers you or the combat ends up going a long time, possibly because you taunted back and kept them from using their finisher.
0 composure people are probably best using taunt on themselves to increase the chance of using a finisher.
Antagonists can probably win most fights just by following the edict of A) Not using a finisher and B) Not letting an opponent use a finisher.
Even a level 6 exhausted finisher will do over 30 damage on a successful reaction. Without that I've done up to around 86. Ultimately, you want to use your finisher first before your opponent can use theirs but you only want to use it if it will kill them. I 'narrowly dodged' a finisher and took 70 before but it was probably a high level finisher since I used mine first (it was a boss) but didn't kill it, therefore it could've used a high one that would've probably killed me no matter what I did. In other words, don't use finishers on bosses until it's out of boss hp and keep them taunted.
Failing a reaction does not increase the fail chance, only succeeding. So you might as well just spam your best until you succeed, swap to something else to get the counter back down to 0, then go back to countering.