Loss of Hugo's 3rd attack, chapter 4

[physicsguy]

I was hoping that someone on this board would be able to help me resolve this very annoying issue dealing with the number of Hugo's attacks. At the end of chapter 3, Hugo had 3 attacks and showed 3 attacks in the action bar at the bottom. However, now that I've entered chapter 4, the 3rd attack with Hugo still shows on the action bar but he does not make a 3rd swing. Hugo is my FC, and I did not change any of his equipment between chapters, the only change being the game switching his haziness rune to the true fire rune. To clarify, this happens when Hugo is solo or mounted, and he will not attempt a 3rd swing under any circumstances now, although the action bar clearly shows he should. Movement is also not a factor, as this happens when Hugo is standing next to any enemy. No other characters have this difficulty, as I have Emily showing 4 swings and delivering 4 swings in the same party. The only thing I can think of is that the haziness rune has something to do with it, but that affects evade not speed and does not explain why the action bar shows 3 attacks.

Here is his relevant setup. Swing A. Continual Attack B+. Spd 134. Has Fury and True Fire rune. Equipped with Wizard Hat, Master Garb, Iron Boots, Fire Magic Ring, and Medicine. If anyone has any ideas it would be great.

[KFCrispy]

you sure it was haziness? i would guess that since none of your equipment changed, Hugo originally had a Gale Rune... from what i recall, it does take a while for Hugo to naturally obtain his 3rd attack, and once he gets there it's not that difficult to get his 4th.

[physicsguy]

I know it wasn't a gale rune because I never managed to get a gale rune. During the early chapters I attempted to farm one from blade bunnies but was unsuccessful. In addition, the haziness rune was in my inventory at the beginning of chapter 4 since it was removed when the true fire rune was added. My hugo is level 49, and since he aquires a total of 4 swings (from the swing faq) at level 60, it makes sense that he should have 3 attacks at level 49 with his max swing rank( he did in chapter 3). However, in a battle I just fought, Hugo engaged in 3 separate attack chains of 1 attack each (all on different targets due to continual attack) yet only took 2 swings on a target the round before (both swings hit, target still lived). I am really really baffled by this, I'm probably going to forget his swing skill and then relearn it and see if that has any effect. Thanks for the input though.

[eldrasidar]

technically, he doesn't achieve 4 swings by level 60, he achieves 4 swings by speed 160 or so, which he should have by mid 50's, and it is actually, there isn't much difference in speed between 3 swings and 4 swings, as the speed to swing ratio is a curve not a straight line.

[KFCrispy]

re-reading this... "Hugo engaged in 3 separate attack chains of 1 attack each" while only being able to hit a target twice is totally possible if the time to do the first strike and moving to a new target is a lot smaller than getting the second strike. I don't know if it's certain, but sometimes the second or third swing's execution time is relatively large compared to the first strike, so you can fit 3 first strikes + move to separate targets in but can't fit a full 3-hit combo into a single target. indeed Hugo's 3rd hit is that spinning uppercut that has a long recovery time..
Another example is missing an enemy who doesn't dodge to end your chain (like a Golem). Once a miss occurs, the first strike is used again. For some, that first strike can be fast enough that they end up attacking more times than predicted in the action bar. This is just in theory, but Emily could possibly attack 9+ times instead of 8 if she misses and restarts her chain before attempting to execute a long attack. i know the 4th attack DOES actually take long because it's a spinning double-kick with a long recover time. if she missed the 3rd attack she starts over on the first quick attack. a good test might be giving Emily a Hunter Rune, so she misses basically every attack--she might actually attack 9 or more times since the first strike is so quick.

"yet only took 2 swings on a target the round before" - besides the explanation above, this can occur if the character has the ability to hit 3 times but the distance he/she has to travel eats up too much time, preventing all 3 hits from coming out that round.

i would have asked what the prediction bar looks like when selecting Attack while Hugo is standing right in front of an enemy, but this thread is very old already.