Forms of Defense

In Vindictus, one is attacked by enemies. Although there are many methods of surviving, there are four main types of defence that all skills and tactics fall under.

They are invulnerability frames, blocking, avoiding, and battle-specific defences.

=Invulnerability Frames=

Skills with invulnerability frames are able to defend against any attacks as long as the frames persist throughout the entire duration of the attack. Whether or not attack can be blocked or not does not matter; invulnerability frames are infallible except by the mentioned attack duration and by one's own timing. Lann's Slip Dash is his primary dodge and has invulnerability frames, while other characters may only have invulnerability frames in their SP skills such as SP: Shield Bash or SP: Shield Charge. Many attacks can be avoided with these types of skills ranging from the simple Gnoll Chieftain's hammer attack to lightning circles from Siglint which Heavy Stander cannot defend against.

Common

 * Dark Knight: Fissure
 * Paladin: Conviction
 * The animation that occurs when transformation finishes

Lann

 * Twin Swords: Slip Dash
 * Twin Spears: Roll
 * Active: Fury No.7

Kai

 * Evasion
 * Active: Dodge Grapple
 * Prey Drive

Evie

 * Scythe: Blink

Fiona

 * SP: Shield Bash
 * SP: Shield Charge

Karok

 * SP: Earthquake
 * SP: Hulking Fury
 * Boss Bash

Vella

 * Storm Step
 * Cross Cut
 * Double Cross
 * SP: Cyclone

=Blocking=

Blocking is a form of defence where one is hit by an attack, but takes no damage nor is armour damaged. The attack effectively "does not affect the character". Most forms of blocking completely nullify the attack and the rest of the attack will no longer damage the character except for following individual combo hits. For example, if one uses Absorb Shock against Thor's Charge, then he is free to touch Thor during the remainder of his charge without being damaged. This does not apply to Mana Amber as it can be hit multiple times by one attack and absorbing an attack using Amber will not guarantee that the user is undamaged if hit by the same attack after coming out of Amber. For example, if you get hit while in Amber during Thor's charge, you will still be damaged if you touch him again while outside of Amber.

Blocking does not prevent certain attacks, which grow in number in later levels. Heavy Stander can block the least amount of attacks as it is dysfunctional against attacks like Titan's spear attack while Weaving and other blocking attacks still work against it. Mana Amber can stand up to the arguably the largest number of attacks such as Glas Ghaibhleann's grab, although certain attacks such as the slow frontal fire breath of Elchulus, while technically blockable, will roast Amber to pieces, damaging the user in the end. When encountered with an unblock-able attack, one must avoid it completely, which is covered in the next section.

While blocking is ineffective against a portion of all attacks, it is characterized by being much easier and lenient to use than skills based off of invulnerability frames. Slip Dash is harder to time than Guard since Slip Dash's invulnerability frames last for 0.3 seconds whereas Guard will continue blocking attacks for as long as the button is held down and stamina prevails.

Fiona

 * Guard
 * Heavy Stander

Evie

 * Mana Amber

Karok

 * Absorb Shock
 * Weaving

=Avoiding=

When an attack cannot be blocked or lasts too long to "capture" within invulnerability frames, the only option left is to outright avoid the attack. This means either running away or executing a skill that lowers the hitbox of the character, thus "ducking" under it. Basically, avoiding means to completely stay out of range of the attack or have it pass over you without touching you. Of course, this means that all characters are capable of performing this feat, with some being better than others. This was the predominant way of survival before Ignition for Spear Lann since their roll did not have invulnerability frames. Jumping is another way to avoid attacks, which is used mainly in Season 2 battles, though some attacks in Season 1 can be avoided or partially avoided with jumping as well.

Chiefly, Fiona's Roll and Evie's hop are actions that are designed to avoid attacks completely, but that is not to say that Karok's roll or any other character's skills with special properties cannot be used to avoid attacks. Nimble Dash has an immense range, allowing one to get away from attacks. Through experience, one can determine which moves allow one to avoid attacks. For example, sprint smash was probably not designed to avoid attacks, but given its quick execution, it is quite useful in this function.

Arguably, outright avoiding attacks may be the most difficult aspect of survival in Vindictus. However, not every attack is able to be avoided by simply staying out of range, and some attacks are too large to run away in time. However, there are situations where avoiding an attack rather than blocking may be able to procure a more viable opening to land an attack. As said earlier, avoiding may be the only way to defend against some unblock-able attacks.

Examples of avoiding are simple running away from attacks such as running away from Gnoll Chieftain's hammer strikes, rolling away from Black Scar's multi-hit charge, and the more complicated Tail Piercing or sprint smash underneath Lionotus's first hit of his two-hit strike (since the sprint smash lowers your hitbox, allowing you to duck underneath the paw).

=Battle-specific Defences=

In some battles, there are mechanisms which provide the team with safety. These accompany attacks by the boss which may be extraordinarily difficult or even impossible to defend against. For example, when Craftsman Colru prepares his multi-hit ball attack, the party must hit the switch on either end of the battlefield to bring up a wall that will intercept the black balls. Active: Dodge Grapple, Slip Dash and perhaps Blink and spear Roll may work too, but they are extremely difficult to pull off successfully. Other characters cannot defend against this attack at all without the wall except maybe by using their 4-bar SP skill like SP: Shield Charge, but that cannot be used all of the time.

=Super Armor=

While it does not eliminate or reduce the amount of damage taken, under certain circumstances, a character may be able to take a hit yet not flinch, allowing them to continue their actions uninterrupted. This may be useful to prevent taking additional hits from the boss due to flinching or to continue attacking uninterrupted for more damage.

Spear Lann's Grand Hurricane has super armour and is a common attack used for it. Lann, Fiona and Vella can make use of Active: Slashing High to, for a short time, not flinch. With Mana Shields active, Evie will not flinch if she takes a hit while focusing. Scythe Evie will not flinch if hit while pulling. All characters can make use of the transformation skill Resistance to not flinch while attacking at a percent chance. Sometimes, if the enemy attacks the player with a normal attack (an attack that Fiona can use Guard against) while the player is attacking using a skill that does not have super armour frames, the player may not flinch.