ArcheBlade Sewon Basic Guide

ArcheBlade Sewon Basic Guide by ScypherZero

Credentials

I’ve played Sewon since the Open Beta release here on Steam, and continue to play him when I can (there has lately been an influx of Sewon players oddly enough) essentially he is my main character.

I have also played numerous other games, both teams and solo, primarily fighting games such as BlazBlue, King of Fighters XIII, Samurai Shodown II (seriously, I am probably the last person in the US who still plays this game), Street Fighter 4 (from original to AE), Persona 4: Arena, and Soul Calibur II. I am also currently learning Guilty Gear and Street Fighter x Tekken.

I have dabbled in LoL, though I have played MOBA games (a term I personally hate, I much prefer AoS or Aeon of Strife) since their relative ‘boom’ during the Warcraft III map creation days. Though I suppose looking at it now that was the start and the boom really occurred when HoN and LoL really took off. Either way, I also have played shooters such as Battlefield 2 and 3 which do rely on teamwork as much as LoL or HoN does.

So with just a minor part of my gaming background let’s begin.

General Information

Despite Sewon’s looks, he isn’t a tank. He has either average, or slightly below average health, which regulates his role in combat to mainly support, harrassment, stalling, and distraction.

One thing every Sewon player needs to be aware of is the power of their F key skill. It cures all status effects, this includes burning, poison, and most importantly Renoah’s (Sniper) Q universal attack.

Sewon’s normal run speed is pretty decent, however, he suffers when chasing down opponents due to most of them (of the freely available ones so far) having some kind of ‘enhanced’ movement skill: Sprint, Roll, Flying, and Teleport. Due to these factors, his high movement speed is almost negated when playing on the 7v7 map, but does come in handy in FFA, 3v3, and 4v4.

Sewon only has one attack that moves him forward any significant degree, that’s his Jump, hereby abbreviated j., Left Mouse Button (LMB) attack. Using this in conjunction with his run will actually boost him forward quite a bit and it may even surprise you how fast you catch up to people like Tiac or Valle (Mace and Hammer), or even Elrath (Scythe). However, landing the hit is another matter. But the important thing is that they will probably 90% of the time freak out and use their meter prematurely, or change direction which can mean all the difference in taking them down or not.

Sewon has, what has been termed, a ‘double jump skill’ with his j. RMB (Right Mouse Button). I will dig more into the importance of his j. RMB skill later on, but for now just know that using it does two things:
1. It moves Sewon backwards , do not use if you are chasing, but do use if you are being chased.
2. It allows him to get off another jump attack, his j. LMB, right before hitting the ground. This means if you are being chased the j. RMB misses, you can still possibly get the hit on the enemy very low to the ground with his j. LMB, which stuns them long enough to get off his atrociously slow grounded LMB attack combo. However, be warned the timing on this can be tight due to a variety of factors, use your common sense when attempting to do this. Sometimes it might be best to simply block or use his j. RMB attack again, or use his Shift skill (which is called…Shift >.>).

Sewon’s RMB and Alt+RMB both heal your allies, use this after a fight, or even during if you’re being ignored. Never forget your it’s your job to make sure your allies have good life to continue fighting. A good healer Sewon can turn the tide of the battle simply because he keeps people like Tiac and Valle (Hammer and Mace) on the frontlines and Elrath and Renoah (Scythe and Sniper) healthy from counter-sniping attacks.

General Quick List

He has average health, don’t tank, harrass instead.

F Key cures any debuffs, including Sniper’s universal attack

Use j. LMB to compensate for Sewon’s lack of Sprint, Teleport, etc.

His j. RMB moves him backwards, use when chased, and allows for j. LMB afterwards.

RMB and Alt+RMB Heal allies, your allies life is in your hands, don’t forget that.

Defensive Strategy

At first it may seem like Sewon’s defense is lacking, well that’s partially true, but not fully. There are some things you can do to outlast your attackers and even hold out until help arrives. If you are really skilled you can hold off 3 people, however once 4 people come in it’s basically game over.

Sewon’s most important Defensive skill is…his E key, seriously, abuse it. People are confused about how the Guard in this game works, it isn’t that hard. If you use up your Yellow Meter, you can be guard broken. It is worn down by Shift key skills and by guarding. If you keep getting guard broken, stop abusing your shift key skill so much.

Sewon’s j. RMB is his best move. Simple as that. It moves him backwards, has very nice distance, hits angled, stays out for a pretty long time, and hits multiple times. By moving backwards and tossing this move out there in front of your opponent you basically put up a wall that is very hard to deal with. Only Teleports really effectively deal with this attack, and even then it’s really only Renny’s (so far). However, it does have a weakness that if the opponent can get under Sewon before he lets the attack off, it will whiff and you will be punished.

His special move, Shift, mapped to the Shift Key, is almost useless when you are getting attacked. When do you use it then? Simple, when you are being chased, when you are being sniped at, or if your combo just got blocked. Outside of these uses, it’s too slow on start up to really be effective, and you should save the meter for blocking.

Sewon’s Shift skill has been made much more useful and I encourage its use as a defensive tool now. This is effective in causing the opponent to whiff their attack completely and allows you to mount a counter attack, or get away under the right circumstances!

Sewon’s Q Skill, life swap, is also another move that is nearly useless. It takes way too long to actually activate and can normally have its super armor properties broken way before then. So when is it useful? 1v1 or 2v1 it can be effective if activated before the opponents attack you. You might also be able to sneak up on someone and use this skill for a quick life swap into kill though that’s beyond rare. Even with these two situations, it’s fairly useless. Also it can also hit your allies, and in an even worse situation give life to the opponent you thought was about to attack you before your allies showed up and nearly killed him. Just stay away from using this skill.

NOTE: Sewon’s Q skill has been changed and it is slightly more effective now. I still recommend using it more as a sneak tactic, but the changes to it, instant activation and decrease charging time, have made this more useful. I cannot fully recommend using it, but it is now a viable tool you have.

His Alt+RMB and RMB attack can actually be used defensively due to the super armor property, though the Alt+RMB (hereby referred to as EX RMB) is much more useful due to the instant start up of it. The problem with this, however, is that the super armor goes away once Sewon jumps into the air to slam the ball down. So it’s a risky gamble, but sometimes it pays off.

Defensive Quick List

Use the E Key, seriously. It uses the yellow bar in the right corner when blocking attacks, run out get guard broken. Don’t run out.

Use j. RMB to keep enemies away (zone out) while trying to escape.

Use Shift after an opponent’s combo if they like to mash, or before an enemy attacks you, or don’t use it at all.

Don’t use Q.

EX RMB and RMB can be used for their super armor, but it’s risky.

Offensive Strategies

They’re none existent, don’t bother.

I kid, I kid. Offensively Sewon doesn’t actually offer much, but he can be very useful either way.

Sewon’s basic combo, and probably everyone’s basic combo, should be LMB>RMB (read: LMB then RMB). Not only is this safe for Sewon, but it’s fast, and if the opponent drops their guard they get knocked into the air. Sewon can juggle this twice before the timing becomes tight and you risk the person dropping out, so after the second juggle transition into his actually LMBx3 combo.

Combo Pattern
For Light Characters: LMB>RMB *juggle* LMB>RMB *juggle* LMB>LMB>LMB
For Heavy Characters: LMB>RMB *juggle* LMB>LMB>LMB

If you drop the LMB>RMB juggle, or the enemy blocks it, you can jump away and use j. RMB thereby establishing distance and keeping the opponent away. Sewon favors the mid-range due to his j. RMB being so strong.

If you want to be more aggressive, j. LMB will move you forward, as mentioned before, and if hit properly will stun the enemy long enough for a transition into your LMB>RMB combo. You can also do this after a blocked LMB>RMB and you might be able to beat out your opponent’s attack due to the speed of it.

In Team fights, I recommend just using j. RMB unless you can Back Attack an opponent, this is because your j. RMB will actually keep them in place better than your LMBx3 combo, and it will auto-interrupt any attack they were doing, barring special circumstances, which means your teammates can keep on attacking. If you gain the back of the enemy your goal should be to either get them into the air with LMB>RMB or keep them in place with LMBx3. The added damage is great for Sewon and your teammates will appreciate the assist.

Offensive Quick List

Basic blockstring: LMB>RMB, basic combo on hit: LMB>RMB into LMB>RMB into LMB>LMB>LMB

If you drop second LMB>RMB, use j. RMB to make space.

Want to be aggressive? Use j. LMB to get in, or after dropped LMB>RMB juggle.

Team Fights: use j. RMB to keep opponent in place and slowly move to their backside, once there use LMB>LMB>LMB combo to score nice damage.

EDIT: I made an edit to Sewon’s combo patterns as it turns out that the heavy characters actually fall a bit too fast to connect the second LMB>RMB juggle. Instead players should just go for the basic LMBx3 attack after the first LMB>RMB on those characters.