Tips: Swordbearer

So in Crota's End at the boss fight the swordbearer usually makes it or breaks it for the team, making swordbearer players very valuable, especially on hard mode. On normal mode: Crota is killed with 12 R2 smashes if you're lvl 32. Pretty simple, just go each round 3 hits (1st round: 3hits - 3hits, 2nd round: 3hits - 3hits). Maybe play it safe (1:4, 2:4, ogres, 3:4 or 1:2-2, 2:2-2, 3:2-2). Or be aggressive (1:4-4, 2:4). For nomenclature, 3hits - 3hits or 3-3 means you take Crota's shields down, hit 3 times get off him, take the shields down again and hit him 3 times more. Also, these hits are when you're basically right on Crota since, from experience, distance between the sword and Crota seems to matter (needs further analysis) On hard mode: Crota is killed with 18 R2 smashes if you're lvl 32, with enrage occurring at the 14th smash. Now we get crafty. Since he enrages on 14th smash, you should only hit him a max of 13 times, deal with ogres, and finish with 5. Personal favorite (1:4-4, 2:3-2, ogres, 3:3-2), since it ensures that if you mess up, it doesn't matter as much since it's in the beginning and also ensures that in the 2nd round the 2nd pickup only requires 2 hits which gives you plenty of time to depart from Crota. Usual way (1:4-3, 2:3-3, ogres, 3:3-2), not bad at all, hence why so many swing the sword this style due to its success rate Super aggressive (1:4-3-3. 2:4-4 or anything else you see on youtube) Practicing with your hunter class should be easy, and with the more aggressive styles the one more feasible, not meaning to say I haven't seen any great swordbearers that weren't hunters (i've actually seen a couple). Typical setup: Hunter crouches on left or right rock next to Crota stage, goes invisible and jumps next to Crota. Team brings shields down and swordbearer smashes Crota, drops sword (triangle) and melees Crota (blink strike - invisibility), picks up sword, and waits for team to bring shields down again. The toughest part: timing. Since carrying a sword means you're in third person use the camera angles to look up at Crota's shield bar. This takes getting used to where you try to smash [i]just[/i] as he's kneeling (if not before) to get the most hits before he stands back up. Make sure you're actually hitting him/damaging him - you can see the damage being dealt as being in the 15,000 range - keep track of how many of those you've done. If you're a good swordbearer, everyone will come flocking to you asking for you to be on their team. That being said, there is a significant bias favoring Hunter swordbearers.