I think I'm revisiting that old feeling of "I totally thought I posted in this thread." While some things change, some remain the same... Anyway...
Chachan's fighting style has always been on the more defensive, protective side. He leaned more to using his shield than his sword, and his desire to keep others from harm oft put him in a position where that preference is utilized. His pacifistic nature just further kept him from using the sword of the sword-and-board combo, frequently pulling his strikes and purposely blunting his weaponry.
Of course, he's been pretty frequently chided for his viewpoint in a world that is as dangerous and unfriendly as Hydaelyn. However, in his own stubbornly childish way, he sticks to trying to figure out a way to fight without hurting people too much. To that end he actually has developed a sort of... deterrence-style for fighting? It heavily revolves around both his skill at smithing (most notably being able to quickly identify weaknesses and flaws in weapons in armor, usually for repairs but turned into a sort of combat ability) and some understanding of pressure points and the like from a scroll he got from one Berrod Armstrong. Plus a bit of unarmed knowledge that was kinda-sorta "absorbed" from his frequent training with Virara.
As such, he's sort of moved to a hammer-and-shield sort of style - with his hammer being used to strike at those key points to destroy people's equipment. Should they continue to be aggressive (or are the type of fighter that eschews armor or weapons, such as monks and caster-types), he tries to go for knock-outs and disabling moves. Thanks to his practice with Virara, he can continue doing these latter techniques even if divested from his armor. In a sort of ironic twist of things, he's managed to adapt a couple of her more basic skills (which were all designed to be highly disruptive and potentially lethal) into less dangerous but still relatively effective alternatives.
... How this will proceed into Stormblood, I'm not so sure. I've mentioned him potentially going the SAM route since I've joked that's kind of what he's been for a while... but I'll have to see how that all plays out. Maybe downgrade his shield into a heavily-armored gauntlet to allow for more mobility and quicker transition to using unarmed if needed. At the very least, I have a fun little headcanon of him - at some point or another - doing that very anime "samurai finish" iai-strike style move with his hammer and just causing all of someone's equipment to explode apart simultaneously. Still a bit of a pipe dream, though.
Chachan's fighting style has always been on the more defensive, protective side. He leaned more to using his shield than his sword, and his desire to keep others from harm oft put him in a position where that preference is utilized. His pacifistic nature just further kept him from using the sword of the sword-and-board combo, frequently pulling his strikes and purposely blunting his weaponry.
Of course, he's been pretty frequently chided for his viewpoint in a world that is as dangerous and unfriendly as Hydaelyn. However, in his own stubbornly childish way, he sticks to trying to figure out a way to fight without hurting people too much. To that end he actually has developed a sort of... deterrence-style for fighting? It heavily revolves around both his skill at smithing (most notably being able to quickly identify weaknesses and flaws in weapons in armor, usually for repairs but turned into a sort of combat ability) and some understanding of pressure points and the like from a scroll he got from one Berrod Armstrong. Plus a bit of unarmed knowledge that was kinda-sorta "absorbed" from his frequent training with Virara.
As such, he's sort of moved to a hammer-and-shield sort of style - with his hammer being used to strike at those key points to destroy people's equipment. Should they continue to be aggressive (or are the type of fighter that eschews armor or weapons, such as monks and caster-types), he tries to go for knock-outs and disabling moves. Thanks to his practice with Virara, he can continue doing these latter techniques even if divested from his armor. In a sort of ironic twist of things, he's managed to adapt a couple of her more basic skills (which were all designed to be highly disruptive and potentially lethal) into less dangerous but still relatively effective alternatives.
... How this will proceed into Stormblood, I'm not so sure. I've mentioned him potentially going the SAM route since I've joked that's kind of what he's been for a while... but I'll have to see how that all plays out. Maybe downgrade his shield into a heavily-armored gauntlet to allow for more mobility and quicker transition to using unarmed if needed. At the very least, I have a fun little headcanon of him - at some point or another - doing that very anime "samurai finish" iai-strike style move with his hammer and just causing all of someone's equipment to explode apart simultaneously. Still a bit of a pipe dream, though.
~