[Creative]

Reading purely the movements is a very beginner's way of reading skills.
Dont read the monster movements as much as the skill load up times.

Train urself by using ur own skills as reference.


For instance stand still and take turns loading up the 4 basic melee skills. Smash, Defense, Counterattack, and Windmill. U'll notice that smash has a noticeably longer load time than the other 3, u will also notice that windmill has a noticeably shorter load time than the other 3. Lastly u will see that defense and counter have the same load times, faster than smash but slower than windmill.


Do it until u get a good sense of how long the skill bubble flashes before each skill is ready. That way when ur facing a monster, all u have to do is focus on his skill bubble when it surfaces and u can get an immediate read as to what the skill is. This way will give u a much faster initial read on the situation and in turn translates to more time to react.


If u see that the monster's skill is taking a longer time to ready than usual, its smashing, if u see that its taking a much shorter time to load and the monster is standing still, its windmill. If its anything inbetween those 2 extremes its either defense or counter, in which case u then go to the movements. Slow walk = defense, stillness = counter.


Now as u progress u will learn that there are exceptions to even this rule that will trick ur judgement such as:

(read carefully and try to see what im saying)

-Some monsters will show a defense/counter skill load time, be standing still, but in actuality be doing defense and not counter.

-Some monster can show a smash load time, then run towards u and cancel it and be doing a normal attack instead.

*always be on ur toes*


Use this as ur foundation towards more accurate reads and start to develop a strategy for every monster. U should be catering to monster AI's more so than trying to just judge by their movements.

Gl and hope this helps (: