SAO Unique Skills

[Cryum]

Maybe death gun had the ability to hide his weapon since he requires no movement before an attack. Act of surprise? Art of concealing a weapon is used for surprise attacks and he fits best because of that ability. I think his name was red eye xaxa?

Focusing on the "surprise" aspect of concealing weapons.....

It can't be the same as iai sword skills, but still be capable of surprising the opponent or a way to make you unreadable.

What about inverting the idea of GGO? Instead of telling you in advance where the attack will hit, there is a time lag between the attack/sword skill starting and the target being able to perceive it. Activating this ability needs to be subtle, or automatic when you pull out your weapon, and allows you to assassinate people more easily.

On the other hand, what about invisible weapons? No sword skill glow, just blade wounds once the attack connects.

[TehFabled]

Titan's Grip - able to dual wield two 2 handed weapons, requires immense STR
Shadow Dance - briefly stealth and teleport a set distance, requires immense AGI

[Cryum]

Titan's Grip - able to dual wield two 2 handed weapons, requires immense STR
Shadow Dance - briefly stealth and teleport a set distance, requires immense AGI

Titan's Grip is basically what Kirito has, since he uses immensely heavy "one-handed" swords. If you put everything into STR, it would be better to have one absolutely gigantic weapon, like the one Gleameyes uses.

is AGI a stat in SAO? I thought speed was based on DEX.

[Odomonkey]

For Titans Grip, I think it'd be enough to count as a unique skill if it allowed the use of two handed weapons in a single hand. Combined with a shield, you'd have great defense, attack power and most likely attack range. And instead of the requirement, Kayaba just grants it to his closest vice leader or something at his own discretion (such as how he did for himself) and promotes them to 'Boss of the 99th Floor'

[TehFabled]

Titan's Grip - able to dual wield two 2 handed weapons, requires immense STR
Shadow Dance - briefly stealth and teleport a set distance, requires immense AGI

Titan's Grip is basically what Kirito has, since he uses immensely heavy "one-handed" swords. If you put everything into STR, it would be better to have one absolutely gigantic weapon, like the one Gleameyes uses.

is AGI a stat in SAO? I thought speed was based on DEX.

But kirito still just wields two single handed, titan's allows to wiled say 2 2 handed axes and such.

My bad, i got stats confused from GGO.

[Cryum]

For Titans Grip, I think it'd be enough to count as a unique skill if it allowed the use of two handed weapons in a single hand. Combined with a shield, you'd have great defense, attack power and most likely attack range. And instead of the requirement, Kayaba just grants it to his closest vice leader or something at his own discretion (such as how he did for himself) and promotes them to 'Boss of the 99th Floor'

umm, how would he convince the guy to go AGAINST the people trying to get him out of a coma?

[gn_x00]

For Titans Grip, I think it'd be enough to count as a unique skill if it allowed the use of two handed weapons in a single hand. Combined with a shield, you'd have great defense, attack power and most likely attack range. And instead of the requirement, Kayaba just grants it to his closest vice leader or something at his own discretion (such as how he did for himself) and promotes them to 'Boss of the 99th Floor'

umm, how would he convince the guy to go AGAINST the people trying to get him out of a coma?

Make a deal that he will be saved without considering whatever that will happen to the game (cleared=saved, not cleared=still saved)
though he won't be an efficient boss since I think the idea of killing someone (and he even know some of the people) will already makes him half useful.
Heathcliff might be better to hack into his account and control his character (and even add some more drama like there's some spy/traitor among the clearing group other than Heathcliff himself). though he should save the person whose account is hacked even though the character dies (or it won't be fair for the person)

Of course, if Heathcliff is convincing someone like PoH or other higher ups from Laughing Coffins (or even the whole guild is freed and get a power up) to act as a boss for Floor 99, it will be a different mater.

[Cryum]

That would make for a convincing alternate time line: 99th floor consists of 6-7 unique skill Laughing Coffin members versus the entire clearing team. Because of their focus on PVP, they're able to take down everyone who doesn't have plot armor, leaving Heathcliff and whoever will fight him on the 100th floor.

[Graestra]

I dont think that the skills have to be amazing, they just have to be unique. They could make a skill for my favorite weapon - the scythe. It would be like any other weapon, it would have strengths and weaknesses, but it would super cool. Requirement could be x number of pks or x number of monster beheadings by lance/haliberd, or defeating that boss thats underneath the armys base that that AI girl killed, or being revived by that revival item that kirito got that only works for like 2 min after death.

[Cryum]

I dont think that the skills have to be amazing, they just have to be unique. They could make a skill for my favorite weapon - the scythe. It would be like any other weapon, it would have strengths and weaknesses, but it would super cool. Requirement could be x number of pks or x number of monster beheadings by lance/haliberd, or defeating that boss thats underneath the armys base that that AI girl killed, or being revived by that revival item that kirito got that only works for like 2 min after death.

There are lots of problems with skills like that, first and foremost being the weapon. Having a unique weapon type means that you either have the same weapon for the entire game like Heathcliff(which brings a lot of suspicions on the "fairness" of SAO) or be forced to beg blacksmiths and hunters for unique recipes/drops.

The conditions you stated also don't work too well. The grim reaper boss was a 90s level, and gaining a unique skill that late might make it too impractical to use/learn. Unless the revival thing is a common drop from various side quests, being revived is too specific. What if there was nobody who killed Nicholas the Apostate?

Having lots of PKs would work I suppose, and beheadings are pretty good as well.

The sheer difficulty of gaining and maintaining a unique skill means that it can't just be different, otherwise it's a waste of skill slots. It needs to be game changing, but not game breaking.

For a scythe, I suggest either the ability to smith a sword and a spear together to make the scythe, or you stick with a spear/halberd. The sword skill itself can generate an "arc" that cuts anything in its path as you swing.

The unique point is probably it's ability to kill most living units with ease, having trouble only against undead and agile foes.

The only condition I can think of adding though is that instead of killing a reaper, you must participate in at least x fights against reaper bosses. The skill goes to the one who dealt the most total damage to them if there is a tie.

[carinderyeah]

Sounds Legit..

Though this is about the skills in the anime showing only 2, no 4 special skills (ie. curved blades of Klein, holy sword of Heathcliff, unarmed attack used by Kirito against Kuradeel, and dual blades of Kirito), I am a bit confused. This thread is about expectations right? , uhm in the novel, it says about the 10 special skills. though I only knew the 4 , (1)unarmed is actually martial arts acquired in floor 2 by Kirito with the help of Argo, (2)curved blades by Klein, (3)holy sword of Heathcliff, (4)dual blades of Kirito (though I think the requirement to acquire this would be Kirito undertaking the massive military quest with Asuna from floor 3 to floor 9), I forgot the other six.. Sorry..

[Cryum]

Special is different from unique. There are a lot of skills in SAO that have unknown requirements. For skills like Unarmed, there is a specific quest that must be done. Skills like Katana come from mastering other skills like curved swords, but even knowing that, nobody is sure of the exact requirements.

Unique skills refer to skills that only one person in SAO is allowed to have. Nobody else can be a crusader like Heathcliff, and the requirements for Dual Blades by definition only allow one person to have it.

Kawahara already mentioned some of the other skills(or all; I forgot) had the story continued to the 100th floor. Just check the previous pages for those.