Mawk's Heroes and Villains Guides: Aayla Secura

Aayla Secura: Force Guide

Overview: Aayla is a very strong character. Her health is normal. Her sabers are more powerful than normal. Her dash is the most powerful in the game and has a chance of killing in one hit. Her force powers are Saber Throw and Force Pull. She is probably the easiest character in the game to play, so I'm going to try to be as brief as possible.

Since her run speed is normal, this means her Jedi sprint is normal also. She has a good chance of catching up to the Emperor, Dooku, Grievous, and the Fetts. Not like she needs to catch up, because of pull. But if you are going no force, then it is good.

Her dash is incredibly powerful. Not only does it usually achieve a knockdown but also, unless they have a damage reduction buff on, you will most likely kill a Vader and Grievous in one pass. Her dash looks like she is just blundering into a fight (which is what I tell Aaylas who tk me). When the dash begins from a sprint, she will flail her sabers and take a few steps. Because it is a short distance you need to be careful not to click it too early or you can come up short from your target. Once you get within the proper range, you can click just before or even when you reach them.

Her dash is a big death ball so as long as you hit them within the few steps, they will most likely die. The dash's weakness comes from the fact that it does not turn left and right very well. You can definitely aim when sprinting, but once you're in the dash, it doesn't curve very well. Because of this you need to be very careful to make sure you hit the enemy square on. If you go to one side all they have to do is take a couple steps out of the way and you'll wind up being pushed or choked.

Be careful of dashing head on against a choker. Choke can stop your sprint the second you click for a dash. So if you dash a choker, I recommend doing so when they aren't looking at you.

Not only is Aayla's dash powerful, but her combo is also deadly. Her combo is three small jumps. Each jump also lands an attack with her sabers. The combo is rarely blocked but it can be in certain sYour combo will mostly be used after you have pulled or when someone is trying to go head on with a saber against you. The final move of the combo can one-hit-kill nearly anyone, so be careful with it around allies. I have been Tked by Aaylas more than anyone else, so if you see the enemy is dead, do not keep pushing your button. Depending on how close you click the second and third time, you may not go right into the combo. In fact if you space it out you could just stand there hitting the first part over and over.

Moving on to the dreaded force pull. To begin, everyone who gets pulled hates it. So if you plan on using Aayla fully, get use to the possibility of hate chat. As a member of -)G(- Clan, I find that most of the arguments that go on in the Heroes server are arguments about force. I'll just give you a nice little tip. When someone calls you a "noob" for pulling, don't talk back. Just play the game. If you insist on playing Aayla you must get use to the fact that she is overpowered. If you respond, you'll just end up discussing the age old "choke is worse than pull" or visa-versa argument. Just shhhhh and play the game.

Ok there are two types of force pullers, there are non-skilled force pullers, and there are good force pullers. The difference between the two is in the kill/death ratios. I don't need to explain this much further, but I will tell you how to be a good puller.

The key to force pull is timing. If you time a pull (or double pull) correctly, you are impossible to kill. The process of pulling is simple: You face a target and pull. The target will be lifted from the ground and start flying toward you. While they are in the air they have a small time of being stunned. Just when they recover from this stun you will want to pull again. If you do not, lots of bad things can happen. I cannot count the seconds, but you will know by the way the enemy is flying toward you. When they are in their midair stun, it looks like they are flipping. Once they right themselves they have the ability to jump away, so be sure to pull before they can. After the second pull, as long as they aren't extremely far away from you or at an odd angle, you should have achieved a stun and you can kill with a combo or dash.

If they do happen to get a jump off mid pull, your character has enough energy to pull twice more (if you were full to begin with). If they jump away, it is like starting the process over again, which requires two pulls. This is known as triple pulling, and yes, you will get hate chat for this too.

If you wish to be brave and only pull once, many people do not try to jump mid flight. Many will try to land on you and saber you. You can pull once and wait for them to land by moving away from where you were standing, and finish them with a saber combo after they have swung. If the enemy is low health you can do a mid-air pull attack, which is very effective on Fetts. You can also backhand them as they are landing. If you time this right, you will achieve a stun.

To do the mid air attack you have to calculate the jump. You can jump 1-3 times to get to their height and do an air attack. So you can pull and as they are coming toward you, jump to their height and swing as they pass by. You will likely have to do this more than once on most characters.

Aaylas aerial attack is fairly powerful but it does not stun very often. I recommend using it more when people are lower health. She swings both her sabers so it has a powerful hit when it lands. This is a type of attack that can end if you do it too early, so be sure to time it just as you are reaching the enemy.

I will not go through strategies on where you should stand as a puller, because within 10 minutes of playing you will figure it out. I will say that when executed properly, a puller can have the fewest deaths in the game. It involves a lot of fleeing, but it is very beneficial if you are into the kill and run thing. You will be hunted as Aayla though, so you will have to choose your battles and run when you have to. Hide as much as possible and when the enemy shows their face: pull them.

The game has a pull error built into it. If the enemy of a puller is hiding behind something, they could possibly be pulled still. The white moisture vaporators in the game are the prime example. If the enemy is hiding behind one of these but do not have block up, you can pull them. They will be thrown sideways and you may have to finish with a total of 3, but it is an advantage. Also if someone is on the top of the cantina and just the top of their head is showing, they can still be pulled. I feel this is an error in the game, but if you insist on playing Aayla, then those are moments to look for.

Aayala vs. Fetts: Quite simply, get in range and pull them. They will try to run and fly often so you may have to pull again. If you are not in range, keep your block up, because Aaylas are impossible to be confused with other characters from halfway across the map.

Aayla vs. Maul: If you cannot pull them, get off the same level. In other words, if they are blocking you and you are both on ground level, move. They will approach you and if they get close enough, will most likely combo forever until you end up dead. Try to always distance yourself so you are not within push range. Pull range is nearly double push range, so you have a lot of room to move.

Aayla vs. Chokers: Almost the same thing: stay out of range. If you need to pass by an area where a choker is, sprint and do not stop until you are hidden. You will take damage, but will not be stopped unless you stop the sprint or begin a dash. Be careful of Vader and the Emperor if they are below you, they will most likely do a float choke. If you see them below you and cannot get them, jump to another location or get out of the way.

Overall you will see many Aaylas in the middle of open areas, but if you play her smart you can have a decent run and avoid lots of deaths. If you read this guide and still have billions of deaths to match your kills, contact me and I will email you back and tell you not to blunder into fights.

As a side note, when I played a puller (which I do not anymore), my best score was 45 kills and 0 deaths.

So again, there are good pullers, and there are bad pullers.

Aayla Secura: Non-Force Guide

As much as the current population of heroes players love playing Aayla (Aeh-Luh), she is not all that difficult to play. She has an extremely powerful dash with two additional bonuses. Her saber combo is deadly and she's nearly invulnerable while using it. She has a decent aerial attack, and her backswings continue into eachother without breaks, though on the screen it looks like it is over. She is the easiest character in the game to play.

If you insist on playing Aayla, first get use to ignoring chat. Since she isn't hard to play you'll get a lot of kills, and many people will complain about their deaths. So be fair warned about that.

When using Aayla in non force, you won't have to go looking for fights, they will come to you. You could stand in one place and get more fights than if you moved around. In fact some people use that as a tactic, just standing there and clicking. Many times that's all you have to do with Aayla to succeed.

If you do feel like you want to make an effort, one of the easiest things you can do is surprise someone with her dash. It can be used very quickly because it doesn't have a long time to complete, like Obi-Wan's for example. You could be circling someone making them think you aren't doing anything and then quickly dash them. I plead for you to not fall into the dash-roll trap. Everyone and their mother dash-rolls these days and it is getting so predictable that nobody is improving in skill. Perhaps after you dash (if you do not hit) change it up with a backhand, or a sprint away and back at them for another attack. Repeating your moves over and over will only make you weaker.

Since her dash is so short you can use it fairly easily on the smaller rooftops too. Use the domed roofs as cover and come dashing around to surprise your enemy. One bonus (on top of the high damage) of her dash is a built in block, so not very often can you be stopped while dashing. The other bonus is that the end of her dash, in which it looks like she is recovering, it has a stun feature. If you dash and miss someone, and they dash you back just at the end of yours, they will be knocked over. It's a usefull tool and makes it so she doesn't have many holes in her attack to be exploited.

Her combo however is a different story. Though it can pretty much overpower anyone else attacking you at the same time, there is a recovery period at the end of it when you are vulnerable. To shorten this period, get into a habit of using a single backhand just after you perform a combo (if you do lots of backhands it leaves too much time for the enemy to set up a proper attack). If you roll you have the possibility of getting hit. Again, most people these days just roll after they miss and end up dying.

Her combo has three separate attacks, and it will move you slightly forward, so you can aim it. Each of these little attacks can knock your opponent down.

Her aerial attack is decent, it can be used mid-air for a good amount of damage. I've noticed with her aerial she has a push factor that Luke doesn't have with his. You'll find that the people you hit with her aerial will move a bit in the direction you were hitting them in. If you are just landing on someone with an aerial, it may not kill them so be ready to be backhanded. Get block up or roll away. You can roll fairly safely in this instant due to the enemy you landed on most likely will backswing and not dash.

To be honest there isn't much more to say about Aayla in non-force, she is not difficult and does not take much practice to learn. If you find that you cannot use her well in non-force, xfire me at mawk7 and we'll get together and see what you could improve on.

Sorry this one was so short, just not much to say about her.