Legend of Mana - Techniques in a Speedrun

Techniques in a Legend of Mana Speedrun.

My time studying techniques has been...interesting. And not quite what I expected.

I was doing the Faerie Storyline today, trying out a strat where I learned Tiger Driver 91. I had suspicion when I used it during the fight on Irwin that Jawbreaker (Cx2) did more damage than Tiger Driver 91 (B). So I rewatched my stream to try to figure out the truth.

A boss' health bar is from what I measured, 333 pixels on screen. I measured how much each attack took off.

When I executed Tiger Driver 91, I took off 38 pixels of green and 114 pixels of yellow, for a total of 152 pixels or about 45% off of one of Irwin's health bars.
Jawbreaker (which both hits connected) took off 132 pixels of yellow and 117 pixels of red which means it did 249 pixels or about 74% off of one of Irwin's health bars.

So it seems that the game's ranking system for abilities doesn't matter as much as how many hits a technique does. So let's next look at what techniques for the weapons I use have multiple hits.

Gloves: Jawbreaker. 2 hits. This is the only gloves ability that is multi-hit. Only requires 5 Glove points and 5 Crouch points, so this is an easy in. Quick and easy to execute and a pretty big hitbox. Would be used for Dragon Storyline, since I get gloves for a while. Should work great for Akravator. I hope...

1H Sword: Triple Tiger. 3 hits. Only ability for 1H Sword that's multi-hit. Requires 8 1H Sword points and 3 Somersault points (which learning somersault requires 12 lunge and 7 jump, both easily doable). I know the attack is kinda long, but if the first hit connects, to my recollection the enemy cannot break out of it. Same level of damage as Iai Strike. I would get it probably after the first floor of the Bejeweled City (assuming I have all ability points beforehand), so I could use it for 2F and 3F Jewel Beasts, Lord of Jewels 999 & 1000, and Mana Goddess. Only used with SwordofFate in the Jumi Storyline.

2H Sword: Lunging Arc and Shish Kebob. Both are 2 hits and the same level of power. Lunging Arc requires less points (4 2H Sword Points and 4 Lunge Points) while Shish Kebob requires 6 2H Sword Points and 4 Backroll points (Backroll requires 12 Retreat and 7 Jump points to learn). Normally I use Rising Crush which is a slightly higher power attack and does stun. I've never seen these two techniques in action, so no way to judge at this point. This would be used for all 3 storylines at some point.

Regardless of all of this, superior power weapons are better than faster ones, unless the power difference is minimal (like a point or two).