Phase Dash
| “ | Ronin dashes in a given direction, temporarily phasing out of the world, avoid incoming fire and creating the element of surprise.
— Description
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The Phase Dash is a Titan Tactical Ability that appears in Titanfall 2.[1] It is used by the class Ronin, and has a 12 second recharge.
Ronin dashes in a given direction, temporarily phasing out of the world into an alternate space where no enemies exist, effectively making them immune to damage and allowing them to "pass" through enemy Titans. However, Ronin will also be unable to deal damage. It also causes the Ronin to "dash" in the direction they were already moving. One can also use a standard dash and Phase dash simultaneously to create one extremely fast/long dash, or just use a dash mid-Phase to alter one's course while protected.
Strategies
Phase Dash is an extremely versatile ability. It's useful for engaging enemy titans, and is especially useful for disengaging sticky situations, such as a Core Ability or Nuclear Ejection. It can also be used to safely reload, activate Sword Core, gain a quick burst of speed, avoid being cornered or to escape a losing battle.
Phase Dash can also be used offensively. Because Electric Smoke can be used while Phase Dashing, a Ronin can activate Phase Dash and use the Electric Smoke while they're traveling through the enemy Titan. This will also likely confuse the enemy Titan, allowing the Ronin to get in close.
Phase Dash also has a very useful exploit, referred to the community as a Phaseboost. By dashing, then phase-dashing just a few frames after, you will perform a fast and lengthy dash, as if the two dashes have stacked their speed together. By crouching while doing this, the player will travel even farther. In reality, the speed doesn't actually stack. Phase Dash makes the player travel much faster/farther when the player is airborne. Dashing actually causes the titan to be airborne for a split-second, leading to the phaseboost. Walking off a ledge and phase-dashing results in the same thing. Dashing while you're using phase-dash does not increase speed. Crouching results in more airborne time, and thus more speed. This is an incredibly useful technique for engaging, disengaging, or moving around the map more quickly. This technique is very hard to perform using a controller's default controls, so it's recommended to swap the controls to fix this (for example, on Xbox, the A button can be bound to dash, while B is bound to titans utility abilities, allowing phaseboosting can be performed with 1 finger.)
Finally, Phase Dash can be used to make times where Ronin would normally be vulnerable much safer. The most basic of these uses includes safely ejecting, reloading, or using Sword Core. However, it also has some more advanced uses, including:
- The Wind-up for melee attacks can be started while using Phase Dash, and end right as the Ronin leaves Phase Dash to instantly hit an enemy.
- The second half of Arc Wave's animation can be made safer by using Phase Dash right after the wave is created.
- By activating Phase Dash the moment a Ronin executes someone, it prevents them from taking the damage that Ronin would normally receive if that player ejects from their Titan. Additionally, if the execution does connect, the Phase Dash isn't used, meaning nothing was lost in using this technique.
Trivia
- Arc Wave cannot be used during Phase Dash (though you can Phase Dash right after an arc wave is released, but before the animation completely finishes).
- The Temporal Anomaly Titan kit will reduce the recharge time by about 33% (from 12 seconds to 8 seconds).
- Electric Smoke can be used while Phase Dashing.
- While using Phase Dash, exiting the alternate space while inside an enemy titan cause the Ronin to take damage equal to Ronin's current health (meaning that it kills him). However, by using Sword Block, this damage will be reduced by 70%. Due to a bug, this trait is inconsistent, and may still lead to the Ronin dying in very specific scenarios.
- With perfect timing, Phase Dash can actually prevent the damage a Ronin would take from an enemy pilot stealing a battery from them. Strangely, however, this will still create a new battery that the enemy pilot will be holding. The timing for this trick depends on whether the enemy Pilot has Low Profile equipped (Phase Dash should be used about 1.5 seconds if the rodeoing pilot has low profile, and 5 seconds if they don't).
- Phaseboosting can be used to cross small/medium sized gaps when crouching, such as the death pit on War Games (though this isn't very useful most of the time, and somewhat risky).
- Phase Dash removes Tone's Tracking Rockets lock-on, and can be used to escape Northstar's Tether Trap.
- If a Ronin phase dashes to remove Tone's lock, the text warning that Tone has locked on will still remain on Ronin for 15 seconds, even though the lock has been removed.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCJudXfWn0