The thing that differentiates fighting styles is both their special ability, and their stats
Ironleg has quite high size and damage, but its speed is terrible. It focusses on a more short ranged tactic, with a lot of smash attacks and shots instead of crashes and grabs.
The status effect also allows it to synergise with other magics or fighting styles.
Basic combat is a jack of all trades. It has the second highest base damage multiplier (tied with 100% seawater sailor) and it has okay speed and size. This allows the user to basically use all aspects of fighting styles, and not just a specific tactic like ironleg.
It does lack synergies (unless you count the crystal shatter), so it’s usually not that great for warlocks which have a low damage magic which relies on synergies.
Thermo is the fastest fighting style, but also has the lowest size. This means that it’s better at using crashes and grabs than most other fighting styles, but smash attacks are a lot less effective. Shot is still quite useful, but it’s a lot more difficult to hit.
The resource bar forces the player to be aggressive, because otherwise they lose out on both speed and damage in the form of the DoT.
The DoT, which is heat based, allows a lot of synergy with warlock and warlord builds, since it gets a big damage increase when clearing bleed, which is the most common status effect. A lot of other magics also synergise with heat based statuses as well.
Sailor style is a bit strange, because it’s pretty good at everything at max seawater bar. It has the second highest damage (tied with basic) and it has decent speed and a huge size. This means that it’s very good for both smash attacks and crash attacks, while also being decent for grabs.
The only downside is that this bonus loses effectiveness the more attacks you use, which forces you to either jump into the ocean or drink a seawater bottle. Both of which force the player to temporarily stop fighting and will leave the user vulnerable for counter attacks
Boxing is somewhat similar to basic combat, where it doesn’t have any synergies, but it also has slightly worse size and damage. To make up for this, it gets a speed boost and you get 10% more blocking power on blocks. It also increases all knockback that you would normally deal.
It’s a weaker, but more defensive version of basic combat, but it’s usually not really used because it’s pretty bad. It’s okay in the early game, but falls off hard after about level 60
Cannonfist is certainly a fighting style
It’s basically if fightingstyles were magics, but instead of using blasts or beams and stuff, you throw metal balls, sometimes filled with explosive stuff, at your enemies. It can be really strong if you use an attack speed build, since you can use heavy explosive shells to boost your attack size a bunch.
It also does a bunch of extra damage against boats for what that’s worth, but you don’t really get any loot from ships except a few regular chests
It’s fun to play around with, but unless you’re an enjoyer of sinking ships, it’s way too expensive to use for a longer period of time.
(also the warlord imbued damage sucks)(also it’s very strong with heavy grapeshot and crystal imbue)
So eh, fighting styles certainly are something
(I only like sailor style (because it looks amazing) and basic combat (very strong and no resource bar))