The recent balance hotfix has gutted Iron Leg’s Smash (the reason you use it alongside Shot), and Basic Combat now has the same base damage affinity, on top of being 25% faster.
Iron Leg’s stats: Damage: 0.925x (1.15625 with bleed)
Speed: 0.8x
Size: 1.15x
Glass Basic is a tradeoff (you can try Bleed II but I don’t think the status is that good outside Poison II cheese builds):
Damage: 0.902 (1.1275)
Size: 1.050
Speed: 1.000
And Metal Basic is Upgraded Iron Leg Deluxe Edition (Lost Fighting Style).
Damage: 1.041 (without bleeding, in that case is 1.30125!
Size: 1.150
Speed: 0.825
On world PvE/PvP settings Iron Leg is still dominant, but its recent nerfs made it fall off on organized 1v1s, meanwhile Sailor keeps dodging nerfs
In terms of size and raw damage, I would say iLeg is slightly better. However, basic combat has much better speed than iLeg. I myself prefer to use iLeg for raw damage and size, but I wouldn’t say it outclasses basic. It entirely depends on the build you’re going for, as well as gear and substats.
Every fighting style has an upside and a downside.
Basic Combats upside is that there is no downside, its the perfect middle ground.
Cannon Fist has range, but low damage.
Iron Leg has high damage and decent size, but is sluggish.
Thermo Fist is fast and has a good DoT, but requires constant upkeep and is small.
Sailor Style is gargantuan and has good synergies, but is slow like Iron Leg and has the addition of having to constantly drink water, which leaves you vulnerable.
Boxing is fast and has knockback, at the cost of damage.
No fighting style outright outclasses another (except for Cannon Fist which gets outclassed by EVERYTHING, seriously it needs a buff)
It’s entirely up to how you play, and what your using alongside it.
Did i mention that Cannon Fist is absolutely dogshit?
It’s genuinely only good for split second ambushes to spam heavy grapeshot or explosives as fast as you can before they can react and run.
