Use Cancels in Battle
Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s combat system is incredibly complex, and new layers of it open up as you go along in the main story. One small detail, however, is easily missed but also very useful. That detail is cancels, a feature that hits right after you use an art and can reduce the time of your cooldowns. It’s easy to do and there’s no limit to canceling attacks, so feel free to go nuts with them.
To use a cancel attack you need to hit your art button right as one of your auto-attacks hit. This will use your art, and restore about a fourth of its cooldown afterwards. If you’ve successfully used a cancel attack you’ll see a blue ring pop up around Rex or whatever character you’re controlling. Additionally, using a cancel on your final auto-attack in a combo will restore your art cooldown to an even greater degree. Using cancels is a great way to give yourself an edge in battle, especially if you’re using them on recovery abilities.