Okay, scratch that, finally figured out how that works.
Going with hands, axe and bow here are all the string branches;
DN = down, NE = neutral, UP = .....up.
UP, UP, UP ~ Upper-axe, bow shot x2
UP, UP, NE ~ Upper-axe, bow shot, axe-swing
UP, UP, DN ~ Upper-axe, bow shot, arrow-detonation
UP, NE, UP ~ Upper-axe, roundhouse, bow shot
UP, NE, NE ~ Upper-axe, roundhouse, axe-swing
UP, NE, DN ~ Upper-axe, roundhouse, double-axe-swing
UP, DN, UP ~ Upper-axe, double-axe-swing, bow shot
UP, DN, NE ~ Upper-axe, double-axe-swing, axe-swing
UP, DN, DN ~ Upper-axe, double-axe-swing x2
*Upper-axe can ONLY be an opening move.
**Party members continuing the combo for you allowing you to reset your string is the only way to do multiple upper-axe swings in a continuous attack phase.
***
Starting with neutral replaces Upper-axe with a jab, still follows the same combo patterns as with upper-axe above.
****
Starting with down replaces upper-axe with a low-jab, still follows the same combo patterns as with upper-axe above.
~~NOTE:
Before entering combat, if you fire off arrows into an enemy then jump into them to initiate combat, the battle starts off with the logic that you just used bow-shot already.
Going by that logic now;
- Spamming DOWN will cause Ajna to use arrow-detonation over and over, though with no affect.
- Using DOWN in general like this will cause Ajna to use arrow-detonation during the first combat phase, doing any other direction will follow the same combo patterns as with upper-axe above.
- After your first combat phase, the game goes back to normal logic for the first move used, no longer assuming bow-shot has already been used at the start of your second combat phase and onward.
- Since arrows auto-detonate outside combat, Ajna spamming arrow-detonation is quite literally wasting your moves; watch out for that when going for extra damage before combat with the bow!
If anybody is curious as to how combos change when more weapons are introduced, I can edit this post later detailing that.