Combo Smash

It's only really hard for me when I'm near a rope. Those really pineapple with the aran combo skills.

They do. Stupid platforms in MP3......>.>

Speaking of ropes, I experimented with Combo-based skills on ropes as well. I only did this with Combo Drain and Combo Smash, so if anyone else has any others, feel free to try this out.
It seems that if you have your combo up (at 30, in this example), and you go on a rope, you can perform Combo Drain on the rope, as long as your combo counter doesn't reset. But, unlike Combo Drain, Combo Smash isn't performed on a rope. Instead, if you were to press Down + Direction + Attack while on the rope (combo count still is 30+) and then got off the rope (quickly, so that the combo count, again, doesn't reset), you perform combo smash as soon as you leave the rope.
Just something I've experimented with a bit.