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AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP - Greats on February 03, 2013

Intro

From both new and old players this is a pretty common topic of discussion and also questions asked towards me, so I think it's worth investing some time in working on this.  I don't plan to cover too much on character specifics unless giving examples, but I will try to cover what makes a character able to benefit from the system though.

There is no pictures here to assist your reading (yet, maybe for CH3 though), and I intend this to be read from beginning to end, but not necessarily implemented into your game all at once.  Questions and discussion are welcome, and encouraged!

Chapter 1 - Offense and Defense

What to do when one player is on offense, and the other is on defense.

===Chaining and Hit-confirming===

• *The longer your chain, the less options you have, and the more you are risking wiffing an attack to a 4GC, 4D, 6GC, backdash, or other defensive maneuver.  So for this reason, having a chain-able A move is a great advantage for your offense, i.e. Heart, Weiss, Konoha, etc, as you can confirm with only light attacks, not really taking any significant risks.

===Frame Advantage===

• *Most characters have either a special or normal that is frame advantage on block.  For those who don't, there is still the option of doing a Homing Cancelable or Extend Force Cancelable move and using the reduced recovery to gain frame advantage.  Once blocked, a move that gives you significant frame advantage will allow you to restart your string from the beginning, effectively being the simplest method of continuing your pressure.  And of course, there is also Arcana specific attacks that can be used the same way, such as Fire's 214E and Plant's 236E.
• *These types of moves are USUALLY slower on startup, making them unsafe to the basic defensive options just like C and slower B moves are, meaning they should not be used predictably.  Exceptions to this rule would of course be faster attacks that still give frame advantage, such as Konoha's 5B.
• *The most basic way to get someone to respect your slower frame advantage attacks, is to use constantly changing delays before throwing them out in a string of attacks.  A delayed Brioniac from Saki can easily catch frantic 4GC/4D attempts, with the only downside being a slight risk of eating a reversal or letting them jump out.

===Mixing it up===

-Basics-

• *Once people start to sit still and respect all of your frame traps, the most basic option to make them stop is to throw, simply stop your string of attacks at a point that you feel is ambiguous and throw them with a neutral or tilt grab.  Most characters do not get much damage from a grab (exceptions: Kira, Cathy), but it will usually set up pretty good knockdown for getting continued okizeme mixups and pressure.
• *The second most basic option is to use an overhead attack (if your character has one).  Overheads are basically the same in AH3 as they are in other games, except for that you can often chain into them from another normal.  The only notable difference is that in AH3 it is relatively easy to react to an obvious overhead with a 4D for a full punish with any character, so be wary.

**First bit is notes on when are good times to jump cancel.  The rest is things that you can do from a successfully executed jump cancel.

-Jump Cancels-

• *One thing that separates AH3 from other fighters even those with jump cancels, is the depth of jump cancel based pressure available because of the homing system.
• *The basic idea around using jump cancels in pressure, is to use a jump cancel from a normal that you would normally do another attack after.  
• *For example, Weiss's 5B is jump cancelable and she normally chains it into 5C, so if you have been making proper use of the 5B>5C frame trap, a 5B jump cancel is something that your opponent is going to have to react to quickly to deal with if they were expecting a frame trap.  Furthermore in Weiss's case, she is also left at frame advantage after a blocked 5C AND has the option to cancel it into a special (236A) or an arcana attack, so this jump cancel is also very useful to her especially because a C level move will have more blockstun than a B level move.

-SJC or JC > NH-

• *For most characters, the most basic option to keep things going after a successful jump cancel is just to immediately Neutral Homing and force them to block a jumping attack for major frame advantage.   Not a mixup on its own, but an easy technique that works for setting up better mixups and earning more respect.
• *Note that characters with a lack of faster air normals don't make much use of this technique.  For example, Nazuna, Cathy, and Kira don't have much use to immediately using a Neutral Homing after a jump cancel in pressure.

-SJC or JC and wait > NH-

• *Useful for characters with slower air normals like mentioned above, you can build some more distance before coming back in for an attack.
• *Also useful in baiting out anti airs.  You can wait for them to wiff an anti air then go back in.  Of course the second approach can still be anti aired if they react / read the situation properly.
• *One thing you can do from a higher NH approach you cannot usually do easily is go for a crossup with an air normal.

-IAD-

• *You can do some pretty nasty crossups with IAD's both midscreen and in the corner depending on your character.
• *You can 4D and block during airdashes in AH3, so this is great for baiting anti air supers on reaction.
• *However, you cannot really deal with an air unblockable anti air on reaction during an IAD unless it is one that you cross up naturally.

-SJC or JC > wait-

• *When baiting stuff this is a good idea, a common situation is just jumping back and waiting vs someone who uses a lot of reversals.  After confirming what they did/didn't do you can choose to resume your approach or watch out for theirs.
• *Characters with longer range such as Scharlachrot and Nazuna, can simply jump back and throw out a normal to stop a lot of things, not much of a mixup but it makes people sit still.

-whatever JC > ???-

• *Because of the flexibility of the homing system, you can find a ton of character specific ways to create crossups.  For example, Weiss can super jump and then 6D and because of the turn around property of super jumps, you can create a not-so-hard to block crossup with any air normal.  Another example is doing instant air backdash with Heart, then after a short delay do NH(8) j.E for a spacing and character specific crossup j.E that is very ambiguous.  These are the types of things you are aiming to do once you have respect to go airborne, based on what is the best for your character.

-Empty Jumps-

• *Another thing to do when people are not trying to anti air you.  Empty jump into grab is very effective for characters with good grabs like Kira, and also those who lack faster lows such as Weiss and Lieselotte.  A very straight forward and very unsafe option that is very effective when done at the right time.
• *You can either do JC > 2D (supposedly getting nerfed in Love MAX!!!!!), or jump to your normal height, NH and do a slower attack on the way down that will not fully come out (such as Heart's j.C or Kira's j.C).

===Punishing 4GC===

• *There are 3 main things your opponent will do when doing a 4GC.  1) Mash a 2A after landing.  2) cancel into a super or special (normally early) 3) wait and try to do something later in the ground portion.
• *Versus 1 and 3, you can punish any 4GC by nature of not over committing to a slow attack in your guard strings, then hitting them quickly with a mid to long range move on reaction.  For example, stagger 2A with Zenia until you see them 4GC, then either do a late 2B or early 2C on reaction to hit them before they have a chance to retaliate.
• *In the event that they choose to cancel into a special while still in the air (example: 4GC > Tenza with Kamui, or 4GC > spinnin' rims with Nazuna), there is not much that you can do to bait it on reaction unless it is a super and you are totally safe.  For these types of GC's if you want to punish, the only way is to read the timing and hit them in the air at the timing they will do it, and then it only works if they are doing a non-invul move.  This is a pretty strong technique, but you can also avoid it entirely simply by playing it safe.
• *The least expected option in these situations is for someone to 4GC and then wait until after they land to cancel into a DP or an anti air or something.  This is normally a technique used to stop predicable baits and can be countered simply by hitting them before they do anything.

===Punishing 4D and backdash===

• *Punishing 4D and Backdash is a lot simpler than punishing a 4GC.  There is no air cancelable frames on these backdashes and the invul ends completely before they can act, so simply hit them before they can act.  Note that backdashes ARE special cancelable, but this is usually not a concern unless you are fighting the time Arcana, in which case you only need to time your punish better.

===Dealing with 6GC===

• *6GCs are even easier to see than a 4GC because of the giant clash shield sprite.
• *Because 6GCs have a clash shield, they aren't easy to punish directly and there is a much larger meta game going on.  One of two main things will always happen though.  1) You will hit the clash shield and go into a clash mindgame.  2) You will avoid hitting the clash shield, or attempt to use an unclashable move (still not guaranteed in most matchups).

1. In the event you clash, see the next section.
2. The most common way to avoid the clash shield alltogether is to jump cancel on the hit that they 6GC, and get out of dodge.  Depending on the matchup, it may be better to try to crossup, or just jump back/up.  When this happens, the only thing you have to worry about is anti airs.  If you can avoid any anti airs, you should simply be able to home back in and attack them which may or may not punish depending on how early they canceled the 6GC or if they canceled it at all.  You may also choose to back off and just wait for better positioning.
   1. You can use an unclashable move or a grab vs 6GCs after the full invulernability period of it ends in an attempt for a punish.  This may or may not be good, if your opponent has access to any invulnerable specials or supers character specific moves will decide who wins.  But this will definitely work versus someone who is trying to mash an attack out of the 6GC, so certainly a good technique to know.

===Clashes (aggressor perspective)===

• *4D / backdash: Normally the most common reaction to see from an opponent who is clashing defensively is to DP or to mash a fast attack.  Using a 4D on reaction can sort of beat both of these, in the event they only wiff a single light attack you may be punished if they react fast enough however.
• *Invincible attack: This is a more sure-fire way to punish mashing, vulnerable to lower risk options but good to know vs someone who is attacking too much.
• *HJG: If you are worried that you can not easily make a decision you can High Jump Guard.  Done on reaction to a clash fast enough, you should be able to complete the input (super jump, then hold back/downback) before they are able to hit you with anything.  In the event they do something unsafe on clash, you will be able to punish them.
• *Mash: Have faster normals than they do?  Go for it, just don't lose.
• *Do a slow move:  This is something NORMALLY done from the defensive position, doing a slow move with good active frames (example, Kira's 5B) is a great way to punish people who like to hold 4D during clash battles into big damage.  Much easier to time and more reliable on a correct read than wiffing a light then doing another one.  Moves with clash on startup and lots of range are extra good for this.  Zenia's 2C is another great punishing move for these situations.
• *Do an instant clash move.  Examples: Kira 5C / 2E, Nazuna 5C, Akane B+C, etc.  Clash again, THEN do something.  A lot of people won't be ready for this.  Good way to bide time if you think they will hit a button to allow you to actually re-clash.  If they try to avoid instead, you may wiff or punish depending on the move, you'll also definitely lose to unclashable reversals.

===When to use 4GC===

• *As mentioned above, 4GC is great for punishing slow moves in block strings.  A common situation is a bad Weiss player prediably running the looping "blockstring" [5B 5C j.NH B].  So long as she doesn't mix up her timing, you can just 4GC the 5B and the 5C will wiff your 4GC entirely, allowing for a full combo punish.
• *4GC into an air special / super is also a great way to punish certain moves on block "Guaranteed".  For example, Weiss's 5C is normally frame advantage on block, but if you block it then immediately 4GC Tenza with Kamui, she cannot avoid getting hit without canceling into a jump or invulnerable attack.

===Using 4D and backdash===

• *Similar to a 4GC but weaker and not usable from guard stun.  If you read a throw or obvious (slow) meaty attempt, this is a good way to get a punish.  Very risky vs someone who is on top of their game, so use sparingly and with caution.

===When to use 6GC===

• *6GC is lower risk than a 4GC because the clash shield can force a totally neutral clash situation once you've gotten them to hit it.  However, you still want to be careful using a 6GC vs jump cancelable attacks to avoid being put into a bad situation as mentioned above.
• *Note that even though you can force a clash mindgame with a (relatively) low risk, you also are not getting a garunteed punish here most of the time unless it is a situation such as the Weiss 5C situation described in the 4GC section (in the case of 6GC, Kira's 360C would be a great move to punish with).
• *All things considered, I think that 6GC is the most powerful of the 2 guard cancel options available, due to a higher chance of getting out of pressure which was the goal in the first place.  Just know that for punishing autopilot strings that 4GC is the GC of choice.

===How to force a clash (defenders perspective)===

• *Most moves with clash will have it on startup and at a certain part of the body.  Moves that have clash from the first frame or from very early are reliable to use on reaction to certain situations, while moves with clash that is later in the startup will require more caution if you are trying to force a clash.
• *A really good character for forcing clashes with is Kira, the startup of j.C, 5C, and 2E are all more or less full body clash and from the first frame as well.  She can force a clash vs obvious jumpins then attempt to do a 360 or 720 before they can react.  She can do it in the air as well.  The only thing to know is that as long as you are clashing a melee attack and not a projectile, your opponent gets all the same cancel options as you so nothing is guaranteed in these cases.
• *Some moves also have clash during the active frames.  This is not really all that useful since attacks will already clash when colliding with other attack boxes, it serves only to make the move get counterhit less often.  One outlier would be Lieselottes 3B with Elfriede outside of the case, it has many clash frames around the active frames, making it a good move to bait wakeup attacks.  Using clash moves this way versus wakeups is a legitimate strategy in general so long as the wakeup attacks aren't unclashable (such as Weiss/Heart dp's, or a grab).

===Throw Techs===

• *Throw techs are done by simply pressing A+D within a certain period of getting hit by a neutral, tilt, or air grab.  Neutral grabs have a longer tech window than other grabs.
• *Note that ground techs and forward/back air techs can be punished with throws, but neutral air techs, forced techs, and wakeups cannot.  More detail on this in a later post.

===Poking, reversaling, and jumping out of pressure===

• *When your opponent is delaying their attacks too much.  You can simply hit them.  Depending on the size of the gap you may not even need to use an invincible attack.
• *If you're trying to jump out, I recommend learning to HJG to reduce the risk, perfectly legit strategy either way though.  As an aggressor using a delayed air unblockable attack is an easy way to counter this, airthrows and simply going into an air block string can also work.

===Anti Airing under pressure===

• *Versus faster characters you will find them jump canceling in pressure many times and putting you into a lot of bad situations.  At these times, you will have to learn to use anti airs not only as a neutral tool, but also as a defensive one.
• *j.NH: If your character has a "Fast" (Read: A move) anti air, you can usually get out of any j.NH pressure so long as you time properly.  Good examples are Heart/Saki 5A, Zenia 5A/5B(probably only B move this fast), Nazuna 5A, and so on.  You can also attempt to use more medium speed attacks, such as Konoha's 6B, Dorothy's 4B, or Nazunas 2B, however they will simply not work if your opponent jump canceled a C level normal (you need < ~8 frames of startup), and they are also harder to react with so proceed with caution.
• *Longer jumps / baits: You can simply run out of pressure, jump out of pressure, use a larger anti air, wait for them to come at you then anti air, air to air, or whatever you see fit as this basically creates a near-neutral situation.
• *IAD:  Recommended that you stay away from using supers in these situations unless you do it very late so they already have an attack out, because they can be j.4/1/7D'd on reaction.  Whether or not your character has a good anti air for dealing with IAD pressure is very character specific and you should test it yourself.  Usually you want to use a fast AA chained into an Air Unblockable, or a medium/fast speed AUB if you have one available.

===Air Guard Strings===

• *If you catch someone air guarding in an air to air situation, you should try to land while continuing to keep them in enough blockstun that they cannot hit a button without getting hit.  One very simple example is doing j.C NHC j.C with heart.
• *Once you have landed, your goal is to hit your opponent with an air unblockable attack to punish their bad positioning, so going with the heart example you can land, 5A then 6C or 2E.  You can delay your air unblockable attack, use air to airs, airthrow, or use invulnerable moves to mess up guard cancel attempts instead of hitting the air unblockable as well.  In many situations at proper height, you can do a delayed AUB that will still hit even if they did not GC.
• *As a defender, you want to use a 6GC or 4GC to avoid these air unblockable situations.  You should always do a 1GC if you are very close to the ground because as soon as you land you can block (should be getting nerfed in Love MAX!!!!!).  If you are higher up or midscreen, a 4 or 7GC may be more appropriate to create some space depending on the matchup.  In situations that you do not think that any of the 4GC's are worth the risk you can always go for a 6GC to try to clash, or simply do nothing and hope they try to bait your GC in a way that lets you land safely or mash out of the string.
• *Not always but generally speaking, if you do a grounded clash vs someone in the air, you have favor due to having access to more moves, but it depends on the matchup.

Chapter 2 - Okizeme & Ukemi

What to do after you end a combo, drop a combo, or land a random hit you can't confirm.

For more information on the terminology used in this chapter, please refer to the wiki.

Teching (http://wiki.mizuumi.net/w/Arcana_Heart_3/Teching)

Teching Frame Data (http://wiki.mizuumi.net/w/Arcana_Heart_3/System_Frame_Data#Techs)

Since most of the mechanics of how the various techs work are already explained in detail on the wiki, I will specifically be talking about how to use the different types of knockdowns and recoveries to help improve your okizeme and ukemi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uke_(martial_arts)).

===Knockdowns===

-Hard Knockdowns-

A knockdown with no ground tech options.  Such as a 4/6AD or Akane's 214AB.  The only variance in wakeup here is the natural difference in wakeup timing between characters.

Has a bit of throw protection after standing up.

-Small Bounce-

You could also call this a "soft knockdown" as you can tech right away.  This is the most common type of knockdown in AH3.  Refer to the wiki for more details.

-Tiny Bounce- (better name, anyone?)

You're going to want to read the wiki for this one if you don't already know what it is.  Tiny Bounces are much more practical to end your combo with than a hard knockdown because the moves that cause it are more available mid-combo.  

===Getting Up===

-Neutral Ground Tech-

Faster, doing a neutral tech right away and hitting a fast normal, or reversal is a good way to mess with your opponent if they often are lazy about their okizeme or have bad timing.

There is 1 frame during a Neutral Ground Tech where you can do nothing but block, meaning a properly timed command grab or unblockable is unavoidable.  The command grab bit mostly only matters for Kira and Cathy who can do it easily with their running command grabs, and unblockables are generally too slow to work here.  But it is good to know.

In AH3LM this 1 frame window could potentially be messed with due to other system changes, it is unsure at this time.

Each character has their own specific Neutral Ground Tech timing.

-Backwards Ground Tech-

Takes longer, moves you back (based on the direction you are facing, not the direction of the opponent).  It's good to mix it up between neutral and back tech to keep your opponent awake.  Backwards techs are especially strong midscreen where you can build good space, and sometimes there is no reason not to use them.

Note that there is a large window of throw vulnerability on back techs making them punishable by any grab if the Seme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seme_(martial_arts)) can get close enough to get the punish off.  Backwards Ground Techs also have the same 1 frame of no-action that neutral techs have, so unblockables still work, in theory.

Each character has their own specific Backwards Ground Tech timing.

-Forced Ground Tech-

This happens when you are hit OTG, you can still choose between a neutral and back tech, however the frame data is a little different.  You have full invulnerability to grabs and unblockables until you can act, this is important because it means there is no forced throw resets in the game.

What this means as the Uke is that you want to pay attention to when you are being put into a Forced Ground Tech situation, so that you know to mix up your recovery direction even though you are not the one initiating the recovery.

Has a bit of throw protection after standing up.

-Waking Up-

If you do not get hit OTG or input any sort of ground tech at all you will be able to wake up normally.  This type of wakeup has it's own set of character specific frame data for timing, but it is the same as a Forced Ground Tech in that you are completely safe to unblockables and command grabs while getting up.

Since you can just react to someone staying down with an OTG attack to force a recovery, this is not the best option, but versus opponents who are running ground-tech punishes such as Cathy or Kira you absolutely must not tech, or at least tech late after the grab wiffs.  This is also a good option versus certain projectile and position based okizeme setups, as you can eat an OTG hit instead of a highly ambiguous mixup.

Has a bit of throw protection after standing up.

===Air-teching===

Similar to ground teching, there is a 1 frame window after an air tech where you can do nothing but block.  This applies to all air-teching directions, and since you are in the air, it means a properly timed air-unblockable attack is unavoidable once you have teched.  You must pay very close attention to this when low enough to the ground for this to be an issue.

-Forward-

Obviously moves you forward, pretty useful if your opponent isn't ready for it, as you can sneak past them and generally put yourself into a favorable situation.  On the downside, if they are ready for it, this is probably the easiest air-tech to punish with an air-throw as you are pushing yourself towards them.

A delayed forward airtech can be very effective at avoiding air unblockable punishes if your opponent is not spaced properly for it.

-Back-

Same as the forward tech in terms of frames, but moves backwards instead.  Can be grabbed in the same window as a forward tech, but since you are moving back it's not quite as easy to do.  Still very easy to punish by using an early neutral homing to ensure you are in range.

You mostly want to air tech backwards while midscreen as it can get you out of dodge, be careful to not always hold back while mashing your airtech though, as you will be predicable and easy to punish into another combo.

-Neutral-

Neutral airtech is probably the strongest ukemi option in the air, so long as it is not used predictably.  You recover and can act faster, and it is not throw punishable like the other two.  However, like the Neutral Ground Tech, there is still the 1 frame window where you cannot escape command grabs or (air) unblockables.

This is really important because it means that versus an opponent who is going for a throw punish to your air tech, you can either neutral air tech and break the throw, or even neutral tech and use a reversal to punish it if their timing is even off by a frame.

===Wall Slams===

-Wall Teching-

AH3 Wall Slams are interesting because no other fighting game has them.  When you are wall slammed in AH3 you can choose to tech which will make you subject to a throw punish, and if you don't tech, you will be subjected to a period of untech time before you are able to air-tech, meaning your opponent can pick up with a combo.

One common situation is that you get hit by a 5E on the ground, and get slammed just above it.  In this situation, the Seme will be unable to punish a wall-tech downwards unless they immediately confirm the hit and Neutral Homing Cancel.  So for this reason, it's usually safe to hold 3D during these situations.

A more dangerous situation that you will see a lot is when you get hit by an aerial attack that wall-slams, such as Saki's j.E.  If she follows this up it will be pretty easy for her to airthrow punish you, so you should only tech if you think she will go for a combo, mess up the punish, or you see that she is not following up fast enough to punish.  However even if she does not follow up fast enough to punish, she most likely still has enough advantage to beat you in a normal war, which means even if you tech you must be careful to block or avoid her incoming attack.  Wall teching this high up can be pretty dangerous if your character does not have good air options, so take the matchup into consideration.  For characters with weaker air options you will probably only want to wall tech occasionally when you see that you can get away with it.

The MOST dangerous situation to be in is a wall-slam that is just a bit above the ground.  Because here you have to deal with all of the above options, PLUS you can be hit by an air unblockable attack since you will not have time to reach the ground.

It's also common to get hit by a "random" wall-slamming attack near the wall and not react in time to tech.  This means that wall-slamming attacks are usually a bit more effective in the corner as you can get a free combo from it.  But as an Uke, it means that you should also be aware of obvious wall-slams so that you are not taken advantage of.

-Setups-

If you are far enough from the corner when you cause a wallslam on your opponent, you may be able to follow it up with a low Neutral Homing for a guaranteed throw punish, even if they try to tech down from the lowest height.  In this situation, you can actually wiff the airthrow even if they don't tech, land, and continue to combo.  This is a pretty strong technique you should definitely take advantage of as it's a combo that gives you a chance for even more damage.  You should also be aware of when your opponent is doing this so you know to never tech!

There are other useful setups involving Wall-Slams as well.  With enough projectile cover in the corner, Nazuna can easily capitalize from a Wall-Slam because if they tech they have to block a projectile and deal with air-unblockable blockstring mixup like in chapter 1, but with projectile cover.  If they do not tech, then they will be combo'd by a projectile and you can clean up from there.

Using this knowledge you should try to find how your character can best take advantage of wall-slams to gain initiative after a combo, or from your attacks that cause it naturally.

===Resets===

A reset is where your character is reset straight to standing from an air-combo.  As far as I know, Kira is the only character capable of doing so, by using her 623A.  You can also use Evil's super teleport (214214E) to force a Reset on a knocked down (any type of kncokdown including the small/tiny bounces) opponent, but when used on someone in the air they will remain in the combo state as usual.

There is no sort of tricky frames to resets, nor is there any sort of throw protection.

===Practical Strategy Examples===

That's a lot of information about how okizeme and ukemi work, but it may still be hard to understand the mindgames and risk/reward associated without some examples.

• -Heart using a Small Bounce Knockdown-

Heart ends most of her combos with either j.E or DP followup, both of which cause a Soft Knockdown.  Depending on the move used, you may want to go for air or ground based okizeme.  For j.E, Heart does not recover in the air fast enough to be able to approach from the air effectively, however since it is special cancelable, she can cancel it into an arcana special that moves downwards such as Flowers 236E to make the opponent block (depending on situation and arcana you may need to adjust these types of setups).  She also has her DP followup which recovers pretty quickly in the air, which allows you to use a neutral homing or airdash to pressure the opponent on their wakeup, it also has the downwards momentum so you can land and continue from the ground just like you would with j.E.  Both of these are pretty good enders because of the variety of options available.

• j.E / DP followup > land

The most basic, and some times underused form of okizeme for a soft knockdown.  You simply want to land, react to your opponents wakeup direction, and hit them with an attack.  You can also try to grab them if they often tech backwards, it can be done on reaction if you're looking for it.  On someone who does not stand up, you're going to want to either 1) wait for them to stand up 2) hit them and make them stand up or 3) capitalize on the extra knockdown time by using a projectile / buff type move.  Once you have a feel for how they are going to stand up before you can react to it, you can start to go for more timing specific types of okizeme, such as crossups.  You can also grab someone who blocks all the time, etcetera.

Reaction is key here, wakeup time is fairly long in AH3, even the shortest neutral techs can be reacted to with a meaty normal once you are familiar with the timing.  Practice actually looking at your opponents wakeup animation, nothing is worse than getting mashed out on wakeup.  A properly timed light meaty attack will let most characters recover in time to punish wakeup (non-time) backdashes, and 4D's.  Still need to bait reversals by blocking or making them wiff though.  You can trick someone into thinking a wakeup DP will work by jumping then doing a j.1D, or simply backdashing /4D'ing at the last minute after moving forward on their wakeup.  Making wakeup reversals wiff in AH3 is key, due to the fact that most of them can be homing canceled if you block, nullifying your advantage.

• DP followup > air movement

Note that Hearts DP followup has been nerfed in LM so that she goes flying back after it hits, most likely  drastically nerfing it's potential for okizeme.

This is pretty straightforward, the easiest option is to NH after the DP recovers, and go for a j.B, mixing it up by holding forward and speed boosting with D for a crossup j.B.  This doesn't give enough advantage for the j.B to be meaty or a safejump, so you will still have to watch out for wakeup reversals that are effective versus the air, but it should be fast enough to beat a lot of anti-airs.

Timing will vary a bit depending on neutral/back tech, and on back tech you will most likely have a hard time crossing up midscreen without significant compensation.  The really important thing to watch out for though, is if your opponent doesn't tech at all.  You can either time the j.B such that it will hit OTG and force a tech, putting you back into the j.E > land situation but with more advantage, allowing you to re-jump, pressure from the ground, or whatever else you would like to do.  If the j.B wiffs and does not hit OTG, you can do the same thing but without the forced tech, or you can hit them with a ground normal (preferrably jump cancelable, like 5A, B, or C), and go into the same thing.  As long as you are constantly watching your opponent so you know which way they tech and with what timing, you don't need to think about it too hard.

• j.E > special

This type of okizeme is especially interesting because it can be completely different depending on the arcana you pick.  For example, with Plant you can end with j.E 214E, but you don't recover fast enough to pressure the opponent if they get up right away.  This can be compensated for by either using a homing cancel or the super version of seed 214214E which recovers very quickly in the air.  On the other hand, if you often end with j.E and land into your pressure, which causes your opponent to stay down in attempt to avoid your pressure for a bit, you can end with 214E once in awhile to capitalize on the extra knockdown time.

Note that some of these moves are astronomically more effective in the corner than midscreen, such as Darkness 236E, or Thunder's 214214E.

• -Saki using a Wall-Slam-

This is a pretty common situation for Saki.  Blowing your opponent away is one way to gain room to put projectiles onto the screen, or to carry them closer to the corner by following up.

• -Angelia dropping a combo-
• -Akane using a Tiny Bounce Knockdown-
• -Nazuna using a Hard Knockdown-

===Training===

This section will cover how you can use training mode to practice and discover your different okizeme options.

===Disclaimer===

*Play your opponent, not some idealistic model.  I'm just trying to put down the variety off basic options that I use.  Naturally not everyone loses to the same things, so naturally you should tailor your game to your opponent as you learn to fight them.  Preferably as quickly as possible.

And for completeness, the comments to this guide are below:

Title: Re: Basics of AH3 offense and defense - CH1 Complete

Post by: Bill307 on April 15, 2013, 10:18:17 pm

Quote from: Greats on February 03, 2013, 03:26:12 pm

===Chaining and Hit-confirming===

 

*The longer your chain, the less options you have

 

I'm not sure about this.  Weiss and Saki, for example, gain more options and frame traps if you block one of their 5C attacks because they have so much blockstun.  Weiss's 5C in particular has so much blockstun and frame advantage that 5C jc j.5D j.B is a frame trap and even 5C 5B is a frame trap.

 

It makes sense that these characters benefit from making you block 5C since it's pretty risky:  4GC at the same time will punish them for free.

 

 

Title: Re: Basics of AH3 offense and defense - CH1 Complete

Post by: Greats on April 16, 2013, 05:15:46 am

technically speaking i think my statement is 100% true, you can jump cancel whenever, it may cause less blockstun but there is no change in the options available as long as you use a lighter jc-able normal

 

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Frostbolt on June 10, 2013, 05:27:13 pm

Just a few things to note.

 

You cant actually "punish" people's techs with throws since it can be throw broken. And if somebody does an Air 6GC if you throw them they cant break it, I havnt really tested ground ones and I really should get down to it. You can't "punish" air 4GC with throw though, would be nice

 

Im also pretty sure neutral airtechs can be thrown (breakable)

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Greats on June 10, 2013, 05:44:47 pm

what techs are you talking about?  i'm pretty sure i will get to it when i actually start writing chapter 2, had to go soon after i started

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Frostbolt on June 10, 2013, 05:46:03 pm

oh, airtechs, if you airtech you cant actually punish with airthrows, its more like an attempted reset.

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Greats on June 10, 2013, 05:53:11 pm

Quote from: Frostbolt on June 10, 2013, 05:46:03 pm

oh, airtechs, if you airtech you cant actually punish with airthrows, its more like an attempted reset.

forward and back techs are vulnerable to grabs before you can tech, only neutral air techs allow you to throw tech

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Frostbolt on June 10, 2013, 06:22:23 pm

Wait, backtechs have a window where you cant tech? whoa I need to do that

 

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Greats on June 10, 2013, 07:08:10 pm

neutral ground tech is also vulnerable, but only for one frame so only cathy/kira have a practical punish

 

(i covered this is more detail in my most recent update)

 

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: DdR_Dan on January 08, 2014, 11:07:11 pm

Are you sure that you can't break throws after certain techs?  Because I haven't seen any cases where the CPU in training at least couldn't break a throw after a wall tech or backward air tech.  Also I've back teched in matches and still escaped throws that seemed to be well timed without trouble.  Is the timing extremely tight or something?  Because from what I've seen it looks like you can always break normal throws no matter how you tech.  Like, even if you do a frame perfect grab when they tech it seems like they can still break it.

 

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Greats on January 09, 2014, 08:25:03 am

I'm pretty confident about this, set dummy to break throws and run some known punishes on it.

 

Also, frame data here http://wiki.mizuumi.net/w/Arcana_Heart_3/System_Frame_Data#Techs "Physical Invulnerability" implies invincibility to everything but grabs.

 

The Neutral Air Tech being physically invulnerable I think is a typo or a mistake in the frame data, as neutral air techs are completely safe from regular air throws.

 

There may be something else at play such as a timing where you can actually break throws without being able to do anything else and the timing for neutral air tech just happens to line up so that you can always tech.  However to my knowledge, there is no such thing in AH3.

 

I think it's more likely that you aren't timing the throw early enough, in the case of a burst punish it should like the latter 2 punishes in this video http://youtu.be/33-Rd6nUtJc

 

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: DdR_Dan on January 09, 2014, 03:34:19 pm

On the burst one (and it happened to me too sometimes before I realized which is how I know) the replay input was still going, so the throw wouldn't get broken, unless you were pressing throw escape at the right time in the replay input too.

 

 

Title: Re: AH3 Basics - CH1 Complete, CH2 WIP

Post by: Greats on January 10, 2014, 07:13:36 am

i can try this with another person (today, maybe) but i've never had the throw broken when properly punishing bursts, even versus bill who actually tried to break it

 

edit: by the way, they can't be teched, i'm 100% positive that you're doing it wrong

Chat for Arcana Heart discussion and matchmaking, lets play some games!

You need a Brazilian IP to get this, otherwise it will say "Not available in your country." and prevent you from buying it. If you want or need instructions on how to get a Brazilian IP click the spoilers.

Just install this highly rated and trustworthy program from CNET,

http://download.cnet.com/Easy-Hide-IP/3640-2144_4-10714026-1.html

After restarting and use the program to make your IP location Brazil "Quick Connect" option, it's a big blue button. The area to pick location is right beside it.

This nuuvem.com site requires an account, no card information necessary. Easiest way to do this is your youtube/google+ account. If you're having trouble reading the Portugeuse (not sure why you wouldn't know the language) go to Google Translate and just highlight the whole page.

After that you'll be brought back to the screen where you're first trying to buy Love Max. Click paypal(unless you somehow know how to use that other crap) It'll ask for display Name and it's unspecific as fuck.  It's talking about your Steam display name.

After that the paypal screen comes up. This is the easiest part cuz all you need is login credentials. It will confirm right in front of you that the conversion rate matches up to $13.49.

When you're done you should get something like what you see in the attachment of my post.

Buy this AT YOUR OWN RISK, I assume this release has no region lock therefore a Brazilion copy would be able to connect with other copies and vice versa, and so do you if you buy it.

It's expected all the regional restrictions on netplay will be gone, which is fantastic, and this will help make the game accessible to a wider audience. However the price is probably pretty steep for a lot of people who have already invested a lot into the console versions or perhaps have already played it and moved on. I plan on picking this up on release myself. Are you planning on buying it, waiting for a sale, or not at all?

***NOTE: Sin may give you a bonus or penalty on damage in extend force. This game has a "Guts Modifier" that varies per character. Essentially at a certain percent of health you start taking less and less damage. However, the max amount of guts and starting guts modifiers vary and some start negative. You can find the breakdown of GUTS MODIFIERS HERE to calculate who should use SIN ARCANA.   ******

Important Mid-Level Techniques in AH3 - Bill307 on May 26, 2014

It'd be neat to make a video of these, but for now, here's a text-only version of important techniques that I think players with some experience should try to learn as they level up. I've also written counters to most of these techniques.

(Note: there are many counters and counter-counters that I don't list!)

https://www.facebook.com/events/574199709401099/597256323762104/

I'm all booked to go. The whole thing feels kind of...odd, but whatever, it's a tournament. AH was previously listed as a main game, but Jebailey tells me that the game recently has "the lowest numbers" at tournaments. Could very well be true...but anyway, he says if we have the numbers (20), we can be bumped up to real game status.

Anyway, I'm also in Xrd, AP, MB, UNIB and SKM if they do that. Same for KOF. I'm just hoping it's not a fluke. It's kind of on us to make it all happen and continue to happen, but eh...I've seen no talk of it really?

What you'll find here:

• Tournament match videos
• Live streams of known broadcasters
• Current live streams

SugoiDB: SugoiDB is a searchable match database, maintained by the English speaking community. You can search a variety of fields, from Arcana, to Character, to player. The only downside is this is a manual process, so the database is not always up to date. If you are interested in helping maintain this please get in touch with us!

All tournament points will be added up to your total ranking score.

Chat: #LoveBats IRC channel.
For those of you unfamiliar with IRC, just follow the link above to the chat, and use your gamertag as your nick, or nickname. This is where you will be reporting your matches to me so I can update the challonge page brackets and talking to the other players. If you're unable to IRC, you can message me the results on PSN.

Time: Sunday, Feb 15th, 2015, 7:00 pm EST, 6 central, 4 PST, etc. You may enter anytime up till 5 minutes before the matches start.

Rules:

• Each match is best 2 out of 3.
• Winner is not allowed to switch characters
• No game breaking glitches.
• You must have the NA version of the game
• Players must check in before the tournament starts
• If someone does not show up for their match in 5 minutes they will be given a warning, and in 5 more minutes they will be disqualified for the round
• Someone from the match must report who won, but the winner is the one that is held responsible for it.
• Any player may choose to forfeit if they decide the connection is unplayable. The other player will simply get the win.
• If both players agree the connection is bad or don't want to play in it, they may report a draw.
• Otherwise, standard Swiss System rules. Whoever has the most points at the end wins. Ties are broken by tie breaker points, unless they are top 3, then they can be decided with a whole set of best 2 out of 3. Ties below top 3 will be left alone
• 1st place is awarded 5 points toward ranking, 2nd 3 points, 3rd 2.5 points, 4th 1.5, everyone gets 1 point just for participating

Tournaments:

http://challonge.com/AHLB

Ranking:

1. Sanger_Zonvolt - 8.0

2. setrajonas - 5.0

3. PooglyWoogly - 4.5

4. TKShadow - 2.5

5. txrdriftrchimu - 1.0

6. Tenryuga - 1.0

Some useful information for everybody to try to work out a strategy, though:

The bad news first:

She cannot be knocked down. Initially, you might think, oh hey, I'll try Earth stomp super to stuff this full screen nonsense! Unfortunately, this move doesn't even hurt her, let alone knock her down. Your general Arcana gameplan, for this reason, will not be so effective due to this property of hers, coupled with the next thing:
She has a four-second burst recharge. Yes, her burst recovers faster than EF.

Unlike vanilla AH3, she does not lose maximum health after each continue.

There will be some rounds where the AI basically decides that you will lose, i.e. Parace just does a string of supers that renders you immobile.

I originally thought she could not block low or guard cancel, but she can. In fact, her GC allows her to teleport instantly behind you.

She does not take chip damage.

GCing against her is not so great. It can be against certain supers, such as her Earth super or the full screen level 3, but against others she will be able to punish you.

Her mobility is insane. Trying to take a risk and tag her with a large, slow move or even attempting space control at neutral can be risky due to Parace being able to instantly teleport behind you, and since Arcana doesn't have corners, she can just as well pop behind you in the corner if she feels like it (and she will).

She has near half-screen instant high/low that can end the round. Not only that, but when coupled with her teleports, she can decide to just roll up beside you and do the Water command throw. I could go on, but I think that about covers most of it lol D:

The good (or less bad?) news!:

She seems, as should be of little surprise, to be less of a threat if you stay in the air. In the air and on the ground, she does not have a move to cover the anti air angle above and in front of her. Of course, managing to safely approach at this angle is not easy. This is advisable over trying to fight her on the ground, as she can mix you up instantly if you stay there.

If actually in a neutral or defensive situation, Parace will attempt to block charged Es. If you're a Fire player, you could use this to get some free damage. Unfortunately, it is difficult to force her into this situation. Using 214214E or Eclipse can help, and is fast enough to often interrupt what she might be trying.
Continuing with that last note, she doesn't handle unblockables too well in general and actually has low HP. You may be able to take her out with a strong unblockable move.
As with all AI opponents, she will often not respect lingering projectiles such as Sin balls. These can interrupt whatever she's doing and give you a combo and allow you to at least start a short offensive.
Parace has several status effects that she can inflict upon you. One of them, however, can actually work to your advantage if you are aware of it. If she hits you with a super that looks something like a large, blue, fancy Metal sword that activates a red aura with Hokuto no Ken-style death timer. However, this super will also put you in a state where you have infinite armor, take no damage and do increased damage yourself for a set period of time. Power through her attacks and try to take her down, if you're in a position to!

Perhaps most importantly, and this may be how we have to beat her: While she is using her healing level 3, the golden crystal cocoon, it is advisable that you set up something advantageous during this time such as a Blaze, Eclipse or Critical Heart. If you're Lieselotte, do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isNzZUmnDxc
(also see Tigre's Metal Angie example below)
 

And that's all I've got, I think. Good luck versus this...nice lady. I'm not sure if Fiona can really beat this character, short of sheer chance. I've managed maybe ten rounds out of...probably 80-ish tries, but yeah...it feels like trying to win the lottery.

Edit: Can you move this to the Q&A thread? I forgot it was there.

I can't seem to ever get them besides the occasionally flukes in training mode.

The region thing limited some players, but there should still be some.

So lets make a list! Me and a few brits will be coming down and it would be nice if people could meetup for games

If theres a thread like this already with a signup sheet somewhere please lock this thread D: otherwise lets drop names and times!

Frostbolt - UK - Wednesday

AngelDarksong - UK - Wednesday

Mr.E - UK - Wednesday

RurouniLoneWolf - Montreal - Friday

Tigre - Philly - Thursday

Hoping to see loads of you guys