Zeinest & Tree formations

[ansem]

I have a hard time catching my opponents with zeinest and the trees it will either get destroyed or countered before i pull it off. when and where should i place both zeinest and trees and how often should i use phantom soul during battle. please help

[Lucy Boy]

taken from rabitecake's older posts:

TWO MOVEMENT FORMATIONS

1. Hitomi backdash hitomi or hitomi backdash backdash hitomi: Spaces the hitomis out so that it's harder to cross both and hit testament. For example if the opponent dashes past the first hitomi and hits testament standing behind the 2nd hitomi, the 2nd hitomi may disappear but the 1st hitomi will have had enough time to strike while the opponent is hitting testament. This formation makes it harder to jump clear over the hitomis since they cover a larger area. The limitations to this formation: if testament gets hit by something like a projectile the whole thing is lost, planting two hitomis is a considerable amount of time to be lost in one hit. Also hitomi backdash hitomi doesn't protect against certain fast approaches from the air that pass over the first hitomi and hit testament before the 2nd hitomi comes out, bandit bringer for example, in that case hitomi backdash backdash hitomi can be more favorable. Guessing what your opponent will do to diffuse the hitomis and punishing them accordingly is important and key to testaments game..

Crappy Picture-> o ! ! t or o ! ! t

o=opponent

!=hitomi

t=testament

2: Hitomi normal jump straight up web at max height: This covers the air and the ground, stops many instant air dash attempts. Standing directly behind the hitomi prevents dashing normal attacks from the ground (except throws), however if you are further away the opponent will be able to run past the hitomi easily. One of the benefits to this formation is that the only obvious way that both the zeinest and hitomi can be removed at the same time is by taking to the air and punching the zeinest while passing over the hitomi, most other air attacks will be sucked into the zeinest, using this knowledge you can anti air them when they attempt this. This is primarily an anti-air formation, remember if they get hit by the hitomi it will launch them into the zeinest rather quickly.

Picture-> o Yt

Y=zeinest above hitomi

3: Hitomi backdash zeinest: A totally strong focused common ground formation, this will stop opponents that try to run past the hitomi and attack or throw testament and trying to destroy the up close zeinest on the ground will place them in attack range of the hitomi. The only weakness to this formation is the lack of coverage in the air, though it is strong against and opponent jumping directly into this area since they will need to attack to diffuse zeinest and face hitomi without guarding.

Picture-> o !w t

2: Hitomi backdash hitomi zeinest: Large coverage of space on the ground and a zeinest placed to force an attack that must ultimately face a hitomi.

Picture-> o ! P t

P=hitomi placed on same point as zeinest ;p

These are the common formations that come to mind, you can always add a high phantom soul or exe beast into these formations to fill in gaps.

the phantom soul question is a bit vague. use it for zoning/combo enders, i guess.

you didn't need to make a separate thread for this, you know. there's a q&a thread.

[ansem]

Thanks for the help anybody with unique formations and stradegy post here:keke:

[RabiteCake]

Thanks for the help anybody with unique formations and stradegy post here:keke:

what characters and situations are you dealing with? please give me specifics.

[Digital Watches]

what characters and situations are you dealing with? please give me specifics.

Yeah for example:

V. Axl: Trees? Zeinests? What are those?

[RabiteCake]

Yeah for example:

V. Axl: Trees? Zeinests? What are those?

plant zeinests in the air only to adjust your jump trajectory/landing time, and when axl is floored. plant hitomi as usual after he guards an attack or space permits, however when hitomi is out be prepared to lose it if you attempt an exe beast(his 5p trade will kill everything) and instead focus on the exe beast(frc or counter hit) if you choose to do that. in this match you have to concentrate on one planting at a time and make that count. low marking(ps) is extremely important when used as an obstacle in this match. with the low marking out axl cannot use jump slash because if you guard it he will fall into the marking. it limits his approach on the ground. since it is a projectile he cannot send chains through it or it will stop his attack and mark him. axl loses to testament jump slash if he takes to the air (who doesnt?). once he is marked he loses ;p. and spam exe beasts a lot lol.

one random note in this match, if you find yourself directly under axl and he is in the air plant a zeinest between his legs. if he does any attack he will lose to it, hitbox stuff.

***notes on how to use hitomi: basic option for all characters when an opponent approaches you from the air with hitomi planted, jump+ guard their attack and allow the hit stop from the game to cover the startup of the hitomi activation. hit stop is the small time freeze that occurs during the game when a hit connects, during which time projectiles can animate but everything else is frozen. hitomi continues to animate during hit stop, so guarding an attack while hitomi activates in essence speeds up the move. hitomi also animates during the freeze that occurs at the start of nightmare circular, so you can force the opponent to be hit with it if you activate the overdrive when they pass over a planting point. the massive hit stop from a warrant activation can be quite effective when used with hitomi as well. if they opt for the common tactic of empty jumping in to avoid hit stop, air throw them. if they opt to air dash high over the plantings to set them off safely, meet them in the air with something like jump slash or air throw ;p. finally if they attempt to run up and throw you on the ground before hitomi comes out, jump up over hitomi and press any attack, the game will not enable them to run under your center in that situation and hitomi will hit them, or smack them before they get that far, you own the ground. this is just a simple outline on what to do, there are lots of specific situations which require specific actions to counter them.

[Digital Watches]

I agree with everything Jamie says here, but she forgets to add that planting hitomis runs the risk of only serving to give Axl a nice invincible, unblockable DP to use, so if you're going to plant them, stay the fuck away from them as best you can. Low marking can be killed by Rensen, so make sure to plant it when he's floored, so that at least you're neutral when it goes away, instead of getting hit out of summoning it.

[RabiteCake]

I agree with everything Jamie says here, but she forgets to add that planting hitomis runs the risk of only serving to give Axl a nice invincible, unblockable DP to use, so if you're going to plant them, stay the fuck away from them as best you can. Low marking can be killed by Rensen, so make sure to plant it when he's floored, so that at least you're neutral when it goes away, instead of getting hit out of summoning it.

oh yea ;p, if axl runs into hitomi on the ground he will likely do housoubako on it in which case you must jump straight up and punish it on whiff. if axl does rensen to negate the low marking it is easy to punish with iad, warrant, or whatever...

so if you're going to plant them, stay the fuck away from them as best you can.

that is never the case in this game, even with a move like housoubako ;p.

[Digital Watches]

oh yea ;p, if axl runs into hitomi on the ground he will likely do housoubako on it in which case you must jump straight up and punish it on whiff. if axl does rensen to negate the low marking it is easy to punish with iad, warrant, or whatever...

that is never the case in this game, even with a move like housoubako ;p.

I guess I should rephrase that:

Don't be doing anything. It's only a risk when you're in neutral. If you're trying a move, it's a chance for a CH.

[ansem]

Eddie destroys all my traps any tips against him and Venom most of my trap formations don't work against those two please help

[CopperDabbit]

I've also found that using hitomi as an anti-air shield is good in certain situations. Plant the tree, and then stand on top of it. This typically seems to work best if they've moved you somewhere near the corner, thus limiting their options of crossing over the hitomi. As I already said it's situational, and very probably character specific as well (god I wish there were more local people to play!). I can say for a fact I've found it useful against baiken, jam and dizzy. (The dizzy I play isn't very good yet, so I can't say for a fact diz doesn't have an easy way around it)

[ansem]

I have a great stradegy when using the dolls after the key special catch the enemy with zeinest then plant a hitomi its should poisend the enemy, then use phantom soul low its will curse the enemy this will give you a great advantage and an extra doll for whatever you want but use it wisely:china:

[Cbehrend]

This isn't so much of a formation as it is a technique to confuse an opponent. I've found that it is possible to take advantage of the two-Zeinest limit by more or less spamming the Zeinest high and low at a rapid pace. Doing so causes Zeinests to flash all over the screen as they get replaced; this can - if done fast enough - leave your opponent without a clue as to where the Zeinests are. This may be primitive, but it has worked for me on more than one occasion.

[ansem]

Can anyone help me on how to do the infinite hitomi continous hits its something I saw done on faust in a video called testament outstanding combo clips. Unfortunately the account of the maker of that vid was suspended but for people that have seen and still remember it how was it done? and is it possible to do that on a human player or CPU?

[faultydefense]

Its a legit combo, unfortunately its very very very very situational. The combo in question i believe lasted over 20 hits before the tree loop started. This is necessary to make the enemy drop at an increased speed quick enough to make the trees combo without allowing tech. Also, they did it on faust because he gets popped up a little higher than most characters. Sadly, thats about all I can say on the combo, I dont remember the full setup leading to the loop.