Dusty Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) Hazama Chain Zoning. Hazama's chain zoning to said the be the best zoning tool in the game, for it's ability to be so versatile, chains give Hazama the option to keep even the most hardcore rush down characters out and shut down most other zoners zoning game. Chain are a very powerful tool but only if used right. Chains have the ability to be incredible safe by using A cancels. Chain also have the ability to fly Hazama away from the opponent to a safe distance, or fly in on the opponent to pressure them. One reason why most Hazama's can't keep good players out is because the have the wrong mind set when zoning. The purpose of zoning with chains vs. a rush down character is to force them to take stupid risks or do something unsafe and capitalize on the free damage the opponent is throwing out, not to keep the other character at bay, I cannot stress this enough. The most effective way to use chains is to be as annoying as possible, to frustrate the opponent and force them to make a mistake. Think of chains as a fireball, a very very good fireball. If you throw one from full screen you're generally not going to get punished for it. If you throw one at point blank range and it wiffs you're going to get hit even if you A cancel as fast as possible. If you're about mid screen with you're opponent most Hazama's will throw the chains at the opponent to try and get them away from them, this is the wrong thing to do, because if the opponent guesses right and you wiff your chain you're going to get punched in the face. Use your "fireball" to force the opponent into a position you want them and where they don't want to be, think Ryu, throw the fireball so your opponent thinks it safe to jump when it's not. Another thing that most Hazama's don't understand and is something I did not understand for a very long time is HAZAMA'S MOVEMENT AND ZONING ARE THE SAME THING. I just blew your mind didn't I (Thank You Mu God). Using the chains to poke your opponent and using them to move around in sync makes for a very strong zoning style that is very hard to break. If you are mid screen with your opponent and you don't want to switch to close range combat, throw your chain, but don't throw your chain to try to keep your opponent away from you, throw it to get yourself away from the opponent, thus you can stay full screen again and throw your chains from a safe distance to continue to annoy and harass them until they choose to do something unsafe. The better your knowledge and understanding of chain movement the better your zoning will be. Vs. Other Zoners: Hazama is very strong against other zoning characters because of the fact that he moves VERY VERY FAST. It is very hard to pin Hazama down and make him stop doing what he wants to in neutral. Hazama can attack and move at very weird angles that most zoners simply cannot cover. Combined with the speed at which he flies, Hazama can fly in a out at most zoners as he pleases. Hazama vs. another zoner is one big guessing game with Hazama pulling the strings. The fact that Hazama can fake his chain by canceling it immediately or fly to a different spot on the screen to bait out a counter zone attempt is beyond nasty. Hazama can also fly in at his choice of different angels very fast and punish wiffed swords, steins, clouds, lobelias, and party bugs. Ground chains: 5D: The most risky of chains to throw out imo. 5D has the most recovery of all the ground chains (17 frames) and is the one the least likely to hit the opponent as jumping and blocking is the most effective way to close the distance vs Hazama. 6D: More effective than 5D and more safe. Opponents will jump at Hazama to close the gap and this chain will stop their advance. It has less recovery than 5D (15 frames) and you have to option to fly into the air if you wiff it completely and the opponent is running in on the ground. Air Chains: Using jumping and chain zoning is a whole different animal than ground chains. J.D's are generally safer to use as the angle that j.6D shoots out is very hard for most characters to get around. J.6D: A low risk chain to throw out, generally used to stop the opponent from gaining ground. J.5D: is a very low risk chain. Throw it out to predict jumps. If you throw it out and it wiffs you could always just fly away. If they block it you can cancel the chain or you can fly in and pressure them to the floor. J.4D: Is a very under used chain imo. J.4D can be used to predict the opponent running in. If the opponent runs in and gets hit by the chain free combo. If they jump up in the air chain back to the floor immediately, now you have the option to get away or challenge them with an anti air. If they block the 4D on the ground, you have a couple options, Option 1: If you have 2 Oroborous stocks you can B follow up then shoot another chain while in mid air to get away and reset the situation. Option 2: You can try to fly in on them with a jump in and hope to not get hit by an anti-air. Option 3: Fly back to the floor and block. J.9D: Use this to get away. Not a very useful chain. J.2D: Typically used as a bait or to get back to the floor ASAP. Note: The recovery of all jump chains is 28 frames and if you choose to A cancel Hazama cannot throw another chain while still in the air making it easier to punish if you wiff it badly. Notable Chain Movement Options: 5D~D(Immediately): Using this follow up immediately after 5D will throw Hazama into the air. This can be used to get away from the opponent or bait out your opponent's advance or counter zoning attempt by flying to a different spot instantly. 6D~B: Using this follow up will cause Hazama to fly up into the air and comes back down to the ground, this is a very powerful option to fly at the opponent very fast and awkward angle. Very useful for getting past other zoners zoning attempts. J.6D~D(Immediately): This option will fly you straight forward in the air. It is a very good run away option. J.4D~D(Immediately): This option will throw Hazama at an opponent on the ground. This option is good for pressuring the opponent and get around zoning character's zoning tactics. 2D~B: This is one of the most annoying chain movement options. Doing this will fly you away at the top of the screen for the cost of only 1 Oroborous stock. Use this option to run away and frustrate an opponent trying to lock you down. (Note: Always, always,always pay attention to your Oroborous stock. Since the nerf to Oroborous in CS2 Hazama will usually have less chain options in neutral against a good opponent. If you don't pay attention to your stock in a high pressure/risky situation and try to chain around with no stocks you may have just thrown away the match.) Hazama can also cancel his momentum by wiff normals and throwing more chains. For example: Hazama can J.6D~D at the opponent but stop his momentum by throwing out 2D and follow up to change his trajectory. Hazama can also 5D at the opponent and if they block it, Hazama can fly in and cancel his momentum by wiffing J.A land and block their anti air attempt, go low, or jump away. The possibilities of Hazama's chain movement options are quite endless. More on this later. Capitalizing on the opponents mistakes: To capitalize on the opponents mistakes mid screen is you first must recognize when they are annoyed enough to take a risk. When you realized they are IAD-ing or running in and swinging wildly for the fences it's time to get your free damage. The most effective way of baiting out an opponent is to immediately A cancel your chain, if your opponent reacts by IAD-ing have your anti-air ready, if your opponent runs in you have a couple of options. Option 1:You can shoot another chain in their face. Option 2:You can jump back and GTFO and annoy them again from full screen. Option 3: You can stick out your normal before them. Option 4: You can block. The best part about baiting attempts to get in by your opponent is if they choose not to run in there is no risk in doing the A cancel, your completely safe to do whatever you want afterwards. Running away can make your opponent very hasty and impatience. Chaining from full screen to full for 20-30 seconds can even make the calmest of players want to rush in. Once you notice your opponent begins to disregard blocking from full screen you can wait and react your opponent. If the choose to just run at you shot a chain in their face. If they IAD at your from a non safe distance Anti Air them. If they are closing in at an uncomfortable rate then move, create more space between you and your opponent, remember be annoying. (Note: Never throw chains without thinking about why you're throwing them. Make sure each chain thrown has a specific purpose. Never throw chains just to throw chains. Your zoning will not get instantly better over night I guarantee your zoning will continue to get stomped on unless you keep practicing and trying.) Now you have a general idea of how to zone with Hazama's chains. Remember this is just a general idea as most zoning strategies are match up specific, but I'll add more about that later. Dusty Zoning tips: #1: Make it a habbit to look at your opponents character and not Hazama when zoning. If you don't do this now I suggest you start training yourself to do it in matches. The trick is to watch your opponents character and know where Hazama is to their relative position so you can easily react to your opponents movement. More tips coming soon. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll be more than happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge. Edited September 9, 2011 by Dusty
Fluck Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) Gdlk, very helpful, I learnt alot from this, especially regarding notable chain movement options. I'd just like to point out that the D~D followup kinda works like this: Look at the chain as a straight line and imagine another line perpendicular to the chain. When you do the followup, Hazama will fly in the direction of the top of this imaginary perpendicular line. The height of this imaginary line is fixed so the shorter your chain when you do the followup, the greater the angle of ascent will be. Also imo have BIG BOLD LETTERS in the air chain section to not do air chains unless you have Ouroborous stocks, if you get it wrong you won't be able to pull yourself away and you'll get blown up, something I'm still painfully experiencing. I also think it would be helpful to have a section on pulling yourself in with chains? Not sure if you would consider that zoning. Edited July 18, 2011 by Fluck
ZeroRaider Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 (edited) Glad somebody posted this. (didn't the time, or brains to put it in the right words..) P.S. Best title of a guide evar. Edited July 18, 2011 by ZeroRaider
MetalMaelstrom Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 Very nice guide. One thing I'd like to add, though, is that 2D~B doesn't have the same effect in the corner/edge of the screen as it does midscreen. I use 4D~D or 6D~D (both immediate) since they never fail to have high parabolic paths. Also, because 2D~B has to fully extend in order to have that effect, it seems like it would be more useful as a positioning thing than an escape tactic. It is nice that 2D~B leaves you at fullscreen distance away, though.
Dusty Posted July 18, 2011 Author Posted July 18, 2011 I also think it would be helpful to have a section on pulling yourself in with chains? Not sure if you would consider that zoning. Yeah i thought about putting that in here, but i decided that was not about zoning. If i write a Hazama offense guide in the future chaining in will be defiantly be explored and explained. But Chaining in is a very important concept with playing Hazama and people should ask questions if they are having trouble doing it. Very nice guide. One thing I'd like to add, though, is that 2D~B doesn't have the same effect in the corner/edge of the screen as it does midscreen. I use 4D~D or 6D~D (both immediate) since they never fail to have high parabolic paths. Also, because 2D~B has to fully extend in order to have that effect, it seems like it would be more useful as a positioning thing than an escape tactic. It is nice that 2D~B leaves you at fullscreen distance away, though. Yeah I also use those options as well. But the more options you have to run the better. If I used 2D~B all the time to get away I would get hit all the time. But when you use all the options available to run away in a match to stay unpredictable you'd be surprised how many times you can get away with 2D~B BTW: ABUSE 2D~B IN TAGER MATCH (makes for LOL fun times)
Hazmat Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 What a fantastic guide on throwing your snake into peoples faces Respect J4D
yashanyu1 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 I think its safe to say that if I were female my genitalia would fly to your general direction... This guide is so good
Zeron_X25 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 I'll definitely add to this. I'm getting a recorder soon so I can demonstrate some approaches and some C and B chain gimmicks.
Fluck Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 (edited) Other things I remembered that may be suitable for the guide: Keep an eye on the opponent's meter during the match. Several characters have Distortion Drives that will allow them to punish your chains full screen when they normally can't, doing about 2.5-3.5k damage and giving knockdown, so don't chain too liberally or they will surprise you when they have 50 meter. Of course, it is also possible to bait them out. From what I can remember: Ragna - Carnage Scissors Noel - Thor Taokaka - Grab super (no one ever uses this though). If you input 4D or 6D at the same time Tao inputs the super you will hit her out of it, otherwise you lose. Doesn't really need super to punish you. Litchi - All-Green. This only works if you're standing at a certain range. At full-screen All-Green will not work. Tager - None. He has Spark Bolt though, so look at the spark gauge instead. Lambda - Chains will lose to Legacy Edge but she doesn't need super. Hazama - Mizuchi works if you're doing a ground chain. Tsubaki - None Hakumen - Yukikaze Bang - None Arakune - F of G Carl - None Rachel - Tempest Dahlia Jin - Ice Wave super Valk - Don't know about him. Plat - None Makoto - Big Bang Smash Mu - Laser super works, I think? Edited July 19, 2011 by Fluck
Zeron_X25 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 Taokaka - Grab super (no one ever uses this though). Doesn't really need super to punish you. 4D and 6D will hit her out of it actually.
Fluck Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 (edited) 4D and 6D will hit her out of it actually. Frame Data says the super is invincible 1-10F after superflash and the startup is 5+11, so I thought no chain could get her. If you're sure of it, I'll change my post. EDIT: Well, of course, frame data's been wrong before, so this might be another error Edited July 19, 2011 by Fluck
Zeron_X25 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 There's vid of this and It's happened to me before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J4DcE3m34I 3:03 I'll have to test this and see if it'll work at any distance or not.
Fluck Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 There's vid of this and It's happened to me before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J4DcE3m34I 3:03 I'll have to test this and see if it'll work at any distance or not. Wow, yeah that worked cause he hit her on the very last 16th frame with the chain when there was no invincibility. I guess I'll make a note.
Dacidbro Posted July 20, 2011 Posted July 20, 2011 (edited) It's a great title, even if it's a bit misleading PS Good guide Edited July 20, 2011 by Dacidbro
Zeron_X25 Posted July 20, 2011 Posted July 20, 2011 The title is not misleading at all. What are you talking about?
Shazam Posted July 21, 2011 Posted July 21, 2011 (edited) J.9D: Use this to get away. Not a very useful chain. I disagree here, although against many opponents it might seem useless but this game can get pretty Arcana Heart'd with certain characters (Hazama being one of them) as far as being really, really high in the air. I like to use this mostly against Rachel players although generally speaking if you're in the air and they're above you *edit* when there is some distance* this is definitely an option select. Edited July 22, 2011 by Shazam
Zeron_X25 Posted July 22, 2011 Posted July 22, 2011 j.9D is a very good way of getting to the other side of the field fast. It's good for laming people out as well.
C0R Posted July 22, 2011 Posted July 22, 2011 Laser super works to a degree, but it's not very reliable, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Zeron_X25 Posted July 22, 2011 Posted July 22, 2011 Hazama - Mizuchi works if you're doing a ground chain. Mizuchi hits a bit above ground too. Thought I should mention this.
Fluck Posted July 22, 2011 Posted July 22, 2011 Thanks for info C0R. Mizuchi hits a bit above ground too. Thought I should mention this. Yes, it does. If you do Jayoku into Mizuchi for the unburstable kill you will notice this.
Silius Posted July 23, 2011 Posted July 23, 2011 Wasn't mentioned, but j.5D has a bit longer reach than 5D. Also, if you do a j.5D pretty close to the ground you can lock them down better than if you threw out a 5D (still hit them if they're on the ground and makes it easier to hit opponents out of a jump). Also, if you hit the opponent with a j.5D close to the ground you can land and do a 5D and it will combo off a normal hit. Nothing mindblowing, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of it.
Eclipse Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 Great guide dusty. I'm a relatively experienced Hazama player and can back up a lot of what you said here. I learned quite a few new things as well. Options with j.4D I have to start using more. To CH people rushing in, and to fly towards my opponents. Thanks for the great guide and advice. I'd be interested in writing a mid-screen/corner mix up guide for Hazama one of these days. Partially because I'm interested to learn more about Hazama's pressure mid-screen. And I like Buppa's offensive pressure based style, and would readily draw inspiration for my own Hazama if possible.
Recommended Posts