Digital Watches

Nah, if you're that near the corner, you can often IAD j.D Bomber or just run and 6H, 5K, 2S, j.D, etc.

I guess, but then why not combo into rensen FRC for half the meter?

It's a bit narrow-focused to be a sticky. Maybe if we get a bunch of advanced shenanigans together in one thread, we can sticky that, but for now this will do, as long as it doesn't get pruned.

Clarify that this is AC specific, I guess.

Fair enough, still, I'd take offense over neutral anyday.

For slidehead, backdashing is dumb. There's no risk to doing benten if you time the reversal right, and it's the difference between a knockdown and being in Pot's offense for longer. If you're going to try and backdash, you may as well try to reversal 1fJ. It's harder, but the reward is much better.

Yes, H Benten beats out meaty slide head, even if it's not blockable, since the lower-body invincibility starts at frame one and slide head only hits the floor.

I think S Benten was still fully invincible in #R

Wull yeah, but you may as well just read frame data and listen to experienced players/become one yourself. Everything in the game is going to be too situational to make a concrete list, and the work involved would not be worth compiling a list that basically says "X move works against a lot of AAs, sometimes, if you time it right and space it well, but not against A, Q, and Z, but only if THEY do Y, but not if..." etc. And with that kind of vagueness, RANKING them of all things would be absolutely impossible. It's kind of patently absurd, no offense.

Bah. Axl's already A-tier, I say.

I dunno about AC+. All I know is it has some weird glitches of its own, so I didn't bother.

Er... I'm not quite sure what you mean, but in the Japanese console release of AC, there was a bug on the player one side where some of Axl's moves didn't do enough hitstun/untech, making certain combos not work. It's fixed in the US version.

As I'm sure most of you know, Axl's dragon punch, Bentengari (623H and 623S) is a little lacking: Neither version has any frames of full invincibility, they both have a lot of recovery, and neither is particularly strong for damage. However, it is important to learn the few uses for these moves as reversal, pressure, and even combo tools. FRC S Benten FRC is no harder than rensen FRC in terms of frame leniency, but because of a few factors, it's by far the hardest FRC for Axl players to use effectively. Firstly, the FRC is very early in the move (Frames 7 and 8. Even slightly above average visual reaction time is around 9F), meaning that one has to input the FRC before they can hitconfirm. Secondly, the FRC window is after three of the active frames of the move have happened, meaning that if the moves connects on its first few active frames (Whether it hits or is blocked), the FRC is actually 14 frames later than if it whiffs. What this means is that in order to use the FRC effectively, you'll have to learn two timings: The "hit" timing, and the "whiff" timing. But it's only a little extra work, and definitely worth it. Reversal Using Benten as a reversal requires two things: First, you have to know what you're trying to beat. Obviously, low meaties are going to be H Benten, and high meaties are going to be S Benten. If you don't know what it's going to be before you input, just block instead. I realize that it's not always going to be possible to know for sure, but it's a big risk to take if you're not at least 90% sure. Also, since it's a lot faster and high meaties are a lot slower, you'll be using S benten in a lot more situations than H. Actually, the only real low I consistently go for H benten against is meaty slidehead, but if you see other lows coming, it may be a good idea in other situations. Don't even bother for things like Slayer's 5H. It's better to just block any move that will at some point in the move hit both upper and lower body. With either reversal, you should have at least 30% meter, I'd say 50 is ideal. This is both a failsafe and a combo starter. First off, if the opponent manages to trick you and block, you can continue H benten into Bomber, kokuu FRC, and be prepared to FD on your way down. This isn't very safe from airthrows, however. For light benten, you should ALWAYS input an FRC. If you have 50% meter, you should only input the late timing if you're absolutely sure it'll connect. The early timing covers you on whiff, and is an RC on hit/block, whereas the late timing screws you over if you whiff, as you'll have to take the whole recovery of the move. In pressure A blocked S benten FRC makes a great tick throw, but rensen FRC can serve the same purpose even better. So why use it in pressure? Throw invincibility. A lot of Axl's blockstrings are not true blockstrings, in that even though you remain at frame advantage, the opponent is not in blockstun the whole time. If a smart opponent starts IBing, they might be able to throw you out of a lot of things, which is not good. Benten (both) is Axl's only throw-invincible move on the ground, and thus SCing into it can punish throw attempts, as kind of an inferior but nonetheless useful version of Eddie's drunkard shade. There are some funny frame traps you can do with it, but that's matchup stuff. Otherwise, it basically functions as a version of Rensen FRC with less range and blockstun (IE not as good). Oki Using Benten on Oki is, again, a way to punish throw attempts. Since it's throw-invincible on frame 1, you can run and do it at the last possible moment, making it very hard to tell it's coming. You can also use a meaty benten to duck high reversals, and if you get the meaty timing down, you can make the move hit on the FRC frames, making the whiff FRC timing and the hit FRC timing the same (And it's probably the safest thing Axl can do as oki, as if you time it that way, you FRC on the first frame they could possibly be doing a reversal, meaning it'll both hit Sol on wakeup and allow you to block if he VVs, something other Axl meaties can't do.) Combos and Setups We all know about knockdown combos into H benten, but S benten has some interesting combos as well. A close or counterhit Benten F/RC will allow for a standard air combo that does more damage than a similar combo started from a Rensen FRC. Meanwhile, comboing into benten FRC (or just doing it from too far away to combo into 6K or sj.K), is a good airthrow setup, as the untech time is long enough to run forward a bit and jump most of the time.

Naw, it'll just block that way because it needs to FD to block that particular move.

Training mode glitch, I think.

Well, that and add the F/RC tension gain bonus, since 3% is easy as fuck to build.

It means you taunted after winning a round. It basically just gives the opponent 50% meter at the next round. Useless.

I think he means the second throw-break window. Does that one vary from throw to throw?

That does seem a bit fishy.

I figure it's because they need to dash slightly to continue the combo as they do, but the dash break is required for the hit to connect before they're out of hitstun.

OH SHIT.

Well, backdashing doesn't really allow you any momentum, and I'm skeptical that it'll prevent her from getting in, since Axl's backdash isn't very invulnerable and rather slow, and I'd rather avoid having to sit and block against Jam for as far into the match as possible. I'm pretty sure that Jam can get you before the backdash is over simply by running forward at match start, and I'm actually a little skeptical that you can beat any IAD attempt that way. Not saying it's a bad idea all the time, but there are a lot of reasons not to.

But if it's already a combo... does it being an overhead really matter?

Dash splitting? Is this clarified elsewhere, or would you mind doing so here?