TheArm05

Technically a nerf in that they can recover (a tiny bit) of burst during the difference. It is so incredibly insignificant though. It isn't like this is new anyway. Particle Flare, Daifunka + many others already hold off the death until last hit. It is for dramatic effect.

Azrael changes looking great. Lots of QoL buffs. I am really happy about the Hornet Chaser change. That was one of the most annoying ways to drop combos. Any other Az players going to Final Round? I'll be there. Hopefully I get on stream so I can get some input on my play.

I am going to have to check out this Mixup Night footage. I need some Azrael inspiration myself :P The best/fastest TK crossup is easily dash through TK Phalanx. It is hard to combo off of unless you blast them directly into the corner but it is blindingly fast and BHS can always followup if you just need ~3k for a finish. ofc you need a phalanx stock so it is only situational but if you need just a little to end a round this is Azraels best mixup imo.

I could see it. Dogura is monstrously good so he probably doesn't get opened up much by Jin. I want to know why we don't even SEE Nu listed. Does he really think it is in our favor that hard or did he just forget about her? I always felt like that was one of Azrael's worst matchups when I played it.

Yeah I think that was a mistranslation. I think it is buffed to 4 uses now. That probably won't matter but the activation time sounds like a solid buff. The Rachel changes in general are pretty whatever. 2C change is meh and I don't really know where they are going with the lotus change. But hey at least they didn't nerf her.

Hornet change is to try to put a stop to 2x weakpoint combos. I can pretty much guarantee that. The sentinel change is nice. Dash > TK Dump will be usable now although idk how useful that will be. D moves being special cancelable must have been what they were talking about before with D cancels. Nice of them to make OD 5D/6D > 236D not height dependent. Sounds like all good stuff for Azrael.

Thanks for the response guys. I already play Rachel so I have a pretty strong neutral character already. I should swap back more often for a change of pace. Biggest problem with that is that they both share a couple of bad matchups like Nu and Haz but thats just how it is haha. I do still enjoy playing Azrael though. Those times when you get a big hit with weakpoints already on are amazing.

Lately I seem to have hit a wall on Azrael. I am getting somewhat frustrated with this character. Everyone I play against (not just zoning chars) runs the entire game and this character is so SLOW when trying to chase people. My matches come down to relentlessly chasing someone to the corner and if they manage to surprise me and swap sides I have to chase them down to the other corner. All the while I am risking getting hit by whatever poke they can throw out as they back up. I can still manage to overwhelm people with offense when I can actually get in but getting in is increasingly difficult. How do you guys deal with characters that aren't zoning characters running from you the whole match? I definitely need to get better at my combos too. I drop way too much stuff. That is on me to grind out though. No amount of advice will help me there.

Flippers is definitely the spot if you want to play Anime (mostly BBCP atm). Like Twolink said its Mondays and Thursdays usually but you should check before you go (not here this place is /DEAD/). Join the Florida Air Dashers Community on Facebook. That is where pretty much all the communication goes on about meeting and stuff. Can message just about anyone in it and they can add you.

5B CH causing float would have been awesome in P4U1. We would be able to go straight into Garu loops meterless RIP. Now (if it is true which video is it?) it just seems ok. Woo not so rare footage of Liz being shit on by Mitsuru. Nothing to see there unless you want to see Mitsuru pressing buttons and Liz (still) dying from >50%.

I thought about this potential change as well. However I think this would be too strong in certain matchups that we never get stocks in (VALKENHAYN). Having stocks against Valk would change that matchup entirely and it would be a huge problem for the wolf. Hakumen is another that this change would totally turn the matchup on its head and there are certainly others. Growler/Phalanx was meant as an anti zoner tool to allow Azrael to get in when he would other wise get zoned incredibly easily. This change would turn stocks into an oppressive neutral tool in patient matchups and an anti approach tool against characters who go in.

Liz's tools make her tricky to balance really. They intended her to be a glass cannon in P4U1 based on her tools and damage. However I think they intentionally make her not very good because she would be incredibly unfun to play against if she was top tier. I think it is comparable to someone like Arakune being top tier. When Arakune is top tier people hate playing against him and start to dislike the game. There was a time early in P4U1 that I was the best player in my local scene. I would go to casuals and beat everyone with Liz repeatedly and they HATED it. They hated getting randomly hit for 4-5k, they hated my status effects, and they hated my Thanatos mixups. Eventually they grinded the matchup enough that they found where to press buttons and how to react to my pressure and they began to start winning more and more against me. However if Liz was top tier and was able to force this kind of playstyle on people even at the highest level it would just be unfun honestly. It pains me to say it but I don't think Liz will ever be a good character and it is intentional.

Having a super that instant kills is just poor fighting game design. It is balanced out by how bad it is. Instant kill supers that have no special requirements (unlike Naoto's) are either going to be inherently overpowered or useless. If it is possible to practical combo Mahamaon every round with 50-100 meter then it becomes a dominant and overpowering tactic that Liz players will tunnelvision on. It will dictate Liz's gameplan and will make the game unfun for both the Liz player who is stuggling to get this one specific hit and the other guy who just knows he will get 100>0ed if he screws up once (barring burst). If it isn't practical to combo (read: P4U1 Mahamaon/Mamudoon) then it is just useless wasted space on the movelist. Therefore it might as well not exist. Instant kill moves just don't really have a reason to exist in competitive fighting games.

Well I know that. Sorry bad example on my part I guess but you get what I meant. We could go more in depth with it. Stuff we could expand on like j.A combo stuff on standing characters and fuzzy guard j.As. Kokonoe isn't in there either. Although that is pretty much you can't do shit after the TCL.

We getting buffed in the patch: "During overdrive, D attacks will now cancel" This will make our overdrive combos go from easy > easier?? I guess this is an interesting change. I wonder how fast you can cancel them. Maybe this means we get stronger mixup with 5D > 6D/3D in OD. Honestly it just seems like this isn't going to change much but at least it means we aren't nerfed yet haha. Also I agree we need a reference on char specific shit. Being able to do stuff like air hit TCL > IAD j.AB > 5B >stuff is so much stronger than simply 3D when it works.

Good shit guys. Nice to see people having success with Azrael. I lost out of the regional tournament this past weekend to two local guys I play all the time in close sets. So I have been watching a lot of match footage lately and noticed Dogura loves wakeup Sentinel Dump. I tried this on a lot of people this past weekend to see which characters it is effective on. Any character that likes to meaty with a long recovery attack gets absolutely blown up by this. Also if they try to bait growler and you do it a lot of the time you get a crossup. It is pretty gimmicky but it is an option to consider. Also the look on peoples faces when they get hit by it the first time is absolutely priceless. Dump can also be used to beat many of the supers that are too fast to 6A and are only one hit. Ashura, Jayoku, Wisdom of the Divine and Calamity Sword all lose to it. Keep in mind they can rapid off the guard point and mash to beat you. Haven't gotten to test it vs Phorizer but if it punishes that even better. This is particularly useful in the case of Ashura since it is usually so safe on block. Frame 1-10 GP too godlike. Played against a Litchi a lot this weekend and I had a question. Is air hit TC > Valiant possible on her midscreen? I couldn't get it to work on her at all in training mode or in my matches.

Saying Liz could be good because of her status effects/resets/potential damage is basically irrelevant. P4U Liz was a great character once you hit someone. The problem was/is you just can't really hit good players outside of tagging them with random shit. Pulsr basically just confirmed all of my worst fears and it looks like barring balance changes I will have to main a different character next game. I suffered enough in P4U I won't make the same mistake again. I will still put in plenty of time to learn new Liz for fun since she is still easily my favorite Persona character but I doubt I will rock her in tournaments.

The patch isn't coming out for a while. I would be pretty surprised if these were the final and only changes. So far it doesn't sound like much will really change aside from low tiers moving to mid and Koko falling hard. The wolf will reclaim his throne.

Tager getting buffs is fine as long as he remembers his place in ass or near ass tier. Jokes aside though. If Tager can ever legitimately fight Haz/Nu/Mu/Valk/Koko/Rachel he will be an absolute TERROR for everyone else. That is why he will always be meh at best.

Well it won't be Koko getting buffed that is confirmed from the change list alone. I also can't see them being crazy enough to buff Valk/Haz/Tao etc. I am more concerned with one of the now low tiers catching a huge buff and rocketing up the tiers (Izayoi?). Also Tager is and always should be shit.

Jebailey won't decide to ban a move less than a week before his tournament. At this point a balance patch has already been announced so I think we just have to bite the pillow for one more month. I wonder how large the scope of this balance patch will be. The way I see it they could take a minimalist approach and just hit koko's drive and remove black hole, or they could do entire sweeping changes to all the cast. The latter seems like wishful thinking (or a nightmare depending on your character).

Lol at the easier Rachel combos. That is some wishful thinking. I wonder if they will try and hit all the top tier or if this is just a target nerf to the Koko. If they nerf Azrael in the slightest I am going straight back to Rachel. Also I truly fear a heavily buffed Amane or Izayoi. Both characters already have their strong moments.

Handicapping moves is out of the question in a fighting game. You going to say they lose the round if they accidentally use it? Also saying it is unfair to Kokonoe players if she is banned is ridiculous. Kokonoe alone invalidates well over half the cast competitively. It is far more unfair for someone to have to switch to one of the ~5 characters that can fight her (or Koko herself). Or they can just continue to get bopped in 7-3 or 8-2 matchups all day. It just comes to character variety and game health at this point.

Yeah I had so much trouble with the OD 5C > delay > BHS > 22C combo that I figured it was too impractical so I just removed it from that list. Maybe someone else will have more luck than me. Personally I will just make sure they have a LW whenever I knock them down in the corner. OD > 5C > delay > BHS > LW 3D > combo is really free and like easy 8k. The combos you can do fully loaded with both weakpoints are straight comical. Good shit on the video btw. I will be learning some of those for sure later. As far as getting stocks in this matchup it is easiest to dash > tk growler the bunker for stocks. Carries some risk of course since she can mixup you as you come out but a lot of the times you can get 1 or 2 without too much risk.

Well granted I think having one semi practical Mahamaon combo still makes her less of a comeback character than P4U Liz's "I can two shot you off anything comebacks". I already played P4U Liz super risky so I don't think I will mind the playstyle shift in favor of risky play. I just hope I can contain the salt losing when I get 5A'd for 4k life + combo dmg. For reference Dazardz. Hama = Expel magic. Mudo = Death magic. The prefix Ma means its aoe. The suffix oan/on means the powered up version of the spell. Mamudoon being the highest level mudo spell.