TheArm05

Black Hawk Stinger is so fucking godlike. I have never had access to a super nearly as good as this in my entire history of fighting games. Reaction punishing from nearly fullscreen is probably the most satisfying thing in the entire game. I stole so many rounds at NEC with max range 5C > BHS. My Azrael is still super mediocre atm though. I have a long way to go before I can compete with the higher tier BB players.

Phalanx > BHS is a really simple and brutally effective way to combo it. For sure that is one of the strongest options. The dash phalanx stuff is really just training mode impractical junk for the most part but having the knowledge of it could possibly win you a match against someone like Mu or Koko who throw out projectiles nonstop. Yeah CA is an automatic get out of the BHS unblockable. Although honestly 50 meter for some other characters is worth more than 50 meter on Azrael (see Jin) so it isn't so bad. They can also always burst out of the blockstun so it really isn't guaranteed unless they have <50 AND no burst. Has anyone tested if the armor on OD BHS would make it go through a counter assault? I kind of wish we could hold BHS to delay it a little just to make counter assaulting not totally free.

I wish it was a little easier to get phalanx stocks. That move is absurdly good. Having 2-3 phalanx stocks lets you do some of the dumbest stuff. At long range you can do a dash in between each phalanx stock hit and still keep the combo going. 236B > 66 > 2369B > 66 > 2369B > 3D/(669 TCL)/(669 Valiant)/etc... Just an example you can use less phalanx stocks if you are closer to them. The possibilities for this move are really crazy. Anytime you hit a 5B in a combo you can tack on a phalanx for additional damage. It is too bad that we can only easily get multiple stocks in a couple matchups or against careless players.

I'll clarify what I was saying about the whole mashing/disrespect thing. Kagura's pressure isn't frame tight and it is very easy to escape out of or slip something in between. If you aren't able to hit him out you don't have to block long drive strings unless you are in the corner just wind backdash/jump out. They can definitely make Wyvern safe on block. Didn't know this since our Kag never did it until like this week. That giant ball projectile shits on George. Although you can punish the stronger ball startup for free with TD if they get too predictable. What are you getting hit by most Venussail? That is the best place to address matchup problems especially with a slower character like Kagura.

HOLY SHIT. That means it can low profile Coup Droit then too right? If so that is fucking huge for the Mitsuru matchup. My biggest problem with Mits is that there was basically no practical move we had to call out 5A mash or Ex Coup. Sad about the low damage part. A combination of low health, no reversal, no counter assault , slow unsafe moves AND low damage seems a bit much. Going off the Liz changes and the fact that a lot of the ridiculous rushdown and oki is nerfed I would have to imagine she is comparatively better though.

According to the frame data at best that move is -8. He has to cancel into a stance to do another move so there is delay that lets you mash. If you are unsure about the punish timing just use 5A but either should work. Instant blocking this slow ass move is also really easy to make it even worse. Keep in mind this is only if he ends up right in your face after using it. Honestly I don't really respect Kagura at all when I play against him and it works really well. His pressure has tons of holes to mash through and the move he is supposed to use to beat mashing 5D~A (the armored shoulder tackle) loses hard to 2B. He also crumbles to Rachel pressure once you get in since as soon as he blocks one of your instant overheads he has nothing he can do defensively.

If you block wyvern the punish depends on the spacing. If he ends up right next to you its free 2A/5B but if he ends up farther away sometimes you can't do anything. If he ends up on a pole you can lightning him or if george is out a lot of the times george will punish them automatically. It really is better to just avoid the move entirely or beat it out. Once you start doing 6B CH combos or hitting them with pumpkin on the recovery every time they try it they will just stop using this move almost entirely or they will lose.

Hazama's good combos are hard as shit with loads of microdashes. His movement is odd and he is overall pretty technical. I don't think I would recommend him as a sub. Honestly from your longer post it sounds like you should sub Jin. Great defense, great neutral, hes zero stress and easy as fk. His OD/mid level combos are cool and easy, and his neutral is absurdly strong for how simple it is.

There was a Liz who was playing through arcade on one of the day 1 streams for a couple matches. Some of the changes are kind of odd. Her new autocombo looks cool (who cares) same with randomizer, and the new bufus (both a and b vers) look whack as fuck. Idk we need a good player to flesh out new Liz I guess. Ever since loketest 3 I have been real worried about this character.

I have been playing this matchup quite a bit so I figure I'll drop in some stuff I have figured out. 1. You can get phalanx stocks for absolute free in this matchup. The only problem is whenever you go to get a phalanx stock you give mu a lot of time to set up more steins or dash in for a mixup. IMO don't try to growler too much just grab a couple stocks and use them sparingly for the threat. Phalanx is crazy strong against her. 2. Her 5C is the god. It destroys gustaf and any low jumps and beats just about any move you do if she can get it out. It combos into 3k+ off anything other than standing non ch. This is what you will be trying to beat most of the time. Close range 5A/5B wins. If you get a good read you can dump/valiant through it. Airdash j.B beats it as long as you don't do a really low airdash. 3. Her j.C is the other primary move to beat. Fortunately j.B owns this move if you can get above/below her. If she is trying to jump in on you with j.C you can anti air her with 5A/5B/2C depending on spacing. Ch j.C hurts so be patient against this move. 4. Crossing her up is strong since her moves have so much recovery. If you make her whiff 6C/5C/2C you can get a huge punish. 5. Gustaf is actually pretty good against anything that is not 5C. It can tag her out of her jumps coming down or if she happens to try grounded steins/explosion/lasers you can tag her with a CH. 6. You can bait her DP with a spaced 2C pretty easily. If you go for a late crossup on wakeup the DP does hit both sides so you will get hit. This matchup is a match of patience really. She will keep you at midrange and fish for CHs with 5C/j.C while working down your health with steins. You are going to have to push her to the corner while running the gauntlet. Once you hit her though she crumbles rather quickly.

Well after watching the N-O vs Tsuji set I am just sad. Rachel god and all around one of the best players in the world N-O just got SHIT ON. I figured that Rachel would have the tools to deal with Koko at neutral and she would be able to win by getting in and abusing Kokos lack of defensive options (which happened on occasion). Turns out Koko just smashes Rachel mid/fullscreen and close range it is pretty much even if not in Kokos favor. Super Ball is some pretty serious bullshit and the amount of times Tsuji got away with wakeup 2A or wakeup teleport>2A was frustrating even me watching. The truly scary part is that it will only get worse from here. N-O couldn't figure much out in 13 games to answer Koko and he is at the pinnacle of the character. Koko is week 2... I am not a fan of early bans/patches but I think I have finally been convinced that this character is just absurdly overpowered. I have to agree #patchkokonoe #ArcsysPLS

Hey guys introducing myself as I just recently switched to maining Azrael (from Rachel). I've been having quite a bit of fun with Az and I am getting the hang of how he works with some intermediate combos down. I have a couple questions I'll ask as well. 1. What do you follow up CH 2C anti air with when they have no weakpoints on them? Can you do anything aside from 6D? 2. Is grounded TCL (into corner) > 5A > j.A character specific or just really strict timing? 3. Is growler completely free when it absorbs a projectile or is there still a punish window? 4. When doing midscreen air hit TCL > Rapid > IAD j.C > 214D is there a specific delay for the rapid or just as fast as possible? This is giving me the most problems with Az combos atm.

Alright so I don't know if it is just me but I can't get 5B > 6A > 236A > Dash > 3C to work on Hakumen at all. Can someone else try to test this to make sure it is character specific or to find out if I am just really bad. I hit it fine on all the other characters I train on. For reference I'll post the three midscreen combos I have been working on that I couldn't get to work on him. 1. 5B > j.B3D > j.C > 5BD > 6A > 5B > j.C2D > 5B > 6A > 236A > Dash > 3C > 214C > 6A > 4B > Dash > 5CC 2. 5B > j.B3D > j.C > 5BD > 6A > 4B > Dash > 5B > j.C2D > 5B > 6A > 236A > Dash > 3C > 214C > Dash > 5CC 3. 5B > j.B3D > j.C > 5BD > 6A > Dash > 5B > 6A > 236A > Dash > 3C > 214C > Dash > 6A > 4B > Dash > 5CC I guess I will just do an air combo ender off the 5B before the 236A instead if this is character specific.

This isn't entirely correct 22A increases the strength of vertical (up and down) wind. So it makes for really easy j2C lvl2/3 combos and allows for things like 3C8D > 214A > 5C. 22B increases the strength of horizontal wind and also makes 5D track toward the opponent. It is mainly used for zoning since it pushes them away so hard and also pushes george/pumpkin/lobelias much farther.

Instant overhead j.A does work on Koko. She is really low though so you have to do it faster than you do for most characters when you do it from neutral. When I made her block 5B it seemed easier. Maybe her blocking hitbox is a tiny bit bigger or I could be just better at instant overheads off of 5B idk. For her corner combo 5B > 5CC > 5B > j.C does whiff at normal heights (annoying) however you can do 5B > 5CC > 2B > 5B > 6A > 236B2D > 5B > stuff just fine which has always done comparable damage. When you 5CC her into the wall off air an hit (frog hits,lightning etc) where she is a little higher you can do the normal 5B > j.C > 236A2D combo just fine. Other than that I seem to be able to do all my midscreen combos and stuff just fine on her. If you are going for air hit 5B > j.C2D > 5B you have to make sure you hit her a little higher than normal otherwise j.C will whiff. Other than that didn't see anything specific. She actually seems to float low on air combos which makes some parts easier for me at least than on other characters.

You don't have to super jump. I did it with a normal jump. You have to dash 5B when you land though which has pretty strict timing. If you mistime your button presses by even the tiniest amount trying to activate OD wind will come out. I play on stick and it occasionally happens. It isn't a problem in this game usually though (unlike trying to do gold burst combos in extend) since normally OD is only used for buffing super damage and her OD usually gives more wind then you will need. Also it seems like the OD screen freeze just eats the wind.

Chie vs Liz is easily 7-3. All of Liz's decent tools are so slow that Chie just waits for you to pick one and then she punishes you for it. Once you are in the 5D blender the match is over unless you have a burst. That matchup is horrendous and you would know it if you played any seriously top Chies. You can't zone a decent Aigis. 236A is punishable on block by orgia boost j.B/gatling gun. 236B is easily reactable and punishable. Fire lets her get in for free and is a joke in neutral. j.B loses to her 2B hard. Garudyne is negative on block. Even trying to 2B Aigis usually doesn't work since she will often try to cross you up or she can just stop short. Oh and lets not forget that once she has 50 meter (read:most of the match) you CANNOT DO ANYTHING even from fullscreen. Shield super is a free punish to any fullscreen Liz button. So I am honestly curious how you go about zoning Aigis successfully. Oh and waiting for them to "screw up" is exactly why Liz is a bad character in a bad matchup. Aigis doesn't have to wait for you to screw up she can just open you up with legit mixups and kill you in two touches.

That is kind of what happens when players get 1 year+ of experience with one game. Even if there are new players that want to get into the game they just get SMASHED by players that are at a high level. It can be really discouraging getting into games that people are already experienced in and it just makes the learning curve (which is already huge in fighting games) even longer.

I am having a pretty hard time with this matchup so far. Jin just has so many good moves now. 5C is so crazy good now and 2D dominates the space Rachel is usually strong at. I am completely unable to zone jin effectively. I usually just end up getting hit by them just going in with airdash j.C or 2D after a couple seconds. Even when he stays away one random ice sword hit can screw over all of your setups. When he has 50 heat you can't really do anything safely from full screen. I do alright when I can get in on him. He has good reversals but a baited C DP is free 5C fatal so that isn't so bad. D DP is a lot harder to deal with/punish but Jin has so many amazing options with meter that this isn't really the biggest of your problems. One of the problems with going in on Jin is that a lot of the time he can just press 5C and get a free combo from it anti airing or beating out whatever you are doing. My Rachel is still pretty bad so I am not able to finish all of my combos in oki so getting that down will help a ton in this matchup but it still seems pretty hard. Neutral is really difficult and once he gets in it can be hard to get him off unless you burn meter to counter assault. Anyone had any success against him?

Liz forums got some recent activity randomly. I figured I should share my Aigis matchup exp since I have played this matchup quite extensively. First thing to realize is this is a bad matchup for Liz (its not Mits or Chie but still not good) probably 6.5-3.5 in Aigis favor. You don't really outdamage her as both of you will straight out die in two solid combos. She is also much faster and has much better tools at neutral. Most importantly you have to make her afraid to 2B. There are a couple ways to do this. Timing garudyne to go through it wins you the round instantly if they don't have a burst, you can roll it, you can 5B/5C the startup (risky) or you can 236A > omc > wall stick combo them. Of these options 236A OMC is by far the best but it takes meter. Once you stop the constant 2B from Aigis you can start going crazy. You want to do anything in your power to never have to block her. If you block her in orgia and they are good there is a good chance you just lost the round. If you manage to make her block while she is in orgia burn all the meter you have to to keep her in blockstun as long as possible. With 100+ meter a lot of the time you can make her overheat with just blockstrings. If they are bad they will DP thanatos and you just won. Zoning her isn't that effective because one good read and she wrecks you. I always had better results just going in on her constantly. Oh one last thing random 5Cs will win you games as she will try to orgia dash/mode change/2b/shield etc. If you get them afraid of you you can turn the match in your favor and ride the momentum to repeated victories.

Came up with a solution to Trial 30 if anyone was curious. Its not too difficult either. Going to put (w) for the lobelias that whiff since you only have to cast the lobelia not actually hit with it and you have to whiff them due to SMP. j.2C (lvl3) > 236A(w) > 236B > j.C > j.236A2D > 5B > j.C > j.236A2D > 5B > j.C > j.236A2D > 5B > 6A > 4B > Overdrive > dash > 6A > BBL > 236A(w) > 236A(w)8D > BBL > 236A > 236A

I can try to answer some of these although I am just getting used to new Rachel as well so I may not be entirely correct. Whenever they block george/2A/5B/etc you want to go for high low mixups with wind. The simplest (and brutally effective) mixup with Rachel is just 5B (blocked) > j.A2D or 2B. People have a tendency to block low automatically so make them afraid of the overhead a couple times before you start going low. At neutral what I do is try to set up an advantageous position by putting out lobelias/pumpkin to control space. If you hit with a lobelia or a pumpkin you can either use that time to go in or set up george/more poles. The decisions you make are entirely character specific. Against characters like Hakumen you just want to zone him out until you have a clear opening but against Nu or Mu you have to go in since they will destroy your zoning. Some characters like Valk its better to go in then to try to keep him out since he gets in so easily and has no reversal outside of super. Managing wind is something you have to figure out based on your playstyle. Some Rachels prefer to use all of their wind to keep people out where others will save up wind to 3+ stocks so they can do unblockable mixups/larger combos when they get openings. Counter assaults and tempest dalia are both good stalling tools for getting more wind or getting some breathing room. Backdash + 4D is good for getting out of pressure.

Just finished a two day session with floridas players. New rachel is definitely awesome and feels really strong. Some of my findings/opinions based on playing this weekend. Her mixup is impossible to block they just have to guess. The new lobelia change where they bounce off the wall is AMAZING this is such a buff. You can use this to delay when lobelias hit to give yourself crazy frame advantage and it puts the poles in a perfect place to catch people airdashing out of the corner. They nerfed how easy it was to combo off of CH lobelias hard but it seems so easy to combo lightning now even from full screen. Everyone would counter assault immediately if they had 50 meter and they blocked anything. Baiting counter assaults is going to be really important. Oh and jin is fucking stupid now. It seems like everything he does is faster, safer and combos better. This matchup seems hard. This game is awesome and new rachel is fun as hell. I need to training mode and figure my combos out bad though.

No reason to fear people online. There are people from every skill level that play and losing is natural in fighting games. Go into player matches and find a room with the beginner emblem or make a beginner room. Once you have a gauge on where you stand versus other beginners you can go from there taking on higher level players. Getting totally bodied by someone who is multiple skill tiers above you isn't fun for you or them so players at that level will not go into beginner rooms.

New Rachel is tougher than I expected. I spent a lot of time in training mode yesterday grinding out my old muscle memory and trying to get the new combos down. I have so much trouble doing the dash 3C in the combos with stuff like (air hit) 5B > 6A > 236A > Dash > 3C > 214C > ... I either dash too early and don't move or get 2C since I am trying to input 214C too fast. Her new corner combos are pretty simple for the most part though and I really like some of the combo extensions you can do with extra wind. I just wish they wouldn't have nerfed lvl 2/3 j2C combos so much.