Cryingvoid

Agreed that her CS1 air mechanics are amazing: the more you do those finishers, the more thrilled and excited you get and the more you want to do them again. It's just interesting, pure pleasure to execute. Lately my favorite non-taunt is a double launch combo like: 3C>6D~6>j.C>9D~A>3D~5>j.6D~6>j.C>..>j.9D~9>j.3d~C>j.C>..>j.9D~9>j.3D~3>j.236BBBBB that's an ecstasy to pull that thing out, and I will be in woe if they were to take that away.

What about two weeks? Is there the patch date? Or the final loketest date?

In their new opening video Arc showed us that CS2 Tao can do nothing but getting hit, this is what your pic says... T_T Are there no CS2 optimists at all? T_T

KM Riku I thought they were willing to change her drive mechanics and new j.b etc. If so it may bring forth something new and interesting... hope so :3 kairless In my opinion her hardness (good word) was most for her specific drive usage games and combos, impossible without the perfect usage of the drive, than for her tier status. She, together with characters as Carl, Arakune, is considered to be a difficult to master character for her/their very unique drives and abilities, without perfect knowledge and usage of which it is impossible to score the said 5k/6k from comfy starters.

Well, they did fail in Raichel's case significantly. And that is one of the very reasons they ever decided to reballance everything in the end. So she mustn't be changed all THAT badly, otherwise the whole reballance thing misses sense. As xDest always used to say, even if all the old combo stuff is freaked up, we never know what new gatlings might appear.

So all Tao's are crying now... Riku, change your pic into a crying/sad Tao as well. Since I'm a Tao player, my nickname suddenly gets a new meaning

Hey guys, it's been some time! Are the changes of fifth loketest considered to be the last? Taunt 40% prorate is what? And what does it mean 'all D's get same move proration'? It is a pain to browse all unread pages, please, what is overall comment on Tao's latest changes?

It is probably just a first glance on the whole changing list. More detailed information and translations are yet most likely to follow?..

I only wish her not to become boring and casual. Let them change anything they want, just leave the combos' principal difficult and exceptional as it has always been.

3rd loketest, I guess

The only thing left to us is to believe, that all of that nerfs lead to brand new combo ways, meaning, the forthcoming new combos WERE the reasons for those nerfs. Otherwise there are just no damaging combos possible for Tao at all...

From the new locktest: Is it starting to get clear we won't be able to use any j.2D in combos anymore?

As far as I remember, there are two taunts there...

smashingme You're gonna love Final_Round instead :3

Bro, for the TL aspects, you do not seem to do anything wrong. I'm pretty sure that it is execution that keeps you away from the success. Just keep on practising it over and over again. It really takes time to get truly adjusted. I was like you are now for several weeks, and sometimes I even thought that my own conception of continuous practice (that makes perfect) is useless, when the freaking thing just won't come out as it should. But those weeks passed and training did it's job well. Even the worst hours of continuous failing the taunt loop did have effect on my overall efficiency. "The hell! Today I can loop significantly better than I could yesterday! But why? All I did was failing execution and dropping the thing over and over again" - this is how Tao's are made. Just have patience man and soon you'll find yourself tauntlooping with your left foot!

I'd say more tricky stuff for the old man might work. Say, triple jumps, sticky kitty crossup jumps, of course j.4b, and so on. Valk is doubtlessly a character with amazing spacing potential, but he has not many tricks up his sleeve, so spacing and big dmg is all he's actually got against Tao. Speaking about his spacing, it looks very much like one of Litchi. Litchi's is a greater one even, I dare say. So just be quick (or be dead), and since he has no DPs, - assault him hard as you see the opportunity.

Shiro420 Also keep in mind that Tao's maximum possible pace is her trump card. Almost no one can successfully react when you execute her blockstring games, grimmics, triple jump games, tricky drive games (j.4D/4D/trick edge) and throw setups immediately, one tactic after another, changing strategies as fast as it is physically possible. This tactic chaos requires the ability to think 1-2 steps ahead and have decent execution from different startups, it is pretty hard, but this assault is very rewarding. :3

Just don't overhold it :3 Otherwise the system will buffer a jump cancel instead of j.c or j.d's )

Wow, nice wins, Rin! But if you want to know my opinion, it is much more interesting to look at an intense match, where both sides take and give all they can. Especially matches against strong, comboing opponents such as yourself, who do have experience against Tao.

XDest I see... but it still seems to be the best non-taunt option for ground 3C and air-to-air non-counter j.C. Also a great decision when your randomly mixed up 236B fifth hit sends the opponent to the wall bounce, you follow up with 6C>214D>j.C>..>9D~a>full "double launch" ender. And the succession itself appears to be more damaging than 3D~c>3D~a succession most of the times, though it is probably a bit harder not to drop.

I really need to try those 22C ways at last... Are they applicable to TL ender? Probably as a substitution of 5C? ANd is 22C really THAT nicer in case of overall ender damage? It causes less damage and hitstun proration, right?

Final_Round Almost all the combos are universal, except for some places that need to be timed a bit differently, according to a given character, but this stuff is not all that tricky: once you've mastered a combo against Ragna or Jin you will be able to apply it to Hazama and Noel after some practice instinctively. There is no special stuff that needs to be differentiated, really. CAT@ loop is one nasty input combination... I'm not an expert at it myself... to make it easier, try inputting 3d>236b>3d>236b instead. The ~3 part buffers in favour of 236. Last, if you use an arcade stick, it might prove useful to input simply 3D>9B>3D>9B it must shortcut-buffer the original command. Try it out. Also, try practising it off 236CC>3D~3>236b>3d>236b>3d>236b... so you won't bother yourself doing the whole full profile combo, while all you need to practice is this small part only.

Here is some new tauntless combo way for all of ya: Double Launch Combos I've seen it in one of videos in Valkenhayn thread and tried it out. And it proved very nice, flashy and meaty :3 The main point of Double Launch combos is to a-cancel the 9D launch, and follow up with one more launch off 2D~5 to connect the whole full-profile ground-to-air combo succession. Here they are off most possible starters: 3C, tauntless: 3C[3 hits]>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~a>..>2D~5>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~c>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~3>j.236B[x5] = 4385 dmg *Probably 1 or 2 reps of CAT2 loop are also possible here, I just haven't tried that out yet. **Beside the bigger damage there is another essential reason to use this combo off 3C instead of the other tauntless one. It is the universal convenience, the 6D~6>j.C part provides. We know, that if the 3C has been started at a bit of a distance, or if the third hit of it just accidentally got through the opponent's defence, - you won't be able to follow up with the Taunt Loop, nor will you do Tauntless 5D~b[hit]>5C>3D~3 combo. Both the Taunt and the 3D will simply whiff because of the distance. But 6D~6>j.C solves the problem with distant 3C starters and grands you pure 4385 Tauntless damage. 6C, tauntless: 6C>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~a>..>2D~5>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~c>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~3>j.236B[x5] = 4927 dmg Also possible: 6C>214D>j.C>..>9D~a>..>2D~5>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~c>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~3>j.236B[x5] *This one makes probably little sense... I forgot another 6C tauntless combo damage... For extra perverts it is also possible to double launch off 5B>6A with single taunt: 5B>6A[1 hit]>JC>2D~b>Taunt>214D>j.C>..>9D~a>..>2D~5>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~c>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~3>j.236B[x5] = 3773 Finally, this appears to be Tao's ultimate Tauntless tool for air-to-air non-counter situations, hitconfirming with j.C. This should look like: [air] j.C>..>9D~a>..>2D~5>6D~6>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~c>j.C>..>9D~9>3D~3>j.236B[x5] Gotta try it out for the damage later...

I guess the latter, if I didn't miss anything. There is no situation where you can successfully 9d~9 without any delay after j.c.

It is kinda unreasonable to do 3C on non-counter drive hit confirm. Every decent player will insert anything punishing into that window against Tao, because of 3c's long startup (long in comparison). So more clever Tao's would prefer to follow up with either 5b or 2a. And that is the tricky part for opponent. We speak about non-counter straight drive crossup on hitconfirm, and no matter how strange it may sound, the opponent has the advantage here. Almost all cast's 5/2a beats Tao's 5b and 2a here, you just need good reaction and decent timing of it. Also, most of the cast can counter throw her.