LordSpectreX

Rachel's projectiles emphasize in their large hitboxes rather than their travel speed. You should be able to absorb them on reaction. Just remember that Growler doesn't start absorbing projectiles immediately. Only after the startup is complete.

Absorb some projectiles with Growler. Use the stocks if she ever tries to summon a projectile on the ground. She can summon stuff in the air, but it's a lot less accurate and covers less space than her ground zoning, making it easier to dash in.

Ugh...It's really dodgy. The startup to the guard point of Valiant/Hornet is extremely long and the guard point doesn't cover the entire duration of the move. You can sometimes use it to beat people mashing, but they can rapid and block, punishing you for huge damage. I haven't tested the data too much, honestly the move's frame data is cryptic and difficult to analyse. Someone might of already done it, but I forget. You can sometimes use in on reaction to "charge moves". Meaning you can use Valiant when people commit to a long duration move. An example would be Litchi's Itsuu. Another example is a lot of Kagura's drives. You can pretty much punish him using any of his drive moves by doing Valiant. I would not recommend ever using it during actual blockstrings however. Only when you need to call someone out for doing something they should not be doing. There's two other uses for it in a non-combo situation, with varying degrees of usefulness. They both require 50 meter so it's when you really need to get that leg up. The important thing about Valiant is that while it's unsafe, it still causes heavy amounts of blockstun. Rapiding it SHOULD get you around +12 to +15, depending on how far away you hit it. The first method is as a frame trap. An example would be doing 236C~46C on block. Normally you would be left minus as all your options past that are unsafe. You can however do Cobra into Valiant. This will beat people trying to punish your 46C. If they block it, then you rapid it to continue pressure. The other method is an anti-DP tool. Say you have a situation where people are doing DP in the gap between 5B>5BB because they're seeing you do a move that they presume is 5BB. You can do 5B>Valiant/Horner and hold it to beat the DP. The reward isn't as high as naturally just punishing the DP after a block, though that's dependent (you can follow up a CH 236D if done against Inferno Divider if you hit them high enough). You can also do 236D/214D>Rapid after a corner knockdown to essentially force them to block. Since It's unlikely they'll mash out of Valiant at max range, and it will beat DPs and Distortions. Of course, they can just block, which is why it's only useful for when you have 50 meter. It's not the best way to spend it, but if all you need is just one small combo left and you just need that "in". Then it has it's uses. I also like it against characters with harder to bait DPs. Ones that can't get crossed up. Like Litchi and Kagura. Wherever you use Valiant or Hornet is up to you. Valiant is an overhead, and so may still get people who aren't mashing or doing a DP. Especially if you use it rarely, people might forget about it. Hornet is the better option the more you do this however, since it gives you a nice combo on counterhit.

To be fair, Valkenhayn just kinda stops everybody's options. But yeah swag is fun. After the 214C knockback I like doing 41236B to make them fly over me and carry on with 5B. Good fun.

Unfortunately since Relius' normals are kinda slow, he can't poke out as much stuff as a guy with a 5F 5A. There is a gap between his 5B and his 5BB even on normal block. You can use 2363214C Super if you're sure he's gonna do it. 5A>5B is unsafe on IB. You can mash out with 5A. In fact, 5A on IB forces a gap no matter what. You can even IB 5A and twirl to avoid gustaf (he will go through you, really good to counter his corner pressure). You can't punish it but you should be at an advantage, more than enough. Mashing won't work against 5A>Gustaf, 5A>5A or 5A>2A, but you can DP out. Or backdash if you have the balls. IBing his 5B reaps less chances. IBing 5B>5BB creates an even bigger gap than normal block but still not enough to mash out of. 5B>2C will have a gap but again, no 5F 5A so you can't mash through it. 5B>Gustaf is a tight string so don't worry about mashing out of it. Other than that. Gustaf obviously becomes minus 2. You can "kind" of option select him blocking or backdashing by doing 5A>214A. 5A will make him block if he stood there, and 214A will catch him if he backdashes. 5D and 2D become punishable with 5A only on IB. 3D/6D only become -5. The other things aren't that important. Relius is the kind of character I would recommend just barriering Azrael's stuff with rather than IBing it. But if you want to IB, then the two big ones are 5A and Gustaf. Obviously 5D as well, but just blocking that regularly is fine.

Despite what people might say otherwise. Azrael is not a beginner's character. While he's technically rather straightforward combo wise, he demands a good understanding of the game's mechanics and flow. I've learnt way more about the technical side of the game playing Azrael than I ever did playing years of Arakune and eventually Relius. Unfortunatly, Azrael is not a character with answers. He's not like most characters where you can follow a reasonable flowchart and mix it up at your own preference. You don't have safe setplay or even solid pressure strings. It's not like say, Rachel, where you can go Knockdown>Oki>Mixup, or even Jin who can go Combo>22C>Safe Jump>Buttons into Mixup. You are going to have to constantly change the way to play depending on your opponent, no matter how good or bad they are. There are things to help you while you get used to his neutral against inexperienced players. Gustaf is incredibly good if people don't Instant Block it. Constantly do things like 5A>Gustaf>5B>Gustaf etc to try and get them to respect you. You can then try to do a mixup once you think you got them scared. You also have the infamous backdash. Using this during the tech animation or when the opponent stops doing tight blockstrings will generally get you out of pressure well. You can even use it in the corner if you think you can get them to whiff a high recovery move with it. These things won't work forever, but over time you'll learn how to approach more safely and be more creative in your mixup and pressure.

I should of been more clear. It's not really a mixup problem. I was doing 5A/2A>5D or crossup a lot. The problem was that because of the barrier, I couldn't condition them to block for any reasonable period of time, meaning they could often take a good guess and just mash me out of my stuff. Which would beat a lot of stuff. Like 5D, dash, jump cancel, 6D/3D, pretty much anything I do every a barrier'd gustaf. The whole jumping out thing was more of a result where I would try to not get mashed out, making me cautious and they would jump out. It's kinda a problem I have that comes up in Netplay vs Bad people or after extended sessions against good players. They start to disrespect a lot of my stuff. Ofc, usually a decent answer to that is Gustaf so reset your pressure as long as they don't IB it. But since barrier pushes me out to a disadvantageous position despite being +2/3. It felt like more harm than good in this case. You only really get to use it once to reset pressure and that's assuming you was point blank in the first place/didn't use gustaf to get in in the first place. So I guess the real question is how do I get people to block more so my mixup becomes harder to anticipate and mash out of? (i.e. basically Frame Traps). As suggested, 5A>2C is pretty cool, since there's an unsafe gap on regular block but it's actually a full frame trap on barrier. 5A>5B>3C is also safe vs barrier. Apart from that though, I don't really know how to make people respect my stuff other than trying to force them into a corner. Which might be the actual solution, but...yeah. I did use rising j.AAA a lot, since it would beat 5A mashing and reset pressure. It would lose to a full blown anti air like 2C but that requires commitment so that's fine. I should probably do that more often.

Yeah I got it down now, thanks guys. Another general question. I played a hundred straight games against my local Mu today and I've noticed something I was having a lot of trouble dealing with that doesn't come up that often. He would always barrier EVERYTHING. My pressure felt incredibly weak and insubstantial. He would barrier a 5A and I would actually be too far away to follow up with anything safe other than 2B or max range 5B (where 5BB won't connect). Gustaf would actually repel me to a point where 5B was to far but his 2B would hit. Even without instant blocking it. He would then IAD backwards and j.C and I often felt really stuck. I eventually came to the conclusion that I could not really do anything about this and just follow her safely until she reached the corner, which worked reasonably well, but I was wondering if anyone else had any suggestions for what to do against opponents who try to barrier everything and jump out?

Much appreciated. Got the combo down pretty consistently now. @Veri I saw that video, it's fantastic, but I was just asked for a sort of visual cue for doing the combo rather than trying to time it raw.

Kagura. Easily. He's a charge character, and he's pretty annoying to fight. People fighting Kagura have to be really patient and calm or his flash kick will just blow everyone up. If you only care about making people feel maximum salt and trolling as much as possible, then play Arakune. I assure you, there are few legitimate characters that you could pick in any fighting game that will make people as upset as Ara. I used to get boo'd to winning games when I was at my peak with him during early CS2. Edit: Oh, and Hakumen. Haku is very defensive with big normals, makes people very upset with quick easy damage. I'm sure you'll like one of those 3. Try them out.

I actually screamed out loud a little bit, Gurren Lagann hype style. Edit: Ah, I also wanted to ask some questions, if anyone could assist, that'd be great. 1) For punishing something that is reasonably unsafe but not unsafe enough to punish with a weakpoint starter like 5D or 3D (e.g. say -17), you're midscreen and you don't have meter for RCs or any weak points, what's the highest damage punish you can do? Would it be something like this; Meterless: 3C>22C>5B>TCL>(3D)or(5B>2C>5B>jABC>j.D) With 25 Meter and Close : 5C>CT>3C>22C etc. With 50 Meter: 5C>236A>RC>3C>Stuff Is that correct? 2) Is there anything special one must do the TCL>Rapid>IAD>j.C>6A thing? I'm currently just kind of doing it by feel alone but I only get it just over half the time. Is there any sort of delay or extra timing you must do to make it work consistently, or is it just about doing j.C when they as low to the ground as possible? 3) I've also been trying to get my corner oki down as tight as possible. While trying to cover the 3 biggest bases, Forwards Rolling, Late Teching and Wake Up Mash. After a long combo where using 2A>5A>etc to punish not emergency teching won't work 1) Neutral Jumps at the end of the combo so you land far enough away so the forwards roll doesn't go through you. 2) Delay 5B. This should catch forwards, back, and quick tech. Confirm with j.A. 3) If they're still on the ground, do 2A, this will pick them up but now reset into a new combo. If they neutral tech, you should have a few options A) 5BB, should stop plain old mashing. If they utterly respect you or they have no reversal options, should be even more than +5 on block. Will lose to reversals. B) Block or Backdash. Will bait most DPs. Though you sacrifice your natural advantage. Backdash>gustaf should make them block unless they used a huge normal or jumped out quickly. C) Dash Through, 5D, any kind of mixup option, will lose to mashing. Dash will bait most DPs. Does this seem like a legit general plan? Obviously you change up depending on your opponent, but this is mainly for stuff like tournaments where you don't know how the guy plays and you need the most reliable 'default' plan possible. The other plan is to just simply stand there doing nothing, then just react to any rolls/no tech with 2A, and if they neutral tech then you just just do whatever. I haven't really been able to test it out all that much though. The main problem is that reacting with 5BB on neutral tech feels difficult and they could just reaction DP it. Wondering if people had any better suggestions of how to execute a 'default' reliable corner oki game.

You guys should just lower the funding required a bit and just make the Valkenhayn video a link to all of Kiba's Guides and Videos instead.

Unless you play Netplay Exclusively of course. Then RIP.

Well yes, but in other games (generally) the airthrow hitbox is normally a small square around the hand. A max range hurtbox that reaches the edge of an already oversized throw hitbox results in airthrows like the one in that gif.

Relius F Tier, Ignis SSS Tier. True Story.

Ragna S Tier. Calling all bets on how long it takes for him to be put back down to A Tier. 2-1 Tomorrow 1-2 Next Week 1-4 2 Weeks 1-20 He's not gonna be S Tier.

Thanks for the combos! I'm not sure how you're supposed to use 236C. All they have to do is just tech late/roll forwards and you whiff it completely...

A couple quick questions. I'm picking up Nu but I'm having trouble figuring out what to do in a few scenarios. 1. What should I do after a 2B pickup after resetting them for not teching? I tried doing 2B>5C(1)>4B into stuff but everything seems really dodgy and barely works if at all. 2. After 3C knockdown into Luna 236D, if they decide to not to tech and let the 236D blue beat them, what's a good follow up oki option? Thanks!

Edit: Welp, Ninja'd. Shut my mouth. Can you delete posts on this new forum? Investigation time. But yeah the problem is that they didn't have it up in the first place, but they do actually have a budget now.

I'm not particularly on the side of "this isn't worth the money". Ultimately, it's worth the amount of money people put into it, that's the point of community backed projects. However, you guys could have executed this indiegogo project with a lot more tact. Not including a budget with the page when it went up is either means you're doing something stupid or immoral, based on if you actually have anything to hide by not telling us how the money is spent. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you aren't doing anything nefarious, but that seriously questions your ability to run a project like this when you can't even do basic Q&A for your fundraiser. You are apparently going to balance a wide range of opinions on how to play a character, but you can't even ask one person outside the project for what information they would like to see in the fundraiser? While you did eventually fix that, having a checkpoint for "We'll ask Mike Z nicely to commentate an episode" really rubs me up the wrong way. You really shouldn't be using empty promises as a way to encourage people to donate more money. Either ask the guy now if he'll be up for doing it if the flags are all raised, or don't make it a bloody goal and just make it a surprise if he does decide to do it. Others have also listed problems. While I'll make my decision to donate based on the first couple of episodes, if you're going to ask people for money, especially through a service like Indiegogo where the money goes straight to you, please be a little more professional about it. Being professional isn't just about putting on a suit and tie and using correct grammar. If this ends up being poor, it is going to create an immediate death sentence for any future fighting game community crowd funding projects.

There you go, Zakky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIlkjccS0As&t=11m07s I gotta be honest right now, I don't think any Azrael in the West can beat Kiba. I'm not expecting a clear technical answer on how to win this, but I would appreciate an objective pair of eyes to look at these matches and tell me what they think and what I should try to do more/less of. Thanks! :3

This is the most beautiful music you've uploaded since the Devil Survivor 1 Soundtrack.

http://www.twitch.tv/thewonderpark/b/512514415?t=73m43s I would love to hear about how this matchup is even possible. It feels like it is entirely reliant on a lucky trade/mash.

This matchup is a real pain in the ass. It'd be pretty bad even without all the strange unique stuff that makes things more difficult. 2A>TC>236D not being possible, Tsubame and Itsuu hitting from behind (i swear to god, every time i dash through a Litchi doing itsuu and I get hit for a FC behind her I blow up inside.) J.A is really good in this matchup, try to get above her at all times. Her J.B is impossibly huge but doesn't hit above her all that well. 3D does blow up itsuu, but they kinda have to use it after you and you have to be in range for 3D to connect. Overall if she spams Itsuu, there's not really much you can do about it except barrier guarding it and trying to trap her in the corner (just like Azrael in every other zoning matchup...). Litchi's anti-airs aren't all that great, so don't be afraid to throw in divekicks. Barrier Guarding her pressure and Gustafing out when she tries to reset it with the staff is a decent way to deal with her. But yeah, there's no real easy answer. Just try to be as aggressive as possible while still being patient and try to force the Litchi to do something. The important thing is to just block a lot at neutral and don't let her get random hits, as it's fairly easy for her to capitalize off them.