Sahgren

w[1/2/3C~5c > j.A] is definitely possible; it even looks a bit smoother animation wise. It's just that 2 extra frames off of something that's more or less impossible to react to in the first place doesn't go all that far in justifying the jump in execution.

GGs, Bryant_De_Da_Og. You helped remind me that my defense truly is crap.

Something I noticed is that you don't seem to be too comfortable with either human or wolf form normals. You were just kinda throwing them out randomly at times without having a plan for what you would do if they hit or were blocked. It might be good for you to spend some time in training mode figuring out what you can and can't do in those situations for each normal. Looking over Valk's frame data would help give you an idea of your options if you're comfortable with that.

I remember hearing something about rising [h]j.C IOH no longer working against anyone except Tager and Hakumen. Do we have any confirmation on that?

A fairly easy one to use is ([w]5B or [h]2C > super jump j.D) > [w]j.A > dj.D > [h]j.C > falling j.C. This does the same thing as j.C > RC > j.C without having to spend meter. For something more complicated, you can also use Joker's ender (super jump w[j.A > j.B > j.A > 5B > j.A > j.A > j.A > j.B> 3C > j.B] > dj.D > falling [h]j.C). It's a safe jump setup that allows you to both prevent rolls and be safe from wake up reversals. Edit: Realizing that I completely misread the question. I'd say that [h]2B is a bit better on their wakeup than 3C due to 2B allowing you to gatling into 5B, 5C, 2C, and 3C and allows for more time for you to hitconfirm than 3C. 3C doesn't leave you anywhere to go outside of 236X, leaving you without many options if they block it and 3C > 236A at most if it lands. Wolf form in general is also fairly useful on the opponent's wakeup if you have the wolf meter to follow up on it. You can do [w]5C~C or [w]1/2/3C~C > j.A for an instant overhead, [w]5A for a low, and 236D for a c-grab. As an added bonus, both j.A and 5A can catch rolls and quick get ups into full combos.

The nerf to Chain Shift making it so he couldn't just loop 2C > 5C > 4B for 9k damage off of anything probably just made him less appealing to learn. I don't think he's bad, there are just more straight forward characters that get the job done without getting used to his weird moveset.

You should also get used to controlling space and moving on the ground in both human and wolf form. Running on the ground in wolf form is fairly fast and doesn't cost nearly as much meter as command dashing, and it's all too easy to get used to just airdashing and jumping everywhere, allowing the opponent to just prepare to anti-air to shut you down. Walking/hopping/running and abusing the long reaching human form ground normals forces the opponent to not get complacent while you're grounded.

Yep. Mainly changes to how GRD and Chain Shift work so that people can't just repeatedly loop into Chain Shift to set up infinites.

Veil Off is more like Heat or Blood Heat activation from Melty Blood. You can only do it in neutral, activation comes with a burst-esque attack that blows the opponent away, and it puts in you a special state that lets you use supers for free at the cost of draining your meter over time.

But right now it's 5 guys, 5 girls, and 1 it. If anything, I think they need 4 more its so that Merkava doesn't get lonely.

Courtesy of Stealthfire23: Digging around the site got us a new chibi too.

On the subject of cross-up protection: Does anyone know if that's in UNiB? I imagine that Merkava could very well well become outright broken if it isn't.

I'm liking how the game looks right now, but I will admit that I'd be very happy if they did patch to fix the more stupid portions like Chain Shifting. I haven't seen all that much footage of Hyde yet (or Waldstein, but you just explained him). Is he just typical main-character broken or is there something specifically stupid about him? Edit: I really should read more carefully. I didn't see the portion of "I can't speak for Hyde and Orie". Could I bother you to ask someone who knows more on why Hyde is broken?

I'm hoping that Hilda will at least be a console/PC-only character. It'd be a little sad for her to only be a story/arcade boss.

So Chain Shift can only been done in GRD Vorpal now? Much better than just allowing people to RC whenever they had GRD available. The Infinite Verse EXST description is wonky... is it saying that it has to be comboed into while in Veil Off?