Sahgren

Ok, thanks for the translation. Still, the chance that it was actually confirming them getting a PS3/360 port is worth the wasted hype.

I'd really like to know when it'll be coming out, if it really will. Can someone please translate what exactly he's saying for clarification?

Apparently Cole McGrath from inFAMOUS is going to be be on the PS3 version of the game. Here's a link to the article about it.

Dunno if this has been posted yet: Corner combo: [h]236B~236B > D ~ D > 2C > 6C > 2C > 6B > 5B > 2C > j.B > dj.B > dj.C (3602 dmg, 41 MG) Useful to know if you can hitconfirm a raw [h]236B in the corner.

Ah, getting it to go off even before you do the first j.A? Ignore what I said then. You could try [h]236A > 3D > CA to try and get the same effect. I'll go lab it for a bit to see if I can replicate it for clarification.

I can't really say all that much since my neutral game, and by extension my footsies, isn't exactly good. From what I have experienced, she really can't do all that much about [h]5B/5C, since both out range her and aren't the easiest to get past with 5d/2D. Her air to ground options aren't that great and have trouble with [w]5B and well timed [h]5A/2C, just be careful of possible j.4D attempts to juke past your AAs. The part that worries me is that she's fast enough that whiffing something means that she's pretty much guaranteed to get into her own range. It should be possible to out zone her with good footsies since Valk's normals > Noel's normals, and the meaty C attacks and wolf mode are amazingly good at shutting down attempts at her using Drive to get in.

2C is useful on the Noel's wake up since it shuts down any attempts at them using 4D/2D to get a drive reversal on wake up. You're still susceptible to another attempt when following up with 6B or 6C on block, but you can always go into 5C/3C if you feel like not risking it. [w]j.B is amazingly useful for the same reason 2C is; it shuts down 4D and makes the timing on a 2D reversal considerably stricter for them. When it's possible to go into [w]j.B (ie: not after a 236A/B wolf cancel) use it instead of j.A every time. Giving up the potential of getting an air combo if you catch them in midair is well worth not having to worry about 4D/2D.

Just stick a j.A right before the first 3C, it should turn out the same.

2C is viable for the reasons Toasty listed above. If you're worried about roll outs but want to use 2C anyways, 2A > 2C (mash) works when spaced properly with the cost of only getting ~3.7k if you catch them mashing rather than 5k+. 6B also work as it catches rolls into 5C > combo of your choice (100 P1 starter at that so it hurts like hell), gets you a Fatal if they're mashing, and is +8 on block, but you can just go straight into it 2C on block/hit anyways so your mileage may vary on just how useful it is.

I do have to wonder why you got the idea that it did in the first place I never really used 5B > 6B since it loses to mashing. My personal favourite blockstring for going into 6B is 2A > 2C > 6B, since it frame traps and gets that nice 6B pressure reset anyways.

Nice, the uniform nature of it all will really help when people need to look up info fast. We just have to remember that the matchup threads exist

Are you refering to the ones you can see in the video on the first page, or have they put out something else? Edit: From a week ago on Melty Bread:

Posted this on Skype, I'll just repost it here for later reference. Work on your hitconfirms and punishes. There were an aggravating number of times you gave up damage due to you not reacting to the opponent whiffing something or getting hit by an attack you didn't seem to expect to work. Just do your best to remember what situations are punishable and pay attention to it so you can react accordingly in general. Meter Usage: You don't need to end a combo in super every time you have the meter to, and random Thor is a waste of meter (you're spending 50 meter to either get all of 3k or shove yourself in the corner). Save up your meter for RCs, CAs, and supers that'll kill the other guy.

So "Just get a feel for it."? It's worth it though, it's a full 1.2k more than the combo I was doing before without spending any meter.

Could this possibly be the new BnB for hitconfirming in wolf? Unless it's character specific, getting 3.5k and 51 MG off of a random j.A is way too tempting to give up. Edit: Ok, I personally can't pull it off. Any tips?

Consistently reverting back to human is just going to take practice and muscle memory. Don't worry, it'll just come over time. For getting the [h]5B, you're actually going to want to make it so that the second falling j.B to connect with the very base of the tail (ie, they're very clearly above you, but j.B still connects). If the j.B doesn't connect like that, you won't have enough time to revert to human then use 5B before they hit the ground and tech. In order to insure that, you'll want to catch them during the first falling j.B when they're either perfectly level with you or very slightly above you. On a side note, you don't necessarily have to transform for [h]5B. A much easier and more consist combo would be to land > [w]5B > jump > D > j.B > dj.B > dj.C. It avoids the strict timing of trying to land > transform > 5B, and if you mess up the transform back into human during the jump the [w]j.B will knock them back to the ground regardless.

Matchup Ranking: 6 - 4 in Valk's favor Recommended Playstyle: Aggressive Valk's forte is in his offense. Solid pressure combined with an amazingly powerful wolf mixup that's difficult to use Drive to ignore, letting the Valk player get the offense is the last thing you want to happen. On the flip side, his old man life, low primers, and lack of a solid meterless reversal means that he's on the fragile side defensively. Ideally you'll want to get in and keep up pressure until he dies, giving him as little chance to strike back as possible. General Strategy: Valk out spaces you in human and out maneuvers you in wolf, so be careful while approaching. His pokes in human are slow to recover when whiffed, so take full advantage of that to get in close if they miss. When in wolf mode he can very quickly go from just out of your range to within his own attack range, so be careful and do your best to poke/AA him out when he attempts to come in. Once in, do your best to keep up the pressure and change around when you stagger your pressure to prevent attempts at poking out. His 6A has guardpoint from frames 5 to 12, so you can be punished if you get overly predictable with your pressure, but it's a free 5C CH into a combo for you if it's blocked/misses. Just stay unpredictable enough, and you can keep Valk under pressure for a quite a while. Don't try to block all of Valk's wolf mix up and pressure. Between the near invisible 50/50 high/low mix up and command grab, it's best if you take every opportunity to escape rather than attempt to wait it out. Try to jump away every chance you get and poke him out of wolf form and wolf cancels in order to force the Valk to respect your options, cut down on the mix up, and force them to make mistakes. Your Best Tools(For This Matchup): Up + Back + Barrier: When in wolf Valk doesn't really have a safe, consistent, way of forcing hits in on people in midair. It's ultimately considerably safer to try and escape wolf pressure/mix up as soon as you possibly can than trying to wait through the wolf 50/50 + c-grab. 2A/5A: Letting Valk run wild in wolf is one of the last things you want to let happen. Use various fast attacks with fast recovery like 5A and 2A to make the Valk respect that you can knock him out of wolf form and give yourself a bigger opening to escape. 6A: The majority of Valk's wolf form attacks put him in the air, so anti-airing him is a good way to deal with them. Necessary to deal with Valk's [h]j.C, as it can't be beaten ground-to-air without a true AA. Has A DP?: No. Has A DP With Heat?: Sturm Wolf (ground super) is invincible from frame 1, but is unsafe on block/whiff. Things To Look Out For: [h]5C: A long poke that covers half the screen. Has considerably more range than any of your own pokes, and its 6(!) active frames means it'll eat through attempts at using 5D as a method of approach. [h]6C: Overhead that destroys a primer when blocked. Can be wolf canceled. When spaced well puts him out of poke range if blocked. It's +2 on block as well, so you won't have enough time to run up to punish afterwards even when blocked. The wolf cancel means he can get tricky and cancel into a low/c-grab, so stay on your toes and watch out for that. Fatal counter on counterhit. [h]6B: Grants +8(!) on block and can be wolf canceled on the second hit. Allows Valk to safely reset pressure and threaten wolf mixup. Fatal counter on counterhit. [h]236A/B/C: All three of these moves can be wolf canceled. 236A and 236C hit mid and are air unblockable, while 236B hits low. 236C destroys a primer. IB these and poke back in order to force the Valk to either stop wolf cancelling after them or start juking back, which will give you more time to escape. [w]236D: Valk's wolf command grab. Does 1.5k damage and fully recharge's Valk's wolf meter on hit. It can catch you in midair if the Valk is willing to take the risk and provides a fairly good incentive for you to attempt to jump/poke out of wolf mix up/pressure. It leaves a rather large opening on whiff, so forcing a Valk to miss a c-grab gives you a good opening to escape or counter attack. Notes: (Random ass notes I haven't gotten around to sorting yet) If [h] is before notation it means Valk is in human form. Similarly, [w] means he's in wolf form. IB > 6A covers every single one of Valk's wolf cancel options on a blocked 236A. Effectively prevents the Valk from attempting wolf cancels off of 236A. 3C low profiles under [h]5B, 5C, 6B, 6C, and 5A. You can poke out of 2C > 6B with 2A if you IB the 2C. Or use drive for higher risk/higher reward. Example Matches: Arcknight(Noel) vs Sahgren(Valkenhayn) 1 Arcknight(Noel) vs Sahgren(Valkenhayn) 2

The thing with that is that 7D > j.B/j.A already punishes people trying to mash out of 5D/3D. Going for a wolf cannon then would give them even more time to realize that you've juked, stop mashing, and start blocking while taking away the high/low mixup of j.A/j.B if they stay blocking. Adding a wolf cannon after 7D/4D isn't going to stop anything that'd normally stuff a 7D/4D juke (ala Plat's Heartcar or Noel's step forward > 6A). Just did some testing, and there's the additional problem of range. Unless they IB the 236A or you're at pointblank for 236B, 6C is the only wolf cancel-able move that would keep you in range for j.214A/B to connect. j./236A works off of a 4D juke, but runs into the same problem of not helping you beat anything that would already beat a 4D juke. Ultimately, it could help net a higher reward than 7D/4D > j.A/j.B, but it doesn't solve any problems that doing a good job of mixing up your wolf cancels would. You're free to experiment more yourself, I just don't personally see much of a reason to use it.

If you manage to score a 2C AA trade from midstage since it doesn't seem to be listed yet: CH 2C > 5C > j.214B > D > j.236A > j.236B > C > j.B > j.A > land 5D > 2C > 6C > delay 2C > 6B > 5B > 2C > j.B > dj.B > dj.C (5.2k DMG, 54 MG without super) (6.3k DMG, 4 net MG with Konig ender)

I'm not entirely certain using a wolf cannon directly after a wolf cancel is the best idea, since you'd be within the opponent's poking range with a relatively slow wolf cannon startup. That does work in neutral when you're already in wolf, since it punishes the opponent's attempt at trying to spam 5A or AAs in order to keep you from wolf dashing in.

To expand on some of what NickExtreme1 said, after learning some basic combos, spend some time in training mode just getting used to movement in wolf mode. Movement in wolf mode is a big part of Valk's game, so not knowing what options you have can make playing him a lot harder/less fun than it could be. This thread lists some possible movement options. Feel free to ask for an explanation/clarification if certain movement patterns don't seem to make sense.

Anybody having any luck using 6A as an AA? The lack of horizontal range keeps pissing me off, and I tend to just have better luck with 5A and trying to trade with 2C.

Ok, I really have to start reading all the posts before mine a lot more thoroughly, for some stupid reason I didn't realize that that combo wasn't already posted. Multiple times.

The combo I've been using from midscreen into corner: CH/Crouching 5C > 236C > 9D > j.B > j.A > land 5D > 2C > 6C > slight delay 2C > 6B > 2C > j.214B > 2D > 236B > j.236B > C~D > j.B > dj.B > dj.C > Konig Flug (3966 DMG, 53 MG without super) (5086 DMG, 3 Net MG with super)

Really? It doesn't seem that much slower to me. Regardless, I can still get in just fine, and that's really all I need from it.