Warhound

Sorry, made a typo in my last post. The topic I viewed was NOT filled with contempt for Az, which was rare. Anyhow, Right, the frame gap is FAIR. It takes a person to be sort of, in-the-know to take advantage of, but it's there. Which worries me about CP2, and how he's going be handled in there. Anything too drastic, and the announcer might as well announce "Mu Wins" as soon as she yells "Action".

Well now I'm not satisfied anymore. I want to eat swords WHILE moving. Anyhow, the Az hate is getting on my nerves as well. And it mostly comes from people being too stupid or too lazy to bother with researching on how to beat him. There was a topic on Gamefaqs about how to beat Az as a Noel, and while the topic was particularly filled with contempt for Azrael I just couldn't help but tell the guy: "Dude, you have 4D, that move alone shuts down like everything but our lows which leave us open or on the defense." I've seen someone OD between my 5B and second B. Jesus.

That new character hype I guess, I'm guilty of it too :/ I didn't even get to catch BB's Evo Stream. Too much school and work in the way >:[

Also, maybe test the difference by just doing a regular 214C as opposed to a TK sentinel, to see the difference in when Az execute's the move. This is also a pretty good gauge for how fast your sentinel should be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cubPJfm2b2g#t=96

Okay since this forum is apparently dead as hell, I'll try to answer as best I can. But I'm not really sure what you're asking here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I always remembered Suzume being a pretty damn good Hakumen to watch.

Been out of the Haku game for awhile to learn Az, but I went to Anime Midwest and got a harsh wake-up call when there were at least 2-3 other Azrael competitors in the very modest line up. SO, I think I should get back to upping my Haku game to match my Az game. Seeing as how I've been out of the loop for awhile, i was wondering who are the top Haku players to watch?

Thanks for compiling dem combos bruh. Should be helpful to add to the ol' repertoire. You even added in some oki stuff, nice!

3D is what I do a lot of the time when they are about to get up, and I actually managed to do it twice in a row on one guy. Yeah tell me about it. Well, every time I do a 6A clash I try to follow it up by doing Sentinel, but this hasn't worked, so I'm assuming I just have to spam 6A constantly. I know, I shouldn't back off, I always remember baiting DPs by low jabbing a few times or something and then blocking when they get up. I feel like....I dunno, like I go back and forth. I learn something, know I should do it, and then maybe I improve, but some other aspect of my game withers. I have no idea what I'm doing anymore. As for anti-airing. 2C solves a lot of my problems, 5A is for catching things like Hazama's recklessly charging in with D chains or something and 6B is for those special occasions like that shota butt-pirate or Jin and HIS GODDAMN J.2C THAT HE PURPOSEFULLY PLACES RIGHT ABOVE YOU SO 2C DOESN'T WORK RIGHT.

So, I'm finding it difficult to apply any sort of oki on...well anyone. Most people just roll backwards, or I'm too afraid to do anything because of their DP, so I end up just backdashing outta there so I might have a chance at retaliation. Half of my matches were people just running away ]:|

That's the biggest problem with 5D though, they will be zoning you with it, and fishing for hits so they can follow up with Snakebite and possibly with Serpent's Laceration (stomp distortion)

I lost a ton before actually consistently winning any matches. You can see evidence of that all over the match up forums, you have to get used to his weird/not so great neutral game and movement options. Slowly implement combos into your gameplay. 1. Basic BnBs, get used to hit confirming 5B > 2C so you can do his 6D and apply a weakpoint on the regular. 2. Get your throw combos down, start learning a little bit more intricate stuff, and slowly weave them into your play. 3. Valiant combos, once you feel pretty confident in those, go ahead and start learning how to combo into Valiant Crash. I know it took me a good while to actually be able to purposefully hit [uW] applied opponents with it. They were a bit weird for me at first too, don't feel bad if you're having trouble doing the basic 236D > 6 > 5Cx4 part or something, there's a rhythm to it. 4. Double Weakpoint combos and beyond, if you've gotten to this point, you should be getting a pretty good handle on Az and how his combos work, I've managed to even pull some off mid match. One thing I always did was go to Ranked, just do Entry and wait for a match to come to you, meanwhile you hit up Training or Challenge mode and just repeat the same combos over and over again. One thing that moved my game forward was that I wasn't capitalizing on CH that I got every now and again. So once I set the dummy to Force Counter Hit, and started to practice what I could combo into, my game improved a lot. Then I started to practice his double weakpoint combos and that helped me to understand how he combos into stuff even more. Oh, something I wish I knew when I started was how great 3C was as a punish move. It's not as good as Hakumen's but, Az's 3C leads into a lot of good combo opportunities, so if someone throws out, like, a distortion and you block it, but you're too far away to punish with 5B or something, 3C is your go to for punishes. Hope that helps some.

The master of improv.

Oh good, fantastic, NOW you guys post in the combo topic. I was wondering what the factor was, I guess it's distance hm? I know that a few times at the end of a match I thought "man I can really just close the deal if I knew how to cancel and get a combo from j.D" and thus many a match went.....uncertain.

So, I probably should post the question in the combo thread, but no one has posted there since it's creation, so I'm scared to. Anyways, when it comes to doing his aerial ending in j.D and then you RC it and continue with falling j.C....so like....what the hell is the deal with that thing? I can SOMETIMES make it happen by delaying j.D's hit, because it causes some weird faster falling physics or something to happen. I know it would be a good asset to me if I could master and actually do it on purpose, but I don't know the eh...trick to it. Anyone care to elaborate?

Yeah, online is my only option. But it's gotten to the point where it's just not that fun for me to lose to some idiot doing something I know I should be able to react to or beat, but because of that slight lag input, for some reason Jin's 5B oki gets me every time.

Sometimes it's by reflex, like I think it may catch them on jump out or something. But if I do throw it out in neutral or something, it's usually at a distance that takes a bit of distance to cover before getting a clean CH first.

Teching throws comes down to yomi at this point. I don't know why I bother playing this game, no one around me actually plays it with any proficiency.

So I'm an Az player, and I've almost declared this MU unwinnable. Of course it isn't, but when even Dogura is having problems beating Jin, it's cause for worry. Seems like everything I do just loses to the guy. No one has been able to give me clear advice on wth to actually do here. Jin has the advantage air to air, as j.2C just seems to be plain faster than anything Az can put out. Ground to air, he has fubuki. He DEFINITELY has the field in neutral with his superior normals. 5C being one of them. But if he really feels like it, he can just close the gap with a dash 2B Even close up he just kind of stuffs everything with 5B I'm desperate guys, this match up is so very very painful.

Gah, wish I could help. Honestly, all I get to do is play netplay, so my matches look like slow motion compared to yours.

Maybe I just need to go back and watch my matches in slow mo, because this match up blows me up on the regular. I fought a turtling Ragna the other day, and it was a nightmare. Oh also, fight every urge to not throw out 6D after a blocked 2C, a lot of Ragna's train themselves to throw out 5B after a 2C, because they know that this will happen exactly. It's getting me blown up constantly.

I don't get to do this match up a lot, I think I was fighting a dude who was subbing Valk. He kept beating me just a simple, single jump j.C, I thought 2C would be appropriate but it only is if you call him on doing it.

Do you mind expanding upon this one a little more?

WOOOOOAH Sophisticat?! Well, I guess some starting tips would be: - He's got several moves that are plus on block. His jab is amazing, close up, 5B is plus, and so is Gustav (+1) to be exact. But if they IB it, they can punish with a jab of their own. - Az works on a lot of late gatlings, and as such, he has holes in his pressure for anyone with a nice DP to exploit, watch out. - Start getting used to 236C > 46C > 6C (or TCL) now, you will be doing it constantly, it's a part of nearly all of his combos. It still messes with me tbh, especially when starting from 2B for some reason. - Understand weakpoints, and what your options are when you have them applied. Like say, you have an [uW] applied, during pressure you can now go for his really fast 5D in the middle of a block string and get some decent damage off of it. Or, you can hit them with his very standard 5B > 2C > 6D and because the opponent had an [uW] applied, they ground bounce, so you can now continue with > TCL > 3D. Ending the combo with some corner carry and a shiny new [LW]. - Experience his wonky neutral game. Despite what people say, Az isn't just a mash whatever and win character. He requires thought, and can really get stuffed by people with good neutral (Ragna and Jin) or get pinned down by zoners (Mu most specifically). - Be unpredictable like a muh. Seriously, watch Dogura and see what kind of a crazy bastard he is. - This is a good segway into Growler Field, a great tool to fight back the zoners with, but you can and will be baited. - 5A, 5B and 2C are his most go to answers for AA. Although 2C (his slab throw) kind of affects the upper-forward side of his airspace. Any attacks from above his head will just ignore it. Which is where 5B might come in handy, although I don't think it has any head invul like 2C does. - Once you get confident with him, starting thinking of good cross-up stuff, just remember the opponent can beat you with mashing jab. So, train them first. - You now have access to one of the best backdashes in the game. Just don't go crazy, there are ways to beat it if your opponent reads it on wake-up. Bullet's drive for example can chase you down.