The Katz

Despite the fact that I am a 5D fanatic, I do not fully agree with this. Especially the 5D > Dead Spike on block part. It will, in fact, shut her down if you time 5D on her wake-up to catch any of her drives (assuming you do this correctly; not saying it is hard, just saying for the cases where the Ragna player isn't that good at doing such). You get a hit when she's on the ground and it's a counter? Dash cancel into a 5A > 5B > whatever combo. It does indefinitely more damage than just doing Hell's Fang. Got a hit when she's in the air somehow? DON'T END WITH HELL'S FANG. 22C that whore. Now, the part I don't like the most... 5D on block. Dead Spike! ...Nah. She can't jump out or mash, but she can 2D. This is an issue. If she IB's the second hit of 5D, she can do whatever she likes if you Dead Spike; jump and counter, 5B > 3C > 22(b)C > whatever, j.4D, IAD j.C > land > stuff, etc. In my opinion, the best option after a blocked 5D isn't to do anything right away. Wait and see how the Noel handles the situation, the punish if it's in your power to. Just don't Dead Spike right away. Edit: About doing Dead Spike and still somehow being close (I'd assume you did it after 1 hit, since the general non-IB/barrier-ed distance it pushes you is relatively far) doing another 5D would be suicidal. +3 on block doesn't cover your 5D's startup NEARLY enough to avoid getting hit by normal, let alone a drive attack.

Shame on you. You know what you did.

My input from fighting the Noel Mod. Your range is obviously better, just watch out for that annoying 5B she has. If she tosses it out before you get 5B or 5C out when spacing on the ground, you'll get hurt. You will get hurt a lot. If she's in the air for whatever reason watch out for j.4D. That bitch is fast. Ironically C inferno's hitbox goes behind you near the base of the first hit, so if she tries doing j.B/j.C/whatever into it, just inferno. Can't do shit off of it without meter anyway, so just take the distance it gives you and the knock-down. For when you have her in the corner or whatever: If you dead spike for okizime, her only option is to 4D. As KayEff was saying, 2B fails here. Just use 5B. 8 frames of startup for 5B -3 frames from the advantage Dead Spike gives you from hitting during the first active frame equals 5. I've yet to see a Noel try to 5A after Dead Spike, but I wouldn't recommend it considering what else could be done. If she tries to 4D in that situation, again, just use 5B. You won't get hit and if you're lucky you might hit her in the jaw. All Noel can do in that position is hit buttons and pray, so just Dead Spike again if there is some distance between you. If she does that gun spin (d.6C), don't Hell's Fang. I don't know what I was thinking trying to get greedy with CH Hell's Fang combos. Summary: Don't try to be fancy or you'll get hurt. Bad. Blood Kain is your friend when she's hitting drive and you're blocking (when you have the meter). I've seen a lot of people burst when they get hit by her 6B. Don't, for the love of Blood Kain, burst there. Save it for when you get hit by 5D or 2D. Trust me. /Ahem/ Try to keep your distance and let her know you have range. This seemed to work out for me more than attempting to steam-roll the Noel players I've fought up until now.

Why are there so many pages in this thread?

wut

Fate Unlimited Codes?! I don't even know how to play that game, but count me in.

Fixed.

D: Those go together?! I wasn't even aware. I must be living under a rock.

Why would it help me sleep at night knowing a proud warrior chose a different path without properly committing seppuku beforehand? Things like this make me die a little on the inside.

So I heard Rei's switching. Is this true? If it is true, then does that mean we can classify him as an unworthy loser?

I have no reason to play this game anymore. ._. The Ragna part of that vid destroyed any dream of mine to make a CS2 video.

Pay attention to how you win, not the fact that you won. :x Which makes me question why I see what one would consider a 'pro' say a year or more, and a number of people say a month or two.

I started with CT on day one, and only became what the majority would recognize as good a few months ago. There's such a thin line when it comes to Ragna. For everyone else in the cast it took me about 7-9 hours for CT, then roughly 4 hours for each character I picked up in CS1. That, or everyone I know is ridiculously free.

CS1: Tsubaki Vs Blood Kain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDacIat-zvk

Kyo! Nooo! Why did you do this to me, Jourdal? D: I thought we were bros!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8SvALPvQhE Update, kinda. Forgot to post this. Haku Vs Blood Kain

The main reason why I picked him up in the first place was just to do fancy combos and experiment to see how many I could make on my own. I was told that silly combos were impractical to do in actual matches, so I practiced them until I could do them effortlessly on the fly. I've been getting lazy up until recently and just rely on a few BnB's, but after playing against certain people a week or two ago I have been working back into my roots. Waste 50 or 100 meter for flare and 6B oki all day. It's harder to do against people who "pro-tier auto-pilot to extents". No room for games when all you're really doing is playing one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bqc3ds39FY LK's Tao vs Blood Kain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8SvALPvQhE Haku Vs Blood Kain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bqc3ds39FY LK's Tao vs Blood Kain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDacIat-zvk Tsubaki Vs LOL Kain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8SvALPvQhE Haku vs Blood Kain

He's obviously not a Bang main. I weight lift with my dick all the time.

Very good advice. For some reason not everyone sees how important strong basics really are in fighters. Being able to block takes awhile and requires you to know how everything hits, which comes easily with time but is still very important to work on early on. Blocking everything the other person throws at you can make them desperate, but that's only because they are (sometimes) momentarily out of options. If they can't hit you, what then..? However, this also tends to have the opposite effect of the previously-mentioned state on a good amount of people. Whenever I run out of tricks (which is rare, but it happens) I tend to back up and be more careful about how I should approach the person if I don't readily have an answer for their defense. I know a lot of people who do the same. This is less common, but don't forget to take advantage of someone's over-cautiousness. On the topic of unpredictability, I'd say that having multiple offensive options is a good idea, mainly because you never want to be stone-walled by someone's defense. As in. . . have mix-up that doesn't blow. Finding places in a block-string where you can toss out a high and a low at the same time is very important to your game. Lower-level players tend to hit buttons randomly, so stick to lows until you teach them to behave. Against better players you can toss out more overheads, then actually mix it up when they learn how to block. This can either be after the first high, or much later down the road.

I'd like to say this is the better option to find first so you have someone that can tell you what you're doing wrong if you have questions or if it's relatively important at the time. General advice I have to randomly toss in is that you should try to be a bit thoughtful about how and why you do the things you do during a match. I remember a mid-level player complaining about having to think about things in a fighter since they went in thinking it was a "hit buttons > win" type of gaming genre. I also know a few decent players that don't bother to practice in training or think too hard in matches, going on 'instinct' and match experience alone. Sadly they never break the necessary barriers to actually be good at game. :x Eh, what else. . . Be patient and try to get into the other person's head before they get into yours; that is, when you actually know what you're doing to an extent. Character match-ups are indeed important, but don't forget about player match-ups. Everyone has habits and it'd be a waste to not abuse that fact. You just need to be able to distinguish one player from another when you go to play someone else that uses the same character. I hear "I was playing a few random Ragnas the other day and got smashed because I'm used to fighting your Ragna..." and "I'm too used to playing ('X person's ragna'/other Ragna players), so you throw me off guard..." a lot. It may be because I play "weird as hell", but this is a good example of why you should try to be able to make the adjustment from playing one person to another. To sum it up: learn to adapt to different people, styles, and odd situations. Not everyone plays the same, even if a lot play the same character.

Bang is such an amazing character. I can't help but feel I need to atone for the sin of not maining him. I can't stop thinking about him... I pretend it's Bang.

Bold 1: It's long due. It needs a hitbox fix too, if you ask me. Bold 2: I feel ya. Damage off of mix-up doesn't seem likely too often. Bold 3: Congrats if you can. I doubt over 60% of the Ragna mains will be able to. :P