Villainous

Oh also a little late on this but people were discussing Sin's neutral vs Sol / Ky. Sol and Ky may have faster 5S's or whatever but Sin's has just as much if not more range and confirms into 236H which leads to damage. AFAIK Ky and Sol don't really get much off a far 5S. If they wanna get any real damage they have to be a little closer, where as Sin gets pretty good damage from way away. Also being able to jump cancel your specials for free is kind of a big deal.

Ok got a lot of stuff from the lab today, just gonna drop it all in one mega post: j.H on counter hit combos into j214S. j,H can also be used as a rising overhead. So basically, you jack their guard bar up and then jump cancel something like 2H into rising j.H j214S and get a combo. Believe you might have to RC it at that height but j214S can be canceled into j236H back and forth like his ground specials. Also if the guard bar is high enough to make j214S a counter hit after rising j,H you don't need to RC it since it gives a hard knockdown on counter hit. So basically if you get their guard bar up, you can do an unseeable 50/50 off a blocked jump cancelable move up close. Found a decent OKI mixup off of his standard combo ender with 236H. Basically after a combo like say cS 5S 2S 236K 236H, you can do 214K > air dash low to the ground and hit a meaty j,H. Depending on how early or late you do the 214K (you can cancel his specials ANY time during the recovery so you have lots of wiggle room), you can control if your j.H hits meaty or if it whiffs and you can go low. There's an additional layer to this in that you can let j,H be blocked and then cancel your air momentum with j.D to get an overhead low mixup after the initial overhead low mixup from the air dash. So essentially the mixup path is: Early 214K > air dash > whiff j,H > meaty 2K (low opener) Late 214K > air dash > meaty j.H > 2K (overhead) (low second layer) Late 214K > air dash > meaty j.H > j.D (overhead) (overhead second layer) Also I've got combos! Anything into 214S (ground bounce) can be comboed into 214K > late j.6H > 5S 5H 6H etc if you don't want to spend calories. After 236K if you want FAT DAMAGE from afar you can do, say: 5S > 236H 236K RC run up 623S (crit) 214S > and then go into the free combo mentioned above or do charged 236H combos if you have the calories to burn. Oh also run up 2D 623S gives you the crit so that's probably his go to punisher IMO unless you're really low on calories.

Also just found that you can link 2P after ride the lightning straight forward 3 times. You have to make them kinda land on top of the last hit but there's probably some pretty high damage stuff you can get off that with corner loops. Sorry if that's known already.

Oh also, 623S 214P doesn't cost any calories. Basically lets you jump cancel your DP for free... that's just ridiculous to me. You can do 623S 214K[6] j66 to get out of the corner pretty easy. To combo off j.HS you have to space it so the last hit of j.HS hits them relatively low to the ground. You can link a 2P or 2K pretty easy from there. Just can't throw it out willy nilly like its a pizza cutter and expect to get combos lol Also note that the first hit of j.HS that hits behind him has significantly more hitstun than the following 2 hits, so if you hit a cross up j.HS really deep you can combo off of it with pretty much whatever.

Little late on this answer but just got the game. After CH 236HS you can do 214K[6] 5S 5H 6H into either an air combo or a 5H loop if you can do those. I don't got those yet though lol Is there frame data out for him yet? I'm curious what 236K is on block because it looks even to me just eyeballing it, which is pretty crazy it if is. Also holy crap he gets a lot of damage off a 6P for free. This character hurts. oh yeah 214S.... I'm not sure how much that move will be used at high levels. It seems like parry bait to me, really easy to react to if you're looking for it, but I guess you can see them go for parry and then YRC or something before it hits. Atleast the range is insane.

What are you guys doing off a Helter Skelter hit? I'm just doing j.H j.D 5K Mappa but there's probably better stuff.

Yeah I can see that. I played reload but that was a loooooooooooooong time ago lol. I'm just gonna rethink how I played him from the ground up. Seems like the focus is gonna be on footsie and teleport cross up / dandy mixups on oki, as well as just jacking the guard bar. Basically with my post I was just trying to say that he really didn't get BETTER at doing anything to make up for what he had before, so I think that's why a lot of people are seeing him as one of the weaker characters now. But "weaker" in GG is still viable thankfully. Just means you're a little more honest.

Ok good to know on some of those things, but the big point is a lot of stuff he could "just do" is situational now. 1 6K has to be counter hit to get a combo off of it, so effectively it doesn't really matter that its an overhead in that situation. I guess you could jack their guard bar up and then use it for mixups. 2 The 6K link into cS is good but that means you have to be on top of them to get damage off 2K. Your effective range at threatening low into combo got smaller basically. 4 Ok I was testing that mid screen. Still kind of weird they give different properties depending on the dandy step used. 7 Another situation he has to spend meter when he didn't before. I'm not trying to be down on him or whine though. Its just surprising how much he lost. For a somewhat low mobility character without any screen control with projectiles like most of the cast, there's not a lot of reward or threat for actually getting in with him, unlike how it used to be. BUT, atleast he still hits like a truck.

Coming from Accent Core Slayer and not playing +R, he feels incredibly neutered. Lets look at the changes: - Can't combo off overhead without 50% meter now. - 2K doesn't link into 2S 2D or really anything. No more chain into 2H. Have to chain to 2D for a knockdown. Much harder to hit confirm because of that. - 2S lost upperbody invincibility. Went from having amazing anti air to somewhat lacking in anti air. - Only CH pile bunker from K dandy gives a combo now - 2H range reduced. Can't really combo off of it mid screen without meter. Shorter or no lower body invincibility. - Lost big bang upper so no confirms into damage easily anymore. - Easier to mash out of bite and less stun time, can't really get damage off of it anymore. - Dead on time distance reduced + BUT HEY HE GOT HELTER SKELTER GIMMICKS + The long dash is pretty good I guess. Basically, his core gameplan changed. He's a poke character now in a game full of people with better pokes and shit they can put on the screen. Definitely a weak character just from my initial analysis.

Random question, is j.[C] safe on shield if done pretty early? Haven't had a chance to test it yet.

Question of the day, assuming you have full meter and vorpal and you land a hit, whats Merkava's highest damage reasonable combo? Most I'm getting is like 4.5k but I'm just wondering if anyone has a good combo when you really wanna go for the kill. I find myself in that situation a lot where I'm like "man, I wish I had some big crazy flashy combo that did a shitload of damage right here" instead of just doing standard BNB for like 3.5k or something.

Its really unsafe so you can do whatever you want really. 2C 6B 2C 236A etc combos are usually the go-to punish for me.

This, but also to add, 4B 236A does just as much if not more damage and still lets you pressure them when they air tech. I like 236A ender into jumping over their tech into flight, its like some ghetto flight oki.

Yeah I guess those are really the only options. 236A is hard to hit it on reaction, feel like you have to preempt it a bit, and if it gets blocked you get punished, but I guess its the same with run grab if they jump it. Atleast being able to threaten with both makes her have to think / react a bit more. Also I recognize your name, pretty sure I played you in ranked, although I was on Merkava at the time lol

The first one is nice and reliable, pops the damage up to about 5k off his regular BNB. Not sure how to set up the second one consistently, especially in the corner since you need space to activate without your veil off hitting them. How do they usually lead into that combo ender? Also, just noticed that his orange costume in the wiki has orange hands where as in the game he has purple hands. I wonder if that changed since arcade or something? http://wiki.mizuumi.net/images/a/a2/Carmine-15.png

Anyone got any tips for handling orie's backdash? She just backdashes anytime she's near me and gets full screen. Lots of persona bubbles to set up offense then if it fails, back dash full screen and do it again. I dunno what to do other than full screen run grab randomly lol

Awesome, thanks. Sometimes I'm surprised what works in this game. Found 2 useful corner BNBs, one for overhead with a puddle under them and one off 22A if they get tagged at the end of a pressure string: 6[C] 623A wait 2C 6B 2C 236A j.[C] 2B JC delay j.ABC 3B 2C 22A 623C: 4.5k with vorpal 22A 3B 2C 236A rest is same as above. His corner damage is ridiculous!

What do you guys like to use for anti air combo? Currently I'm just doing 3B j.a j.b j.c 3B 2C 623B super but I feel like he could probably get more.

Well either way, is there a trick to comboing 66C off of it?

What do you guys use to answer jump happy opponents? I generally try to anti air with 3B but it doesn't have any upper body invincibility so you have to rely on getting it out before the opponent. Does he have any other good stuff for anti air that I might not be aware of? Feels like mostly you just have to preemptively throw out wheels if you think they might jump so you can air unblockable them while they block it. Also I see in some enders they do 623A with puddle out into 66C but 66C moves him forward so much that he tends to go under them at most ranges. Is there a trick to getting this to work?

Only character I feel like Merk might be at a disadvantage against is Gordeau since he eliminates any and all air options. On the plus side, Merk is one of the few characters who can play footsie with him and come out ahead. With shielding you can even punish a lot of his stuff from ranges other characters can't. You just can't fly like... ever. For me Eltnum can be really difficult if she gets in and her C button lets her fight back at mid range a bit so she's more of a threat than other rush down heavy characters like Linne. She can also steal momentum back even if you get it in your favor with DP so you have to be wary of it at all times on offense. You have the tools to keep her out though but once she gets in, she's a headache. So I'd say its probably even. Just one of the more challenging matches for merk IMO. Waldstein is very easy to keep out BUT, if he gets in, you're dead. Dead dead dead. Its just difficult from him at neutral. Wald will be looking to assault over 214A to get in, or full jump over 5BB with his j.[C], so you have to be very reactive with your buttons or you might get cornered into death. Neutral is very much in Merks favor though, as it is with most matches lol

Yeah kidnap loses to stuff on the way down but has invincibility on the way up, so it will beat meaties barring massive amounts of active frames where as 236C might lose. I kind of use both, but I definitely favor 236C since its mostly safe and you get a combo off of it. Also yeah 5BB is nice, catches grounded people and assault. Just make sure to reverse beat it up close cause its like -8 or something terrible. Very punishable by itself. Best normal is still fast fly j.B though... my god that move is amazing.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the way EX arms works is it has startup invincibility but then is vulnerable once the arms go active, so people can hit you out of it if they do something meaty. Its definitely a strange reversal. The kidnap super has invincibility on it too though if you don't trust 236C. Just realized yesterday that his 214 series doesn't have a hurtbox on his arm so you can grab people through their projectiles. Extremely useful against vatista or nanase's that like to set up the slow wind rush down stuff.

My bad, I got excited when I found it. I later went and watched some japanese play and saw them doing 214[A} B+C a lot at neutral and felt dumb but oh well, maybe someone will see my post that didn't know before. Speaking of 22A, I saw the same player doing 22A into 623A (or B? really hard to tell by eyeballing it) as some sort of frame trap. I wonder how big the gap is there?

Depends on what you've already used in a chain but if you're too far for 2C to hit, 5BB 6C is usually your best bet. You can get 5[C] JC j.6D j.A j.B 66C from a lot of ranges but if its too far for that to hit, really all you can do is the 214B ender. If you want oki after that you can cancel the air grab to the fireball super and then go into flight before you hit the ground to get flight oki. If you have CS available, 214B actually leads to tons of damage and a good oki setup though. So keep an eye out for that if you land a long range hit confirm and have it up.