Taylor

Hold the button down after you do the super, it changes the animation and they won't be bounced out by Agi.

So, now that’s been refuted, to be honest it looks like they’re going to have three characters of the same series so people can make teams but, cunningly, one of those characters will be DLC.

They've put an image of a 5 year old going down a water-slide on a machine washable "hand towel." Tbh, I'd be thankful people are just focusing on the sidebars.

Nah, didn't seem useless or I would've eaten something, just not neutral on normal block. Honestly it might not be all that different. I was playing a bit off because, being whiter than whitest white, I felt a bit of a stare.

I went along to the Shinjuku location test but it was packed and hard to just stand an watch compared to the Hey! one. So I just waited in line once (still took well over an hour) and played shmups instead (2-2 in Progear, yeah baby). This is all Tsubaki: - Instant charge is gone? Seems like 5D just charges as CS1. - 2D/5D/j.D all charge faster, though. 2 stocks off 22C finisher midscreen seems reasonable. - 5D seems to recover faster, too - 2D feels a lot slower to recover, was worried doing CC's. - Charge counter-hit state is through the startup, move and recovery. - 214A still doesn't launch or combo into anything making it kind of pointless (I'm probably missing something) - Couldn't 214B after throw. - 22D is still shit mid-screen and when I tried to follow with 236D it was blackbeat - though I only tried this once and may have messed it up. - 236D seems to have longer hit-stun/level upgrade - Super is still a projectile (but it would be), not sure about her DP (was trying to get a Hakumen to cut it). After I was off'd the machine they gave me a badge, I'm so special. It has Bang on it, though. I'd rather they left the charge speed as CS1 and focused on making her specials more useful outside of combos/rapid... But hey, what I think doesn't matter so I'll stop there.

Nerf Tsubaki more. I'm so hot right now.

Wall bounce was pretty much the only way Tsubaki could do damage mid-screen. Making her charge faster and doubling the resources required to break 2k mid-screen seems dubious to me. And while 2 stocks for 4k mid-screen was a lot, in context it still would’ve come after one or two other combos that did comparatively nothing at all (even less now) or a run-away game. It’s retained its wall-bounce on counter-hit (there's your use for 6CC) and at the very least I’d like to see it retain bounce on max-charge. I don’t think it'd be possible to land it at max in a proper combo now 214A/B have been nerfed.

Very good, it's faster than TK Gauntlet Hades afaik.

Ah, yeah, that makes more sense.

5BB, 5CC, 22D, 236D, 5BB, some jump, j.214D, 6C, 236236C? I think it's from this blog, who makes a habit of putting "Aerial" in katakana when something launches. I've only rarely seen 槍翼 as shorthand for her super, but someone said in the patch thread it takes 50% super as well as 3 stocks, and what else connects during 6C? More damage than she can currently do off 5B mid-screen. But it’s also a lot more expensive than her current 3k combo...

Hm, I've never been knocked out of 236236D (can't say the same for 236236C) and I have used it like a reversal more than a few times. Frame data says it's invincible from frame 1 until 2 frames after the super flash (so 7 total, including 2 where it does damage). Maybe I'm just lucky.

I'm fairly sure 236236D is invincible until it hits. But without stocks it does less damage than the C version, and with stocks you (may have) just wasted them.

The special/throw nerfs break a lot of the stuff we use now with nothing really stepping in? I assume (read: hope) they're just watching the result of the ghetto-action charge for now.

Well, as far as getting meter is concerned it doesn't, but it's faster and you don't need to invite yourself to be zoned by putting your opponent full-screen. Action Charge is awesome because it has a FRC point (frames 7-12 or so), allowing you to spend 25% meter to cut the move short, still gain the charge, and often end with a silly frame advantage. And the potential risk of FRC means even if you don’t do it the opponent will think twice about punishing it. Of course, BlazBlue doesn’t have FRCs so this is kind of moot.

I’m perfectly aware that not all special moves are supposed to be safe; I even listed three specific risky overheads. I also know the frame data, which is why I supplied the key word “most” when talking about Rapid Cancels. Though, incidentally, frame data doesn’t tell the whole story of how exposed a special leaves you because of factors like follow-ups and good, old fashioned spacing. The point was, to put it simply, that she is a character lacking tools and her specials are more slated towards being situational and/or combo filler, thus I’d rather see a focus on expanding them. I do not actually think they are devoid of all purpose. I don’t really want to get into a backseat design argument so I’ll leave the rest, but here’s exactly how Holy Order Sol’s charge works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUZKZ-TIfKk

Though nobody said Tsubaki shouldn’t have to charge, so that's a bit of a straw man argument. The point is that throwing additional gimmicks at her charge mechanic is not going to fix her pressure, lack of options, instant block susceptibility, combo-filler specials, etc. it's just going to make her charge better, which means higher average damage and more predictable gimmicks. Basically allowing you to beat people you would've beat anyway easier, but not actually helping in disadvantaged match ups. I also disagree that the D button should supersede all other aspects of the character making them into a one-trick-pony. I don't really care if Tsubaki stays low tier, I just want her to become more interesting. She's a character who, as you invest the time to learn her, gives you only decreasing amounts of options. Assuming opponents know what 22D does and can instant block (instant block and jab, nothing fancy) she has nothing worthy of respect and her toolset contains very little to work with. Even a combo after her air throw has prerequisites. Constraints can fuel creativity, but only to a point. The biggest culprit is her combo filler specials. I mean what is 214x? What is its actual purpose? It’s a slow launcher that travels horizontally and can be blocked all. It does the job of a move like Gauntlet Hades/Greed Sever/Bandit Revolver without having any of the other characteristics that make them a useful part of the characters toolkit. All her specials are like this. You can’t even throw most of them out below 50% meter because they’re unsafe. It'll be very interesting to see what Arc System Works do.

While I really like the idea of escaping Hakumen and Tager so I can self-harm instead, I don't believe making her charge faster is going to solve any of her serious problems.