Guardian

I've had varying degrees of success with 5A, j.A, and air grab as he's coming in (assuming he's doing the D/C followup and not the B one). Arakune is the only character in the game that can't 5A him out of it consistently. It's really annoying

10000xThis. Everyone knew these nerfs were coming, and when have devs in ANY fighting game just nerf someone 'a little'? I'll take balance over OP any day. A balanced character will make you think. CS litchi is just get the hit--->combo--->oki--->win. In CT you had to plan and think with her. If you didn't win with CS Litchi, then the joke's on you b/c it was your own fault in some way, shape or form.

You can if you RC. Am I the only one that thinks Jabaki is fine the way it is? I mean, it's safe, mid range (where he sucks most), gives 5k+ on corner CH, 3k+ midscreen w/ 50%...any buffs to it would make it OP, and any nerfs would make it horrid imo.

It looks like she'll still be able to beast in the corner. Actually getting someone to the corner with a combo is going to be a problem. The j.C nerf was totally unnecessary imo. What kind of decent mid screen damage is she going to get w/o j.B, j.C [D] combos?

If you can't IB~hotenjin, then Hazama becomes high-mid/A tier. If you can, then he becomes S. 236D and 5D~A solves his problems of mid range poking. 236D is probably the most slept on move in his entire arsenal. It's safe, knocks them away on CH or if they're launched, and CH in the corner gives him 5k+ if you have a super. His pressure isn't great, but if you're creative and have them guessing, he has some pretty good shenanigans that can really confuse people. He can get damage from anywhere on the screen and can be incredibly safe. You can't really jump at him, nor can anyone keep him from running like a madman. I'm not sure if I agree with him being the strongest fundamental character right now, but I'm sure I could be persuaded.

If you read a 6C/5D(one or two hits) dash in, Ragna (Jin as well) gets NO followups. Not even a DP. You can 5A/2A any poke attempt, especially if you IB. IBing is the only way to be truly Gdlk in this game.

I wouldn't advise trying anything other than tsubame to beat out his stance; if he chooses the B option (flash kick/DP/whatever u wanna call it) it will CH you if you try to poke him and give him a free 2.2k combo+oki/mixup. Just look out for the overhead. He gets no options after the C followup, and if he cancels the stance you're out for free. The overhead followup does give him some advantage (+1 or 2 iirc) so unless you IB, he does get legit poke attempts (5/2A). Hazama is weakest mid range (6B/2B[m] range like LK suggested), so get there to set up your offense. If he doesn't have 50% meter, just about any guard string you can think of is legit. Also if you're going to punish chains, you have to take into account if you actually blocked the chain. He can place it right in front of you or behind you (behind you is usually only on oki tho), and the zipline in is faster if he grapples something other than you. Always neutral tech in the corner since he can option select his tech trap/oki setups.

I can't say that I agree with this tier list entirely (Hazama, Arakune and Ragna are especially surprising), but there are a crapton of fucked up matchups in this game. some questions I have: -Why isn't Ragna higher? It doesn't seem like he has many unfavorable matchups (the only ones that comes to mind are Bang/Arakune and even those might be 5.5-4.5 imo) , he's a walking 50/50, excellent pokes, insane pressure, the list goes on and on. I guess he must really lose to IB+barrier in this game, but outside of that, I don't get his placement. -Why is Hazama so high? Other than getting full combos from anywhere on the screen (several people in the game can do this) and FC hotenjin, what's so great? His pokes are decent/above avg at best and he doesn't exactly run over a lot of the cast in terms of matchups. Decent pressure and decent mixup, but no where near on the level of the people immediately above or below him. I guess I can actually understand Arakune's placement after looking at this list a 2nd time; he's an excellent character but other characters (LAMBDA, MU, WTF ARKSYS) just counter him HARD.

That's her 3c, and she is TINY during that move. 6D, 2B, 3C and 2A should all beat it. I have yet to find something that beats her j.2C consistently.

Depends on where you are when you're magnetized. If you're in his face you gotta guess. If you're over half screen you can try to space him w/ j.B, or pretty much any B poke. j.B is ridiculously good against Tager. It will stuff most of his ground pokes if done going right into the beginning of the jump. You can also get fuzzy guard mixups off of 5B if you have over 50% meter. I'm not sure about 3c punishers. I'm too busy getting hit by it to know what punishes it

WTF I WAS TRYING TO PLAY FATE ALL WEEKEND!!!!!!! I've been wanting to show off my caster for years

I had an AWESOME time playing all you guys. Special shout out to LK and Desu for putting me out and into loser's respectively, I won't go down so easily next time. Kenshuma-it was good to finally meet you homie. Let's break Litchi in CS. Our casual matches are up on youtube :-P LordKnight-I should've stuck with Rachel; I never got to do my unseeable instant overhead against you :-( GGs man you're solid as fuck. Congrats on 2nd in MBAA. Xcross-It was good to meet you man, you have a really great Nu Zoogster-Congrats on 2nd place and thanks again for the strats. was totally lost in that carl v rachel. Now how about Carl v Litchi? lol Skeletal-Great Hakumen, I wish we could've played more, those couple of casual matches we had were hella fun. Ivysaur-Congrats on 1st, your Carl is a beast. If I come to FR14 let's get some more games in. Solid Play-Dude you're hilarious w/ the shit talk. GGs in CT and CS. Next time we gotta play some GG Desu-Rachel is quite retarded lol. Had a blast playing you though, you're the best Tager i've ever played. Red-Zo/AL Litchi-GGs to you guys as well, hit me up on PSN when CS comes out! Light-We only got to play once, but it was a great experience for me. GGs homie More shout outs to Flash, Doren2k, vVv scrub, Kensou, Boss, Rockstar(?), and the noel and Nu players I fought in losers. If I left you out, it's not intentional, just don't remember everyone's names. GGs to all!

Zakiyama's Hazama makes me want to rethink some things about my life

He really was, her corner lockdown is QUITE ridiculous. Anyone know when they'll have any reasonable frame data up?

Nevermind, just did it. Are all of them distance specific on the 6C[m]? Didn't know about the corner 6C[m] combo, I'll keep that in mind.

Everytime I tried to do that setup in P-mode against the CPU it never worked. I guess fuzzy guards only work against players? Rachel has PLENTY of fuzzy guards lol

Some new 6C[m] combos for you guys, work on just about everyone except Carl: (midsccreen variant)6C[m], tk hatsu, chun, RC, falling j.C, land, 2C, 6C, tsubame, 6C, 3C The trick to getting this combo is making sure that the staff is in return state the entire time, until the first 6C. If you get j.C[m], then you're not keeping yourself ahead of the staff long enough. If the 2C isn't connecting, you're not doing j.C low enough to the ground. Does about 3200+, and is great for use after a 6B[m], 6C[m] string to catch mashers. Here's the other, in the corner: 6C[m], jc, j.C, 6Kote, falling j.C, land 5C, jc, j.B, j.C, jc j.D, falling j.C, land 6C, tsubame, 6C, 3C Works on everyone who can be picked up by a grounded 5C

System: PS3 GT:GuardianSTL Loc: FL Note: I have moderate-good xp vs most characters in the cast except Carl. I also sub Ragna, Hakumen, and Rachel.

someone plz put this in the arksys suggestion box

This. If you have 3 stars or more, and they block a 2B, it's your time for mixup.

Anti-airing this bitch is nearly impossible with her 3x jump and double airdash. Any time you attempt to do so she can just jump over you again w/ j.C and combo you for 35-40%. It beats Tsubame, itsuu guard points, and 2C[m]. Unless you're sure she's used all her aerial options (which she probably hasn't), then the above moves will work. I'm finding 5D~D and j.6D~land D to be moderately effective. Keeping her out and out of the air is everything but impossible. Now if you manage to lock her down, she fucking dies. Guard breaking her w/ the Daisharin super is relatively easy. Does anyone know of anyway to punish her Dead Angle/counter assault?

I know exactly what you're saying, and it actually makes alot of sense.

dj.D=double jump D

I don't understand 60% of BLEED's choices in those vids. I'm not sure if he's trying new shit out, or is using strats that just don't work, b/c he's getting pummelled in quite a few of those matches when he shouldn't be.

You can play GG, MB, and SF Alpha, and you can't do combos? Those are some of the most combo intensive games out there. If the itsuuC combos give you that much trouble, stick to the 3C combos until you can figure out the timing. When you practice itsuuC, just try doing 5C for both hits into itsuuC. 5C gives you the time to hit confirm and input your itsuuC command. If done correctly, you shouldn't even see the staff wrap animation. If you are seeing that, then you're doing the C command too slowly. Keep in mind that it's also distance specific, and won't work if 5C hits from max range.