gbursine

also due to the generation of the game, all multi-hitting normal throws (and victor's qcf+K) can be mashed for more damage, and [simultaneously] countermashed for less damage. remember, wiggling the stick is just as [if not more] important as mashing the buttons.

bish/sassy get super armor. lei lei/aubath gets hyper. I'm pretty sure she cannot be thrown in this state.

I thought it was hilarious. ^__^

It was apollo nash. There's a NY and NJ apollo -______________-

i wrote stuff in the 3rd post. I think most heavy blanketing topics have been covered now. some editing may ensue

regarding dark forces, i was told by rithli(who i believe was told by one of the japanese players), that if you try to mash for df, and you eff up(aka your inputs are not precise), every mashed attempt thereafter will not register a dark force input, but rather two separate inputs. this is detrimental knowledge for characters that have 'oh shit' df's that are used to get out of situations.(anak, victor, leilei, jedah, etc.) to add to the discussion regarding sequence of tech hit inputs. I myself use a "resting hand" approach. my hand rests with digits as such thumb:lk index:lp middle:mp ring:hp pinkie:rk my sequence of input is [ideally] lk, rk, hp,mp, lp the mindset behind my teching, is to rest my hands in this sequence and apply a very minute amount of pressure[for quick intervals of teching as needed] this allows for a controlled 5 input tech for every blocked attack I can predict.

only b/c i'm a lazy stalker. and I know i have not fb stalked everyone. https://www.facebook.com/groups/118794278219270/ ^ seeing if consolidating groups will drum pple up

My impresions/faint recollection was that the conversion of Vsav, the cps2 software, was tedious/difficult, and compounding that would be the added netcode/playtesting. Which I could kind of see. there aren't really that many 'true' cps2 games on xbl are there?(puzzle fighter?) 3rd strike is a cps3 game.

I had talked with seth at ect. he had said Vsav-OE would cost too much. It would be cheaper to make a new game from the ground up.

henaki!!!! ^_^_^_^_^_^_^ and good meeting ya at ect daiandoh!

that fb post is all Korey. I only added the blurb about dark forces and I think the caption to the title should be: "Shake that ass, show them what you workin with"

Meh. to me, its implied if the percentage is higher, then its more likely that I score a tech with more inputs per block'd hit. But w/e. information is information, as long as people have a reliable way of interpreting it. And I just posted my first draft for how new/old players should approach air to air encounters in Vampire Savior. ofc. its a wall of text ^_^;;

I think that's cool and informative, yet slightly misleading. I think seeing the cumulative statistics is better. and I hate my old writing. holy shit its technical and conveys the information well, but it makes me -___- Cumulatively your numbers look like this: You have a 0/32 chance (0%) of AG'ing on the first and second inputs. You have a 8/32 chance (25%) of AG'ing on the third input. You have a 20/32 chance (62.5%) of AG'ing on the fourth input. You have a 29/32 chance of (90.625%) AG'ing on the fifth input. You have a 32/32 chance of (100%)AG'ing on the sixth input. I'll throw both representations up in the first post.

so to explain the first part, if you successfully land the ES roll and extension, felicia does this giant uppercut, causing the opponent to fly off the screen. What's happened on many instances was, during the ES uppercut, If I were to trade with the opponent, what would happen is felicia would get knocked out of the whole uppercut, while the opponent would still suffer the effects of the ES upper. Flying off the screen and falling back down like a second later. I'm not sure if comboing into gangbang via this method is feasible anymore. it was contemplation of the juggle states of this game that brought me to that conclusion

It was super fun and super nice meetin ya'll. braver, ty for keeping the brackets going. you actually were running this shit in the end ^_^. ryuji, you are badass for driving so far just to play vsav casuals. sorry we didn't start sooner, so much random whatnot before I was able to organize whatnot. Big thanks to everyone who came, and whomever brought that second vsav setup.

imo demitri's the best zoner. he's the only character that really makes everyone else work their way in slowly. as far as oki, they all got good oki game. characters with fast walkspeeds can make the tech strategic wakeups really ambiguous and slutty.

A few things/opinions/observations I want to throw in on everything. I think you're undercutting her uppercut(shining blade). while it doesnt have great invincibility, among the other dp related special moves in the game, hers ranks top among them imo. unlike morrigan's dp, hers hit boxes start slightly higher, and covers an effective area . As a guard cancel(GC), due to its' horizontal range, I think it ranks among one of the most useful/effective GC's. As a character, lilith/morrigan both do burst damage due to their di/li supers. picking either of these characters up, means learning to buffer DI/LI off of every single chain you do. ground/aerial/dashing attacks/sweep. advancing s.(far)mp's and s.mk's are great at catching jumping opponents.(though its already stated they're great as it is, this is an added benefit) by which, i think i find hardest to do[keeping jumpy opponents grounded], if anyone has input on how i could better keep people grounded >.> we need to compile a list of char's that her s.lp hits while they crouch(i.e. NOT Q-bee -___-) a sample block string frame trap, showing variations, & # of frames of the holes within it. df clarification, & ways of utilizing them(she has two!) I've been in light discussion of her df with Kajoq. he likes her hp+hk one, which is akin to morrigan's mirror image DF. For me her lp+lk/mp+mk df, akin to yang's sei-enbu super, seems more advantageous from the added pressure it provides

ctf and the break had a vampire savior machine, so I'm expecting some old heads to pop in and play too. it'll be good fun don't worry ^_^

ps2 import. 2nd best thing. still arcade perfect more or less

if there are people, i'll do a tourney ^_^. i'm tempted to bring my dreamcast just to show ya'll how i tech practice

also, as far as ports go, if you do not have the means to puchase/assemble a supercade listed are the important ported versions, with brief description: ps2, Vampire Collections(jp only) - japan had recently released a "collections" disk for playstation 2. The Vampire savior version has hidden dipswitches, which allow for arcade perfect play(which is all that matters). sega saturn Vsav - All frames of animation are in it. No tweaking to any frame data was done. not sure if any unblockable glitches were in it. Dreamcast Vampire Collections - It has a record/play mode, enabling you to practice tech/gc timing with it. The psx and psp versions, don't really have anything to offer.(cut frames of animation, altered frame data/properties)

if we were to tier stages, Vanity Paradise is TOP!

The weighing of Teching(pushblocking) versus Guard Cancels against variable & constant pressure. Strictly in terms of guard cancels(gc's), I've laid out a list of characters based on the merits & flaws of their gc's. Before going into this first, gc's and tech hits(pushblocks) are the two available options that characters have while in blockstun(and yes, anakaris being the exception). Looking beyond these options are the actual unique characteristics that each character possesses with their respective gc's which make their guard cancels viable as an option or not. [Aside from Anakaris] Each character's tech hit ability is universal, and the implications of teching are always the same. Teching takes a character who is in a defensive position, and allows space for the merits of the player/character who teched to get him out. Ideally a tech is performed at the right time and the defending player is able to recover from the tech in frame advantage, or at least push the opponent away to a position where advancing with more pressure gets stuffed [or does not appear to be viable.]. Ill placed techs (that are successful), normally lead the main player to defending more of the opponent's pressure. Teching should be the default [and to some extent the knee-jerk] reaction against offensive pressure. While in higher levels, it can be 'baited,' at lower levels, getting into the habit of eying when to tech hits, whether it be staggered in and out single hit offense, or chains & long block strings, is always a viable option. When in a defensive posture, there is a two phase flowchart you can go through before deciding whether or not to guardcancel: 1. Can I reliably predict when i'm going to block an attack? no->block/retreat/df pop yes-> 2. Will Teching provide enough of a pressure gap to allow my character to change the pace of the match in my favor? no->tech yes->gc Part 1 of this two phase question is the assessment of whether or not a guard cancel can be executed. it is a variable measurement of what the player sees and reacts to against an opponents offence. Quite simply, if you can reliably predict, block, and dp(or gc shortcut ) normally, then gcing becomes that much more of a viable option. If you aren't sure whether or not you're in a position to guard cancel OR tech, you may very well not need to, and attempting to do so may very well be more for your undoing than benefit. Otherwise, if you are midscreen, and can afford to retreat backwards towards the corner, it may be worth the risk to give space in hopes of at least neutralizing a defensive position. Dark force popping will normally do the opposite, scaring the opponent away from you, depending on the character's darkforce(hyper/super armor dark forces, flight dark forces, victor). DF pops are one of the main reasons why I reccommend always having a meter or two on stock to allow for this option. The second part assesses the outcome. Ideallistic guard cancels will yield a knockdown. Of the entire cast,bbhood, Lei lei [in a roundabout way] and *Anakaris are the only characters who's guard cancels do not net a player a knockdown on a successful hit(this is of course solely the guard cancel). This being the case(a knockdown), use guard cancels brings about implications that the player intends not just to neutralize a situation, but to completely reverse it, and place the opponent in a defensive posture having to deal with oki(wakeup). To add to this, one must also assess the negative outcomes of a successful guard cancel, which are primarily whiffing and getting stuffed(beaten out). The latter scenario occurs typically with [what I have deemed as] class 3 guard cancels due to there slow startup. Judging whether a gc will wiff or not one must account the nature of the position of the opponent's offence. Generally what I look for is if the opponent is low and afar(a character to a half character away), or if they are pressuring with quick recovering light attacks from a low distance. Using these paramaters along with the list below should allow you(the player) to best decide when to guard cancel. Class 1 - Conventional Guard Cancels The following characters have guard cancels that do exactly what they're suppose to do, and are reliable at doing so. Their gc's are reliable when rationalizing between gcing, and tech hitting. All of these guard cancels, have different attributes that gives them utility: Demitri - Demitri has the most reliable 'shoryuken' dp in the game. as a guardcancel, it is just as strong, but the pure vertical nature of this gc's hitbox makes it suceptible to fast blocked normals from afar. Lilith - As a gc, Lilith's gc is at a decent startup speed and reaches out horizontally enough to catch opponents. [i find it to be ideal.] Morrigan - One of the fastest in the game. reliable due to its speed, though it does lack the horizontal range that other characters have. Bishamon - Bish's GC is a standard dp, I have not come across it much against the bish's i've played against[which i account to the lack of bish players really]. This being said, I think bish has an open option to choose between teching and using one of his own normals[which are great imo!], or guard canceling to change and/or neutralize the curreny rhythmn in a match. Bishamon is actually a character that I will universally tend to gc against. Good offensive pressure from bishamon leaves players to answer to his high-priority normals after successful tech hits. Victor - While he is a powerhouse in terms of the priority of his normals, Victor's playstyle is very partial to the use of his guard cancel. the hitboxes and direction of his gc are very favorable, and additionally, he is generally safe when using the light/medium versions on block, allowing him to transition into offensive movement. Zabel (L. Raptor) - Zabel's gc has a great disjoined hitbox upon activation, and has reasonable startup (±8f). from what i recall, Zabel's gc or ES gc can be converted into an unblockable j.lk setup. Felicia - Felicia's guardcancel is a two part gc that knocks down differently depending on part opponents are hit by and where they are getting hit. There are cases where an aerial opponent can be successfully hit by the first rising hit of felicia's guard cancel, but recover in time to block and reposté the following hits. Qbee - Qbee's gc is a two part gc. she actually hits on the springing and then on the way up of her gc. Knowing this, she has the potential to make aerial opponents recover before her should she only hit with the first half of her gc. Due to the nature of the character though, qbee can afford to tech hit most attacks and retaliate with an appropriate air/ground normal. Talbain - Talbain's gc is by not means fast (nor does it carry its own invincibility), but imo his gc has utility, due to the ability to maneuver after it. this allows him to safely reposition himself on hit or block. Jedah - Jedah's guard cancel has great horizontal reach. The only scenario that i have found jedah's guard cancel to be a unreliable answer thus far has been against blocked demitri drills(all versions wiff). Jedah does have one of the slower gc's, at 13 frames of startup (which is around the lower-mid range). Class 2 - special case - These Guard Cancels are viable options under must more stringent conditions for the following characters. Teching, df popping, up/back, or old fashion blocking are generally their preferred options over guard cancels Bulleta(BB hood) - BB's gc is one of the great novelties of vampire savior. Her gc makes her dissapear and appear behind the opponent in approcimately 35 some frames(most of which she is invincible). The obvious uses are for long blockstun moves(brilliant shower, sas's big beam, leilei's s.hp, cruel hunting, etc.). Generally BB players get by defensively with teching and up/back.attack. Anakaris (Analog Chalice)- Anakaris's gc is ES only, and leaves him at a disadvantage. Nonethaless, it is a viable option for at least resetting the pressure, also his ES gc is the only defensive option he has while blocking. Anakaris is very much dependent on either controlling space from afar, or controlling the pace of the match with his hi/lo game, and frame traps. Class 3 - Minimal/no use: Characters of this final class have guard cancels that are unreliable, and are generally disregarded in high level gameplay. Teching, df popping, up/back, or old fashion blocking are generally their preferred options over guard cancels Aubath (Rikuo)- Aubath's guard cancel is one of the slowest in the game(24F). This coupled with the fact tha there is no natural invulnerability to the moves leaves aubath's gc to get stuffed before his gc completely executes more often than not. As such, teching is his primary defensive option. Fortunately, he has the repitoire of fast & safe normals for answers after successful techs. Sasquatch - Sas's guard cancel [from my previous experience] seems as unreliable as aubath's guard cancel. On paper, sasquatch's guard cancels have a respectable startup that range from 7 to 10 frames.(7/10/9/9). From further assessment, where I think sasquatch is mediocre in his frame data, he suffers from the lack of inherent invincibility frames. Additionally, the hitboxes of his gc(the spinny foot) are located well within his hurtbox, which extends significantly further than the hitbox of the foot. No worries though, Sasquatch has an amazing offensive game, and aerials/specials/normals which can sufficiently assist him after a successful tech. Leilei (Hsien Ko) - Leilei has the slowest guard cancel, at [at least 29 frames]. To be viable, a leilei player must also be proficient at pendulum canceling, on top of gc timing. There are applicable scenarios that her gc can be used, but like aubath, leilei has the normals that allows for teching and responding with the appropriate normals. And thats it [for now]. -gb Wakeup frames: Jedah 50 35 50 Bulleta 42 44 42 Q-Bee 58 26 51 Lilith 58 38 58 Demitri 37 39 37 Morrigan 58 38 58 Anakaris 57 38 57 Victor 41 41 41 Zabel 49 33 49 Lei-Lei 40 41 40 Gallon 42 40 42 Felicia 66 40 66 Aulbath 44 39 44 Sasquatch 58 34 58 Bishamon 41 34 41

The Meta-game of air to air combat in Vampire Savior: Vampire Savior's aerial metagame is unique among capcom fighters. It combines the chains and aerial maneuverability found in the versus series, and melds it together with the pace and framework of an ST match. So, to re-iterate from above, and from linked articles/wiki's, you generally speaking have the following aerial options in Vampire Savior(Vsav): -Throw -Attack(single) -Attack(Chain) -Attack(link) -Attack->special/ES/EX -Block->attack -Aerial Evasion/movement/special move Since this is from a perspective purely from an air-to-air standpoint - the one factor lingering outside of these options is Vsav's engine mechanic of characters having near zero (0) blockstun in the air after the complete animation of an attack. Teching and guard canceling are not available aerial options (since every character[including Anak] can ripotsé from an air to air encounter...a.k.a. chicken guard) Also to note, in similar fashion to versus games, in the same jump you can transition from an aerial block to an aerial attack, but not from an aerial attack to a block. Its ok to be a bit Chicken: Chicken Guarding is a very powerful tool in air to air confrontations in Vsav. It is an aerial option that every character(including Anakaris) has the option to utilize effectively. A description and definition of its uses and application has been previously written by myself on its uses above. Air chaining - Elaborated: In a single jump losing the ability to block after an aerial attack underlyingly infers a commitment made in jumping in. If you(as the initiating jumping character) cannot maintain a continuous string of attacks for the opponent to block aerially, you leave yourself prone to counter-attacks from chicken-guarding. So upon picking up Vsav for the un-initiated, air-chaining on hit or block is one of highest priority habits to acquire(even flailing normals without hitting is a first initial habit to learn). Due to the fact aerial block-stun is non-existent, the start-up of aerial attacks plays into much greater effect. Knowing the start-up of your own aerial normals compared to those of your opponents allows for your character to potentially interrupt their aerial chains mid-string. Thus, taking this into effect, which normal you begin an aerial chain must be weight with each jump. For example, Felicia's jumping fierce punch(HP) and roundhouse kicks(HK) are among the best aerials in the game - but starting a jumping attack with these normals leaves you with only one other button to chain into with HP, and NONE with her HK - leaving her highly suceptible to chicken guarding. In this example, should they not chicken guard, and instead be hit by say, the HP, the RK will likely wiff, still benefiting you with the meter. Also to take into account when weighing where to start an aerial chain is the height at an encounter. At the early parts of your character's jump, it is much more preferable to start with the light or medium attacks, since a longer period of time in that particular encounter will be of both you and your opponent being in the air, or your opponent possibly landing before you(Chain combos will mitigate their advantage landing before you considerably). Should you land before your opponent [from utilizing long air chains] to keep your opponent airborn, you can knock them out of the air with a [unblockable] standing normal. Throwing Air-throws into the formula: Throws, ground and air, have a super turbo speed to them (1f startup)- which is to say, very fast, via the older input method of utilizing the Forward or Back directional input simultaneously with an attack. Conversely, it is EXTREMELY easy to tech throws as it is to throw. the window after a successful throw input is quite high, and it negates the soft throw damage to near nothing(but you can die from a tech'd throw). The throw buttons may vary between characters from a j.F/B+mp and\or j.F/B+HP . This in mind, you can start your initiating jumping attack holding back, and initiating with your character's throw button. During this initiating attack, chain as you would normally. As an option select, if you hit or are out of range, you'll chain as normal, otherwise, the game will register the input as a throw, or a throw tech to what the opponent was doing. In a defensive manner, if you delay this maneuver slightly, and the opponent does/attempts the same thing, you instead get an O.S. tech throw, or chicken guard attack, depending what your opponent leads/chains with. This option select greatly benefits characters with medium attacks that inherently have high priority, such as lei lei(j.mp) or aubath(j.mp). to lesser extents, lilith(j.hp) and morrigan(j.hp) can use it too(utilizing their command input EX's to cover the tail ends of their chains) In air-to-air encounters, O.S. chaining/throwing trumphs an opponent waiting to chicken guard you, as well as opponents who start their jumping chains with chaining normals that do not chain fast enough to beat out what becomes your chicken guarded attack. Opponents who's characters can force you to block, and perform aerial chains that generate enough block push-back without allowing for a chicken guard opportunity counters this mildly(you are still not taking damage). Fast Jumping attacks (i.e. llight attacks), that manage to hit outside of throwing distance while being faster than the normal move being optiones for counters this strategy straight-out.(but they lose any chance of teching a throw if you do get in range) Bufferable aerials & special moves (Applicable to Demitri, Bishamon, Jedah, Gallon(talbain), Leilei(Hsien-Ko), Lilith, Morrigan, Q-bee and Zabel(L. Raptor), ) In similar fashion to standing normal moves, jumping normal moves are also bufferable in Vampire Savior. Depending on the characters set of aerial special moves, users have the option of creating varied situations which result in optimal positioning. I will give a brief rundown of each listed character: Demitri Demitri has two aerial special moves, his chaos flare projectile, and the drill. He can actually do a pseudo jumping kara-fireball, with a wiffing j.rk quickly canceled into fireball to build additional meter. An aerial move canceled into drill can be used to escape, by using stronger strength drills to get away from the opponent, or to add additional upfront pressure. A blocked aerial->lk drill will actually make demitri prone to chicken guarded attacks. On hit though, an opponent will flip out, and demitri's drill will wiff and/or come into contact with the opponent on the ground(depending on how high the aerial encounter happened.) [i have to test this option more, but it is infact an option that demitri has, I wouldnt mind a demitri expert's opinion weighed in on this] Bishamon Bishamon has the potential to cancel into his aerial projectile, but his projectile is quite straightforward, and has a bit've startup(in an aerial encounter, zero aerial blockstun allows a chickenguarded attack between the buffered normal and the projectile), so its not often a viable option in any scenario. [i wouldnt mind a demitri expert's opinion weighed in on this] Jedah Jedah has his aerial command throw, and aerial projectile(the "wheels"). In scenarios where jedah hits the opponent [causing them to flip out], canceling into either his aerial command throw(HCB+K) or wheels makes for advanced positioning greatly in jedah's favor. On block, it is much more favorable for jedah to catch the opponent when they're in the descent, minimizing the chances of an aerial reposté. Gallon/Talbain Talbain can cancel an aerial move into beast cannon(bc), in both scenarios of hitting and blocking, he reaches the ground first, which is advantageous to him upon his opponent's landing. [i wouldnt mind a gallon expert's opinion weighed in on this, and whether or not he has feasible cross under options, etc.] Leilei Lelei's j.lp and j.lk are the only bufferable normals she has. It is feasible to buffer into gong or pendulum off of these jumping normals - circumstances for usage of these buffered moves are limited though, due to the short range of her j.lp and j.lk normals. Canceling into gong allows for a mistiming in landing. Canceling into a low ES gong allows for a player to extend his combo into a ground combo. On block though, this is not safe.(since the extended block stun allows for significant ease of teching/gc'ing). Similarly, canceling into the pendulum provides leilei with a varied landing time, and if the opponent is not expecting it, you are provided with further mixup via pendulum canceling. Lilith Lilith users should be proficient in using her projectile via a tiger knee motion. The height that her soul flash comes out(above the average character's head roughly) stops many opponents from advancing on her in certain scenarios. (see/inquire in the LeiLei Thread). Lilith can cancel a soul flash off of her normal moves, but more often times than not, she is in the air for too long for a favourable ending position. Lilith's LI(luminous Illusion, aka Raging Demon EX) can be used at the end of aerial chains to zing your opponent for a full combo, after they thought chicken guarding lilith is safe. Morrigan Morrigan's projectile fires at a downard arc, and really serves little to no purpose when buffered off of a normal move. It is a defensive option, whereas she vies for forward momentum more often than not. In similar fashion to Lilith, morrigan can tack DI at the end of her aerial chains to deter opponents from using chicken guard. Morrigan can also cancel into her valkyrie turn. The primary issue though, is that valkyrie turn is really a get out of jail free card. You should be using that EX raw to get out of any pressure that you're in. Qbee Qbee doesn't benefit from buffering into her jaguar tooth move - but if you are committing to an airdash, you can cancel directly into her jaguar tooth move at any time. Doing this allows for extra "air time," and lets Qbee completely avoid EX moves such as Talbains Dragon Cannon Wave, LeiLei Knife Waves and Sasquatch's ES Ice Towers.(and other wave related ES/EX's that I'm forgetting. Qbee can cancel into her ES's off of her bufferable normals, but the nature of her landing those normals fits no scenario where using a buffered aerial in that manner is normally possible. Zabel Zabel has such ridiculous normals which normally take precedence over canceling aerial moves into special ones. BUT, canceling into his up-down sawblade move provides for some interesting block scenarios(air to air, and on the ground.), and canceling into the appropriate hurricane allows for zabel to land before his opponent. Flailing aerials [also pertains to scenarios where the opponent is on the ground, listed as Empty air chaining in the previous post] As said initially, once you begin to input a jumping normal attack, [unless you are anakaris] your character loses all options to block. without any opponent around, you can still throw normal attacks. This is done by rising with one jumping attack, and falling with another. The second attack can be any lighter or stronger attack button, but cannot be the same as the initial attack button that was flailed. additionally, it cannot be a raw, unbuffered special attack/EX Two positive scenarios occur with the second normal attack: a. The move hits, or is blocked, enabling you to chain further or buffer a special move out of it. b. You throw a jumping opponent (which happens on lesser occasions.) This topic can be expanded further upon in scenarios against grounded opponents, but in both cases, having a second normal move to chain into always is in your character's benefit.' Aerial Mobility vs. expanded Options. A major oversight that new players[i myself at times ^_^;;] have when playing characters with airdashes (leilei,jedah,zabel,qbee,) is overutilization of airdash attacks in too many different scenarios. Ideally, iad'd attacks are the only form of air-dashed attack utilized by your character. these low to the ground attacks prevent the opponent from having the time to chicken guard you [since landing after performing a low altitude attack allows you to block immediately]. Additionally, characters lose the ability to buffer normals into special moves after a command airdash. Airdash attacks can be used out of chicken guard. This is an overlooked option against characters who's aerial block strings leave them a significant distance away from your own character(such as jedah's j.hp).

For now, I'm c&p'ing some older, yet still applicable things i've written. there are a couple topics I will write about that alot've new players are overlooking. Also, please excuse my old-man notation. i'm still lingering from an age before numbered notation >.>, the breakdown of teching(pushblocking) ~courtesy of magnetomaniac hmm...well i think i went into detail two different times but i'll explain myself as much as possible to get this question out of the way for future references. to perform AG (advance guard), you must press 3-6 buttons during a 12 frame blockstun (single hit). 12 frames is the minimal any move hits in the game. when a move says +3, that is the advantage given to _____ character AFTER all the frames it took for it to come out, hit, and retract. so do not get confused by this. depending on when it decides to actually perform the AG is random. there is a percentage you can do to increase it, and if you do the hardest you can ensure that it will come out. but i only know one person in japan that can actually use 6, so it is extremely hard. not to mention, on GGPO it makes it even harder (trust me, it makes a HUGE difference). the average player on GGPO only goes to 4. at the arcade, japanese players go up to 5. now with some of that explained, here are the ratio percentages, as generated by skankin garbage and his associate: You have a 0/32 chance (0%) of AG'ing on the first and second inputs. You have a 8/32 chance (25%) of AG'ing on the third input. You have a 12/32 chance (37.5%) of AG'ing on the fourth input. You have a 9/32 chance of (28.125%) AG'ing on the fifth input. You have a 3/32 chance of (9.375%)AG'ing on the sixth input. These represent the independent probablility of teching at those number of inputs in relation to other varied numbers of inputs. The cumulatively probability of teching dependent on the inputs made looks like this: You have a 0/32 chance (0%) of AG'ing on the first and second inputs. You have a 8/32 chance (25%) of AG'ing up to the third input. You have a 20/32 chance (62.5%) of AG'ing up to the fourth input. You have a 29/32 chance of (90.625%) AG'ing up to the fifth input. You have a 32/32 chance of (100%)AG'ing up to the sixth input. now, the strength of the button it decides to land on (IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE LAST BUTTON YOU PRESS, IT CAN BE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR SEQUENCE) is how far the opponent will get pushed back. weak punch and kick only push the opponent about 1 and 1/2 character spaces in front of you. strong is around mid screen with your corner backed to the wall, and the strong versions push them around 3/4 of the screen. the most typical way of performing AG's and preferred by most stick players is this. LK LP MP HP (HK). the HK is in parenthesis because it is not typical to go to 5 buttons online, but it is optional if you are at that level. i know this will definitely feel weird drumming the reverse way, coming from 3s i usually drum right to left. but, this is fact very very useful. if you are downblocking, you will get a short if they did nothing. you can also tech throws with this method of AG. and if they try and jump, the average short will recover enough until you can block again. personally, i do this by thumb on lk, index on lp, middle on mp, and ring on HP and slide to HK. another method is scraping across left to right, then right to left once. this is best done with a glove, and if not you can use your knuckle closest to your fingertips. pretty self explanatory. 3 hits across, 3 hits back. you have to be good and this way is pretty energy-consuming. another is LK MP HP HK. the problem with this is that it only goes to 4. but 4 isn't a bad number at all, it is very good if you can get 4. so with that said if this way works best for you, by all means use it. flick your wrist in a clockwise motion for the best effect. from LK MP HP then slide from HP to HK. personally, i do index on LK, middle on MP, ring for HP and slide to HK. the last method that i know of is using MP MK HP HK. first, straighten your index and middle finger out. the middle knuckle of both fingers will be pressing MK and HK. the tip of your fingers will be pressing MP and HP. start with your index, slide with your knuckle to MK. then do the same with your middle finger. if you want more inputs for tech block, you can use your index finger to go back up from MK to MP again for a full 6 inputs. the only drawback to using this method is that if you whiff, you will whiff a MP. that can be good or not good depending on your character. chicken guard most pple here know chicken guard is jumping at the opponent, and blocking. in VS, the jumps are quite flexible, so you can chicken guard an attack, and if theres sufficient space between that first hit you blocked and the next one coming(i.e. lei lei's j.hp, which doesnt give you much time as opposed to random air chain by qbee) you can cancel the (air)block stun, and hit them w/ something... OR, if they've stopped all together(i.e. air blocking victors bigass head), characters w/ an air dash *coughqbeecough* STILL have the option to airdash & retaliate. VERY handy. Countered by being thrown of course, and fast airchain I think. empty air chaining empty air chaining... I really dont know what to call it, so I'm gunna call it this till some1 gives me a proper term. I dont see many other fighters that can use it the way this game does. Its basically, jumping and doing an early move i.e. talbain's j.mk. as the j.mk ends(even if you wiff), you throw a j.hp/j.rk on. So essentially, you have some attack out for most of your jump. Also, if the second hit hits, its more than likely going to be a deep hit; allowing for a followed up ground combo. for some characters, this becomes a useful added method for them to build meter when not much is happening(i.e. aubath) **I cant stress enough how important empty chaining is. instant air dashing Instant air dashing (iad) is just as it says, dashing so that you're skirting the ground. Tho, not all characters have an air dash to utilized(i.e. felicia, lilith), and not all of the ones who do can utilize it(mainly jedah). How to iad: a dash is inputted by two consectutive forward motions. -Up/toward->toward this is the most obvious shortcut. very efficient when done correctly consistently.. what sux tho, is that its hard as fuck to iad on an american stick... The vampire engine is really bitchy w/ the "forward" inputs. Doing the inputs quickly is going against what seems to be a natural habit/motion of the hands(from what i've seen). b-izm remedies this with an up/toward->down/toward motion.(vid to be accessible soon). tho, this is still more jap-stick based... this is all i can give as far as iading goes... if none of these methods work, stick with up, toward, toward. ghetto, and not nearly as fast as iading characters with effective iad's: lei lei, zabel, qbee, jedah* *jedah's iad is useful via iad->fireball, significantly cutting the recovery on the blade... otherwise, dont be too reliant on it for rtsd. offensive ground dashing Theres two different types of offensive ground dashing(ogd's..i'm makin acronyms up on the fly): ground ogd's, and air ogd's. just about all ground dashes add to the momentum of your rtsd(rushing that shit down)[there are a couple of exemptions]. Implementing them is character specific of course, but just about every character looks to either a. apply pressure b. connect a ground combo off of a dashed hit its so simpo(<--stolen, I just forgot where from) There are exceptions though: -Leilei's teleport ground dash has a somewhat obvious & significant startup. Going into dash->throw is viable, but leilei maintains more momentum with an iad or just simple walking. -Demitri's dash is much like lei lei's(a teleport)... But, since(from the assorted vids I've watched) demitri wasnt designed for the rtsd shit that other characters were capable of, his dash serves more as a means of use for running away, horizontal uppercut setups/combos(ya, its comboable), random unblockable super setups(risky imo tho... but doable). -Victor. I'm still somewhat unsure of whether or not he fits the "out of the ordinary" category. b/c he's the cast's main grappler:)p to sasquatch), his dash allows for throw setups in addition to getting in the opponents face. Many of the characters w/ ground ogd's can just use normals(w/ little recovery) and rtsd. Following characters with ground ogd's: -lilith -bbhood -aubath -bishamon(forward dash) -qbee -victor -zabel -anakaris -lei lei -demitri -*pyron -*phobos -*donovan *not really from vampire savior but still applicable(ya, I know they're in the home versions). Air ogd's will actually propel the character into the air, giving the character the ability too add quick overheads to their rtds mixup. this leads to some crazy shit from some characters(i.e. sas). Theres also two types of air ogd characters. most of them do a hop that propels them, Jedah and Morrigan outright fly(ya, common knowledge to all of you likely, but w/e.. i might as well sight(cite?) every tidbit) Air ogd characters: -felicia -Sasquatch -gallon/talbain -Bishamon(backward dash) -*Morrigan -*Jedah * a nice thing to remember w/ these characters is not to dash for too long. they both lose the ability to block once they get too high, they're likely just a flying target(think xism) Also, a unique property about each of them is that jedah can air dash once he's airborn, & morrigan has 4 different versions of her ground dash(forward, back, upforward, & backforward). Another thing to note about the hopping characters(except bishamon) is that they each have a shortened dash by simply pressing back after the [forward, forward] command. fly-dashing aircombo note: -The rule for non-chained air attacks is that you cannot use the same move twice in one jump. If you've done an air chain, however, only the first hit counts toward this rule. It's possible to do forward, chain into fierce, then fierce, but not forward, chain into fierce, then forward. chain/unchain state this is kinda obvious, but odd w/ some characters. when you jump, or walk, you're in a chain combo-ing state. you can start a combo(provided the hit connects/is blocked) and chain away. any form of dashing takes that ability away... also, you lose the ability to block, which may or may not be a fair tradeoff, depending on how well your offensive game is. an oddity is with leilei, relative to the other air dashers(qbee, zabel, jedah... i cant think of the others...). after an air dash, leilei for some unknown reason or another cant do special moves.... minor, but jedah's blade/command throw, qbee's jaguar kick, or zabel's down-up move(i'm so bad w/ names -_-) are viable for use after an airdash. leilei would've taken great use out of airdashXXgong... but i guess its a shoulda woulda coulda thing on the part of capcom Building meter Like many other games, its more advantageous of you to be building meter at the other side of the screen, if you and your opponent are being asses, and arent rushing down. so, here are my best suggestions w/ each character for building meter: Aubath: j.mp->j.hp, & lp waves/dusts anakaris: j.D+hk(you should be rushing down thogh) Bishamon: s.rk BB hood: light missles, & j.mp>j.mk Demitri: ham and fried eggs!... just fireball -_-(boring fucker) Felicia: manual charge(in pulses... or as I like to call cookieeee), or j.mk, j.rk(which is safer) Jedah: wheels, c.mk Gallon(talbain): j.mk, j.rk leilei(hsien Ko): tk gong Lilith: tk soul flash Morrigan: j.mk->j.rk Qbee: j.mp->j.rk Victor: lp spins Zabel: j.hp-> j.rk