Lord Knight

Well yes, obviously go back to neutral, lol. You can go with St1ckbug's advice and just go to 4, but I don't normally do that. You use more force moving a stick around than wiggling your thumb on a pad, so you gotta get used to it. Not really. It's good to see Hazama is still a sorta cool character. He had a 10k, 100 meter, double gold burst combo in CS1 as well, so who cares. Arakune, Makoto, Jin, Noel and Rachel are the characters that stand out.

That's pretty reasonable. From there you can just apply based on the player. The more you play a person, the more you can see what options they tend to use more, their level of play, their grasp on the matchup, etc. More or less, this is how I handle most things.

I think it's neutral (as usual). Litchi's neutral is good in this match, I hate repeating myself but if someone is lacking in neutral, Hakumen gets a huge advantage. I personally think they are even in neutral, but Litchi does good against his pressure and when he's blocking. If you have to block against Litchi, then she's putting you in a pretty shitty situation where she can deal about the same amount of damage as you do if you try to counter improperly. Not really. They are two different games that I find fun for different reasons. 1. Run around and do stuff and confirm random hits. You don't have to deal with Litchi, she has to deal with you. 2. Refrain from playing too wildly, Litchi is trying to force a trade with you (which will always be in her favor). Play a passive-aggressive neutral game. Tao's the best at it. 3. Just be patient. I dunno why Tao players are so mashy when she has the lowest health. If you have meter to CA, use it on Daisharin, Kokushi, 5C, or 2C. It's a free escape + jC starter. There's a temporary meter gain penalty after you use meter (for exapmle, after a super). The thing about "reads" is that they can't be "general", lol. This is actually a sort of hard question to answer - as you can see, everyone has their own methods. . . so I'll just share mine. Basically, there are a finite amount of situations that can happen in the game. Knowing the game well means knowing a lot of these situations. Recognizing these situations as they happen leads to good "reads". So, if you think of it as being situation based, then the actual amount of viable options that you have that could work in that situation can be huge - but you can reduce them greatly by judging the risk/reward. Looks like they are getting the job done to me. I can't wait to have air unblockable 5B and stuff. You're a pretty good player, aren't you? At this point, you should start trying to think about the game, outside of the game. With a character like Ragna, this is important. I can't really say much because I haven't seen any of our matches (that one netplay tourney thing, they didn't upload our match). At least, from memory, you should try to avoid getting randomly hit by stuff in neutral, it leads to too much damage for Litchi.

6A's increased hitstop makes it more viable for burstsafe combos imo.

Hehe, if that's all you got on the match, you've got a ways to go. Fundamentally, this match is actually hard for Litchi. I hate to repeat myself, but if the Litchi is lacking in neutral, you should always win. Intelligent zoning is the main thing you need to beat most Litchi's. Remember that Hazama not only has chains but has good normals. Litchi's goal is to just hit you or to safely get past your 3C. Now, some specifics. Hazama's problem in this match is that Litchi has a variety of answers to deal with his zoning: 1 - Air IB chain (-10) > whatever aerial if you approach 2 - Ground IB chain (-5) > 5A 3 - Ground IB chain (-5) > 2C 4 - 5DD 5 - Ryuuisou 6 - Tsubame 1: Air IB chain (as in, Litchi IB's a chain in the air) isn't a problem unless you've done an air chain and try to fly in. From the ground, this is no problem. I personally try to air barrier IB (still -9). You have no reason to move if you're grounded. Her damage, if you do fly in and get hit, is low (1000-1200) 2: Ground IB chain is a problem. Flying in poorly will result in 5A(CH) > ItsuuA (approx 3.5k and you're cornered). However, Hazama does have answers. First, you can simply not fly in and keep the game at neutral. Next, if you have the extra movement option left, you can reposition yourself (this works well against DP's too). Example, do 5DD > j6DD. Alternatively, you can also try D>C, but you still run the risk of being hit. The hardest (but best) answer is approaching at an angle where you can't be hit by the 5A. Hazama's jB is good at this, but recognizing the proper angle can be difficult. 3. This is a more situational answer, because it requires you to have a good grasp of Hazama's angles of approach (like the jB example above). The risk is only moderate for Litchi (max 3k unless Hazama has meter) but the reward is great (5000+ damage, corner). Of course, just using a basic approach will work against this. 4. 5DD is Litchi's main tool to deal with zoning. It's fast, kills chains, and on counter hit leaves opponents in CH state until they hit the ground. If you've used your movement options and this clashes one of your chains, you're in trouble. Likewise, if you fly in after a clashed chain, you're likely going to take some damage. 5. Ryuuisou costs 50 meter and the reward is great. Be wary of using chains when she has 50 meter, try to get her to dump it on something else. 6. Tsubame is used if you're hovering high above her (doing something like j2DD). Be aware of it during positioning. With this stuff in mind, some general suggestions: Learn how to position your jB in a way that doesn't leave you vulnerable to her 5A, this is huge. Learn how to move well with him. Get used to looking at Litchi when you're playing, this makes learning his movement easier (you don't want to whiff a chain). Houtenjin is risky against her not because of her dp, but how her pressure works. Save it for hit confirms, use it when you really think it'll work. Counter Assault is a safer escape option. Get your use of normals right - I think too many Hazama's rely on 214DB against her and not enough on much safer, lower risk options like 5A or 2C. 214DB does get the job done, but she can punish it hard on whiff. Do your best to confirm chains that aren't counter hit that hit her on the ground - you need that damage and meter!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6JBdcv9BCM Daisharin 138xxx escape movie

That guy was talking about the IB nerf. There's nothing wrong with dash braking or whatever. I think (like a lot of the other pretty good Jin's I've played) you play a bit too wild and neutral and just let yourself get hit too much, that's not good against Litchi. It's not just about doing stuff in neutral, but about doing stuff that makes sense for the matchup you're playing in neutral. This is especially important with Jin. When you start grinding out stick, make sure to put your pad somewhere outside of reach (up on floor, in a drawer, somewhere where you have to walk in order to reach it). The less you play pad while you're learning, the better.

Check their neutral game. Litchi actually has the advantage this time - but only if they know the match well. You can easily tell where they are by their neutral game. If they aren't doing things like using 5A to beat your jC/5B, 2A to beat crossup jB, using the staff launch to zone, etc, then you can just do whatever you want. I've never played against me, so I wouldn't know ;D Really though, I think that if you beefed up your neutral game, you'd fair better in the matchup. 5B is seriously the best poke in the game. Also I feel like you're too worried about me mashing. Litchi has really specific answers to Bang's pressure - I have to be looking for things in order to get out. If you really cycled through Bang's pressure options (he has sooooooo many), it'd be really tough, especially in the corner. At least, the last time we played, it looked like you were only trying to beat mashing. As far as defense goes, that has to be something you work on personally, you already know about meterless okizeme and her pressure and stuff. On another note, if you do 5A > 2B or 2C and they didn't ib the 5A and they try to mash, you'll get a counter hit. At least from my perspective, great players all have their own individual mindsets that come from reflection outside the game. Good/mediocre/bad players all tend to have similar mindsets (respectively). I know, right?! Unfortunately, all you can do is talk to them and hope that they actually think about what happened outside of the game. Keep beating on them for doing whatever mindless stuff they are doing and keep telling them to not do it/do other stuff. It's really up to the other person, you just have to push them a bit (normally by bodying them, lol).

GAMEPLAY RELATED question backlog from the last thread: 1 - Litchi's backstep is more or less average midscreen. Command backstep is above average midscreen, but top class in the corner. Basically, Litchi will use it to beat 2A's/lows/throws in the corner. A good way to beat it is to not use any of those options for meaty. 2 - Midscreen Daisharin used to regain control of space is extremely useful. Midscreen Daisharin used as pressure is really weak. Everyone was scared when the midscreen Daisharin vid came out, but pretty much anyone in the cast can simply IB the first hit of Daisharin and then barrier jump to escape. You can't do this to corner Daisharin because she's doing it after knockdown, leaving her free to cover the jump option. Hopefully thanks to IB having less advantage, midscreen Daisharin in pressure will be a more viable option. 3) Pretty sure it's been uploaded on nico somewhere ;D Sure 1. My personal training mode - A - Obviously grind out combos. This includes everything from normal stuff to hitconfirms. Eventually you should get to the point where you can formulate optimal combos off whatever random hits you can get (of course, this also comes with play experience). B - Find out the characters you'll be playing against the most (if you have IRL comp). You should know these character's movesets like the back of your hand. Set up the dummy to do common blockstrings that that character can do (this is where you can practice IB) and see what your character can do. Watching videos that have a lot of views will help because those are the videos everyone watches, so they'll likely borrow tactics from that and not dig much deeper. Later, you can mess around against characters you don't play against. C - Play matches, then take note of whatever stood out as frustrating or difficult to deal with. Then, try to replicate those specific situations in training mode, and find answers to those. If you can pin down an answer that beats all of/a lot of their options, you're really successful. 2: You have a couple of options. First, and easiest is netplay. If you can find people with good connections, take advantage of it. Second, and a bit harder, is to travel to tournaments (specifically, regionals/majors). I'm not really sure what the South has outside of FR, so it might be tough, but if you could organize trips (one group go to wherever, then the other group comes to you), you could grind out IRL play and chill with people (best part about IRL gathering). Last, and the hardest, is to try to make a scene. The easiest way is to try to find out where some DL netplay kings lurk in your area and see if you can get them out of their caves, but that doesn't work. See http://www.dustloop.com/forums/content.php?103-Got-Hype!-Let-s-Build-It! , that does a good job of explaining it. 3. Valk is fucking annoying , it reminds me of day 1 CT when I didn't have an answer for Ragna's dash 5B. Litchi's neutral game is strong but hitting him out of wolf doesn't give counter hit, so his random hits > hers overall as far as damage. It's a pretty stressful match. His wolf movement isn't that scary, its his human normals that give me problems.

Arc and Aoko Technically no. The main difference between a good player and a great player is just thought process. There are plenty of players who know what their characters good pokes are, combos, hitconfirm, mixup, etc, but they have such a fucked thought process that they don't get much farther than that. This is one of Jin's worst matchups IMO. A Litchi that has a good neutral game will really make Jin players work hard. Jin's 2D isn't as viable of an option in this match as it was in CT. The biggest mistakes Jin players I play against make are: 1. They jump in WAY too deep with jB, Litchi can 5A > itsuuA or 5A > jBC > etc for free 2. They play too wildly, running around without meaning doesn't do you much good. 3. VS Daisharin. . .it's almost January, you should know by now that she can bait DP's, only do DP against it if you have meter to RC. Obviously Yukikaze is equally risky. This doesn't mean don't do it ever, but at least try to judge where your opponent is at and the risk/reward for your actions. Tager needs to play the match patient, Litchi's rushdown/spacing game is strong and she's rewarded for hitting you out of shit. Again, I feel like the majority of Tager players can do better if they just played a bit more respectful - random wildness is better than just being wild all the time. Walking is good because she does not have an overhead that reaches full screen. When people sj > barrier at me, I just reposition myself for 6A/3C/or run away. SJ > aerial obviously loses to run away or 2C, and then if you telegraph your jump in she can do airthrow or jAA > airthrow for throw reject. So yes, walking is good. Just try to magnetize her. Tager's 5C in neutral at mid range is good because it only loses to 2B(sucks) and 3C(great). Stuff like 5B and 2C will lose free. 1 Litchi vs Hakumen matchup depends on the player for me. Against a good player it can be a really fun, tense matchup, but against mediocre guys it's really boring and have to bait D mash all day. It's also nice to be able to jump in on him in CS (shit was fucking impossible in CT cause of 6A :/). I really hate netplay Zantetsu ;_;. Also jD's risk/reward is really fucked, so everyone is a threat, but once you hit Hakumen it gets really fun :3. 2. Litchi vs Jin is so refreshing cause it was so hard in CT. It's really nice to be able to just stomp on wild and risky play. Jin is so scary in the corner :/. Again, I think this is a match people would do better in if they played a little bit smarter instead of trying to be hype all the time. Jin players tend to get hit by the most random shit in neutral while they are running around and throwing out moves :|. 3/4. CS2 will be better for US tourney scene, a lot of people sort of just bandwagon "CS SUCKS", but they still want to play the game. A fresh version where people have hope is probably better for the majority. Like I said in the old thread, I think CS1's balance is pretty good (even though I don't obsess over balance too much), but if that's all it takes for more people to play, then whatever. As far as "BB Stigmas", good ol' 5A > 5K is just going to be replaced with 2A > 5K (good ol Makoto). Someone need's to think of one for F of G . The other one is that most BB players are lacking in fundamentals. . . a new game won't help that, that's up to the community. 5. BB's guard system is ass, why won't they just use a guard bar ;_;. Primer system will work better in CS2, at least. I like GG and MB's guard bar. MB was a game that I really thought couldn't work with a guard bar, and they still made it work. So far BB has just used gimmicky shit (Libra was even worse). Primer is somewhat legit in CS2. 6. It's for the better, even though it'll be weird to get used to. It's definitely a plus for characters who have pressure mixup rather than high/low stuff (sorta like Noel or Tsubaki) and will probably make people actually think more about using Barrier properly. If I was a Bang player, I'd definitely be switching in CS2, lol. Litchi is a sort of technical character, so I'm confidant that she'll develop into a strong character. If she doesn't, I'll switch characters. Basically, I'll play Litchi as long as I think I can win with her. This was the mindset I had in CT (I almost switched to Rachel).

Hi I'm Lord Knight I play Blazblue and Melty Blood Ask me anything GAMEPLAY RELATED QUESTIONS ONLY ------ Helpful posts: Litchi Backstep, Midscreen Daisharin, Training mode Thought process Bang vs Litchi matchup strategy Hazama vs Litchi matchup strategy Reading players Reading players (2) Reading Players (3) Creating Matchup strategy Risk/Reward Risk/reward (2) Noel vs Litchi Neutral H-Kohaku general strategy Thought process Bursting Bursting (2) Bursting (3) Bursting (4) Baiting reversals CS1 Character Strengths

Uh, obviously block the other way be more specific please. Honestly, I don't care too much about balance, I just want the game to be fun. If the game is fun and balanced, great. If it's fun and unbalanced, great. If it's balanced and boring, zzz. Personally, if I can find a character to play, I'll even play bad games and just try to deal with bullshit and do my best to win (CT). As far as CS1 is concerned, the balance is all right. The problem this time isn't the upper characters but the lower characters - the bottom 4 (Noel, Rachel, Tsubaki, Tager) even with their developments just can't win consistently enough. Anyone besides these four can win. As far as what's good and what's bad. . . I'm not even sure people really know what's good. This is kind of a bad answer, but the good players know what's good, and the mediocre players don't really, they just do whatever (at least, that's what it looks like to me). There's obvious dumb stuff people say (BANG 5A > 5K) but some stuff really surprises me. It's almost January 2011, and there are still Hazama players mindlessly doing 3C > 214da/214dc. Too much focus on combos and not enough on strategy. I gotta play to find that out! There's already some sort of idea though, the jp bbs thread had something like: Top: Arakune, Makoto, Jin, Noel, Rachel Mid: The Rest I think Litchi and Carl can move up, Noel might move down. Tsubaki looks way better, and Arakune is always gay. Tager only, midscreen only.

I can only say what I do personally. If I'm playing a bad or mediocre player, Litchi pressure = 6A, move is broken. Against good players. . .this varies by matchup, but I can give a basic explanation Litchi pressure (like most characters) is getting them scared of something, and then following it up with different stuff. Litchi's pressure is so good because she's able to do this off practically any normal. This even lets her get away with things like 3C[m] (let it recover) and stuff. Basically there are 2 types, staff and staffless pressure. Some Litchi's will just use staff pressure. Again this involves just knowing her gatlings. Litchi's 2A and 5B are jump cancellable on block, that's it. 4D is cancellable off almost everything (like I said above) but most Litchi's just use it after 2C or 5C(1), both of those can go into 3C. The problem with these strings is the Itsuucan - she can create a 50/50 situation of pressure reset or a poke punishing you for moving from a safe distance. Some characters are great at punishing this though, like Ragna or Tager (sledge). Others can't do anything about it at max range, like Carl or Hazama. On top of that, she has 6D. 6D is +2 on block (I believe). Obviously, you could just IB the second hit, but use of 6D(1) > Itsuucan makes this a problem. Again this isn't that good against some characters cause they have big fast moves with range (like Ragna). Against other characters this is seriously hard to deal with (like Hakumen). Staffless pressure is a bit more complex, so some players don't deal with it (don't need to this version). She has more freedom with her gatlings, and 5D/2D for launch (generally I use 2D since that works from every normal). Their total duration is 48F/30F (respectively) but are cancellable from the 12th/13th frame (respectively). This opens up strong pressure options, such as 2C > 5D > BE 2C (using advance input to get the 2nd 2C out on the first possible frame (copied this from the wiki that I wrote ). Of course this means extending pressure in a way that she'll get the staff back and can resume pressure. Pretty scary! Picked her for looks, kept playing because of how she played. She was really fun, even in CT, and that game sucked ass lol

Opening move is important because Lambda is a zoning character, main options are: 1. Wait 2. Dash 6D 3. Glide Throw 4. Backstep Neutral Game- Fullscreen Litchi can only get hit by 4D, full charge spikes, or super. Here is the safest place to set staff (with 2D). This beats spikes and 4D. She'll try to wait for you to do something and then kill your projectile with 2D while running after it. Midscreen is a bit more difficult, the easiest way for her to get in is wait for you to whiff a D button or start up spikes and do 2DD. Jumping isn't that good, but not really needed. At midscreen range, making her block 5DD and doing anything but 236B is asking to eat Ryuuisou. Similarly, doing something like spikes after 4DD midscreen is also asking to eat Ryuuisou. When Lambda does fullscreen super, I like trying to do IB jump or IB backstep to purposefully get hit right when she tries to do her mixup. The damage I'll take is low, Lambda doesn't get her mixup, and I'll be fullscreen. This is kinda hard to do on will, but it's worth it if I have a good amount of health. I'm getting better at it! Lambda's pressure isn't that threatening, the main damage she gets is from zoning, so again, staying to the ground is best. Litchi's pressure, she'll try to bait dp and counter assault with 5D/jump cancellable normal. This is key because even with 2DD, Lambda does do well in neutral.

Makoto's damage is too high and she can carry to corner easily. I think she'll be near the top the entire time. The only character that I think will go down from that group is Noel (maybe). Gotta wait until I play the game though :/ Luckboxing with genes, obv. Take Bio 101. There's no real "trick" to it. What's important is that you need to know what normals gatling into what. 6A only follows after 5A, 2A, and 5B. This is the scary one that does above 4000 if it hits. 5A you don't have to worry about unless you're Tager or Hakumen really, but 2A and 5B, you should pay attention and focus and know that it can come up. 4D on the other hand can be followed after a lot of moves, but most players like using it after 2C or 5C(1). It's the same speed as 6A (22F). Of course, she can do 2C > 3C as well. If you block 4D, do 5A right away. Litchi has 3 lows both with the staff and without - 2B, 3C, and ItsuuC (or Straight Through C, whatever you call it). 2B is relatively harmless (unless you're Hakumen). 3C is the most dangerous since it has 100% P1 (this means she can do 5000 off it if the player grinded combos) and is also "safe". ItsuuC is safe against some characters at a distance and leads to good damage as well, but it's the end of pressure. 5B leads to both 6A and 3C, this is the basic mixup. 2A and 5A can go to 2B, not 5B, making your life easier. Most players will only throw out ItsuuC after a blocked 3C. The problem with dealing with 3C on defense is that Itsuu can be canceled without throwing out a move, so you have to make a decision (based on your opponents patterns) whether to attempt to move or not. Not moving might result in you getting a free punish, but if she cancels the stance, she can do whatever. Staffless she loses ItsuuC and gains Haku (low slide, 11f startup), but you don't really have to worry about this unless she's doing Daisharin mixup. Summary: 5B > 6A or 3C, 2A > 6A, 2B (rare), 3C (rare). 3C > ItsuuC. 2C > 4D (really common), 5C(1) > 4D, 2C > 3C. 4D can follow after almost any move, but it's mostly unsafe besides after 2C or 5C(1).

1. http://www.meltybread.com/forums/sacchin-toast/$nj$-the-legend-of-the-king$-histories-of-heroes-villians-and-fools/ 2. Dunno. I don't think it's too bad an idea though since you only get 2 bursts max. 3. It'll be tough until she gets good midscreen damage, for sure. Litchi hitconfirm midscreen is pitiful compared to CS1, and Arakune has shit like F of G and his normal dumbness. His slower jump will make it a bit more manageable/less annoying.

Hi, I'm Lord Knight, I play Blazblue and Melty Blood. Ask me anything. EDIT: Ask me real questions, try not to troll. If you're gonna troll, at least make it subtle so I can laugh. I won't respond to bad troll posts.

The damage was given on BBS. This combo is easier in CS2 because 6D wallbounces. When I tried it I just did 5B > Hatsu > RiichiA instead. Alternatively, you can simply turn off air teching.

This Good idea.

[ QUOTE=zeth07]He should be more concerned about his character staying really good, than you should be for your character going from top tier to what is as of now bottom tier? How does that work? You basically have to re-learn Bang, and I don't know anything about Arakune but that 100% Curse for 50% Heat seems kinda good and from the little I've seen, Arakune is doing relatively the same stuff as he did in CS1. NINJA EDIT: *Damnit rei lol*

Regular throws are important now, she's good at getting throw reject. Right now, I dunno, I'll check BBS for updates later. See the CS2 Combo thread if you're interested in anything. Shoutouts to Chou for winning NSB and ocv'ing 2 teams with Litchi, lol

GG's from yesterday to Ryuudo and Greyfox. You guys got a lot of work to do, and CS1 is almost over! First thing you should try to do is try to always get knockdown into Daisharin.

Mame was playing Makoto.

that was don-sama honestly i don't think he was that good, he luckboxed quite a bit CHOU on the other hand fucking killed it, he ocv'd two teams (nasubi, the platinum, also ocv'd two teams) i was kidding about how tsujikawa was gonna rape this tourney, but he didnt even have to play, lol