Stan McJeeves

That certainly sounds interesting. Hopefully we'll get a video of that combo soon, along with AB2 combos and the like.

Judging by these videos, Tao seems to have fantastic pressure. Hopefully this pressure can be used to do stuff like AB2 combos. The one thing that's bothering me is that Tao's drive seems to go horribly slow through the air. It looks like she's just floating midair most of the time.

Thanks for saving me the time of finding it. From the looks of that video, that Tao didn't seem to be using the full potential of other gimmicks such as j.B knockdown, 3C cancels, and the AB2 combos. Hopefully we'll get a better video soon.

I'll try to find it, but it may take me some time, as one of my siblings deleted my bookmarks/history, ugh. By the way, does stuff like j.C/5C CH > 6C work midscreen, and does anyone have a list of possible starters for corners/ midscreen?

Actually, those could possibly be mid-screen, Riku. According to the records that Nessica keeps(or whatever it's called), a certain Tao did 5.5k damage in a red beat, non negative penalty combo. If anyone wants it, I can go find the link when I get more time. EDIT: http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?10687-BlazBlue-Continuum-Shift-II-Changes-NON-HELPFUL-POST-TEMPBAN/page7 I can find the Japanese link later if anyone wants it.

As I explained to some other people on another board, all tier lists that are made before every combo/gimmick for every character are known are bogus. You can't judge a character until all factors are able to be taken into consideration. As such, you can't make a tier list in two days. The one thing I could possibly agree on is that Noel/Arakune are looking pretty OP. Not to mention, I have yet to see a video of CS2 Tao. Point being, these people may have not seen a good Tao yet/ Tao's combos aren't known yet (which is kinda obvious).

Apparently, Tao is bottom tier according to these toke jopic lists. http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi/game/45148/1287049430/l50 I'm a bit skeptical as to how they could possibly build a tier list in two days, on top of not even knowing half of the new combos for any of the characters.

I know it's a bit early, but by any slim chance are there some CS2 Tao videos, or videos of CS2 for that matter?

In defense of the other people here (and myself), it wasn't much of a QQ. If you took a quick look at the LokeTest changes, you'd see Tao had roughly 40 nerfs, and about 5 or so buffs. Thankfully, only a few of those nerfs got in from the looks of it. I'm more than sure that you'd be infuriated if you had been playing Tao since CT launch like myself and the others. Now that I've vented, Tao is definitely looking fine so far. Now that I think of it, Tao's non-taunt combos in CS1 did around 2k-4.5k, if I remember correctly. In that case, we hardly took a hit, if any, to our non-taunt damage. Besides, the Tauntloop was always kinda annoying to begin with. Plus, easier AB2 combos never hurt anyone, so maybe we'll see them being commonly used.

The shorter length on the drives isn't too bad since we can do stuff like CH 5C > 6C now. Previously, we didn't have much in the way of long reaching starters for our launchers (besides the horribly slow 6C), but now that CH 5C can chain with some other moves like 6C, it compensates for the lack of drive range. As Ronove said, at least now people have the incentive to not mash the D button.

From what I've seen, it does seem possible to do 3D > 236B. Another thing that got me thinking. If 3C is able to be canceled with specials, I wonder if stuff like 3C > 214D > 5C(?)> 2D would be possible.

If we can infact average 3k-4k damage, then we should actually be able to do just fine in CS2. This is great news, if it's real. Unless someone is being a complete douche, or they're calculating things wrong, I see no reason to lie. Another thing that got me thinking is that it seems most of Tao's launchers are now based on special cancels (if 3C can) and Counter hits with things like 5C, 5B, and a few others. It could lead to quite an interesting play style. If all the above stuff is true, then I can imagine Tao using her drives to space properly, then using CH and 3C special cancels to launch. What I'm really interested in seeing is how the new j.B is used.

Well, after taking a quick look at the list, Tao doesn't look THAT bad. I think we were over-reacting previously, but only time will tell once the pros in Japan find some combos for us. All in all, if Tao did even take a hit on the tier list, I'd say she's around A- / B (since most Tier charts I've seen list CS1 Tao as S).

Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure Tao's drives had a longer recovery in CT, as compared to CS drives. Maybe, just MAYBE, Arc is changing Tao back to the CT style with a few tweaks. Either way, we'll find out soon enough. Whatever the case, I know for sure that I'll still be playing Tao, even if she's bottom tier.

Well, it seems like we'll be finding out the exact Tao changes in a few days. Let's hope they're not too harsh.

I like to think of BB as having multiple levels of difficulty at the start. First you have guys like Ragna, where using INFERNO DIVIDAH combos will work quite effectively for quite some time. On the other hand, you have characters like Tao and Litchi, who have steep learning curves, but pay off in the higher levels of play.

Honestly, I felt that CT Tao had a completely different feel compared to CS. In CT (or at least for me), her combos were relatively simple: you just did things like 236CC > 2D > j.C > D > j.C.... 236BBB. It was really more of a pattern of pressing drive > j.C > drive, until you got to the cat2 finisher. Sure there were other flashy combos the pros used, but I was able to get along fine online with simple things like that (as they generally hit about 4.5k per combo). As for CS, things changed a ton for me. The first thing I noticed was that using simple formulas like the one above for combos didn't work. I also noticed that tons of people relied on the tauntloop to get damage, and I never liked the idea of a goofy "mistake" in the game that allowed for near infinite loops. Not only that, but it seemed to me that combos relied heavily on drives/ drive cancels. While CT was simple combos for decent damage, CS required you to tauntloop into combos that relied heavily on timing/cancels. According to what Arc has been saying, they're making Tao easier to play. Normally, I don't like easier, but if it brings back a CT style Tao, I'd be thrilled.

There are none because there is nothing in the Loketests that buffed Tao (aside from getting CT cat2 as a new B). All we've had is nerf after nerf, and as XDest said, unless Arc magically takes back what they've done, we're screwed like a light bulb. Still, I'm going to hope that the powers that be will see how lousy Tao is, and that they'll remove a large amount of the nerfs in the final build. My friends are still convinced that the changes to Tao were to check what would totally destroy her game, and that none of this stuff was intended to be put into CS2, but rather to see what to avoid putting in.

I'm not sure if even that would work. I think somewhere in the Loketests 6A got slowed down, not to mention (not exactly sure on this), but I think 6A doesn't work on certain characters, kinda like Tao's challenge 4 pt 1. Either way, I think our best bet is to see what Arc gives us in challenge mode, then work out better combos from that.

....And just when I was starting to feel better, Lurch had to post this again, bleh. Anyway, I still have some sliver of hope left due to Challenge mode needing at least 10 combos. Sure, we got nerfed like hell, but I think there's going to be some combos that are at least half decent. As it's been said countless times before, maybe Arc will take the time between now and Dec 9th to notice how bad Tao is and buff her or something.

That's actually a pretty cool idea, but how would it work? It would be a bit overpowered if it didn't have something like Bang's seals. Perhaps if you hit the opponent with a certain attack, or a taunt, it would add to a counter, and it would work the same way as FRKZ.

I was just recently lurking around on Youtube, and I noticed there's quite a few videos from the Loketests. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any that had Tao in them (there was one where I could hear Tao in the background). Does anyone have some links to Tao Loketest vids?

I was thinking about that too. Even though it looks like Tao has no combos, there has to be some sort of combo for the challenge mode. I seriously doubt the challenge 10 would be a low damage combo too.

I believe I recall seeing in Loketest 2/3 (not too sure) that some of the players commented that the new j.b was good for ending combos like this: 9D~9 > 3D~3 > new j.B xN > Cat2 x5. I'm not entirely sure if it still works now, due to Loketest 4/5 probably screwed that up too. EDIT: I'm guessing you guys have already seen it, but the CSII opening is now out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9c19-lXO1A&feature=recentu Seeing that new opening made me feel a bit better about these changes. At least we know that Gonzo isn't making a lousy opening for CSII.

As Riku said, I really don't care if Tao was bottom tier (heck, if she was, I could brag to my friends when I win as her!), but what I do care about is the fact that Tao has lost the things I chose her for. I picked Tao out of the bunch because she was lightning fast, for having an awesome mix up, and for those crazy air combos that make my friends say "lolwut, when's the combo over?". Arc basically took all of that away, and it kinda makes me sad at the fact that Tao has lost her charm. But as Soujiro said, we always need to have some sort of hope. It would be a dark day if Arc left us with nothing, but I really don't think they're that cruel. I'm pretty confident we'll get at least a few nice gifts on the final release (if we don't, I'd lose a lot of hope and trust in Arc, bleh). And as I said about five times before, and pretty much everyone else in here has said, all we can really do now is pray that we are given some mercy, and that we get buffed/remove a lot of these nerfs.