Stan McJeeves

Riku was a bit harsh in the above explanation, but I can understand why. I am (and I'm pretty sure every Tao player) seriously upset and angered by these changes. I could have understood damage reductions, and I could understand removing tauntloop, but Arc literally went out of their way to screw Tao over. They removed our 3C, they wrecked Tao's drive, and they even went to the point of tearing apart some of the gimmicks we had, such as AB2 combos, and canceling cat2 with a drive. Point being, Tao has taken some heavy hits, and we weren't given anything in return, aside from the new B, which hardly makes up for these changes. What made it even more irritating for Tao players is that characters like Bang never had their over powered moves taken away (5A is still godly, as an example). What does Tao have left? Nothing at all. We lost the tauntloop, we lost 3C, we lost 6C to a certain extent, we lost cat2 loop, we lost AB2 combos, our drives got a MAJOR nerf (both in damage, and as Riku pointed out, usefulness), and the list goes on and on. We are being literally left for dead here, as we were given nothing to balance out the changes. Last I checked, Loketest was supposed to BALANCE things. Meaning, Top tier characters (like Litchi and Bang) would get their damage toned down, and low tier characters (like Rachael) would get a damage buff. So far, Tao hasn't seen any BALANCES at all, we've only been whacked time after time with the nerf bat for things that weren't even over powered at all. Honestly, Tao would have been perfectly fine if they did something like this: Remove tauntloop Add new B Add about 500 more HP Tone down overall damage by whatever amount was needed The only thing I'm seeing from Tao's changes is, "We don't like Tao, so we're gonna nerf her down to loltier". I'm pretty sure that NOT A SINGLE character has received this many nerfs and this few buffs in the Loketests. EDIT: I think there was a note about Tao's HP being increased slightly in the first Loketest.

I really can't understand these nerfs. While I hardly know the other character's moves, it seems like Tao was hit the hardest by far in these tests. She wasn't even top tier to begin with, so why are they hitting Tao so much with the nerf bat? From what I've seen, top tier characters like Bang and Litchi still are still extremely powerful (Band still has lol5A, and Litchi hasn't had any noticeable nerfs). Not to mention, Jin looks like he's going to be top tier. As I already said about 4 times, I suppose now is the time to pray to the gaming gods to have mercy on Tao.

From what I've seen, and what my friends tell me, 5C CH > 6C does indeed wallbounce, so we're not totally left in the dark. Honestly, if they wanted to change ANYTHING about Tao, I would have been ecstatic if they just gave us CT Tao back. I always preferred CT Tao because it was relatively simple to do a good combo. I think they're trying to bring CT Tao back with some nerfs, or something. I think we're all hoping this is true. Most of my friends still say that all the changes in the Loketests are basically tests to see what would break the character, or make them godly. If that's the case, we would see things like drastic buffs/removal of nerfs on the final Tao (and pretty much all characters). Another slim chance of hope is that Arc will see how badly Tao is performing in this Loketest, and they'll buff her up for the final change.

Since imminent doom is approaching, are there ANY possible uses for the "buffs" we are gonna have? The only thing I can possibly see happening is something like 9D~9> 3D~3 > new B xN> 236B x5, or possibly enders similar to CT's (with a cat2 after the new B xN). Also, going by the changes listed in the Joketests, are there any of our current BnB's that will survive, and does anyone have a rough guess on how much damage Tao could manage per combo? On a side note, maybe we should send Arcsys hatemail in order to get Tao to be less fail

Well, all we have left I suppose is to hope Arcsys sees how bad Tao is compared to the other characters, and hopefully give her a buff/remove a lot of these damn nerfs in the final release.

I saw this too, and due to the changes in the 5th Loketest.... http://www.gobblin.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/darth_vader_noooo1.jpg

After looking through the past Loketests, I'm actually starting to get a bit worried. If this stuff stays, it looks like Tao is going to be in some big trouble, along with a fair amount of other characters. One thing a friend pointed out to me is the possibility that these changes aren't actually real changes, but more of a sort of test to see what would make the character godly, or make them Rachael tier. If that's the case (and I'm really hoping it is), then Tao might survive the onslaught of the Loketests.

Would it be possible to change this part "4B+C->214D->44->2D~B->22C->" to other stuff like 3C > 5D~B > 5C, along with the other non-taunt starts?

Just wanted to ask a quick question. Is Tao's challenge 7 pt1 a good combo to learn? It looks pretty good damage-wise, but I was curious if it works for all characters, and does it work in corners?

@DemiiPoet Back when I first started, I had a ton of trouble with using Tao's challenge 4 pt1 combo. From my experience, it's character specific. I suggest that you learn challenge 4 pt2's combo(as it works on all characters), and apply it to starters such as 6C > 236CC and 3C > 5D~B > 5C. After about an hour or two of goofing around in training mode, I was able to pull that off pretty easily. As for the opponent slipping out of the 3rd j.C and cat2, that's due to each character having a slightly different timing required to land it. As an example, you need to stall a tiny bit in order to land the 3rd j.C and cat2 on Jin (so that you end up being a bit lower than usual), while on Bang, you need to do it a bit earlier so that you're higher up. Just try to fool around in training mode, and you should get the timing down after a bit.

I've read four loketests so far, and they're pretty damn ugly. I'm seriously hoping half of those changes won't be implemented. I really don't understand what was going through their minds when they thought of those changes.

Well, I doubt they would drastically change Tao. After all, even with the changes from CT to CS, Tao kept a certain play style. Even if a certain BnB/combo gets removed, you'll still have a "feel" as to what Tao's combos will be. Now only if I could stop being lazy and buy some fresh new buttons for my broken stick, I'd actually be able to learn how to play.