Venussail91

You'd probably like Noel. Her rushdown can be quite damaging and you can utilize her speed and invul frames to get around zoners. She has a projectile too which has some limited uses.

Assuming you're actually asking a question here, one thing all your characters have in common is damage, so I'd assume your best bet would be trying to stick with the more damaging members of the cast. Why don't you try working on Slayer and Potemkin the most and see how much you like them after getting a bit more in depth with their playstyles.

Ok, way too many questions and not enough answers, so I'll try my best to answer here. @KSRezscind- I would definitely not recommend Noel if you really don't want to use her drive for pressure. While one should be smart about when they use it, you shouldn't be outright avoiding it either. In regards to Hakumen, you said you don't really like common picks and he's not exactly uncommon; I've seen him quite a bit in CP, so you probably won't want to use him. It's not that you CAN'T rush with v-13, but I'd say that against a good amount of the cast you should be trying to keep them out more often than not. Also, execution seems to be a bit of an issue for you and she got a fairly significant increase in execution requirements with the mode changes mid combo in CP. I wouldn't say no to her per say, but from what you said, I'd say your first choice should be Tsubaki. Her execution isn't particularly easy but it's not super hard either, she's fairly difficult to find, and her drive gives her a pretty unique take on rushdown and with the orb you can cover your charges a little better. Additionally, while Noel is the better character overall, I wouldn't say Tsubaki is horrible either. @Brav0man- It would be helpful if you could give us an idea of what type of character you like best (i.e. zoning, rushdown, grappler, etc.). @Hawkk- If you're looking to improve on your execution and don't really want any herp derp (at least that's what I'm getting from what you said), I don't know if Kagura should be your first choice. His execution barrier is on the low side of things and I think it can be easy to auto-pilot with him against weaker players, setting you up for bad habits that will get you killed later. Have you thought about trying out Izayoi? When she gets going, she can be pretty scary. Mixup for days, decent to pretty good damage from them, and post patch she's just a good deal better than she used to be. Also, you're used to playing carefully with Tager before you get things going, so in that regard she should feel similar even though her way of going about it is entirely different.

The ones she has in GA.

Ok, this matchup is giving me much more problems post patch. How to deal with all the cross ups?

I thought Gauntlet Hades was fixed in the patch so that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore?

Quick question- since the patch is coming out at different times for the import people and the NA version people, what will happen if the NA version doesn't get the patch in time for the tournament? I have the import version and my partner has the NA version. Will I have to find a different partner or is this planned to be played on 1.0 regardless? If so, how will that work for those who have 1.1? Should we just switch it back (assuming that's possible) and not bother playing around with the new version until the tournament is over? EDIT: Looks like I was wrong and we're getting this at the same time. Ignore this post or delete if possible lol.

For one, you have to play this matchup VERY patiently. It's hard to keep pumpkin out since you'll be blocking his chains a lot. I would advise to carefully zone him out and try to make him waste the movement on his chains. Space your rods out so you can catch him with Sword Iris as he tries to zip around the screen and make sure to utilize j.236A a fair bit. If for whatever reason you're unsure that he'll get hit by something, don't go for it as he'll chain you for punishment. 6A works nicely to beat a lot of his chained approaches and you can pick up a nice CH combo off of it, but be careful of baits. He'll usually bait this by moving in a direction away from you or not moving at all, so be sure to read your opponent properly. If you have him locked down and he's without meter, feel free to go fairly ham as he doesn't have any good options out of it. When he has 50 heat, get ready to bait his reversal- you'll get a nice punish for doing so. Also in regards to his meter, get ready to block high if he has you on the defensive with it. Hazama players love to go for his 6A into Houtenjin and it WILL HURT. Make sure to be careful of summoning pumpkin in the air since between his chains and his AA out of his stance it's easy for him to hit you while you're summoning it or while you're trying to come down for an assault. Also, if he's doing stance shenanigans, you don't want to deal with it and have the room/wind for it, use a winded backdash to get yourself out of there. 2C can also work if you see the overhead out of it coming, but again, be careful of him moving around to bait this.

Just signed up with JoshuaBlaze as my partner. Our team name is Nacht Elegance. Question, how does he actually join my team on the site?

OOOH!!! I would love to compete! I've always wanted to do a 2 on 2 tournament. Anyone wanna partner with me? I use Rachel if you're curious.

Well, in terms of decent defense options, neither Izayoi nor Rachel have those. Izayoi does gain a nice reversal with 50 meter, however. I'd say in terms of mixups, pressure and oki, Rachel is overall the stronger of the two. Rachel has a much higher learning curve than Izayoi does, if that matters to you at all. As for another character suggestion, POSSIBLY Litchi? She has great pressure with nice reach on her staffed moves and some scary mixup options between the two stances. While her oki isn't quite what it was, it's still quite good IMO, albeit not as strong as Rachel's. She also has a good DP while her staff is on her. Again, I don't know if learning curve is important to you, but Litchi has a fairly high one, although not as high as Rachel's.

GGs to everyone I've played recently. I'll get you one of these days, Dreize :P

Outside of combo drops (I'm aware of those), would love some critique on this video of me from the recent BlueBouts tournament. I will say that I think a small part of my play was nerves, so I perhaps wasn't totally on point, but I'd still like the critiques. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKAY-OQlWg

Sorry, I could have sworn the thank you went through for this but I just noticed it didn't, so thank you lol.

Thanks. I was surprisingly doing the TK j.236A and TD to catch wolf approach things. I'll have to work on IBing his mix up more so I can look for those openings.

Just.... halp @_@ In general need of advice, but match start in particular would be useful. Tesnolgic kicked my ass in so hard it made my head spin lol.

GGs to the people I fought in the tournament.

GGs to everyone I fougth today, particularly Speakeasy and Winty.

GGs to everyone I fought today, particularly Speakeasy and JoshuaBlaze. Not GGs to the ragequitter in ranked and the asshole who left an unsportsman-like comment to his opponent upon winning.

GGs to SoaringZero, JoshuaBlaze, Speakeasy, Mr. Oso and Nemesis-Zeru. Zeru, don't give up hope, you'll get there.

Didn't know where else to put this, but thought it would be an interesting topic for discussion. Since Rachel is so reliant on reads to properly trap her opponent, do you guys think it's a legit Anti-Rachel tactic to keep switching characters in long sets so it's hard to get a feel for the opponent? It seems pretty legit, but I wanted to know your opinions.

GGs to Speakeasy and everyone else I've fought lately. I'm really liking how much activity there is ^_^

I'll give it a go. Venussail91 is my PSN ID.

I know this is going to sound so bad considering how much it's in our favor, but I'm legit having a bunch of issues in this matchup that I never had before (maybe there were never any good Tager players on 360?). I keep getting caught in his vortex and I just had a Tager command grab me FOUR TIMES. Help would be much appreciated.

GGs to all I've fought lately. Also, wanted to put this here: Avoid HowsMyCombos if he enters your room. Myself and everyone else in my room had felt lag when we were at advantage, so it definitely seems purposeful.