Aftermath

I consider Gordeau a rushdown character. He has two normals that make him step forward (5B and 6B) which allow him to continue blockstrings for longer. While he doesn't have projectiles to cover his approach or the fast footspeed typically associated with rushdown characters, the threat of getting stuffed by 5C, Mortal Slide or Grim Reaper often allows you to gain more ground on your opponent that you would otherwise. Additionally, the existence of 5C, Mortal Slide and Grim Reaper allow you to continue pressure and frametraps from farther away, even after you get pushed back from shield. 236C being plus and pulling people towards you is a very rushdown-y property, and the vast majority of Gordeau's damage comes from opening people up on the offense with his huge variety of mixups. Gordeau can do footsies effectively, but getting enough damage to win rounds from random hits at Mortal Slide/Grim Reaper range can be a challenge.

Hey, I thought I'd share my knowledge of combo execution for Gordeau for those having trouble with particular combo pieces. OTG 2C(1) jB(2) jC 3C. To hit with the 3C after jC, the jB(2) must be done at a specific height. The easiest way to do this is to jump cancel 2C as fast as possible and execute jB at the apex of the jump OTG 2B 5C jB(2) jC 3C. To do this combo piece, you have to delay the 5C for as long as you can. The cancel window for 2B is pretty long, so you can just wait to do 5C, or you can charge it for a short time (not fully charged.) This will ensure that your opponent is low enough for 3C to connect after jC. You also have to delay jB until the apex of your jump as with the first one. 6B 22A 3C. The 3C must be input about halfway down the opponent's drop after 22A. This combo is also very rhythmic; the time between the second and the third hits connecting is almost exactly the same as the time between the first two hits connecting. j[C] jA jB 3C 236A 236A 22C (no last hit). The 22C must be delayed slightly or it will whiff altogether. Note that this is not the case for jB(2) jC 3C 236A 236A 22C, which may be done as fast as possible. OTG 2C(2) jB (second hit only) jC land jB(2) jC. The first jB must be done quickly after jump cancelling or you will inadvertently land both hits. The first jC must be delayed, and the second jB must be done as quickly as possible after rejumping and the second jC can't be delayed for very long. Note that you must also do 5B after landing the second time rather than the standard 3C because they will be too high for 3C to connect. Grim Reaper CS -> jB(2) jC. The trick with this combo is that you have to dash towards them longer than you would think, otherwise you'll be too far away for the first hit of jB to connect. There's no real good rule of thumb, just don't jump too early. The same rule applies to chain shifting EX Grim Reaper. I recommend doing simplified versions of combos that start with an assault, since they seem to have some untechable time proration and timings for higher damage combo pieces will be tight or impossible. I don't know if anyone can confirm this. Here are a few other Gordeau tricks that regularly worked in ranked queue. 22A is plus, but you'll often be too far away to dash in for a new blockstring and opponents may try to mash out. By throwing in 5C, 3C, 66B or 66C after 22A, you can often get opponents to respect followups to 22A giving you the ability to occasionally dash in or assault in and reset pressure. As stupid as it sounds, opponents will often fall for this simple trap. Blocked Mortal Slide -> Mortal Slide. Seriously, they often try dashing forward after the second hit of Mortal Slide and get caught by the second Mortal Slide. Close blocked 236A 236A (DELAY) 236A is not a yellow throw. Enemy throw break -> 214C. It works, trust me. That +8 frames on throw break will lead opponents to believe that they are allowed to do things. Disabuse them of that notion by periodically tossing these things out and chain shifting them into a combo. Mix up your regular oki blockstrings with 5B 5A pause Assimilation for a tick throw from longer range than opponents expect.

Alright, that makes sense, thanks. Do you have any advice for Hilda? I'm having a lot of trouble getting in on them, and I've met several ridiculously high win rate ones in ranked today. I can take rounds here and there if I land a lucky hit, but I can't find a gap in the pressure big enough to gain ground or Grim Reaper out.

Thanks for the advice, but what are the advantages of using Force Function rather than Mortal Slide?

Any tips for the Waldstein matchup? I'm really bewildered by neutral against him.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned somewhere before, but while I was playing against my friend who plays Yuzuriha, I read a teleport and put in the input for Grim Reaper, the teleport ended up being the one that ends up above and directly behind you and B Assimilation came out and grabbed him out of the air. Could have been an input screw up on my part, or it could have been a possible option select for the Yuzuriha matchup. I'll continue trying it and see if I can get it down reliably.

Basically my feelings. That was so fun to mess around with.

Oh well. Can you at least help us write an e-mail that wouldn't look like it came from some noob gaijin?

Please lend a hand, haha. This can be a learning experience for me. Everything I know about Japanese is from reading VNs, so I'd appreciate it if you could give me a breakdown on how proper sentence structure would work.

I'm sure that someone here knows enough Japanese to get the basic idea across. I dunno. My vocabulary is atrocious, and I'd probably look like a total tool using these words since I have no actual experience speaking Japanese, but here's my attempt. すみません このビデオクリップを見てください http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs9eCOCbGR8 このバグがおもしろいですけど。あなた達はバグを治すないでください あのものがゲイムを進むからですけど ありがとうございます Sumimasen (Excuse me) Kono bideokurippu wo mitekudasai (Please look at this video clip.) <link> Kono bagu ga omoshiroi desu kedo (This bug is interesting.) Anata-tachi wa bagu wo naosunaidekudasai. (Please don't fix this bug, you guys.) Ano mono ga geimu wo mochinaosu kara desu kedo (Because that thing improves the game.) Arigatou gozaimasu (Thank you very much.) Can someone tell me how incorrect this is?

Ah, just got it against Ren for 3447 damage. Timing seems wonky against Rouga. EDIT: Just created a full knife float/dropjump combo against Ren for 3601 damage. EDIT 2: Here's the Knife Float combo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYiIdolkQVI

I'm not sure how this is intended to be done. I recognize that there is a certain height at which j236A hits twice, but it seems very specific and impractical. Is this what you're referring to?

Your diagram doesn't accurately depict the motion that occurs when the dropjump is used, either as a wakeup meaty or in combos. Unless you're using it as an approach, there's no diagonal motion at all. At any rate, I've recorded the BnB that I've developed which implements the dropjump. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2K2MkPrEM

I wouldn't call this a tri-jump. Triangle-jumps traditionally offer the opportunity to deliver either an air attack or a ground low with only a split second of difference between them. They also tend to be triangle shaped. This momentum cancel can ONLY be executed with an air attack, and isn't really triangular at all. It's much more similar to Faust's Drill Cancel Kick. I'm fine with the term dropjump.

I've created another Agito combo. This one does 3131 damage, and can be done mid screen or in the corner, and involves drj (dropjumping.) DrjC, 5C, 2C, jC, jD, drjC, 5C, jB, j236C, 5C, jC, jD, land, jB, j236C, 5C, jC, jD, land, jB, j236X You can also start it with jC, j236A and it does 3250 damage. I tried replacing 5C, jC, jD after the j236Cs with jC, jD, drjC, 5C, but in the end, it ended up doing less damage due to number of hits proration. Perhaps it could be done once, and then the second time just done with a traditional relauncher. I'll keep messing around.

I've worked out a few Agito combos. Tested on Rouga. Anywhere, 3116 damage: j.C -> j.236A -> 5C -> 2C -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.B -> j.236C -> 5C -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.B -> j.236C -> 5C -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.B -> j.236X Mid-screen only, 2446 damage: Throw -> j.A -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.B -> j.236C -> 5C -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.B -> j.236C -> 5C -> j.C -> j.D -> land -> j.B -> j.236X Also, I've noticed that his 214D, while low damage, has absurdly long untechable time, even with only one knife. Perhaps it would be a good combo extender?

How am I intended to get damage with Agito? My highest damage combo (off of an impractical starter even) seems to be 5B -> 5C -> 2C -> j.A -> j.B -> j.D -> land -> j.A -> j.B -> j.236C -> land -> j.B -> j.D -> land -> j.A -> j.B -> j.236C -> land -> j.B -> j.D -> land -> 236D, and it does 2200 damage Oh wait, no, 5B -> 5C -> 2C -> 236B does 2600 damage. Regardless, does anyone have any insight?