president

When I first played arcade I had no issues applying everything the "ps2 way", including bounces. Going from arcade back to ps2 also didn't feel like there was a speed difference.

02UM will barely run for me. Really inconsistent FPS, drops to 10fps all over the place. Really disappointed, I wanted to play a game where K' is actually good.

Can't hear yall over the sound of my sader yelling LIVE AND LET DEATH.

Mech is probably the most fun class I've played so far actually. Did not expect that.

I'll tackle the challenge to 70 with a mechanic. I hope I actually end up liking that class.

Monks have Dry Out, some passive that lets you free cancel and has a flat cooldown instead of # of uses. I'd imagine they don't just wanna copy skills to other classes.

My crusader's name is Eddie. Contact if I can help with anything, not in a hurry to hit 70 and mostly using my FP for whatever.

I have a 60 Crusader and 40 Soulbender on Cain. Already in a guild so can't join the DL one; how many people you got?

I really don't like this talk about how solo Zato drills are unsafe. If we're going by that logic being on the screen as solo Zato is already unsafe. I've lost enough rounds by getting my max range normals countersweeped that I started viewing drills as one of the safest things you can do in neutral; as Zato by himself you don't really have a lot of buttons in this game's neutral and the fact that you can control quite some space without any hurtbox involved is a pretty big deal. AC had 22H FRC which was so safe you could throw it around mindlessly and that got even stronger in Xrd. When people would approach you past the far drill you'd just AA or whatever them after the FRC and the hitbox of the drill didn't even matter at that point; in Xrd you can do the same thing (With close drill as well) and get the slowdown to go with it but as a tradeoff you have to do it more reaction based than just hitting that FRC anyway, i.e. throw out a drill against Venom and if you see him jump you FRC to mess him up, if you confirm the drill actually doing something (CH ballset, going on block, being safe because he backdashes etc) you let it rip. Not representing the drills is not even an option as most matchups start from there; without drills any Venom will abuse free ground ballsets, Leo will flail normals around etc and you reached a point where you're not even allowed to play.

I play Zato like a complete cripple, but I couldn't get a "proper" way to work so I just stuck with it. I use standard layout and have index for P, middle for K, ring for S, pinky for H and thumb for D and now stuff gets really awkward when I have to hold dust during stuff. I think you can imagine what it looks like when you try to hold dust with your thumb and then go for P and H. I remember a point where this caused actual pain to my hand after sessions (really distant button layout on my stick made it worse) but now it got pretty natural. If I had to give advice I would definitely recommend using thumb for P instead.

It's not really about that combo in particular, but if you have problems using a combo that involves three different Eddie attacks (I'm assuming it's a hand positioning problem?) you should definitely grind that out because your execution shouldn't be limited in that way if you wanna play Zato.

For the most part it's done. Let me know what everyone thinks of the way this guide is written, if it's actually informative for beginners and what sections could use improvements. Still to do: Eddie in neutral (keeping the most important thing for last, great) and advanced combosection for unsummoning/resets. I should also add more stuff to the actual FAQ at the start.

Program a dummy with a 3F jump (Millia, Zato, Sol, ...) to hold upback once put in blockstun and then run your -P- strings to see how much time you have.

I would strongly recommend you think this over. Safety involves more than how +- something is on block. An approach as a whole can be unsafe, you're not gonna figure that out in training mode. I've had my own experiences with execution-obsessed beginners, yeah It's really nice you can do the jumpinstalled HCL FRC airdash link but you're still gonna die for eating that 6P during your lazy approach - once it was clear the player couldn't do what he practiced since forever he then has to backtrack, disregard all his technical stuff and learn how to not kill himself first. What a waste of time spent in training mode. I simply believe training mode is what's supposed to come after matches. You get blown up by something, you take it to practice mode with a goal. "How do I not get my I-No approaches blown up by various anti-airs? Oh, I can use FRC notes on different angles, I can use fortissimo to hard punish any reactions, ..."

I could not disagree any more. Muscle memory can work heavily against you and is the source of most bad habits. I've seen people that approached fighting games like this and then I have to beat them up and tell them to please forget everything they practiced in the last weeks/months and just learn how to use their stuff in neutral instead, because the result of this kind of "learning" are Venoms that can't use their balls outside of combos, Zatos that can't use Eddie outside of combos, Chipps that can't maneuver around the opponent's stuff etc that just fish for their practiced openings they can't ever get. One of the most common bad habits I see, especially online, is what my local scene labels the "BlazBlue airdash". The lazy act of jumping back and airdashing forward as means to approach in neutral, not expecting to get blown up immediately every time in this game. Another one would be the dumb airteching people do. Airteching out of a situation and immediately gravitating towards the opponent with the heaviest button they can find, eating repetitive counterhits or airthrows in the process. We also call this the "BlazBlue airtech". The best solution to not develop bad habits, or get rid of them afterwards, is to get blown up. Zato is really good at making people think about their mistakes. /Edit: Oh right, as for myself, I'm really good at domi bursting! But it's advanced meta, bursts so bad everybody is forced to laugh and can't punish properly.

You got videos / stream archive? I'm very interested.

One of Zato's easier matchups overall I'd say. The mid-range game where Ky excels at is the range Zato usually wants to keep his neutral at anyway. 214S reflector (it's short whiff animation combined with Stunedge covering Zato afterwards) makes him highly resistant even to Stunedge YRC punishes. Getting out of Ky's corner lockdown game can take an eternity but he's unable to really force damage. Our unblockables safejump all his stuff automatically and due to his angles Ky really has to commit or spend meter to kill off Eddie. I can't really think of anything that's giving Zato trouble, just don't commit to unsafe drills or challenge him in the air I guess. Also don't airtech on him.

I wanted to finish this last weekend but had stuff interfering. This weekend I'm attending a Xrd event and won't be home. Expect it to be done anytime soon after this.

edit: doublepost

That's not really the j.K at fault there, it's a Millia thing where she moves her hitbox forward when crouching which might have her end up behind you. From what I remember AC j.K never hit her that way since it did not have a hitbox that hits directly below and behind Zato; even Ky j.S stopped hitting her point blank after it lost the crossup potential in Xrd.

Relying on variaty to open someone up is basically betting on the opponent being inexperienced. You can't just run -P- blockstrings to give someone "enough rope to hang them with" if there's no actual reason to get hit behind it. Running 2S -P- 22H on block is about getting a safe unsummon at long range without Eddie dying for it, mostly when you don't have enough meter or the spacing to unsummon off a Nobiru instead. Example; Millia backdashes whatever you're doing but ends up having to block a mawaru anyway. What are you gonna do at this range, where she's out of Nobiru range and definitely going to punish Zato for trying to dash up from full screen? You either lock her down to close the distance with something like -P- 22H -P- 2S -K- (note that there is no mixup involved and it's basically a huge waste of Eddie bar just to close the distance) or you unsummon off that 22H (meanwhile walking Eddie out of jab range) and reset. -P- blockstrings at close range are obviously godlike for the repeating 50/50. Doesn't matter if it's the same thing and your opponent can focus on reacting to only those two things if it's alternating between a 7F low and a 6F commandgrab. Knowing it's coming doesn't help with Millia either.

A move that has no defensive purpose anyway since it comes with really awful hurtbox extensions during its long startup (honestly can't figure out how you compare it to FD jumping) and forces you to spend 25% to even get out of it without straight up dying. I've never seen something this ridiculous. I learn new things every day in here.

You delay the second SG as much as possible. Also doing airdash j.S for the standard unblockable is bad. Corner UBs have the benefit of allowing safejumps and burstgrab OS. You can't utilize them this way.

"Ogawa is the only good Zato" rfoihqewrflkjhalkfndlkahclandöqjmnlkehd1ouieh281649712tgqwkjahk *cough* It's not Guilty Gear if Eddie isn't broken. Be it broken good or broken bad.

Placeholder post. Reminder that this is a WiP!