Ciddypoo

I'll throw out some thoughts. First, like it's been repeated over and over in this thread: block. Narukami's buttons are really good and very hard to beat or mash out of. He also has a lot of ways to lead into jump-cancellable situations to bait DPs and Bursts, so you have to keep an eye out for that as well. 5B is a total nightmare since it leads to combos, is JCable on hit, leads to 2B (also JCable) and has a large enough range to stop almost any roll. When you're blocking, just block low unless you're going for IBs. 5D (correct if I'm wrong) looks like a low, but it's a mid, so you mostly just have to worry about overheads and throws. Sweeps usually just reset the situation, which is better than eating a fat combo. It can be kinda difficult when you're cornered, but you can spot grab attempts and tech them, jumpins are pretty easy to see and it doesn't feel like his j.5BB is as scary as something like Chie IAD j.5BBA/BS-mixups. 214B is extremely easy to spot, and AoA is pretty short-ranged if a little tricky. The main thing you'll probably be getting hit by is 214A, which is fine if you aren't pushing buttons because he can't combo off of it unless he gets a CH (you were pushing buttons) or he spends the bar to OMC, which can be hard to confirm. Another thing is that in order for Narukami to pressure effectively, he needs to throw his Persona out there, so if you want to Dead Angle out, try and wait until you can break a card before you do it. Same thing goes if you feel the need to Burst. You have to respect Narukami when he has meter, because he can Ziodyne you from almost anywhere on the screen safely (if he has 100 meter), and you really have to keep your blockstrings tight like Choy said, or you'll eat a DP or Cross Slash in the face the second you start using 5C > 2C. If you happen to block a Narukami DP, like Choy said, move to the other side before you punish, because he can cancel the DP into a Ziodyne (grounded or mid-air) or a Cross Slash when he lands. Punish him when he lands. If he Ziodynes in mid-air after the DP, I like to charge up fireboosts and wait till he lands to punish rather than going for the punish immediately (the hitbox on Izanagi is ridiculous, it's broken my Persona before when I tried to punish him in the air). If he cancels DP into Zio near the ground, it's a free IK for you, so don't forget that. Also remember that Ziodyne super has a reactable startup. If he's doing it randomly, you can perform an action before it hits, which robs him of the chance to OMC. So if he's dumb enough to do it in your face for no reason, either roll and punish or just IK straight through it. You can also Dia it on reaction, which I think also prevents him from OMC since it isn't hitting anything (anyone wanna test?).

If anyone wants to watch some stuff and critique (particularly the newer vids) I'm all ears: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaGvzhJY-0&list=PLJrAVmgSCHXAMQ5WRbfE-6-kD2huiUANd&feature=plpp_play_all Or for individual videos: vs. VR Raiden (Narukami): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaGvzhJY-0 vs. Psyken (Mitsuru): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P5WjIEG3_M vs. Nurnin (Naoto): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5-lia3Id8E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXGwwQMj2vs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yklTdFYjj6s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMF1WVY9kvU vs. ThienThan (Labrys): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8ocr2dmoVA vs. ColonDivider (Kanji): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K69bz66m-6E vs. LostSoul526 (Mitsuru): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWvd1VeN_pQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d54cKF0ODMc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW1O_dBR7Gk vs iDeeeJay (Akihiko): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDp67dVpQMc vs jcr???? (Kanji): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qULRGhFr2mw vs MLDC Jouka (Labrys): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehj0-ouHtnU vs D3athTh3Kid91 (S. Labrys): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLvSBnmHe9U vs madt3apar7y (Yosuke): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN_8oWm_geE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTSkwu8WXGk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCu3WJJXoRs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTueJ1qL9c4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yisbve3Gq70 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_-IHqcznCI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTN23rLzFzg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvNFdCHhKI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRaU4TLrqBQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLApm8_mJ54 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry57EMfrK18 vs oHIDOOFY (Elizabeth): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhzq3wivU_c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAc_-lzWFtA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ByO3RhYRQ

You have the right idea in general vs. Narukami pressure, which is to block and look for openings. But in general if this was the only match you played with this guy, you didn't assert yourself enough to make him fear you. You were content blocking the whole time, which is what lead to that whole shpeel at around 1:30 where he just kept trolling you with 2A and roll all day. @ 0:28 you probably could've 5A'd to hit the Persona; it looks like Narukami was in range so he wouldn't have been able to counterhit you with 5B. The strings also didn't appear very tight, so you probably could've Dia'd somewhere. You also probably should've Bursted SOMEWHERE in there. I disagree with Warhound at 1:15; I think it was a good idea for you to go in, at least somewhat cautiously, just so you could push out of the corner. Just that your airdash over was a bit sluggish and you didn't do much with it. At 1:30 till the end of the match you just looked like a deer in headlights. You didn't Dia anything, you had 100 meter and could've DeadAngled/Maragidyne'd out, and you didn't spend your Burst the entire match. At that point you have to take risks, because you won't win unless you start pushing buttons.

Do you take blazblue bucks? GGs to everyone!

GGs to Avaarice, thanks for the set.

GGs to everyone I played tonight, though I can't remember most names. d2m shotty d2m and such. @ Ark R 13: Hey, I remember playing you tonight, sorry if I left after just a few games, I woulda stuck around if I knew you posted here (I play Yukiko). Friend/message me if you ever wanna get a set rolling.

I use this one every so often but yeah, usually a telegraphed 5D just gets hit. It's worth taking an unboosted Agi blast to rob a Persona card from Yuki, so I usually prefer just meatying them with the explosion and running up behind the Persona after 5D to see if I can catch them on CH if they want to poke the Persona with a 5/2A, then at least you get a full b&b off. You can also get like paltry damage by just throwing two fans after the 5D and confirming the B release if the opponent decides to hit the Persona and eat fans, lol. That'd at least be more than just one explosion.

GGs ThienThan, Gamer5190, Genesis-OmegaFFX, KittenCutie, and booyaka125. Plus everyone else I played in ranked today.

As a Yuki player, some of the more annoying things to deal with is 2B in general. From fullscreen Yuki can't really apply too much pressure other than random Maragi (firepillar) stuff and try to float her Persona above you. If she pillars, 2B should get you a Persona card. If Yuki ever floats the Persona in the air, 2B spray will hit it to grab a card. If she's throwing fullscreen fans 2B seems to work pretty well against that as well. Yukis in general like to jump, so airthrows come into play a lot too. And she's extremely Persona-based, so if they're being careless with it, you could even burst or dead angle just to break cards, then just go in on her when it's broken. She loses her DP, so her only defensive options remaining vs. the mixups are dead angle, burst or roll, the latter two are more common and can be baited.

Yeah, I was gonna bring this up. I wasn't sure which thread to post in.

Well, time doesn't have anything to do with persistence. If you played only 3 / 5 games every day, only against people that would rank you up ... you'd rank up every day if you won all of the matches. Which isn't a lot of time.

It doesn't seem to reset, it just pulls 'inactive' people off of the list until they play a game. They don't like PSR/Grade/whatever, they just won't be on the list until they prove themselves active in ranking by at least playing a game (or what I make of the situation).

I'm still pretty new to PSN, so this would be the first time I've heard of such chatrooms. Sounds neat. Would we ever run into problems with some players not being able to connect to the chat, or is that a non-issue over PSN? Also I echo kazukifafner's echo of Circuitous's post.

Not 100% sure I'll be around this Friday, but couldn't hurt to put this up beforehand anyway. Dustloop account name: Ciddypoo XBL Gamertag: Ciddypoo Character: Yukiko State/Prov you are located: Northern Virginia

I dunno, you can lose PSR to players well under you but not Rank. I think it's fine, but w/e. Have you played a ranked match recently? I noticed a sudden absence of a lot of players that should be on the list around the turn of the new month, so maybe it 'clears' the board every month until someone plays a game (to ensure that the player is active and not just squatting forever with their PSR). I was like 20-some Yukiko, then I found myself off the list at the new month, and I reappeared on the list at 10 after I played a single ranked match, and I'm steadily declining as most of the players that were originally higher PSR than me have been playing games. And of course, Grade/Ranking is a separate issue: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/641802-persona-4-arena/63860567 If you're above C and you wanna make sure you don't rank down when you play new alts, just make sure you don't play someone within a grade of you, I guess. I don't like being able to select and decline all these ranked matches over anything other than lag, though. Seems like it beats the purpose.

I rarely use meter in this matchup so I try to dead angle out of hits. That usually gives you time and space to get out of the way and start zoning again. Absent that, it really is guesswork. That's one of the nuances of playing a grappler. Delayed techs are always an option as well if they're getting grab happy.

ggs to everyone in pj's and everyone else i lobbied w/ today

There was a little trick that tanaka-special did against LordKnight on Jiyuna's stream the other day at 1:34:55: http://www.twitch.tv/jiyuna/b/330826808 Did a standard b&b into B Agi and did 2/3D > 5C > 2C > SB Agi (hold A and B), run at opponent, release A to put them in blockstun and roll/dodge and release B as you cross them up and lead into 5A combo. Thought that was pretty sick. Jiyuna agrees. edit: 5C, not 5B

ggs to iDeeejay, MLDC jouka and everyone else I lobbied w/ tonight.

I'd rather they kept playing and got better so there's still people to actually play in 3 months.

Looks really solid for day 1. General: When you do 2/3D oki, you usually do a quick dash first as you explode the B Agi. This makes the Persona go behind the opponent instead of in front, which is almost always better because it's harder for the opponent to hit the Persona, it looks weird to block for newer players and it lets you use 4/5/6D to push the opponent toward you for more mixups if you want. vs. Naoto: You can duck fullscreen bullet spam by crouching and mashing 2A. This'll help buy you some time to think if you need to or to feel out what's going on. Don't challenge bullets with fans, they tend to lose. Instead, try to get your Persona near Naoto with j.2/3D so she's forced to stop shooting for a bit to give you some respite. Or sj.B if you can get a good position. vs. Akihiko: You got some cojones going in on Aki like that all day. I try to keep him out cause he hits like a truck, but it seemed to work out for you. vs. Aigis: Persona coverage moves (2D/5D) feel kinda gimpy in this MU because of Aigis' 2B (the gun spray crap). Same deal with fans. If you can scout Aigis doing 2B carelessly try and time a roll so you can get in there. Dunno how to approach this MU really since 2B stops a lot of approaches and pressure, assuming she's not on you doing low/high blockstrings.

Well, this thread ain't gonna get any love unless someone starts off, so-- Looked pretty good to me. You seem to favor a lot of fire boosting, but there were a few times were you were doing them pretty unsafely (like cancelling your blockstrings or even missing out on a combo cause you went to boost instead). Dunno if that's your Chie approach in general, but I'd be kinda careful since she can probably just run up to you and beat on you. You also seem to favor letting combos rock without any oki options. Not sure if that's your approach or not, but I think the oki is more important, at least when you have no/few boost levels. You seemed pretty hesitant to use 1/2/3D. Also, not sure if you were just missing inputs but you dropped a bunch of combos because you needed to do 5AA 5B instead of just 5A 5B (I think the latter is only off of counterhit). That and 5BB won't work on crouching. @ 11:10: You could've gone for an unblockable setup here. You bothered to do a super and then even an SB Maragi for meaty, so you could've just held your A Agi while the super went off, meatied the explosion while you charged firebreak and shot a D Maragi for a setup instead of using the meter.

ggs to Nurnin

I have the same problem. Blockstrings that lead to jc > instant backdash j.A can be kinda tricky sometimes but it's pretty telegraphed. I'm kinda interested in trying to find some throw setups to at least add to her mixup potential but ... yeah.

GGs to all the Yukiko mirrors I got today, and everyone else lobbying tonight.