ElegantShadow

So... I assume that from watching all these Combo Videos, Nu's overall damage, even without OD, has been buffed significantly. Is this true? If so then how hard does she actually have to work to get damage over say... 4K? Also, is anyone planning on posting a video of all of Nu's Challenge Mode Combos?

... You shouldn't have to input something that many times... And that's a SIMPLE combo?

Why is it so hard on the thumps though? I mean, I've (If memory serves) never heard this complaint about Aigis in P4A. Is it due to the frequency to which you have to do the input in her combos, or something else entirely?

It basically comes down to whether you want to take on the storm now or take your chances and hope that it doesn't hit to begin with. Honestly, this Match-Up looks like it's more in Hakumen's favor than ever before. His Damage, and Meter Gain have all been buffed and that's not even mentioning what his OD does for him. That does seem to be the lesser of the two evils. At least while playing passively we'll be able to keep Hakumen from getting to brave with his approach and possibly make him have to waste his OD by Bursting.

Alrighty, all the Overviews have been updated and Posted, so check them out if you're interested.

Before I begin, let me say that the information presented in this may not be completely reliable and is based solely on mere observation alone. Now, without further adieu: _________ Overview: Izayoi is a high momentum, Rush-down/Zoning(?)/Mode changing character with quite a few Teleports (Mirage Thruster), movement options (Gain Art-Mode, and DPs (The Crusade Seraphim Series and Aegis Blade). Her Drive, "Scarlet Justice," allows her to shift from her normal form into Gain Art-Mode, which gives her access to faster and farther reaching teleports, better zoning, and makes her an overall stronger opponent to fight. Our disadvantage: Gain Art-Mode in general: Izayoi really only has one thing against us, and that's Gain Art Mode, which is a buffed up version of her normal mode with better Zoning, Rush-down, and movement. These buffs turn an (honestly) easy match up into a complete headache. Justice Phorizer in both forms can prove to be quite annoying, since it's actually a considerably good DP that has a TON of horizontal range and could (In Gain Art-Mode) reach us from 3/4s of the screen away. Her Movement options and Teleports: This is the true danger of Izayoi, what she lacks in any threatening long-ranged options, she more than makes up for with her ability to close in on us VERY quickly and completely ignore our Drive by simply flying over it or Teleporting behind us while we're recovering. Even worse is that she can Teleport directly after using Sonic Saber, meaning that she not only can get in on us, but potentially do it safely without us even having to make a move. Slaver Trans Am: With this Distortion Drive, Izayoi gains two small bots that attack freely of her after she initiates an attack. This gives her a variety of new tools in even stronger Mix-Up, Tighter and longer Block-Strings, and might even be able to frame-Trap when using this move. Basically, she gains Relius levels of Lock-Down potential without the worry of Ignis being overused. Our Advantages: Her lack of any reliable projectile: Izayoi's projectile, Sonic Saber, is FAR out classed by our 5D, 6D, and 2D Drive attacks. It's quite slow, if it comes into contact with our any of our Drive attacks it's either canceled out or pierced through and leaves Izayoi completely vulnerable to a Drive follow up and combo. Her complete dependency on Gain Art-Mode: Without Gain Art Mode, Izayoi isn't much of a challenge. Her normal Air-dash is nothing too impressive, her overall speed is average at best, and as stated above, she poses a very small threat to us at full screen. Also, her gaining Stocks is completely dependent on whether or not she can get a hit in, so with that in mind, outside of Gain Arts Mode, this battle is in our favor. My personal thoughts and advice: This match up is like fighting a mixture of Jin and Aigis in that she has a similar projectile to Jin's along with many DPs, and on the other hand she also changes into a buffed up version of her normal mode that gives her access to new/stronger versions of her Specials and Distortions Drives like Aigis. The best thing to do against her is to keep her out of Gain Art-Mode as much as possible and zone her from as far away as you can. If she does somehow enter Gain Art-Mode then just be wary of her Teleports and Air-Dash. Recommended Form and other advice: I'd recommend using Dia Forma for most of this fight, since Gravity Seed can be used more often to Slow her approach while you zone her from a safe distance, and it also has access to Act Parser which can be used to get out of undesirable situations and cross her up when an opportunity presents itself. Though, if you manage it catch her in the corner then you could change to Luna Forma for stronger corner combos and Okizemes, just watch out for her DPs when attacking her at close range and you should be fine. __________________

Before I begin, let me say that the information presented in this may not be completely reliable and is based solely on mere observation alone. Now, without further adieu: _________ Overview: Azrael is a fairly slow moving character who can teleport with his back and forward-dash. He also has quite a few moves with Super-Armor. His Drive, "The Terror," applies (Up to two) weak-points to the opponent (One to the head and one to the feet), which gives his attacks extra/different effects/properties, allows him to do follow ups on his Special Moves, and make certain attacks unblockable when both weak-points are on. Our disadvantages: His Drive in general: As stated above, Azrael can apply weak-points to the opponent with his Drive moves, and give certain attacks follow ups. This normally wouldn't be much of a problem, but with these follow ups he gains huge amounts of meterless damage, corner carry, and with both marks applied one of his Distortions, "Black Hawk Stinger," becomes almost completely unblockable (Save for Barrier Blocking against it in the air). This all in mind means we''re going to have a very hard time fighting him once he gets a hit in. Growler Field: Azrael's Growler Field is reminiscent of Mu's Origins in that it has Guard-Point against most attacks. However, it also has Anti-Projectile Guard-Point. That means that all of our Drive moves, specials, Distortion Drives AND 5C are negated, but that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that on top of absorbing all of our long-ranged options, Azrael also gains a projectile (Phanlanx Cannon) with ever hit of a projectile based attack and it's faster than our 5D and deals quite a bit of damage. This move single-handedly makes this match up ten times harder. His Teleports: On top of having a DP that absorbs our long-ranged attacks, he also possesses a Teleport-Dash that can pass through our Drive, this means that if we were to try to either hit him with 5D or Sickle Storm Oki on him, he can pass right through it AND hit us while we're recovering. It's also somewhat like our Act Parser Zwei in that it can pass through the opponent. However, unlike Act Parser Zwei, it can also be canceled into a jump, which means not only can he cross us up, but also possibly hit us with a Mix-Up. Our Advantages: His lack of movement options outside of Teleports and over all slow movement speed: Although Azrael can teleport, he doesn't really have much else to get in on us with. His Air-Dash is sub-par at best, and he can't run, so with proper use of our Drive he won't be able to touch us if we time it just right. Growler Field: Growler Field is indeed a very scary tool, but it isn't perfect, it seems to be easily bated and it takes a little while for Azrael to completely recover from it, which means we can take advantage of that by hitting and possibly getting a Counter Hit combo off of it. Growler Field on top of the above also has 7 Active Frames and 47 Frames of Recovery which makes the move insanely easy to punish. My personal thoughts and advice: Remember how I mentioned that fighting Bullet in Heat-Up state was like a game of cat and mouse? Yes? Well, this match up is about the same, except replace the cat with Godzilla and make the mouse Blind, Deaf, and Dumb. Azrael truly seems like he was made just to counter our options, he's able to completely shut down our Drive, Mix-Up, and Oki with the use of Growler Field and his Teleports. The best thing to do against him is to try to keep our distance as much as possible, and if we're forced to fight him at close range, we'll have to be VERY smart about what attacks we use against him. I would actually say that this fight is basically like fighting a more mobile Tager who instead of grabbing us and taking away more than half of our HP Bar, can take away most (if not all) of our offensive and defensive options. Recommended Form and other advice: To be honest, both Formas have their pros and cons in this match up. On one hand Dia Forma has access Act Parcer, which could be used to get out of less than desirable situations against Azrael and can also be used to get up in Azrael's face and combo him when he uses Growler Field. Dia also has a nigh spammable Gravity Seed to slow him down, but we have absolutely no defensive options against him, aside from what the System allows us (Counter Assault and Bursting). On the other hand we have Luna Forma, who has access to Act Parcer Zwei, Blade, and Cavalier, which could be used to stop Azrael from getting to bold with using Growler Field (I've said that name a lot in this, haven't I?) since after absorbing the Sword, we could use any one of these to get some fairly good combos in, and the damage buff is nice as well. Though, the downside is that we lose a very good way of getting away from Azrael in the form of Act Parcer and our zoning becomes a little weaker, not to mention we also lose the aforementioned Nigh Spammable Gravity Seed. So, it's really up to how you want to play this match. _________ (Credit and thanks goes to Overheat and AchedSphinx for additional information.)

Before I begin, let me say that the information presented in this may not be completely reliable and is based solely on mere observation alone. Now, without further adieu: _________ Overview: Amane is a character who's quite hard to describe, he has quite a few long-ranged and close-ranged options, but almost completely lacks any Mid-Ranged options. He also has a moderate running speed, and a vast amount of movement options with his command jump. His Drive, "Spiral," allows him to power up his drill attacks and really lay on the chip damage. Our disadvantages: His C normals: Amane's normals aren't "Godlik" per se, but they can be quite troublesome when we're trying to zone. Actually, his C normals seem a tad reminiscent of our Drive in that they have a dead spot in front of him, and can be used to harass and interrupt the opponent's advances. Against us however, they will be used to stop us from zoning by interrupting our Drive. His Chip Damage and Drills: Amane's Drills at level 1 aren't that big of a threat, but at higher levels they become the bane of our existence. Not only do they deal massive amounts of Damage/Chip Damage, but they also grow stronger the more they hit us. The worst part is that they can even be used for corner Okizemes... which with our already bad defenses, means we'll either have to Burst out of it, or risk the entire match. His command jump: Amane's Command gives him a lot of movement options, and allows him to dodge our Drive, gives him an instant overhead, and makes his corner pressure nigh impossible to escape (Or at least very hard to escape.) Our advantages. His C Normals (Bare with me here): As I stated above, Amane's C normals are similar to our Drive, which means they also have very longish cool downs. With that in mind, he has just as much trouble fighting us at long-range as we do him, so it's a matter of who hits whom first. Also, his C Normals are a bit slower than ours, but have less recovery, so it's about a coin flip as to how our Drive V.S. his C Normals would go. Though, since our Drive is faster, we may just have the advantage there completely depending on how you look at it. His lack of defensive options: Amane also has very few defensive options, in fact, he completely lacks a meterless DP. However, he makes up for this with his Command Jump, which as stated above makes it a little harder to catch him, but the up side is that it's very predictable, so it shouldn't be too difficult to catch him with Swords if he's at a distance and Supra Rage when he's in our Dead-Spot. His Lack of Mid-ranged options: Amane and Nu are about on even ground at long-range, but at mid and (to some extent) close-range we most definitely have the upper hand, since his only quick normals are 5A and 2A. He'll also have a hard time against our mix-up and okizeme due to all three of the above stated reasons. My personal thoughts and advice: This match up may at first glance look almost impossible to win, but the truth is that it's all about prediction and reaction. We'll have a very hard time fighting against him at certain ranges and especially in the corner, and it will only become even more so if he gets level 3 drills, but he'll have a hard time fighting us at neutral and close-mid-range once we catch him in our Okizeme and/or corner him. We also have better long-range options, but with that in mind we still have to be cautions, since a single Drill attack from Amane could mean our untimely demise. Recommended Form to use and other advice: I would recommend using Dia at a distance (I know, SHOCKING!), since her Drive moves technically have a better pay off in that form and you can use Gravity to restrict and slow his movements while he's using his Command Jump, making him a bit less of a headache to catch. You should use Luna in the corner for Okizeme, generally stronger/more damaging combos, and the such. Dia is a bit more viable in this match-up because of her Drive, but Luna is also an option due to the Act Parsers, which can be put to great use here as well. At Mid-Range, while we do have more options than Amane, they really aren't THAT good, so it may be best to stick with Long/Close-Range and if you do run into a situation where Mid-Range is the preferred option, then consider using 3C, Drive moves, or (in Luna Forma) Act Parser Zwei(or Blade) if for some reason the Amane throws something out that can't reach you at your current position. _________ (Credit and thanks goes to Overheat and TD for additional information.)

Wait, hasn't that always been the case?

Before I begin, let me say that the information presented in this may not be completely reliable and is based solely on mere observation alone. Now, without further adieu: _________ Overview: Bullet is a fairly straight forward, moderately fast, and versatile, rush-down character with quite a few tools at her disposal. Her drive, "Lock-on," allows her to lock on to the opponent via creating a field around herself that expands the longer she has it out and quickly close the distance between her and the opponent when she's within a certain range of them. She also has Heat-Up, which not only buffs her Drive, but also increases her speed quite a bit. Our disadvantages: Lock-on. Lock-On will make it very difficult for Nu to get away from Bullet if she manages to get in. (Since say if Nu were to try to Back-Dash or Aerial Back-Dash away from Bullet, she could catch Nu with it, get a free combo in and get Heat-Up state.) She also has access to a 50/50 mix similar to Tsubaki's in that two of her attacks look identical, but one hits high and one hits low, so this could prove troublesome if she has us in a Block-String. Also the field grows in size when she's in Heat-Up state, which could prove to be even more troublesome if you're trying to escape her pressure or zone at mid-range. Her Speed. She isn't as fast as Taokaka, but when in Heat-Up state she does gain enough speed to dodge our Drive quite easily. Heat-Up in general. I may have mentioned this a few times before, but Heat-Up basically buffs Bullet A LOT, and turns what would normally be a fairly easy match up into a game of cat and mouse where the cat has a flamethrower and the mouse has one leg. Okay, that might be a slight over exaggeration, but this will still prove to be quite a difficult hurdle to overcome. The real problem is that one of her moves (Afterburner) allows her to Heat-Up without need of attacking us. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but she has Projectile Guard-Point for the duration of the animation, which means we would have to get up close to her to knock her out of the stance or risk her getting a free Heat-up or two (Which would be VERY bad). Our advantages: Her dependency on Heat-Up. Without Heat-Up Bullet can't really do much against us at mid-long range. Her speed isn't that impressive, and she doesn't really have any safe way of getting in without danger of our zoning. She does have a projectile, but it's always at level one no matter what her Heat-Up State is, so 5D in Dia Forma clashes with it, and in Luna Forma, 5D goes right through it. Also the length that the Projectile travels is dependent on her current Heat-Up Level. Basically, we pretty much dominate her when she isn't in our face. Her lack of good defensive options. Bullet doesn't have many defensive options outside of a DP and a DD with invulnerability, but it's almost completely useless against us unless we're forced to fight her at close range, so this isn't much of a problem. She's also very vulnerable to our Okizeme and Mix-Ups, which means even if we do have to fight her at close range, it will more than likely be on our terms. My personal thoughts and advice: In all honesty, I'd consider this match up to be like fighting a combination of Makoto and Ragna with a little Tager sprinkled in. So what we need to do against Bullet is to try to keep her out of Heat-Up state as much as possible, stay away from the corner, and zone her. Recommended Form and other advice: I would recommend using mostly Dia Forma in this battle along with using Drive moves, Sickle Storm, Spike Chaser, and Gravity Seed as usual. _________ (Credit and thanks goes to Overheat, and AchedSphinx for additional information.)

Huh, I'm actually surprised as to how much of the information is still usable. I'll have the Overviews posted in their respective Threads (After making a few alterations and updates) in a little while.

Ah. Well then. I'll add what I can to them just to help out a bit.

Ah. Kagura may not (MAY NOT) be such a big deal for Nu after all then. Though, that entire first Paragraph does worry me a bit. :I ____ On another note, about the Match-Up Threads: Somewhere in the deep recesses of one of these Threads lies some character match up overviews of Amane, Azrael, Bullet, and Izayoi that I made a while go along with a lot of added information from Overheat and a few others. I'm not sure how relevant the information may be now, but if whomever is making the Threads requires a type of starting point to build upon, then those may be a good place to start.

... Game Over, man. Game Over. It seems that Kagura will prove to be quite an... interesting match up for Nu later down the line. Before I start to panic, I'm wondering, does Nu's Swords clash with Kagura's Projectile(s) or go through them? And does his Air-Stance give him as much mobility in the air as say Amane or Hazama?

How short are we talking? Say, similar recovery to Ragna or Makoto's DP or... Azael's DP(/Nu Killer)? Edit: It seems as if everyone's having a hard time learning Nu, since Lambda has practically been ingrained into their minds for a long while.

Ah... I was afraid that would be the case with the Air Parsers. I mean, they're literally just air-dashes that can be preformed instantly after using a Drive move, but you can't Crescent Saber Cancel after it (Right?), and the range of it is just a tad disappointing. Mayhaps there's some hidden potential that hasn't been discovered with it as of yet? :I

I don't believe that it was Nerfed. The only real difference that I've noticed is that the range of it changes depending on the Forma you're in. Dia Forma's works like Nu's and still has the dead spot, while Luna Forma's works like Lambda's, HOWEVER it loses the dead spot. I wouldn't call that a Nerf, more of an... innovative change.

Well, I honestly prefer Gravity Seed for Oki than any of the other options you listed. As AchedSphinx pointed out, it's generally safer, and (In my opinion) the gives better rewards than Sickle Storm. Hell, if you can manage to get a hit on the opponent you can set up some very high damage combos with Gravity out. Though, I'd pick Sickle Storm over Spike Chaser any day. _______ On another note: What does everyone think of Nu's new Colours? Like them, hate them, don't really care? I find myself to be quite fond of Palatte 7, 11, and 13-16.

On that note, let's hope that if Nu has a joke ending, it's less depressing than Lambda's.

So, I was pondering a few things about Chrono Phantasma, and in my musings, I came up with this combo: (In Dia Forma)5D>(TK)214D>3C>22A>3C>214A>(TK)214D>6A>6C>236C>66>5C>2C>623C. How is this? Is there anything keeping this combo from working? And is it at all optimal?

Oh, I thought that since it was right below my Post... and there wasn't a Quote specifying who it was directed at... I think it easier to just say "My mistake" again. XD True... Though, it defiently one of the better combos off of a Counter hit 236B (At least, in my opinion.) I had no idea that 236B could link into 2B. You wouldn't happen to have (Or know of) a video demonstrating this, would you?

Ah, my mistake. Well, I don't believe that anyone has mentioned it yet, but 236B>RC>236C can lead into quite a few VERY damaging combos with quite a bit of corner carry as well. And if memory serves, (With and without a Counter Hit) 236B>RC>5C>(Whatever you want to add) is also a strong (Abet flashy and not-so-viable) combo option.

If I remember correctly, yes. And it leads into some pretty good damage if you happen upon the corner during the Combo (Which 9/10 times, you will. XD) Aw! So, I'll be waiting until CP to see more of your awesome combo exploits?

I have yet another pet peeve: When I'm in Ranked Match and all (Yes, every single person) keeps declining my battle offer. At this point, I'm starting to believe that it's because I use Lambda and her Ranking is a bit high. :I Also, when I'm forced to join a Room that has more than 3 people in it counting myself. I honestly despise having to wait through some 4-6 battles before I get a chance to fight. Even worse is when the Room gets disbanded before my turn even comes.

Personally, I find that it would be best to have both the Optimal and Beginner Mode combos, I mean, there's not much reason to not have them both, and with Beginner Mode combos on there, newer players won't feel so "Oh, my god! I have to do X and Y to do what?!"