TITANIUM BEAST!!!

Who said you have to double jump to bait Blitz? Doing land into 2D or airdash S-D both beat Blitz and result in big damage, especially in the corner. If you are spaced properly, wake up throw OS is not a concern. And yes, it is a guessing game, but it is one that is grossly in the favor of the attacker. The person on defense has to blindly commit to using 25% meter while risking getting CH for huge damage. At worst, the attacker might take some damage, but even then the damage is not guaranteed because you can still Blitz Return if you have meter; the only time this is a really bad idea is if the opponent has another 25% meter stocked, because then after Blitzing they can use YRC OS to bait your Blitz Return and then deal guaranteed massive damage. How'd you do against FAB overall? High level players can always get caught by something they aren't expecting someone to do because it's not viable at the higher level. That's just the nature of fighting games.

Reversal Blitz during GF YRC oki only works depending on the setup. Midscreen you can space it such that the opponent is out of throw range, so if they try to throw OS after doing it, they are vulnerable. It works better on corner YRC oki. As far as guessing reversal Blitz against safejump oki, this is a losing bet in the long run. The risk/reward is skewed so heavily in Sol's favor. You are spending 25% meter on a chance of changing the momentum while potentially leaving yourself open to death. Yeah, you shut down the safejump option, but if he does either airdash j.S-D or land into 2D, you get CH and lose a ton of life + stun. You can guess OS throw against those options, but then if he does safejump, you either get hit, or block and then do DAA if you happen to have 50 meter stocked, which he can then block and punish. In the long run, the benefit of changing the momentum gets lost when you end up taking 50% plus and leaving yourself open to being stunned on a semi regular basis. A lot of this depends on the players in question though, and it's always possible for one player to have a better read on the other, making certain situations work better than others. But in terms of overall numbers and risk/reward, Sol actually benefits more than he is hurt, because reversal Blitz gives him huge openings to do killer damage with one of his CH combos. Another point is that in spite of your statement on disrespect of oki, Japanese Sol players do safejump oki all the time, even against players who have a ton of meter stocked, and this is in Revelator, where Blitz got buffed significantly. Maybe it's just a by-product of Japanese players being extremely respectful on defense, but if something just straight up doesn't work well anymore, most top level players probably wouldn't touch it. I don't think safejump oki falls into that category, as it's something you will literally see all of the time in matches.

I'm not sure if the lack of GF YRC oki is due to Blitz blowing it up. It may have more to do with just conserving meter. The presence of the new Blitz does somewhat reduce the effectiveness of just doing GF YRC meaty into flowchart oki mixup, but you are still vulnerable to GF YRC IAD crossups because you cannot Blitz them on reaction; you must guess, and if the Sol player didn't IAD and did just a regular jump, you won't Reject him and I think he gets a free throw or WT at that point. The downside is that usually, the combos available off of GF YRC IAD are not super strong, so it's not an efficient use of meter. I think that's why Mugen usually saves those setups for when the opponent is already down a large portion of life and can't afford to get opened up again. The other side of this is that wakeup Blitz leaves the opponent hella open to eating counter hits if you didn't commit to anything, which oddly enough strengthens Sol's oki because the potential to end rounds suddenly becomes available off of minor openings. For example, wakeup Blitz is an easy way to deal with safejump S off of an oki setup, but if you guess wrong, you get all sorts of screwed over. This leads more conservative players to just block on wakeup, but this is usually a wrong answer against Sol because the chance of getting blown up by a command grab or some other mixup into a high damage combo is always present, and a single opening is all Sol needs to end rounds in Xrd. You can also see this in the way Mugen usually ends combos. Often, instead of sealing the deal with a guaranteed oki setup off of BR or VV, he will end the combo prematurely at Kudakero and aim for an airthrow reset. The way this is timed, it's basically a guaranteed snatch if the opponent techs at all, but if the opponent does not tech, Sol has plenty of time to run another mixup on their wakeup. It's basically a lose-lose situation, since teching almost guarantees that you eat the airthrow, and it's usually a very low throw that gives Sol the opportunity to combo you again. If the preceding combo was strong, there's a good chance that you get stunned and lose the round right there. Even if it's not a low throw, conserving meter often means Sol has enough meter to just RC and stun you anyway. The end result is that often good Sol players can run simpler oki setups that are actually more powerful (because the new defensive system ironically gives you more powerful ways to open a defensive player up). These setups use no meter, which allows Sol to reserve meter for resetting offense after the opponent blocks correctly and for baiting Burst. In fact, I often see Sol players just reserving their meter and going for oki -> simple combo -> reset oki, making him even MORE setplay than he was before. Then once the opponent is low on life, the meter can be used for crazy oki setups that are incredibly difficult to block. If you watch one of these players (again, Mugen is a great example) and really get into the flow of the match, you get accustomed to seeing these basic oki setups over and over. Then when the player finally goes for something funkier, like a surprise midscreen GF YRC IAD crossup at the end of a round, it's very jarring and unexpected. I wouldn't be surprised if the opponent of the Sol player feels the same way, which makes the setup even more difficult to defend against. It's interesting to see how evolving metagame affects strategic choices and character placement. Funny how system changes that initially seem to negatively affect a character end up making them even stronger in the long run.

Breakable moves in MOTW still have recovery and can be whiff punished. They're more like separate moves with their own properties, rather than simply cancelling back to neutral from a move. It's not like GG where you get to cancel directly back to neutral AND you slow the other person down.

With HOS, most of the time you can still get CH and screwed up because the FRC point on AC is late enough that someone can punish it before it happens. If for some reason they don't (either they don't know any better or they're just slow), it's pretty funny because you can either land and immediately throw, or you can buffer another DP to come out immediately after the FRC for those who try to shut you down afterwards. Overall though, it's risky and somewhat expensive. The damage you get for correctly guessing is nothing compared to the damage you take if your opponent reads you properly, most of the time.

"If they screwed up, that's on them" Except you screwed up first when you DPed and got baited. You shouldn't get a free out just because you have meter.

Seems like you're not watching enough matches if you don't think RS gets used. It just tends to get used in conjunction with YRC most of the time, which is really baller (use RS to dodge backwards -> YRC -> IAD forward to punish whiff). Move is good. Giving GF enough stun to land an IAD afterwards would lead to things like IAD S-K-D, land, dash j.K to pick up combo. Or easy IAD j.K-D -> Divekick near corner. This is dumb and unnecessary. For BR, I'm assuming you want it to hit lower so people can't just duck under it (BTW I don't remember us ever having a consensus on this move BUT I DIGRESS), but if you were to do that, it would necessarily have to hit later in the move, which by extension means you land while the opponent is still stunned, giving you more plus frames. This could be fixed by just extending the hitbox a bit lower, which is fine and dandy, but I don't think it's necessary. Nobody in the know ducks BR, and if you were to "fix" it this way, you'd just be adding even more to the frustration of newer players who already think Sol is overpowered when they end up having to block continuously after blocking BR crouching. Cancelling j.K to j.P is basically saying you want Sol to have Ky's j.K. When you combine that with j.K's new JC property, you are giving Sol mindless air-to-air strings that he can either convert to damage + corner carry or super flexible air string pressure. 5HS whiffing close to Sol's body is a consequence of how the friggin move animates. Same reason you can do point blank 5HS to Johnny wakeup super and have the super whiff. It's irrelevant to pretty much anything, because learning how to space it in combos is not hard. As far as the lower vulnerable box, this was likely changed due to new RC system allowing you to get big damage off of 5HS without a counterhit. They likely felt it shouldn't be too good at hitting out other moves, since then you could just spam 5HS at poke range and just YRC whiffs (which you can still kinda do). You can not budge on this point all you want, you're still making a big deal out of nothing. 5HS is not integral to Sol's midscreen poke game. If DI TR is a free pushout on block, there is nothing stopping me from just doing it for no reason when I think my DI is about to run out, in order to push the other player all the way across the screen so he can't punish my stun at the end. This is stupid and completely misses the point of DI having a stun at the end. Keep in mind how quickly Sol builds meter in DI and it's not inconceivable that you could do DI with only 50 meter and get the other 50 while running around like a doofus. Consider also that you lose all meter at the end of DI, so there's no reason NOT to just do TR when it's about to end. As far as regular TR throw invul, you're forgetting about Hell Fire TR. I think it's fair that the move doesn't just straight out beat everything due to that scenario. Again, you have VV for beating throws and then you can just RC for better damage on hit and a mixup on block. Why are you using TR as a reversal in that situation? You keep saying that it's okay to change because it won't be that big of a deal, but if it's not that big of a deal, why are you so adamant that it should be changed? Just use your better tool and move on. Double Fafnir combos are really good. You can often dash forward after the second Fafnir and catch the opponent before they hit the ground with 5K or 5S into 6P-6HS routes. Most of his most damaging routes off of normal hit Fafnir use a double Fafnir combo. Big damage and stun. Allowing him to do this off of his normal starters would make him incredibly dangerous. Same with adding extra frames of hitstun to Fafnir itself, you're just setting the stage for Bandit Bringer to hit off of a non-CH Fafnir starter for even more damage and stun. 5D should not be 0 on block because now I can just spam 5D on mixup for free with no consequence. If you block it, I'll just use my super-fast 5S to immediately re-establish my offensive position (or 5K if I'm close enough). This is especially potent if I have meter and have you cornered, because Sol 5D corner combos do a ton of damage and with meter I can easily go right back on offense if you block 5D. I just don't understand, with it being 2015 and GG having been a thing for over 15 years, how it is that you are unable to come up with strong enough mixups to the point that you would want to try to rely on 5D for mixup. Sol takes counterhits on move whiff for whiffing Tataki Otoshi after VV (which he should), aaaaaaand what else? Oh yeah, Gun Flame, because that move is really good and there is actual risk involved in getting around it, especially when Sol has meter. In pretty much every circumstance, if you're getting CH, it's probably because you're still in active frames of the attack, which makes sense. DP PRC is stupid. Even if you adjusted the PRC window so that you would have to take the upward momentum, you still a.) can block, and b.) have the opportunity to do something to hit the other person if they screwed up/can do a pseudo-mixup with divekick. Being in the air and FDing is the safest position in GG because the only thing that can get you is an airthrow, and now you can break those in Revelator, so you are still asking for a get out of jail free card. That should be sufficient evidence that nearly all of these proposed changes are a bad idea and unnecessary.

I think a lot of the issue here results from a lack of understanding of Xrd's meta. The new RC has such a profound effect on how the game is played. If you watch Sol in AC, you will never see people just doing Bandit Bringer, for example. But with the way YRC works, Sol can literally just do moves and get away with it, because people are too scared of YRC blowing up their planned counters to Sol's telegraphed moveset. Better to block/IB Bandit Bringer and deal with the post game than try to actually counter it and end up being punished after a YRC exposes you.

Don't fall into the trap of "I don't see it in the extremely small percentage of total matches in Japan that happen to get released to Youtube, so it must never happen!" You cannot glean the true level of play from a handful of matches. Look at a player like FAB, who has literally played thousands of matches. You don't get to see all, or even most of them. And that's just one guy. But fine, I'll bite at these changes that you're proposing. Riot Stamp: This is retarded. This move is really good now, actually far BETTER than previous games. Huge damage on hit in some cases, and completely unpunishable on block. The reward off of it hitting is so high that I think it's fair that the opponent get a decent punish if it trades. Especially if it trades, since that means they were at least able to react in time to you doing it. Making it fly lower is also dumb, and would probably cause it to beat fewer moves. Gun Flame: You already get a combo off of this almost every time it hits. With YRC it's insanely powerful, no changes needed. 2HS: Just, no. Nobody should have to risk the entire match off of one jump in. 5K is enough. If you're getting beat, learn the spacing. It's not hard. Bandit Revolver: Making the move hit at the tail end would make the move entirely too good. They'd have to increase the landing recovery to compensate so that you don't get unlimited pressure, which would consequently make the move even worse when blocked standing. Longer YRC window would be cool, but is unnecessary. j.P: Eh, whatever. j.K is the god now, that's probably why they took the gatling away (also to avoid giving oh-so-easy confirms off of air to air hits). Not a big deal. 5HS: Good enough as it is. He doesn't actually need yet another strong CH tool. As far as making the hitbox closer to his body, it seems unnecessary, and would look wonky. Seriously, just learn the timing and spacing on his combos, they aren't hard. TR (both normal and DI): These changes are also unnecessary. The DI TR change would just make it absolutely free when blocked to push the other person out, which would be stupid. As far as throw invul, why are you doing TR when VV RC leads to more damage and a mixup on block? There's your throw invul move, use it. =/ Fafnir: See above. The move is good enough. Learn spacing and timing for your combos. The increased buffer makes these a lot easier than they were in 1.0. Yes, the hitbox means that sometimes it won't hit as high when the opponent is completely in the corner. Tough shit, learn the spacing. No need to make the combos even more braindead than they already are. An additional 5 frames of untech is not needed, his combos are not hard. It would also probably make his normal Fafnir combos even better for no apparent reason. j.D: Again, unnecessary. Most of the characters who don't get hit by j.D crouching have lower stamina and will take a ton of damage even if you do airdash j.S-HS. Get over it. And why additional 4 frames of untech? As if his combos weren't dumb enough already, that would probably let you do something like j.D-j.D, Fafnir, into relaunch j.D-j.D and Fafnir AGAIN. Hello stun, apparently SBZ thinks Sol doesn't have enough of you, so he wants you to give him even more! 5D: Really? It's 2015, are we still relying on 5D for mixup? These are not that great for a reason. I don't see any reason this should be 0 on block. Increased range MAYBE, even though they already increased the range from previous games and gave it a MUCH better animation. Kudakero/Divekick: This move is +2 on block! They did decrease the pushback on the first hit on block in 1.1, which is why you are more likely to see the flame whiff. They did this for a reason; having a move that had great priority/hitbox and was plus on block while altering your timing and trajectory from the air is REALLY FREAKIN' GOOD. That's why they changed it (extended vulnerable box and less pushout on first hit on block). Again, learn how to space the move. The advantages of it are still really good. You can YRC it at different times to change the trajectory and timing of your fall, which can give you a free opening. If you have meter, RC on hit at midscreen for great damage. You can combo off of it in the corner meterless. This is a great move. 6HS: People die when they get CH by this. It may get traded by weird moves sometimes, but oh well, if they're that desperate, cancel to something else and punish the bejesus out of them for trying. Someone hitting you during 6HS means that person is MASHING in anticipation, and you can make them pay dearly for that. Considering how rewarding 6HS is now, I don't see any reason to make it even harder for people to deal with. CH windows: No idea what you mean by this. In any case, no reason to give Sol even more reason to just do moves by reducing the amount he gets punished when someone reads him. DP PRC: Nope. Just, nope. If you whiff a DP, you should get punished. Especially with PRC giving SLOWDOWN and you potentially getting to punish your opponent for reading the situation correctly. This is stupid. You should not get rewarded for reading your opponent incorrectly. Sooooooo, yeah. Sol is good. He doesn't need these buffs, they would just end up making him even more braindead. It's hard enough being a Sol player and getting no respect from the average player, who has no idea of how difficult it can be to play Sol at a high level.

Except you are. You just don't realize it because you refuse to acknowledge the actual strengths of the character in the context of the game. The changes you suggest aren't necessarily unreasonable out of context, but considering the actual state of the game, they're unnecessary and would lead to dumbness.

This basically reads like a "I want Sol to be even more overpowered than he already is" list. Which is cool and all, but don't pretend that it's anything else. Seriously, this is the best version of Sol in a really long time. He got almost nothing but negative changes from 1.0 to 1.1, including a system change (Blitz projectile reject at close range) that mostly removed the corner setplay he had in 1.0, yet because of a couple of extra damage points added here and there, he ended up BETTER than 1.0, because now your opponent can completely lose the match from one screw up (thank you increased buffer for making all my combos easier). Look at Fafnir from 1.0 to 1.1. The only positive change is that it does a little more damage now, and the new buffering in 1.1 means you'll never drop combos or get accidental 6HS ever again when doing it. Everything else about it was nerfed, which just goes to show how utterly retarded of a move it is that it's still that good in 1.1. You went from being completely safe on block all the time and getting a mixup no matter what (because IBing left you at NEUTRAL with your friggin' 3 frame 5K), to...being completely safe on block pretty much all the time anyway (-2 on IB? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!). Your CH tumble was reduced, because yeah, full screen to corner conversion on CH is fair for a move that's COMPLETELY SAFE ON BLOCK ALL THE TIME! As a consolation prize, you get a small damage buff that somehow now makes all of your combos potentially lead to stun. Sol can potentially win an entire match off of one CH Fafnir at midscreen, no meter required. All it takes is one 2K combo in the corner after a CH Fafnir and you win the match, which is so hard to hit someone with when you have a command grab that also leads to death in the same situation. Sol is great in Xrd. All I want is for ASW to leave him alone. At least, until they put HOS in the game. Then they can do whatever they want to Sol, as long as HOS is good. =^D

Ok so apparently I'm the only one who checks this guy's YouTube account. https://youtu.be/D9s7-3xTdJc Triple (!!!) Fafnir neta combos.

That increased damage and stun, tho. The blowups are real. I get so many dizzies and perfects now.

It CAN connect, but the timing is strange and I haven't fully figured it out yet. I usually drop it. I think GF RC combos are probably the way to go, they do more damage anyway. BR RC is just far easier to confirm and also gives you the silly corner carry.

YRC blows up backdash.

*sigh* Says the guy who's been saying the same thing since 2007. You're willing to take videos of a small sample of play from one player in a nation where countless matches are being played, and the guy isn't even the top player of the character or game in question, and try to distill that down into viable play advice. Nevermind that this is in a different game against a vastly inferior version of the character we're talking about in this topic. You always do this, dude. You come out of hibernation every few months or so and say the same thing you've been saying for years, and then accuse others of playing dated styles and falling behind? Get out of here with that.

I think some people are forgetting that Xrd Sol is a different beast from previous incarnations. Consider that blocking a single Fafnir jacks the RISC gauge to such a degree that his corner Fafnir combo goes from doing 170-180 damage to about 230 damage. Two blocked Fafnirs sets the RISC gauge to flashing, which suddenly makes his frame traps far more potent. More so than before, you have to be fairly proactive about trying to stop Sol's offense before it gets started, or else you may suddenly find yourself losing without knowing what really happened. Naturally, it is not possible to fully uncork the solution to Sol's offense in a single video that is this simple, else he would not be a top tier character. But it's a good start for those who are learning the matchup from scratch. I wouldn't take any of reaVer's KZO hype seriously.

https://youtu.be/k6tf7hzB5rs Enjoy.

Thus my point that not everyone learns the same way. Note that I'm not totally discounting the idea of picking a more orthodox character to learn the rules of a game. Just that I think it's more important to pick a character you actually enjoy playing. Because if you hate Ragna or Jin, you won't learn much playing them, no matter how "basic" they are.

We used to have a player who went by Zoogstin here in NC, and the entire time I knew this guy he played Zappa in GG and Carl in BB. The closest to "orthodox" he got was Faust. The problem here is assuming that everyone learns the same way. There are players for whom the oddball characters just make "sense", and orthodox characters simply don't work for them.

I don't agree either with the whole "get better faster by starting with a basic character", especially if you don't like the basic characters. I just haven't seen this tactic work out very well for people who have tried it. They usually just end up sticking with the "basic" character because that's what they got used to. The idea that orthodox characters will teach you more about how to play the game just doesn't seem all that true to me. Most of the players I know who play complex characters started with that character or a similar one and that's just how they best understand the game.

It's more important to pick a character you like than one who will "teach you more about the game". Especially if you like a character like Hazama, it makes no sense to learn a more orthodox character like Jin and then end up having to almost relearn the game when you switch to Hazama. This applies to characters like Noel and Arakune as well. True, you may learn some bad habits, but it makes more sense to learn the game from the perspective of the character you intend to play.

https://youtu.be/00jA-iVuV8s Ver.1.10 Dizzy Route by ENDAKH75 https://youtu.be/PGAgphJxZzA DI Wild Throw List EDIT: Updated link

I'll have to double check when I get home, but I think it was this: Throw(RC), neutral jump, land, Fafnir, GF, 5HS -> j.D, j.D, land, Fafnir, dash 5S[c]-6P-6HS -> HSVV The only part I don't remember clearly is you may have to omit the GF and just dash up 5HS-2HS into the rest of the combo.

Fafnir damage buff explains why I see players go for these double Fafnir combos more often now, the increased damage is significant. Raw Fafnir in the corner should lead to anywhere between 175 and 180 damage now, depending on the character. Also boosts his corner throw RC combos, I got one on Ky that does 217.