Skeletal Minion

I'm surprised no Mugen changes seem to have been made since it's so garbage in CP. I know they want to balance Mugen + OD situations, but how much would that even matter? Just force OD to end when Mugen does, or even simpler just make post-Mugen's meter gain penalty affect OD. I'd like to see 6D changed to 1F, fully invul on catch, grants a magatama on successful activation, Enma follow up not possible, combo not possible, blockable, does no or low damage, but forces a special "neutral tech only"/unrollable knockdown. Its usage would essentially become a backdash that has tighter timing (i.e., for avoidance or as an escape tool), but nets you a fuzzy j.B setup or other mixup and maybe a little damage.

Room up.

Copy+pasted shouts: I'm currently on the flight back to Atlanta and figured now would be a good time to start typing up shout outs. I still haven't slept since an hour nap on Saturday, so please excuse any spelling/grammatical/nonsensical errors. First, NEC in general: This. Tournament. Was. AWESOME. Definitely the best one I've ever been to. The only negative was that the hotel was meh, restaurant's service was terrible and they were obviously not equipped to handle max capacity (those fucking Bufudyne showers, man). Fortunately none of that mattered because everything else was GODLIKE. And wow, I met a fuckton of awesome people this year! It seemed like nearly everyone I bumped into is someone I've either played online, chatted with on DL, or heard about through the grapevine. Guilty Gear: Shouts in no order to Jais, Zidane, Alzarath, Digital Watches, A3Religion, Kenji, Blacksnake, Bob Washington, Mynus, Bryce, and anyone I'm forgetting. Thanks a lot for the casuals and advice! Those were easily some of the best sets I've ever had in Guilty and I feel I leveled up a ton! I wish I could have placed higher than I did in singles and I wish I could have not looked like a total scrub next to Mahouko's Bridget, but the casuals were fun as fuck. Especially the sets I had last night--I was intent on retiring from GG after NEC, but just as soon as I had thought that, those sets reminded me of exactly why I play Guilty. It really isn't like anything else. I can't wait for the recorded casual footage to be uploaded! Blazblue: Shouts to Lich, Kirbster, Cirno, Psykotik, SKD, Jourdal, TheArm, Her Omen, Brkrdv, Huey, Tsutenshi, and everyone else on the BB side. I was pretty disappointed with my performance in teams and at the Copabanana, but I'm glad I was able to shift gears by the time singles came around. I made top 8 in singles, woooo! The BB casuals were fun too! I wish I had time for more, but this tourney was fairly Guilty-centric for me. Next time though. Dudes I've already met before: Shouts to St1ckbug, Circ, Anne Frank, Axis, ShinSyn, DC, Lord Knight, KyleW, and anyone else I'm forgetting. You guys are da bess and I'm glad we were able to meet again either in casuals, tourney, or just hanging out I'd also like to extend a special thanks to Amadeous and St1ckbug for making arrangements for me to be able to attend. You guys are bros among bros--if you're ever in Atlanta and need a favor (or even if you're not!), just let me know. Also to Eshi for sharing the room, thanks man. Also... Shouts to Yakitori Boy on Thursday Shouts to casuals/drinking at Copabanana on Friday Shouts to Kara-cancel-oke upstairs at Yakitori Boy Shouts to St1ckbug working his unpaid ass off to deliver the best tourney and stream he possibly can Shouts to getting a foot of snow while in Philly Shouts to Bufudyne showers Shouts to BBCP for being on main stream, even if team finals were meh Shouts to Lich/Kirbster/Bryce's team since they deserved to win Shouts to OmniSSycthe for hard calling out 4D mashing Shouts to BigE, St1ckbug, NEC staff/volunteers, Spooky, their sponsors, and everyone else involved in making NEC so damn great But mostly, shouts again to everyone I mentioned above and even to everyone I didn't mention. My FG bros and broettes are fantastic! I love this community and love all you guys :D

Thanks guys! Sadly, no I wanted to but we never seemed to bump into each other in casuals

That's an excellent write-up! Definitely needs to be moved into the OP.

I'll be playing most of the day today. I'd like to get in some good 1v1 sets. PSN ID: Skel_Minion Add/Message/Invite me.

Yeah, that's what I was going for. It's obviously a minor personal gripe, but I always thought it looked stupid and unfitting. Ideally I would prefer that they made it knockdown for only enough frames to link maybe Renka or 2B on normal hit, but for a long enough time to link 5C on CH. On CH you'd get follow up guaranteed; it would still be possible on normal hit, but you would have to spend meter or settle for 2B-prorated damage. Regarding the Haku CP comparisons to CT, I agree in that he feels more similar than his other versions. If that's what they were aiming for with CP, I would have been a lot more forgiving of his general mediocrity if they had given him his old 6A back. Maybe not exactly, but something closer to CT 6A in terms of quicker startup/head invul would be nice. I don't even think it would be unfair to ask since they took away 6D and made 6A laughably negative on block; giving him a more viable AA would at least resemble a fair trade off at that point. If that's not reasonable, shit, remove 6A's head invul and give its frame advantage back, I'd rather have a legit pressure tool instead of an "anti-air" that's so slow they can often land and ground block. Or if they were really going for CT Hakumen, just make counters not shit again. I will never understand why people are so afraid of them when they have never even been as good as a DP.

I use color 3 because it's close enough to the version of it I've been using since CS1, which is my favorite Hakumen iteration. Counters are actually solid, including j.D? 6D > charge 6C combos? Hotaru fatals and is usable in pressure? Great frame advantage offsets the mediocrity of his pressure game? Capable of doing big damage? Mugen doesn't suck and is practical? He was solid in the areas he needed to be without being broken. They hit the nail on the head with this version of him, then decided, "Hey, even though he's not top tier, let's pepper him with a bunch of random, unjustified nerfs." CT Hakumen was pretty fun, but was incomplete/had problems (bad frame data, couldn't deal with projectiles at all, had some of the worst MUs in the game). CS2 Hakumen was just flat out poorly designed. As mAc said, you had to spend meter to get them away from midscreen since he was garbage there, but then you didn't have any stars once you got them to the corner. It was counterintuitive. Several moves had nonsensical properties (ground slide Tsubaki, lol). CSE Hakumen was cool, but somewhat uninteresting. Basically land a starter > perform the one combo you ever really needed > corner combo for 6k+. I liked his tools, but many of them were needlessly good and he could have done without them (like j.B, which was WAY over buffed from CS2 when it was already a solid move). Long story short, they had a good thing going with CS1 Hakumen, then they had to fuck it up for literally no goddamn reason.

I wouldn't say he's as devoid of enjoyment as CS2 Hakumen. I hated basically everything about that version.

I'm pretty disappointed with CP Hakumen myself. It's like they explicitly designed him to be as unfun as possible... At least, that's how I feel until I blow their face off with a 9k combo. I hate how most of his tool changes range from "okay I guess" to "Jesus what the fuck were they thinking." He feels really bland. I just like playing characters that hurt like fuck--if he couldn't do that I would have already swapped to Kagura or Azrael.

Derrell told me he was going, but Isaac is too? And Phoenyx? YOOOOOOOOOO I'm flying in Thurs and will be leaving Monday. Can't wait to see you guys!

Not even worth it.

I played around with the Agito > j.B cross up, but can't seem to convert from it since the cross up j.B will often land, but cause me to fly to far over their head to follow up. Am I overlooking something obvious? 1. The Hotaru nerf hit Hakumen like I predicted. If you use mid pressure, you'll probably whiff it and die. Better to get back in with Kishuu, then maybe mix in hop Agito if they start trying to low/throw it. If Agito is blocked, you can continue pressure via j.B. On CH, combo. On normal hit, oki. 2. Regarding strings for general pressure, I've been sticking to old standards (2A > 2A, 2B > 2A, etc) while trying to figure out good places to adapt for his tool changes. Take 2A > 2A > 6A. If they block the 6A (which should be spaced to avoid throw punishes), you can try 2A/2B if they'll let you. You could also Kishuu after 6A if you think they'll try to punish with a fast poke like 5A, or if they want to go for a low, Gatling from 6A > 6B to blow it up (and maybe score a CH 6B combo, yay). What's great about this is the new 2A Gatling to 3C. If they let you get away with 2A > N, keep doing it. If they realize, "Hey, WAIT A MINUTE" and start trying to get sassy by mashing out in between the 2A(s) and your next move, you can frame trap into CH 3C for silly damage as a major deterrent from disrespecting your pressure. The problem is that nearly all of the above is flimsy due to frame data nerfs (6A -4, 2B -4 if not canceled, etc). He doesn't really have other options for pressure otherwise though, so it will likely rely on smart reads/observations about what punish they'll most likely use, then using the option that beats it accordingly. 3. Familiarize yourself with your hit confirms. You could 2B > Enma, and that's a great option. But were you aware you could CH 2B > Zantetsu, which will combo if confirmed? 4. Haku's meter frame traps, while slightly watered down in their reward, are still hella good mash deterrent when use from any special-cancelable normal. Example: Renka, while offering less return due to lower P1, is still scarily "good enough" as a starter and will make them reconsider their poke out/escape attempts. 5. TRM is hardly worth it anymore IMO. Yes, it can be a valid option if they're abusing throw tech OS, but the universal throw nerf really hurts here--it's far from being a cornerstone of Haku's pressure like before, since even a single barrier'd 5A/2A/Etc will probably push you too far out. Again, it still has its uses, but they are much more limited than before. 6. On that note, I'd like to remind everyone of the Instant Block Barrier change. For those unaware, IBB has greatly increased pushback from previous Blazblues. Keep it in mind when pressuring since smart opponents will use it to slip away quite quickly (or use it yourself when pressured to create enough space to whiff punish with CH 3C...).

I'll be flying in Thursday afternoon. Shinobi: Oh snap, Doren's going!? Good shit! Who else from Bama will make it? We need to play.

I'm down to compete in Guilty teams/regional 5v5s. Actually I'm down for anything with Gear or BBCP. I'm so hype for this it's ridiculous.