氷ウルフ

I think the scope of fighting games is just a series of means to a series of ends. Why do you pressure the opponent? Why do you do this combo? These all have answers to them and more, do x to get y is, imo a fundamental part of fighting games, because nothing should be done without reason, without a goal in mind. Reading the player is a different chapter in the big book of FGs, since you can both read the player and "do x to get y". In response to Fluck, I know they aren't the same thing, but they operate very closely to each other, so it's not wrong to put them in the same pod. Combos are not okizeme, but they operate very closely to one another in addition to damage and positioning. Some character can't get all three results from a combo so they have to sacrifice one for another. That said I still think Ragna's pressure is solid, it's kind of unfair to call it bad because it's not up there with the best of them, but I suppose we could agree to disagree. I'm done. Thanks for the convo, I enjoyed it!

I can't really agree to that, since I pressure my opponent with intentions to condition them, I mean isn't that part of what conditions them?, the psychological distress? A means to an end, right? When I said ease of conditioning, I mean the character's innate traits that can make the opponent react certain ways, Ragna has those, plenty of them.

Are you actually reading, or are you just trying to be cool by being short tempered?

How can someone approach and not rely on pressure?

Sorry for starting such a big argument, guys, I like to see pressure game not in such blunt numbers of frame advantage, but rather the ease of conditioning. And I think that Ragna's pressure tools are solid enough to keep the opponent on their toes. It's not Tao/Hazama/Carl good, but it's certainly better than....say...Tager's, Noel's, Arakune's (imo), and Relius. Tager's attacks are all high level and can be barriered very easily, Tager doesn't get intimidating until he gets magnetism/knockdown/oki, but from Neutral, imo Tager's pressure is pretty bad and he has to take risks to even get leverage from that. Noel's pressure doesn't do much in the way of conditioning either, since it's mostly stagger pressure and drive, plus once Noel starts using drive for pressure, she's in a really dangerous spot, the drive strings are also not air tight, so characters who can DP can probably do so with confidence that Noel can get punished. Arakune can't do much without curse, I usually see him running away, then using the opponent's efforts to catch him to his advantage. I don't really agree with the lowest j.b thing, I've seen him get blown up for trying. A friend of mine who mains him told me it's kind of hard to condition the (good) opponent before curse. Relius, I'm sure is a controversial pick, but his pressure isn't too scary either, just watch out for whatever overhead he's trying and wait for him to retreat Ignis. His Pressure from the start is very limited and dependent on the Ignis gauge and meter. On the other hand, Ragna has a variety of decent tools that allows him to pressure the opponent without taking too many risks in doing so. He has good stagger pressure, very good spacing tools that can control the flow of his approach, and an overall solid gatling table, if the opponent doesn't barrier, Ragna doesn't even really have to take risks, since he can end his pressure with 3c and jump away, if your opponent has to barrier out, then either resort to stagger pressure or just let them get away and return to neutral. You guys do say that he has good neutral, getting back in safely shouldn't be that difficult. I really think that Ragna has an average pressure game, it's not too good that he can just derp away and get results, but not terrible that he has to rely completely on certain strings or meter. Sure he can get mashed out or barrier blocked, every character can, even Tao, but the ease of conditioning that makes them not want to is what matters. How does the Ragna gods go about their pressure, I've seen them at work, but what do you guys see (read: perceive)?

Is his pressure really so bad? There are characters with worse pressure.

I'd love for a clean listen to all of the vs themes. Some I know I'm not going to enjoy, like how they butchered UHD, Memory of Tears and Cross Line remains intolerable, but for songs like Weak Executioner, Whatever the hell Valk vs Relius is, Imperial Code and others, I really can't wait for the ost.