Kjorteo

AC+ Wii has this problem too, but with not even a fraction of that kind of regularity. It'll sometimes freeze and take more than one attempt. Not a lot, though.

GG and GGX mode approximates what the general engine/gameplay/balance was like in Guilty Gear/Guilty Gear X, before all the changes in XX and beyond. Like...you can't Faultless/Fortress/however we're Romanizing it today in GG mode because that hadn't been invented yet, I think. And, uh, other things. I don't really remember what the GGX-specific changes are, though.

Millia is pretty accessible without particularly tough technical demands. She's one of the few characters you can actually play well without any ability to FRC at all (as she's one of the few who doesn't have an absolutely mandatory FRC point in one of her basic combos or something) and probably the only character in the cast (except maybe Slayer) you can play without FRCs or the ability to do a dragon punch motion. Testament, on the other hand, is pretty advanced.

I'm not sure what the actual frame advantage is since it's not listed in the frame data (probably N/A because it's a separate projectile and all,) but Millia's ground Pretty Maze (FB disc) is pretty substantial on hit or block.

Hey, so the Robo-Ky guide thread ( http://dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3130 ) used to have a hilarious picture of Robo sitting there looking all badass while four of the girls are off to either side basically fawning over him. (It's attachment 244, apparently..?) Like an idiot, I forgot to save it and now the thread appears not to have it anymore. Can anyone hook me up?

Johnny has a long ponytail that he wears under his trenchcoat, simply putting the trenchcoat on over it and leaving it tucked in like that. As someone who actually has a long ponytail in real life, I can tell you that this is a catastrophically bad idea as far as comfort and such and Johnny should have been driven crazy about four seconds after he decided to do that, but whatever, rule of cool I guess. Buri is an affectionate nickname for Bridget.

Is there anything you can do about 2S-Potemkin Buster besides try to backdash? The fact that it vaccuums into Buster range even if you block it is just dirty, and I can't tell whether it's just my reflexes sucking or if it really is fast enough that, after blocking 2S, I only have time to get out the "oh" in "oh crap" before eating a Buster. Even trying to remember to backdash every time I block a 2S only works most of the time, though that could just be because I'm slow. Can you jump, maybe? If so, are there any good air attacks that will beat/stuff 2S-Heat Knuckle?

Actually, I think Effenhoog is right in that Faust has even fewer commonly-used FRCs than Millia, but that's a minor technicality as neither have any that I would consider mandatory. (Again, Iron Savior and S Disc are the only ones that come immediately to mind for Millia, and neither are even close to "you can't win a match unless you use these" status. Faust has the pose after a blocked scalpel super, and that one is fairly important, but I'm not sure if that even counts due to the window on that being the entire pose and all. That's more just a 25% tension tax to not die if your opponent blocks than anything else.) Personally, Millia is a better match for me in enough other ways to make up for that, anyway--her mobility is awesome, less randomness and having to adapt on the fly because of items, she doesn't have to over-commit to moves as much because of just about everything being special cancelable, roll and ground Pretty Maze are godly, etc.

For low-level play, probably Potemkin. If you want to ascend higher while still being averse to excessive dexterity, characters who don't need to FRC everything they do suddenly become appealing because, let's face it, FRCs are hard if you're the type to not like excessive dexterity. Suddenly, Potemkin drops a few notches, because Hammerfall FRC, Heat Knuckle FRC, and Potemkin Buster FRC combos are everywhere and you can't do much without them once you hit a certain level. Just about everyone FRCs something, but in my experience, it's the least mandatory for, say, Millia (Iron Savior and S Disc FRCs can be handy but you can get by without them) and the most for Baiken (don't play Baiken if you don't want to FRC, just don't.) Feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this.

All figures obtained by doing Training mode in AC+ with damage display on and simply copying what it says. Attacking character is Millia. Defending character is Sol. Everything done at 100% health and as a singular dry it (ie no comboing into it, etc.) 6H Expected damage (according to frame data): 60 Damage at guard gauge -50: 25 Damage at guard gauge +0 (neutral): 60 Damage at guard gauge +25: 60 Damage at guard gauge +50: 60 Damage at guard gauge +128 (max, CH): 60 Ground Throw Expected damage (according to frame data): 55 Damage at guard gauge -50: 19 Damage at guard gauge +0 (neutral): 46 Damage at guard gauge +25: 50 Damage at guard gauge +50: 50 Damage at guard gauge +128 (max, CH): 50 Conclusions: * Increased guard gauge does not increase damage * CH doesn't either, but we knew that already * Throw does lower guard gauge first before doing damage, thus doing less than standard damage when done on someone with guard gauge +0 (neutral) * Frame data is wrong regarding damage of Millia's throw

They changed it a bit for AC. They still correspond to her various kick moves, but now they're used when you use them in the air. For example, without symbols, you can still do Ryujin once from the ground, but that's about it. With two Ryujin symbols, you can do Ryujin xx Ryujin xx Ryujin and oh my God I hate that combo for how brain-dead doing it is versus the absolutely insane damage it does and how little I can do about it.

Really? Well. I learned something today.

Counter hits are not the same as being unable to block. A counter hit is a clean (non-blocked) hit delivered either in special timing-related circumstances (such as being poked out of the startup of another move) or while the guard gauge is flashing, and has various benefits like longer untechable time and certain property changes. For example, Slayer's pilebunker ground-slides on a normal hit, and wall-sticks on a counter hit. This should be fairly easy to test by going into training mode and setting the guard gauge high enough to be stuck in the flashing range without having them block. Also: Counter hits do not do more damage, just the secondary benefits like untechability and property changes. Hitting someone while their guard gauge is high does more damage, though. The flashing range is a special penalty where they take more damage and all hits are counter hits.

Does Millia have a sort of "lowest common denominator" combo this time around? By that, I mean something that doesn't rely on particular cast members or particular positioning to maximize hits/damage. At my level of play, I find remembering all of the specialized combos for cast/situations is a little too complex for me, and most of the longer and more insane combos are a bit hard to input anyway. In #R, 2H -> j.S-H wasn't exactly going to go on anyone's combo video or anything, but it was a good quick easy-to-do universal knockdown. So, in AC, does Millia have any air combo that A) starts with 2H B) works on literally the entire cast C) works in any position all the way from one corner to the other D) ends in a plummet/knockdown? How weak it is is sort of a side-issue--remember, I was using 2H -> j.S-H in #R, and I'd probably still be using that if j.H wasn't changed to no longer be the copter and no longer plummet/knockdown, so it's not like it needs to do 50% health or more damage to impress me. And it's not like I'm giving up on ever learning real combos--I'm just thinking that if I can get something extremely basic like that down first, then I can slowly expand and add to it from there. (By contrast, most of the combos I see on Dustloop start out maxed out like that and sort of have to be reverse-engineered for my level--I remember seeing one in the Potemkin thread, for example, where you can 5D > [9] j.H jc.H jc.APB, and my friend and I worked on it for a while before coming to the conclusion that 5D > [9] j.H jc.APB without the second j.H works too and is actually easier to do, and that the second j.H was probably just thrown in for more damage if you're cool enough to pull it off. I can mostly figure out which parts of a full combo are basic and which are icing, but it'd be nice to hear it from you guys if possible.)

I realize that it says right in my signature that I'm bad at this game, but even still, this one is just embarrassing. Sigh. I'm trying to get some of Millia's air combos down, because I'm trying to improve and stuff. I'm having trouble right out the gate, though, with the part where I 2H and then jump after them. Yes, I'm having trouble with 2H-Jump. Argh. The problem is that the game's input is "generous" enough that 2H -> 36 counts as 236H, and since Millia's normals are all special cancelable, I go for a jump after the 2H, and instead accidentally cancel it into H Tandem Top (Disc). Obviously, this is completely useless in the context of trying to start an air combo, and gives the 2H'd opponent more than enough time to recover and get away. I seem to do this at least a quarter of the time in training mode where I'm specifically paying attention and focusing on this and this alone and trying to break the habit, 50 to 75% of the time in actual matches where I get excited more easily. I try going from 2H to 9 without hitting 3 or 6 on the way, but that's deceptively hard with a pad. I try waiting long enough after the 2H to force the game to recognize that it's not part of the same move and then jump, but that seems to mess up the combo timing. I even tried jumping backwards instead of forwards, hoping the range of the j.D and the air dashes would make the combo still work anyway, but that's when I stopped canceling into H Tandem Top and started canceling into Secret Garden. I fully expect the answer to this question to just be something like try harder/keep practicing/quit sucking at Guilty Gear so much, but just on the small off-chance that there's some miraculous trick to it that I'm overlooking....