ThatHiroGuy

Concerning http://p-ch.jp/news/detail/?nid=110 < The Box-Art they've been teasing... Someone posted http://37.media.tumblr.com/1581d40e0df3c23ced68084477742011/tumblr_n4hvhcVKak1qb9hh5o1_1280.png In reply. I'm wondering... Akihiko, Aigis, Fuuka, AND Mitsuru (basically the whole P3 cast minus Ken and Liz) are all being crucified... What's up with that?

It's already possible to dash cancel Sentinel Dump. I can't really explain how it works because it's really difficult and inconsistent, but I've caught it on video.

I totally understand what you mean there. I do think he's average, but I just mean to shed some light on why I think he shouldn't be revered as this... amazing character like he has been. I mean, it doesn't really represent the character accurately in my opinion. My thoughts on him being average ARE based on the general player skill level, which I think should be the benchmark for his abilities anyway. I'm pretty confident that in order to compete with players who are more than average skilled, you need to bring much more to the plate than you would if you played another character. To further that point, some characters have easily mimicked playstyles, and tactics. A lot of people can improve their offense, safe approaches, and general ability just by watching tournaments and picking things up. This means that outside of defense and making good decisions that won't get you punished, some pro player opinions on characters will get you far. With Azrael, you're pretty much on your own. Everything is laid out there for you, but you need to actually become a better player (not just imitate a better player) if you're going to succeed at higher levels. Not that it isn't entirely true for every character... But it's definitely not as much of an issue that will plateau you, as much as it is on Azrael.

I've just recently had some big issues with the idea of Azrael being as good as Japanese players say he is, and how people perceive him to be. And I agree with a lot of the posts here, on both sides. You need to sort of have a certain amount of faith in some of the best players opinions, but that's all they are. Opinions. I wouldn't call them baseless, but when you think about it, their opinions only really have relevance to the people who are of their skill level, and understanding of the character. Not to mention, a player who has a great understanding of the game, or is just well disciplined, can make most any character work with determination. That being said, I think Azrael is an 'average' character that requires a VERY defensively trained player to bring out his better qualities. The opinion that he has nothing but even matchups, with a few disadvantaged ones... I can't agree with it. It depends on how you play him, but in a general sense he only fares well when people don't know how to fight him. Once they figure out how to OS, and keep away... there's not much that helps him shine above other similar characters. Since I'm sure we already know the popular reasons as to why he's good, I'd rather mention some things that I'm finding issues with. Not that there should be any credence, based on my position in the community, but here's food for thought- - Normals are good up close, work well as anti-airs, and stuff approaches pretty well. On the downside, they are all pretty slow, and at melee range can be beaten out by quite a bit of other characters normals(if they aren't in blockstrings from your normals). I can't count the times where I get hit by Jin's 5C when I'm hitting 5A. This happens on more characters than just Jin, too. At melee range Azrael should be very dangerous, even outside of blockstrings. Instead, I always feel that I'm disadvantaged if it's not a zoning character I get in on. - I don't mind his 'lack of oki game', because I think he's got okay options there. Time a sentinel well, and it'll catch rollers, put defensive players in some really terrible blockstun, and counterhit people trying to get saucy. His other options are strong as well. Safe jump people who DP on wakeup, meaty people who don't. At any point of the screen, safejumps eliminate any guess work on opponent wakeup. Block or stuff DP's, hits rollers no matter where they roll, stuffs backdashes, and counterhits almost anything outside of a super. Where this fails is- at a certain point it just makes opponents block. This is good for you, but the next point is why that sucks sometimes. - You can pretty much disrespect everything Azrael does for mixup/crossup. You need to read extremely well, or condition the opponent (the latter of which is NOT something you can always do). Going for overheads will always leave you open for reversals. 5D, 6D, IAD. The only solid overhead you can throw out is Valiant which... I shouldn't have to explain why that's not the best idea. Outside of overheads, 2D/3D are also easy to counter in a blockstring. Cross-through can be OS'd. Cross through and jump over can be anti-aired (or still OS'd/grabbed). His ONLY largely 'safe' tools to force opponents to miss up with is 5A/2A, 5B, 2C and 3C only at certain distances. Gustav, too, but that is risky too. This works well enough, but you put yourself at a risk to actually perform mixup outside of that. Next point shows why even THAT is pretty crap. - Since Azrael needs to time his hits in a link-type manner, he comes off very rhythmic. This is pretty bad, since it makes it relatively easy to IB him. If you're relying on simple 5A>5A>2A (or any variation)>5B> so on... blockstrings to get you places, it's entirely possible that you'll get punished by a competent player. This is still something that doesn't show up as a problem more often than not, since a LOT of players are afraid of him, but it's one that I find... not in his favor. - His movement is great, but it's better to play defensive. Forward movement is easy to punish Azrael for, unless you cancel it into a jump and barrier. This is still a problem against most, since people just double jump, airdash, and just runaway from Az at most points of a match. If you get in, alright. If you play defensively, due to the nature of the game, you only have two options for not eating damage. Growler, or block well enough to force them to mess up or rethink the approach. Better than other characters who don't have a good reversal, but still a problem. He doesn't get in for free, so he really has to play conservatively. That's just not a style I find useful in the Blazblue universe. I just wish more people would rethink how great he is. Just because he can overpower people with offense and good reads doesn't mean that he's a great character. His tools are good, and give him flexibility to fight the cast, but when people understand him, he can get disrespected in a pretty big way.

Tips on some things. The key to the match-up is to stay in the offensive, and never go defensive, since it's not in your best interest with all the 50/50+ grab mix up potential. You CAN growler almost every part of the string, but be wary of her lows. If you HAVE to be defensive, try your best to watch out for the grab setup. Because I guarantee you if they can't auto-pilot mixup you, they'll settle for command grabbing you. In terms of offense, you can't meaty, but you CAN safe-jump her ass. This stuffs 4D, backdash, all rolls, etc etc. This way, as long as you get a good start (or get offensive somewhere in the match) you should be able to stay that way for the most part. Anti-Air wise, I'd recommend 6B. I know it sounds crazy, but you want to play this match very carefully. If a Noel comes down with D, and you do 2C, you might get boned. 5B is dangerous in this situation as well. 6B says "I DON'T THINK SO!" Not to mention, if you whiff, it pushes you backward to safety where you can reassess the spacing and what you want to do. Trust me on this. Don't let her just run the entire stage, either. 5C if you're comfortable, to let her know it's not alright to come in at you. Just enough to where it forces them to think a bit more. Gustaf isn't safe, so don't do it. Trust me, this whiffs on almost everything she does, unless you get lucky. She isn't entirely air-dominant to us, either. Just stay conservative of how you approach in the air though. -4D- Meaty isn't an option with Noel, more or less. Unless you REALLY condition them to not 4D, you just have to play the match-up without the typical Azrael dominance. In terms of beating it, a few things do. You can do 3C which beats it HELLA hard, and is recommended if they do it on wakeup every time. 2A can also beat it out, which is what most other characters do. 3C recommended if it leaves you safe, and 2A isn't reasonable range. Like I said, safe jumping this makes life a lot easier. I personally prefer TCL>Super Jump>2D safe-jump, since it easily catches everything. If they catch on to that, you can go for dash forward>cancel forward dash into jump>safe-jump j.B. Use your mind in the matchup and you'll at least learn something. Eventually it'll become a player vs. player matchup as opposed to a character thing. You'll learn a style, and start whoopin' em.

Also, I'm probably the only person who wishes they'd take a bit of invincibility out of the backdash for a bit more on the forward dash? I'm probably crazy. It seems like they're going a different route with his changes though.

Man, I was just doing the ever elusive dash cancel of sentinel dump, but it's so damn restrictive. I wonder if there's any use for it... I've been messing with 6B, it seems to make it easier to dash cancel sent. Maybe 6B>dash forward and catch them throwing out a normal? Edit: Putting a video in to show people that it can be done, I just don't know how viable it may be! I know I've brought it up before, but I want people to see what it looks like, and maybe someone can polish the technique? Edit: Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsAm1ykDEGM Shitty quality. I really need to stop being lazy and just use my capture card. Anyways the important thing is that you can SEE him (barely) doing it, and the input. The input varies, but it's generally a form of... Dash forward>Down>3+C>UP or 9. It's like fooling the game to not take the quarter circle motion that would normally come out (which is why you see it happen so much) or something.

Predicting counter assaults (if we're talking dead angle) would be a bit difficult. I'm wondering though, would it go through a burst? Because if so, you could do some FUNNY stuff when you predict a burst in the middle of Valiant. On the topic of resets, it's hit or miss really (as all resets that don't involve grabs). I'm gonna have to try it out on people and see how they typically tech when it happens (if they even tech at all). But in terms of dropping them, or them using directional tech (getting out of it free-ish), I don't think you'll be too much in danger. I haven't even tested what happens when you have Valiant Charger dash time ticking, and are mid combo but tech or drop out.

Found a weird, quirky thing you can do with bigger characters during Valiant charge. I'll upload it soon, as I don't feel like unhooking my PS3 and losing the saved inputs and junk. Basically comes down to resetting in the middle of Valiant, which may or may not be worth it depending on who you're fighting, and the level of conditioning you've done. I'd say on people who are only sitting there holding a button to tech (or it doesn't really matter, as long as they aren't pressing directions), they'll be hit by the reset, and the cool thing here is this- If timed correctly, you can CONTINUE Valiant charge! I dunno, I'm sure some people may have already known that Valiant continues regardless of conditions (it seems), but I thought it was pretty kewl myself. Edit: BOOM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfdgIOVjBEA&feature=youtu.be Edit again: This does work anywhere on screen for large characters (about Hakumen size is your minimum). On smaller characters like Ragna, it works, but the initial 6C won't connect unless starting very close to the corner. Assuming this can be done at any point of the combo, though I'm not sure if it replenishes dash time at all.

So I was messing around in training mode, and I'm pretty sure I just cancelled my dash with sentinel dump. Can anyone verify how this is done, because I can't do it again for the life of me...

It's okay. I do appreciate all, and any help. I've been playing Azrael for over 700 matches now and I guess I never thought of him like Tager. Maybe if I start thinking about his movement in that way (in certain matchups), I'll be way better off. On the second topic, I figured out what the person meant by 5B being a shield. Literally, if timed correctly, you can counter hit a (for example) Ragna's 5B up to around a full half second after you hit 5B yourself. It's sort of like throwing out a normal preemptively, but its VERY risky. If you do it too early you'll be open (for a short period of time) to be hit. Too late, and you're getting counter hit. I can see why it'd be a great tool to use... but I'm hoping it's not crucial to high level Azrael gameplay, because it's really finicky.

Heya. Been a while! So I've been working on the more subtle, technical parts of playing Azrael, and I'm really struggling on two things in specific. One- Spacing as a whole. I see some people play Azrael extremely aggressively (I like to, as well), and I'm wondering if this is something that he can only do in certain matchups, or am I supposed to be playing a bit more patiently? I feel forward dashing is a terrible idea unless you're pretty certain the opponent won't hit you, and forward air dash feels pretty unsafe as well. Iunno, just looking on how I can improve on getting in more safely. Two- Working with the after-image of 5B and making it DA GAWD. I was told by someone that the after-image of 5B is extremely good since it (mostly) works like a sort of shield, in that opponents get hit if they try to get at you while doing it. This made sense, initially. In some tournament footage I saw people throwing out 5B like the ENTIRE match when they aren't doing combos. So I went into training mode, and I tried all different timings for it, and I actually found that I was getting hit for throwing 5B out. Now of course I was practicing this against non-low, straightforward attacks, but I feel like instead of acting like a shield, it (mostly) just increases your hitbox... I'm not entirely sure how to use this, but I've been told it's golden for making Azrael more dangerous. Help is much appreciated.

They probably felt like the one with sharp teeth was too creepy? I know when I first went into the arcade lobbies I felt like it'd be weird, but I came to enjoy it.

Network appears to be down?

So 6A has decent priority then? I'd imagine that get's beat out by most things since it's so slow, right?

Having extreme issues with Ragna. How the hell do you do anything against him? He gets in, he does pressure, you lose. You try to hit him, he has priority. What the hell is with him this time around? I just can't seem to ever win against him, no matter what I try doing. It's insane how much you (can't) punish anything other than him air dashing in, or using blood scythe.

Yeah, I just wanted the verification that I wasn't a scrub for just using rekkas whenever I confirmed hits. Of course some hits ended up giving me the chance of applying weak points, which I did.

So I've been playing some Azrael, and I really enjoy everything about him. Just wondering about some combo routes though. In a normal match, I'm not really finding situations where combos come into play (outside of rekkas). Is there any way to follow up Buster, or his 6C, into an actual combo? Any particular combos I can get on weird situations like Anti-Airing with 5B, or 2C? I just want to maximize damage to end matches quicker. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, but it does say "Discuss combo's", so.

The Kagura matchup is easy so long as you play defensively, and patiently. Kagura must use stances (or so it seems) in the middle of blockstrings to keep attacks flowing. You can catch him in the middle if you just pay the slightest bit of attention. DP's are easy to bait, and give you free damage, and respect. If he covers his approach with the projectile, there's an attack Bullet has that dodges projectiles. It's not too bad actually. It's all in the mind.

Seems to be a horrifying matchup for some reason. Pros -Full screen projectile, forcing stupid jump-ins. -Can barrier block for a bit easier punishes. -Can roll under certain attacks. Cons -Nearly every normal he has beats anything Bullet can throw at him. His 5B has better priority/range than Bullet. His 5C is the same. His 5A is as well. -This means hard punishes in general, meaning you get destroyed once you're in pressure situations. It's almost impossible to break it without a burst. -His movement is better. -Can punish your jump ins. -DP goes through 720. -Damage is insane for ending matches quickly that are already in his favor. -Due to how Bullet is played, you don't have the damage output (not easily) to end the match quick enough for him to not have chances for pressure.

Eh, you n me both brother. It feels like there's a lot of those matchups though, to be honest. For your information though, you can just charge heat levels from full screen to absorb projectile hits. Other than that, it's still a hard to play matchup.

I've used it before, when I'd normally use 5C to get back in. Since you don't need heat levels for the full travel, it's actually great to use. If they jump in reaction, you can (hopefully) react with 6236C, or 6B. Also thought I'd like to throw this one out there, though I'm sure people know about it. Cancelling your dash with 3C is a great way to get in on opponents from time to time, albeit pretty unsafe. With heat level 2, I found that I could actually shoot a flint from damn near full-screen, and then do the above for a really solid, unexpected approach.

Wondering if I'm just having a hard time because I suck, or if it's the matchups. Feels like a little bit of both haha. Getting in on characters proves a bit troublesome, and maximizing damage without any heat (both meter and drive) is a bit difficult unless you open up the opponent properly. Anyone got tips on how to get a bit better damage with... even one heat level, perhaps? Also, about matchups, any early thoughts on them?

GG solless for taking it like a champ! Good stuff.

Hmmm. Gonna be streaming some practice mode and netplay if anyone want's to watch and think about Bullet/Azrael.