GoBL1N

Ive been wanting to check that out as well...me and a friend. That must mean you are close to us ...were trying to find more offline community peeps to play with :<

So actually I have two questions of my own. against a crouching opponent, if 2a/2b lands, what is the ideal route? I haven't really seen something on this. you can't go into 5b j3db jc because they are crouching. Is it (for ex:) 2a 5bdb 3c 8d 6a iad jb jc 6a lobel or something like that? 2 wind sounds kinda brutal for a measly 2a starter but if i dont use that 8d i have to stop at 3c...is that just how it is? in the corner, if during pressure you land 3djb what is the ideal followup here? do you spend a second wind just to press against the wall? 3djb 5b 5cdc <standard corner followup) seems inefficient or do I just need to accept it?

What he said is probably the best answer. If you want to know what I did personally (been playing her since CP, messed around with her in vanilla) I started with her throw combo. Why? Just like in CP, her default throw route (midscreen) involves doing all her basics 1) using wind to position opponent while they are airborne 2) 5b while they are floating and going into her basic routes, in this case its instant air dash jb jc land 6a...and of course 6a lobel microdash 3c iris, between the two of those you have very basic rachel concepts, 6a > lobel > microdash 3c > iris has been a rachel thing like forever now. 3) get used to doing 6a 4b 5cc, until you stabilize the 6a lobel microdash 3c iris stuff, you can usually replace with 6a 4b 5cc, 4) get used to (like rurouni said) putting down frog, poison bats, lightning rods when you have space to work with, like after a knockdown. 5) get used to blockstrings like 5a/5b[more stuff] j2ad (opens guard) jb 5b/5c as an overhead starter, you basically aren't Rachel until you can do this. This has been around forever too. But again what I did personally was do her throw route. I did it over and over (almost pulled my hair out a couple times) until I got the concepts and timings down. Heres what it would look like for you: grab 7d after the lolita slap (lifts opponent and vacuums them towards you) 66 5b around your height, you gotta work on the timing here 6a instant air dash jb jc 6a a-lobel microdash 3c iris microdash 4b 5cc (again can be replaced with 6a 4b 5cc) once you get used to this you will find yourself in various situations ending up here and doing it alot (not the throw obviously but what comes after). Yeah sorry. Rachel is just one of those characters. Kinda hard to envision her as a secondary character because shes so demanding (and im not just talking about her attitude) but...it is what it is.

Gah sorry I didnt make it, MD is a bit of a drive for me, when is the next GG/BB gig at Xanadu?

Thanks for the input, I am not far from you we need to hook up as well. I just had another person from my area message me who is also interested in hitting up fairfax. We need to network for reals. Both me and the other person from this forum are in leesburg...what a coincidence right?

Yeah id like to hit up a public event as well, and get more involved. Its so much harder for me to come out on a weekday though because of work n stuff. I wish these were done on weekends :<

Thanks for letting me know. I might try to swing by on the 19th then, or on one of the weekly sessions (im assuming thats also referring to xanadu)? When is the next monthly for the fairfax joint? Also, just to make sure, they play bb/gg right? those are the two i play the most? Im not against street fighter or MK anything but that would't be my intention

interesting, I played vanilla, then didn't play until CP thats when I really committed and learned rachel (and picked up arakune too). approaches seem to be using lobel, barrel lotus (the new barrel lotus acts like pumpkin used to...sort of...), and sword iris placement of course...don't forget just plain old good movement and wind usage. Yeah, corner is still ideal of course for her, the new poison bats really shine there. as for best starters, pretty sure its the non short starters basically, so for example 2b. aaaand as for routes, rurouni provided a really awesome chart with all the ideal routes, id check it out. THeres a couple good vids too.

Are people not throwing down on the weekends? Its much harder for me to get out there on a weekday but I can try.

Excellent, I really need to swing by! Yes please, I wanna join up and play with people

Ok sounds like a plan ahah

DOn't tempt me I might post my collection, I have alot of the CDs and artbooks like crimson said, even the crystal figures that come with the limited editions of these games. Also like crimson I dont buy the figures, but have basically all the nendroids...including the new noel one. They even give you a scroll-like thing or a banner? you can unroll it and hang on a wall. Same with Guilty gear. I love the Jack-O cup they gave me.

The twitter didn't work :< I'm NoVa, but willing to go to SoVA if I need to. Do I really need to make a facebook just to play fighting games with people lol. Hey I'm pretty close to fairfax, is this info still valid? I'm looking to get connected I might drop by. I'm also in Nova/DC and tryna find community.

Do the exact wind timing for the first lobel that Ruroni said. I have also found the following to be crucial: When you said 3c[3], 3 hits for that first 3c, yes this helped me stabilize, I've been doing all three hits now for that. For the second lobel, I do it (the wind) much earlier than the first, during cannon animation startup. Its practically parallel to the second lobel for me. As ruroni said, for that 3c during the 2 lobels tapping your opponent on the head, you may not want to do all 3 hits, you may need to recover sooner, the 2 lobels falling is like a time window, after they fall you need to be able to 3c again. And for the record, i LIKED CP rachel, thematically, and aesthetically, I just found her timings to be soooo unforgiving and brutal. I hate how IAD happy this rendition of rachel is. I liked the grounded rachel more, it just made sense to me thematically (she looked like she was doing less physical work and the wind did its job), and don't even get me started on pumpkin. I miss pumpkin, i dont care if shes higher tier. Also if any timing is driving me looney right now its mid screen lobel > sword iris > microdash 4b > 5cc ender. We didn't have to microdash 4b 5cc so much before and now its like..standard :< I think you basically cleared up my confusion, I was under the impression that you could: 5B > 5CC > 6C (1) > j.C > delay j.236C > 5B > 6A > 4B > delay 5CC > 214B > 3C > 236C slightly late 8D > microdash 6A > 236B9D > 3C > 214B > 3C > 632146C > 8D Off of a j2ad overhead starter. Now I'm thinking this route is more for something like a 2b starter. for j2ad you gotta go the 5B-less route that lands and goes straight to 5cc then 6c[4hits]. I was thinking you could do either/or. Thanks for your help as usual. You probably save me...hours of wasted time haha.

Thank you I will check them out, really wanna get connected and play with more people from my area. I know I can netplay but I enjoy in person community and hanging out fighting and drinking w/e edit: Noooo it requires a facebook account to be able to view, I dont have one...I guess I could make one JUST for this purpose hahaha...is there a non-facebook way to get connected?