Bossguy

I use the default console layout, which is the D button setting for arcades. Honestly, though, I don't believe that there's such thing as a "best button layout." It's really what works best for you. You just need to choose a setting and stick with it, and you'll adapt to it, no matter how unwieldy it may feel.

Yes, approaching Ky blatantly from the air without the shadow is a very bad idea. I would recommend to avoid challenging Ky shadowless from the air most of the time. Always keep the IAD over his SE a threat, though. Keep him on his toes. Drills don't get used much aside from block strings compared to other MUs. His air SE poses a big problem because the trajectory of the projectile is awkward and can't be easily blocked by drills. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't use them solo, but I generally neglect them shadowless. With the shadow out, it's still not a very good to use drills. It's much better to approach Ky with the dash jump flight method and right before you attack from the air having the shadow poke the opponent with -p-. This is extremely strong against characters such as Ky, less so Axl, and sometimes Faust, because it renders their ground anti-airs pretty useless and you can also avoid most projectiles. If they try to challenge you in the air and you anticipate it, you can always Nobiru. Zato has much better options in neutral against Ky, so I honestly don't see much use for drills besides protecting against 236K, which you can always just avoid with instant flight.

If you get predictable with your summons, Ky can destroy you in a heartbeat with his CSE. Try to fake a summon and then IAD twoards him to punish an attempted SE if he gets predictable. A safer option is to use dash jump flight to close the distance between you and Ky while he's firing projectiles, or hovering in place with instant flight. You generally don't use the traditional advancing method with the drills against Ky. Either take to the air, or if you have the time, go underground. Even if it's a regular SE, you generally want to just maneuver around the projectiles, because Ky can YRC and use his Stun Dipper (236K) to either hit you for a CH or kill the shadow. You have to always be mindful of his 236K at all times in neutral. Flight is a very good tool against Ky. Use it often, but don't abuse it.

I play this MU a lot, and I honestly don't use flight or BTL much. In my opinion, once you take to the air against Milia she immediately has the advantage over you. She can either take out the shadow and then challenge you in the air or go straight to you. You have to guess which route she'll take, and one wrong move in neutral can mean the round. Likewise, if you use BTL she can get in very quickly and take out the shadow, leaving you stuck helpless in the ground. Instead, I would dash around and control the ground with -p-. Force her to take to the air, and then you can anti-air her or merely dash under her.

I was able to play at an arcade while I was on a trip to Japan, and Zato seems pretty much unchanged. Puddle summon takes an extremely negligible amount of meter. I didn't notice anything different with his j.k. The unblockable doesn't seem to be of as much use, but damage seems to still be good, but a little less. The shadow takes longer to recharge after a drill, I think. Forgot to use his 6k overhead, so I don't know if the stagger increase is still present. I think that Zato is still a very good character.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say that drills shouldn't be used without the shadow, I was merely stating that they can be unsafe if you become predictable with them. Probably should have phrased my comment better.

I am not a good Zato by any stretch of the imagination, however, here are a couple things I noticed in your gameplay that you did consistently and got punished for: 1. Spamming drills in neutral. Later in the matches with Marvisto he realized what you were doing and countered it. Drills are very risky in the neutal wiithout your shadow out! Use more normals. 2. Keeping an eye on your shadow gauge. A couple times you tried to unsommon your shadow, but since the gauge was depleted you got a 6H instead. Marvisto punished you. 3. Dead angling. I know that Elphelt's pressure is difficult to get out of, but you resorted to dead angle too many times. The Elphelt baited you and you lost fifty meter as well as a good chunk of your life. 4. Using 2H to poke out of pressure. While this worked in some cases, this is not a good idea. 2P is a much safer option. Also, I watched some of Jonio's stream and BTL YRC is indeed still there in 1.1. Phew.

Discuss the match-up here. I faced a good I-No last night and I don't know what to do. Summon doesn't seem free, drills are extremely unsafe, and once you're knocked down it's pretty much the round. I'm having a real hard time knowing when to summon the shadow against her and what to do when I'm stuck solo. How do you deal with her?

Nice, jk buff is great, as well as the reverted Eddie gauge. Quick question, is the puddle summon consuming guage still present?

Thanks, that's really helpful even if I didn't ask the question, haha.

Those changes don't seem that bad. An extra second is much better than I was expecting. @Pen_Ninja: I'm guessing it'll take as much as -HS-. This is probably my least favorite change out of them all, but oh well.

Ouch, those nerfs, particularly puddle summon using meter and slower regeneration of the Eddie gauge is really going to hurt. I hope at least it recharges during 22H/22S. I'm guessing that it stops recovering during DF. Zato got hit hard.

Aww, thank you. I'll try depending more on Nobiru.

Thank you. This was helpful. I'll try that out.

Yep. That's why I started playing him early. I really like him so far. NE is weird at first, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I'm relatively new to GG. Been playing for about two weeks. I main Zato and I'm pretty bad, but long sets would be great. I live on the west coast. PSN: bossguyplanet

That makes sense. I feel my ground game is better than my air, because I've noticed that most people air dash in and obliterate me, whereas if people try approaching me from the ground, I usually score a knockdown which gives me free pressure. I haven't played enough of Zato to comment on how netplay is bad for him, but since he's such a precision based character I can definitely see it affecting him. Thanks. I was intimidated at first before I started, but now I'm really glad that I'm playing the character that I wanted to main at the start, even if I'm losing 90% of the time. He's such a unique experience, and much more fun to play than the other chars IMO.

Yeah, I've been playing him like a character that capitalizes off of mistakes instead of actively trying to rush them down. It's just the style I've been using in the other games I've played and I need to stop it. My main problem with Zato is when to summon and unsommon the shadow, both on pressure and in the neutral. I tend to summon and Nobiru about two or three times, but then recall it to save meter, but I usually die for it. I also have to train myself to always keep my eye on the shadow meter, just like the super and stamina bars. My pressure is decent, I feel. I have my basic strings down, and I can kind of adapt one on the fly. When people try to jump out of my 2K, -p- pressure they usually get hit for it. I just don't know when to unsommon the shadow. More of an execution thing than anything.

I've been fighting Milias by the dozen, and is it just me, or is Nobiru not as effective? what do you guys do in the neutral against her? Challenge her in the air? She seems to have all the advantages.

Thank you. It's not often you see Ogawa get beaten that badly. :/ So, generally, do you want to be always advancing in the neutral, or waiting for them to jump into your Nobiru? I've been playing almost keep away with Zato, and maybe that's what's getting me killed. Old habits die hard.

I struggle a lot in the neutral. Sols run me over. I just don't know when to keep the shadow out and when to call it back in, combined with hiding the shadow inputs with 22H or 22S.

Thank you. I'll try getting that down later. What are some of your preffered strings, and when do you use them? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions.

I hit the first j.k, and 70% of the time I jump cancel and the second j.k whiffs. Another occurance is that I just mess up the jump cancel and I fall to the ground. I don't really know what's happening in the first problem, because I'm canceling the jump cancel fairly quickly with the attack, but I know why the second one is happening. I'm just doing the first j.k to close to the ground. Also, I'm having a real problem with people mashing in between strings. i just set the cpu to mash 6P and it blew up pretty much everything. One last question, do you have a couple pressure strings that you have memorized for certain scenarios, or do you usually improvise all the way? I try improvising, but it feels like I'm just mashing buttons at this point.

Thank you for the tips. I can hold buttons down fine, it just gets sorta outta hand when I start a string. My fingers get overwhelmed, haha. I've been trying to work 22S into some pressure strings, and I'm really starting to like the priority of the -P- input. However, I just can't get that j.k, JC j.k, j.HS mixup down for the life of me. :/

I've been playing Guilty Gear for about two weeks now, and I picked up Zato. I wanted to main him the first time I saw the character, and it's probably better if you start sooner or later, right? I've grinded out about fifty matches with him and I'm pathetic, haha. To be expected. Would you recommend that I spend an entire day in training mode practicing setups and familiarizing myself with controlling both characters? I can do the basic 5P, 5K, 5S, -k-, but I can't adapt a new string on the fly. Controlling the shadow still feels awkward. Plus I can't even do the standard fuzzy guard mixup. Should I dedicate a lot more time to training mode, or just play tons more matches?