Valentine

Oh hell yes. I don't want to be on vacation anymore, I want to be glued to my PS3 lol.

I haven't managed to get my hands on +R yet, but anyone know if any of Raoh's j.normals are special cancellable?

He makes the OTG on summon look so clean and tasty. Summon into Raoh into DA loop had me all hot and bothered.

PSN: SaintOfGolgotha Character: Zappa Location: Indianapolis

I cannot wait to play with new Zappa. I was worried about him after the initial patch notes, but seeing him in action is just beautiful.

And if you do hit the CH, get in the habit of hit confirming into 2H summon or 2H j.c air combo. 6P is interchangeable when you want upper body, so rushing down Zappa turns into rock (6P), paper (5K), scissors (summon). Or if you're in the corner, time a backdash to eat active frames and throw his ass. Zappa backdash ftw.

How to not lose to Axl? Don't jump, and get good at instant blocking. Don't get too into a momentum, or he'll toss out a counter and shut it down, leaving you summon-less and fucked.

I'd drop the 6HS and replace it with a 5HS. It's a much meatier move and doesn't knock the opponent down. I'm amazed that 6HS even works in that situation.

Holy crap that last match was intense. I cannot wait to get my hands on new Zappa. Ghost j.h knockdown, k toss FRC into aircombo is niiiiice.

Are you playing on 360 or PS3?

I'm a fan of randomly tossing 2HS into strings after a 6P. It's not airtight at all, but it feels like it has just small enough of a gap to bait something out that 2HS can land a juicy CH on.

Mmm, I hope this doesn't lead to an huge influx of Zappa players all riding on Raoh's dick :/ But celebrate guys! WE'RE TOP TIER. Justice is bottom tier? It's B tier, but still. I'm liking this new tier list, OS and I-No are both up there now, and both are characters I've wanted to explore.

I love how the sword can be a threat from fullscreen. I cannot wait to come up with some new sword tech :D

I doubt this will ever happen. When a move is active, unless it's multihitting, it will use up its "hit" on either Zappa or the dog, whichever is closer. I use the dog as a sacrifice to eat hits for me all the time, then dash in and summon. It's part of Zappa's bag of bullshit :D Are all versions of Darkness Anthem super slow now?

Naked 2H no longer stagger either :[ Zoog, the dog's bite is no longer unblockable. They changed it to being a level 5(4?) move that just has shitloads of blockstun. I'm gonna miss the spit and 2H staggers, but maybe there's some gold here we haven't found yet. OTG summon combos are looking like sexy additions to Zappa's gameplan, and air fireballs with Raoh look like they recover fast enough to be a decent projectile for him. He was using, I'm guessing, the new ghost j.2s with j.h to create some neat impromptu pressure, so I'm thinking that can be fleshed out to be nasty.

Well...shit. They made a mess of Zappa until we get our hands on him to see what the hell they did. New ghost normals and proration change on j.h and 2H is nice. Naked f.s has more recovery, which sucks. Naked 2S got a minor buff and is still an underrated move. AIR THROW > SUMMON GUARANTEED FUCK YES ONE SOUL FROM SUMMON!? <--------------------------------- This is single handedly the worst thing that could happen to Zappa. I'm guessing Reigisahou is unsummon? A decent buff there, puts it at +4 on block I believe. The super soul bonus only happens if you have dog out? Lame. Dog bite is blockable no longer prorates, and gives +1 soul on block/3 on hit. Not sure if good trade, but the unblockable nerf was expected. The sword changes suck (can block 2H in the air without FD? WTF), the ghost changes could make them the best summon depending on how the new moves work, and Raoh is not as ToD as he was. 20% damage nerf on uppercut sucks, but I'm actually bummed out about the Raoh timer. I loved my opponent not knowing when Raoh was going to run out, it's part of the fear. God I hope they didn't fuck Zappa over entirely :[

Anyone want tickets to the Zappa show? This dude is pretty damn good. EDIT: Zappa starts at 21:15. The link didn't embed right.

It's already incredibly unsafe on block, I don't see why they need to make it more so. I'm worried about these sword changes. I'm probably the only Zappa who actually likes the sword summon and I can't tell if this "hovering longer" thing means more recovery or more active frames. I can hope for the latter, it's not like anyone was bitching that sword was OP.

Dog going to sleep when attacked is fair enough. Being able to turtle Zappa in the corner is bullshit, we can all agree on that. Waking up in the corner with dog and sitting there blocking until I can 2D away to freedom? Not fair, but I'm gonna miss it xD Super change sounds like it hits more horizontally rather than the sharp arc down it current has. The second one could either be the 2HS hover or it could be read as an increase in time to special cancel or increase to hit stun. I dunno. Holding H to keep the sword spinning at the end of the move sounds stupid. Double souls for swipe and uppercut? LOL What the hell is Born? That can't be summon, because we already get +3 souls for that. +4 would be dumb, and making it multiple hits seems like an odd choice.

Location tests begin today. Let's compile all news we get into this thread. That sword spin FRC is something I wanted but never thought I'd get. The icons are perfect for when you're waking up in the corner and can't tell if you have ghosts, or if you tech in the air and get dog. His overdrive now has an actual use apart from the silly invincibility, so that's nice. I'm just loling at the Raoh buffs. Who asked for those? I'll take them gladly, but shit's gonna get bonkers real quick. I guess it'll help with his rush down game if j.s is special cancellable.

TRIPLE POST WTF BAN ME THE SWORD People give this summon a lot of shit, but I fucking love it. Sword and ghost are my two favorites by far, dog is a utility for me and Raoh is just beatstick time. Anyway, I thought I’d share some of my sword tricks to help make this summon look less Dan-tier. 6p, 6h – A low-overhead-low mixup. Can cancel the overhead hit into swipe frc in the corner for a combo, or just a swipe for an orb. 6p, 6h is character dependent on whether or not it combos, but it's always at least a true blockstring. You can also do 6p, 2s, 6h for a double low then overhead,. Though this will not combo unless you’re deep in the corner, if the overhead hits that’s a nice unprorated combo starter. That sword has stupid range. 6p/5k – I love these moves. On counter hit they both launch, which goes into 5s, 2h, air combo. Fish for counters or read your opponent well and it nets you a clean 30% for no tension, little effort, and leaves you in decent positioning. 2h – As Oiboi stated, this move is fucking KING among anti airs. Huge range, huge hitbox, and goes into good damage. If you can hit confirm an air CH, you can squeeze in a falling j.s before you do 2h jc air combo. In blockstrings, jump cancelling the first hit of 2h gives you a nice +18 frames to iad and continue pressure. As far as the slide goes, I’m partial to 5k, 5s, 2d, slide RC j.k j.s jc j.k j.s j.d. It might sound like a waste of tension on paper, but you can mix up the intro with 6p and 2s for additional lows, the slide hit nets you an orb, and the combo does a nice 30-40% depending on what you use. If it’s blocked, you can pause and do a 2s, pause and then j.h, do the followup, or be random and slide again. It’s +20 guard bar, so even just mindfucking your opponent for a bit will start to scare them. The slide also has an invisible hitbox, which you can see by doing a max range 2H, on the second hit (block or hit) cancel into the slide and the sword will not be in front of Zappa, though it will still have a hitbox. Some opponents will attack in reaction to seeing you suddenly slide forward, which nets you a CH into followup. Let’s take a look at the sword’s normals for a sec. With the exception of 2s, which is +8, they all increase the guard bar by at least +10, with 2H and 5H clocking in at +40 each with both hits blocks. End both of those strings with a swipe and you’ve got a nice, fat +60 guard bar. If you get some tight sword pressure going, that guard bar is flashing before you know it. Throw in one simple 6p, 6h starter and you’ve got a chunk of damage worthy of a sword. After getting a knockdown, and depending on the character, you can run up and do an empty 6h that will meaty and all hell but not touch them at all due to 6h having a funky hitbox. Gives you a nice throw setup. To make your strings less predictable, you can reverse gatling your 5k, 2k, and 5s to 6ps. Your 6p also goes into 2k with sword. Other notes about Zappa: Despite what the system data says, I swear Zappa has some really high defense/guts. Combos that really should have killed me leave me with a magic pixel that I use to bullshit a Raoh comeback. Zappa’s vertical velocity after a super jump is second highest in the game at 31, only a half point behind Johnny. I’m not entirely sure that’s the reason, but I seem to get a LOT of airthrows with Zappa. I don’t know if his air hitbox is weird or if I’m just good at it, but he snatches people out of moves all day. Lastly, Zappa’s backdash is fucking BOSS. Best in the game, in my opinion. Pot’s is good for him, Zappa’s is perfect. A well timed backdash will eat an entire move and allow you to recover in time to throw the poor sap. It really shines when you’re stuck in corner pressure. IB, backdash, throw. I love it.

Trying to revitalize the Zappa forums. How about that special cancellable 5D? That shit is just wrong when you figure it's always special cancellable and not just naked or with Raoh. I've been liking short ghost strings into 5D, k toss frc keep it up. It's fun making your opponent paranoid about his weird dust. Too bad a 5D connecting with ghosts still gets you like, 25% tops. Oh well, it's a haunting.

Go to Arsenal Games. We've usually got a small gathering for GG and BB, though the big game is still AE. I wish someone would play some MK9 there so I can get my Skarlet on :/

Actually, scratch that. It's just the recovery from a jump attack, I just never noticed it before. He does it after every jump attack with sword.

So I was sitting in practice with sword on a blocking sol in the corner doing c.s, f.s, 2s, 2h, j.c forward, j.s (while rising, should hit the top of his hitbox), wait, falling j.h The thing is, the j.h doesn't come out. It doesn't even animate the same way. It's kinda looks like Zappa tries to do his naked j.h. The neat thing is, while it's animating, it seems like you can FD out of it. Seems like neat uppercut bait.