Sophisticat

Spill the beans. Who's a snorer? :P ------ No Foonzo for me, sadly. I'm sure almost no one would be there anyway. I'll be back in the game next week.

The team is Lich / Kirby / Brice, actually. I think they're called "Secret Team" or something like it.

Godspeed, brave NEC warriors. Bring back scalps!

Lmao, that's true. I've had that work a couple times already. Gotta love his meter gain.

Yuki worked every time I used it. That's all I can say.

I Yukikazed the super, which causes the usual freeze frames. It cannot be escaped on her part. I haven't tried regular counters, but I assume she could block this if done too far. Since the super is physical, the counter should work. On super flash, I think 2D would work since it is 1f activation. Would need testing, though.

What if you dressed up as Gundam instead? :P ----- Sweet meet tonight. Was nice and small, so good for a couple sets. I think I'm going to level up my UL.Haku because we need to have an Unlimiteds tourney. GGs to Louis as well. That was turning pretty lopsided by the end, there. Haku just seems to shutdown everything Izayoi has. Hopefully they buff her next revision.

This is a very unfortunate matchup for Izayoi. I find Haku has an overwhelming advantage here. Just about every tool we have beats what she has. Let's break this down a bit: - She gains magatama from landing projectiles and specials. Cut projectiles, but DO NOT counter them. This gives her mags. - Dashes and teleports can easily be beat with jab mash. - j.C destroys her air game. Total shutdown. This include hover dash. - Speaking of hover dash, watch out for air throws here. She can quickly make a diagonal approach that can take a bit to get used to. - She has some good AAs. Agito wins if done first, though. - Little neutral game to speak of. She has... 5B? I think you can enma right under it for easy damage. - Her super is physical. Can be countered. - I'm sure some of her blockstrings must be unsafe, but haven't been able to test. What's for sure is that if she does blck string -> hover dash in for mixup, jab mash beats it. Basic idea is mash jab if she goes for an overhead, block and IB otherwise. j.C keeps her on the ground, and you completely outpoke her here anyway if within your space. I honestly cannot think of anything that is redeemable in her case that would allow her to win. You really have to make a mistake, get thrown, or improperly block an overhead to get hit. And just as with Slayer in GG, if she makes a mistake you can go to town and eliminate any hp advantage she may have. Imo, 7-3 if not 8-2 Haku favour. It's that bad for her.

GGs, Heartless. Those were some good sets. I really need to learn how to block and punish Koko's stuff. Too free atm. And I really need to get an edge over Tager. Like bigger dmg combos or better spacing. That guy is too much of a wild card to let him roam free.

Please do, sensei! Though right now I need to severely work on my combos. I've been watching some Haku vids and I'm really missing out on some great tech. Maybe I should just take back the Ps3 by force. I haven't properly trained in more than a month.

Cops should have been called; this team is illegal. :P ------- Awesome night yesterday. Finally got the Haku loop going, and got in some good matches. I'm getting the hang of CP Hakumen, even if he's not what we Haku players really want out of the character. I'll keep maining him just because there's no one else who does it for me. And special shouts to sensei Kaeru for all the advice. My game just got a nice jump! Brice... rematch. Je vais tuer ton Tager un de ces jours. :<

I have always used yellow/green Haku aka color #5 in CP. Best color. And... yeah... I may have exaggerated when saying CSII Haku > CP. I don't know what I was thinking. ._.; Anyway, CT Haku has my nostalgia goggles. He was probably the most primitive version of Hakumen, possibly moreso than CSII for his lack of decent tools and corner knockdown. But given he was in CT, he was just plain fun to play as. That burst dmg and gdlk 6a were just too good. He will never again have an AA game as good it was here. CS1 Haks was admittedly the one I got the most into. I knew this guy better than the back of my hand. The only reason he wasn't higher tier than he was, was because everyone else was more broken. Is he the penultimate Haku as I see him, though? Not quite, but I can't deny this is one of his better incarnations. He had corner carry in 2x j.C combos, and good damage anywhere, with tools for every situation. This was also pre-2a and j.C nerfs (1f more startup on the former, and 1f more recovery on the latter by CSII). Tsubaki and Hotaru were also arguably in their best versions right here. And Mugen just rocked. CSII... yeah, now that I recall it, this guy reallllly killed the vibe I had going with CS1. Fuck you, CSII Haku. Still, if he had EX's meter gain... then he would more or less be EX Haku minus the one combo we know him for, lol. I can't really fault him for anything other than lack of meter gain, as he had all the necessary tools to win. Hell, Spark won EVO with this guy; give him some credit! EX was just Terminator in video-game form. Highly efficient, good at everything, but not very creative at the end of the day. He was just there to own everyone else's options, carry them to the corner, then brutally murder them. Despite this, this is one of my favourite incarnations for one reason: he has all the tools he needs to do what he needs to do. There's literally nothing you could give him here that would make him better short of a command grab because he has it all. If he's not a tourney-winning character here, it's because others simply do what he does better. Even so, I wouldn't consider this his definitive version as I don't think a highly efficient killing machine is what Haku should be. He lacks burst damage and originality here. That he should be all-around strong is good, but this was a bit overboard and too focused even for him. On balance and after giving it some thought, CP Haku isn't that bad. He does overly rely on getting burst damage as his selling point because you're otherwise doing piddly combos for 2-3k. His options got nerfed overall, so he's less versatile and more reliant on that one big CH. Not exactly what I have in mind for Haku, but overall still has the spirit of the character so he's ok to play as. So what's his best incarnation? I hesitate to say. He offers something unique in each version. I think a combination of each version's best traits would provide a great character. Give us CT's and CP's burst damage without EX's extreme focus on efficiency, and we have a start. CSII at least had some creativity going on in combos, and that was really cool. Bring in CS1's options and most of EX's versatility and we're good on that front too. I don't think we've seen his definite version yet, but I know CP ain't it. Too much focus on burst damage and not enough on versatility make him too unidimensional (and dare I say similar to CT Haku?). He's a strong character, but he's not, deep down, what we're looking for when we pick this guy.

I don't think I'm at this point right now, but I can say CP Haku is my least favorite iteration. Even CSII Haku had more freedom despite being gimped. :/ Désolé Kirby, mais je suis d'accord avec Eb. CP Haku est trop one-trick pony pour être le fun. But I know what you're saying. You need to show up moar, Eb! xD

Maaaaaan, toujours hype de voir des Pedro v. Kirby matches. Seriously, that's my fave matchup to watch in this community. There's so much stuff going on you can't help but be entertained.

Bring 1-2 more setups and that should help with the rotation "issue", imo. Due to number of people that show up, we do rotations so that everyone can get a chance to play and get exp., but it's obviously not the best method if you want to train. Intense 1 v. 1 can't be beat for learning a matchup. For what it's worth, I like both formats, with a slight preference for 1 v. 1, though rotations bigger than 3-4 people are a turn-off. It's just more fun if you're playing, eh?

Lmao, Reyn. Yeah, I should be there on Sunday. Can't miss that. I may also be there tonight if people are going, so if you are too that would be chill.

If someone wants to type up said FAQ, I'm all for putting it up on the first post.

The ghost of Gore.

You should definitely be able to learn the standard stuff into staircase before said tourney. The staircase is [stuff] -> (s)j.B -> j.2a -> [dj.2c -> Agito] / j.C Which finisher you use above depends on whether you want knockdown or corner carry. Very simple. To go into staircase with almost any normal, you do [normal] -> Renka(1) -> Kishuu -> 2c Off throw, you do CT -> 2c Off 3c, you do 2b -> Gurren -> hop 5a -> 5b -> sj.B -> etc. Etc. That should be plenty to get you going.

^ I noticed a few general things after watching for a bit: - Get better combos. Stuff like throw -> Shippu or Yukikaze is best if it kills, not when the guy has 70% hp. Waste of stars. - Jab more. They're quick and disrupt the other's offence. You can mount a better close game with them. - Don't use C moves as a blockstring. If you do, at least cancel with kishuu (on block) to set up tick throw. - I would suggest unbinding your D button to deactivate counters. This way you are forced to use your other tools to win. It's a great exercise. When you get your counters back, your accuracy with them should be improved as well. Overall, you don't seem to have much of a gameplan in these vids and it seems to me like you're flailing around a bit. Too many moves whiff and you're not pressing the advantage when you have it (which would include better combos). It's also my impression that you crumble whenever on defence. Learn to sit tight and just block the other's offence. Be patient and you'll get your chance to mount a counter-offensive. Focus on these, and the matchups will take care of themselves. Be more patient, work on being more precise, and analyze the situation a bit longer. It's better to use the right move for the situation than throw out five and have them all whiff. And that's my $.02.

Matchup seems to be the same as ever: you try keeping her at bay with your pokes while she tries to find a way in with her superior movement. Where Noel is really irritating is in finding a way through Haku's blind spots or evading his stuff. Say you do low j.C, she can dash under. Or you do dash -> Agito, she can 5D that. That kind of stuff. Her superior movement can be tough to keep up with, so what you need to do is keep her at bay with some smart poking while not getting baited or blind spotted. Now, you want to keep her between 5c and 4c length. Should she manage to get within this space, aside from counters I would only make use of 2a or 2b since her pokes are too fast and 5b too short to be of much use. 3c is otherwise gdlk against her ground game. If you get CH, it can be big, precious dmg so work it. Ground-to-air isn't too bad. You have 6a, Hotaru, 2c, and counters, which is plenty to deal with her drives, but you must make it muscle memory to punish her 4D and 2D on reaction. This isn't her best approach, so outside of these drives, I wouldn't worry too much. Air-to-ground sucks, honestly. She has 6a, airthrow, j.236c?, etc. Your one salvation is a high Agito, but I find her movement is too good for Agito to be much use aside from punishing 6a. And speaking of 6a, avoid using high-commitment moves such as j.2c or you'll get wrecked. Air-to-air is cool. You have (gdlk) j.C to keep her pinned and Hotaru in case she gets too close. Sneaking in an airthrow -> OD works, too. Haku advantage here imo since your pokes have more range. About drives, there are a ton of gaps you can punish for free. Here's what I can think of off the top of my head: - Get good at hitting her out of overhead kick. I don't yet know what's the optimal punish, but you should be able to get some free dmg. - Low kick-slide-thingy -> 2D - Short gun boomerang thing -> 5D its startup. Maybe 3c CH recovery? - 2D her 4D - AA her 2D. Several punishes come to mind, so it's down to spacing. If you block it, I THINK you can 2D the followup. Note that I may have some of these mixed up as I don't know what her drives are, haha. ... And that's what I have right now off the top of my head. I feel this matchup is very much tug-of-war, so whoever manages to either better space (Haku) or outmaneuver (Noel) the other has it made. For the above reason, I find it tough to assign a rating to this matchup as it's very player-dependent. So I guess 5-5 would be good for a start.

Super awesome weekend at Gore once again. Much thanks and GGs to everyone involved. We need to do this again for sure! :D

Good thing you didn't since I wasn't going to show up tonight anyway... Guess it's off to next Thursday. --------- Btw, DerQ, if you get the code, please send it to me by text msg @514-966-1447. Might not have time to check Sankishin tomorrow, so best it's done that way. I should be at Gore by 4-5 if there's little to no traffic.

I'm... not really liking this new Haku, tbh. Gimme back my efficient killing machine we had back in EX, plz. His buffs are cool. Extra meter gain is great and so is less dependence on meter. But it also feels like OD's his only real advantage. Without OD, he'd be middle-of-the-pack and uni-dimensional. So I dunno. His defensive tools got nerfed, and he can't really keep up an offence either. You're just sitting there for the right opportunity to activate OD -> win. He at least had more versatility back in EX. Meh. I really wish Arc would implement the following changes in future Haku revisions: + Buff his close game. Make it more about frame traps and short pressure strings. Give him a command grab if necessary. + Give Tsubaki and Zantetsu a guard point. + Bring back old 6D. You don't even need to change the way counters work right now; just bring back old 6D. + Make j.C AD-cancellable. Keep j.2a as-is. * Keep his spacing/long-range poking game. * Keep the footsies. Maybe bring back old 2b. - Slightly reduce meter gain. - Nerf OD in some fashion. Maybe reduce its duration? The overall idea is to make him self-sufficent outside of OD and meter gain while buffing his close/mixup game. I feel he should be a naturally strong character like in EX, not a one-trick pony like he is in CP. Do this and I'll be happy. EX Haku may have been a bit boring by the end of EX's life, but he at least had a bigger bag of tricks than we have right now.

Normal block or IB? If close enough to the corner, you could probably combo off it...