Sophisticat

Ha, nice analysis I wasn't expecting. Cool stuff, I'll get to responding now. Though if you want a sort-of vid of one of the runaways I've been talking about, the closest I've got in my uploads is this one. I wasn't being too serious in that one, though. Another note: if you read the description on my vid vs. Blade, you'll notice I mention there was lag. So some stuff didn't come out right for either of us. I'll rectify stuff if I have to. What do you mean by all these throws? I'm only aware of back- and front-throw... unless you also include counters? Yeah, I guess I could use counters more. I'm not in the habit of using them since I usually just get punished for it. For now, I'm focusing more on practicing IB'ing stuff so it should be easier to counter things. For Carnage Scissors, I prefer a 5c CH because it's a good opportunity to get in some good damage whereas I have more instances where I can do throws. Yukikaze on random supers once in a while is cool, though. :P Hum, I was thinking of replacing gurren with kishuu -> throw, but I guess that works too. I find hop hotaru hard to use against a good Ragna. There's less time to react and working the distance can be tricky. Yeah, 3c at the beginning is a bad habit. I've switched to 5c, but I keep doing 3c sometimes in the hope of a CH. I know 3c is bad, but I just really like the move for the tensionless meter on CH or knockdown if not. It's like a drug! Blade got wise to the air throws, though. Good stuff while it lasted. I usually do 6c ch -> 3c... just didn't do it here. I think it either lagged right there or I misjudged the height. I do alternate between j.C and j.B depending on height, but I don't mash either of them (you don't have to anyway). 5c is better than 6c I find. It's easy to mis-time the 6c. Since this is online, I prefer gurren -> kishuu -> 2c -> combo. But yes, I can do gurren -> hop -> 5b -> combo. Hum, here it's just preference I guess. You can do 6a CH -> 5c -> gurren -> walk forward -> 5c -> gurren -> etc. for greater distance pushing. I didn't do my usual gurren -> kishuu because... I don't know why. I know it would have pushed him into the corner. 6a -> 6c after that was just lag. Yeah, still having problems following up on 5c CH's, but in that case I was just thinking "mash out!!1!". It's getting better, though! I do too many throws already (which get punished!), so yeah I'll get to purging that habit soon enough. I'll get on that 3c one of these days. IRC >>> Chat. I don't have a keyboard I can connect, so typing stuff manually is too much work. I'll be on sometime tonight, and tomorrow too. Hit me up whenever. Haha, you're pretty good yourself. I was struggling there a lot at a few points... Ragna's hard to deal with because he's always in close range and mixes up a lot in his block strings (not as much as other characters, though). As Miso says, don't do the follow-up to Hell's Fang, but I think you got wise to that. Air dashing against any good Haku will get you killed because of his 6a and other AA abilities. Be careful when doing block strings too. I can't IB/counter well, but a Haku who can will destroy you for it. Another thing is that if you successfully pressure a Haku, he's going to be sitting on tons of meter. You'll notice there were a lot of instances where I came back and cut away at your hp just because I had the meter for it. What you can do is try to make the Haku waste it, or play more carefully. Being overly aggressive on a conservative player is nearly a death sentence at that point. Alright... I guess that's everything. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! Greatly appreciate it. Having an opportunity to get better is always a good thing.

Alright, I'll put up a vid when I run into another. I've also started IB'ing stuff just two weeks ago, and it's proving tricky (especially online) not to suddenly stop blocking and get myself punished. It does work quite well against Rachel, though. As for scrub Jins, well, I say they're scrubs, but they're the kind of scrub that's mastered being one if you know what I mean. They know your effective range, DP you at the right moment, shoot swords from afar, and run away with ice car. I can punish well enough once in, but getting can be costly.

I'm having trouble with runaways recently. FRKZ Bangs, scrub Jins who use DP then flee, Rachel wind users, etc. Haku is quite disadvantaged once they have a lead of sorts. So far, all I can use is mind games or a lucky hit if they're not blocking. But are there any strategies I'm unaware of? It's quite frustrating to go up against this type of player.

I've always assumed it was to define an otherwise ambiguous motion. It just clarifies the animation's function and allows to set an arbitrary length to the hitbox beyond what non-brushstroke would physically "allow", so to speak, while still looking cool. I don't think there's any deeper meaning to it than that.

Nvm... it was just me messing up BB's notations with GG's. Problem solved! >_> Alright, I'll get to working on that. Thanks again for the info!

Well, I meant when you do 2d, do you get rensen out before the second hit, after, or anywhere in between? I just can't seem to be able to cancel into rensen from any point in the move... Yeah, I'm a pad player. I actually prefer 6321473 HS. I'm not too used to 360 motions and it looks like it gets out faster with this input anyway. Personal preference I guess. It's just weird in that it's a kind of diagonal super input, but it's not too hard to get out. I see. He doesn't appear too hard from the time I've spent on him, though his combo damage appears to be relatively lower than average, but that's not a problem. Anyway, thanks for the info! EDIT: Actually, I have another query, which I should already have asked, but here goes: which normals are combo starters (or at least the most used)?

So I've decided to check out Axl because I kind of want to move away from HOS and Johnny for a bit, and Axl looks like he can keep me safe from the A.I. :P Alright, first off, how do you do rensen after a simple gatling (2k -> 2d -> ren, for example)? I just don't know when to input it. I was also wondering what would be about 4-5 solid bnb's to practice. FRC's are not a problem since I can do them 20% of the time in training mode. I'm just looking to get a hang of how Axl plays, so anything that gives me an idea of his game plan is cool. Now, TK bomber is a weird input motion. Can it be done midscreen, though? It seems like it really pushes the guy back if you're trying to hit with 2s right after. I can do a simple corner combo, but midscreen is iffy. I know you have to input it as low as possible, but the height thing is going to take some practice getting used to. Otherwise, how hard is it to play Axl? I come from HOS mostly, who's relatively easy to pick up. How does Axl match up learning-curve-wise?

I prefer 3c CH -> 2c -> j.2c -> j.2c because it pushes into the corner for no meter.

I see, thanks a lot for the info. I guess I should use 5a more appropriately now.

Question regarding a certain combo I see JP users often use. Off 5a, they'll often go into j.a/b -> j.2c or something like it. Why? The proration is bound to be bad and you get no advantage other than possibly going into the corner. Is it because it's tensionless? Why do they even use 5a for that matter?

6A now moves forward and, I believe, has a few extra frames of start-up. Invuln is the same. This means you can no longer react to most stuff unless you are strong in the yomi. 6B can be gatling'd into, but you can do nothing after. Now being an overhead it has a correspondingly slow startup, so it's not likely you'll land it on someone competent. Might be useful as a simple mix-up tool, but that's stuff to be discovered.

There's a lot of interesting Haku stuff in the VAMOS 12/2 Wed vid. Link. We've good a pretty good Haku sporting green (@~12:40 and ~20:00), and another using manga scheme (@~25:00). The first one shows off, among other things, the new ways of corner loop. Notably, j.c combos into gurren, back into loop. Damage and meter gain is also quite good. Overall, impressive stuff. Second one I find interesting for the pressure he displays at ~27:20. Before dismissing it as full of holes, I'd like to see the frame data on it. Haku might have a genuine block string serving as frame trap (one can dream!).

Nice! I thought 4c would stuff kishuu for sure. But if it ups the mind games, I'm all for it. Lack of CT 6a means online mirrors are going to be retarded. Should only apply to lower levels, hopefully.

How so? I'm just hoping it's not the current "God kills a kitten" type of match-up... I am seeing this match-up to be a lot like a Dragonball fight, for some reason. I.e. "I do j.C CH! Blowback!", "Oh yeah?! j.C CH BLOWBACK!!" "OH YEAH?!? [...]" Ad nauseam, ad infinitum. It's going to be ping-pong with corners. >_>

I suggest Matchup sub-forum be separated by game version. It appears to me to require the least amount of effort to implement, too.

Quoting Ryoko: I corrected a top tier player! Joie de vivre!

Indeed, Haku's the kind of character to be more dangerous when low in health. This was the case in CT too, to an extent. 6[C] is going to be dishing out the hurt if we can figure out ways to land it short of yomi. Now, if 6[C] CH -> dash 6[C] -> 6C Shippu does 7.5, can someone test replacing shippu with (in the corner) -> Renka (1) -> Zan -> 5c -> Zan -> 2c -> j.B -> j.2c -> j.2a? It was the previous most damaging combo Haku had, and the addition of two 6[C]'s makes me wonder what kind of output it has now. I wouldn't be surprised if he now has a legit non-mugen combo that goes over 10k...

Mugen is the realization of our subconscious desire for infinity (a fantasy!). Indeed, it lasts the span of 12 seconds. However, the mere glimpse were are afforded, our sliver of infinity, is often all we need to obliterate the opposition. So, for a short, short time, we realize the fantasy of the infinite. ... <cough> So how 'bout dem new frame traps? Any indication whether Haku has some new tricks up his sleeve?

Going to ask this straight out so we know: Any one-combo kills off 6c? (meaning combo damage goes above 13k, killing even Tager) I'm seeing 9k+ already and that's non-Mugen, which is ridiculous. I'm fairly certain full [6C] will be applied 100% in some instances (like 6c CH after blocked Ragna 214a -> d followup for instance) with IB. Confirm? I thought Haku was supposed to have nerfed damage... turns out he deals more than in CT (albeit situational).

Ryoko has stated Ouroboros grabs a location, so in essence it grabs onto nothing. It does make a distinction for a hit on a player, though.