Agent P

Glad to see that someone finally started to post something for this lol, thank people. Sorry but I don’t think in any way that she’s like another Ragna with more damage, she has far more mixups and options and her DP even if is not ID still does the job. Heat gauge is irrelevant because Ragna needs it to do heavy damage outside of corner, but Makoto don’t and so she can store it for some counter assault if she’s pressured in the corner and use it only as a finisher, so even in this condition she’s still in advantage. But I agree that spacing is the way to go here, after all in CS2 Ragna's gameplay is strongly focused in spacing, but still one must be really careful. For example 5B is always good to keep distance but Makoto can use DP, parry, or even 3C to skip over it and start a heavy combo so I find 5C more reliable even if is slower. By the way, I never tried to say that this match is terrible, horrible or abusive. This match can be won for sure after all, but is a very uphill one were Ragna is not allowed to have mistakes and playing against a Makoto that knows well Ragna’s options can get thing even worse.

It feels like no one knows what to do for this match and it doesn’t surprise me. I have been researching how to deal against the high tier characters for quite a while and I know what to do against everyone EXCEPT makoto. Even after hours of checking all her normals and supers in training mode I still can’t truly find a weak point in her game and so I usually see myself depending more on her mistakes than in Ragna’s own tools to win. Main differences I see here is that she can do the same as Ragna but with more damage and being more safe in blocks, so it means that in this match Makoto is allowed to have mistakes in her game, but Ragna not. Only advice I may give as It worked for me is to be more defensive on mid-screen until Ragna can corner her; being too aggressive against a character that can input this insanity of damage from almost nothing and also has a good DP AND a parry move is asking for a serious rape. At least her blockstrings are not that hard to block but one mistake and youll regret it.

Why is so difficult to accept that mak has a good advantage against tsu? She’s the god tier this year after all and I’m not complaining, tiers are just a part of any fighting game after all. Mak parry and air tail alongside her great pressure and damage input makes her an uphill battle from my point of view too. I’m trying Tsubaki against Makoto and it doesn’t matter much that I know her and can block most of her strings (after all I used her a lot in CS1 so I know her pretty well) she only needs one moment to hit with something that ends in at least 4k damage and when I’m the one applying the pressure she has DP and parry to break it I’m also trying to think in something truly effective against her and not in strategies that depends more in good luck and mak’s own mistakes. If someone has any ideas please let us know lol.

Hey Kay, why you say 2B is not good against 4D? because of spacing maybe? I agree that its short reach can be a problem but is currently the best move I have found against 4D besides a well timed 5B or 6A. Do you have something in mind to deal against 4D?

Look, Ragna's BK ultimate combos lol Liked the one with the throw starter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_aOXrnM06k

Indeed this is not a fun match for me in any way, at least not with my current knowledge and skill lol, what really gives me trouble are those invincible frames that don’t have a reason to be there anymore. What I usually try against the Noels that like a lot the D starters is this: Ragna’s 2B will beat her 4D, 5D and 6D no matter her lack of upper impact cells so I try to pressure with this and take advantage of the 2B > 5B gatling for some decent damage. If I feel brave enough I may try 6C instead of 2B which also will hit low and grant me at least a 3k combo, but of course 6C is really slow so is a risky move. If the Noel has some common sense then it will stop using this smash and try her normals more often, or maybe try 2D or jD, this last two Ragna can beat for sure with 6A for another good combo, jD may need some timing or block it first depending on spacing. Still a risky strategy I know, after all one bad move and I’ll eat some good damage, especially because 2B leaves Ragna open for a crouched combo. Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Another video of some interesting BK combos. As situational as any BK combo can be, but I cant ignore an 8k combo just like that lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_TnziXO13I

What I find fun about CS2 Ragna is that all his moves are now useful and his combos looks more flashy, but I agree with titanium: this ragna is probably the weakest we have seen so far because he got so many damage/heat nerfs and still has the same mixups which are already SO predictable, meaning, as Titanium said, that Ragna is as strong as the number of mistakes/stress that the opponent can get (I feel this is what prevented him from being top tier in CS). Im so looking to try this new Ragna but again, if I feel that is just to painful/stressful to play him in serious matches then Ill leave him for casual play and look for another rushdown for serious games, like Tsubaki or Jin. Noel not because I never liked her even if her playstyle is cool, and Makoto is god tier. I love makoto in CS and is one of my favorite characters there, but I dont use god tiers that are also braindead or have an easy learning curve.

Totally agree man, we can conclude that CS2 Ragna will require more effort to play properly, but is a good trade because he looks more awesome and fun to play :D We need the patch now lol

Noel, Makoto and Jin are quite a topic indeed, but not exactly because they are the top tiers now or because they may be braindead (they are not broken after all), but because they are characters that are already popular by themselves. Just go and see the Noel Forum to see how much hype is because she is top tier this year. So what I truly fear is that the network metagame may be destroyed because the massive wave of people that will use this characters. Hope Arksys can do something about this (if it becomes necessary) in the same way that capcom reacted to sentinel in the still new MVC3. Sentinel is overpowered but not broken, still because of how easy is to play/win with him everyone was using him and in consecuence it was affecting the diversity of characters int the ranked matches game. What happened? they already announced a patch to nerf him. Not because he is broke, but because 75% of the people in ranked matches and competitive play where using him.

Theres already a lot of info about CS2 Ragna. Still what I can say after seeing many videos is that Ragna is not a straight forward character anymore (that title belongs to noel and makoto for this year). His combos in midscreen will not go higher of 3k of damage without RC or CH, and in the corner 4K damage is usually the highes number that you will see. His pressure is a little better I believe, talking about frames. In general, he is far away more fun to play and watch. His combos are more strict because of spacing, you must look more for momentum than for damage, now one must really take advantage of a crouching opponent to land a 6C in combos like the Jin players, and you need to hit more to win (but this apply to most of the cast anyway). To my eyes Ragna is still good and youll have a lot of fun except MAYBE agains the high-damage/braindead characters, this because Ragna deals less damage and has the same life, but those character still deal damage like if they were in CS, (they got frozen in time is what I say lol) meaning that one mistake against them is usually enought to lose the match. If someone disagree with this is more than welcome to say to me why, maybe that will change my perception of him lol. Still you need to see some videos and make a decision by yourself man, no one can say to you if you'll truly like the new Ragna, watch and decide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DOwxHszY7I This one is just an exampel but there are a lot more in the Ragna Continuum Shift II Video Thread, take 10 minutes to see some of them. Im also planning to stick with Ragna, at worst he may become my casual/sub character but Ill not stop using him thats for sure.

Yep that sounds logical for me too. Still I dont see Ragna wins that often, specially against Noel and Makoto because is easier for them to make comebacks thanks to their insane damage from everywhere with no requirements at all, man I have saw so many videos where one mistake of an almost full life Ragna, who was also playing better than his opponent, ended in a insane/easyToPull Noel/Mak combo that leave him almost dead but thats another topic. I also saw the +1 in BE, and also use it as an approach tool already in CS, mainly because not many people are expecting it and I try to do as many mixups variants as possible, after all Ragna is already that predictable as it is. Even in CS, if you lose against Ragna, you really deserve the lose, I mean he is one of the more easy, if not the easyer, characteres to read. I didnt saw that BK Carnage Scissor does the same damage as a normal Carnage Scissor. is this true? wtf!? I guess they really want to force us to use the lame Yami ni Kuwarero. Why is its damage not listed? Im curious lol DS active frames are now confusing me too lol, explain, explain lol

Maybe is just me, but those numbers dont look quite good. I mean for example, what!? they also nerfed his invinsible frames in ID? and those prorations with his already limited/predictable mixups looks just... oh well. I really want to try this game just to see if im still gonna be able to play with Ragna properly.

I know 5.8k damage sounds incredible and all, but BK is just too much risk with that damage penalty that just don't have reason to be anymore. BK is only kind of viable if your opponent can't burst.

This a ragna vs carl match. Didnt knew that after a BE in mid-screen if youre still close enought to the corner you can stil continue with Dash > 5C > ID > 235C > 214D. Wonder if is possible a Dash > 5C (JC) > jC > jD (JC) > jc > jD > ID > 235C > 214D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnO5Ai-6k0w