Lastblade

two things I noticed while playing recently. 1) if a move would break the last guard primer and the opponent counter assualts at the exact time they get guard broken, they still counter attack and are at half guard primer. Worked in CT too but has wierd timing. 2) Fatal counter: some fatal counters (Carl's j.B) cause wall bounce or cause a sustained juggle state (Rachel's lvl 3 j.2DC) where they fly into the air slower and a bit longer.

So far for me, I'd hardly say she is unplayable. I have managed about a 25% win rate right now with her and played about 60+ games. I'll agree, she has lost a ton of her abilities from CT and her damage is just, meh... Only reason I'm getting by on some of these is that I've basically forgotten what I know of CT Rachel. (Tari, you saw last night lol. I consistantly tried to air iris or whatever) I've cleared 3K dmg using 3 wind and 50% bar but it's rare After a lot of blocking to the point all winds are back and if she has 50%+ bar, tempest is a nice out. The 4 wind version allows you to close distance while king george is coming out. If they attack you, they're shocked. Pumpkin just plain seems to have bad startup. It comes out fine after 5CDC, so the [5cdc, 214b, 6d6, 6c, j.c, 5b, 5cdc, ect.] still works but it seems a little more strict. @Kro_ and Soniti: Did you manage to test out 5CC loops? If it was too busy, I understand, it's only now started to calm down around here to the point I can test stuff.

not really sure...I don't believe so but I'll try it later tonight.

lol, ya... Kid viper has been timing me out constantly >.> Anyhow, that's my youtube account. Gonna be recording more matches tonight. Gonna see if they'll let me direct feed from the machine or not to get better quality and actually have sound lol.

Yes...but the time is tight it seems. Once the super flash occurs things are fine, but before that she can be hit out of it. Its more like Carl's gear super now, it keeps going once its out regardless. However, a high enough j2CD being blocked (I suppose lvl 2) into tempest (had 3 wind remaining when I used the super) allowed for continued pressure. 4 wind Tempest can be continued with 5CC or air combo if at the right distance. I swear though, this super has gotten more people laughing than anything, expecially if it hits 5CDC -> 66 -> 5CC (or 5CDC if needed) x 3 is ok. On a side note, Hazama is a real pain with rachel, he can prod her until he gets a hit confirm then combo or just evade her for time. (I'm a little tired right now so my memory might be off so bear with me on this lol)

About as useful as it is to everyone else it seems. Either you burst in the 1st round or not. If you burst in the 1st round, and expect to win the 2nd round, DO NOT BURST. If you burst in round 1 and 2, you CAN NOT burst in round 3. I don't think that's character specific :P Anyhow, I think it'll just come down to... Do you want to play her or not. Not to mention, right now the game feels to be more SKILL > CHARCTER. Edit: She can probably annoy ppl so much they'll burst more often then she does

Only combo I've seen my friend do consistantly in Continuum Shift is: 5D>IAD j.4B>5A>6B>pause>j.3D. I'll ask him if he can post what he finds here, he seems to have a C loop somewhat down for CS but I dunno.

I'll record rachel matches this weekend (not gonna have sound though ). See how that goes anyhow.

She feels playable at best right now but I dunno honestly. She has an ok counter style playstyle right (Atleast thats the way I've been winning with her) and her 2C is a bit faster to start up. Only thing I still think needs to be looked into, is that her 214C command (Air Iris) has been canceling some of my recovery when theres no poles out during pressure. As I said earlier, it may be coincidence or fault by my opponents, but it feels odd.

Carl's gear super + Anima is quite fun because if they tech the throw, they'll still need to block the gear, if they get used to Anima being used during the gear and try to jump, a clap will put them back in the gear anyhow. And of course if they just get thrown, you'll be safe until they land anyhow. But ya, the throw loop is hardly worth doing in competitive situations. They'll just tech the second throw if you manage to get the first one anyhow.

1) Will a late throw tech avoid the clap wave? It depends, if the clap wave has already completely come out, they'll be hit by it. However, if the wave is still forming or nirvana is still in start up for it, it'll immediately stop. 2) Clap is still unblockable, is it? I can't answer that 100% because no one has bothered to try to guard it or they got hit anyhow. So I can't reliably say yes or no on that. 3) How many reps are possible if the new clap loop exists? I had one of my friends NOT tech at all with Tager and I did about 70% dmg to him through it before nirvana was almost dead. On other characters this may mean death but if you're willing to do variations involving RC, you can kill them with it if they don't throw tech and allow nirvana to recharge a little bit inbetween. 4) Did Carl's air throw get changed? It seems the same, kara throwing is still available and his jump cancel from dash is interesting enough aswell. But no, the air throw seems the same. Overall, I'd say its not worth doing it unless its for the kill. He has a good deal more options now with the addition of volante. His unblockable setups from CT work just fine aswell if not slightly easier because of the threat volante creates.

Frog Oki is pretty good still, I've been having a fair amount of fun with putting the frog out, jumping up and winding myself over the opponent, dragging the frog right underneith them. When I tried that combo, the frog seemed to be slightly too far away to activate so maybe another wind may be necessary. 642146B (tempest) with 3 or 4 wind stocks allows you enough time to get over to them and continue comboing them or set up mixups. Also, the super seems to have barely any invincibility but does come out regardless (Think carl's gear super but with pumpkins, frogs and cows). Note: I'm lurking for a lil while longer then heading out lol

Allegreto if done near the ground has been pretty safe during the ground loop when I'm doing it. The sandwich pressure (we've been calling it something else) still works and even though everyone believes nirvana dies to fast, in reality she feels to have a lot more survivability than in CT. She recovers much faster and recovers while being active (Though not when she's actually attacking). His dash jump cancel is doing fine with quick mixups and 236A during sandwich pressure plus 41236D or 421D (Volante) can do fairly well. Don't forget, that Volante can be shot offscreen and DOES NOT disappear if Carl blocks. I've gotten out of tons of pressure strings with this because the opponent didn't know when it'd show up (It starts out slowly then speeds up). This moment is long enough to either get out of the corner, do 2B 2C ect., or various other things. So no, I don't agree that he has no defensive options in CS. Both of Nirvana's supers break guard primer, Volante probably doesn't but so far everyone has gotten hit by it so I don't know.

Since it looks like your handling Rachel in Austin, and I'm doing Rachel in Houston. We should be able to come up with stuff a bit quicker. I tested how many times I could do 5CC after a frog hit and got roughly 4 repetitions of it before they landed. Also, something I've been experimenting with and I'm not sure how viable it is, is canceling moves with j.214C (Air Iris) even without poles. It seems to be canceling some recovery time for a few moves, like j2C when it connects and a few others. But it may just be a lack of reaction to it from opponents. 6CD j.C 5B 5CDC 236B (pause before using lobelia on certain characters like tager and tsubaki) IAD j.B j.C, land 6A 632146C has worked a few times. I have tried your 5b 5cdc dash up 5cc wallbounce 214a 5cc wallbounce *frog hits* 6a 6c j.c 632146c *ender* a few times but the frog hasn't been wanting to activate in the corner. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong on it. Also, don't remember who asked me to check this, but people can still mash A to punish Rachel's 4B during pressure strings.

I don't remember who asked for it, but I recorded (although somewhat poor quality) Rachel's arcade mode. Had to wait till after closing to get this since thats when people finally stopped playing. I ran out of time towards the end so the part of Noel appearing isn't in it. No real difference between Rachel's and anyone elses by that point though, guess the only difference is Rachel standing there looking up instead of another character http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSbttAmNXcQ

i know what you mean about it being hard to test things right now lol. Fortunately, I stayed passed closing tonight and managed to test a ton of stuff, including record rachel's arcade ending. I've been mainly doing 5B 5CDC 236B IAD j.B j.C 214C j.C dj.C or frog hits -> 5CC 236BD 214C or BBL. 6A RC 5CC worked off a CH 6A but only once. 6A 6CD worked quite well also. @Kreichjr: Have you noticed rachel's 2C being a bit quicker on start up? It's alot easier to get out of pressure strings with it now. Annoyed so many people with it. 2C CH 2D 5CC.

In regards to the clap loop, the moment they tech your grab, if nirvana was still in the clap start up it COMPLETELY stops. However, if the clap has come out before they tech, it still comes out so in a sense, you need to clap before you attempt to grab. Also, if they don't tech you at all, you can nearly kill them before nirvana shuts off. This is personal experience from playing CS.

It does and doesn't. When I've been playing, usually by the time you've summoned a pumpkin the frog meter is done. Also, 5CC wallbounce is fun when theres poles available.

Most of the time on regular hit I'm moving slightly forward, on CH it seems fine to just time the 5B normally. Most of the combos I've been doing have been done on either Arakune, Hazama, or Tsubaki since those are the people I tend to wind up playing consistantly when my turn comes up. None the less, more testing to be done.

6A into 5B you need to either dash forward or just walk forward a little bit to be sure on some characters. If you do that, it'll hit fine. Been testing that a bit today. Also, I've gotten 3C9D 5A 5B to work 2 times for a valid combo but the timing is extremely tight. it seems its no longer 3 hits. Not sure how many hits it was when it worked but 3 hits tended cause a black beat.

Ya...you're right pozer and faulty, Austin bb > Houston BB in regards to the scene. Though judging all of us as bad just because of the arcade we have to deal with isn't right. True, if you were to look at the quality of players (arcade scene wise) we have and the ones in Austin, theres more quality players in Austin. Anyhow, I'll see you in Austin for more arcana fights. Note: I think you have CS and CT reversed there faulty.

Thanks for the carl write up, that'll help a bit when I'm working on CS combos.

After trying it a few times, you've got roughly enough time to block or dash away. Quicker characters that I fought (Tsubaki, Ragna, and to an extent Hazama) recovered too quickly to get the pumpkin out and approach.

Ok, so far this is what I've got. j.2C is only special cancelable on hit it seems, so if they block you make sure to wind yourself at the last second. I'm not sure if it's actually safe but so far no one has been able to hit me because of the hit stun. So maybe that'll be useful for getting out of trouble. This is funny though, j.2CD, rapid if it hits, 5B 5CDC, 236B, IAD, j.B, j.C, Air iris. So far, it looks like relearning her is the only option or atleast relearning a defensive game and applying it to previous tactics. Also, 5CC when the opponent is in the air and it hits, a Fatal counter may occur. Usually after a 2C CH, 2D, 5CC. If there is a pole on the other side of the screen, BBL or Sword iris works.

So far, only move of Carl's that caused a fatal counter is j.B. But the difference is that counter is still the same, countering an opponent's move. And fatal counter is countering your opponent that would normally guard break them (had they been blocking). Atleast thats the general idea right now. j.B on fatal counter wallbounces and allows carl to relaunch with a j.B into volante.