Ronove

Thanks a lot for the precious tips. As for the relaunch combos I suspect it's as you said, I am not close enough to the ground by the time I'm doing jS-H. I guess I'll have to try delaying that part as much as I can.

Just do smart staggering pressure or even regular 5B>2C, with Noel players it's about baiting their 2D/4D and punishing them for it. There's no definitive best answer because it depends on how you condition them with your pressure and neutral play. Even 6A can be pretty damn useful inside pressure strings against certain Noel players.

Thanks. My problem is that sometimes Jam will recover after I land from ad.S-H before I can rejump and continue the combo. I could stick to plain j.D > ad.KD > ad.D routes but I guess I'd still like to have a second option for better corner carry. I've got one more silly question which I haven't quickly found an answer for when looking around: is there a specific reason to prefer hairpin->land 6H enders to ad.D ones?

Question: is (stuff)>2H>j.D>AD j.KD>AD j.SH> land j.KD >AD j.KD> AD j.D the most optimal midscreen combo vs Jam or are there better ones you'd recommend?

There's no reason for people to panic about Ishiwatari wanting to change things to make them more accessible to a broader audience. A "simple" game does not equal to being dumbed down. Anyone who thinks that should check out Virtua Fighter 5 and see how a game with a very simple set of rules and mechanics can be so incredibly deep that you'll never stop learning things from it. I am pretty positive that Ishiwatari and his team will be striving for that kind of result: make a game more accessible while still retaining the depth that's made the GG franchise so intriguing and rewarding to play.

I honestly didn't expect Galileo to win vs N-O, good shit! In any case, Kansai has proved to be the region packed with the best BB players around.

I was counting 2B's nerf as well. Even though it's not technically a real frametrap it did use to be part of her pressure mixup tools. It's not like it hurts Tao anyway, I was simply mentioning to pay attention not to practice stuff that might have been gone in CP and focus on what's remained the same. :3

All of the above? She has low health so you have to be on point on everything. However, learning her neutral and movement first will put you on the right track, especially considering you're learning her in preparation of CP. Learning her CSEX combos is still useful because you'll learn the timing for a lot of basic stuff. Pressure is also pretty damn important, but keep in mind some of the CSEX frametraps will be gone in CP. Learn neutral, learn to hitconfirm off it (drives, j.C, j.B, 6C, 2A/2B), and maybe rather than going for damage combos go for corner carry ones that will allow you to set up corner oki (which in CSEX is pretty limited). Apply pressure on oki. That's likely the most suitable way to get in the proper mindset for learning her properly in general, besides just playing the character of course.

Tao boards may not be crowded but man, we do produce some quality stuff here. I'm proud of you guys! Absolutely. But it's not like it's that "hard" to get people to respect her pressure when she has so much variety and pressure traps (no real frame traps though) to scare the shit out of a lot of characters. Of course, as Ne0 said, there are characters that just don't care and won't respect but that doesn't mean that overall her pressure game isn't pretty damn good. The fact that there are others with even better pressure game (like Rachel at the corner, Carl, Relius) don't take it away that such ability coupled with her godlike neutral and movement, make her imho among the best characters capable of winning a tournament. Top 3? Top 4? As I said, this version of the game has a lot of strong characters so maybe it's not really about ranking one numerically but more like acknowledging how viable that characters is. And likely the reason Tao got picked by a lot of players who hadn't used her before is likely because of that.

Well... if you're planning on RTSD the opponent then the time where you reach the point in your blockstring where you have to 5D~A/C means that it's already too late, IMHO. Think about it: a lot of high-level japanese Taos hardly do any classic blockstring which ends into 5D~C. Why? Because despite being safe, it also kills your momentum, and Tao needs to stick on the opponent and open up a gap to get in. That's why you'll aways stuff like 2a>2B>5B > stagger 2A/5B again, or 5B>j.2B, or [...]5C>214D>j.B etc. She has plenty of ways to reset her pressure so the opponent has to guess when to stop blocking and move/do something. That's where her strenght of her pressure mixup comes from. Of course there are gaps where the opponent can mash out, but WHEN is it actually going to happen if everytime you commit to a different blockstring pattern and you reset your pressure at a different point? I think watching Matoi's pressure game is a good example of what I'm talking about. And mind you I am not saying that one should avoid doing her regular 5D~A/C ender blockstrings , but simply that she has so many pressure mixups to confuse the opponent on when to react that make her pretty damn scary, especially at the corner. As for not being top 3, heh, it's not like being "top 4" rather than top 3 is that much of a difference. The top characters in CP are pretty much all near the same level in terms of being capable of winning a tournament.

Throw Reject Miss.

I wouldn't honestly compare the jp BBS with Dustloop or any other forum. The level of understanding of the game in the japanese boards is far, far above average. Aside from that there's twitter so you can just ask directly any of the top players their opinion on Tao and I'm pretty sure everyone will tell you she's likely considered among the best characters. IMO Tao CP is probably among the top 3 characters in the game. So what if she doesn't deal insane damage anymore? What makes her scary strong is that: - she regained her knockdown/oki - she has corner carry from almost anything, and always gets knockdown/oki from it - her pressure is still as godlike as before, she has so much variety she can even make a fool of players who try to IB her shit - her corner mixups are solid without even spending any meter - and if she really wants to spend meter she just needs 25% to rack some decent damage up - her mobility is still as godlike To be honest, this version of Tao looks even better than others (CS2/CSEX). You sacrifice broken damage but you get MOMENTUM in return, which is what Tao excels at. Without relying on meter. It's no wonder Isa, Mame and others jumped on the bandwagon because of this. The lack of a good counter-assault is practically a non-issue because Tao is not really supposed to be stuck blocking, if you're doing things right. Of course all of this doesn't automatically mean that Tao is broken or that she's flawless, or that she's the only amazing character in the game. I pretty much agree with you guys saying that in this version her matchups are mostly even against other toptier characters and only slightly in her favor against others. That's just because (thankfully) CP seems to have a good pool of strong characters rather than having 3 ridiculously broken ones while the rest shares the spoils. But she's still up there, no doubt. You're right, but it's also worth noting where some of these players qualified. Most of the Taos who qualified did it in areas where the competition is the fiercest (except for Naoya, honestly I don't think any region below Kansai is as competitive as the central part of Japan or atleast as good as Hokkaido).

Let's not forget about Denpa, he used to be my favorite Tao back in CT and he could very well be a dark horse at ArcRevo.

Seriously... Matoi... on one hand I like that he's very creative at times...and I'm not talking about the taunt combos, but more about all the variety of pressure strings and traps he uses. You can tell he has a good reading ability but jeez lately he's been fooling around a little too much. :V Kinji is always the same, he rides a lot on momentum but when he finds an opponent who's really good at reading movement he sort of collapses. Still, he's visibly improving. Mame is probably the most "textbook" Tao I've ever seen among the high-level japanese ones but his movement and his fundamentals are SO GOOD he doesn't really need to get too tricky like Kinji or Matoi do.

Well atleast now they're taunt combos for real. Also, I wish there was more video footage of Isa's Tao, sadly he hangs around an area of Tokyo where the arcades usually do not record matches and tournaments.

In the past weeks Matoi has been truly amazing, so creative.

So apparently 6B now is -2, still somewhat safe on block though not a viable frametrap tool anymore. Of course 6C>RC>hi/lows is still good. 2B is also -10, no more 2B>throw setups :[ 236C is confirmed to be around 20ish frames activation however it's not a overhead anymore (unless charged), and it's 0 frames disadvantage on block. No wonder japanese Taos rely mostly on j.2B or or 214D>j.B as part of the high-low mixup tools. 6B never used to be that good but now it's practically useless unless RC'd, which is something I'd honestly picture doing only if going for the killing blow.

It's among the least online-friendly characters, that's why. One mistake and you're dead, with Tao you have to be on point for the entire two rounds and a tiny bit of lag can completely ruin everything. Which doesn't mean you can't use her online but it's pretty obvious that people prefer to use less frustrating characters. She's a character which relies A LOT on momentum and visual clues, you can't autopilot with her unless the opponent is sleeping.

Wait for CP, it'd be wasted effort to do it now.

My thoughts exactly. But if you think about it, Kinji loves to do that shit pretty much against anyone, so it's no surprise that opponents get used to that. I am not saying he shouldn't do that at all but maybe not rely on that as much as he does in order to get closer/get in. Tao has so many (safe) options that j.8D~B almost looks like a gimmick. That's what, imho, separates Kinji from being a true masterclass Tao player like Tsujikawa or Tetsu.

I said it "can" be risky, not that it's always risky. I can see its benefits in using that along the other movement options, but using it so much like Kinji does is a bit too much of a gamble, imho. Look at his match vs Dogura and you'll see what I mean. I honestly prefer the way Tsujikawa or other Taos handle movement in neutral. I love Kinji because he's probably among the most creative Taos but he sure takes a good share of unnecessary gambles. :X

Man, Kinji sure loves to j.8D~B in neutral. It can be pretty damn risky.

6C keeps a lot of Tagers honest, though of course it has its risks it's still a good tool to use. Imho vs Tager it's all about patiently running around and abusing 6C and j.D at the right moment. Atleast in CSEX. In CP things are like they used to be back in CT, which is play safe>knockdown>RTSD :3

off a CH 6C starter, though. Still a lot but it's not like she never had high damage combos off 6C :P

YES :3