Ronove

The only real form of oki I've seen out of the "oki combos" that Tao has in CS2 is somewhat of a left/right mixup, but it doesn't look like there's really enough time do anything else other than switching sides. Besides, if Tao manages to bring the opponent to the corner she can usually deal her best damage there (either from AB2 or from 5B>3C route corner combos), so it's no wonder that in the end even japanese players prefer to squeeze as much damage as they can when they can go into corner setups rather than trying to go for a weak oki...

Well most of Tao's pressure strings end with jump cancelable moves right before the drive. Players either end with 5C>5D~A/C or 5C>214D, having an other option to go for as part of her pressure mixup is still a good thing.

They simply want to make sure that the opponent won't tech the combo, since the damage difference isn't that big. After having tried Tao today at the local ranbat I can ssay that landing this loop midscreen is actually harder than I thought. The reason is that unless you hit the opponent deep everytime, if you hitconfirm a 5B slightly furthery away and go into a 3C midscreen combo chances are the the opponent will tech after the second rep. On the other hand doing the loop off 5B>6A midscreen seems to be be easier though less rewarding in terms of damage.

Antiair Option Select for Tao, to be used against opponents who are chicken blocking and in general as antiair when you're too distant to do 6A: do 5C>236A>5D in one fluid sequence. If it whiffs only 5C will come out (but that means that the opponent is also out of your range in the air), if it connects you'll do the whole string and depending on the height you may combo off it with a regular drive combo for around 3K damage. If the opponent barrier blocked it you can just ~C cancel and get away as you have three moves to realize if you hitconfirmed or not.

wait, the last combos are AB2 combos? Anyway, here's an other BnB for the corner that it's good on characters on whom you can't normally do 5B>3C>236CC at the corner: 5B>3C>dash 5B>5C>j.8D~Ax5>aerial ender does 4131 damage

2B air unblockable is pretty damn amazing. Tao is able to combo and get good damage off 2B, by fact this basically promotes it as an alternative poke besides the usual 2A/5B you can do stuff like 2B>6A>j.8D~A loop or even CH 2B>5C>5D>RC 6A(2)>ender And have we mentioned how sweet are CH j.2B? close to the ground you can pick up with 5C>j.8D~A loop for 4/5 reps and some sweet damage. going to try some of this stuff at local ranbat tomorrow, wish me luck

AB2 Combos from the japanese wiki: MIDSCREEN - 2A>5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>5D~B>5C>Cat2(1)>6C>jcCat2x5>jcCat2x5>jcCat2x5 - 2A>5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>5D~B>5C>Cat1(1)>njJD~6>Cat2x5>jcCat2x5>jcCat2x5 - 2A>5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>JD~B>6A>Cat3>6C>jcCat2x5>jcCat2x5>jcCat2x5 CORNER - 5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>6C>bjCat2x5>jcCat2x5>jcCat2x5 - 5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>6C>6C>bhjCat2x5>fjcCat2x5>jcCat2x5 - 5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>6C>bhjCat2x5>fjcCat2x5>jcCat2x5 REVERSE CORNER - 2A>3C(2)>[2]8D~B>5B>3C>Almost Becoming Two>dash 6C>bjCat2x5>fjcCat2x5>njcCat2x5 Midscreen and reverse corner ones are not exactly easy as the corner ones, so if you don't feel comofrtable just to stick to use AB2 only when you hitconfirm at the corner. That said, Tao seems to gain meter pretty damn quickly and given the changes to IB I'd recommend first and foremost to save that meter for her CA.

Yeah and we shouldn't go OT here, which why it wouldn't hurt to have a separate thread for OT/General, imo.

I think he meant a "General Thread" in the same vein as the ones in the other character subforums: basically a thread for OT and semi-OT discussion between fellow Tao players I wouldn't mind it either, its' a way to create a better atmosphere and group in this secton

Guys, I'm loving the fact that Tao finally gets a decent reward off her antiair 6A! It's atleast 3k with 3 reps which is pretty good since her 6A is actually a pretty decent anti-air in most matchups. I guess finally people will have to respect her a little more when it comes to jumping on her now.

Don't forget Keita, he even qualified for Tougeki already

I see, that means Tsujikawa is likely a Kyoto-based player then. For some reason I thought he was from Osaka area. :o *coughgeta360cough*

Haha come on! If I were in your shoes I'd be pestering them with questions all the time, hehe. How's the atmosphere there? You're going at KO-HATSU right? I can't recall if Tsujikawa hangs around there but he's not the only Makoto player you can ask tips and tricks, heh

Have you considered asking the Makoto players at the local arcade? I am sure they could give you a couple of pointers regarding the execution This depends on the timing of your 214A~D mostly, as it also affects the distance and height at which the opponent bounces.

I can't really give much of a balanced opinion, I have been playing on stick since I started playing fighting games long before BB and I just can't use a gamepad at all, in fact I do wonder how people can play at all with it. If your problem is dashing then you just might want to learn Makoto as a secondary character or atleast train her combos. They're full of points where you have to input the dash with the right timing, it's a good way to train your execution skills on stick. But that aside, I don't think it's really vital for Tao to dash in during her j.D~A loop. Look at all the japanese players, in most matches they usually go for 3 or 4 guaranteed reps without dashing. The damage doesn't differ too much and they atleast make sure that the opponent won't recover. The reason for doing is because the number of maximum reps may also vary depending on how deep you hitconfirm into that loop (unless Tao's at the corner, of course).

That ender is not that different from the one I've seen Seji use in the latest batch of videos. The only difference is that he also includes a j.2D~C > j.C > j.5D~6 > j.C in between, which basically pushes the opponent close to the top edge of the screen (where Seiji usually attempts purple throw tech traps).

Oh you mean with 236CC as a starter?! Uh, I just do her regular drive loop, I haven't seen other players try anything else off it.

Combos that use 236CC at the corner seem to be fairly easy to me... for midscreen I just stick with the 5B>6A route or 5B>3C route If I can dash and hit deep in.

I've seen a couple videos recently from combos starting from corner orb oki, and yeah they started with orb>5A>6A>2D3 I need to dig in my video folder and see if I can directly link them here, but they basically followed a similar pattern to CH 6A corner combos Even better for easier hitconfirm: 2A > 5B > 5CC > 214A~A > 2A > 2B/6B/Throw mixup gotta make use of her 2A's awesome reach and speed as much as we can

double post

Minori has switched to Makoto as well.

You're in Osaka? Cool! Is it for vacation or work/study purposes? I am only 3 exams away from my degree in japanese studies and I'll likely be moving to Japan to live and work there by next year :o, I'm definetely looking forward to go and visit one these arcades either in the Kantou region or in Osaka/Kyoto

I thought the opponent would be able to tech if I included 214B~JB>JD as well, good to know it works off 2A starter as well!

So what's her best corner combo off 2A with no meter? I was thinking of something like 2A>5B>5CC>6BC>5D3>dash2C>214B~D>2C>2D3>JD3>2366A~D>214B~D>orb oki

Yeah, the more is the height difference between Makoto and the opponent at the moment she does delayed j.B > j.D the sooner she lands before the opponent does. An other tip to make the 2366A easy, since the input is buffered in the last part of her fall, you can time it by even doing stuff like 236B6A, the orb will still come out properly. The reason for pressing B is just to get used to the rhythm since it has to be one fluid motion, it doesn't have to be rushed at all.