Ronove

Hello resets! (50% meter required) CH 2C > j.C > 5B > 5C > 236A > RC > 2C > 6B > 5B > 5C > 236A > reset (4.5k damage) Also is anyone else having trouble hitting [w]j.AAA? It seems like at the corner sometimes I'll only manage to land one or two j.A's

Good shit Taokakaism, I wish I went to see that (and attend to it), I guess I'll have to wait next year provided that my next job will be near one of those areas (Tokyo area, Kinki or Chubu) And 6B is really understimated by a lot of players outside of its use as overhead. :3

That 2b crossunder was freaking gold, he was litterally toying with Satoshi's brain. Also good choice in going for oki at the end of the TL, less damage is fine as long as he could keep the pressure on Bang.

Haha, I knew it Tsujikawa would have won this, his Tao is simply on a freakin' whole different level. And no souseta his Tao ain't about TL, watch the majority of his games first.

yeah, first loketest Tao looks a lot like CT Tao by the changes described so far. Although I haven't quite grasped whether the "more recovery" on her drives was referred solely to her drive moves or if it also included her drive cancel followups (in which case that would honestly be an unneeded nerf). Anyway, it's good to see that the taunt loop is gone. It was really too much autopilot once muscle-memorized and was dumb easy to hitconfirm off a lot of situations.

They can escape without much trouble after that no-PC bnb, that's the point. You can't lock them unless you're at the corner (in which case you would have used her corner BnBs that end with forced oki). Anyway, right now I feel that Makoto at most may be A tier but only if you make full use of all her parry cancel tricks (especially within blockstrings). Even with PC her bad matchups don't change that much since her biggest weakness still comes from her lack of range and the fact that she has to work hard on getting in compared to half of the cast. A way to partially fix this would be to reduce the recovery of her 236A~D, imo. Also considering that the game is going to go through a rebalance the parry mechanic will probabily be revised so that it won't allow any one move-loop.

On paper it really doesn't change that much. I mean a damage increase thanks to the AB2 ender is obviously good (it's ridiculous, actually) however it doesn't really add more options in her offense or defense, or mixups. I'd say that her "recent" green grab air tech traps are far more important when thinking of revising her current matchups. A damage increase only gives her better chances at either winning a round swiftly with less hitconfirms or at making a comeback, but that's something that generally applies to all of her matchups. Anyway I'd say wait and see how Tsujikawa and Uiisura fair at Tougeki SBO, chances are they've proably tried to include all this stuff in their gameplay. The "problem" is not the damage of her no-PC midscreen BnBs... Damage is 2.9k and may get to 3k if you hitconfirm from a jump in. The point is that her no-PC midscreen BnBs end with no oki and also push the opponent far enough to make it not really safe to immediately reapply pressure, especially against characters that can outpoke her easily.

I think they'll probably tweak it, considering that hitting an opponent with 6C is not that unlikely (if you're punishing a tech roll or a distant airtech), dealing 6k off regular TL was already crazy good, dealing 8k is downright rediculous considering that it's not even an impractical ender. I guess we'll have to wait and see, I think ArcSys won't overlook this though. Tougeki SBO will be interesting to see if this will be used, I recall some japanese Taos already trying this a few months ago (around April).

Learning to hitconfirm should be among the first things when learning a character, Cryingvoid. Just because she could vary her pressure doesn't mean that you can solely rely on that. If anything CS Tao will finally force any player to work on their execution without dropping any combo since all of her big damage comes at the very end. Which really isn't a bad thing, it means people will have to be less lazy and actually train hard on execution. However the payoff is definetely worth it.

Hehe, yeah it's easier but at the same time I dislike how convenient has become to use her drive from full screen. In CT I used to approach opponents with just dash/IAD or jumps, driving from fullscreen was usually a big nono. Now it's become the default approach and I actually feel that somehow it makes me a tad little "too lazy".

It's not just about damage only. Her other combos require character-specific spacing and different timing, while on the other hand her Taunt Loop is basically universal which definetely makes it more practical in a lot of situations. It's always a given that players in general prefer more practical combos that can be performed against everyone. It used to be like this in CT as well, if you recall it japanese players would always use her "5B > 3C > 5D~6 > j.C > 236B > j.2D~B > etc" among her combos because it was the most practical one and could be used against any character on any position of the screen, despite the fact that it wasn't the most damaging combo off a 5B starter.

I suppose the 4D~6 is not the short one (done by holding 4 during her leap) but the distant one right? Anyway, awesome stuff as usual

Well, look at it this way: if you're concerned about online issues then be aware that those single taunt combos involving ~C and ~A cancels are actually less practical, because depending on the character you may need different spacing in order to not make them whiff. For example, the string 3D~3 > j.2D~C > j.C > j.5D~6 > etc whiffs on Makoto if you hit your j.C too early/too low, forcing to wait a tiny fraction of second more in order to have Tao properly aligned so that the following j.5D~6 doesn't whiff, which also means you have stricter timing on the rest of the string that follows. While on the other hand against other characters it is recommended to quickly hit your j.C after the j.2D~C. This kind of stuff is obviously not netplay-friendly unless you have really good connection and you are able to correct your timing on the fly. Ironically Taunt Loop is easier than this stuff because afterall it's the same repetition of the same string, so if you manage to find the right timing for the first part it becomes a matter of keeping that very same rhythm. With this I am not saying that TL is online friendly, but it's certainly more practical than this type of 1 taunt combos that involve all these drive cancels, IMO. The only single/double taunt combos that are "easy" are those that make use of simple enders like 3D~3 > j.C > 9D~9 > 3D~3 > 236Bx5 or stuff like that. You'll "only" deal around 3k damage but atleast you won't really encounter any string that requires character-specific spacing/timing. On the other hand, her no-taunt combos are without a doubt the most practical combos especially for online play. And besides that, it's not like you'll be going into TL on every hitconfirm, Tao's TL setups aren't a lot, and in most cases you'll clash air-to-air with an opponent you'll find yourself doing a no-taunt combo after that.

You can still do 3D~3 > j.2D~C > etc even after the bit "taunt > 236CC > " at most, you might need a different timing to correctly space yourself after the j.2D~C depending on the character you're facing (different air hitbox). In any case these enders using ~C and ~A cancels are ironically more useful on no-taunt combos. If you can Taunt Loop there's hardly any reason to prefer this single taunt combos, since they are more chartacter-specific and require different spacing, while TL has without a doubt less issues on that aspect.

Are you kidding me? Like, what are those "certain blockstrings" that are not easy to IB? 5AAAAAA? Besides, it's not like you have IB the whole freaking string in a lot of cases, y'know lol online... How on earth can you even base your reasoning on netplay when discussing about match-ups? Ok, you're either trolling me or you just don't have the slightest clue...

If you're slightly too far you can also link an other 6C to get closer

"Messed up block strings" are part of a character's mixup game depending on risk/reward factors. Generally speaking good players will simply try to vary their pressure while try to make it as safe as possible and at the same time as most rewarding as possible. There's high risk/high reward setups but those should always be treated as special cases that a player does when he has good yomi, and not as a standard thing to do to "avoid IB". Besides, IB is really not that hard to pull off and it's "risk" factor is stupidly low (unless you're mashing) compared to the reward that you get from it (which for characters like Hazama is pretty great). That's why I am baffled when I read that "Hazama has limited defensive options" "only if you IB". Like what the heck, maybe if you started IBing when you have the chance to do it then maybe you'd realize it ain't that bad at all for Hazama.

What the... "only if you IB" and why on earth won't you make use of IB? Considering how quickly Hazama gains meter I'd say he's got one of the best defensive options ever (if not the best defensive option of the whole game). If there's one thing you can't complain about it's his defense, because good players are aware of how easy is in this game to IB and link a reversal (and he's got the best reversal of the game) right after.

Try to play resets and air tech traps instead. It's not really worth it to combo off it, imho.

Her pounce super is still comboable after a j.C > land or even after a CH 2C as long as the opponent is in standing animation. However, if you're going to add a super to your combo I'd still rather use her hexa edge or try to learn her AB2 taunt loop enders. Pounce super works best as a reversal or a trap after you're 6Aing an airborne opponent that you know is going to barrier block, but it's more of a mindgame/risky setup because if the opponent still may counter it especially if they did an air IB.

You're probably executing her j.2D too early. You don't have to rush the input, instead try to look for visual clues and rhythm: Tao is going to j.2D at the heighest point during her 214D just when she's slightly above the opponent (and before she starts descending naturally).

3C is super slow, any good player will dash and jab you during your startup frames. Sorry to say it but you probably haven't really played any decent Makoto if you think 3C is a good answer. 3C is terribly unsafe and you may only use it in yomi situations when you suspect the opponent is going for a 5A (and you have to preemptively throw it out). Tao can control Makoto from a bigger range and she doesn't really need to use any risky stuff at all since any punish that leads to the corner means half of Tao's lifebar gone. Play it safe, bait her parry with ~C feints, you can easily outrange her with 5C > 2C > pressure mixup, and with better mobility you have a lot of easy time playing ground footsies as well as dashing in everytime she whiffs something (and Makoto will occasionally whiff stuff, since her blockstrings sometimes end prematurely if too many A's have been spammed on block) Also don't crawl under her full screen projectile, that's exactly what a smart Makoto player wants you to do, since Tao is slow while crawling Makoto can easily run up to you and find a way to get in. You don't want to give them that chance. Just jump, drive-feint whatever. Also be aware that Makoto's air DP is air-unblockable, bait that shit, Tao can play "air footsies" with her mobility, although Makoto's j.B is really good but hasn't lot of horizontal range. airgrab > Makoto's j.2C, don't be afraid of airgrabbing a lot in this matchup. If you're cornered and you just want to avoid air-to-ground "mindgames" (heh) just drive away if you think Makoto is baiting your ground-to-air AA with a j.2C tl;dr space your stuff right, Tao shouldn't have too much trouble against Makoto as long as you're not letting yourself get trapped in the corner. Your range and mobility > her range and mobility

The problem of "personal" tier lists is that they are obviously too influenced by one's personal matchup experience. Like in XDest's personal tier list Tsubaki is in D tier, and it's most likely due to the fact that Tao is most likely one of her worst matchups so it obviously feels like "Tsubaki is really bad". I'm not implying that she's amazingly good either, just saying that it's pretty obvious that one's own opinion of other characters is naturally dictated by simple matchup experience which may actually be kind of confusing since tier lists are supposed to evaluate a character's strenght overall. Really, we may discuss matchups and all but for tier lists I'd personally wait for japanese pros to express their opinion and formulate a new general tier list after this year's Tougeki and once the new updated coin-op version is out.

I think it's currently stalled (or being published really slowly in Japan), but anyway if you like demon hunting, badass girls and badass sidekicks, and Yusuke Kozaki's char design (he's also the dude who did the char design for No More Heroes) then you might want to check it out. and lol@Dan stick, although that color is kinda... too fruity for my tastes