Ronove

Oh I am not saying it's a piece of cake Rin. My consistency in doing the 66 is still not that good (and I can't practice on CS that often these days, it's university exams time over here). As for the cat 2 loop I found it easier to begin with 236B rather than 3D~3 but depending on the ender and the character sometimes we're forced to start the cat2 loop with 3D~3. I just try time myself like when we're timing ~A cancels, the moment it hits I immediately do the other input. There's still a small frame window between the startup of 3D and when it connects, so rushing won't be good since it will make it that you shift to the 2 (in order to begin the 236 motion) before the ~3 activate. It's like 3D[small frame window]~3 > swift 236B > repeat

Getting a close 5C without being raped by an opponent's normal? I can hardly see that happening unless we're like.. fighting Tager, or maybe Rachel. In other cases I'd only use 5C at max distance range as a poke since it doesn't exactly have a lightning fast startup. But anyway, her 3C has a little more range in CS so that helps a lot when there's pushback after one or two hits before going into 3C (I lost count of all the times that the last hit of 3C whiffed in CT due to this...). Doing the 66 after a 5D~B is kinda tricky at the beginning, but if you think about it's just the same timing as inputting C while Tao lands and recovers from the ~B cancel. So keep that timing and instead input the first 6 at the moment you'd press C. This is of course in case you're trying that combo on midscreen. Knowing how to get into taunt loops from a different setup than 6A is useful because even if her 6A got a little better hitbox it's still a short move and chances are that a lot of times players will be using a barrier to try to make it whiff. So having an other route to pressure with is good since 3C can be canceled with a 2D~B/C in order to safely reset her pressure without leaving huge gaps. By the way, is 9 hits the most you can get with her regular ender off a clean 3C? I gotta try this but I think we can get 10 if we use the oki ender. It'll do less damage than the other but it'll still be good and allow her to pressure right away...

Yup. It's better if you stick with her in CT if you plan to use her in CS. It will make the transition a lot easier than just learning her basics from scratch.

Well if I wasn't interested in challanges I wouldn't be sticking with her, so I am not complaining about that. It was just a rant on how sometimes it feels frustrating to lose all the advantage you build with one hitconfirm, it kind of feels like one didn't really deserve it but that's how Tao is anyway.

It's true though that the new guard primer system allows her to block more in certain matchups which isn't bad per se. My "complaint" was only regarding her really low health. While I do understand why they made it like that, the fact that her BnBs are still not totally reliable in terms of success rate (and again, even top japanese players miss them A LOT in comparison to players that main other characters) lead to frustrating situations where all the advantage that was built is basically lost with a single combo + eventual resets. It kind of pains me to see the likes of Kazuhira and others do really well, then "oops", missed the ender or taunt loop string opponent recovers and it's back to square one. :\ I'm fine with her not having a lot of tools to defend, I'd even dare to say that she's actually improved a little on that aspect (6a is slightly better when an opponent is neutral jumping/falling in front of Tao), just a little health buff would be a welcome change in my eyes. Heh.

These days I've been thinking... If they really have to tweak Tao again with the console release, I just hope they give her a little more health. As it stands right now she's become a "kill or die" kind of character, with little chance for comebacks save a couple of matchups. Taunt loops aren't game-breaking at all and despite the reward being pretty good they're still really risky. Although a couple of decent combos that don't require the loop have been discovered I still see a lot of Tao top players often screwing up her BnBs and eating a fat punishment (many times costing the round). I am fine with Tao being even more execution based than she was in CT, but if she had her CT health (or 500 less if they really had to lower it down) then there'd be less depressing games that are like "Tao tries to get the damage > combo miss > punishment > round over/burst wasted". Oh well, enough of my ranting. :\

That's also what I do (when I actually remember to do it, lol). Theorically the goal would be atleast to set up a knockdown even if the damage from a combo started from a 6A is poor. Japanese Taos seem to go for the CAT2 loop at shortest height so that it's almost like the oki ender in the taunt loops where they can immediately reapply pressure/mix-up. Unless some really damaging combo is found from antiair 6A it'd be better to do that way.

Actually the timing for double taunt combos is almost the same. If you can pull double taunt combos 100% of the time in CT then learning the taunt loop won't be too hard. The only difference that I noticed is that since the ~B cancel in CS is faster you don't have to delay the very first taunt as much (almost no delay at all), while on CT there's a little more delay on the first taunt in order to get the opponent at the right height before doing the 214D > wait > j.2d~b In any case rushing the first taunt won't help because your goal is to get the opponent at the lowest possible height without bluebeating the combo, hence the reason for the pause between 214D and j.2D~B (because Tao needs to be above the bouncing opponent so that once they bounce again they'll be at hip height) and that's also the reason why delaying a little the first taunt also does help. It's all muscle memory, once you start figuring out the rhythm it'll gradually become more and more natural. The real hurdle is getting past 3 reps, if you get past that you won't be troubled in doing as many reps as the combo starter you use allows you to.

Mebo is one sick Tao, here's two nice setups taken from his recent match vids that I think you guys might like in case you already didn't know of them: knocked down opponent > neutral jump j.B > Taunt Loop x10 > oki ender 4382 dmg (on airborne opponent) 22C > 2D > 5D~6 > j.C > 9D~9 > j.C > 236B > 2D~3 > 236B > 2D~3 > 236Bx5 around 4300 damage I need to try those personally to see if they work on the majority of the cast, they don't seem to be that character specific though. The j.B combo is pretty sweet against opponents who choose to not recover/roll immediately, the 22C combo is certainly not as common but if it does hit you'll get some free meterless damage (looks like 22C still has awesome proration), and if they guard it you can still cancel it into a 2D to make it safe. It also seems like any no-taunt combo started from a CH j.D will net sweet damage as well (around 3.7/3.8k damage) provided that you do her CS vertical drive loop and CAT2 loop ender.

I still have to try that setup but I recall seeing Keita doing 8 reps with it with the oki ender By the way, one more thing I realized with the taunt loop that has helped me a lot in getting consistency is to try to delay the first Taunt as much as possible. Of course you still need to wait between 214D and the following j.2D~B but it kind of makes it easier to have the opponent exactly at the right height and all the following reps seem easier to do as well.

I'd say it's her insane abare. She can go into high damage combos that lead to the corner off a huge variety of situations and occasional/situational hits. It almost feels like in certain matchups (like vs Tao, heh I'm speaking from personal experience here ) she doesn't even need a "gameplan" at all, just hitconfirm something and control space around her, not to mention she can rushdown pretty well now. She might not have the same kind of "oki mixup" that Bang has but she doesn't need it because she will force the opponent to pick an option due to the fact that she gets meter pretty fast.

Not popular enough? I'd love to play this game since it's not even available around here.

Oh by the way, slightly off topic: I recall Rin used Dazzle to record his stuff, right? Is it good? Me and my friends of the local scene were looking to buy some of this equipment to record our games at ranbats/tourneys. What do you suggest? :X You can answer me with a PM just to avoid getting this too OT. Going back in topic, there's one cool thing that Whistler did against Satoshi in one of the recent G3 vids: basically as he landed with an empty 2D~B he did 5A > grab. Normally 5A is a move that is rarely used because of its awful range, however if the opponent is cornered or if you space well a 2D~B it becomes useful as mind-game tool. Satoshi was expecting to be thrown since he noticed the empty 2D~B and was ready to tech the grab but the 5A (which is faster than the grab) countered first allowing Whistler to counter-grab. Considering that Tao's throw range in CS has been nerfed a lot this little setup is actually pretty cool, once you use it you'll put the opponent in a situation where he has to guess a little on whether it's good for him to preemptively use a 5A or an other quick move to avoid being caught by the same setup, while Tao still has more options with a 2D~B.

*points to the com- oh wai sorry. Looks cute. I can't exactly think of many creative combos, but this one has rarely been featured (and it's actually a legit combo, if I am not wrong either Chikua or Whistler use it quite often): 5B > 3C > 5D~C(no hit) > j.2D~B > Taunt loop (can't recall the exact amount of repetitions though but it was certainly not more than 6 times) > ender of your choice

Zeth, the Noel player is Sakkaishi (correction provided by rtl82).

Too risky unless he's already doing something from full screen like the cloud. Else he might curse during your slow recovery.

Don't rush the 214D, there's no need to do it quickly anyway since there's also a small delay between that and the j.2D~B. You can practice that in CT's training mode if necessary, just do Taunt > 214D until you have 100% execution on it, it shouldn't be too hard. Finding the timing between 214D and j.2D~B is the real hurdle in my opinion, and even when you find it you still need to commit it to muscle memory. And you may still mess it up in a real match (hell, it happens even to japanese players who supposedly should have the most experience under their belts). However the good thing is that you can tell when you're going to whiff the loop after the first two repetitions because of how the opponent will bounce. If they're bouncing too high then you can always end the loop string before whiffing the next 214D and instead go for the 236CC ender, you'll do a double taunt combo that still does 3.3k damage. Keita does this a lot everytime he notices he's messed up the timing, and I do this as well since it's a visual clue that you can grasp in enough time to cut your loop string and rush to the ender. Cake and a few others have been posting but yeah this section isn't exactly lively. Tao has never been a popular character in first place and most likely the fact that she has heavily execution based BnBs in CS has probably driven a lot of people off as well, seeing that all this stuff doesn't make her exactly online-friendly unless you're blessed both with a good connection and with people who live close to you. Lag? I haven't touched online mode since November, I only connect once per month to see a couple of friends who still actively play online, but I mostly play offline now since there's a local scene, albeit small. Lag used to be pretty bad for me though, but mostly because of my connection rather than me being in Italy, there are actually a good number of european players who do play online and are good/decent at the game. But I'd rather focus on my offline practice since I'm attending offline tourneys and events. Online is useful to get some basic matchup experience though, and with the recent PAL release of CT I might be getting back to some online play to know a few new faces (mostly italian players so that I can invite them to the local ranbats/tourneys that we hold each month), but yeah offline > online anyway. :X

I think we could use this thread? It's not like it's overly crowded here, heh.

The point is that in a couple of occasions you jumped behind your opponent and charged j.C, that didn't allow Tao's sprite to flip and left you completely open for the opponent to counter as he wanted. Also as XDest said j.B is a better air-to-ground tool in CS, j.C is still good as air vs. air and for air footsies in general. Right now I'd say that j.B is good if you're already close to the opponent and you're either attempting a crossup, neutral jump j.B or in case you're ending your blockstring with a jump-cancelable move. It's basically her best jump-in tool. However j.D(with drive cancels) is a better air-to-ground tool if you're approaching the opponent from the distance. In order to get in safely Tao needs to force the opponent to commit a mistake either in blocking or in choosing the wrong moment to do something that's not blocking the right thing, so that's why her j.D~B (or even ~C) are so good in CS, because it leaves you with a good number of options at your disposal depending on how the opponent behaves when you're approaching, and if it connects it will cause enough hitstun for you to mixup your hitconfirm/pressure string of choice. I think this is what has really improved in Tao's offensive game compared to CT which had to be more linear and was more about pressuring than baiting mistakes due to her ~B canceled drives being all risky save for the 2D, coupled with the fact that in CS her 5B and her 5C are now level 1 and level 2 moves (meaning less blockstun/hitstun).

- don't charge the j.C - use j.D~B to approach as an air to ground, you can always j.D~B again or jump if it gets blocked and if it does hit you'll have enough time to land and hitconfirm your 5B/2A/Throw - too much 5B > 6A that whiffed, you should only used that string when you're close. If you are not 100% sure of the distance between you and your opponent use other blockstrings (5B > 5C > etc , 5B > 2B > etc etc, you get the idea)

You should post that in the video thread or in the general discussion thread, being a video...

I've seen a japanese Tao (Doyaemon) in one of the recent G3 vids do 8 repetitions with the oki ender after a backthrow setup, for like 3.8k damage. String was like [taunt loop]x8 > 214D > 236Bx5 at the corner Seems like a solid oki ender, you still net good damage and keep the opponent at the corner for more pressure for a 214D/airthrow if you catch them jumping away right after waking up.

Of course taunt combos were most likely intentional, but the loop? Well, we'll see when game comes out on console, I guess.