Ronove

Heh, that's interesting. However I guess that it's still better to go for j.2D~B after 6A, despite being more difficult to succesfully pull a loop after that. One thing I noticed that might be worth mentioning regarding the loop execution: as you guys already said, the correct way to get the loop going is to not rush the j.2D~B after the 214D (in midscreen position), and that the opponent has to be hit at Tao's hip/bust height. Now, what I noticed when I couldn't succesfully pull the loop off was that no matter how I would regulate the timing for the 214D > j.2D~B bit, Tao would still end up hitting the opponent too early with her taunt (making the next repetition whiff). Why would this happen? Because at the beginning of the string when I jump-canceled 6A(1) into j.2D~B I would input 9 (as I've always done in CT) as jump input. Since inputting 9 as jump command makes Tao slightly jump forward, the distance that she has between her and the opponent when she starts the taunt loop is shorter than what it's supposed to be. Inputting 8 (neutral jump) basically solved my problem since I was able to pull the loop more constantly and my success rate increased a lot more.

I've seen Kazu using the 5C launcher route, and doing [...] > 5C > 2D~5 > j.5D~A > 9D~9 > 9D~9 > 3D~3 > 236Bx5 On the other hand Denpa seems to prefer the oki ender. I think this depends more on the matchup though. Like, having oki against characters who don't have good reversals (Bang, for example) without meter is a better choice than squeezing more damage and having to work hard again to get in. By the way, when I meant 3 taunts + 236CC I was talking about using the CT-like ender that XDest mentioned a while ago, the one that goes like 2D~9 > j.C > 9D~9 > 3D~3 > 236Bx5

So I had the chance to mess with CS Tao again. So far I'd like to confirm with XDest and the other that with the CT-like ender the max amount of taunts with a 5B starter is 3, although I only did try it with 236CC. Maybe with 214D > j.2D~B > 5C there might be a chance to add one more taunt before that? In any case 3.7K off three taunts is pretty delicious since I'm still working on my repetitions consistency I can atleasy safely manage up to three right now without bluebeating the combo. Still having trouble with the 3D~3 oki ender because the ~C cancel seems to start later and I tried it only a couple of times, so I need to adjust timing and again muscle-memorize it. One more thing: has anyone succesfully managed to get a nice damaging combo off an horizontal drive loop? So far all I did was doing the classic two horizontal drive loops > j.5D~A > double 9D~9 > 3D~3 > CAT2 ender. Does any of you know if you can add the CAT2 at the end? I fear using so many horizontal and vertical drives might not provide enough time to pull it off but I totally forgot to try this out as I was absorbed in testing and training mostly taunt combos and various enders. [edit] I just realized we lack a general discussion thread for Tao, all the other character subforums have one. It'd be useful even to share quick impressions for CS Tao that are not solely combo-related :X

Cool, I guess that's indeed why I'm still having trouble in connecting the j.2D~C at proper height. Before working on her enders though I guess I still need to get taunt loop consistently, I still bluebeat it a lot.

I love you guys

So it's 5b->6 taunts->3d~3 oki ender? Yeah in terms of manuality that ender looks indeed easier, I'll try it out.

Question: is there any chance to see CS rather than CT? [edit] found a plane ticket from Milan to Stockholm Arland's for €20 x2. I'm still not 100% sure I might make it but let's just say this prompts me to go. Any cheap place/hotel/cave where us foreigners can spend the night?

Argh, I might still be in Japan during that week (still not sure though). If I return to Europe in time I'd love to be there atleast for the BB tourney, provided that I can find some cheap plane tickets with RyanAir. :X This tourney and the one in Sweden better get some serious BB HYPE oh and I suppose you guys are planning to have BB:CS there, right? (this is mostly wishful thinking on my part)

What?! I need to try this next time. So basically that "CT-like" ender cuts down the amount of loops and deals about the same damage? Could you make an example with that 5B combo with the "CT-like" ender and the one with more loops and different ender (oki ender for example)? I really gotta try this shit, if it helps increasing consistency it's truly all welcome. Although I'd still try to get more loops in and go for the oki ender though, in some matchups it's just too vital to be able to reapply pressure asap.

from the tournament's website: What the hell?

XDest, taunt combos online are simply impractical unless you're always playing online with the same people and with same latency (meaning once you've adjusted the timing once you can even attempt them, without needing to continuously re-adjust). Besides, any opponent with a brain who realizes that taunt combos might whiff due to lag will not let himself get fooled by casual resets, as Tao really gets punished hard in CS for making mistakes. I still think that no matter how much "muscle memory" you put, you still look for visual clues when doing them and that's where latency fucks it up. My personal verdict still remains the same. This character is definetely not suited for online play, even more so in CS. You may still play her but it's like playing not at full potential, and in her case it's pretty vital since she doesn't have a whole lot of offensive setups in terms of variety (either go for big damage taunt loop, or poor/medium damage no-taunt). On an other note: I'm trying to practice her oki ender 214D > j.2D~C > j.5D~A > 214D > 236Bx5 and the damn ~C cancel won't come out in time. It's obviously a timing related issue but I just wanted to know how soon you guys push C to get it to connect. It seems like the ~C cancel really takes its sweet damn time before going into its active frames.

Single taunt combos "might" be possible with lag but you won't go past 3k.

You can stick to no taunt loop combos, just don't expect to deal 4k damage off a 5b. You'll be doing 3.2k at most.

Some of them are (the good ones like those that used j.C > 236B > j.2D~B), the ones involving D~B cancels are still there but they deal way less damage making them not really worth it IF you can use taunt loops. Instead, combos using the CS2 loop off situational antiair are pretty good.

This is definetely not a combo you can do online, unless you have ZERO lag. Reason is: once you get to the corner you have to shift your timing, and since that is a visual clue (delayed by latency) it'll be pretty hard not to make it whiff or bluebeat. It's already pretty tricky offline, I can't even imagine what would be online. Tao is definetely not going to be a popular character online unless people are willing to sacrifice her best offensive tools and stick with no-taunt BnBs that deal half the damage.

I think you can do the horizontal drive loop and end it with the JC j.c 236bx5, but it won't do that much damage. Same for me, that's an old CT habit a lot of us have since we simply used to hold the direction rather than doing jump cancels. With a little practice it will be smooth though, I'm already pretty consistent with that ender.

5d~9? Isn't it a 9d? Anyway, what I do is quickly input 8 (to jump cancel) while pressing C and immediately shift the stick down to do the 236 input. I get all 5 hits without any problem. If you get four hits it means Tao is not high enough (so either you were a tad slow during the JC bit or you screwed it up somewhere else). on an other note, I followed XDest's tip and I can do the taunt loop at the corner now, however when I got back to try the loop midscreen it would bluebeat everytime... Damn this loop and its tricky timing.

I'd rather save that meter for her counterassault. She needs it more than ever now with less health and poor defense. So all in all, I'll try to work on that ender and possibly avoid having to splash 50% just to get a knockdown at the end of the loop. Unless the damage caused by adding the super at the end is really worth it.

So there IS a shift in timing when approaching the corner, as I thought. On an other note, I noticed that even Kazu (besides Denpa) likes to go for the ender 214D > j.2D~C > j.5D~A > 214D > 236Bx5 when doing the taunt loop. It seems to be her best ender since it also gets wallslam+knockdown and oki and it doesn't seem character specific either. This will probably become her new #1 ender on loop.

It definetely looks like a more viable tool as part of her mixup/pressure game. On the other hands j.C is basically just combo material and might be used for some spacing in air-v-air. Not as reliable as air-to-ground normal as it used to be in CT.

Crossup j.B is great, you can do it really easily on big characters and it works even on small ones with proper spacing. A plain simple 2D (with no drive canceling involved) followed by j.B will cross the opponent up. I'll test the blocked 5d~b tomorrow, however by playing in the previous sessions I got the feeling that it was atleast possible to block/jump if the 5d~b got simply blocked. It's a whole different matter with IB though. 5d~c seems to be more useful than 5d~b at the end of blockstrings, albeit still pretty risky if the opponent has good yomi or knows what's coming after.

Yeah, Tao really needs to capitalize on the damage she gets off a combo, no oki setups in CS means no chance to immediately reapply pressure and with such low health and defense she's pretty much "forced" to play super aggressive and make every hitconfirm count a lot. You can't really dick around too much with her. I think this is what I've been doing wrong, the opponent would bounce too high and the next taunt would either whiff or bluebeat. I somehow fixed this by not rushing the j.2d~b input after the 214d, basically trying to keep the same timing that I have between the 6a and the j.2d~b and I finally completed the basic taunt loop. I still need to work on consistency though, this is really a string that relies heavily on muscle memory and looking for visual clues may be misleading at first due to the fact that each character kind of bounces on the ground differently. It's that kind of string that one should be supposed to perform in autopilot mode with eyes closed.

Is it just me or does the timing of the 214D > j.2D~B really does change once Tao gets to the corner during the loop? I mean, as long as I'm doing it midscreen it seems I can pull it off, once I get to the corner it either blackbeats or whiffs because Tao basically lands "earlier" on the ground compared to the juggled opponent. Maybe I need to speed up the input though... what do you guys do? :X