dragontamer

j.D -- It has an interesting hitbox that can beat out many attacks that are used as an anti-air, such as Mirror Match 6A, Tager's 2A and so forth. This is very unsafe on block however, so I don't recommend it to be used very often. Experiment in training mode before using it like this however, its tricky to use its invincibility frames. Often, you have to jump higher than usual, so an opponent who knows the trick will notice you. Another use of it is as a crossup from super-jump 5A and 5B. The most useful trick with j.D is using it very low, so that j.D never comes out. This is called a j.D cancel. This allows you to use any drive attack while landing. While I disagree with this video... here's a good demonstration of the j.D cancel. Note, this video was for an older version of BlazBlue, but the j.D cancel still works in BB:CS. j.4D -- With a 4.5k Fatal Counter combo, invincibility frames and guard break, you'd expect this move to be good. But it isn't. Thats all there is to it, really. Its just too slow, the invincibility doesn't last long enough, and while its the 2nd safest drives on block... its still unsafe on block. Its good for trolling newbies and other people who don't know how to punish however. d.5A -- This is the 2nd fastest drive, clocking in at 13 frames of startup. Its so fast that using this move after some drives is actually a legitimate blockstring. Unfortunately, a blocked d.5A is unsafe. Inside of a combo, there is little reason to use this attack because it does little damage and prorates poorly. It does combo on standing opponents from j.D however. In a blockstring, you can sometimes screw up the timing of your opponents reversal with this attack. d.6A -- The 4th fastest drive at 18 frames. On Standing Opponnents, every drive combos into d.6A, and d.6A combos into d.6C. This attack also offers a lot of blockstun. Still unsafe on block, but you don't have many options when you're stuck in Chain Revolver. d.5B -- The 3rd fastest drive at 17 frames. While a poor attack in a combo, its CR's better option on block because its fast, pushes the opponent away and gives a lot of blockstun. d.6B -- This attack must be blocked high. With 21 frames of startup, this is Noel's fastest overhead. Practice j.D canceling into this attack. In my experience, this attack is the easiest way to set up a juggled opponent into Fenrir (632146D). d.5C -- While a poor option on block, this attack is great for setups and combos. On hit, you can jump-cancel and continue your combos. It has alot of untechable time, and if the opponent is getting juggled, this attack can often combo into your astral. d.6C -- This is one of Noel's slowest attacks, but it offers the largest amount of blockstun of all of Noel's attacks and guardcrushes the opponent. Furthermore, it is one of the most powerful attacks to start a combo, and one of the best attacks to combo into due to its high damage and great proration. The opponent can almost always jump, jab, or even counter-grab his way out of the startup of d.6C however, so don't be predictable with this attack. Its good if your opponent is sitting around blocking everything, but be weary of more active opponents. If a stronger opponent blocks this attack... be sure to hit them in the sweetspot, so that you can safely use d.5B and push them away on block. Practically all decent opponents will instant-block this. 236D -- Bloom Trigger. This attack pushes the opponent away on block, but an instant-blocking opponent can punish you afterwards. 214D -- Assault Through. This attack crosses up the opponent and has a huge amount of full invincibility frames near the startup... you are immune to even grabs during this time. However, every opponent worth his salt will grab you out of this attack when your invincibility ends. 623D -- Spring Raid. Noel's fastest attack from Chain Revolver. Great hitbox, guard crushes the opponent but extremely unsafe on block. If your opponent is low on primers, and he's blocking d.6C... you can use 623D and crush one more guard primer.

By lulzy, if you mean wtf, I saw that comming and I thought 2D was faster, yes, its kinda lulzy. :-( Lulzy for the opponent, not for the Noel.

Lots of damage only on clean d.6C, which is like... stupid opponents who wakeup incorrectly lol. I guess Guard Crush also gives you clean d.6C, but you get a damage penalty on guard crush combos. Also, know your corner combos!! Practically every combo worth knowing in the corner gives you 4k damage... or 5k if you add the super in at the end. 5K off of 5D counter-hit, 5k off of 3C, 5k off of throw... you want your opponent to be pinned against the corner.

Indeed. I'll go ahead and edit that. Have you looked over http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?7953-Noel-Guide-for-CS&p=759973&viewfull=1#post759973 ?? Thats more important for newbies IMO, so I'd like for that to be better reviewed.

The Chain-Revolver Oki stuff is semi-gimmicky, you need to be paying attention to your opponent's heat as well as know the matchups to use it effectively. I have discussed it at length in the other topic. Okay, its flat out a gimmick, a gimmick that punishes opponents if they don't know about it, but I guess a tech trap is always a good tool to have. I also have a video tutorial about the setup here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM385yf1jg8

Chain Revolver Overview Chain Revolver (abbreviated CR) strings have a starter, up to four followups in a row, and then a finisher if desired. Starters are 4D, 5D, 6D, 2D, j.D, and j.4D. Followups can be d.5A, d.6A, d.5B, d.6B, d.5C, d.6C, d.5D, d.4D, d.6D and d.2D. Finishers can be 236D, 214D, 623D, and any special attack such as 236A, 214A, and even 632146D. You can continue attacks even on whiff. First thing you need to know to use CR effectively: when in CR, Noel cannot block until she reloads her guns or finishes her attacks. Innately, this makes every single CR attack a risky option. Opponents can always position themselves to punish your CR. On the other hand, every single CR starter has some form of limited invincibility. With careful selection and timing, you can use these invincibility frames and counter-attack through your opponents offense. In general, CR is a decent defensive measure. Counter-hit 4D leads to almost 5000 damage combos, and Counter-hit 5D leads to about 4.5k damage combos. However, if your opponent predicts the CR, they can punish it. Note: when comboing with CR, keep track of which attacks you have used. Noel suffers a damage penalty whenever she repeats a CR attack in a combo. For example, d.5A -> d.6A -> d.5A -> d.6A -> 236D barely does any damage at all, because you get a penalty from the 2nd d.5A and another penalty from the d.6A. Also note, d.5D and 5D are different attacks. 5D is the CR Starter, while d.5D is attack used while inside of Chain Revolver. d.5D is faster, but leads to weaker combos. It also has no invincibility. 5D on the other hand is slower, has full invincibility in the middle, and leads to massive combos. These two attacks are considered different when applying the same-move proration penalty, so feel free to use both 5D and d.5D in a combo. Another Note: in every Chain Revolver attack, Noel loses invincibility before she hits the opponent, so be sure to time your invincibility carefully. This is unlike Ragna's Inferno Divider or Jin's 623C. You cannot use these attacks like Dragon Punches. Instead, they're more comparable to Bang's Guard Point attacks, without the hitstop. Generally, an opponent who mashes 5A 5A 5A 5A will beat you. Instead, focus on countering attacks which leave your opponent open if they miss you. 5D -- Attack invincibility starting at frame 5. Note: you can still be thrown out of 5D. This is an effective counter-attack when you learn to instant-block your opponents blockstrings. You can also punish slow attacks on reaction. For example, Ragna's Dead Spike, Tager's Sledge, Jin's 6D (Aka: Ice Fart) can be punished on reaction. 4D -- Upper-Body invincible from frame 1. Causes a fatal counter-hits. This move beats "horizonal" attacks, such as Ragna's 5B and Litchi's j.B. However, attacks that hit low, such as Ragna's 6B and Makoto's j.CC can still beat 4D. Overall, 4D can be used as an effective anti-air against certain characters. 4D practically beats all air-dash ins as well. 6D -- Upper Body invincible from frame 5 and low profile. Hits low. 2D -- Lower Body invincible from frame 1. You cannot be ground-thrown after frame 5: you are airborne so you have to be air-thrown. It has a very good hitbox that can be somewhat used as a very slow anti-air. You have a major frame-disadvantage on block however, all opponents can poke you out of any followup except for 623D, which is very unsafe. So don't use this in a blockstring unless you are 100% sure you will hit. ****** Bah, thats all for now. *******

Sounds like something I need to put into the updated guide. Here's the essence. j.D will NOT come out if you are too low. So, right before you land, you hit j.D. If you do this correctly, you'll glow black and then Noel will reload her guns when she lands. How is this useful? You can use ANY drive-followup attack during this period, without actually using a starter. The "n00b" example would be: jump -> (j.D cancel, j.D doesn't come out) -> 214D. (Assault through) This "instantly" allows you to use 214D from any landing. This is the noob example because its flashy but kinda worthless at high level play. But play around with it, you'll get people at low level play because they don't expect 214D unless you're in chain revolver mode. The most useful one in my experience is the d.6B followup, because its a fast overhead that occurs after landing. It seems to catch more opponents than normal 6B... then again, d.6B is faster than 6B. You do this by jump -> (j.D cancel) -> d.6B. You can do this from any landing. A generally useful place is of course... when you're jumping in. For example, jump -> j.C -> j.D cancel -> d.6B / d.214D.

The two hits for 2C have a -14 frame hole. If the first hit is instant-blocked, the 2nd hit has a -9 frame hole. Yes, Negative hole. Its solid. Otherwise, I offer you the video challenge to prove me wrong. (or, a test I can do in training mode) +1 frame on block turns to -4 frames on instant-block. So IB 2nd hit and you'll still recover in time to block Hotenjin / ID. You are quite safe. I mean, while we're at it, if Tager IBs your 2B, he can 720C you before you recover from 2B. But humans don't really play like that in my experience... except ****ing Galileo. ------------- That said, if they IB say, 5C (instant-blocked) -> 2C, yes, they can punish the 2C during its startup. So I probably should mention that.

Makes sense. I'd imagine that j.4D would be too slow though... but whiffed 720C does have a lot of recovery frames. --------------- Here's my rundown on normals: Normals Overview: Unfortunately, her normals are among the weakest in the cast. Still, the normal game is the most fundamental part of Noel, because they're fast and often are Noel's safest options against your opponent. Noel's range is very poor, so you'll have to learn various ways of getting in. Vary your dash-ins and jump-ins, don't get predictable. You can attempt to play the long-range poking game with 5C and 5B, but overall, Noel isn't very good at zoning and poking. Noel's average damage is going to be poor. She only has situational combos if you use 5B, 5C or 2C. Capitalize on crouching and counter-hit states: these is one of the few times 5B / 5C / 2C will actually combo. Otherwise, you'll need to rely on 5A and 2B range if you want to actually want to get a decent combo into Oki. Even then, these combos won't get you more than ~2.4k damage. Using the riskier 3C can net you more damage, but good players can block on reaction and then punish you heavily. Noel's High/Low mixup is very poor, and you won't be getting much damage off of that. Instead, focus on training your opponent into making stupid counter-hit mistakes. Use a predictable throw-pattern... and then punish with a frame trap into a counter-hit. For example, train your opponent to throw-break after 66 2A. Then, when you are sure they are trained to throw-break, use 66 2A -> 5C / 2C Counter! -> 3C/5D -> combo. Another one is 5A/2A -> 66 -> Throw. When you're sure the opponent is trained, use 2D, which cannot be ground thrown after frame 4, into a 2D counter-hit combo. In the corner, you'll get the most damage off of throws. Instead of using a counter-hit, take advantage of the throw-reject system. Use one more 5A or 2A than usual, and then use a purple grab. If they are trained, they'll hit throw too early, and you'll get a throw-reject on the corner for over 5k damage. 5A -- Very good but very short range poke. You've got a lot of options from a blocked 5A, especially if you are dashing in. 66 5A -> tickthrow (practice your timing so that you only make a green throw), 5A -> 2B -> 6A -> 6C. Hitconfirms to 6A -> 6C. Without dashing in, the 6C will sometimes whiff after 6A, especially after 5A -> 2B -> 6A. You can also jump cancel this move into a j.D or j.C crossup. Your frametrap from here is 2C. Do note, if your opponent instant-blocks, you can tick-throw them sooner than usual. 2A -- A slower poke with less blockstun. You can use the less blockstun to your advantage however. Because of the less blockstun, you can get a green throw off of 2A sooner than off of any other attack. This is the only attack that frame traps to 5C, and it also frametraps to 2C decently. Its a relatively safe move to throw out, and has decent range. However, it is one of thse slower pokes in the game. Don't expect to win vs Bang's 5A, or other faster pokes. 6A -- Noel's Anti-Air Normal. This whiffs on most crouching opponents. Learn the "sweet spot" of 6A: you need to position yourself correctly against your opponents jump-ins. This attack is not very safe on whiff, so missing the opponent's jump in will get you puinshed. You are head-invulnerable during the active frames of this attack, which means you'll beat most air-to-ground attacks clean when positioned correctly. 6A -> 5C -> j.B -> jump cancel -> j.B -> j.C -> j.236C works on most jump ins. 6A -> 6C ->j.D -> Chain Revolver combo does more damage and lands Oki... but it doesn't work on all jump-ins. 5B -- Noel's Midrange poke option. You don't have very many combo opportunities off of this attack on a standing opponent. Standing Opponent Counter-Hits go to 3C. Crouching opponents can be comboed into 5B -> 5C -> 2C -> 3C. On block, you can jump back in and try to do more 5A pressure. Frametrap to 2C. 2B -- Noel's low poke. On a standing opponent, you can combo into 2B -> 6A -> 6C if you dashed in. Frametraps to 2C. If you can get the timing down, this is Noel's best Oki option: 2B punishes both forward and backward rolls. Dash 2B slides under neutral techs and emergency rolls for a crossunder. 2B punishes quickrises and finally, if your opponent decides to just not wakeup... you can pickup your opponent off the ground into a combo. 6B -- Noel's only normal overhead. Despite it being slow, if you can train your opponent to always block low, you can get them with this attack. Its also Noel's meatiest attack, so its decent on your opponent's wakeup. On hit, it forces your opponent to crouch, giving you a nice combo into 3C. 5C -- A long range poke. On counterhit, you have 3C and 5D as combos. 3C can do more damage with the Haida loop. 5D is easier to combo with. 2C -- A relatively safe way to end blockstrings with +1 frame advantage. You have 3C as a combo on crouching and counter-hit opponents. Pay attention to the 2nd hit: if your opponent was crouching, the 2nd hit will combo into 3C. 2C -> Rapid -> 66 -> 6A -> 6C -> combo will get you over 3k damage, but requires 50% heat. Also, 2C is a good frame trap from 5A, 5B, 2A, and 2B. Train your opponent to mash, and you can punish with 2C frametraps into 3C. 6C -- A short-range attack. Counter-hits to 3C and 5D. Very fast, but has a long recovery. Very punishable on whiff. This is a very meaty attack, so 66 6C can punish most back-dashes into 66C (airborne / backdashing opponent) -> j.D -> combo. 3C -- Noel's highest damage combos are off of this attack. With the Haida loop, you can approach 5k damage off of clean hits. Unfortunately, only 6B combos into 3C naturally, otherwise... your opponent needs to be in either counter-hit or crouching state to get hit by 3C. 3C does guard-crush on block, but it is very unsafe at -18 frames. j.A -- Fastest Aerial. Decent Jumpin, but punishable when you land because it doesn't have much blockstun. Tickthrows very easily and hits overhead. j.B -- Decent Air-to-Air and Air-To-Ground option. Hits overhead, and combos into 6A on standing opponent, and 5C -> 3C on crouching opponent. j.C -- Large amount of blockstun. Good for keeping pressure on your opponent, but opponents can block low. A decent Oki option: punishes rolls and quick-rise. Canceling into landing + block can make you safe vs Inferno Divider and other reversals. If you get predictable, an instant-blocking opponent can punish you. ************** Criticism on this first draft is appreciated.

1 CR Left: d.6B -> 623D -> 66C in the corner / Rapid. From Alternative Standing Reset. 2 CR Left: d.6B -> d.5D -> 623D -> 66C if you got really good timing. Corner or Rapid makes it easier. From CR Oki. 3 CR Left: d.6B -> d.6A -> d.6C -> 623D -> 66C is pretty easy. From Standing Reset. 4 CR Left: d.6B -> d.6A -> d.6C -> d.6D -> 623D -> 66C is also fine. From (j.d) cancel. All can end with 236D into Oki. 3 and 4 can go d.5C -> j.D -> d.5A for standing reset if you prefer that. No. j.C -> (j.D cancel) -> d.6B is pretty damn effective. Time it right, and the j.D never comes out. Its one of Noel's effective tricks IMO.

Someone else does this? I'm a happy panda now :-)

http://generalnantoka.blog35.fc2.com/blog-entry-371.html This looks like the site where they got the information... if its something else, sorry, I can't read it

720C Super-flash is 0-frames. IE, if its out, you're already hit. You can never react to the 720C, you can only predict it.

Meh, I guess its possible for the 22C thing, cause that'd be noticeable to anyone who can consistantly do Haida loop. 22B having less range... that also is important because Haida is very spacing dependant. So i guess I jumped the gun on that one. That would be easy to figure out with experience... but do they mean a smaller hitbox on 22B, or do they mean that 22B hits closer to Noel? If 22B is closer to Noel, doesn't that make the Haida loop easier? You probably can't do as many reps, but it seems to me that Tsubaki / Makoto would be possible to Haida loop if 22B was closer to Noel... Basically, can we have a less ambiguous translation of "less range" ?? HeartNana: Can you read them moonrunes? I mean, Japanese Kanji or Katakana or whatever its called. >_<. Is there a less ambiguous translation possible?

Watch the Loketest just have massive lag on their TV. Thus, the players have trouble doing Haida loops and think that 22B / 22C are nurfed and that 5D has less invulnerability. Reading in-between the lines ftw!! No seriously, how the fuck do you test these claims?

That is more of an Oki game than Tech. Oki is almost always prefered over no-Oki, especially because all of Noel's most powerful combos end in Oki anyway. In a standing reset, your opponent never actually techs, because they were never launched. This video here demonstrates a Standing Reset with CT Rachel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKnN211MXbU Now, that video doesn't really describe my situation, because Noel doesn't have 3k+ combos that go into instant-overhead standing reset for another 5k damage or something. But it does show you the difference between "Standing Reset" and "Oki Game". There were three combos. 1. 6B -> blah blah. This is how the Rachel starts the match. 2. j.2C 3D -> blah blah. Alzarath resets the opponent with a very fast overhead. The opponent was blocking low, and thus was punished. 3. Combo finally ends. Alzarath starts a new combo with the pumpkin for the win. Combo 2 was a reset. Combo 3 was Oki. What you were describing was Oki. What I'm asking is an opinion on resets.

Hmm, obviously Carl's and Tager's mixups are better, Carl having pseudo-unblockables and Tager being able to punish blockers with grabs. Throwing d.6C in there punishes bursted opponents with 2 primers (d.6C -> 623D for guard break), but that is a very specific situation indeed, and can be barriered to protect against the guard break. Thanks for your opinions. Are there any exceptions to the rule? I mean, its pretty obvious that if the "optimal combo" did only 100 more damage than the mixup combo, and the mixup can add 3000 damage... you might as well do the combo into mixup (as long as the opponent isn't punishing with reversals of course). Is there some threshold that would make the standing reset mixup better than the optimal combo?

Unless you... you know... watch the damn attack and notice the little circles that have them. Well, they don't look like circles anymore, but more like whiff-marks. (In CT they were giant obvious circle thingies. CS animations are more subtle, but are still clearly visible) All I have to say about this is... learn the damn matchup! Its not Ragna's fault if I bum-rush him during his 2C. Its my fault for choosing to bum rush a move with +1 frames. Going into a game filled with exceptions to the rule, and expecting to get around only on heuristics and guesswork is suicidal at best. Anyway, long story short: 1. Noel's drives don't have "dumb invincibility", especially if she's using her drives as pressure. They removed more invincibility from CT -> CS than you'd think. Only starting 5D has full attack invincibility, but thats like saying Rachel's Catchair and Bang's 5D has "dumb invincibility" (yes, I know its guardpoint, but its practically the same thing except Noel's can't be rapided out of. And I guess Noel's works off of attributes instead of high/low...). 5D does not have startup or active-frame invincibility, it can only be used safely vs predictable opponents. Trust me, Noels have to memorize a hell of a lot more crap to use her invincibility than you have to memorize to beat her. That includes when and where to instant-block and attempt to use 5D. 2. The large blockstun on Noel's Drives are also not an issue, because she has almost no solid blockstrings in drive. Aside from very specific situations (well spaced d.6C and d.5A after some attacks and so forth...), all of Noel's blockstrings have holes in them. If anything, they need to put more blockstun on her drives to make it a solid tool.

I find your Noel experience questionable at best. 1. None of Noel's Drives, aside from 5D starter, are invincibile to Ragna's Inferno Divider. d.4D is high invulnerable, d.2D is low invulnerable. Inferno Divider manages to hit both of them because they're not invinicble vs ID. d.5D doesn't have any invuln at all, and even if it did, she wouldn't have any by the time your blockstun ends. If she was invulnerable during the Loketest, its definitely removed now. Even then, 5D starter cannot be used in a blockstring vs Ragna, because it doesn't have active-frame invulnerability. Thus, doing 5C -> 5D will just get punished vs Inferno Divider. There is literally no way for Noel to be invulnerable vs Inferno Divider during a blockstring 2. Noel's Drives are level 4 and level 3 attacks. Her drive blockstun is approximately the same as Hazamas and Tagers. Nothing is out of the ordinary, aside from hitstop. Time doesn't stop as long when Noel is in a drive string, but you get used to it. As far as actual holes, shes got plenty of them. You don't need to memorize anything, mash Inferno Divider and Noel practically can't do anything about it aside from psychic 214Ds and stupid crap like that. 3. Spring Raid is not invincible at all. 4. Drive attacks have the most range and the most disjointed hitboxes out of all of Noel's attacks. Range is not their problem.

Trust me, I know. :-(

Not really. With a lot of her drives having 0 or 3 hitstop, there's only like 20 frames or so of gap between her drive blockstrings. (Consider this: after factoring in hitstop, Ragna's 5B -> 5C -> 2C are ~25 frames of gap) Choose your drives correctly, and that translates into ~2-frame and ~3 frame holes if normal-blocked and you subtract the hitstun on those attacks (d.6A -> d.5B -> d.6A for example). The main issue with Noel is that she only has one or two true blockstrings in drive, which makes Drive vs anyone with a reversal a poor choice. And only one true blockstring on an instant-blocking opponent. Plus, her overheads and lows are very slow, and they're predictable inside of drive. You can catch people who don't pay attention... ----------- Anyway, she only has invincibility when she starts a drive now. She has no invincibility during a drive anymore, outside of 4D and 2D. Both d.5D and d.6D have no invuln whatsoever. d.214A I guess has invincibility... but everyone can punish that on reaction. Overall, it isn't drive blockstrings that are the problem. Its that 5C -> 5D is a 8-frame hole so everyone can punish it on reaction with whatever they want, and all of Noel's drive enders are unsafe so there is no point in doing it against anyone. If its unsafe to start and unsafe to end, then whats the point?

In CT, you used it because you weren't sure that 6C would hit. 6C was the same speed yes, but 5A is safer if you whiff it. Basically, on those "almost combo but not sure" situations, you use 66 5A Option-select 6C. If you whiff, you'll recover in time to block. If you hit, the 6C will come out. I'll have to test to make sure 6C option selects on 5A like that, but its an old trick that was discovered in CT. Again, it wasn't very useful in CT, but it was discovered back then. I've experimented with j.D Oki, its only good if you can crossup the opponent: ie, not in the corner. Even then, opponents seem to know whats going on and will punish you as you land, cause 623D doesn't have invulnerability anymore

http://www.youtube.com/user/GAMEacho#p/u/2/xqALTUWudRc Very conservative Noel player at Acho. Never seemed to do corner fenrir. Seems... a bit weird. Maybe he doesn't think 1000 damage is worth it? Interesting notes: * At 6:23, he wasn't sure if the 623D -> 66C link was going to work. Instead, he does 623D -> 66 5A -> 6C -> j.D. This was an old trick in BBCT... but I can't believe I forgot about it. * His execution isn't top, in fact, he seems to get punished for dropping combos, and he drops other combos (that aren't punished... but still missed a lot of damage opportunity) * Overall, he's very good at 66 2D crossups. I've known about it, but this is the first time I've seen it used clean in battles as a semi-overhead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5NlLPPFN0M#t=7m54s Here's another older one, Noel vs Haks again. At 8:21, Noel manages to do a crossup with j.C. Hak blocks it correctly, but a new crossup is always good to me. This Noel seems to pokes often with 2A. I've thought about this in theory, and maybe its something I should implement into my play. 2A has relatively long range (for its speed) and a disjointed hitbox. It tick-throws pretty well because it has almost no blockstun... Here at 10:10 you can really see that its range is further than you'd think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVm12XgzMhc#t=11m34s Noel doesn't do very well vs Bang here.

4D doesn't seem to win against... like... Ragna's 6B and stuff. Of course, 6B is slow enough that 5D's invincibility can be significantly lower and it probably will still g through... Question: how the hell do you test this shit? How can we even be sure that 5D has less invincibility if we went into a Loketest? I guess you can test the startup invincibility (frame 4 vs frame 5), but then the specific frame would have been reported instead of this ambiguous "less invincibility" stuff. Overall, I don't even trust that news as legitimate. I can see it as a potential change (its a Loketest, anything is possible), but I don't know how I'd go into a Loketest and figure something like that out objectively.

Well, I mentioned my plans, if everyone's silent with the things, I'll post my next update / thoughts for criticism when I get the time. Overall, I hope that a stronger Noel player writes the guide or offers criticism, but I think I can manage to do better than the current one. I'm still kinda scrubby in the great scheme of things. The very least you can do is make your opponent work for the damn reversal. I've found that not every opponent actually mashes DPs / 720Cs. Instead, they choose a time when they think it would be easy to pull one off. d.6C is the easiest place to pull off a 720C because you're in blockstun for 50 frames or so. If they pull off the 720C, but then your blockstring is solid, then they have to pull off another 720C at the d.5B instead. Sure, it still isn't safe, but if they were expecting the 720C at the end of d.6C instead of d.5B, the 720C won't come out and instead you'll get a nasty message about "lag screwing up my damn reversals". Sure, a better opponent will still pull it off, but at least your forcing your opponent to work harder. Plus, while 720C will still reach Noel after d.5B, I don't think everyones reversals will (ie: Nu's 214A, Jin's 623C, Litchi's 623D will hit but the launcher will whiff and you can punish with 3C, etc. etc.)