Dabbit, either I lack the credentials or I don't know how, can you rename this thread to "Arakune CS Video and Critique Thread"?
Million thanks.
And to follow up on Dabbit's advice, I got tons to tell you.
First and foremost, if you wanna play Arakune, the FIRST thing you MUST learn is his movement, which you don't seem to have down.
Arakune can be very fast if you know how to move him right.
You need to learn how to dash downward.
It's easy really, when you execute a dash hold 4 and do either a barrier or an attack, you'll float downward. It doesn't matter what kind of dash you do, hold backwards when doing it, this help speed up your movement.
j66-4b is Arakune's main form of approach. Very important.
Next is your setups, you do seem to mash a lot when you have curse.
be calm, learn to Negative Edge/Buffer bugs, you can do so plenty of ways, even without brandishing an attack.
You can barrier buffer bugs, which was one of the main ways to do so in CT, you can launch an attack to buffer a different bug, for example doing j6b[c] on whiff.
You'll perform j6b perhaps to close in on an opponent, and at the same time, by holding the c button, the c bug is NE'd without a c attack coming out. It's really a matter of common sense, go in training mode and experiment.
Truth be told for most set ups you don't need to NE if your fingers are fast enough.
And for some set ups, most notably j.c set up, you only need to NE the C bug.
Next on your setups in using the attacks in synchronization with bugs.
Try a very standard setup, 2a > 2a > a bug > 5cd > c bug > d bug
Very easy to hit confirm and can net you a good 5-6k.
Like NEing, physical setups really are a matter of common sense.
Learn to dive cancel. It is essential if you want to capitalize on Fatal Counters.
Practice on Ragna, then once you understand the basic execution, come back here and we can talk about character specific dive cancel combos.
Try 5c (FC) > ja > ja > jc > j2a > [hold 2 and release withing 3 frames of connecting, and press 5bd] dive cancel 5d.
It's a pretty weird kara cancel, but once you get it right, it's simple muscle memory.
The science of it is you execute a different unused dive close to the ground, so the game reads it as a ground attack, then you kara from that into 5d.
So if you do j2b, you have to dive cancel with either 5a or 5c.
And if you so j2a > j2b, you have to dive cancel with 5c since it's the only unused dive available.
Personally, I dive cancel with 5c almost all the time, because it's easier for me for some reason.
It's in good practice to IAD after a 5a > 6b, because sometimes a simple j6d won't cut it and will whiff on some characters.
IADing after the 5a > 6b and then doing j6d, this will cover that issue.
Autopilot 5C, if they're jumping at you, or dashing at you, do 5c, it's jump cancellable on block, so there isn't a real reason not to if they are closing in, well there is, and we learn those reasons by trial and error of autopiloting it.
That's about all I can remember to tell you.
