ZhePrime

Should be fairly obvious, but generally it's like this: Short - Usually where punches fly and for most the ideal range for starting a combo. Mid - This is where people usually throw out their pokes. Long - This is where most zoning and projectile spam happens and where pokes cease to reach your opponent. For Hazama, short range is where his 5B/5C/etc. attacks will reach and long range is where his chains produce enough hitstun to follow up with a combo. Mid is the space inbetween. Here's an image as well that shows generally what ranges I consider what No idea what you mean by that.

Try doing 214D~A at mid-range, you will be out of range if you don't charge it. Baiting Jayoku is possible, you know. And my point was that you cannot afford to throw around Jayoku willy-nilly, you use if after a move with a lot of recovery or after IB. I mean really, if you have 50% heat are you willing to gamble (like on wake-up) with a Jayoku? You really shouldn't. As I said, it's not a DP. But it is a great reversal and good to use mid-combo to extend the combo. A DP has more uses than using it during a blockstring. My point is that Hazama isn't good at mid-range, thus you shouldn't be at mid-range, he's at his best at long and mid-range. It's usually best to jump/dash back or forward and attack from there. Eh, his normals aren't that great. His pressure is bad and his mixup is meh (2 passable overheads and 2 lows + a short ranged command grab mostly used to get heat). His offense isn't mindblowing, but it works.

You can react to it, both I and people I face do it all the time. It's also far from being as good as a Gauntlet Hades. It's slower (especially if you charge it for 25 frames), has worse hitbox and can only be done from a groundbased stance. You can ONLY combo after it if you net a CH or after 50 frames (if you time it perfectly). Only thing it has over GH really is the frame advantage. No, it's not. What especially hurts it are the active frames. Jayoku doesn't get you out of the same sitations as most other DP's get you out of and in fact loses to a lot of stuff, even other DP's. It has a very specific purpose. So people only DP after IB's? Wow, are we playing the same game? No actually, it does not. A lot, but far from everything. Here's just a few examples of stuff it doesn't trade or beat in this vid (and they only show Distortions): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HGRBeFWxxk Bunch of that stuff say Inferno Divider can beat or clash with and simply do another Inferno Divider until you hit them. And compared to another character that gets Heat easily as well (like Ragna) he can very often RC his DP's to make them safe, how often do you have 100% Heat as Hazama AND intend to use it like a normal DP? Not often. Trying to take a chance and throw out a Jayoku at a prediction and have 50% additional Heat? Yeah, doesn't happen often. 5B is not midrange, nor is 5C, 5A or 214D~C. D, 236D and 3C are your options at midrange. None are great and only one, 3C, might lead into a combo at that range. For you to grasp what mid-range is it's basically at the distance Hakumen can poke you with his 4C. Beyond that range is long range. Half the cast is better than Hazama at mid-range. Heck I'd almost say that Tager is better at mid-range than Hazama. And do you honestly use D attacks so close to the enemy? Really? LOL, well you heard it here first folks.

Haz's 3C is "unsafe" if it whiffs, like if it's slightly out of range, they jump, or do a low invincible move you'll probably eat it. Also, 214D~A is not difficult to A spam out of, it doesn't require any specific timing really. All of Haz's overheads are pretty cruddy. Jayjoku isn't a dragonpunch, you can't afford to use it as such either. It should only be used against moves with super long recovery or after you IB. It's no Inferno Divider, it doesn't clash with tons of stuff and cancel into itself (or something else), you usually don't have 50% additional Heat to RC it to make it safe, you can't avoid stuff like 720's with it, etc. Jayoku loses to more stuff than a normal DP would, heck it loses to other DP's (like say Litchi's). It's good for what it does, but isn't some get-out-of-jail-for-free-card. Hazama is at his weakest at midrange, he has no strong options there, only stuff that kinda works for lack of something better.

I dunno, I'd say average. At mid-screen (without parry) it's rather unimpressive and in the corner it's pretty much standard damage. Not horrible damage, just mediocre. But this damage talk is relative. Sure she does, it's simply not very good. The good thing about her j.2C is that it halts her momentum and that it clashes it damn near everything (from Hazama's chains to certain AA attacks). Against Tager it's also very good at stopping colliders, especially if they try and suck you in.

Nowhere near the top, that's for sure. She has 4 very good moves, 5A, 2A, j.2C and Big Bang Smash. In addition to that she has mediocre damage (only impressive damage comes from the loop), poor mixup, short range and no poke's. She's Ragna light. Her matchups consists of mountains (ex. vs Tager) and valleys (ex. vs Bang) so she's around mid-tier I'd say yeah. With a few tweaks she'll be fine. Her high and low game is pretty horrible, but with PC it's okay. She has a couple of very strong points about her, but she's hunkered down by the rest, her weaknesses. I'd probably place her at high B maybe. Jump? It's a very slow attack. If people can react to Act Parser then people should be able to react to Makoto's projectile at Lv3, I know this because I can.

Valkenhayn will be playable at TGS on Sunday 19th September for a couple of hours (in addition to his appearence at AMS on the 9th of September). On the official site his release date is listed as "Late September", which basically means he will be released either on September 21-22 or September 28-29. Source: http://blazblue.jp/topics.html#topics137

Game will be shown at TGS, might've been mentioned earlier, but hey.

This combo: 5C > 3C > 214D~C > 5C > 2C > 6D~A > 4D~A > 623D > forward jump j.6D~D > 2C > 4D~A > 4D~D > j.214B# Is by far the most annoying combo I have ever tried to learn, I've gotten to the point where I've given up completely on it. The timing required is unbelievable at so many places in the combo. There is no real guide to follow, just you having to sit there for hours trying to find the perfect timing for everything and then spend several more hours to get it etched into your muscle memory. Pulling this one off online... just wow /rant Oh well, at least now I can do several other combos easier and I learned some new ones, gonna compile them later.

Don't really care, but that some characters have much better AH than others is a bit silly. Characters like Tager have completely worthless AH's, while say Lambda has a great one. Landing an AH can lead to some people acting like jerks though, but that isn't a problem with the AH itself.

Problem is if you whiff the 3C, either because you're slightly out of reach or because they jump, then you can't cancel into a 236D. Also sometimes you can get hit out of your 66, 3C by one of their pokes. 3C is ok, but it'd not go so far as to call it a "good poke". Problem is that you can't do squat at such a short distance and even if you hit them the hitstun is too short. They can just A poke you out of your D (or AA you), it's not at all difficult to react to once you get used to it. His D's are also pretty slow compared to some characters pokes (good luck trying to play around at mid-range with D against say Hakumen or Litchi). 5C(2x), 3C, 214D~C, 66, 5C(2x), jc, j.C(5x), 2C, 4D~D, etc. can cause you to get out of range making the combo whiff, in other situations you can also be too far away for the rest of the combo to hit after 214D~C.

You'll get used to it, during my first week with a stick I had trouble doing 236X , 623X and 63214X motions This might be helpful: Ultimate Japanese Balltop Joystick Holding Guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsME37GrqjY

At mid range a lot of characters have better pokes and if 3C whiffs you're open for punishment, I honestly prefer 236D in most situations as a mid-range poke. Using D to get in at mid-range is a bit risky if you ask me, the short hitstun isn't enough and people get wise on your D tactics fast. I try to avoid the mind-range and stick to characters like Mu, Lambda, etc. like glue and vs close range characters like Tager I tend to keep my distance and wait for him to make a sloppy advance. Good luck doing a lot of stuff consitently in netplay. His dashes are better at midrange if you ask me. I don't use the ".5" system because it's difficult to measure something so accurately. And if you ask me there is no way in hell Hazama is a 1/5, that basically means he's as easy to play as Ragna (which I'll tell you, he's not). Hazama isn't as straightforward as say Jin or Ragna and he doesn't really have tools for almost every situation. He isn't that well-rounded, he has some strong strengths but also some weak weaknesses. ...623D, 66, 3C... 6D~A, 6D~A, 6D~A, 623D... (slightly annoying with 2, but with 3 6D~A it's hard) 623D, j.6D~D... 214D~C, 66, 5C... etc. are some of his more troublesome stuff to time, but then there's also a bunch of other stuff that takes some getting used to. Since your reversal is meter dependant you need to learn how to block well, which is something that you don't really learn with some characters, so that might come into the equation as well. He's not a hard character to play, but if you compare him to the rest of the cast, I'd say he's somewhere in the middle.

Hazama doesn't have too complex combos, nor does he have a lot of different ones. He is however a character that requires precise timing for a lot of his stuff and is a bit tricky to play gameplay wise (he isn't that straightforward). He buckles under pressure easily if you don't learn IB Yoyaku and he is pretty weak at mid-range (his optimal range is very far away and very close). On a 1-5 scale of difficulty, I'd probably say that Hazama is a 3/5, Jin being a 1/5.

True for any fighting game really. I still have nightmares of the horrible online experience of SC4.

Well if you're only gonna play online you might not wanna play Arakune, Carl, Taokaka, Hazama and Litchi. Hakumen can be somewhat playable if you don't try to do his 623AA combo and D's.

My favorite is: ... 6D~A, 6D~A, 623D, 66, 3C = 90% fail rate. I really wanna play this game locally

Don't have a main, there's not really a single character I really like to play (so far) in BB. I've dabled in Tager, Hakumen, Carl, Jin, Ragna, Noel, Arakune, Hazama and jump between them. Keeping my fingers crossed that Valkenhayn might be my style and I keep my toes crossed hoping Platinum isn't my style.

Doesn't help that I also play Hakumen, so in addition to that I almost always miss the timing of my D counters and 623AA combo. This makes me cry every single time

I've noticed some errors in the combos here and there. But I can mention an oddity now and cover the rest when I have a little more time. Example: (2) j.D, 5C, 5C > 623AA > falling j.2C, 2C > sj.2A, IAD j.2A, j.C (4244 damage) In the video it only shows j.D, 5C > 623AA, but you can do 2 5C's before the 623AA, the timing is just a little tricky. Maybe you noticed this as well an it's not an error? The combo just differs from the video.

Saw a match where a Tager delayed a 720 after a Gadget Finger and the Hazama player did his 236C command crab, 5C, 3C into Astral and won. Too bad I didn't have my camera nearby. On that note, that's where the 236C command grab counter will usually happen, after a gadget finger if you delay your 720/360. The reason why is because you're usually out of range with Hazama's command grab but if Hazama is magnetized he's pulled in by the 720/360 pull, evading your 720/360 with his invincibility and ends up grabbing you instead.

Only thing Hazama has (that's done from the ground) that beats 720 (and 360's) is his Bloody Fang (236C) command grab, if timed properly.

Played around in training trying to do the laziest but still very damaging combo I could come up with and found a combo that results in the easiest ~7100dmg in BB, just for fun. 6[C] (FC), 6[C], 6C, Shippu Useful? Not very. But fun do do vs friends that mutter to themselves sometimes "Darned Hakumen taking away half my life with 3 hits" Of course this can only happen when you get a FC with charged 6C, have 4 magatamas and they don't have a burst... which happens like once every century when all the planets are alinged during midsummers eve, while it's snowing. Or if you want to mix in a lazy Mugen... 6[C] (FC), Mugen, 6[C], TK j.214C, 214B(1), Zantetsu, 214A, 6C, Shippu = ~12000+ dmg I do the input like this 6 63214C, meaning I first tap forward and then I do a quick halfcircle motion and then press C for a 66 j.214C . Works best for me.

TK j.214B/j.214C requires you to be stationary for a short while, doing nothing. 66/44, j.214B/j.214C can be done on the move, when you advance or retreat. The reach is also extened since you do a short hop, compared to simply TK:ing it. It has a myriad of uses and it's another handy tool.

They made the timing easier with 5D, but made it much less rewarding with no real combo options. It just feels odd, as if they thought 1700 dmg is enough. Don't see why they decided to change his 6A as well, almost the entire cast has a similar move, so it's not like it was broken. Oh well, just have to wait and see what they'll change with the patch.