Eshi

I would just add Bedman to the list of characters to never ever use Voltic Deign on unless you know it will hit meaty. Punishing his teleport is hard. If you input your counterattack too early then it will come out from the wrong direction and miss, but teleport recovers extremely fast and Sin lacks fast normals. I'm not a fan of this match-up, thank goodness that Sin has damage to make up for his losing neutral. You have no choice but to play a ground game but Bedman's air-to-ground approach is outrageously strong. Fish as hard as possible for a knockdown with Beak Driver and then crank the hell out of his guard gauge.

236K on IB is -2, potemkin buster is 3 frames of start-up. This means that Sin either has to jump, backdash, or hawk baker on reaction. You can try to read jump or backdash but if Sin has a lot of food then you might just eat a DP to the face.

If you want to 6P this stupid character, I highly recommend using the CH 6P > 214S confirm instead of 6P > cS > 5H. Faust's annoying hurtbox makes the 5H whiff at most times when it's practical to AA him, while 6P 214S works at all distances and all heights on CH.

This isn't a problem specific to Ky, defensive burst always allows air tech and almost everyone can air dash back in to punish eat. There is no single answer, you have to decide every time if you want to risk eating or do nothing and reaction punish air dashing.

There is no true blockstring into Hariken drill because it has too much start-up. 5B has the smallest punishable gap to cancel into Hariken however, and without instant block will beat any non-invincible mash iirc. 3C has too much pushback so the first hit of hariken drill will [almost?] always whiff. I'm pretty sure TK j2B > Drill works since there's a bunch of corner combos that use it to combo into 6D, but it is definitely not a safe block string. However if you master doing j2B loop it would be a lot safer and I'm pretty sure that still works. I'll test it today and edit later. 6A Drill may work on counterhit but lots of normals in recovery are missing counterhit frames so you'll get no confirm. Also really unsafe on block. It's similar to drill oki in 1.1, better in some ways and worse in others. Drill start-up took longer in 1.1 so more characters could punish it on reaction, but if it worked then you gained level 3 drill. Also the spacing on it was a bit fickle, if you messed it up slightly then they could just roll out of it and kill you. In Extend, faster drills makes it more safe against reversals while simultaneously shutting down roll, but at level 1 you're only around +9 on block it's not great against characters with good DPs. At level 2/3 the pressure is ridiculous. I created this setup because I think j2B oki is just not great anymore. You can time it so that it beats rolls/quick rise, or you could time it so it safejumps reversals, but you couldn't do both and slightly late timing meant eating the DP anyway. The setup isn't that strong at level 1 drill but it's very stable at least.

Everything Amane does in pressure is a "mix-up", it's just not the overhead-low-throw type of mix-up. IMO his rushdown is actually really good in this game but his problem is he gets extremely small reward for correct reads compared to any other character. It only matters in certain match-ups though. I feel that the Jin and Litchi match-ups got a ton easier in Extend. Hariken for gaining drill actually sucks in Extend. They changed the rate that he gains drill meter yet again, he both gains and loses drill meter at a slower rate but the gaining at a slow rate makes Hariken really not worth it for how much you risk getting hit. However placing a drill is entirely worth it since it's much faster and will stall your meter loss.

You're right, I posted that back when Sin was new and Zato players didn't know how to deal with it.

This is how I felt at first, too. But I had to play 1.1 Amane for the first time in months yesterday (anime con tournament lol) and I have to say that I like Extend Amane more now. His drive actually feels like it meshes with his character design, as opposed to 1.1 where he basically ignored it until deciding to fish for a 6D gimmick setup. 5B pushback change does kinda suck, but it's a very small change. The direction for Extend was to encourage pressuring with drills at any level and keeping the opponent closer with 5B makes sense for that. Amane doesn't have midscreen okizeme off of j236C, but it wasn't very good in 1.1 anyway. He definitely still has okizeme in the corner and in some ways it's better. Amane could not combo into 6D on counterhit anything without spending meter. You could set up into 6D, assuming they weren't playing the handful of characters that can escape with a super or even meterless. Universal combos into 6D is a very good trade-off and improves his match-up against characters like Rachel or Bang. I don't think he needs more tools. I think he needs more damage. He has lots of options and some of the best maneuverability in the game but it's hard to appreciate that when he can't hit confirm attacks in a lot of situations.

I experimented some today with midscreen 6B in combos. The execution & gauging proper spacing makes it way harder, but you can raise the damage on most midscreen confirms by 200-500 damage with 6B routes. Examples: jB > land > 2A > 2B > 5B > 5D > 236C (1497 damage) jB > land > 2A > 2B > 6B > jC > j236A > jB > land > 2B > 6B > jC > j236A > j2C > j236C (2027 damage) 2A x3 > 2B > 5B > 5D > 236C (1437 damage) 2A x3 > 2B > 6B > jC > j236A > j2C > j236C (1514 damage)

Yay, I finished a video for applying this okizeme to the entire cast! \o/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BejUPBzVNzI Let me know what y'all think! I'm pretty proud of all the effort I put into figuring this out.

zomg I just figured out that I was doing the drill slightly too late in my recording, it actually does beat all of Tao's supers :O Same for Terumi, I forgot that Messenga is not frame 1 invincible! So only 5 characters can escape with a super and 4 can escape meterless, that's fantastic. For Tager it might not even count, A Sledge escapes but Amane still has time to block so it's not bad at all.

I just realized that I have the US version so I can't get the patch yet, RIP in piece me

Ah yes thanks for the catch. Drill is actually much better on block in this setup because you act way before the opponent, it's only +7 when used in a block string. I tested it and it's at least +12; I couldn't even DP the microdash 5B without instant block.

I still plan on making a video for this, but here's my notes on how to apply Hariken corner oki on the cast in the meantime. I hope people find it useful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsBXlY5mbN4 Demonstration of Amane's new corner okizeme with Hariken Drills. This setup specifically works on Bang but can apply to many other characters too! You can do 5B [1] > 6A > 5B [1] > 5C [1] > 623C instead as the ender to put more space between Amane and the opponent. This makes many more DP's, such as Inferno Divider, whiff for DB safe okizeme.

LOL I'm sorry, I forgot a part, it's 5B [1] > 5C [1] > 623C. Sorry On another note, I'm trying REALLY REALLY hard to get my streaming setup working right now so I can record this sick anti-bang oki setup I just figured out. It shuts down all of his wake-up options, including counter with or without teleport follow-up in any direction and wake-up super.

It is absolutely viable in matches since it easily gets level 3 off of any juggle and works on everyone. 236DB > RC 6D is much easier to combo though.

Still doesn't work on Izayoi, works on Celica and Lambda. I don't know if any old characters had hurtbox changes. EDIT: Just brute forced it. Yup, Izayoi's the only one. Nu-13 and Tsubaki require an additional hit on the first 5B though.

So, double 623C into hariken seems extremely legit in the corner. The combo I'm doing is like this: 2B > 3C > 236C > 5A > 6A > 623C > 5B [1] > 6A > 5B [1] > 5C [1] > 623C > Hariken. Any version works since they always go to the corner if they would go off screen. With this spacing, the new initial hit will always punish forward rolls and regular tech is forced to block a meaty drill. The drills no longer have a hurtbox, thank you jesus I forgot about that buff, so Ragna's DP will also whiff and he'll get counterhit by the drill. I like this much more than j2B oki because you have to chose whether to time it to beat forward rolls or to safejump DPs. You don't have to choose this way!

I don't think this works by the way, I'm testing it out and they can block the hariken stomp after the forward roll 100% of the time so it's not a real punish. It might work if they're not holding back right after they forward tech. It's okay-ish maybe? I'd rather just 2B though since it will hit.

You're assuming that the hariken drill is going to hit because they're mashing. The mix-up is very similar to zettou jD; if they're mashing 5A, they're still probably going to win. If they're not mashing then you get some chip damage and pressure extension, but barrier block ends your pressure after Hariken while zettou jD clings on them. If the first hit of drill doesn't connect then you will absolutely get mashed out of it, or at the least jumped out of. The change to hariken is solid for zoning and for combos, but as for block strings it's still a bad option. The risk can become worth it once you've raised some drill level.

I tested Hariken drill after 5B, there's about a 7 frame gap iirc, can still get 5A'd. If you try it after anything else than you will get hit in the face with everything, not just DP. The reward on block is extremely small unless you have high drill meter and if they hold barrier then they get huge pushback on both hits, so your pressure is over. I will do it occasionally with high drill level or in the corner and otherwise don't bother.

Too much work and risk for too little reward. Average hit confirms do extremely low damage, chip damage is very small at low drill levels and his easiest way to gain drill gauge requires 50 meter. And even then it only gives the potential to deal a lot of damage, whereas other characters just get that damage. He's a hit-and-run floaty zoner and he falls apart in a lot of match-ups that don't let him play that.

Okay. So. I'm gonna post all my thoughts as they come to me in no particular order. I did pretty okay in Japan, actually. I went further in the Blazblue tournament (2-2) than any other foreign player, even Jiyuna. Playing in Arcades on busy nights before then got me super depressed because I couldn't beat a single player and went through so much yen trying. But when I went to Athena the day before leaving and there were a lot of normal players, I beat a bunch of different players. Extend is still very new so I'm a little lenient on myself until I get used to the changes. Amane lags THE FUCK out of arcade machines, by the way. Whenever I got level 3 drill, the first drill the opponent blocked was pretty much guaranteed to lag the cabinet. Odd. The expressions on people's faces when I picked Amane... either they didn't expect a foreigner to pick a weird character, or they didn't expect anyone to play this character because literally everyone dropped him. Many were literally in disbelief that I picked the right character. I saw every character at the arcades or in tournament, including Bullet and Terumi. Not one Amane. I beat some players for free because they had no idea how to handle the match-up. Amane's changes are... interesting. There's a lot to get used to. If you hold down a level 3 5D and they push you out with barrier, you have to special cancel IMMEDIATELY or you get forced into recovery. Amane has no okie off of air combos anymore, I'm fairly certain. The way the j236C knockdown now works is that they land a lot sooner, but there's no emergency tech option. Holding down a button now gives regular tech or roll tech at the timing when they would've emergency teched before. This means that I can't do Zettou > jB to hit people out of rolls anymore, in either direction. If you want to punish rolls then you literally have no choice but to guess 2C on back roll or a close attack on forward roll. Whiffing 2C is not an option so I just let the situation reset to neutral every time. Hariken drills are great in neutral but they're terrible for pressure; the risk of getting DP'd is so high and it doesn't matter that it's like +7 on block because they can just barrier to get pushed further out and you can't hit them with anything. I know Hellfire was very excited about it but it's just not worth it at all when you could just zettou jD spam instead. Amane still has good match-ups against Tager, Kagura, Bullet, and Terumi for sure. The players that bodied me the hardest used Rachel, Carl and Bang. I think the Rachel player just knew the match-up extremely well while I did not, theoretically she should be easier in this game. Carl is still a piece of shit but I think the players were just strong and I wasn't used to the changes yet. Bang however feels unbelievably hard now; we can still float around in neutral and he has a hard time pinning Amane down, but his average damage is SO high plus he has so many combos into 4 seals and the game is over once that happens. I really hate Bang. So yeah, overall I had a blast using this shitty character. My tournament matches especially were so much fun! I'm definitely going to stick with this character. I feel that he can win with more dedication and exploration of his tools. No one in Japan plays this character at all anymore so there could be a lot of hidden tech.

I tested it and 5a gekiren actually does catch air tech in all directions. But the setup is only a gimmick now, though. Doing gekiren > 2B > gekiren made it so that if your opponent didnt hold to tech after the first gekiren, you could instead reset them with j2B for lying on the ground too long. Delay tech just beats everything now. Dont try it on good players. Or better yet on anyone since it will encourage bad habits. I have a lot of new thoughts about Amane. I got to grind for a very long time at Athena arcade and learned a lot. I'll have one more long session tomorrow and then I'm headed home on Tuesday. Will update on Wednesday with all my thoughts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk