Tari

If you can confirm something directly into 5C, by all means, do it. However, you'll likely often find that you're too far away from the opponent to confirm into 5C, in which case confirming into 5B is always the right answer. Confirming something into 5B > 5C can actually be less than optimal in some situations, where you end up shoving the opponent too far away to do the followup combos you want to do. The extra hit can also lower damage in a long combo, as well as waste some of your overall remaining combo timer. That said, 5B > 5C will get you more damage in a shorter combo than directly confirming into 5C, so you just have to decide what you want in a given situation.

@Brett: darn you all for having this when I'm about to fly out. I have such a perfect rating for this tournament.

Just went into training mode to test this out. If you land an S starter, you can do something like this, though I'm not sure if it's optimal: (Corner, S starter) > x hit > 5B > 5CC > dash 5B > 6A > 4B > delay 236A > 3C > oki The 4B will both get Bang out of his wall-stuck animation and bounce him high enough to combo into a late 236A and get oki. Needs the 5B before 6A > 4B, though, or you won't have the right bounce height.

Can you tell me what it is? :P I feel the need to test it for an hour or so to make sure nothing works. :| edit: after some testing, it appears to not be a guaranteed setup on Rachel, just another really annoying oki option Kokonoe can choose to use. Waking up against Kokonoe in the corner is a guessing game that's probably 2/3 in Kokonoe's favour if she decides to try for a blackhole setup. Pretty annoying.

If you can't get 5B after 236B (not sure who it works on), you can 5A in its place for less damage. Since the combo is for wind regen, it's not a huge issue if the damage goes down a little, I don't think. We have a Skype, though I admit I'm not sure if it's still active. Personally, I'm on IRC all the time and not Skype, but I'm not sure about the others.

You can combo off of TK Noir RC in normal mode, yes. You can actually do a sort of option select with it by doing TK Noir RC > falling j.B. If the Noir is blocked, you get a fuzzy guard j.B. If it's not blocked, you just whiff the j.B and fall to the floor, from where you can proceed to do a combo ender. If you think it's going to hit, you can also TK Noir RC > j.D for a mode change and then continue combo-ing from there, though I think this only works close to the corner and you can instead just do 623B > etc. for a mode change combo anyway. Wouldn't suggest using it much, though. It's just one of the random tricks she can pull out if she needs them.

Ho, and there you go. Not sure why I didn't remember the 2C route existed after 5C FC, but hey, now I remember! :P

Good question. I've been using a pretty minced up version of the normal combo route after 5C FC. With wind, I've been doing 5C (FC) > 214A > dash 2B > 5B > sj.8D > j.2CD (level 3) > (whatever summon/special) > dash 6A > 4B > dash 5B > 6A > 236A > dash 3C(1) > 214C > dash 5CC - 4058 damage Without wind, I've been doing 5C (FC) > 214A > dash 5B > 6A > 4B > dash 5B > 6A > 236A > dash 3C(1) > 214C > dash 5CC - 3420 damage I'm assuming there are better routes, though.

The only times I've really seen A Lotus used is when a Rachel is timing the opponent out or just zoning an low-health opponent. Pretty much never see it used outside of those situations, probably because of the whole messing up Rachel's combo routes thing. I haven't really used either of the Lotus moves much yet, but that's mostly because I just haven't learned to use them in this game. :/ Should probably training mode my Rachel some more, or at least use her more in matches.

There's no real need to bring consoles, but if you want to bring your own stick, that may be a good idea. You should definitely enter the team tournaments, too, since they're all free. xD

No, it's spacing dependent. It works on everyone if you end up below the opponent after the Astraea. Try it from the 3C FC > 2C > 236C route, or try 5C > 236B > 214A > 5C > Astraea > etc. Both of those paths should leave you under the opponent after Astraea, which leaves you slightly closer after the 2C > 236D. That slight positioning difference will allow the micro-dash 5A to connect on everyone except Tager.

Oh, that's the anti-air he's talking about, I see. Pretty sure some careful spacing and pre-emptive pumpkin-ing or other form of zoning will still beat it. It's quite slow. I personally find his DP much more aggravating than his 6C, but again, I haven't played this match in quite some time so it may be that Kagura players are better at using it now.

Unless some new tech has popped up, you can't hit Tager with the mode change combo without FC. Just want to reiterate that point. Pretty sure you also can't combo into the micro-dash 5A from any random 236C > 6D > etc. hit, due to positioning issues (hence why the suggested route always causes the 236C > 6D to put you directly under the opponent in the corner, rather than next to them). The 2C OTG > 236C > 6D path does allow you to position yourself correctly, but like I said earlier, it honestly doesn't matter after an FC starter. The only differences an FC makes are that it allows you to not care about positioning yourself for micro-dash 5A, it lets you mode-change Tager, and it allows you to add more hits before or after the mode change (you can even do a relaunch combo after the mode change if you want, lol, though it's completely not worth it). You may be able to omit the 5A completely against some characters, but I haven't tested that myself either.

I'm actually not sure how the replay stuff works in this game. I haven't played with it much. D: His cross-up is something you'll just have to learn to react to. Pretty sure you can mash or jump out of it on reaction. His large horizontal swing is probably 5C? If you learn that spacing, you can just stuff any approaches he tries with a pumpkin there. It also doesn't have much of a vertical hitbox, so summoning in the sky at range is pretty okay. Not sure what his huge anti-air is. Do you mean his DP? That thing demands respect, especially if you're in the air. There is a small deadzone behind him as he rises, but it's not very useful to know about. Fortunately, it's not the easiest thing for him to spam, and if he decides to do a run-up DP, he's pretty much committed to it. As long as you don't IAD forward a lot or summon dangerously, it shouldn't be too large an issue.

It should work on everyone off of a FC starter, even without optimizing your positioning. Even works on Tager, who it normally never works on because of his hitbox. You can get ~4.7k if you add a couple hits before the mode change, as well. Might be able to get more, not really sure.

It's a little hard for me to visualize what's going on in your matches, unfortunately. If you could upload a match replay of you versus Kagura, we might be able to better help identify some issues. You definitely want to get in on him when possible. If you get a couple zoning tools out and can start your rtsd game, you should be pretty much golden.

I haven't played this matchup much since the game came out, but I don't think mashing is actually the best response against him. It works, don't get me wrong, but if he's doing a blockstring where you can just mash and disrespect and win, then he's probably either actively decided to do something more risky than necessary or is unaware of how risky what he's doing actually is. Just because his pressure isn't gapless doesn't somehow mean that it has 6-10 frame gaps everywhere for us to mash 5A and 2B. If you're mashing out of everything, expect him to adjust to a gameplan that doesn't involve very large frametraps. I'm fairly sure he can frametrap with his fatal guardpoint fast enough to beat out 2B, as well. Putting that aside, his defensive options are pretty terrible. You can safejump his DP or just jump behind him when he's doing it, since there's arbitrarily a deadzone there. His 2 frame startup 'reversal' super has no invuln, so it just loses to meaties. His pressure tends to have a reset point where he either backs off for a moment or throws a fireball at you, and many Kagura players don't deal well with players who just hold up-back and try to jump out of everything (this is likely similar to Kagura players who lose to mashing). In general, his mixup is pretty sub-par if you barrier block, and especially unimpressive if you barrier+IB, as his only ranges are short and long, and his long ranges tend to involve cancelling into drives fairly quickly. The drives do, of course, move him towards you, but they also signal that he's going to have to make a hard stop on pressure in just a handful of moves. Obviously, be careful for his command throw and crossup, though the latter is fairly obvious if you're used to recognizing it, and the former loses to up-back.

Managed to, uh, borrow a family member's laptop for a bit. Any chance we could get some screenshots of the new/SB moves? Would help for visual recognition.

Figure I may as well post these, even if some of it is obvious. Thanks to superscience and rhapsody for some of this stuff. Dealing with Kokonoe's (annoying) fireball super: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAbMsqFB2gw (Rachel, Plat, Izayoi, Terumi, Ragna) Other ways to deal with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evLF5XCep8Q (Azrael, Jin, Noel, Bang, universal options)

Going to be out of town until sometime next week, so I won't be able to help with the info/footage round up. I'll be asking you guys to fill me in when I get back. :P

Rachel can't wind tech through a standing opponent, so just do standing oki. At best, she'll just end up in front of you again. She is invulnerable during her tech, because it's a neutral tech, and she does get out of the unblockable setup for free, but all the rest of your oki is terrifying enough by itself. The unblockable is pretty unnecessary overall. It just guarantees damage, instead of making you do invisible mixup.

They're characters who have thinner roll hitboxes, can run, and have good dash animations. Some characters can run and can roll out, but have wide dashing animations, so they get sucked back in (ie: Terumi), some characters just have fat roll hitboxes (ie: most of the cast), and some characters don't have runs and just get sucked up (ie: Hazama). Ragna, Jin, Platinum, Izayoi (non-GA mode), Tsubaki, Makoto, Amane, and Nu can roll and dash out. Rachel and Carl can do it, too, but they're both missing one of the three requirements. Rachel's too fat, so she has to wind herself during her roll to get out. Carl has no dash, so he has to use Vivace after his roll. In both cases, they have better options (Carl just does tech Vivace, and Rachel just uses wind teching).

Yeah, I wanted to mess with Lotus, but I honestly have no idea what I'm doing with it at the moment, so I opted to leave it out. Not sure why I thought we couldn't jump during the startup of the fireball. It's at least 5 frames after superflash, so there's definitely time for it. Thanks for pointing it out. If you mean midscreen, then yeah. I just did a whatever combo. If you mean in the corner, then no. You're still in recovery from summoning George when the fireball falls on your head. Can't even block. Edit: After thinking about it for a bit, Rhapsody's comment about jumping to instant block Kokonoe's fireball made me realize... you can just kara-cancel a move into barrier, let go, and then instant block normally anyway. Might be somewhat weird feeling to do it on reaction to the superflash if you're not used to it, but it's pretty easy. Pretty much any character with a dash can just do that to IB at any range and then run in and get a counter throw on Kokonoe. At point blank, you can just kara into barrier and then release the barrier for a normal block, too. Can still throw counter, if I recall correctly, as long as you aren't really far away.

On the off chance that people haven't seen the animated clip yet... Labrys~! If Setsuna hasn't made the threads by the time the footage starts popping, I think it's fair to make them yourselves. Pretty sure he's around, though.

Yeah, you can't throw her if you have to barrier cancel something or if you were dashing when she does it, so in that case, the 5C FC is probably the best option. Only leads into 3.6k with BBL, though. If you OD to get through the fireball return path, you can get around 4.2k or so with BBL, I think? Can't recall for sure. Might be able to do more; my Rachel combo paths are pretty terrible in this game at the moment. I think you can also just 5C FC > late 5CC and then get hit by the fireball and come out either with frame advantage or neutral, but again, I don't recall for certain, and it seems like a terrible option. I think I'd rather 6B CH > IAD back and summon a bunch of stuff instead.