H-V Akiha Strategy/Tactics Thread

[LordPangTong]

Heeey H-V Akiha players. I'd like to discuss combos and H-V Akiha strategy here. I'm currently working on a guide! Aside from discussion of normals and basic control over H-V Akiha, areas of interest in the guide will be landing the 6C loop and what to do for pit follow ups.

So yeah. To start, are there even any other H-V Akiha mains out there?

[mir]

<---One

I'd be interested to see what people do with regular pits midscreen. I'm having hard time using them as harassing tool due to range and the fact I just don't feel comfortable with the recovery time.

[sevalle]

another H-vakiha main here.

imo regular ground pits are almost useless, i only use air pits to harass opponents that camp and zone (e.g. nero, mech, H-Hisui /w her damned stools). Its also useful as an aerial momentum stopper, much like C-Vakiha's j.236b. The drawback is that its a free air counter-hit for the opponent if they see it coming.
Then again, for me the main use of regular pits are for oki and blockstrings, e.g. iad j.c -> 22a, this gives you a ridiculous +30 on block since your opponent will most likely be anticipating a mix-up and not try to 5a/srk you.

for me though, the least used moves would be ground 236a/b and aerial 236b, i just don't know what to do with them if anybody got tips pls share them

also, i've been thinking about how to link the standing shield counter into 6c into corner 623b loop, my theoretical combo is 5d(shield) 5c 2c delay 5a(whiff)  6aa 6c -> corner 623b loop, however my success rate has been zero. anybody can help me on this?

[LordPangTong]

Cool, glad to see some other people playing V Akiha. Now here's my thoughts  

As far as ground pits go, they are pretty useless. You can throw 22B onto the end of a blockstring if you've got an opponent who's respecting you, and this will give some nice plus frames, but it's not too useful as a whole. Air pits on the other hand, are gdlk. The art of random pit activations begins

J.22B should be one of your two primary zoning moves. BE214A/B and J.22B should be what you're using to trip your opponent up at a range. H-V Akiha's game is essentially a hit-and-run tactic, so you're gonna want to be frequently using these zoning moves to stop your prey from chasing after you too much. (You can't let them get close, V Akiha has no life, remember.) TK J.22B is good for ground vs ground pit shit. (much better than 22B.) If you get a J.22B to connect, use an available air dash to get over to the target, J.C, then land and jump again to go for J.ABC J.BC Throw. This will give you about 3.7k. If they're in the corner, you can connect 4C 2C into momiji loop for similar damage, but better oki and more meter.

J.22A is a beautiful mixup tool. I find it to be most useful in the corner as I pressure with J.C air dash J.C, cancelling the J.C into J.22A, as Sevalle said, will give you ridiculous +frames on block, and allows for you to continue to pressure you enemy. The other use for J.22A is when you're running away. V Akiha is meant to fly, and if you happen to be flying directly above your enemy, or you anticipate that they will be dashing under you, toss a J.22A out there to get them either to block or eat some easy damage. If 22A connects, land, and do 5B 4C J.ABC J.BC Throw. (Omit the J.A if you're in the corner) With J.A, the combo does about 4K anywhere, and without J.A in corner, it does about 4.4k.

As for H-VAkiha's 236 set, they are pretty bad. 236A can be a ghetto placeholder in a blockstring, so if you've got someone respecting you, give it a shot, it will serve as a blockstring reset. 236A is also a decent option after a throw. It gives some nice +frames on block, so its worth trying for. 236B can be used as a bait on oki for enemies that are DP happy. Because it moves V Akiha up and back, it will safely evade the DP and punish with the flametounge. Unfortunately, you can't really do anything off of this gimmick, so it's pretty lv.0. J.236B is useless, do not attempt.

I'd like to note that V Akiha's throw presents her with wonderful oki opportunities. In most cases, it is beneficial to throw out of the corner. This gives you more crossup abilities, and should be desired because H-V Akiha is stronger out of the corner than in. (Now that momijis can be done anywhere on screen, there's not as much incentive to keep enemies there.) V Akiha's fast air dashes let you input 69644J.C after the throw. If you input the backdash earlier, you'll cross back up to the side you started on, and if you put it in later, you'll stay on the opposite side. After the J.C, hit confirm 2A into momiji or 6C loop or whatever you want. Another option is to SJ.22A, and then land on top of them while they block that with a j.C. As mentioned before, 236A can be done off of a throw as well.

As for that shield combo, I will experiment with that tomorrow and post up if its possible or not.

[Lord Knight]

Just wanna throw my two cents in.

Throwing out of the corner is pretty much worthless in MBAA, you'd do much better to just do standard pit mixup by throwing them into the corner. The JC crossup you mentioned doesn't really work because of crossup protection. She had a really good which way that involved doing dash 97 jAerial whiff and you would land left/right, but they took that away by adding recovery to the throw ;_;.

However, thanks to her jump cancellable jC, I do think she has some more mixup options.

[Benny1]

This is an odd little combo that for some execution does like 20 more damage than regular midscreen momiji but is probably a large amount more meter, and it's not too hard, with practice, you should get it every time.  H-Akiha players use a similar combo.

2AA 5C 4C 5A 6AA 4C 5C 2C 5A (whiff) 6AA 6C dash (let them hit the wall) 2C 5BB 623B 4C 2C 5BB 623B

Meter is a nice thing, and I wonder if anybody could get the feel for this.  Like I said, H-Akiha players use a similar combo, and the hard part of this (linking 5A 6AA into 2C from an aerial 6AA hit) isn't even in this.  If you're daring, you can also try to not let them hit the wall and just do a regular 4C 2C loop, but that's hard.

[Lord Knight]

Really you all should just use F 

[sevalle]

I came up with a variation for the shield counter into fullscreen momiji loop mentioned earlier

5d delay 4c 5c delay 2c 5a(whiff) 6aa 6c 66 2c 623b (4c 2c 623b)X2

*4c should be delayed until just before the opponent hits the ground; the delay between 5c and 2c is very small, the point is to let the opponent fly out of 5a range before stopping them with 2c

The only character I've tested it on is nero, and it does about 3.4k
not sure if it works on characters with smaller hitboxes
I think that this should also work with aerial shield counter


@Benny1: you need not let them hit the wall after the second 6c, 2c 623b will connect unless you are already close to the wall. In that case I usually just do 623b right after the 2c, omitting the second rep of 6aaa. Oddly this also results in higher overall damage, which I presume is due to the absence of the third rebeat from 2c to 5a.


imho, F-Vakiha is quite... dull. Even watching satoken play F-Vakiha these days, I just don't get the same adrenaline rush as when I was watching his MBAC Vakiha and H-Vakiha. :S


edit: I think the shield counter combo is character specific, I tried it on satsuki and the 6c is always out of range after 5a6aa 
also, Lord Knight mentioned crossup protection, how does it work? I've never heard of it before 

[Benny1]

Well, the reason I did the let them hit the wall 2C 5BB variation is it makes the 4C 2C MUCH easier and doesn't cost much damage.  It's very difficult after that many hits to get 4C 2C every time.

[LordPangTong]

Lk: H-VAkiha is good for trollz like myself.

It looks like finals are gonna prevent me from practicing this game much before next week, but that shield counter combo seems do-able, sevalle.

V Akiha has a lot of full screen shit she can do off of 6C, but none of them seem to offer any substantial damage/meter gain. A lot of the time, it is most viable to just go for 4C 2C momiji off of the 6C setup, because you risk screwing up 5A6AA whiffs or 5C 2C timing.

The most damaging option I've found for her fullscreen momiji loop goes like this:
2A 5C 4C 5A 6AA 6C 66 4C 5C 2C 623B 4C 2C 623B 4C 2C 623B

If you feel comfortable, go for it. It only does like 200 more damage than 4C 2C, and risks wallslamming. It's up to you whether or not to go for it.

H-V Akiha seems to have a lot of very flashy looking combos, but there isn't any particular reason to actually use them.  (6C loop)

[Benny1]

I was mad, I was trying to come up with a momiji loop involving 5BB to see if it was more damage, and in the end it wasn't.  I also tried some "let's get the hit counter really high so we can do 5BB 2A whiff loops" for fun, but nothing worked for that, never got hits high enough.  Was a shame.

[mir]

Here's what I noticed yesterday after fair amount of time bashing my head against C-hisukoha

-koha normals make me sad panda

-they seem to be able to jump on reaction when i go for a high-low. I don't quite know how to deal with that aside from air throw (which doesn't always work). Maybe really early ja mash to push them down but just the thought of it feels so awkward. What do you guys do in such situations?

[LordPangTong]

Been a while since anyone's said anything, so...

After playing around with the momiji loop's oki game, I've found that dash 2369A on Oki just might be stronger than pit oki, and is worth doing at least some of the time. Why? Dashing in and tossing this puppy out will put you close enough to your enemy so that right after the web is summoned, you are able to land, then go for either a throw or 2A/2B. If the throw connects, the web will damage during the throw animation. (On a side note, if V Akiha retained her Arc Drive from MBAC, she'd have the exact same setup as F-Akiha's 421A into AD. They just don't wanna give V Akiha any buffs, do they?  ) If your opponent tries to mash out, you can either beat them with 2A or 2B, and then go into combo. If they start hitting you, the web will interrupt their movement, so you've got a chance to make a counter attack.

Something else I found is it seems possible to combo into momiji loop off a 22A pit mid screen. If you randomly get a 22A to connect, land and immediately do:
5B 5C 2C (delay if needed) 5A (whiff) 6AA 6C momiji. However, I have not perfected the combo, and usually find my enemy to be too high to catch them with a 2C into momiji. If anyone can get this to work or has any advice/breakthroughs, do share.

[sevalle]

yeah, I miss Vakiha's arc drive back in MBAC too, it was one of the better arc drives in the game with built-in option select and also allowing a fearsome 3-way mixup (high, low, AD grab for 4k dmg). Too bad its gone.

anyway, 2369a is a good oki option if you can't do 229c, but it is not dp safe; if you get hit it goes away. Having said that, it can also be used to bait dp, where you dash in after doing 2369a and block. If your opponent does dp, you get free momiji loop; if he doesn't, you still get frame advantage as he still has to block the flame orb when it ignites. However, experienced players may choose to dp you after the orb goes off, so you can't be too sure as well. Its all psychology -> reverse psychology -> reverse-reverse psychology -> reverse-reverse-reverse psychology to the nth level  

as to the momiji setup on midscreen flame pit, you can try just doing 5c (delay)2c if you find that 5b 5c causes 2c to whiff; note that your opponent does not fly away from you if hit by 5c while flame pit is in effect, you have to wait for flame pit to finish before doing 2c, or else you may be too close and your initial 5a may hit instead of whiff. This is all theoretical, as I am unable to try it out myself  

Overall, its really good that H-Vakiha can get momiji setups off almost anything (shield counter/air counter-hit/flame pit), the only hitch is that the execution required is extremely situational and character-specific, and hence extremely hard to recognise and master.

[Mistwraith]

Well after playing with sevalle for a long long time, V akiha is still one of my more favorite characters due to her corner loops and dmg output even though she takes tons of dmg in return haha. Even so, I still prefer playing her C mode for her flamepit set ups which is particularly evil in the corner when ur opponent doesn't have enough meter to perform a heat or bunker moves.

My most basic combos as usual will be just 4C, 2C 623B for the corner loops for almost foolproof non fail. Maybe I should go try her more complicated ones when I have the time. For HM mode, her jC is much better than CM cuz it is easier to cross up. The jC for CM is currently a little weak, and is techable after hitting an opponent in the air, preventing OTG in the corner.

[sevalle]

lol, one of the thrills of playing vakiha is that even one mistake can cost you the game, and this applies to your opponent as well. Vakiha rarely eats less than 5k dmg per combo, but on the other hand if you get a corner knockdown on your opponent you're halfway to victory regardless of how much life you have left  

For CM jC, although it is now ground techable, it can also now be special cancelled on hit/block so there is somewhat of a tradeoff. Oddly, Mauve's MBAA framedisplay also showed that the crossup hitbox has been increased from the MBAC version, although I feel that it is somehow harder to land crossup hits in MBAA than in MBAC

p.s. Mistwraith, if you wanna try complicated comboes here's a vid showing SUPER-flashy akiha & vakiha comboes (I know you can do this with your uber skill level and experience )
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9065798

[Mistwraith]

Half the time i am too lazy haha. Anyways, I found a pretty cool reset combo for CM V-Akiha haha. I show it to you when you are back in Singapore. Can I go loot your joystick for a year till you are back ? I promised to take good care of it 

[sevalle]

I'm already in Perth, and I sealed up my joystick already   

[Mistwraith]

You can unseal your joystick and I can head down to your place and retrieve it. Tell your parents where it is loh, then I go get it from them when they are at home ? 

Anyways, the reset combo seems to work better on a smaller hitbox character, I need to test it out on the biggest hitbox characters first. I tried it on Nanaya and Shiki and the results are satisfactory to me. Will post more when I get home to test it again tonight.

[LordPangTong]

Anyways, the reset combo seems to work better on a smaller hitbox character, I need to test it out on the biggest hitbox characters first. I tried it on Nanaya and Shiki and the results are satisfactory to me. Will post more when I get home to test it again tonight.

Only H-Vakiha strats/combos here, please, Crescent Moon junk should be in its own thread.

Anyway, what's new with H-V Akiha?

New 50/50 combo in the corner I've discovered/been playing with.

Input: (In Corner) 2A 5C 4C 5A 6AA (slight delay) 6C dash 2A (whiff) 2C immediately

This combo sacrifices damage for great in the corner oki. It is most effective if you go for the 6C loop regularly, as it looks like you messed up the input. (2C comes out instead of 5C.) HOWEVER this is all according to your evil plan, as the 2C will tag the tip of their falling hitbox, causing a knockdown with vakiha's back facing the corner. This gives you time to super jump/jump/air dodge/air backdash. (SANDOOOOOOORI) The weird crossup properties of her J.C will allow for even more deceiving oki games. Standard mixups can be executed from either side you land on. (Empty jump land 2A/Throw/6C or just J.C)

Another fun which way combo is similar to her old half-momiji mixups from MBAC.

Input: (In corner) 2A 5C 4C 5A 6AA 2C 623B 4C 2C 2A(whiff) 5C 2C

Execution for this is a little tight, but it's definitely worth learning.

EDIT: As I'm sure you've noticed, some characters whiff 2C when you do the 4C 2C part of the momiji loop. (Without proper delays) These same characters are more difficult to land the mixup on, so be sure to learn the timing. These chars include Akiha, V Akiha, S Akiha, Ries, Len, W Len, Miyako and Wara.

[mir]

Oh that's pretty neat actually. I'll play around with it some more, though I'm sure if the mixup fails I'll be kicking myself in the ass for not taking the free damage >.>

[sevalle]

well, I locked my stick in my cupboard and brought the only key with me, so its pretty much sealed (unless you bust the cupboard doors  )

you should have asked earlier, then I could ask you to help me de-rust the bottom cover also 


sorry for hijacking this thread to talk about other stuff lol, anyway the problem of 2c whiffing after 4c on some characters can be rectified by delaying 4c a bit longer, or going for 5b 2c since 5b juggles lower than 4c (you missed out wlen & miyako, both of them deserve mention due to their notoriously small character hitboxes  )

[LordPangTong]

Thanks for clearing that up, Sevalle.

The point is that these characters have wonky hitboxes, and this can make the timing for the aforementioned combo a little different as well.

[Mistwraith]

These days I don't usually finish off with 4C, 2C, 623B on the third loop. Somehow I am not able to utilise her oki options on H mode well. I will just do a 4C, 2C, 5BB then jump jB, jC, jA, jC, airthrow. On wake up is either I do a 2A, or just IAD jC, IAD jC. And I am not using flame pits much these days too, due to getting punish in the air by characters who have long jump attacks like Chaos 

Make a god damn spare key next time sevalle ! 

[Nandeyanen]

These days I don't usually finish off with 4C, 2C, 623B on the third loop. Somehow I am not able to utilise her oki options on H mode well. I will just do a 4C, 2C, 5BB then jump jB, jC, jA, jC, airthrow. On wake up is either I do a 2A, or just IAD jC, IAD jC. And I am not using flame pits much these days too, due to getting punish in the air by characters who have long jump attacks like Chaos  

Make a god damn spare key next time sevalle !  

Being able to set up a tkj.236a/c or an ex-pit after a momiji loop is pretty nice though...

Also, you can use a/b pit after something like a blocked j.c.