Half Moon=Rush Down

[gtCRITICALSHOT]

Half Moon:

"Good comboability, and power is generally low but damage can be very high with good execution. Has the least control over meter out of the three styles. Suited to a rushdown style of play." -wiki

Why is this moon better for rush down?  Is it because it gains a 6AA followup to 5A?  Is the character faster?  Does it change the ground and air dashes mechanics/speed?

[YubelPhoenix]

Half moon characters are great at rushdown. Go check out some H-vsion and H-v.akiha videos and you'll see why. Alot of half moon characters have good blockstrings. 5A 6AAA is a launcher and it also useful.

I dont use half moon that much, so just wait for a better explaination from the others

P.S. watch the Melty Blood Actress Again Tutorial - Moon Styles  and it will give u a better understanding of half moon style. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y42ee5mtrqI

[gtCRITICALSHOT]

Some characters I don't have an idea of how to launch; but I came to the conclusion that 5A 6AAA is a launcher and it also useful.  I have been using C/H Moon for Shiki Ryougi and C Moon for Kohaku.

Thanks for the help.

[Ryd]

Half Moon:

Why is this moon better for rush down?

I think it has more to do with the changes to meter/heat, guard bar, and shield bunkers. 

Half goes into heat automatically, so you don't need to have any kind of break in your offense to activate the way Crescent does.  And since Half's health recovery isn't instant the way Full's is, you want to maintain offense while you're regenerating (Crescent does, too, but doesn't have to worry about auto-sparking if hit.  Crescent also has the option of manual activation as soon as you hit 100%).  Half also only ever needs to build 200% at most to circuit spark (and only 100% at the start of a match), while Crescent/Full need to build 300% if starting from 0; so you'll see a lot more of them from Half Moon characters.

Because Half can't EX guard, you can't sit back and be too patient about waiting out your opponent's block strings or you're guaranteed to get guard broken, extra guard bar be damned.  To help offset this, Half's shield bunkers are really good at resetting the situation/putting you back on offense; but at a cost of 100% (compared to C/F's 50% cost and 300% capacity), you can't throw them out all day.

Half also has the option of reverse beats for pressure.

Add it all up, and you've got a character that can't really afford to be put on defense for extended periods of time, has the tools it needs to get out, solid pressure options, and if you need to regen health, you pretty much have to stay on offense to get it.  Half is forced into a more aggressive style of play if you want to make the most of its options.

[gtCRITICALSHOT]

I see what you are saying; makes total sense and you explained it well.  I was looking more at the aspect of say "Nero" gaining a dash in HM opposed to his "smoke teleport" in his CM form.  You have me looking at it in a diff light!

[Numakie]

I main use Full Moon and Cresent moon, but i have mad gripes when facing Half moon ppl for these things:

Very good bunker cancel: Even though the bunker cancel costs 100 to use, Getting hit by this thing drops you to the ground right in front of your opponent. Don't recover and you risk oki.  Recover and risk tech punishes.

Faster health recovery:  The recovery from this moon makes me damn jealous being i mainly use Cresent and my health recover is slower.

Annoyingly good auto ex burst: Along with faster health recovery, your opponent can attack you without much fear of retaliation.  Succeed in landing a hit on them, you will most likely get hit by the burst.  Even if you do succeed in baiting a burst, it is pretty damn hard to counter them.  From experience, you are pretty much forced to defend against your opponent while they regain health for free.

6AA:  With some characters, i find the 6AA tends to move the opponent forward for free for some annoying pressure on the recieving end.

Maybe i just need to fight more Half moon charas. *sigh*

[sevalle]

can HM bunkers be teched? I thought they had untechable knockdown  

also, auto heat at 200% can be irksome when you are comboing your opponent and already have max yellow life, it usually means that you more or less wasted your burst escape for that round.

[Choco]

can HM bunkers be teched? I thought they had untechable knockdown  

You can indeed tech them. It might be easy to get the wrong impression since most people in Japan and America know that there's a good chance they'll eat a full combo if they try to tech it. A good player and character combination can set up a tech punish that's 66% success rate every time.

[S-Blade]

-Meter goes to 200% then auto-heat
==> have you ever seen a good player heat activate on offense? heat activation just isn't an offensive tool, it's a defensive one, bypassing it but still getting health regen allows you to retain your offense while regening the hp

-200% meter (lower cap)
==> A lower cap means you can achieve HEAT much faster than usual especially when you are getting meter from combos and blockstrings. When you want to save your meter for autoHEATing when you have more red life to gain, you have to do some meter management and intentionally spend 100% to keep from losing 200% (i.e. spend 100% to save 100%). At first it seems like a waste, but a character can usually use an EX offensively to reset pressure, for example roaH can do EX lightning bolts and run in and restart pressure while saving that 100% meter that wouldve otherwise be lost. In the end you are able to get HEAT much faster than the other moons, and when you want to save the meter for later you do that by pressuring with EXes.

-Stronger bunker and larger guard bar, auto-counter after EX shield, auto-burst
==> Basically H-moon doesn't need to concentrate too much while on defense. Your bunker is very low risk and gets you out, your shield has an auto counter which will auto-launch for you without you having to decide what you should follow a shield with, you don't really need to ex guard because your guard bar is bigger, a completely safe burst happens automatically, so on and so forth. These are all low risk options for H-moon but they also have lower reward; defensively C or F moon can EX guard to withstand pressure much longer than usual, they have a weaker less reliable bunker but only costs half as much meter, and shielding and ex shielding can be followed up in different ways that may be more damaging or otherwise rewarding than an auto-counter launch. The C and F moons really lose out on the burst, though, it has to be done manually, can be baited and punished, and "costs" more meter. The general idea is that H moon has been given the tools it needs to escape from the defensive position and only that.

-6aaa
==> It's basically a high sweep which usually allows for stronger combos since they get launched up so high then fall all the way down. It's impossible to combo into some charged ground normals without 6aaa: roaH's and tohnoH's 6[c]'s, to name a couple

so yeah there you go.

[gtCRITICALSHOT]

I have only been playing MBAA for a couple of weeks now and have been focusing more on meter management.  I need to do some research on C and F as far as how much meter is left after auto-heating, if it is diff. when I go into blood heat and also if it is diff. if I do ex moves during heat/blood heat.  I am still testing out anti airs and relaunches with my mains (C-Kohaku, C-Shiki Ryougi and F-Nero.)

MBAA is officially my fav fighter of all time!

[FataCon]

I have only been playing MBAA for a couple of weeks now and have been focusing more on meter management.  I need to do some research on C and F as far as how much meter is left after auto-heating, if it is diff. when I go into blood heat and also if it is diff. if I do ex moves during heat/blood heat.  I am still testing out anti airs and relaunches with my mains (C-Kohaku, C-Shiki Ryougi and F-Nero.)

only H-moon auto-heats. C has to build meter normally. F can charge it's meter (SNK style) by holding A+B+C. also, since H-moon auto-heats, it does not get MAX mode, which means it does not get Blood Heat, Another Arc Drive, or Last Arc.

even if expired without performing an Arc Drive, using heat while in any moon will reset your meter back to zero. the only time you get to keep some of your meter is if you are in MAX and do NOT heat. I believe in these situations C retains 200% and F retains 100%.

also, check each of your mains' respective character thread or entry on the mbaa mizuumi wiki. it'll save you a lot of time and guesswork on specific moves and general how-to's to play each of your characters. watching vids on the official meltybread youtube channel doesn't hurt either. if you want to get super in-depth on the characters moves, you could always download the frama data viewer and check the hitboxes and properties of each move individually.

[gtCRITICALSHOT]

Thanks for the info and it sure is lots to learn and lots to practice.  I think when I ever get a chance to play a real opponent I will get crap beat out of me.  I actually got a friend hooked on MBAA (he played once), so we might make a trip to J&L/CF so he can pick up the game and get our butts kicked.