I thought this would be a nifty mechanic to mention to people.
Whiffed 2/5A Canceling
Explanation: Basically the animation of a whiffed 2/5A can be canceled to a shield, normal move or special/EX/Arc move. This cannot be used to cancel into dashes, jumps, or dodges (possible exception is WLen's dash). This can be used in a variety of ways, depending on the character or player.
2/5A Shield Cancel: Interrupting a whiffed 2/5A animation with a shield (D). Mainly used against moves like Ciels or Roa's EX Hiero or even wake up DP's (EX or not) if a 2/5A is sticking out/baited (not 100% proof but its better than taking damage). Can also be used if opponents detect and attempt to counter a whiff cancel during a block string, although it is rather risky.
2/5A Special/EX/Arc Cancel: Interrupting a whiffed 2/5A animation with a special/EX/Arc move. Use is character dependent.
2/5A Normal Cancel Interrupting a whiffed 2/5A animation with a normal move (B/C). In blockstrings, a whiffed 2/5 A can be quickly canceled into another move. However, this canceling still follows normal move/reverse beat canceling rules.
<Ex1: Blockstring 2C, (5A), 5C = 5C will cancel the animation of the (5A).>
<Ex2: Blockstring 5C, (5A), 5C = 5C will not cancel the (5A) animation because 5C was already used.>
<Ex3: Blockstring 2C, (5A), 5C, (5A) = (5A) will not cancel the 5C because it was already used to cancel 2C.>
Outside of blockstrings, the use is character dependent.