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Atlas Academy => Melty Blood: Act Cadenza => Red Arcueid => : Sledeau December 13, 2007, 03:09:36 AM

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: Building Blockstrings as Warcueid
: Sledeau December 13, 2007, 03:09:36 AM
Heya, I just wanted to share the info about how I build blockstrings with Warc, hopefully to get criticism/comments about it so I can improve my own Warc game, and help other Warcs improve their play.

First, what is a blockstring? Its basically the moves you throw out on a person who's blocking to try to either make them guess wrong about your next move (high/low attack, throw, etc) so that they eat some damage, or to bait them to try to attack you when you actually have a move coming out with an advantage over the one they're throwing out. Also, I'm generally only talking about ground attacks in this, unless I specify otherwise. This writeup also assumes you have basic knowledge of how Warcueid's moves work, so if you aren't really familiar with the character, much of this writeup will probably not make much sense.

5a cancel
Of course, whiff canceling is important for nearly every member of the Melty Blood cast. Whiff canceling, in short, is canceling your current move into a move with quicker recovery (usually a normal into a 5a/2a that doesn't hit) so that you recover from a move you just threw out more quickly. Its very important for Warcueid, as she doesn't really have any command moves/normals by themselves that can give her an advantage on block (save for air attacks, of course).

So what's the deal on what to whiff cancel with for her? Well, first off, one important thing: you can cancel the recovery of a 5a/2a into an attack. This is very important for blockstrings. I'll get into that in a bit.

Now, all of Warcueid's normals, when they hit alone without canceling into something, they leave her at a disadvantage, meaning the recovery frames of the attack can be punished or her opponent will gain the initiative.

The most basic blockstring incorporating 5a for Warcueid is 5b2b5a. Its a fairly basic, effective blockstring: 5b moves her forward to her opponent and comes out fairly fast, 2b forces the opponent to crouch block or get hit, and the 5a will cancel the recovery frames of the blocked 2b, or continue launching the character if they didn't block the 2b. Plus, if 5b hits, you're already canceling into the next step of her combo, 2b. At that point, most players will know they've got the combo in, so they'll go with a 2c after the 2b instead of a 5a. In any case, if 2b gets blocked and 5a comes out, she is at neither an advantage or disadvantage frames wise with her opponent, which is a good thing if she has her opponent in the corner.

Other common cancels for 5a are immediately after a 5b. Though it doesn't force the opponent to block low, if they successfully block it, they are probably crouching anyways to block an anticipated low attack, so the 5a will whiff. If for some reason they don't block 5b and are hit by the 5a, you can shift the 5a into a 2b and continue comboing. Its another fairly effective attack that leaves Warcueid at neither an advantage or disadvantage frame wise.

After a 2c or 5c its fairly common for a Warcueid to cancel into 5a. At most ranges where you would strike out with a 5c or 2c rather than another attack you wouldn't be able to continue the combo anyways, so its natural to try to recover as fast as possible from the attack, regardless of whether your opponent blocks or is hit by the moves. An important thing to note: 5a canceling these moves immediately when they are blocked leaves Warcueid at a slight advantage. She recovers faster than her opponent finishes blocking.

Staggering blockstrings

What is staggering a blockstring? Instead of throwing out your blocked attacks as quickly as possible, you leave some space in between them, to bait an opponent to try to attack you. For example, the most common stagger is 5b, delay, 2b. It leaves a small gap of time where an opponent can throw out a 2a or another move. If they do throw out that move, it will most likely be counterhit by the Warc's 2b, as her 2b was already coming out when they tried to throw out their own move.

Staggering blockstrings is important for many characters. However, I feel that its not quite as important for Warcueid, as there's not really many normals she can do a full combo off of. You can stagger a 5c or a 2c and potentially hit the opponent during your blockstring, but they'll only be hit by that move, unless you cancel the move into an ex like 623c.

So, really, her main stagger comes down to 5b, delay, 2b. However, its not just as simple as delaying it for whatever duration of time you want. With a normal 5b, there is only a small amount of time where you can cancel the move into another before it becomes uncancellable. If you mistime it, you'll quickly find yourself in a tight spot, as a blocked 5b canceling into nothing leaves Warcueid at such a disadvantage that a 2a will usually hit her while she's recovering. However, the other forms of her 5b are much more lenient.

Warcueid's 5b, when fully charged, becomes an overhead. When half charged, its two hits instead of one. They both have more clashing frames than a normal 5b. Also, they are fully cancellable in all of the recovery frames. You are much more free to choose how to stagger a half charged 5b or a fully charged one.

Command moves
Command moves. They're very effective blockstring enders, her 214a especially.

214a. If it hits the opponent at point blank and they block it, Warcueid will be at a disadvantage. However, the longer the range at which the opponent blocks it, the less the disadvantage will be, almost nonexistent if your opponent has just blocked your 2c in a typical blockstring, due to the distance it usually pushes you back. 214a can be a good blockstring ender when you don't want to get a reverse beat penalty from 5a canceling or you don't have the cancel available. The animation is also very stealthy for the startup, so opponents will often try to jump when the bloodring comes out, hitting them during jump startup.

214b. No matter what range this starts from, it will leave Warcueid at a greater disadvantage than a blocked 214a. It also has longer startup than 214a, so if an opponent tries to immediately jump out after you end your blockstring prior to this move, they will probably avoid it entirely, and can probably punish you. Only use this move if you've got them scared of getting hit while trying to jump away. Though you don't want to throw out 214b too often, it can be very effective. If it DOES hit, you can cancel the move into 214c, then jump up and continue comboing the person for a decent amount of damage with an airthrow to bring them back down to the corner you had beaten them into. (only a few frames of 214b are cancellable into 214c, go into practice mode and play with the move to find out when you can do it)

214c. This is a good move to throw out when you're in full heat mode and have meter to burn. On block, it will leave you at an advantage over your opponent. If they block it in the air, they will be in blockstun for a short time after you've recovered, so you can hit them with an air unblockable move like 5c. Its also very difficult to shield (the opponent has to time each hit of the move).

236a. I like to call this move the 'Scrub Killer.' On block, it leaves you at a disadvantage and can be potentially punished if your opponent is in range to. If it whiffs, the same. The startup animation for this move is very stealthy, however. If your opponent likes to poke out or jump at you, it can be an effective string ender after a b move when you're fairly close to your opponent, or doing it after a 5a cancel. Generally, if an opponent's moves hit the flames this move summons up, they will be launched up into the air in a counterhit state, allowing you to combo them as you like. Use this move sparingly against good opponents, if a person isn't expecting it they will probably have trouble punishing it, but if a good opponent thinks you may throw this move out, they can probably deal with it and hurt you in return. However, if your opponent can't break a habit of trying to poke a move out of each blockstring you do, this move will destroy them, thus the name 'Scrub Killer.' The only time I've seen this fail against an opponent with that mindset was against a Shiki Tohno player, as his 2c would hit the flames and me at the same time, knocking me to the ground while he could tech back to his feet after taking minor damage.

236b. It has longer range than 236a, but it has a much longer startup. It also leaves you at a larger disadvantage than 236a on block. However, once the flames start coming out, you can freely cancel this move into any other ex move, meaning if a person gets tagged by the flames, you can probably continue the combo with a 214c, or if a person leaps over the flames, you can anti air them with 236c. That's honestly a very limited use, and 236b is very situational. You wouldn't hamper your play much if you never ever used this in a blockstring.

236c. Never use this in a blockstring. Its easy to see coming due to the superflash and it leaves you at a significant disadvantage if blocked.

How do these all fit together?

As mentioned before, 5a and 2a are cancellable in their recovery frames. Thus, if you do something like, 5b5a2b, your 2b has a very good advantage over the opponent, meaning if they try to throw out a hit or begin jumping (since they might anticipate you're only using your 5a as a neutral blockstring ender), they will probably be punished for it. However, this also means that your 5a has been used in the blockstring, so you can't cancel that 2b into a 5a, as you already canceled the 5b into into a 5a. Of course, you're free to cancel it into other moves, such as 236a, 214a, 2c, 2a, etc.

So, what's an example blockstring for Warcueid? Let's go with 5b5a2b, delay, 2c, 214a.
Let's analyze this. Your 5a canceling into a 2b leaves you at a significant advantage, meaning you'll hit your opponent if they they to throw out a normal move or jump away. The delay between the 2b and 2c may trick your opponent into thinking you've ended your blockstring, hitting them with 2c if they try to strike out or jump away. The 214a at the end returns you to a relatively neutral position initiative wise since by the time you throw it out there'll be enough distance between you and your opponent to let you mostly recover from the move when your opponent blocks it.

Don't just stick with a blockstring like this, however. Mix it up. If you just throw out the same thing over and over, a competent opponent will know what to expect, and they can counter it easily. For other examples of how to mix up your blockstring, you can cancel a 5b into a 5a, and after you finish recovering from 5a you can throw out an IAD j.b, forcing your opponent to block high. After a 5b2c5a, you can cancel the recovery frames into 2c, 214a, or another move instead of just using it to reset your blockstring. These are just examples. Use all of Warcueid's moves and build them into a variety of different blockstrings to keep your opponent paranoid, in the corner, and having to try to guess what you're going to do next.
: Re: Building Blockstrings as Warcueid
: Blaze December 21, 2007, 02:21:11 PM
Nice job on the effort that you put into this. I was able to pick up a few things from your explanation.