Blazblue "Higher Level" Q&A Thread

Current Fighting Games BlazBlue
1

Hey guys. This thread is a direct rip from Dacidbro’s thread, It’s an incredible idea, but the thread really did fade. So I’ve decided to adopt his way of thinking for the SRK Blazblue community.

Blazblue on SRK is tiny in comparison to Dustloop, So I encourage you all to sign up for it, as with Extend coming out, the place is getting really excited for it, more posts, more discussion ect.

To justify the “Higher Level” Title, I’m a netplay warrior that attends small weekly gatherings at University, I’ve played over 10,000 games, and I main Mu-12. Yet I am familiar with every character (Excluding Carl + Arakune) As I’ve played them all a few hundred times (And in some cases a thousand) each, and Mu + Bang a couple of thousand. I have a lot of matchup experience with each and everyone of them. I’m not a scratch on Dacidbro, But I can still help the community.

You can ask me any questions relating to Blazblue, I cover a wide range of topics, Including:

Characters Strengths / Weaknesses
Character specific matchups
Basic / In-Depth game mechanics
Changes from CS2 > Extend
How to do ‘X’ Combo

I can offer extremely detailed Info on Hazama, Valkenhayn, Bang, Mu, Tager and Platinum.

Basically, Throw any question that doesn’t belong in the newcomers Q&A thread here. I aim to answer all of the questions ASAP, As I always have SRK on Tab (I’m British though, Dem timezones)

I’m sure Dacidbro will also answer as many questions as he can. Information from one of the best American Blazblue players is too good to pass up, so get asking!

No Question is too silly, simple, stupid ect. EVERYTHING will be answered
Information will be free from bias, and will be given from a neutral standpoint
Fast replies

Lets gooooo

2

Thanks, Huggy. Of course I’m still available for questions if anyone has any specifically for me or about local american gatherings, or just for a different perspective. The old thread faded because people stopped asking me stuff :frowning: No question is too simple.

3

Do folks feel that CS:EX is more balanced than CS2, or do Ragna/Hakumen/Valk dominate as much as Makoto/Noel/Valk in CS2?

4

I’ve played only a few hours of Extend, But I’d say none of them are as dumb as CS2 Noel, However, I feel that Hakumen is the strongest out of the bunch.

Ragna is good, Solid damage, OK Mixup ect. But It’s Ragna, his character by design will bound him to the middle ground forever. His matchups against Zoners like Mu/Lambda really hinder him. High Mid for sure.

Valk lost a lot, but gained a lot. His 3C is now Special cancelable, but you can emergency tech it now, this murders his insane low corner mixup, Yet you can now cancel it into 236A > 9D for wolf combos. He is incredibly strong, Still, His wolf mixup is still terrifying. He lost some, but gained some, I expect him to still dominate.

Hakumen is without a doubt right up there with the best. I’ve only seen Videos on Jourdals channel, But damn. He looks scary. Like…REALLY scary.

But in answer to your question.

CSE Looks a lot more balanced, Every character (Bar 1 or two) Is somewhat Viable. I can see a lot of people using new characters, CSE should bring about a lot of variety.

5

Not following you with this bit - everyone bar ONE (Tager) was viable in CS2; If now we have two characters that aren’t, that sounds less balanced to me.

6

I should of made it clearer, Sorry. By one, I meant tager, and with the two, That remains to be seen, Apparently Tsubaki, Makoto and Rachel are not looking too hot right now. And I’m getting some really negative vibes from all the Tsubaki players I know. Since Konan won SBO, She has been in the firing line.

7

Well, I am a Tsubaki player, and I am feeling the negative vibes. I mean, she doesn’t look terrible, but the list of nerfs is hunormous and it makes me super sad.

I hadn’t heard that Rachel was bad though - I thought she’d barely changed from CS2. I guess they’ve found out some more stuff.

8

Ive been playing blazblue since the american release, and i have a question. In what position do you think /-11is in when it comes too match ups? yesterday i attended a blazblue tourney at Next level Arcade in NY and i really didnt do THAT great. Probably due to the fact that that was one of my first *official *tourneys and i probably choked. Im just interested to see whats my odds are right now.

9

Lambda Matchups are 0. This means the Ratio of good matchups / bad matchups is 100% even.

Goes to find MAtchup chart

10

Yeah. In CS2 and in EX by all reports, Lambda is super squarely in the middle of the pack.

I think the hardest thing for Lambda - at least from my perspective - is that you really need to be able to react to things, rather than try to guess your opponent. Lambda threatens a vast amount of space in neutral, but as soon as she commits to pushing a button, she immediately ceases to control a lot of it. So you can’t just throw out random stuff - you need to react to your opponent. Stop ground approaches with 5D or j.2D, air approaches with 6D and 2D, use Spike Chaser only when your opponent isn’t in a position to either hit you first or jump over it for a combo, etc, and go in only when you can do so with an advantage. (Of course, all of these are rules that are made to be broken, but if you don’t follow the at all, you die. Breaking them is only effective when your opponent doesn’t expect you to break them.)

Did you get any matches on stream? We might be able to offer better critique with a video.

11

Lambda just needs godlike reactions with 6D + 2D. If you nail that your Lambda play just levels up insanely.

12

Unfortunetly no, we ran into a problem at Next level that al ALOT of the consoles didnt have the 1.03 patch download so we had to find a set in some obscure location away from the steaming table. Even in the first rounds they were test streaming casual guilty gear matches( I wanna say around 3:30 EST) so by the time theyset it up for blazblue i was already knocked into the losers brackets which wasn’t set up for the steam.

13

I don’t play tsubaki, but what was nerfed?

14

The short answer is “pretty much everything”

The slightly longer answer is:

  • 5B Startup, frame advantage (now 10 startup instead of 9, -5 instead of +1)
  • 2A startup, frame advantage (Now 7 startup instead of 6, now 0 instead of +2)
  • Damage on almost all normals.
  • Min damage on 236236C super
  • Frame advantage on pretty much every ground based special. (236C now -4 at best instead of +4, -13 at worst instead of -5, 236D now -4 instead of +2, 214X series now ALL -7 on block instead of -5/-3, 22C now -5 instead of +1, 22D now -9 instead of +3.)
  • P1 (Starting proration) on…just about every special move and many normals
  • Rate of charge for 5D, max number of charges off 2D

Or, to summarize the effects of the changes:
Tsubaki is now a pressure character with no real ways to extend her pressure. Pretty much everything she does is neutral or worse on block, all special moves including those that use charges are now quite negative. Also, her overall damage has been reduced in multiple different ways.

They gave her a few boosts, but those mostly just serve to keep her from being completely unplayable, rather than balancing out all the nerfs.

15

I think most of that is survivable but the 5B nerf is pretty brutal.

16

Honestly, I think the biggest problem is the nerfs to her D version specials - she now essentially lacks any tools for use at neutral that an opponent needs to respect. (Unless you count her 2C, which is still good, but only on the defensive.)

Pretty much every other character in the game has something that the opponent needs to be genuinely respectful of. Tsubaki lacks anything of the sort at this point, since pretty much anything she does is a ticket to negative frames.