Not a Rachel main (so disregard this if one comes in and says otherwise) but i tried her out for a while as a possible alt. Off the top of my head:
Pumpkin makes f***ing everything safe
-Great guard crush (one of the reasons she does really well vs carl, the other big one being she gets out of loop for pretty much for free)
-frog oki. frog is dumb
-most of her combos give her the opportunity put something on the screen for continued pressure.
-several really good normals. Example: 6a (cat shoryuken) safe, starts blockstrings, head invincible, launches on counterhit. Other notable ones: Wind+air 2C (fantastic overhead), 6B (poke, big dmg on CH), 2C (electric chair, pseudo dragon punch)
All this plus some other stuff i’m probly forgetting gives her gdlk rushdown game. Ok zoning along with it (nothing like nu/ara but still an option) makes her really solid all around. The only real weakness i can think of is that her big hitbox allows for some character-specific combos combos vs her
She has a bunch of amazing normals (6A, 2C, j.2C, to name a few). Wind gives her great mobility, lets her escape things other characters can’t, and really bumps up her zoning game. She can rush that shit down and she deals huge damage doing it.
Oki describes the wakeup game. As you may know, there are many ways of waking up. A character with a good oki game has great options to limit your wakeup options and heavily punish a bad choice.
Litchi is a great example, with her staff nearby, she can punish into a combo any attempt to roll tech, and if you neutral or quick rise, she can activate the staff to keep you pinned down while she goes into a mixup.
Rachel has a good oki game as well because her frog and pumpkin can keep her safe while continuing to pressure someone on wakeup.
Really stupid question, but how do you IAD? I know that you have to hit 9-> 6 but is it just a roll down on the stick? Do you go back to neutral? Luckily I play Tager, so it’s not much of an issue, but I hate not being able to do it.
How do you know when you can tech after you’ve been hit by a crumpling or knockdown move?
As far as I have been able to research, there’s no indication of when you are in a defenseless state on-screen.
This is really annoying, because I see combos that I could’ve escaped “If I teched faster” but since there’s no indication of when I can recover, I have to do it on experience alone.
Im looking to play another game as i already play street fighter iv and attend regular tournies/arcade down in the UK. This game looks like its alot of fun and is going to be played at the biggest European tournament.
Im just looking for some opinions from the guys who are closer to the blazblue scene.
Do you think this game is going to last long enough for most people to really get into?
Is the popularity increasing in your area/arcade?
Is it worth learning this or guilty gear? i would rather learn the game that is going to be around a while and still have many players long after the release.