Breakers

Combos are cool and all but i think as this game progresses a players approach to the Breaker system in this game is where the meat is

This post below is from Alioune in the Noob Saibot thread and I couldn’t agree more. Which why i’ll be sticking with Ermac and Noob in tag battles

“Noob Saibot is more a 50/50 footsie and rushdown char who can zone out than hes about damage , dmg dont mean absolutely anything in this game anyways imo with the breaker system”

I realized i was ignoring my opponents meter in this game as opposed to how i would in SF games. gotta change that. The mind games and mixups begin when both players have breaker.

I’m in the lab trying to find effective ways to maybe bait a breaker attempt and go for the punish. but good players will be expecting that so i think thats where the fun begins

i.e start a block string but interrupt it looking for the breaker attempt then maybe go for a throw or restart the string again or start a new one

wait how could you bait out a breaker, the input is block and forward in a combo? so if you stop you attack they would just be blocking. it not like blazblue where you can wiff a burst.

although you just stopping and starting a new string would confuse someone into thinking you are going to grab them.

also funny note you can be breaker out of a grab. had this happen to me a few times last night online.

IMO damage still matters. meter is more important to some charaters than others, so not every character would want to burn 2 bars when they could be severly limiting their own damage potential without ex attacks

Breakers are still 2 bars in a game where meter doesn’t seem to build nearly as fast as a lot of others. I think breakers are situational. Like at the end of a round if you and the other guy are neck and neck and about to die and you get hit then employ the breaker to give yourself a 2nd chance to take the round.

Otherwise I would save the meter and build 1 more to get the XRay. Rarely have I won/lost a match because of how well I utilized my breakers. Most of it comes down to how well I used my EX or Xrays.

It probably goes without saying but it definitely depends on the opponent as well. The better the combo execution of the person you are playing, the more valuable having that combo breaker stocked is.

This. If I see my opponent can hold a combo for something like 12 or 14 hits, and I can read into that early enough on, I can cut him off at about 4 hits where the combo might otherwise end me.

It’s also important to consider where your opponent’s combo will put you when it’s over. If it’s against Ermac or Smoke, it could very well put you into the corner at one instant but mid screen the next with their teleports in the combos. You wouldn’t want to utilize the Breaker on the move that will put you in the corner because then you’d still be at a disadvantage screen wise. With Johnny Cage I find that I use Breakers a whole lot more than X-Rays.

true but with this game it seems execution isnt that technical. i dont think people are gonna hav trouble pulling off any move in this game in about 3 months

agreed that damage matters but the punishes you would attempt will vary depending on the opponent having breaker or not. I.E if i have a nine hit bnb will you break it after hit 2, 3 or 4? but what if I stop the combo at 3 you didnt break and i go for throw? i’m at work theorizing right now and didnt try to apply this as yet. just playing theory fighter lol. maybe im making the breaker system more deep than it needs to be. This aint killer Instinct lol

ya but what if thats what i want you to do? waste that breaker so now i can go in…nah mean?

ya i like this thought…sommething else i didnt even consider :). Still i think i’m making too much out of the breakers. i’ll keep experimenting though

This is considering a) you got me into the combo the first time without dropping it, and b) you can manage it a second time just as easily. The whole point of the breaker is to end the combo, get out, and try to keep it from happening again. Baiting a breaker is no guarantee of free combos just because I can’t breaker them again. Not to mention, if I were to use a breaker at full meter, it wouldn’t take long to build up a second one to break out again.

Honestly, I would only ever attempt to bait a breaker if I was trying to work in my X-Ray, and even then, it’s not as simple as “lol I just made you waste your breaker”.

when can you breaker exactly? on 2nd hit right? would you be able to do a single hit, like a launcher into an xray for ‘guaranteed damage’? since i assume you cant breaker out of an xray. i was kind of thinking xrays would be a way to guarantee your damage. say on a punish you use raw xray instead of a full combo so they cant breaker out. so i think its a bit early to just sum up all meter management with ‘save it for breakers’, but then again i havent played the game yet lol. i guess the same would go for any character that has a really damaging 1 hit enhanced move.

You can Breaker on the second hit of a combo, but not during the middle of the X-Ray.

How does damage mean nothing if you’re using breakers to prevent losing a ton of life+being put in a bad position?

Meter is wholly dependent on the character. Kabal, for example, has a scare factor involved in his EX spin, which makes zoning him dangerous. Another example, Jade, uses her meter specifically for her EX flash. Noob and Jax (Jax especially) lack comeback potential without X-Ray. A lot of characters have EX moves that have armor to help them get out of pressure. Tbh, breaker is a very last resort in a lot of cases. Meter’s just too important to say “Oh, breaker!”

You can Breaker during any hit of a combo unless its:

  1. A command grab (Ermac’s slam for example)
  2. X-Ray
  3. Projectile

It basically has to be a physical hit. You should change your combos around if possible to ensure that you’re doing the least amount of physical hits during combos if you opponent has meter.