Elena General Discussion

Damn, I really have to say that Lynx Tail is annoyingly good! LK and MK both have same startup. Well spaced LK can be punished by sweep (at least for Ibuki), but MK is safe and my sweep would whiff if I try to punish it, leaving me open to be whiff punished. Also, a well spaced MK Lynx only hits once just like LK so it’s very hard to tell the difference between LK and MK. That makes it risky to try to punish. Not to mention that you have to also consider her EX mallet smash. Her high/low mixup is so good. IMO scarier than the vortex lol.

The zangief match is 5-5 yea if you play footies right he can’t do anything but your first mistake will probably cost you the match it’s hard for her to get out of his vortex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzdmjDJlVjw

EDIT: Hugo can also do this. Apparently it’s just a fuck-up with their .bcm files, resulting in their Ultra/Super having high priority than their focus attacks. This was apparently discovered WAAAY back in June.

Just thought I’d post this here. I made it a couple of weeks ago. Elena can kara cancel her focus attack into Super/Ultra. I’m not sure why she’s the only one that can do this, but I think it’s because her focus attack has more startup frames than anyone else in the cast. C. Viper and some other characters have a 23-frame startup, which was previously the slowest, but her FA’s startup is 24. That extra frame might allow the cancel to be possible.

That solves all my problems with the input. Thank you.

Is HK lynx tail to jump forward a guaranteed safe jump?

It’s a fake safe jump. You land too early to connect with the jump attack unless you delay the jump by a few frames.

Safe jumps are a waste of time with Elena. Just stay on the ground so you get a high-low mixup.

Lol, I finally got this once. Seriously tight timing.

I like the safe jump with Elena they can be pretty hard to know what side she’s going to land on.

A few things I’ve noticed from my play:
-How does everyone feel about LK Rhino Horn? I think it can work as an AA sometimes, with the bonus of being able to catch backdashes. Plus, you gotta love it when someone crouches, thinks they’re blocking the whiffed move, and you throw them.
-Healing is DA BESS. You don’t truly even need to heal. In fact, rapid cancel fucks with people pretty bad. They’re rushing to punish, usually with something horribly unsafe, and you cancel and get a free punish. I actually got a comeback with that; not even the health, but the free punish.
-How to integrate focus into her game? I really want to focus more so I can build up dat heal gauge. I currently just poke and harass, then switch to a more aggressive, mix up heavy style once I get momentum.
-Non-metered wake up options? I hate using EX Scratch because that’s one less EX Mallet I get to use.

Scratch that. This is really dirty.

Edit: Updated for 1.04
Now harder to do against some characters, easier against others.
Needs 3-4 hits before H Lynx Tail instead of 1-2 to account for the pull in.

Basic setup

  • Mallet Smash > [Normals] xx H Lynx Tail > Jump forward
    … Empty jump forward > cr.LK (meaty low crossup)
    … Jump forward whiff HK > cr.LK (meaty low non-crossup)

Basically, if you get the positioning right then whiffing an air normal at the last moment screws with the collision boxes to make you land in front of the opponent where an empty jump would have had you land behind them.
If the opponent delays their wakeup, you can react to the message with a high-low mixup (Meaty f+MK / cr.LK)
See below for what to do before Lynx Tail to get the ideal spacing.

Character specifics
(walk) indicates that you have to walk forwards for a few frames before the jump. The timing is character specific, with characters listed on separate rows requiring a longer walk distance.
cr.LP > cr.LP > cr.LP

  • Hugo
    cr.LP > cr.LP > cr.MP
  • Sagat Seth THawk Zangief
  • (walk)Guy
  • (walk)Blanka
  • (walk)Cammy Decapre
    cr.LK > cr.LP > cr.LP > cr.LP
  • CViper Dan EvilRyu FeiLong Ibuki Ken Oni Ryu
  • (walk)Gen
  • (walk)Balrog
  • (walk)Rose
    cr.LP > st.LP
  • Adon Guile
    cr.LK > cr.LP > cr.MP
  • Vega
    cr.LP > cr.LK > cr.LP
  • Blanka
    cr.LK > cr.LP > cr.LK > cr.LP
  • EHonda
    cr.LP > cr.LP > cr.LP > cr.LP
  • (walk)ElFuerte CViper Dan EvilRyu Ibuki Ken Oni Ryu
  • (walk)Abel Akuma ChunLi Cody Dhalsim EHonda FeiLong Gouken Rolento Sakura Yang Yun
  • (walk)Makoto MBison DeeJay Elena
  • (walk)Dudley Hakan Rufus
  • (walk)Adon
    (walk timing is about 1 extra frame per row)

Nothing reliable right now
Juri Poison

They have weird hitboxes at their feet that makes Lynx Tail whiff at the ideal distance.

Good shit as always sprint. I thought it was tricky but i haven’t been going as hard as I’d like to. I’m certain that there’s more stuff yet to be discovered simply based on how people viewed.

Also you don’t have to worry about delayed wake up…so there’s no need to take that into account. Wow I’m going to try to find more tine to practice

Just got some simple questions for you guys.

What uppercut do I use for anti air / reversal besides EX? Is there a significant difference between lk - mk - hk? If I’m not in range for a normal and have bar I tend to go with ex because I get beaten using regular quite a bit.

Also what is the usage for the back heavy kick? It seems identical to the neutral heavy kick except it has a white air line behind the foot and doesn’t(?) combo afterwards

Don’t use her meterless DP, it’s garbage. Her st.MP is really really good as an AA in every way but damage. Its fast, 2 hits, and has enough priority to beat out Juri’s dive kick in my lab tests. If you want an actual reversal, honestly your best bet is cr.LP for speed, hitbox, and comboability.

Back Heavy is a bit odd, but it is more tailored toward crushing lows than neutral.

Is Elena easy to pickup? I hear she’s hard to master

She can be pretty hard to pick yp.

It all depends on your definition of “pickup”. You can get pretty far with her with basic fundamentals and footsies, and you don’t need to learn a ton of complicated setups and option selects to function offensively. It’s pretty easy to play a good defensive game with her and frustrate your opponent into making mistakes. However, if you want to unlock her full potential, there are a ton of very difficult, awkward unplinkable (without select/back plinking) one frame links to work on resulting in unsafe enders if blocked (as well as plenty of fairly important frame perfect juggles), awkward option selects to deal with backdash to learn since she has no chainable normals, as well as her just being unsafe on almost all of her specials in general. She also has an extremely slow and floaty jump so you have to learn how to deal with everything on the ground as jumping is rarely a good option.

How do you guys continue pressure/mixup off a blocked cr.L? I’ve been using a simple f.MK/cr.HK/throw mixup and want to get more stylish.

I’ve been thinking about this and I want to add cr.mk to my game a bit more sense it’s low. There’s also s.hk and b.hk that i try to use. I sometimes use st.lk xx lt. It’s nothing really legit but some people tend to stand after i go from standing to crouching. Ex MS i also use. Because I use ex MS i want to start to incorporating ex LT. Since they can’t just react to the flash.

Yo, HK and b.HK are amazing against people who try to punish everything with sweep. cr.LP x3, b.HK is a great way to frame trap for little risk in some cases.

I’ve recently decided that st.LK xx Lynx Tail is kinda garbage.
It isn’t a true blockstring so people can mash out with focus, reversals, etc.

st.LK xx Light Lynx Tail:

  • Punishable by focusing after LK. Can crumple or dash to hit with a full combo.
  • Can mash a DP through it.
  • Can focus backdash to escape.

st.LK xx Medium Lynx Tail:

  • Punishable on block by most of the cast.
  • Doesn’t work right if st.LK hits them standing.
  • Can mash a DP through it.
  • Can focus backdash to escape.
  • Gets bodied by Red Focus.

st.LK xx Heavy Lynx Tail:

  • Punishable on block by pretty much everyone.
  • Usually punishable if st.LK hits them standing.
  • True block string.
  • Literally only works if st.LK hits the opponent crouching, or they block crouching and try to stand up afterwards. I’ve found people familiar with the matchup tend not to do that.

Note: inputting focus backdash as db+MP+MK~neutral~b~db will not get caught standing by Heavy Lynx Tail if timed properly. EX Mallet Smash won’t hit them either. Pretty much have to hard read it to punish them, making it tricky to deal with someone just constantly focus backdashing to safety.

With all this in mind, I’m trying not to special cancel st.LK any more. It’s nice to stick it out there to remind people you have something that reaches that far, but it’s too much of a liability to try to get anything off it.

cr.LP xx Lynx Tail is much better, albeit slightly awkward to input (easiest way: b,db+LP,b+K).
It’s always a true blockstring so people can’t focus or otherwise mash their way out of it.
It’s maximum range also matches up very closely with the range where Light Lynx Tail works properly against standing opponents.

Edits: Post was kind of a mess. Reorganised my thoughts a bit better.

Good to keep in mind. I tend to overuse st. LK xx LK Lynx Tail to prevent possible input errors, so I should probably practice being more consistent with cr. LP xx Lynx Tail and start using that instead.