OVERVIEW
first things first, my peacock is ass at this time (though last i played her it had gotten much better) i still have a lot of work to do, i write this as it took me a solid month to realize these things about the character and id like to save some people the trouble as well as get whoever/everyone to contribute patterns… peacock is a character that imho is almost completely pattern based… it could be said of all characters but peacock takes it to another level. also i base much of ths on things ive seen in ddsouls vids and have myself been recreating plus things i have stolen off of other peacock players.
no pattern is uncounterable though which is where the skill lies… picking the right pattern, using correct reactions, varying your playstyle etc etc
also in this thread i will go over keepaway, runaway and zoning… how peacock excells at all of them and how she must use all of them to accomplish the end result of staying away from her opponents characters for long periods of time.
the title is in reference that peacock sometimes has to play while holding down the hp button, which in the old school is known as the fierce button. that button is EXTREMELY important to peacock and holding it makes and breaks many of her strategies.
that having been said i was originally planning on going through the ramifications of that and the ins and outs… but decided not to, instead ill just list off a few brief obvious things:
when holding an item drop with hp peacock loses access to ALOT of great moves namely…
j.hp
st.hp
bangx3
teleport behind opponent
instant tracking level 1 item drop (cause shes charging it)
and it also has the drawback of forcing the peacock player to hold the button while calling assists, performing throws and sometimes combos, 2 p airdashes etc etc.
the primary reason to list all of this is to let the beginning peacock realize just how much they lose when charging an item drop… peacocks far presence is generally greatly diminished with the loss of st.hp and lvl 1 item drop.
THIS MEANS that its much harder to play a garbage based keepaway game while holding an item drop… if peacock gets hit while holding item drop she loses it. and some character actually can take peacock on fairly well from fullscreen as long as peacock isnt using the overload strat aka the keepaway strat (which i will go into later, its very simple)
charging an item drop is best done from what ive seen, TO GO ON OFFENSE. it isnt really to be used for defense. for offense though lets look at what a lvl 2-3 item drop gives you:
a much harder to dodge projectile
an “assist” that locks down and hits fullscreen… while also being able to call other assists.
(im not sure if this one works) an easy to use alpha counter by letting go of item drop while in blockstun
an overhead that is independent of peacocks own recovery thusly allowing peacock to go for near unblockables with item drop and a low assist or peacocks own lows.
the ability to left/right the “offensive” opponent by double jumping over them and releasing the item drop.
basically it has alot of good offensive properties yet takes away alot of good defensive properties, so its only natural to try and use charged item drop offensively… ie while moving forward and non charged item drops while moving backward or holding her ground.
PEACOCKS SPECIALS (wip)
a section for analysis of peacocks specials and what different functions that they can serve… as an example a new one that a friend told me about was throwing out a lk george, seeing the opponent jump over it, then teleporting toward the opponent that is trying to advance.
basically the lk george will protect peacocks port even if it has passed up the opponent, assuming of course that it is close enough.
PEACOCKS MOST IMPORTANT MOVES (defense)
-
lvl1 item drop… (mostly to hit other zoners that are trying to zone) but also good for general anti air against slow moving forward movements… like regular jumps and stuff.
-
st.hp… her most important keepaway move BY FAR imho… item drop might get all the publicity but this baby is what does all the work. the pluses of this move and what makes it absolutely disgusting is that peacock can screen check with it anytime she wants (just throw it out) and then cancel it it into any george or teleport or non cancel upon seeing the opponents movement… like, see opponent jump over it towards her… no problem just teleport out of there, and if you are really fast and have a pillar or updo style assist you can call the assist then teleport thusly making your defense turn into a crossup offense that you dont even have to bother to setup since the opponents come to you.
also the overload strategy isnt really possible without st.hp
3.Georges day out… covers the ground against dashes, sets up offensive and defensive teleports, controls alot of space for a very long time… peacock just seems to do alot better when gdo is constantly kept in play… so dont sleep on it, use it as much as possible, also its call out has AA properties against IAD and recovers really quickly like item drop hold.
4.George at the airshow… really shitty when first learning how to use peacock…. after that a god send as it becomes really powerful once peacock is good at frustrating the opponent and getting to certain ranges… funnily enough people LOVE to jump forward after this move hits them in the air or puts them into blockstun… reasoning i guess is because the opponent is thinking “he wont throw 2 airshows in a row” or something such as that… anywas peacock can use this to her advantage by following up successful airshows with teleports.
- HK teleport… the bread and butter of defensive peacock play… using this move well means that peacock literally never loses running room… this alone makes this move SUPER CHEAP.
now there is a “right” way to use teleports and a wrong way.
the right way is to anticipate an opponents jump forward and hk teleport towards them as that will actually move peacock away from them. she can also do this for grounded moves that move forward… basically you just want to read or react to moves that move forward and use hk port to move in back of them.
the wrong way is to teleport to a character that is js standing there waiting for a port. the OTHER WRONG WAY is something that i still see alot and its to wait till peacock is in the corner and then try and teleport out… which is bad for 2 reasons… 1. its super predictable. 2 the opponent can actually cover teleports when peacock is cornered easier by standing at a certain range and countering teleports on reaction or upon not seeing one yet seeing the assist make contact, go on the offense… so basically a no risk way to be defensive and offensive at the same time… you dont want this so make sure you port BEFORE you are cornered… even if that means that you have to do 3 times as many ports at midscreen… just do it, it works till the opponent starts to bait them and once they start to bait them is when peacock can go all out with:
THE OVERLOAD STRAT (ie noobs pressing alot of buttons, the pattern all peacocks like to use, etc etc)
its simply any version of this pattern:
st.hp xx qcf +lk>st.hp xx qcf +mk,st.hp xx qcf+ hk,st.hp xx qcb +hp
you can add and subtract empty st.hp and whatnot as you see fit, the principle job of this is to put as much shit on the screen as possible while also trying to cover obvious jumpin and ground angles… but this is primarily designed to beat other characters trying to keepaway, and other characters that are baiting teleport, and other characters that are simply playing “patient” trying to think their way in.
note that peacock CAN BE BEATEN BY KEEPAWAY if you dont know how to deal with it:
“fireball advantage” is something that has been in fighting games forever, however in skullgirls its almost taken to a new level. if you have fireball advantage your fireball game basically CAN NOT BE BEATEN by another characters fireball game… this seems to work with painwheel, parasoul and of course peacock.
painwheel cause she can pound out like 5 spikes that is more than peacock can usually handle in one go, parasoul can just do shitloads of hp shots.
peacock is the only one of these characters that can use her own fireball to grab the fireball advantage back and keep it.
item drop 1 always gives fireball advantage afaik except for in the situations that the other peacock has a gdo in play… which makes things dynamic.
other than that, usually a simple lvl1 drop followed by a st.hp xx garbage or bangx3 is waaaay more than enough to get the other character to lose the advantage and be forced to come to peacock.
PATTERNS:
this is probably the meat of the thread, or atleast as important as whatever else i said was just as important. this is what peacocks uses to go offensive or defensive and to do it well.
some might wonder why i put patterns in here… they might think “simply using patterns isnt going to make any player good, its knowing when to use the patterns that makes a player good” to which i would certainly agree, however i would argue that not all or even most patterns are obviosu at least at first and there are SOME patterns that are so strong that using them WILL IN GENERAL make your play stronger even if the patterns are somewhat misplaced…. the 2 patterns im listing next are just those sort of patterns, one i modified from ddsoul vids and have been VERY happy with it, the other is just common sense but… for common sense it works so well i just figured it has to be here.
1. jump back airdash, j.hk, land call charged item drop (then react to the opponent, if they are far take the opportunity to set out a gdo as well f they are close use the double jump crossup i mentioned earlier.
just doing the airdash to the j.hk is amazingly good though… ive found it better than:
just jumping with j.hk (doesnt get far enough away, is risky to try and transfer to a defensive strategy with such little backward space gained)
jumping with j.hp naked or canceling it into a j.hk (the first one is like the naked j.hk… though i do use this alot cause of the damage of the j.hp. the second one canceling the jhp into jhk, i dont like eiither cause it gains TO MUCH SPACE ON AVERAGE and leads to peacock cornering herself to easily or having to overrely on teleports to get her out.
so yeah, just jump and airdas back then cancel into j.hk… shit is golden and protects peacock from the air and skies… why not just jump with hk and airdash back cancel it into another jhk or simlpy let it ride? cause the jhk doesnt have THAT much priority and can easily be beaten by other light attacks or earlier timed attacks… if you are just looking to create space the pattern i listed is imho the best way to do that….loses bad to projectiles though so watch out for that.
2.HK Teleport crossup
(WHEN THEY THINK THEY ARE GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE) basically you just want to anticipate them jumping towards you and hit them with a gtfo assist while teleporting and thusly mixing up there blocking, the reason being that they may try to empty jump to bait the assist… this pattern beats empty jump but can still be considered a 50/50 once the opponent learns to antcipate it and block correctly
VERY simple but the way i do it is i make sure that i ALWAYS do it if im calling my invulnerable assist… its an easy transition from defense to offense and the opponent has to start to anticipating it to block it or make it wiff… also completely in peacocks favor imho.
also why NOT teleport everytime? no good reason to get your assist blocked imho. and yes this is one of the many things that makes peacock an absolutely disgusting character to play against. she kills you from fullscreen, she kills you at midscreen, she kills you upclose. she turns your offense or defense into her defense or offense from ANYWHERE ON THE SCREEN… no other character can do that to the extent tht she can nor as quickly a she can do it. and also teleport is her PRIMARY offensive mixup, though she does have a high low throw game it isnt nearly what it is with other characters… learn to abuse her teleport on both defense and offense.
