Re: You guys…
This is good stuff, but c’mon. No argument like this is sound. I’ve seen May players (myself, actually) get a perfect on Axl. Against Axl, no less. It’s true that he doesn’t need the super, but it does SO much damage that he has to do a lot of work to make up for it. If you still think Venom is better, that’s fine.
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You should watch some matches featuring Potemkin. You’d be amazed at how he can rush and get in your face, and with the threat of huge damage always present, a lot of people get ruffled. He’s harder to keep away than you think he is. All it takes is one messup in positioning and you get knocked down, he dashes over you, and now you’ve got a big burly man with huge throw range breathing down your neck.**
I’ve lost many, many matches to Potemkin and I know he can be played really well. But just because a character has good stuff doesn’t mean that he’s good overall. Most of the matches featuring Potemkin that I see scare the living crap out of me. I’ll admit it. But I never see a Potemkin match where he never gets his offense started or his opponent keeps evading his mixups and zones out Poti effectively. IMO that’s the best way to beat him, it’s all about playing smart. My personal opinion is that he’s better than May, but not that much better.
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Testament isn’t awesome, but he’s got very nasty mixups on a downed opponent that can lead to another combo to knockdown or to a powerful combo near the corner. Better offense than May can attest to, as well as better defense.**
May has a very good high/low mixup game as well. I’ve seen some really good Testaments, but they don’t have the offensive options that May has. If Testament can’t knock his opponent down, Testament probably isn’t going to win. I think you’re seriously underestimating May’s offensive potential.
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On the contrary, his sheer number of movement options do make up for it. It is not hard to get in close with Chipp. He’s a skill character. His range is not an issue mainly because of how easy it is for him to get in on you (note that he can also do a tigerkneed Alpha Blade from almost full screen distance and knock you down, and a TK AB recovers almost instantly). Gamma Blade is a good ranged poke as well. He can do some decent damage on a hit and has good in-close pressure along with some excellent mindgames on a knockdown. True, he can’t take a hit, but he can get his hits in pretty easily.**
Can’t really argue with you on these points. I can say that I don’t agree that his movement options make up for it. Still, I’ve lost some matches to good Chipp players so I could be very wrong.
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As has been stated before, raw stats matter less when you can’t hit your opponent. May’s problem is no priority. At all. All that pretty damage she can do means nothing because she can’t land a damn hit. Well-played Chipp will rush you and mixup constantly to make you block incorrectly and then do good damage. Well-played Testament knocks you down once and proceeds to pressure you for the rest of the round. Well-played Potemkin gets in your face and throws you or pounds on you constantly. What does well-played May do? Jump around a lot, throw out random pokes, and pray that they mess up. Practically nothing scary or guaranteed.**
May isn’t playing randomly. May is trying to set up her heavy-hitting combos. May can put on scary pressure with her JI FRC dolphin attacks. Surely you’ve seen the May vs. Dizzy or May vs. Johnny vids by Koinuma.
Plus, I don’t think anything by any character is guaranteed.
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Incredibly crappy range. At least Venom’s has some diagonal range. Her’s is all forward and rarely hits outside of combo.**
May’d 6p is pretty safe and goes through a lot of things. Things such as Faust’s standing HS and Ky’s standing S. Please tell me you’re not thinking this move is used as an attack and not a defensive counterattack.
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Slow and telegraphed. Dash at her, FD to break the dash, block, punish.**
May’s 6HS can be cancelled into a Mr. Dolphin if it connects. Thus, she’s practically safe.
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Decent range, but most of them are way too slow. They also lack priority (not good).**
May’s ground pokes lack priority? Are you sure? Most characters don’t have an answer to May’s ducking slash from my experience, unless they can outrange it. May’s standing kick is pretty fast and chains into her standing slash. But hey, May’s ground pokes aren’t a major part of her game.
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Problem is that she CAN’T HIT THE OTHER GUY. Damage means nothing when you can’t connect. And supers w/invulnerability are by and far very small factors in this game, where baiting attacks is far too easy. Go ahead and throw out a whale, waste your Tension while I jump over it. HS super is crap, no range, only good in combos. **
The HS super has invincibility frames and is May is completely safe afterwards if it hits. This makes it great for wakeups and for countering rushing attacks. It also has good range, I don’t know why you say the range is crap. Baiting the whale super is not a good argument against it. Sure, you can bait it and I’ll feel dumb afterwards but if I guess correctly and you threw out an attack Shamoo will hit you and then I’ll combo you after you bounce off the wall.
It’s kind of like saying Sol’s uppercut is crappy because you can bait it and then combo him afterwards.
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Run in and poke? You’ll get out-poked most of the time. Jump around like a loon means nothing if you don’t have life advantage (and even then, not a good idea if you’re on defense). Throwing out a dolphin presents no threat or setup. Hold a dolphin leaves you wide open, and if you get hit then your dolphins go away. Present something USEFUL AND THREATENING to do at long range. It’s like Sol throwing Gun Flames from afar, gets you nowhere fast; all you’re doing is trying to provoke a rush or attack from your opponent. **
Throwing out dolphins, first of all, provides lots of setups. May can run in after them, especially if FRCd, and either throw or combo. If you hold it for a brief second you can provide cover for an IAD arial attack. And why would it leave May wide open? You can still block when holding a dolphin, and you can release the dolphin at any time. Not to mention that if you hold the dolpin long enough to get two or more, you have even more cover for your rush.
I’m just trying to say that I think your opinion of May is lower than her actual potential. Take what you said here:
“Well-played Chipp will rush you and mixup constantly to make you block incorrectly and then do good damage. Well-played Testament knocks you down once and proceeds to pressure you for the rest of the round. Well-played Potemkin gets in your face and throws you or pounds on you constantly.”
In my opinion, I think that May can do all of these things. Just not quite as well. But hey, if you don’t want to think May is good I don’t blame you. It’s not a very popular opinion. I just don’t like it went people say that May is clearly the worst, not playable, or has nothing going for her. (Not saying you said this BOF, just a general statement.)