Glacius strategy

Classic Fighting Games Killer Instinct
1

So I’ve been sticking with Glacius for the time being. I’ll probably start learning a more offensive character soon, but for now Glacius is GREAT at blowing up mashers / jumpers.

His jumping kicks follow the same kind of logic as Dhalsim.

Glacius j. HK = Dhalsim j. MP (horizontal coverage)
Glacius j. MK = Dhalsim j. HP (sniper)
Glacius j. LK = Dhalsim j. LP (fast straight-down attack)

Grounded anti-airs: Heavy Hail, Puddle Punch, b+HP, neutral HP (I’m sure there are more, but these are the ones I use).

My favorite anti-air juggle: Puddle Punch xx Shadow Puddle Punch, juggle f+MP xx Shadow Shatter

Hail is SO GOOD. I mostly use the heavy version and hold the button down. If they jump I can release it. If their jump attack connects, Hail will still auto-release and hit them. So if you have an H. Hail ready, they literally can never jump at you. It’s almost like a slower, automatic Sinestro trait.

And once you get them to stop jumping, you can still send Hail after them if they stay on the ground. Or keep it held and harass them with f+MP.

f+MP seems to be the party starter. I often use it on their wakeup, or for whiff punish. I noticed FilthieRich likes to cancel f+MP into Cold Shoulder for an up-close combo (cause that’s where you get the big damage). But I prefer doing the long-range auto-doubles. Lights pull them in, mediums keep them at same distance, and heavies push them away. Only downside is you can only use the Shatter ender from long range.

As for wakeup defense / reversals… i think Shadow Puddle Punch is his best reversal, but I’m not sure. If anyone knows of any wakeup attacks that are safer / more invulnerable let me know. Any other strategy would be appreciated. My Glacius is still pretty Day-1

2

This going to be the first character I try to learn. Can’t wait to have this game :slight_smile:

3

fd

Yeah you listed a lot of the good anti airs. I’m sure c.HP isn’t too bad in some situations also. LK or MK Puddle punch is really good because it’s designed to catch trip guard so you can punish a jump in with a full grounded combo. His hit box becomes off screen until he rises back from the ground so if you catch someone jumping in you can make their jump in whiff, punish their trip guard with the punch and then put them in a full combo. Really crafty and damaging AA punish.

f+MP is kinda tough to hit confirm from so I usually just mash on auto doubles if I think it’s going to hit. If I’m just trying to apply pressure then I usually cancel it on block into MP hail. That way even if they block the ice lance they now have to deal with hail and I can start making the opponent claustrophobic with lots of hit boxes on the screen. Which then usually sets up opportunity for shatter or puddle punch anti air after they jump in. Don’t really use cold shoulder neutrally much even though it’s safe enough if they block it from a range. Not much outside of combos to do extra damage with the regular or especially shadow versions.

Shadow Puddle punch is his only real invincible revesal and it now juggles the opponent on grounded hit so you can’t really get full opener combos like you used to. Regular puddle punch isn’t bad either but if they block or or meaty it you’re done. Shadow cold shoulder isn’t bad against certain attacks, but I don’t think it has much actual invincibility and is mostly only projectile invincible. If the opponent throws you on wake up you’re getting thrown. It seems the idea with Glacius is to keep people at a distance and force them into combos from a range. The idea is to convert his chipping game into combos after the opponent flusters and jumps at you or stays grounded too long and gets ice lanced or shattered. If you let someone get in, that’s essentially a mistake and without ice armor you don’t have much that won’t get you killed other than guess throw or shadow puddle punch.

Ice armor instinct is very useful vs. the rushdown heavy types like Sabrewulf. Using it carefully can help give you an edge vs. those that are getting in quickly. You just have to decide whether it’s worth it to buff yourself defensively or tough it out so you can get a big combo with the instinct cancel later. Basically if you want a stronger defensive game outside of blocking you just have to pick good times to activate ice armor. Especially since it allows you to do stuff like basically take a hit from a poke and then jump jump away from it or poke back at them without much risk.

Using his throw for defensive purposes is important in general. It’s probably his most important defensive tool other than LP hail. The strat guide supposedly says that throws have 3 frames of attack invincibility and you’ll want to use that to push people back out into optimal attacking range for Glacius. Anytime you know you are in range for a throw, don’t be too hesitant to get one off because that will give you instant optimal spacing to continue your zone and set up combos.

LP hail is the main tool you’ll want to use to stop grounded approaches like Sabre or Orchid slides and generally acts as a nice combo breaker if people are getting close to you. Especially if they are already hitting you just as the hail releases. Just be careful when people are stocked on shadow meter as they will use a projectile invincible shadow move if you telegraph the LP hail too often.

4

wow I didn’t know that about throws. That explains why throws sometimes beat out shadow moves I guess.

I’ve been mashing throw instinctively a LOT up close, probably a habit from SF4 and Marvel 3. But it works most of the time. And you’re right, Glacius’ throw puts them at the perfect distance to start the f+MP harassment.

A few other things I’ve learned:

  • there are approximately 200,000 Jagos online who all do wind kick nonstop. Wind kick is surprisingly tough to beat out. If they do it close enough, you can usually punish with a shadow cold shoulder. You can also “punish” it with puddle punch (it looks like a counter, but it’s actually keeping Glacius off screen during their active, and you reappear during their recovery, but timing is risky). If I don’t have meter, I’ll just block the WK and press f+MP. It’s not a punish, but they’re almost always mashing and trying to jump afterwards.

  • I’ve been using shadow Hail as a reversal lately instead of puddle punch. The Hail seems to come out instantly regardless of them hitting you. But like you mentioned, if they do Shadow you’re F’d.

  • I almost always try to save Instinct for near the end. It can really make all the difference when your opponent is going nuts offensively

  • I really wish I had a backdash. Even a slow one like Dhalsim would be cool

5

Yeah I still think the devs taking away his ability to dash (it wasn’t even good, slow and short) wasn’t a great idea, but he already has slow ass walk speed any ways so it wouldn’t be a huge improvement either. Just gonna have to try to throw or do LK or Shadow puddle punch and hope for the best if you don’t want to block. Throw would be best since you go back to optimal range instantly.

If I know I’m fighting a wind kick happy jago I just keep throwing LP hails in front of me if they’re at a distance. The projectile invincibility usually runs out before the wind kick connects and then you can land a combo. Otherwise just be more patient than them and block or try the reaction puddle punch whiff punish like you mentioned. If they do shadow wind kick that’s free shadow counter. If you have armor you should be able to armor absorb and then interrupt with a jab.

6

I was thinking about him having a dash, and yea, even if it’s not good, because of the range of his ice pick it would make him more dangerous from range, and lock people down like a sabrewulf even more. There’s a lot of spacing one already has to deal with when facing Glacius. A dash and that ice pick (I think it’s st.M) would help him a lot in my opinion.

7

MORE STUFF…

Wakeup defense
This is, in my opinion, Glacius’ biggest problem. His wakeup reversals (i.e. PP, Shadow PP) are fine during neutral game, but if you get knocked down it’s a different story. Startup for L, M, H and Shadow PP’s are 13, 14, 15 and 9 respectively. This is pretty poor for what visually appears to be his “wakeup DP”. It’s so easy to safejump in fact, I often notice opponents safejumping me by accident from doing deep / late jumpins.

Crossups in particular are WEIRD in this game. I was testing it out in training, and there seems to be no auto-correct. Even normals will animate backwards if you press it during the crossover frames. So if you want to reversal Shadow PP, you have to wait until they fully cross over you. And even if you time it right, they probably safejumped it anyway.

Considering Jago has a 2 frame DP, Sabrewulf has a 3-framer, Thunder’s shadow DP is 6, Sadira’s shadow flip kick is 4, and Orchid’s regular DP appears to be 2 - 3 (data missing in command list), I’d say Glacius got shafted pretty hard with his 9 frame Shadow PP.

This is why I think Glacius’ Instinct cancel is MUCH better saved for defensive wakeup situations instead of in-combo (basically, wake up with Shadow PP, if they block use your Instinct and do whatever from there).

Shatter Mixup
If you don’t know by now, Shatter is unblockable. It’s got 26 frames of startup, BUT, if you cancel into it from a blocked f+MP they’ll have about 8 - 10 frames to react before getting hit (depending on when you cancel during the f+MP). It’s also very tricky after a blocked shadow Hail. Keep in mind, Shatter becomes **blockable **if used while the opponent is in blockstun (kinda like Rose’s level 3 focus getting blocked if they’re still in blockstun from Orbs). So you have to create a gap after they block Shadow Hail. Best way to create the gap is making them block another normal with high blockstun and cancel into Shatter. The 2 normals with the best blockstun ‘yield’ are far st.HK and f+MP. But I have to give it to f+MP again since the startup is faster (therefore easier to time).

So basically, the full mixup (to hit them with an unblockable Shatter) could be a blockstring like this: f+MP xx Cold Shoulder xx Shadow Hail, after last hail chunk is blocked -> f+MP xx L. Shatter -> full combo.

Any other Shatter setups you guys have please share.

Instinct
When Glacius uses Instinct he gets up to 5 armor “shells”. Each shell has 1 hit of armor. If a shell is used, it breaks apart and the next one re-forms after a few seconds.

But here’s the interesting part… If the opponent hits your armor shell with an opener, the hit is basically “void” so none of their auto-doubles can activate. Not only that, but the “voided” hit becomes frozen for a bit, making it no longer combo-able in any form. Jago’s Cr. MK xx Fireball won’t combo. Rapid fire cr. jabs won’t combo. J. HK, st. LP won’t combo. All of that stuff can be interrupted during the “freeze” of the first hit. This is different than a typical (Balrog EX) armor property in that it actually changes the opponent’s action.

The only things that will beat out Instinct armor are multi-hitting moves. Basically any Shadow move, Jago’s HP laser sword, etc.

8

So it looks like people online are FINALLY respecting the lance (f+MP) on wakeup. This is a good thing cause before they were always jumping and you’d sometimes just hit them out of the jump instead of getting a grounded opener.

Now, if they block the lance, I think the best option is to cancel into Shatter. If they stayed on the ground post-lance it’s a free opener. If they jumped post-lance you’re still safe. Only thing they can do to counter you is probably a fast forward-moving shadow move. But they only have 8 - 10 frames to make that decision. And you can always cancel your Shatter into Shadow PP or Instinct.

9

Anyone know a good list of all his combos/juggles/etc? I can get the usual Linker>Auto>Linker>etc>etc… but I was wondering what kind of juggle combos off of anti-airs and launchers people might have some up with.

Also what is the best follow up after an Ultra if you are going for the extra hits?