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.