To me it looks like Vtrigger is the best option for using her CA
If you have full CA-Meter and example do a jump-in St. Hp xVTx Cr. Mk xx Rekka xx CA
It does awesome damage and you’ll have plenty of VT left over for another VT related combo.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but she doesn’t seem to need EX moves much (at least in these early stages from what little we’ve seen)
You can even do st.hp VT st.hp.
That said, seeing as you can easily get it off her launcher I’m not sure it’s worth wasting VT on; you’re using up your free cancel and the meter runs down during the CA animation.
It does seem that she uses meter decently well; EX Dash beats fireballs and gets you a nice payout. EX RP is a reversal. EK Upkicks probably connects at all ranges while HK upkicks tends to whiff. However if the opponent doesn’t have a fireball and is a big body your only real use will probably be EX RP, so you can safely save for a CA. She’s not like Bison who basically spends his meter as he gets it because it really enhances his neutral and gives him a solid cashout on combos.
So far her Super is considered quite good by the streamers who spent some time with her and can be used to whiff punish, can be used from the launcher, and I think it can be chained or combo’d into iirc. I agree with the above post about her not needing Vtrigger at all to use the super. I would also agree the EX Bodycheck seems strong with the crumple and going through projectiles. In another youtube video I saw a player linking her EX upkicks from normals and it gave very nice damage. Seems there is really good utility and flexibility for her meter usage, but the game is still in development and many of us haven’t got to touch the character yet, so the best uses aren’t known. I’d assume in some match ups maybe certain meter uses are better or worse than in other match ups.
This whole topic is going to be really important I feel, and no one talks about it.
People are going to play around each other’s V-gauge. Since it’s a binary effect, ideally you want to use it as soon as possible provided the situation is good. It won’t be like Ultras where it’s a good idea to hold onto it because it gets stronger later.
If I’m comboing Bison and he is about to get V-trigger, it might be in my best interests to knock him down or do a reset such that the next combo will take off as much of his health as possible before he has access to his VT. And if he does have it, I will want to stick to him so that he doesn’t get an opportunity to activate it without getting smacked for his trouble.
This may be an unrealized weakness that characters like Birdie and Bison have where they somewhat lack the ability to stop opponents from activating VT thanks to their own speed, and their own VT can be hampered by consistent pressure.
In the same way it may be very helpful to maximize your own VT usage by making sure you don’t take damage until the buff is over. Or, you might use a V-reversal purely because you believe you have one bar to spare. (When you’re winning, delaying VT by one bar via V-reversal may be worth it for another chance to take Bison down from 50% to 10%.)
I always thought while Karin had potential to build 2 v gauges in a round, in game it wouldn’t happen unless someone spammed the backdash, and didn’t punish any whiff. Now with her rekka sucking up over twice as much gauge as before I can easily see her having two gauges. I haven’t watched many new videos, this is probably already happening.
But v-trigger activation also has its own uses. You can use it to confirm off a random hit; just press s.HP xx HP+HK and you are safe/advantage on block and you get a combo on hit and you can also use v-trigger activation defensively (and offensively) on wakeup/neutral in order to freeze the screen to see what the opponent is doing. The last one might depend on how fast the activation recovers especially if doing it on wakeup though. But while v-trigger doesn’t get any longer the more you save it, its possible that you could also wait to use it to get more out of the utility of the activation period.
Currently crush counters seem to build a significant amount of v gauge so for the 2 v meter installs like karin’s, hitting one of those along with using up your meter relatively quickly (preferably without getting hit much while the install is active) should be good for 2 v triggers a round if you’re diligent about it.
Honestly going overboard to adjust strategies to make the most of her v trigger probably isn’t worth it. It’s not like she’s a gimp character outside of v trigger, her normals and whiff punishing look S tier atm. I’m expecting her to get nerfed along with all the other new characters they’ve introduced. Not because she’s broken, but just because they seem to be starting characters off strong and adjusting downward atm, which is fine. (i.e every character in original 6 beta has been nerfed already heh).
Karin beta dates: Oct. 24-25
Defend the North: Oct. 24-25
:s
Yeah, you won’t necessarily want to use it instantly at all times, but I still feel like you’ll want to use it earlier rather than later.
I’m not sure how worthwhile it will be to save it for close-range activation like you do with other characters, though. Rekka seems like a nice thing to have in neutral, even in comparison to her other options, so the ideal situation to have it may be sweep range. Actually I think you can activate off sweep and s.HK especially, I would probably try to make that a regular thing.
I think it’ll mainly be used for the cancel, not just activated in neutral, especially if you can use it to hit confirm off of a cr.MK. Hell, the only character who I know use their’s in neutral during the beta was Bison because of the movement option. Now with the fact that you can do it off of SK I doubt he’ll do that anymore! Birdie did his off of knockdowns or in a combo, Chun off pokes, Ryu as a close range trap, Nash as either a combo extender or punish, and Cammy as a cancel or punish.
So unless your VT offers new movement options or covers an approach I doubt you’ll see it just activated in neutral (so maybe Necalli, especially if you can charge during the screen freeze). Otherwise Ken uses it in combos, Vega as a punish or combos, and it’s a setup for R.Mika and Rashid
It doesn’t always go so smoothly. If you’re playing Birdie and you get VT around 40-50%, and you try to use it only after a knockdown, you may find yourself ending too many rounds without using it at all against a player who’s mindful of it.
With other characters, if Ryu’s VT isn’t actually useful for the fireballs, that will be a shame, considering that’s the stated purpose for it.
In general I don’t feel like combos that confirm into VT are necessarily the best use of the meter. If you’re canceling a normal that you normally can’t cancel from, like a far RH, sure, that seems like a cool idea. But when I weigh the ability to do a little more damage in a combo vs. for example Cammy’s VT divekicks to get in, or Birdie’s armored specials to bypass pokes, I think that’s the greater use for the abilities.
Quick summary: in SF5 it’s harder to get in than it is to score hits once you’re already in, so I’m inclined to spend my meter on the former. It’s more of a gamble because you’re frontloading your meter, but it’s also a gamble to hold on to your VT with the assumption that you will get in without it.
For Karin in particular, now that her VT bar is shorter, it might be more of a question, but I still think it will be used more often outside of point-blank than inside it, currently.
There are of course characters like Vega and Ken who are designed to favor holding on to it.
BETA incoming so we’ll get to play and her see what’s up, i’m looking forward to it.
You can punish Birdie VT pretty easily though if he does it raw or off a blocked normal so he can’t just pop it in neutral.
As for Cammy her buttons are so damn good I never felt the need to pop it in order to get it. Instead it lets you punish fireballs on reaction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWXVkJAGsYI
This was posted in the SF5 GD thread. It’s a pretty nice set and answers some questions that we had. The player makes some new-game mistakes but I feel like it showed one of the better approaches to playing Karin outside of VT. (When the first thing they did was shoulder, I thought they really “got it,” but then it never came again.)
We see more usage of upkicks here than CD when Karin is close-range. It seems like HK version is an auto-frametrap on block, and a little unsafe, which was expected. They also tried to juggle it multiple times after launcher, but it never connected, so it’s likely that LK version is all you’ll get.
Rekka was also connected once after launcher but the Step 2 P followup did not connect. That might have been because Karin moved forward too quickly and passed under the opponent, or because it didn’t have enough juggles left, can’t tell.
Jump HK has lots of range.
Interesting; this means that the LK upkicks must be DP safe at least else they could always just mash it out
Hey guys ! I’m glad you found some stuff on this, indeed that was my first day with Karin (I usually play Vega, like I said in the description) but I really enjoyed playing her, she was so fun and seems pretty strong with a lot of mix-up.
Well, that was the grand final on the scene so we can always miss some stuff and can’t show everything Karin can do (especially a first day) but I tried my best to win this. (which I did actually =3)
So, if your plan is to play her as your main, trust me you made the best choice possible !
(I’m in love with Vega because he’s the most charismatic character ever, but Karin is the most fun imo)
Thanks for the Karin play it was very enjoyable!
Nobody chooses Karin. She chooses you.
Good stuff and congrats on the win bruh. That place was pretty hyped it seemed, I would have been just as pumped at the end
Nobody chooses Karin. She chooses you.
Good stuff and congrats on the win bruh. That place was pretty hyped it seemed, I would have been just as pumped at the end
Thanks for the gameplay man; it was really nice. This was quite the refresher after watching videos of not-so-great Lauras, haha. Can’t wait to try her out on the 24th.
Agree, it didn’t really look like most of the (lots of) day 1 Karin footage that’s passed through here.
I think it’s funny actually, Karin and Vega seems like a common pair of characters for people to be interested in. Those are my top two to try out, with everyone else a distance behind.