Playing all that Mahvel has gotten me thinking about the best order for my KOF team. I’m curious as to which characters you guys are running as anchors/points, etc. I’ve been planning on starting with Clark and leaving Takuma for last, but I can’t decide who should take the middle spot. To be honest, without assists factoring in, I’m not sure what role the middle character even plays.
Ah, how did I miss that section? I’ve been perusing that guide all afternoon…
One thing I’m still wondering about is which characters make good batteries, and what their methods are for getting meter.
I’d say character that just use a lot of special moves often that are usually safe or as a part of zoning. So characters such as Joe, Athena, EX Iori, should be good battery characters. Also characters that aren’t that dependent on meter are good batteries as their consumption of bar won’t as significant as your battery characters. So characters such as Daimon might not be whiffing or poking with a lot of special attacks to build meter, but builds meter through landing successful attacks and not necessarily needing Stock bars to do his damage or his set ups.
Drive meter usually builds up more quickly than Stock meter, so a character that benefits from large damage output mainly from Drive bar could be your battery character while that character is racking up damage and building Stock meter for your next character. K’ particularly fits this role well because he could just sacrifice just 1 or so Stock meter during the first round while dishing big damage via HD combos and Drive combos that don’t require Stock. Then a character such as Shen Woo that greatly benefits from both Stock and Drive at the end will be able to quickly build back Drive while having a good reserve of Stock.
What kind of character is Ryo? I thought he was cool in CvS2 but I don’t see much of him in 13 footage outside of the Dont Drop That Combo vid that made him look interesting. I’m guessing 2 or 3 slot for him?
Hmmm. Based on Arcade I want to say 1/2. Now, I don’t know. He won’t be able to do run up cr.B pressure resets like other rush down characters unless you have quick hands, but he has great tools for his neutral game and extensive chunky normals to use in his blockstrings. So he’s a sort of frametrap monster. SNKP’s title for Ryo is Invincible Dragon and I believe they emphasized they want him to live up to that image as a strong defensive character. More so that he’s about being able to maintain his footing mid screen and stacking on an offensive with less emphasis on high and low and more with spacial control and traps.
Just gonna piggy back on that part of the discussion. That’s not the case with a lot of the cast. Although there are different values of stock and drive gain, stock is much faster with a majority of the cast. Athena, K’, Terry, Maxima, Iori, Shen, and a lot of others gain a lot of stock meter much faster than they gain drive meter. I feel that, by design, is because there are only 2 drive meters so filling it up should be a reflect some mid-to-late progression into a 1-on-1. This is important because you’ll either end up doing an EX move or a DC combo depending on what you get faster. 9/10, you’ll get the opportunity to do an EX move or a super combo first.
Interesting…there’s a lot to digest! I wonder what a chart of all the character’s ideal team locations would look like. For instance, how many anchors vs how many points, and which characters are good for all three roles.
Allow me to make some guesses, and feel free to violently correct my false assumptions.
Ash would be good for anchor due to his combos stemming from his Sans-culotte. Also, with enough meter he could cheese and lock down an opponent with Genie and Thermidor. Also, his cmd. grab super gives him another oki option.
But then again, his charge and recovery times on his projectile are pretty fast, right? So it’s safe enough to use without much fear, at least before the opponent has tons of meter for EX specials? So I guess he would also make a good point/battery?
Well, I’ve rarely seen an Ash player use him first. My friend, N4US, uses Ash much like a turtle. He sits on fireballs till he gets meter and launches them at you. On console, he’s even more of a long range announce like Benimaru, making projectiles appear in front of you instantly and what not (He also plays Benimaru). N4US, essentially, has 3 anchor-like characters, but the zoning tactics he employs allows him to gain meter or throw specials. You can’t let him do that or he’ll just burn through it with defensive moves.
Anyway, back to Ash, he’s great as a second or anchor. However, you have to remember that you should not use Sans-culotte the same way you use it in Arcade because the damage scaling has changed. It’ll do less damage and what not. That being said, you can also finish Sans-Culotte with Germinal. This means you can lame out a match real easy with a 10 second juggle combo and a 10 second “Cripple me Elmo” moment with your opponent. Ash is vulnerable to close range and frame traps really. If you let them in your face and start doing really fast moves that require really fast responses, you’re going to eat it. Most of Ash’s moves are 4 frame start up so they’re not going to beat a frame trap. Also, to do Nivose, you have to be charging down so people who have tricky overheads will get you.
Playing Ash versus other zoning characters, you can abuse your C version Ventose (b~f+C) because it creates a shield before firing. It also has a vertical hit box for some reason and can hit people that are in your face that aren’t blocking or people that are hopping at you while its active. Don’t always do it, but keep it in mind as a great option. It’s nice for neutralization of standard fireballs, but don’t get in the habit of neutralizing grounders. Germinal Carapace is not a very great meter gainer or move you do in general unless it’s in a combo. D version can pop people up and I’m hoping you can SC cancel it into Thermidor for juggle fun.
Ryo and Kyo might be problem people as well as Terry.
Wow, thanks Reiki! That’s quite the 411 on Ash. At the moment it’s looking like I’ll run him on anchor based on what you described above and my familiarity with him from XI. Just out of curiosity, what’s the 3rd character that N4US plays? And what do you mean when you say, “like Benimaru, making projectiles appear in front of you instantly?” Are you talking about Ben’s lightning strike? I’d heard that move was nigh useless outside of some combos.
One character I’m interested in but can’t really get a feel for is Chin…I only ever dabbled with his earlier incarnations but his XIII version has me intrigued. I haven’t seen that many players using him…is that just because of his high learning curve? Does he benefit more from stock or from Drive? And do the buffs to his Drinking special make him a better point/battery character, since he can do higher damage without meter OR drive?
Well, his full team is Leona, Benimaru, and Ash. He interchanges Ash and Benimaru as anchor. In console, Ash’s Genie (qcb+A/B/C/D) makes it last longer and it can explode around a person which is what I meant. Ash’s EX Genie (qcb+2 buttons), which appears in front of you, automatically explodes much like Benimaru’s EX Benimaru Lancer (qcb+AC).
I don’t play Chin, y’d probably be better off asking Kane317 about Chin. I think he’ll be an excellent character, but he requires a lot of drive meter. In order to do some of his full combos, drive meter is necessary. He’s a great second, but I wouldn’t depend on him first even with his buff to his drink special. Oh, and apparently you can DC into drink >.>
I thought about using Athena/Yuri/Kula because I like these characters but I don’t know if this would work out.
I’m going myself with x/athena/leona. I don’t know x yet, I have to resolve the equation. 
I’d recommend Kula, she’s easy to pick up.
I’m running K’/Andy/Kyo. I was going to have Iori as anchor but he doesn’t seem to be as effective as Kyo since Kyo is so damn versatile.
I have been running Ryo/Andy/Kula, sometimes switching Andy and Ryo’s spot. Both don’t seem to require a lot of meter. Ryo has that quick light SRK which seems pretty safe (but I’ve only gotten to play online for about an hour last night), and it comes out beautifully quickly for reversals. Kula burns meter like a spoiled brat, but it’s worth it for her easy 200-300+ damage combos that can be confirmed from her cr.lks.
Of course, this team is built off of one and a half hours play. So it’s bound to change and be modified.
Go for it! That team works out just fine in that order!
To everyone: Try out your teams! Even a team full of anchors can do some damage! KoF XIII is a very free system so mix and match how you feel. Team order will come with practice. Just remember, some characters that spend less meter and can do a lot of damage without it are good first characters. However, same can be said about people who spam fireballs too!
Which character goes best with a team of Kula/K’?
I need a third. Who’s best/most accessble(KOF is brand new for me)
Athena or Benimaru?
And what order would you go with?
You guys gave some golden advice in here. Help a brother out.
EDIT: How does one go about unlocking more colors for cusutomization, as well as Billy and Saiki?
K’, in XIII console version, is a bit more…Meter dependent. He’d make a great second or third. He doesn’t have a lot of survivability though. You’ll have to take some risks with him because almost all of his special moves can be punished with a full combo. I’d choose him second because he still has the ability to wreck people, but meter makes him safe and happy.
A great person that I play as an anchor is Maxima. His survivability is huge because of guard point. You can also use someone like Ash who is a massive turtle or Benimaru who can pretty much do a hit in run by doing EX Benimaru Lancer or doing a real crazy cross-up into a 40% combo. I think the best person as anchor could be Kula. She can gain and spend meter, can be very defensive, her moves are fast, and she’s a lot safer zoning than K’ without using any meter. Plus, her combos are easy.
Thanks. I had edited my post a bit since posting it.
I’m definitely playing K’ and Kula, but I’m just not sure on Athena or Benimaru. Leaning towards Beni.
So your order would be Benimaru/K’/Kula or Athena/K’/Kula, right?