Thanks, Reiki and Hatred. I’ll give them a look. What about Shen? Not so much to fill the grappler role but just in that team?
As it sits now I’m interested in Kensou, Chin, Shen, Takuma, and K’ but suck with them all.
Andy, Terry, and Robert I seem to have good results but I want a more diverse team than the three of them.
Edit: After a few minutes in training mode, I think Vice might be the ticket.
I personally don’t know what are the new optimized HD and Drive combos for Mature and Vice, but whoever has the better ones I’d want to put in second position and keep Ash in last for those hail mary Sans Culotte anti-airs into combo. Though outside of that, I might want to put in Vice in first position and try to run grappler okizeme on the opponent to see how they respond. After she’s gone, just go on with Mature and keep playing. When Ash comes in, you already know what to expect from the opponent and how they respond to command throws and you could surprise them with a command grab Neomax. Though it’s a pretty big hit to your bars, 3 Stock and 2 Drive, if you had 5 Stock you’d still have 2 more bars for a Sans Culotte activation and put on a big combo. If you decide to use the Sans Culotte after doing a raw Neomax, then feel free to go for the Germinal ender unless you were able to build back some Drive meters to extend the combo post Sans Culotte mode.
I need to test and get more application with Mature to re-insure my theory about here. Her keep away game is slightly weaker than it used to be due to her smaller projectiles but her inside game should be much stronger with her qcb+K, Far C being fast and cancelable, and perhaps setting up people with dp+P,P mix-ups. But since I don’t know how well it will work yet and what her optimal damage outputs are, I can’t really say on where to put her.
Since I feel Vice has more mix-up potential due to her command throws and traps, I’d put her first as a litmus test to not only see how the opponent responds to command throws, but the general system mechanics. If they hop after an attack string, Vice has a good st.A that anti-airs them and leads into a big combo using EX Hcf+K. She has a great air-to-air j.CD to just simply stop people. She has really fast, chainable cr.Bs that cancel into a knockdown combo; the cr.Bs also could test how willing the opponent is to alternate guard. Then once that’s established, just play Mature’s pressure and zoning game based on what you know the opponent is willing to do and not do and by the time you get to play Ash, grappler oki should be a bit out of their thoughts by then as you established with Vice. Of course a conscious player should always remember Ash has a command throw, but at the least it shouldn’t be as present in their state of mind.
So Vice is a good character to get a feeling on the opponent? If they’re well-versed with the system and some setups, right? Good to know.
For some reason, I always imagined that Vice’s EX moves and Supers were a significant asset of her gameplan, so I never considered putting her first mostly because of that. A meterless Vice is still a solid one? Since Ash needs meter and all.
Also, I’d have thought that a “battery” character would take precedence over one who better HD/Drive options - this is a general idea or just some very specific one regarding a few team/character combinations?
But I like your inputs: Mature is flexibile enough to go second, adjusting her gameplan based on what the opponent mindset at the moment - and Ash strong zoning and lame-out game, plus having bars avaliable, make him a solid anchor.
Thank you for answering me, Laban. :3
I’ve been using the Women’s Fighting '94 Team since '98, but they feel so different in this game, so I’ve been confused on what order I should be placing them.
What’s the deal on Hwa Jai? I kinda want to lump him in with Kula/Mature but he seems like he’d be great secondary or last for drink combo nonsense. Or at least for drink combos. Outside of that, where does this guy go in a team?
Hwa Jai is a pretty decent pressure character. In order to do longer combos though, you’ll want to drive cancel. His drink combos are also like drive cancels because you can follow up an attack for free in some instances. You want to have meter with this guy, but he’s not particularly defensive. His best defense is his offense and mix-ups, stuff people aren’t aware of. Dragon kick, for example, is similar to Terry’s in that it gets much safer if someone is blocking low when you do it. I don’t know if it’s EXACTLY like Terry’s in that it’s a honest to goodness frame trap, but it’s still pretty nice.
I’d definitely suggest you put Hwa Jai second or third. He can gain meter, but he’s much, much better now with meter as well as HD combos once you learn them. A lot of his combos reflect more meter usage rather than neutral stuff like his normals or regular moves. He can do a lot of damage with his Dragon Tail loops.
yea his mission combos gave me ideas for corner dragon tail combos or just simple drink>HDcancel shit. I’ll keep fooling around with the guy cause I actually enjoy his playstyle.
Yeah, your team is pretty flexible with their positions. It just depends on which character you want to use meter with and do the damage, and between Mature and Vice I’m not sure so far who’s more “optimal.” (Although there is no wrong answer.) For me I would want to use Vice as a litmus, but Mature could do the same. She could test who is more ready to sloppily roll projectiles or make sloppy jump ins. Her projectile is easier to get around but she still controls that space around it very well. So you could test your opponents tendency to spacing with Mature then have a heightened zoning game with Ash in last.
So it really comes down on who you really do damage with and what you want to do in a game and what you want to accomplish. So it’s really up to you for your positions.
So going to Vice as being a point character or a secondary one is up to you if you want to really make sure every time you punish, you fully capitalize with EX HCF+K or want to test the opponent with grappler traps. Mature could be put on point as well since she could test the opponent’s response to zoning and projectile traps. So what you want to do as you play determines their positions. I’ve done some of Mature’s Missions and I think she might be able to out do Vice in actual damage during HD combos (needs testing to confirm) but her utility to set it up isn’t as versatile. So all I could say is just mess around and find what you’d prefer but there isn’t really any true limitations.
" Also, I’d have thought that a “battery” character would take precedence over one who better HD/Drive options - this is a general idea or just some very specific one regarding a few team/character combinations?"
To be honest, I don’t understand this question. But it makes me want to say this, I don’t really pay much heed to things such as batterying and anchoring when I first play a “new” game and try to play each character in each position to see how they feel and what they do. Traditionally for XIII arcade, Iori is considered an anchor character and perhaps same could be said of console version. But I prefer him on point and I experiment what he could do on point. He might not have the biggest damage output without stock or drive but does passable damage with interesting hit resets and mix-ups that compensate for the damage I’m not doing. And say that I do mind fuck my opponent enough to almost OCV, I should have about full drive and 3 stocks to at least wreck their 2 or last character and still be able to pull a 60-70% combo for 1-2 bars and full drive. So experiment with your characters’ positions, think outside of the box.
Currently running Athena/Yuri/Iori. Seems okay?
I’m a complete noob at KOF so I don’t really know who to use.
All I have for certain right now is Mai.
I’ve been messing around with a lot of different characters and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like characters with too many inputs (such as Mature) or charge based (Leona) and I’ve never liked grapplers.
I really like Athena so far and Elisabeth seemed interesting, but her missions are tough from the get go for me.
My question is, which characters are easy to pick up for beginners? Especially someone who’s used to playing SF.
Usually characters that don’t have complicated combos or strategies are good for beginners. I would say you’ll need some work with Elizabeth if you’re new to fighting games in general. She depends a lot on juggling and spacing your attacks so they land. Mai’s a more technical character and although she can be baseline easy, doing complicated combos with her can be a pain. She’s not harder than Elizabeth, in my opinion for ground based combos, but she’s really the kind of hit and run character. She’s a nice first.
I’d say the easiest character you’d pick is Athena because her combos are pretty much cookie cutter easy. If anything, throwing fireballs and dping jump-ins is something you’re used to from street fighter. She can do longer combos off of her psycho arrow move which gives you a bit higher heights to shoot for once you’ve got them down.
All and all, very nice choices.
Terry, Andy, Kyo, K’, Robert, and to a lesser extent Yuri are all fairly straightforward characters that you can use to get into KOF while still retaining some SF-style (assuming you mean shoto, basically) ‘feel’.
Just keep in mind that fireball zoning +DPs work fairly different in KOFs to the options such as running, multiple styles of jumping, and rolls.
Go for it.
Right now I’ll probably run Billy/King/Mai at least for a bit since I can do their main stuff well and have an adequate handle on the characters. The order of the latter two isn’t set either. I could switch one of them out for at least Goro, Leona, Athena or super-basic Vice but Billy’s so good now I can’t not have him on my team lol, and I really like Mai’s changes (Buffed neomax really helps raise her damage ceiling imho). Also for whatever reason doing Leona’s HD BnB is really shitty on me for pad, but she’s really strong so I’ll probably just keep working on it.
Also he’s weaker compared to 98, but I think Goro is still a strong introduction to 98-style grapplers. He has solid normals, pretty easy basic confirms and if you’re used to Gief-style throw range his qcb roll canceled into one of his command throws is about the closest you’ll get.
Running benimaru/vice/maxima, having tons of fun with that team.
My biggest gripe with Robert is in pretty much every KOF has been my inability to properly use his normals. Blows ass since XIII Robert has almost every tool I’d want for him. Benimaru I could put in a 1/4th of the effort and fare far better. Sucks to be so bad bad with one of your favorite characters. I was planning to switch out Andy with Robert but Andy is working out a bit better.
I decided to play random v. random against the CPU for a while last night, just to play around with different styles and see what’s what.
I’m liking Mai as well, may sit down and learn her. <3
That said, overall I’m still liking my Terry/Kula/Leona lineup. Finally got some decent combo practice in with Kula too. I need to learn how these HD combos work soon for each of my team members. 
Ok so I dropped Ralf. I just feel like his type of rushdown isn’t for me and that I can’t legitimately get inside with him against heavy zoners. Plus, the loss of that command grab irks me.
So right now, and potentially for a while, I threw Yuri on deck. I personally feel that she’s really good. So the squad looks like Maxima/Yuri/Shen. I make Maxima work for me. I like to have him in the middle to clean up a bit and destroy shit with meter, but Yuri can fuck some shit up with bars. My dilemma comes with Shen. Dude is my weakest chara but I keep him on the backend because of what he can do with meter. Thing is, until I hit confirm-> something with him I’m usually struggling to create or waiting to punish while they wont give me anything because they know they can hang back and molest.
I guess it’d be nice to have some input on this. Running Shen first, with no meter, is kinda barebones but oddly enough I had more success this way because I could do more shit with Max and Yuri. But it felt like dude was beyond expendable and I was just running 2 characters. Plus he doesn’t even seem to build meter. He’s a whore.
I feel half-assed running this squad in that way. Also, I’m playing locally against competent players so I’m seeing what seems to work or get you fucked off. It’s kinda ugly for me right now…
Would you say Iori makes for a good anchor?
@FlyMike: You need to abuse reflects and/or qcf+C feints for him to be worth it as a battery. As an anchor it’s vital to have a good feel of how his neutral works, like punishing shit on reaction with qcfx2 P super, proerply using qcf+C, and controlling space with his air normals. If he’s not working out in the end there’s plenty other characters that can serve as batteries or anchors that might better suit your style :V
@Predacon: Absolutely, he gets a lot out of having drive + meter available and his overhead becomes much more threatening with HD.