In my estimate there’s two ways to play 13:
Either you build meter and use it only when you really need to. And basically build as much meter as you can for your 2nd or 3rd character and let them wreck shit.
Or you use that meter and drive as soon as you get it with your character and get as much damage as you can, and you use that meter and drive every time you get in and kill them as quickly as possible.
Both ways are totally and completely legit.
True, although honestly I really only play Kula that way. I also often play Clark on point, but I don’t often save meter with him.
Part of the reason I use Kula that way is because her meter-eating moves deal so many hits that in long combos, you only deal slightly more damage by using meter than not - while with other characters, using more meter would get a great deal more damage. Why spend two meters in a combo and get 505 damage when I could just spend one meter and get 475? Basically my line of thought.
*I tend to think more on my meter management. There’s times where you just want to get max damage on a character that’s giving you hell or you don’t want to deal with. Sometimes I’ll sit on the meter until there’s momentum changes and try to use them to reverse, break or sustain said momentum. Then there’s critical decision making of weather to blow the meter on a near kill and leave the opponent with around 15 percent health or take off a sizable chunk using some meter and build off the advantageous position while still having extra resources. Also there’s opponent observations that factors into meter use: Is my opponent a offensive or defensive risk taker? Is he a turtle? Does he use safe rushdown? Does he play to capitalize off mistakes? Does he play a ranged game? Mid game? Are these things dependent or independent on the character he plays? *
*All these questions (and others) factor into my approach of meter management. There’s been times where my 2nd & 3rd character puts in work but at the expense of my battery being judicious with meter while getting rocked as my opp used meter for pure damage and I still ended up losing because it was “too little too late”. That said to me that my opponent was playing to build a lead through his 1st and 2nd characters and have his 3rd character playing “not to lose”. I adapted and had my battery use as much meter as needed to get his 1st character off the screen and then be content outplaying him in the linchpin while building meter for my anchor and using meter seldomly for better damage. That put my anchor in a better position to take on his low life 2nd character with little bar or take on his anchor with limited resources and out of it’s normal element of playing while already having a lead. *
We have not fought in a while. If my game play implies anything to you, I first rely on a character with some good meter-less combos and build off of that character - (Claw Iori). Back when I first started playing KOF XIII, I was fascinated by the idea that it resembled KOF2K2UM so much in terms of game play. But, looking at my old replays - I did A LOT of stupid shit (I don’t really know if it is because of lag or I was being far too “respectful” - the majority of the players I fought against had either Robert, Andy, Takuma or all three on the same team - Not trying to be mean but I wonder what this implies… because 50% of the players on ranked were NOT that good with either of the characters at all, let alone the game itself!) I also WASTED meter meaninglessly on the characters EX moves and I rarely saw any use of the HD meter. To speak about Kula, she is pretty much a anti-zoner and many of her attacks negates the use of projectiles. (EVEN, HER TAUNT NEGATES PROJECTILES!) Her DP is SUPER unsafe, which might be part of the reason she may be low tier, though I could be wrong. She also has to rely on her jumping C./D. to really dish out some good damage from her BnB’s. Kula’s QCFx2 A/C and her EX Super is really nice, especially when used as a combo finisher. Kula might be better off as a second character -
The Kyo variants build meter pretty well too! Mai can dish out a really obscene amount of damage with just ONE meter (and one Drive meter is icing on the cake when you cancel her Ryuenbuu to EX Ryuenbuu among other things) - Mai is quite an ideal character for those who like to control space and a lot of nice normals. She “hops” over projectiles as well (except Mature’s). Mai also little to no reversal options under two meters! She is probably one of the best “second” or “battery” characters to use at this point. King can use her meter for anti-air Trap Shot and then Drive cancel into Tornado Kick, placing herself nicely in third or the first positions of the team. Robert is nice as well (mainly for first position in my opinion). Dive Kicking is pretty funny for someone like Robert because he can do it from any direction and he can carefully build meter off of his attacks. Andy also has quick meter building ability, as well as a very safe pressuring game and creates lots of cross-up opportunies…
Characters that are good at meter building are: Andy, potentially Athena (she does not rely on meter to do heavy damage and her zoning game is extremely practical), Hwa, Claw Iori, Kula, Billy Kane, Duo Lon (not THAT quick but quick enough - and PLEASE stay on the offensive when using Duo Lon), Elizabeth (you can’t really afford to play too defensive with someone like her however, and she has no reactionary AA’s and requires meter for really good damage output…),
I would put the Regular Kyo in this category, but he zaps meter far too quickly. As for K’, he has superior zoning and can quickly drive the opponent into a corner, lot’s of juggle potential, but he also relies heavily on meter for really damaging combos (safe combos…)
the best way to use meter is so use it when you should and save it when you shouldnt. there are a lot of things that factor in…is the combo going to kill? does your character have a lot of life so that youll likely be able to gain the meter back before they die, even if the rest of the round goes bad? how much time is left? if its within the first 20 or 30 seconds youll gain a lot of life back for the kill. if you have a lot of life already, you can save it. do you already have momentum or are you trying to reverse it? again, how much time is left? if its low, usually its better to save it. everything is conditional upon life/character totals, the timer, the characters being used and how well they can keep momentum after combos, or how easily the defending character can reverse momentum, and of course the players.
Everybody, make sure you watch Climax videos and look for changes in characters. There’s confirmed changes that aren’t listed anywhere. Just a quick example:
The first fight, there’s a Clark player. He does the combo, cr.B, cr.A xx b~f+A, b~f+A, j.D, airthrow. One can only assume that means Clark’s airthrow is an anywhere juggle now. This happens at about 50 seconds in or so, it’s pretty quick. Anyways, when you see Climax footage, try to find changes. Maybe we can compile a list somewhere.
Chars that are considered good batteries are basically those that retain most of their good options and get good confirms/dmg without using meter.
@Great_Dark: disagree on a couple of points. Hwa is scariest when he has at least some drive or bar and Claw only gets super scary because of his high dmg HD and maiden masher confirms. Those are generally considered meter user chars and are usually put 2nd/3rd.
Hwa is considered gdlk because of instant grab (uses meter), drink dmg (uses meter) drive/super combos (uses meter) and HD (uses meter). His pokes, pressure and tail options are great but you are not maximizing him as a battery.
Claw Iori is gimped without bar, has to rely on good footsies and a slow cmd grab, struggles against zoning without EX DM or EX slash and the reason he’s considered godlike is his maiden masher and HD damage (uses bar). Meterless EX Iori is clearly preferable (he’s one of the best batteries in the game). The only adv Claw has meterless I can think of is his grab reset game. EX Iori can be considered an ideal battery char, he plays almost exactly the same with or without bar.
Regular Kyo DOES NOT zap meter necessarily. The only notable tool he gains is his cmd grab, but he opens people up fine without it. Having an easy, high dmg BnB confirm into safejump is a great luxury to have for a battery char. Ex Kyo is an excellent battery too for similar reasons. Other great batteries include K’, Beni and Mr Karate, who also happen to use meter efficiently as well (really just great overall).
Kula is probably around mid tier, she was considered high in arcade because of broken inv EX spin. In console she’s solid enough in general fronts (ok DP, good ground footsies via buff st.B, easy cl.C confirm) and good dmg and meter build off corner loop so she can’t really be considered low based on dmg output alone. She’s also really simple to use, but ease of use shouldn’t factor into tiers IMO (but it does factor into tournament matches).
Hi. i would like to know if there are any climax changes that arent listed in the early srk post.
also clark airthrow thing works only on EXIori
So it does, it also appears that everyone with an airthrow gets free anywhere juggles on EX Iori. That’s pretty ridiculous, corner pressure against EX Iori just got a lot more painful for anyone with an airthrow.
Wow what the fuck, how the hell did they screw that up. That gives the impression that ‘anywhere juggleness’ is somehow related to the hitboxes of the opponent getting hit, how weird.
it’s strange because it works only after several gattling attacks, not the reset, airthrow by itself… test it on console 
Why is Elizabeth so low?
What do you mean? If you are talking about Nagato’s tier list, she actually rated just below the tops in S tier, which still pretty high. Honestly, I wouldn’t take the tier list too seriously. They are all over the place in terms of placement.
I’ve wondered just what kind of character is Elizabeth anyways?
I’ve been testing it, and it works based off of EX Iori’s air recovery animation. You have to get the recovery flip from the reset and wait until he goes vertical, then any time before he touches the ground an air throw works free on him. It’s goofy.
What do you mean?
Mainly like her play style. What does she actually do? Stuff like that. It’s always puzzled me.
Well, she is very similar to Shen in terms of damage, being meter-reliant, having a command grab ect. So she is an offensive character with bad defensive options without meter.
If you’re talking about my list, by all means I didn’t make her low. She is under that line above her because I ran out of room on the line lol so I had to carry to next one. Liz can easily contro the match with that light shit and if if hop you to get to her, so help you god you’ll find yourself hurting pretty bad. She’s a really balanced character.