The target combo is safe from what I’ve seen. It doesn’t matter if it’s negative on block, just don’t try to attack afterwards. If you decide to, and you know your opp. Is going to do something then throw out ex elbow. The good thing about the target combo is that if it hits you get a mix up or a hit confirm to vtrigger for more damage.
to expand on that, the same is true of LP shoulder. if a couple times during the first round I got LP shoulder blocked and they pressed a button after, I’d wait til I really needed the knockdown and do blocked LP shoulder -> EX shoulder. gotta take risks to make money
IIRC shoulder is -1 or -2. That’s why in my notes I said to late crouch tech if it’s blocked. The only thing that can beat it is an invincible move. Dp or super. But even throwing out lp elbow randomly isn’t bad at all considering it’s not punishable and beats a lot of random buttons and chases down back dashers.
I think this approach will lead to people just pressing cc move after a blocked LP elbow, but w/e, it’s the same mixup everywhere else in the game where one player has advantage
Overall though, i really dont know what to think of Laura. She could end up really bad or really good depending on what options there are to deal with her offense. I dont normally like speculating about whether a character will be good without them running through the high level play gauntlet for a couple months, but at least i can have somewhat of an inkling about whether a character might be strong or not based on their tools. But with Laura i just cant tell at all.
Well depending on the cc move used and how late you crouch tech, chances are you may throw them out of their attack. There are some other things I meant to try like vskill backwards or back dash after a blocked elbow but didn’t get the chance. Did any one test this?
I feel the same unfortunately, but in an ideal game, we would have that same fuzziness about all the characters
of course if you tech too late you will just get thrown 
so it’s just the standard “I am at disadvantage” mixup
after a blocked elbow if you vskill backwards against gief, he can still catch you with SPD (and it’s counterhit, whatever that means). if you backdash you will make the SPD whiff and can punish with sweep. I may not be remembering this properly but I felt like SPD was in counterhit state during its recovery, so you may be able to punish here with s.HK, MP shoulder. If not, sweep is fine
Ok, I did try doing the command dash backwards once after a blocked elbow and got hit. I wasn’t sure if it was because I mistimed it and wanted to test further but didn’t.
You can’t EX elbow after TC, it doesn’t have armor on the first frame. The TC’s only use is confirming to VT as far as I can tell.
I feel like meter use going to be mostly spent on EX fireball. Gives you a small juggle combo into an air reset, is an auto frame trap, leaves you at +3 and right in front of their face. I should have been using this move more now that i think about it.
their move won’t hit on the first frame either. it’s a read on the opponent pressing buttons. it serves two purposes: one, to potentially get damage and a knockdown, and two, to scare them from pressing buttons next time
I think this will depend on matchups TBH. there are a lot of reasons you might use meter – confirming with s.LK xx ex shoulder to switch positions, keeping one bar stocked to scare ryu/sim to not throw fireballs, trying to have super which I think will make some things punishable. I definitely should have been using EX fireball more often though.
By all means do this to get in if you are really good at teching throws but I wouldn’t hit a button unless you notice your opponent not doing anything. I wouldn’t do this against a character that has a command grab though
It will be throw invulnerable but you will get hit by any normal and it will count as a counter hit. Every time I played against a Laura I always grabbed after a blocked LP elbow (hits mid). Sure they can tech it but any other button they will get grabbed. If they start teching throws, do a jab pressure string.
If I seen MP elbow (hits high at an angle) I would immediately do LP into LP elbow.
Yupp if you want to get in use it, also use it to back you opponent to a wall and keep an eye out for jump to get them while it is out lol.
Also since it is plus on block use it while you opponent is cornered for relentless pressure. It moves you forward back into lk tic throw range. Really good.
I don’t know on which frame the armor activates, I only know for sure that it’s inactive on the first. TC is -2 and jabs are mostly 3f, so they would hit on the first frame either way. That’s why I think LP elbow, st.mk and TC are all really bad on block even though they are safe.
Only played Laura.
Notes:
She’s not that exciting once you realize what you are supposed to be doing with her: st.lk or cr/st.lp(blocked)----> tick throw(if in range ) or medium or hard normal. Confirm off a CH/natural hit into hit grab (lp if you want the standing mixup, mp or ex for the knockdown). On hard kock downs or unteched soft knockdowns qcb+ HP is easy to start pressure from. On soft knockdowns go for a meaty st.lk or just poke with the same normal or another + normal. If you are keen you can you can go for links off of CH st.mp/mk.
The v-skill forward dash is unsafe if cancelled from a normal on block or hit. It’s a gimmick.
The v-skill dash is good for neutral for getting into range but that is about it. The v-skill attack has a good hitbox but is unsafe on block heavily and start ups too slow to use as a real poke. It’s an overhead so you can cancel into if off of normals to surpeise people for a bit.
Her true block strings are cr.lp x2, cr.lp-cr.lk, and st.mp/cr.mp/cr.hp/st.hp xx qcb+pp. V-trigger activation of medium normals/hard nomals leaves you plus but I’m not sure if it’s enough to continue/create a block string.
On her v-trigger: you want to activate it on block, when the opponent is jumping at you to get qcf+hp, or safely in neutral. Off a blocked medium nomral or stronger v-trigger activation lets you continue pressure. In some matchups the increased range on her uncharged fireballs is a nice tool to have. It goes without saying you can hit confirm into v-trigger off mediums/hards and go into a combo. I couln’t really tell if v-trigger actication changed any of her normals/command normals. The dash is fast and covers a more range, but that can be a problem if you are just dashing into the corner. It’s neat for dead body pushing to the corner on hardknockdowns. It still it not safe to cancel int.
Her qcf+pp is great for punishing fireballs or predicatble pokes at range. It is not a great reversal becaue the armor is way after the first frame of startup. It’s only one hit of armor too so you ave to watch out not to be baited by chargin into ex fireballs.
The ex command throw is terrible. The ex fireball has it uses; it’s plus on block and can be used as a eaty to apply pressure on wakeup. Got time it right because it is slow.
Laura’s ‘get off’ me options pretty much get destroyed by plain throw. Laura really doesn’t have any answer when being properly pressured.
St.mp and st.mk are aa normals.
Problems:
Give the girl some links off of natural hit medium buttons.
Her dp is 7 frames so it’s already tougher to time and it trades a ton.
V-trigger activation off a max range st.hk crush counter. The reeling animation knock them out of range sometimes of c.mk, cr.hp. You have to go straight into qcf+mp at times to combo off of this crush couner to take advantage.
The big problem is her walk speed and over all stumpy normals (besides st.mk) that will limit her in big time in this game, I think.
I forgot to mention but both st.mk/st.mp can be low profiled.
Make her gameplay more interesting somehow.
Anyway, I really like her japanese VA, lol.
I feel the same as most of you guys. I only played Laura during the beta and she is the only character that interests me more than the others. As soon as I saw her release video I knew I was going to main her. My thoughts on her are just that she is okay. She reminds so much of Abel it isn’t funny, but not as good. St. Mk seems like it supposed to resemble step kick and cause mind games on weather she should v-skill forward or not to do command grab mixups, continue pressure, etc. However, her command grabs don’t have the properties that Abel do. EX command grab is useless. It should at least be strike invincible. Regular command grab should be throw invincible just like Abel’s as well. She is all about conditioning your opponent but her pressure is quite skewed. St. MK v-skill forward should be 0 on block to go in for some type of pressure situation. Her overhead v-skill is like Abel’s wheel kick, and shouldn’t just be thrown out there for good measure especially given how negative it is.
Her walk speed is slow, but okay for the type of character she is, and her game play obviously revolves around her fireball and EX fireball resets. Overall she is decent at best. She is 100% momentum based in my opinion. Does a shit ton of damage and stun. My main changes to her would be to make her EX grab at least strike invincible, and also give her command grabs a bit more range. If they keep everything the same I feel that those two changes would at least make her a bit more scarier. She already has stubby normals and doesn’t do well in the footsies department. That’s why her up close game needs to be a bit more scarier and a tad more gimmicky. Just my overall opinion.
We need to discuss how god awful this thread title is.
Now that I look at it, every new character thread title is shit compared to the rest of the cast, besides FANG.
s.MP into forward v-skill is not unsafe actually, but it is disadvantage. If it was advantage she would be the most broken char in the game. s.LP, s.MP xx v-skill repeat. I still think v-skill is going to be useful for her out of normals, since it’s fast enough that the opponent has to be looking for it and press buttons in anticipation in order to punish or reverse momentum. This makes her frames traps more effective and if you mixup her other options such as cancelling into fireball/ex fireball to reset pressure, vskill back into overhead/qcfLP/fireball/nothing. The more conditioning you do the more effective forward vskill becomes.
But this is why i dont know if Laura is actually going to be good or not. If it comes out later that there is a single option to beat everything she is going to be trash. If she can effectively reset her pressure with a bit of conditioning she will probably be good. The future is very shaky for laura.
St.mp has 6f startup, 21 total frames and is +3 on block, which means that it causes 18f of blockstun. f+v-skill is 21f which would leave St.mp xx f+v-skill at -3 on block.
It isn’t minus three that I know. Chun jab nor ryus DP couldn’t punish it. It is minus -2 or -1. I tried if out because once I started playing better people they were uing her normal dash cancel more and I kept on getting grabbed like wtf. So I went down the normal list.
This is when I figured out I have bad reactions lol
Yeah i tested it too and its definitely not punishable.