So I started labbing with Laura over the weekend and I have to say that this character is very fun. She’s very explosive and can blow people up incredibly quick. That said I honestly don’t think a lot of people really understand how to play Laura. She’s not a traditional “Grappler” as she has a fire ball, however she does require some good reads, but more then anything she requires you to condition people to do certain things. Also she doesn’t really play traditional footsies, as her walk speed is quite slow and her normals in the mid range are just decent at best. She excels as a character up close as her buttons are quick and they all (for the most part) have good frame advantage and allow her to extend her turn.
That said my take on Laura is that she’s a character who needs to knock down the opponent and condition them to do specific things, while sticking to them and constantly applying pressure and guessing games. She’s probably one of the most set play characters in the current SFV roster. Her risk reward is relatively low on all of her good set ups and she can rack up stun and damage incredibly quickly. I think a lot of Laura players will find more success with the character if they think of every thing they do as a set up, because a lot of her set ups mitigate her “risk” factor. Not saying that it will completely eliminate the risk, because SFV is inherently a risky game that reaps high rewards, but it should help a ton.
On another note, I started playing ranked a few days ago and the rage quits are serious. I did mange to get one of them on vid though. Enjoy.
Laura reminds me of Hakan…in the best and worst ways. An unbeatable beast if in the right hands, otherwise not even worth trying half the time against a competent player. Right now I think the tech that we need to figure out is some SAFE mixup tech/OS that allows us to be risky while not completely risking everything. Unlike IV where you had many options to get out while with V and how prominent stun is, we can’t really give too much room to missing that 50/50.
Watching Chris G try to play Laura like a traditional character proved to me that Laura just CANNOT be played that way. She just loses. Conversely if you saw how SonicFox played FANG and how unorthodox he was, that is what got him far.
This board is a bit depressing at times. It’s all “Laura loses 3-7 to every character in the game” or “you can only win if you play like a lunatic with no fundamentals”. I’m exaggerating a little but still.
What I like about Laura is how any little win in neutral can get her snowball rolling and win you the game. I surprise myself sometimes how I can go from being almost KO’d and thinking I’ll lose the round to going all Guile theme on their ass.
I think her potential for snowballing is a bit overstated because your turn is basically over after landing a command throw, or at least over in the sense that you can no longer present a legit threat. If the opponent is feeling pressured they can pretty much just take the throw and then they get to molest you in the neutral again. It’s a bit silly that her back throw is a bigger threat than her command throw as it gives you both pressure afterwards and opens up the possibility of counterhits. You could argue that there’s where the snowballing comes in but those are tools every other character in the game have so idk.
Edit: to clarifiy, I do think she’s good at steamrolling but that’s the game. You land two combos and then hit them once or throw them and that’s stun. It’s her potential in comparison to the average character I think is overstated.
The problem is…that there is truth to it. Hell it still seems like we’re still trying to figure out how you actually PLAY her properly because everything else seems to lead into a disaster if youre not 115% on point with every button you press. Even watching streams of pros online you can see her easily get bodied and shattered by those top characters. If the character your facing has a DP your knockdown means absolutely nothing, it leads to YOU making the guess, and as she has no reversal options so you dont want to take that chance and end up on the ground. Trying to play her spazztically and trying to be unpredictable doesnt help because she A) has no range and B) is heavily unsafe on those good buttons you need to get the damage done and C) her biggest threat, her command grab, takes a long time to come out and has no range. Playing defensiveley and “trying to move in” barely helps your predicament because since she has no range and her command dash is risky to use, in addition to the fact if the character you’re facing has safe and long ranged normals it means your just gonna be standing around for a long ass while.
And the whole “she does so much damage” thing only means so much. It just seems to be a statement we keep running back to when the BS Laura has to deal with gets brought up.
As far as the “you gotta make unsafe decisions” stuff…thats the problem. I echo what others said that it wouldnt be so shitty for her if normals and stun weren’t so heavily prioritized in the game and a mistake can lead you watching stars around her head. I mean what players want to play a character that every button is a 50/50 when you can choose the more solid of the roster? What’s the point of all this tech if you rarely get a chance to apply it?
I agree Laura is really cool and fun to play, but it just seems like the level of fun spirals down when you realize that she half the time has zero options to deal with things and you sit there dumbfounded because you have no response to other characters shenanigans. She can be extremely upsetting.
Btw I stunned a Ryu and after my charged bolt shock hit him and was about to follow up with fwd HP, he somehow activated his CA and guess who lost the round? ];-[
Lol, who in this game doesn’t have to bait DPs? That’s probably one of the most silly things to complain about regarding Laura as if it’s exclusive to her. Her CC punishes for DPs hurt and put them in the same situation they were in before the reversal DP, knocked down. There is a little too much bitching and moaning on this forum regarding this character being “weak”. Watching the content from Dandy J, vryu, and jibbo while actually playing the game has been more helpful for me than half the stuff posted here, honestly. Too much negativity here, and its annoying AF.
On a more positive note I think it’s rad as fuck that she only has to land a cr.MK/cr.HP to be in. When you’re focusing on the negatives it’s easy to overlook just how good that is for a grappler.
Positive or Negative we still play the character so it can’t be that bad. We all could’ve dropped her and play someone better but no we still here. That’s the beauty in the madness
This is what I was saying about how any little win in neutral can get the snowball rolling. Even doing something as simple as anti-airing with st.MP xx Avante will put you at a great advantage.
My mentality towards fighting games is that for everything your opponent can do there is an answer to it (or at least a way to play around it) and that reflects on how I play the game. I guess you could say I play quite safe and reactionary. If my opponent likes to dash or press buttons I’ll concentrate my efforts on trying to catch something with a normal buffered into Bolt Charge.
I agree with the depressing tone of the thread. I am one of the people who has been a proponent of the risky Laura playstyle, but I don’t mean abandon all fundamentals by any means. I simply mean that there will be times in a match where you have to make the hard read and do something risky more often than the majority of the other characters. We all know that cancelling a blocked move into V-Skill dash is risky because it’s minus on block, but there will be times when you have to use it to put pressure on the opponent. There will be times when you have to just dash in. That’s the type of thing I’m talking about. Now, I’m not saying just do these things to do them, it is all about reading your opponent and picking your spots. I think Laura has to make these reads more often because of the nature of her character, which is something many players don’t want to have to deal with despite how rewarding making those reads with Laura can be. I actually like that when I make a read like that, i’m rewarded greatly with Laura and thats why I keep playing her.
To be honest I’ve struggled against Ken, Ryu and especially chun. All the other characters I can beat. This will change once I get use to my new playing style to see if I have better success
Laura’s V-trigger really helps out in her bad matchups (everyone). Everything about her V-trigger boosts her neutral game to insane levels. Pre-activation the threat of s.mk -> V-trigger could lead to stun with resets, afterwards her fireballs charge much faster and you can’t get counterhit out of your v-skill. Everything about it helps push your opponent to the corner where she’s the scariest.
Here’s a video of some of the things you can do after V-trigger. Credit to DandyJ:
I picked up Birdie as a secondary, but Laura is stupid fun when her riskiness pays off. A half health or less dizzy usually equals death for opponents
That said, if you don’t think Laura has serious problem matchups sell me what you’re smoking. IMO Ryu, Ken, Chun, Gief and Cammy give her serious problems, with other matchups maybe being even. Does she have any positive matchups? Maybe Bison… A haaaaard maybe.
Doesn’t mean that you can’t win with her, but this forum has their complaints for a reason.
I still don’t know how to stop people from pressing buttons and interrupt my vortex…
But Laura is just too much fun to stop playing her and she is a solid character who can win tournaments.
