What are her main moves you would want to use with her, like anti-air moves, and some possible a-groove combos
Close s.MP comes out in three frames (ie. it can be used to counter throw attempts), must be parried high, and gives you +9 frame advantage. A counter hit d.LK also lets you link a d.HP for free whenever you’re successful with your setup. j.MK is a very useful cross-up attack. Land that and you can do your bread and butter combo of d.LK, d.LK xx dp+HP every time. You’re close enough after one point blank d.LK to use your hcf+P command grab if they ever do block your cross-up or combo attempt. Mix up the command grab with counter hit d.LK, d.HP. An alternate bread and butter combo is also d.LK, s.LP xx dp+HP. It doesn’t look like it, but s.LP hits all crouching opponents so d.LK, d.LK isn’t always necessary. The level 1 super is safe to spam as a wake-up attack and will beat nearly everything in the game outside of counter CC’s or supers. The best way to land the CC is after the command grab or after comboing into dp+HP (you super jump after your opponent and activate in the air). The qcb+P fireball is a little slow on startup (I can super you with Rolento on reaction from full screen away), but it travels very slowly (which is good) and takes up a lot of space. dp+MP is your all purpose anti-air attack. Whenever you’re too far away to use that defensive attack, use far s.MP, s.MK, or jump back HK instead. j.HP is also useful and don’t forget Athena has an air throw. d.HP also ducks down very low and randomly works as anti-air from time to time. I still prefer the other anti-air attacks reliabilty wise though. On the ground, d.HP has very long range, is 100% safe on the hit or block (you get at least +2), and cleanly goes under a Shoto’s Hadouken. j.HK has stupidly high priority. If you’re in a low jump groove, low jump j.HK is abusable.
One of my friends likes to press d.MK and it randomly beats my moves for no reason at times. I’m still not sure how to use that move myself, but I probably should, along with d.MP, the standing HP’s, and the HK’s. I don’t use it, but close s.HK looks to be a good meaty attack (still prefer close s.MP though).
I don’t remember much else except that I stopped using her after I got pissed off that people were spamming the RC torpedo attacks on me and I couldn’t find a single obvious counter that would work (A and C Athena). She’s one of those weird characters that needs N-groove to be competitive I bet.
http://www.geocities.jp/yukimura_sei/c_sei_vs_a_jiji.wmv
just watched that last night, that a-athena is good, all sorts of random shit he does, and that command throw -> dp -> custom does mad damage ;]
also remember that you can sometimes use c.HP like a chun c.MP to anti-air sagat j.HK
ah ok thanks, once i get to my friends house or the arcade i’ll try this stuff, since i’m too poor to affors ps2/xbox/or gc, and i’m trying to get my lazy ass friend to give me his old copy of cvs2 on the dc
That CvS2 match was so gimmicky, my head exploded.
Just some random notes -
cr short short far st fierce does pretty well in fishing for counter hits.
Use far st rh too. Goes over lows
This Jiji guy’s K-groove is way stronger than his A-groove if you ask me. Instead of relying on lame gimmicks like in that A-Athena video I didn’t like, he uses solid execution, sharp intuition, and a beastly Geese to get the win. He misses a couple important Sagat DP’s in the part versus K-Ryu (albeit the DP’s are difficult to execute in the given situations), he’s totally on spot with everything else and his mixup game is sick, so get the rest of the videos before they’re gone.
fishing for counterhits is useless if you can’t land any damage afterwards. shit, at least do cr.lk, cr.lk, cr.hk for the possible knockdown.
her lv3 shinning bit super if done to anyone on the corner blocking takes away about 20-25 of their life, about one-third or more if blocking standing up.
What was the recovery on the air qcb+lk? I remember it being mostly safe, but is it truly safe, or does it depend on how deep you hit?
Main move: c. fierce
Her c.fierce is excellent, but there’s more to Athena than walking back and forth and hitting c.fierce when you see an opening.
No, there isn’t.
yeah, there’s more to athena than poking the shizz outta them with c.f.
kcxj: Is her tick to RC command grab a reliable 50/50?
Hell would you consider any of her tricks from d.LK RC Grab to d.LK teleport RC grab etc be good mixups at all?
Oh hows the frame advantage off blocked dps? It looks like her jab’s somewhat safe… Or would it be smarter to just go for mixups?
Does anyone else find her crystal shining bit hard to do at the end of her custom?
Isn’t it done just like in that previously posted vid? Just j.HK xx super? Not that hard, just throw in the motion during the roundhouse. Takes practice, but if you haven’t got the time of day for that cancel it out of her dp’s. It’ll do less damage though, better off the other way.
Oh, sorry for the late reply. I didn’t notice the post.
The RC command grab has less range than Athena’s normal grab. You have to be point blank and touching to tick off a d.LK. So it’s a reliable 50/50… as long as you’re starting out at point blank range.
d.LK, RC grab or d.LK, counter hit d.LK, d.HP. Maybe d.LK, close s.MP, d.HK/d.HP works also. I know d.LK, walk up d.LK, d.LK xx dp+HP works for sure. The thing is that the main counter to Athena trying d.LK, RC grab on you is to throw Athena. If the throw attempt came out, even if you successfully tricked them with your d.LK, you won’t get the counter hit you need to easily link the d.HP a lot of the time. If they jump to avoid your grab instead…
… the command grab whiff recovery isn’t quite Honda-like, but is still very quick regardless. If the opponent is cornered and tries to jump out of your d.LK, RC grab, you get a free dp+MP, CC very often.
I don’t know what the recovery frames on her DP are. They are definitely punishable when blocked on the ground though. You’ll have to go to training mode yourself and record dummy Athena on you to see the moves you can use to punish Athena after blocking one.
Go ahead and use the jab DP to psychically catch limbs with. It has lower body invincibility and will counter moves like sweeps. The strong DP has upper body invincibility so use that exclusively to stop jump in attacks. The fierce DP has no invincibility at all, so only use it for combos.
You trying to be like Rock with the teleport, RC grab mixups? It doesn’t have invincible startup. Doing d.LK xx teleport, grab doesn’t appear to be very fast either IMO. The only time I use that move is to mix up which side I attack from after knocking an opponent down.
My friend likes to use d.HK xx LK teleport. Random stuff like teleport, super for no reason too.
Buk has that nice setup after the command grab, roll, level 1 super, by doing meaty jab fireball, roundhouse teleport to the other side.
Don’t get fancy when something simple will do the same thing is a general strategy I try my best to follow. So no, I don’t do d.LK xx teleport/d.LK, RC grab mixup. I like d.LK, RC grab/d.LK, wait, d.LK, d.HP (or just d.HP) instead.
Yeah, I saved that vid. Athena’s one of my favorite characters. Bear with me though, I just started playing this game 
kcxj:
I used to play Athena a lot, for the most part traded her in for Nako, but I usually played her in either N or S. I found her to be best suited for, I dunno how else to explain it, keep away. A good zoning game where there’ll always be a jab psycho ball on the screen. She’s got a godly roll, an air throw, and a near godly poke (just no super cancels off it:sad: ) If I want to run away there’s hopping off the wall and qcb+HK, or teleport…
Someone jumping in? d.HP, dash back d.HP, roll out so they cross over you and d.HP, or teleport out of their if you can’t beat it due to angles and such. Hell SCB.
Footsies? d.HP (unless they somehow beat that, then just go to running away chipping)
RC electricities challenging me on wake up? Shining Crystal bit
popped jab psychoball, super jump, see what they do. They go to blocking the psychoball, it’s guard crush or death by chipping or both because of her supers.
I’m sure you know how nasty she could be in S, provided she makes it to desperation mode. In my experience though it never was hard, she can run from K-groove easily enough or keep away well enough for the timer. That’s just against K though. Forgot how I handled other grooves.
She seems to be a simple character in this regard. It beats down lots of stuff because of its quasi-Rolento-ness.
Well, anyway the question:
d.LK, walk counter hit d.LKx2 xx dp+HP
d.LK, walk counter hit d.LK, d.HP/d.HK
d.LK, RC command grab
"Psychic" jab dp’s
strong dp’s for solid anti-air (Pretty hefty against P-groove if you ask me too)
Are all these enough coupled with RC jab psychoballs (insurance against RC torpedo style attacks, not neccessarily to beat, but to deter) To make Athena a solid character?
It looks like d.LK mixups here are similar to much of the play style for many characters in CvS2 also. (Hell I use that alot too for Nako anyway, fast walker)