MarkMan - General Tactics & Strategy

Classic Fighting Games Divekick
1

Hello everyone. This may seem weird? But I’m MarkMan and I would like to share some information on the character ‘Markman’ in Divekick!

Markman has forward moving divekick arc, similar to Kung Pao. His kick startup is not instant and is a bit slower than most characters. Markman has tools to help makeup for his kick startup, including his ability to zone/create space with his items (which have random effects), and a just frame kick (EWGF - Electric Wind God Foot) that comes out almost instantly with an increased hitbox). He also has his kickback feint aerial skill that allows him to backdash in the air and create space/opportunity to bait out/punish if needed.

Markman’s Ground Ability - Item Search

When on the ground, this meterless ability allows Markman to scavenge the surrounding area for items. The items serve as an advantage/hazard for BOTH players, so please be aware. The item generation is random and can consist of the following items:

[List]
[]Part for the Kick Box (First you get the base, then the yellow button, then the blue button) - Once you have all 3, you will have 8 seconds in ‘Precision Control Mode’ that allows you to perform an upkick. The upkick, is just as it is stated an upward kick that can be used as a rushdown tool or an anti air. The possibilities of it’s use are endless and Markman can continuously cancel his divekick into upkicks into divekicks and so forth (as long as he has meter). The more you use the upkick cancel the faster your Kickbox meter depletes. If Markman is headshot, hit, or double KO’d while in ‘Precision Control Mode’ then he loses any remaining meter in the next round
[]Glue - If Markman or his opponent step in the glue, they will be stuck there for about a second. Leaving them vulnerable and unable to dive.
[]Spring - If Markman or his opponent step into the spring it will cause them to be forced into an auto jump state where they will have to kick to get off the Spring. Some characters will be greatly disadvantaged if they step on the Spring, such as Redacted, who has too much gravity/not enough momentum to kick off and will be pretty much dead if they step square on the Spring.
[]Oil - The oil acts as a slip and slide and if Markman or his opponent step/land into the oil they are able to use the additional momentum to add to their jump arc and seemingly alter the trajectory of their dive prior to kick activation.
[]Black Hole - The black hole is placed on the ground and allows Markman or his opponent to travel through space by dropping through the endless ceiling and into the stage endlessly until they kick out.
[]Chemicals - The chemical green cloud forms after it hits the ground. Anyone touching this cloud will lose all meter gradually.
[/list]

Items will disappear over time or instantly if another item is called out in it’s place.

Markman’s Air Ability - Feint

With enough meter, Markman can cancel a divekick into a backdash in the air anytime during the kick animation. This can be used to bait people out or to make moves safer/get out of the way. After the feint is performed, Markman can initiate another kick to gain forward ground momentum.

Markman’s precision moves - Just Frames

Markman has two just frame moves. Just frames are moves that require frame specific timing/execution in order to pull them off successfully. Markman’s two abilities are the EWGF (Electric Wind God Food) and backdash.
[list]
[*]EWGF - Markman can perform a super fast divekick with an increased hitbox. You can tell it’s an EWGF by the sound and visual lightning surrounding Markman’s kick. This is performed at the apex of Markman’s dive/jump. At the height of his jump, hit the kick button to perform this move. It can be done at varied heights and is useful for covering ground as well.

[*]Backdash - Markman can perform a backdash as he lands from a normal dive. If you hit dive right before you land, Markman will perform a backstep to create more ground between him and the opponent.
[/list]
If there are any questions/comments. Please let me know.

Here are some videos with my Markman gameplay and I encourage you to upload yours!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA3mFkW9jz4

2

This is so meta. Seth Killian needs to make an S-kill guide now.

3

Personal play style comes into play heavily based on the matchup. For example, in the above matchup you’ll notice that I build meter/fish for items while waiting it out VS Jefailey. I don’t mind losing rounds here and there because it gets harder for that character as the match goes on.

Also, a note on doing the EWGF Just Frame, if you have the meter, it’ll be a good way to prevent yourself from doing a super high jump divekick (which is certain death vs most players at the right distance), so keep the meter in mind and make it safe.

4

Markman is able to move back very slightly while using the Ground Special by plinking Kick into Dive. This will cause him to begin his jumpback animation and then cancel into Item Search. Very nice for fine-tuning your spacing.

I would say he’s a Kick/Style character, meaning he relies mostly on his kick and special abilities to net KOs.

Use your jumpback kicks to move forward, hold ground, retreat by timing when you press the second kick. Time it early to advance forward from where you originally jumped, halfway through the jump to hold ground, or late to retreat. All three of these moves keep you constantly moving and building meter and prevents your opponent from putting you in a position where they can gain an advantage on you.

5

You can plink kick into dive to move backwards at rapid speed while searching for items in oil or vice versa to go forward, there’s other tricks with plinking specials and your items in general but I’ll leave it up to you all to explore.

6

Yeah, it is pretty meta. I like it though! Been using the blue and yellow color while playing as MarkMan, for what it’s worth.

Tried him out earlier today and my reactions were a mix of “Cool!” and “…I don’t quite understand this yet. Gonna have to read up on some of it.” I had come to some hilariously wrong conclusions on my own, like believing the lightning kick was the result of bouncing off the trampoline a few times before attacking.

That said, I actually do have some useful thoughts to offer!

  • Think ahead when tossing items around. While the result is random, the location is something you can fairly well predict; you can say “it’ll land roughly in this spot, varying only by what exact item gets thrown”… and items seem to persist between rounds. This is particularly nasty if you toss a chemical cloud onto your own starting position and then score a KO; you’re going to meter drain yourself! In some matches it might be perfectly fine to say “Who cares; I still scored the hit on my opponent… I’ll treat this as having just spent meter to do so.” In others it might be more of an issue.

  • Glue can be used as an interesting area denial item. This requires some luck, but if you were to plant it near the center line when time is about to run out… the opponent suddenly has to be even more precise in their timing if they opt to make a move for it. Otherwise they get stuck and are open for a precious moment that might let you finish them off just before the timer reaches 0. Unfortunately the RNG means you can’t rely on getting glue, but it’s a fun benefit to think about.

  • This is single-player oriented, so ultimately a minor note but figured I’d share: The computer is not particularly phased by Black Hole regardless of whether you’re the one in the black hole loop or it is. I’ve had it hit me out of said loop just fine, or use it to attack me from odd angles. This isn’t too surprising when you think on it; computers basically ‘think in math’, they’re able to boil down this situation to a matter of math, and they can resolve said math far faster than a human.

  • What might matter more about that is some characters have moves whose behavior is affected by the opponent’s position, such as S-Kill’s tracking teleport. Can these be used as an effective answer to the black hole loop? I haven’t had time to properly test it, but when I ‘play it in my head’ it seems plausible, and something to be wary of if you face that match-up.

  • A meta thought: If video games teach you how to be better at violence (and they must, since several large corporate news interests say it’s true!), does this mean that MarkMan (the real person) can tap into the techniques of his Divekick persona in real fights? Like… if someone tries to mug him for his wallet, does he just start digging through the ground until he finds some poison gas and fling it at them, or jump up and have a ‘moment of mastery’ where he knows the precise time to unleash his lightning kick? This would be pretty cool.

  • A question for MarkMan (real person): How much input did you have in your character’s dialog/storyline, and his moves?

7

I wanna be in the game…

8

I had no input. Just gave reference to TEKKEN stuff :slight_smile:

9

Well, you certainly got a pretty positive portrayal in Divekick. The pre-fight banter between MarkMan (Divekick character) and S-Kill (Divekick character) was pretty funny!

10

How can the EWGF be done at varied heights if it also has to be done at the apex of the jump? Isn’t the jump apex always at the same height?

11

I like to let glue sit out for a while and use that “shield” to build a little meter; I’ll then throw out another item when it’s almost time for glue to disappear. It doesn’t work as well on characters with higher/longer dives/kicks, but it definitely makes the opponent think for a sec to weigh their options.

12

Markman is a REALLY good in this game, in addition to his items, his upkick and his feint are great fake-out tools (especially against a parry-ready S-Kill). The only problem I have is Against Dr. Shoals, but usually other than that, I do really well. I’m getting close to catching MarkMan on the leaderboards (PS3), hopefully I won’t have much more difficulty getting up there. Awesome character~

~GL

13

I just wish there was an easier way to practice certain things. I’d like to spend a little more time learning how the feints/upkicks work. Guess I could set up local Versus play as an improvised training mode in the meantime…

14

Yeah, do just that. It makes it easier :slight_smile:

This is true for normal dives, however you can do the EWGF from kickfactor’d dive (different height), off an item bounce (spring), etc. That’s what I meant by varied heights.

15

To be honest, Story Mode also works pretty well as impromptu training mode; in the early levels, the computer leaves you alone long enough to experiment for about 15 seconds at a time. Not perfect, but I’ve used it to check what I need to (though if you need to be able to control both characters, yeah, it won’t help…)

16

I was seeing in your video you feigned in the air, I tried to do that but doesn’t seem to work? I also haven’t been able to do the backdash yet. I think key to shaols match-up is to stay close or preferably under her and just use her landings to initiate on. Not sure how much room she needs to kick, but I’d notice it’s not that much so you really gotta be close to under her.

Just played Baz for a couple of games, I wonder how you can beat his invincibility status? He just builds meter very quickly and then seems invincible as well as the damn lightning that is everywhere how is that fair?!

17

Is EWGF from a kickback a thing? I seem to be permanently on the kick gem, just really seems to help a lot with repositioning. I’ve taken Dive gem a few times vs. The Baz and Redacted and the twins to varying degrees of success.

I generally try to pull an item at the start of the match, but not vs. The Baz and not vs. a Dr. Shoals with kick gem because they can clip you as you’re pulling stuff.
-Oil: (especially if they’re concussed) I like to try and go in and use that extra momentum to throw people off. Only really works because it’s early in the cycle, people will adapt. You can do things like do a quick divekick in, kickback, kick, then jump to get over them if they try something and punish.
-Spring: Really messes with people (especially Redacted like Markman said in the other thread). Moreso people with more shallow kicks as Markman has that wonderful horizontal hitbox.

Also it seems a lot of people completely disregard meter with him, I love my meter. Air feints are too nice.

18

Learning EWGF seems the best way to capitalize off lots of situations such as start of the round headshots as well as glue. What Im not sure is whether dive or kick is better. Dive seems better against like mr.n and others who get above you but usually you still dont’ get high enough and you get fucked or you are too high and it takes your kick 5000 years to descend. Plus it fucks with EWGF timing. While Kick gives you an even faster ewgf and helps with running under people.

Im really not sure which is better.

19

I don’t use Markman, but I was playing against CPU Markman one day and I saw him do a full slide off the oil after using the item search. Someone might want to look into that.

20

I tend never to use the dive gem pretty much for the reasons you just listed; his jump height with dive gem still isn’t enough against the characters you would really need it against (like Mr. N or Dive); plus, using kickback->kick tends to work more often as a punish against those characters instead of neutral jump->kick because of the horizontal nature of his kick. I almost exclusively use kick gem to make up for his somewhat slow kick and make punishes faster.