NEUTRALIZE! The Sentinel Guide (Last update 27/1/13: Check out the incoming mix-ups)

[jak_d_ripr]

Thanx for the info…kinds sad there is only one person to watch, but that marvel

As for footage it’s very small. Also Fanatiq used Sentinel/Akuma a couple of times, so there’s something else, but those two specifically is a bit of a stretch.

I’m trying to pick up Akuma for myself, but I’m still trying to work on his neutral game and getting in.

I even have a Sentinel hit-confirm/combo with tatsu assist.

What st./cr. + :a1: fly cancel unfly :s: ? That’s my main thing when I run those two, since if they block the st. you can go into a mix-up while they are blocking the tatsu.

It’s a very good pairing, if sentinel was a competent point character that and missiles would probably be the teams we’d see him on the most. I’d wager sentinel/dante/akuma is probably the best point sentinel team since it gives horizontal and vertical coverage while giving him a very good back-up plan in dante/akuma.

I’m guessing you could also make a case for sentinel/dante/missiles.

On a side note, does anyone have any tips for sentinel + plasma beam? Been running it and it’s hard to work around. I don’t have any flight confirms using it.

[Juece]

I have a question, why would I use st.L over cr.L? cr.L may have more start up but it can chain into itself and has better recovery than st.L.

[JDog2009]

sL is better for converting a stray air normal hit like jM or jH into a full combo since it starts up faster than cL.

[thrilla]

sL is better for converting a stray air normal hit like jM or jH into a full combo since it starts up faster than cL.

i’m not too sure about that, especially when trying to convert from a falling j.M that’s a few character lengths away; cr.L has much more reach than st.L.

[The_Co-Jones]

It really depends on the height where you hit them with j:m:. Almost all of the time if you hit them with a j:m: or j:h: while falling in midscreen, you can dash up an st :l: them for a combo, other times (not at j:m: tip range though) you can dash up and cr. :l: them, which helps because it has greater range, but it is 2 frames slower.

In the corner though, you can simply dash up and st or cr the opponent or sometimes raw :s: them.

[jak_d_ripr]

On a side note, does anyone have any tips for sentinel + plasma beam? Been running it and it’s hard to work around. I don’t have any flight confirms using it or any real tricks with the assist.

[The_Co-Jones]

On a side note, does anyone have any tips for sentinel + plasma beam? Been running it and it’s hard to work around. I don’t have any flight confirms using it or any real tricks with the assist.

I got 2 flight confirms with Plasma beam, but overall it’s not as beneficial as other beams, and the damage is scaled heavily, almost at throw combo damage scaling, but you get good meter.

[jak_d_ripr]

Well… what are they lol? Not gonna leave me hanging here are you? It’ll still be nice to know them for those situations when my sentinels on point.

[Juece]

I use rocks over beam since it’s a lot easier to cover my approach with it.

I still feel like cr.L may be an overall better move than st.L though since you can link it into itself for a pseudo block string set up.

[The_Co-Jones]

Well… what are they lol? Not gonna leave me hanging here are you? It’ll still be nice to know them for those situations when my sentinels on point.

@jak
I’m sorry about not replying back… My laptop’s battery died and I had to buy up a new one…

About that confirm using Plasma Beam, there’s 2 variants (Midscreen and Corner)

Midscreen: cr. + :a1:, :qcb: :s:, j. , unfly , land, forward jump , j. :h: (you can double jump if you want to), j. :s:, st. , st. :s:, j. , j. , double jump , j. :h:, j. :s:, ender

I have to re-do the combo for meter gain and damage specifics, but I believe you gain nearly 1.4 bars.

Corner: cr. + :a1:, :qcb: :s:, j. , j. , unfly , double jump , j. :h:, j. :s:, st. :s:, j. , j. , double jump , j. :h:, j. :s:, ender

Again, I forgot the specific meter gain and damage, but it does gain more meter than the midscreen version. One thing to note though, is that in the corner after the ground bounce, you cannot do st. , or lightweight characters slip out of the combo and you can’t get the double jump in the air if they haven’t fallen out of the combo yet.

These combos are coming out of my head of what I remember, but the general idea of the combo is there… I may add or remove a from the combo, once I get a chance to try these combos at home today.

I don’t remember any cr. :l: or st. confirms using Plasma Beam at the moment. What I do know is that Plasma Beam seriously scales your combo (perhaps worse than a throw combo).

@Juece
For the :l: dilemma, st. :l: is faster than cr. :l: by 2 frames (standing is 7 frames, crouching is 9 frames); so, you generally want to be using st. :l: as a quick punish for some general moves that cr. :l: won’t be fast enough for.

Although, cr. :l: might actually be better off in practice because of 2 reasons: 1) You can still do the :h: Kara-Cancel into the command grab, though you have to be a bit careful because it has 3 less frames of recovery, you might do it too fast and whiff a grab since they’ll still be in blockstun (thoughI haven’t tested myself in an actual match). 2) It’s a rapid-fire normal (meaning you can mash it), and honestly, I never really knew it was mashable.

[Juece]

@The Co-Jones

Yeah most people don’t know it’s mashable which is why I catch people with it since it’s hardly ever used. The main thing that bothered me was outside of potential whiff punishing st.L is an inferior move to cr.L Sure it’s 2 frames but you’ve already given the reasons why it’s good. I just feel like it’s a tool that needs more use.

[The_Co-Jones]

@The Co-Jones

Yeah most people don’t know it’s mashable which is why I catch people with it since it’s hardly ever used. The main thing that bothered me was outside of potential whiff punishing st.L is an inferior move to cr.L Sure it’s 2 frames but you’ve already given the reasons why it’s good. I just feel like it’s a tool that needs more use.

One thing I really hated is getting a good confirm midscreen using cr. :l:. Reason why I’m saying is because if you hit them with a tip range cr.:l:, then a st. will still link but st. :s: will whiff a lot of the time.

I know that cr. would work better with the hitconfirm, but I hate the crappy damage scaling that comes with cr. .

Also, this goes to anyone:

• Do you guys have a fluid confirm going from cr. :l: to st. ? I’m asking because sometimes it won’t cancel into the st. and instead does cr. .

[jak_d_ripr]

Maybe it stored you’re down input. I wouldn’t know, I rarely ever use his :l: normals(I know I should, I just always forget).

Thanks for the confirm, maybe my timing is off because I tried cr. :a1: into flight and it didn’t work. Its probably a timing thing though.

[JojoStyling]

Just use cLMS, when you’re at questionable distance. Trying to sneak in another ~70k isn’t worth dropping the hit confirm, especially when Sent’s combos generally kill with meter or XF anyway, and lead into an advantaged corner position or corner resets in a worst case scenario.

[The_Co-Jones]

Simple thing to keep in mind about standing and crouching :l:

st. :l: is faster

cr. :l: has more reach

[thrilla]

Simple thing to keep in mind about standing and crouching :l:

st. :l: is faster

cr. :l: has more reach

which trait is more important though? regarding unfly j.M conversions, i feel that there are much more instances overall, where, if you were able to confirm into a st.L, a cr.L would’ve also worked, but not vice versa. so, at least in that regard, i value cr.L’s reach advantage more than i value st.L’s speed advantage.

[JDog2009]

Plus like The Co-Jones said earlier, its mashable, so you you throw a out a couple of crL to see if it it and then go into S for a combo.

[The_Co-Jones]

Simple thing to keep in mind about standing and crouching :l:

st. :l: is faster

cr. :l: has more reach

which trait is more important though? regarding unfly j.M conversions, i feel that there are much more instances overall, where, if you were able to confirm into a st.L, a cr.L would’ve also worked, but not vice versa. so, at least in that regard, i value cr.L’s reach advantage more than i value st.L’s speed advantage.

Regarding unfly j. conversions, dash up st. :l: seems to feel the most consistent. cr. :l: works also, but you almost always have to use cr. as a follow-up instead of st. (unless in you’re both in the corner).

[jak_d_ripr]

yea his :l:'s are a lot better than I originally gave them credit. I’m still trying to get the hangs of comboing off them, I guess since I’m used to throwing out moves with hours of hitstun using :l:'s takes some getting used to.

But yea for falling conversions I think it depends, if your falling caught them in the the air a st.:l: is more likely to work but if you hit them with a max range falling on the ground then you want a little more reach and a cr.:l: would be a better tool.

[thrilla]

Regarding unfly j. conversions, dash up st. :l: seems to feel the most consistent. cr. :l: works also, but you almost always have to use cr. as a follow-up instead of st. (unless in you’re both in the corner).

yeah, after experimenting with the two some more, st.L does seem to be the better dash-in followup. with that said, i have a question about the bradygames guide regarding the start-up frames for all cr. attacks: do they already factor in the amount of frames it takes to transition from a standing animation, into a crouching one?