She’s tough, but once you get it, you can do some absolutely bonkers stuff with her combos… all without having to RC or anything of that sort. I know she’s my favorite (Tager after that… nothing as epic as finishing a match with a comeback GETB.)
Then again, I’ve always loved pressure characters… I know that one of the things I have to work with is getting the frog/pumpkin out on the field. I generally just rush down the opponent with 6a/b and play tag for a bit until I get them on a ground pressure game… cuz you KNOW they don’t wanna get 6a’d for the air pressure combo.
Also, against arakune, if you predict his cloud, 236c (a in the air) + Wind = counter + free rush/summons depending on how you play Rach.
The last 2 days have been pretty bad on my game. I can’t pull off simple combos, my moves won’t come out and corner pressure…out of the question. The sad thing is that I can still do everything in training mode, just not in a match. I have been losing to basic strategies from other characters that I normally have no problem with.
What do you guys do, take a break or play through it?
I haven’t played this game for very long and I find it difficult to connect Combo #1:
6A 5B j.b j.c dj j.b j.c 236+A.
When I manage to send them up with 6A 5B they always jump out of it (is tech the correct term?) before I can jump after them. Am I just slow with jumping after 5B?
Take a break, mess with some other chars for fun then come back to rachel. I had a slump like this last week took a couple days off came back better than before.
I’m feelin’ ya as well, for some reason my game has been off as well, and I know it’s not because of something I did… maybe it’s a state of mind?
Must be one with the loli…
I fought a tager who was teching out of my b&b air combos before I got the first j.b off… it was infuriating, cuz it happened like three times and i’d have won that match easy otherwise. I don’t know man, maybe they ninja’d a patch on us? not likely, but…
Don’t let him get away with stupid stuff. If he teleports next to you, jump on him and make him have to work to get out of your grasp. If he does that stupid 2C move that people online like to spam, punish it with a CH 6B after blocking it. If he’s just floating above the poles that you launched to keep him away, set them off.
I’m having a hard time with Rachel aswell.
Not sure if i’m playing her correctly or not since i’m still new to the game.
basically what I do is I try and keep away and set up rod-traps and then send out frog and whatnot.
6D+C spinny combo thing and the occasional 2C electric-chair to counter if they get close.
I’m garbage with most combos so far and have a really hard time with quicker rushdown characters like Ragna. Hoping to get better with her because I like her the best so far.
I’m “better” with Arakune (I win more often with him) but I like Rachel more.
I’m not sure if I can help you since I’m pretty new as a Rachel player, but I had the same strategy when I was completely new. Rachel has a pretty good mix-up game with her j.2D as an overhead, and she can apply pretty much pressure with her drive and frogs on wakeup. You should also spend some time in training mode to get some of the basic combos down. They are really useful. Good luck!
The trick against said rushdown characters is to rush them down -better- -first-.
Sounds odd, but while Rachel DOES have projectiles, they are supposed to be used to support her rushdown, not as a standalone strategy. They have too much recovery on the Lobelias, the pumpkin takes wind, and george can get destroyed.
The trick is to use those during those moments where your opponent is on the ground and you aren’t… or during times where you’ve conditioned your opponent to do something stupid (IE- Block an attack that isn’t actually coming (3CD cancel/hold)
Rachel does not play like Arakune at all… her projectiles are not nearly as abusable, and while she can move around, once she’s in a corner, she’s in a LOT of trouble.
However, if you get your opponent in the corner, they are in much more trouble if you do it right. You can take off 70% of someone’s life in the corner if you keep them there, with a single combo.
Then again, same could be said about all characters. Rachel’s offense just tends to be very ‘safe’ because you can throw the pumpkin at them and immediately dash after it for a free follow up blockstring/combo, depending on how things go.
Also, j.2c is your friend. Use it, abuse it, combo off of counterhits and level 2’s (From above super jump height, if it hits, it bounces off the ground into a b&b)
Listen to what weretiger said, but if you do get caught you are going to need to know how to block. Watching for overheads, lows and knowing when to barrier and backdash are big for her, its all about knowing your opponent. Instant Blocking is huge for her too, not only does it build meter, but its the most reliable way out of the corner. do yourself a favor and go to dustloop video threads and check out some youtube vids of high end players. This will help a ton.
Well, my Rachel is getting more solid. I’m finally getting good with her pumpkin, consistently using it to get in for pressure strings and combos, and to protect my fuck ups. That’s changed my game drastically. And I’m finally not throwing out normals at such bad times. Still not winning more than I lose, but it’s getting close to 50/50.
But I played her online last night for shits and giggles, and damn, she’s really crippled by input lag. Some of my standard combos I could not land for the life of me. It was easier to get wins due to the quality of players and people not punishing her well (people still just spam ice car and inferno divider over and over?), but I couldn’t land a lot of her bigger strings. And anything with a quick dash into 22a was totally out of the question. I don’t know if it’s just me on this, but I had to rely real heavy on her more basic links.
But one thing I really gotta work on is wind management. I still blow wind at bad times, or use too many shots of it for pressure strings. I’m getting a little better about that, but it definitely needs a lot of work.
Oh, and if you really wanna piss someone off … if you’re ahead in life and the time’s almost out, just 9d four times and then float down to run the clock. It’s pretty funny. I’m sure folks have done it before, but I think it’s pretty hilarious.
One thing to keep in mind is not to jump unless you have a good reason to. That way you’ll be continuously regenerating wind. I think my game improved quite a bit once I started thinking that way.
I tend to spam 6C+D quite a lot (it’s quite scrubby I guess :rolleyes:). I don’t see many other Rachels using it without first scoring a counterhit, but I do seem to get away with it. There must be a reason why other people aren’t using it that much I thought to myself, so decided to ask you guys…
Is it easy to punish on block (maybe not online, but offline) ? Is it not used much in professional play because you lose wind bar when doing 6C+D and it’s blocked ? Is it because of damage scaling ?
it leaves you at a disadvantage (-3) unless you cancel into j.C and they block it standing. but if they crouch that j.C or instant block the last hit of the raw 6CD, then you’re pretty punishable.
But yeah, it’s not a very good use of wind since you lose the initiative after its blocked and the properties of that move aren’t particularly amazing except for the damage you get, so there’s no real good reason for the other guy to get hit by it.
I barely ever use it except against Tager, because it punishes most of his options and makes him block… and it’s very hard for him to crouch block the last hit. Regardless, you can rc it at the end if you think you will get punished… but there are a lot of other things that you CAN do with that one wind that is better (Pumpkin rush is always a better idea… throw pumpkin, wind and dash, and then setup the blockstring high/low mixup or throw.)
It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that there are better options out there.
Is there anyway to make rachels 4b real useful? I am getting to the point where I can make most of my opponents guard break. But sometimes I must have pumpkin and do 4b+d 2b b c c 236a.
Sometimes I press 2D airdash a b for quick aerial attack to beat turtling crouching players but I can’t do it on consistently. In other words whats a good corner trap for rachel?
I’m trying to pull of the 6A 5B jc j.B j.C 2D j.C 632146C combo, but for the life of me… after the 2D I can’t get out another j.C, do I need to double jump?